When you’re a kid the weekend is for toiling the free time you have away. As you age up in the world, you also want to avoid weekends. Menial chores and adult responsibilities consume weekends. Although I’m on my grind to make 2024 a great year, I spent Saturday setting up a parking space for my car.
I made my last post emotional, do emotional men have a place in this world? Growing up I’ve always been sensitive, but at the same time I never really understood emotions and people. My blog acts as a tool for me to start to understand my feelings and actions. The blog might lean into the territory of oversharing, but only my close friends and family read these words. I’m happy to let those close to me see me emotionally naked.
Where Does Your Money Go??
When my mom and I argued the last week it was about money. She asked where it all goes. Honestly, before I started tracking it I didn’t know either. I’m not walking around with Jordans, the newest technology, or nice clothes so it’s not that. During my time in Japan, I’ve spent the most money on moving costs, medicine, car costs, insurance, taxes, and paying off a debt. I built up a large amount of debt to a bank by accident because I had used a credit card thinking it was a debit card. I’ve since paid off that debt but hopefully, the following story will help you to understand why money goes fast in Japan.
Parking Spots in Japan
In Japan, when you rent an apartment it doesn’t always come with a parking spot. Even when your apartment has a parking lot, it’s often a separate fee to rent out a spot. When I was in the countryside this was never an issue. Now that I’d moved to Yokohama, I needed to find a spot to park my car. Luckily my landlord had recommended a nearby realtor’s office that could help me.
I was surprised at the speed of which I was able to secure my spot. I couldn’t help but smile during my negotiations with the realtor. While I wasn’t able to negotiate a better rate or get out of the dreaded key money. The joy I felt just had to do with my level of understanding. The memories of walking into a Japanese realtor’s office five years ago still lingered in my mind. Despite not liking forking over the funds, I knew exactly what I was paying for.
- 2 Months Rent Upfront 200 dollars
- 1 Month Rent as Keymoney 100 dollars
- 1 Month Rent as a Security Deposit of 100 Dollars
I felt a little lighter as I left the realtor’s office. Not only because there was a lot of money not in my account, but because I had felt like an independent adult again.
Shut Down
Although it felt good to be able to get through adult problems like a responsible functioning member of society, the large expense shocked my system. My mind went into that spiral where I thought of how useless in meaningless things are. Really I knew I was just whining about being poor, but I knew this year would be a good year for me. When I get down into the dumps I always tend to sleep off my emotions. What I’ve learned about life is when people are feeling down, it’s usually something basic they are upset about. Like the SIMs videogame, it’s a great idea to eat, sleep, or chat to someone when you’re feeling down.
What You Call Laziness I Call Efficiency
Before I came to japan I was enrolled in an ESL class. I almost forgot how intense it was, but there were a lot of late nights reading through dense language acquisition material. I’m grateful to my sister who offered me a couch at her house in Seattle. At the end of the class my teacher had a fun activity for the graduates. It was a small informal graduation ceremony with families of the class invited. Because we were instructed to teach English using fun language acquisition activities it was a fitting end to that chapter of my life. The activity was simple, reach into the bag and grab a small plastic animal. That animal would be your spirit animal.
I was a large fan of Native American and eastern spiritual theology, so I was excited to see what I would pull out of the bag. Would it be an owl, an otter, perhaps man’s best friend? I reached my hand into the bag and relinquished myself to fate. The shape I felt in my hand most certainly didn’t feel like an animal. I raised my hand slowly to share my discovery with the rest off the graduates. What I saw was a small sloth clinging to a branch with a gentle smile turned in my direction. The odd shape I had felt earlier had made sense, I couldn’t help but crack a grin when I saw the peculiar plastic creature.
“How fitting” my mom said laughing. I still have that small plastic sloth in my bedroom at home, that gentle smile reminds me of that time in my life.
NamakeMarco (namakemono+Marco)
Some eastern beliefs state that gurus come and go into your life in a moment in your life when you need them. Perhaps this was the universe’s way of informing me of my metaphysical makeup. Wanting to learn about my patronus, I took the time to research the misunderstood mammal. As I learned about sloths I also discovered more about myself. Perhaps it was more than a silly exercise after all? What lessons could the sloth teach me about life?
