Odd sounds are coming from my laptop fans. guessing that it's wear and tear, and/or dust buildup. more worryingly, i've had a couple instances of blue screens when i quit final fantasy. just praying that it holds out for as long as i'm in japan. if it gets worse, i suppose i can try removing the bottom panel for a deeper clean inside. ultimate worst case: buy a laptop here, or if the time and place work out, buy one from singapore and bring it in. i REALLY want to avoid that though, because the plan is to upgrade my desktop once JET is over.

my plan for having a restful sleep last night and a productive day today didn't work out. for some reason, my sinuses got badly congested last night. it was bad to the point where an airtight seal formed, and i could only breathe out of my mouth. had to hold my breath even to swallow water, because the displaced air couldn't just escape like it usually does. let me tell you, that isn't a pleasant feeling. so the sinus problem ended up waking me up multiple times throughout the night, and i slept on and off until noon today as a result. it seems to be better now, although there's still some pressure in my face and behind my eyes. makes me wonder why...maybe atmospheric pressure fluctuations?

as i was lying in bed, i watched an NHK documentary called "the professionals". the synopsis said that this episode was about a patissier who closed his shop at the height of its popularity, which i found to be a bit misleading. see, he did close his shop, but he did it at age 65, and the shop had been around for about 20 years prior. in the time it was open, it enjoyed consistently high customer flow, so i don't think the shop was necessarily at the height of its popularity when it was closed. but anyway. minor nitpicking aside, his story is quite fascinating. he went to france at age 25 without knowing any french. that's brave as hell. through a series of events, he met a french master chef in japan, who took him under his wing and his career took off from there. it makes me think that success is also dependent on meeting the right people at the right time. the documentary also told the story of him and his wife, how they work together, and that he gave her a kidney.

under the right circumstances and conditions, i could probably be persuaded to open a F&B shop. probably the most important thing for me is not having to interact with customers. i'm the kind of person who can't sustain social interaction, unless it's with people i like/am comfortable with. maybe instead of running the full shop, i'd be better off messing around in the kitchen, while the admin and customer service parts are settled by other people. just leave me alone to experiment with food, i guess. i might even go to the extent of not offering a fixed menu - what you get depends on what's fresh at the markets that day, and what i feel like making. although the thing is, you don't get to be that eccentric unless you have an established reputation. maybe i'll consider it when i have less to lose.

for now, kansai trip in 1 week, JLPT in 2 weeks, JET annual conference in 3 weeks, and that should be the all the big events of 2022 done. i can't help but feel like i'm forgetting to blog about something. well...if i can't recall it now, it's probably not important.

-random thought of the day: Double batch of brownies tomorrow!-