Sloths are amazing creatures, like me they prefer hot humid environments. The first thing that people know about sloths is their association with laziness. Sloth has become a synonym for a lazy person in both English and Japanese. Unfortunately the cute slow moving animal has even become one of the seven deadly sins. Despite the biblical association with sin, not all laziness is necessarily a bad thing. Getting a little R&R when your batteries need to recharge or after a stressful work week is healthy. Idleness places us in a great mental space for meditation, creative work, or even breakthroughs.
The War On Laziness
It’s something that we are losing in the modern world of hyper connectivity. We always cram our days with work, our silence with music, and our brains with entertainment. This thinking of filling the void with space carries over to our social media networks, films, and video games. What I’ve learned is sometimes the most powerful moments in the media we consume are the quiet ones. In Life is Strange the gameplay moments that shine is when we observe the characters just living in their space. We can put the controller down and incorporate laziness into our gameplay.
Life Lessons We Can Learn from Sloths
Not All Laziness is a Bad Thing
Laziness isn’t all that bad. I’ve gone on this tangent before in my blogs. Microsoft actually prefers to hire people with a touch of sloth spirit because lazy people find more efficient ways of doing things. The only reason I learned how to use business automations and optimizations is because of my spirit animal. With a touch of laziness you have that nagging voice in the back of your mind that tells you “there has to be a better way of doing things”
In another rant, I’ve described the “cool factor” in making something that takes a large amount of effort seem effortless. Skateboarders use the term steezy to describe a perfect execution of a trick and making it seem easy. I guess that’s where I’d like Laidback Lifestyle to be at some point. All these blogposts, videos, music, and whatever else I do take a lot of effort on one hand. Yet, I enjoy dipping my hands deep into topics and learning a lot about them. In fact, sometimes my art and my music are a form of laziness. Instead of focusing on the problems the adult world throws at me, like arranging a parking spot, it’s easier to lose myself to the act of creating music or art.
Slowing Down and Enjoying the Route
In music, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition.
If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest, and there would be composers who wrote only finales. People would go to concerts just to hear one crashing chord — because that’s the end!
Alan Watts Life and Music
Enjoy the journey and not the destination is a trope that has existed as long as storytelling has. Whether it is life, playing through a game, listening to a song, or a physical voyage taking the time to breathe in your surroundings is a lost art. Sloths have no choice but to move slow. Sloths move slow because that’s what their bodies have been designed to do. The slow movement helps to camouflage them from predators and to conserve energy. There are so many interesting facts about muscle mass, grip strength, and how their bodies are biologically designed.
One of the interesting ways their bodies are designed allows them to turn their head almost 180 degrees. Like a lot of millennials and gen-z’s(I identify as a zillennial) I’ve felt the need to speed run through life. I often feel behind in life because I haven’t “arrived yet”. My spiritual sloth guide tells me that it’s okay to slow down and smell the roses. Being an introvert, I quite enjoy looking at things that surround me. Looking at my world or my own situation with fresh eyes. It only takes an extra second to notice the beauty in the daily humdrum of life. Taking the time to smell your coffee, close your eyes and listen to music, or even enjoying the everyday sites of your modern commute are ways to let the sloth guide your eyes.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
Acts 9:18 (KJV)
Persistence
I want to be successful in life, whatever that means. For me it has been a long road to find that. Maybe I’m on that sloths pace toward success? The sloth is no stranger to taking the time to arrive at the destination, but what harm is there in that? I’ve had a long process learning, relearning, and messing up, but getting better at a skill or ability is a road wrought with challenges. In a way I’m grateful that I haven’t found large scale success yet, it keeps me humble and hungry to improve. (Although it would be nice to know if eventually it would pay off lol)
Efficiency and Resourcefulness
Sloths have an interesting diet. They eat a number of rubbery leaves, flowers, fruit, insects, and meat. The majority of what sloths eat are low in energy and nutritional value, but they make the most of what they eat. Sometimes making the most of what you have is all you can do. I think society sells us the idea of needing to buy a particular product to solve our problems. It is the case that many people think that a magical device will make their content better. Content creation is similar to getting better at any skill. It’s not the mouse that makes the gamer, the shoes that make the baller, or even the camera or software that make the film maker.
The best camera you have is the one with you
Chase Jarvis
Whatever you have, working within limitations makes you better as a creator. Whether it is time, budget, or equipment working within constraints allows you to grow and flex your creative muscle. As I go throughout my life and content creator journey I have to remember to just work with what I have available to produce the most content as it’s all I can do. The idea of building a content web, library, system, or structure is that once it is up the hard work is done. Videos, T-Shirt Designs, photos, and blog posts will in theory one day allow me to gain passive income off a lot of upfront work and effort. Allowing me to hangout like a sloth later in life. Due to the unique design of the tendons and claws of sloths, they use almost no energy to hang in place.
Sleep is Important
Sloths are known for sleeping long hours. This is a misconception however, as sloths only oversleep when they are in captivity. That’s something I can understand as a human being even. When life feels like it’s closing me in, I’m trapped, and all my responsibilities are piling up on me, I shut down and sleep as well. The same can be said for being a consciousness trapped in a decaying flesh vehicle, I tend to sleep through my existential crisis as well.
Most sloths will only sleep about eight hours a day. This is similar to the recommended amount of sleep that humans should get. Honestly, it’s more sleep than I get on a regular basis. What I love about sloths is that the times they sleep are varied. It’s much more similar to my simplistic understanding of zen lessons. Sleep when you are tired, eat when you’re hungry. My dream is I’ll be able to create my life around that idea. I am not a fan of work being tied to a repetitive clock or schedule, because that’s not how life ultimately works. There are times when I’m more efficient at 2:00 am then at 9:00 am, it should be within my own power to choose when I sleep. Eventually I do sleep though!
Smile More
One of the things sloths are known for is that seemingly relaxing smile they have on their faces. In-between my melodramatic life breakdowns I try to exude that same energy in my daily life. Humorously one of the ways I learn to deal with stressful situations is competitive gaming. In real life rarely do intense breakdowns happen, it’s usually something small that needs to be adjusted or small tweaks that need to be reworked. Compared to hyper reality when you’re sitting in a building and everyone is trying to kill you and your boys, it’s usually handled with a couple of conversations and adjustments.
Part of the Laidback Lifestyle is smiling when something outside of your control occurs and saying “shit happens”. I’ve developed this philosophy over a lifetime, the best way you can handle life is to go through it with a smile and not take yourself too seriously. One of the best words in Japanese is Shouganai which is pretty much the japanese equivalent of shit happens. Going through life with a carefree attitude can put you at odds with some uptight people from time to time, but life is a mix of tension and slack, I chose to be lighthearted and smile when I can.
Slothful Slumbervision
I tried to find a creative way to say dreams. . . the world is filled with enough articles of cheesy influencers saying to chase your dreams because it worked out for them. . . I’m not doing that to you. Most of my dream chasing has ended in nothing but disaster, but I still have the dream of volunteering at a sloth sanctuary. I wanted to do the whole sloth selfie thing, but sloth selfie centers are harmful to the sloth population. Instead I found some volunteer sites where you can volunteer to work with sloths. Not only can I see the sloths but I can help them. That will be on the bucket list for now.
Successful Launch
Last week I saw a successful launch of a platform build on Office 365 Architecture. This was built on Sharepoint, Power Automate, and Power Apps. While none of this is strictly coding, many of the functions follow the same logic as java, C#, and C++ coding. I’d like to learn more about the Office 365 Suite and all the advanced functions you can pull off for it, but there is so much information that it’s hard to know where is a good place to start. I’m happy that I was able to learn enough to build a dashboard of submissions and things essentially based on conditional logic.
I’ve censored the company branding as to just show you an idea of how it works.
DJ 9Tailz Art
I carry around my sketchbook wherever I go. I find it useful when you have unexpected moments of freetime at government offices, banks, or while eating lunch. I’ve been trying to make this sketchbook more about being a sketchbook rather than a collection of drawings. A place where I can experiment and play with ideas even if they don’t work. As an anime artist it’s easy to get locked into just that, but I want to branch out and be more than that too.
This sketch comes for exploring ideas for my concept of what DJIX is. Here I was concepting an origin story, a design, and an intro comic for how DJ9IX came to be. I have been using AI generated images for some of the visualizations on YouTube, but it didn’t feel authentic. It was a hollow feeling when I posted the AI stuff so I wanted to get back to actually learning how to produce art and images.
The Story of DJIX
The story is based in reality of course. When I came to Japan I stumbled upon a Kitsune Shrine in the middle of tokyo. I prayed to the fox spirit that one day I could be a DJ and perform at a large festival with my character, music, and visuals. (Boy my christian family would disown me for making a prayer at a shinto shrine). In my created story, a foxgirl(I’m an Ahri simp haha) spirit appears and offers to make the dream come true, for a price of course. It stems from my rudimentary understanding of fox spirits and shinto in Japan. I’m still working out the details the story and the drawback, but that’s the start of it.
From putting the kitsune mask on, our main character becomes part of the fox spirit. They can shapeshift and they join a collective soul of the fox character. . .who needs a name. This represents my interest in multiple genres of music. Each music type will get their own character to shapeshift in with the main one being the fox girl. My end goal with DJIX is that I’ll be able to have multiple people making music for it like a label. If. . . and this is a big if, the project takes off I’ll be able to hand off DJIX to a successor and so forward.
Digital Art
When I finalize sketches it usually goes through a very cel-shaded inspired process. First I do linework, base colors, shadows, before I add softness into things. The only part of the process I’m confident is in the linework and that’s only part way. For colors, I used reference images from Blue Archive. It’s funny because I don’t even play the game, but I love the character designs.
I wasn’t super satisfied with the design or image, but I continued anyway. I wanted to draw a background as it was something I wanted to work on moving forwards.
The final image is a little lackluster to say the least, but at least I’m exploring concepts, ideas, and new skills in art.
Posting the Image
I still need to develop a checklist for when I finish artistic projects. One I’m working on is as follows.
- Upload to Platforms
Instagram- Pixiv
- Deviant Art
- Art Station
- Adobe Portoflio
- Behance
- ETC
- Archive
- Blog Post?
- YouTube Video?
- Add assets to design library for t-shirts
- Review
I think as I move forward and the world and my own career and life become increasingly complex having a Standard Operating Procedure will be helpful.
Blurb
I took the time to express my feelings via writing in this instagram post. Because writing is one of the things I’m better at I thought I would express my struggles with art via text.
Music
Speaking of DJIX, I have a lot of musical works that are in project half completeness. I’d like to start rolling out remixes, original tracks, and other content to at least take those slothful steps towards my dreams. Back when I was living at home, I would also make DJ Mixes quite often. It’s a practice I need to get back into if I want to be taken seriously as an artist. Lastly I’d like to find a place to find dance music out in the real world as a bedroom DJ you can only get so far. . . or maybe not. I’d like to explore VR spaces and VR Djing eventually but that’s for the future.
Games
Retro Futurism
If you follow my content, you’ll know that I’m a big competitive gamer. At first it was League of Legends, but I’ve since transitioned to Apex Legends. ESports titles are only a small selection of gaming experiences. In my quest to diversify my palette I picked up Mass Effect Legendary Edition for around 5 dollars.
Mass Effect is almost 17 years old now. As a kid I didn’t really realize how awesome the series was. Although I marathoned Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3, it was growing up as an adult that made me fully appreciate the series. Some aspects of the game have aged like fine wine, others, like the shooting, haven’t aged so well. Despite this, I’m having quite an enjoyable experience. There’s a part of me that laughs because essentially Mass Effect is retro gaming in 2024. I thought that if I’m good at writing, why not make content around retro gaming? Expect to see some videos or articles about my Mass Effect Playthrough.
As an adult I have more varied experiences with Sci-Fi. From Star Wars to Halo, there are many series that have dabbled in space exploration and travel. Mass Effect’s most obvious inspiration is the Star Trek series, which I’ve watched none of. Although after playing Mass Effect, I’d like to watch Star Trek. Both series are known for asking interesting questions of their universes. The most exciting part isn’t shooting or action in these worlds. It’s simply the dialogue, world building, conversations, and relationships you build with the diverse cast that make this series a must play.
Call of Duty
COD is a series that has been in the cultural zeitgeist for over 20 years now. I still remember playing the very first Call of Duty on my Xbox. When the 360 came out, Call of Duty 2 had some relevance, but it was when COD4 came out that the game reached a massive appeal. I was there through a lot of the doritos, mountain dew, hit marker quick scope super leet gaming. Hell I was one of the teenanagers making adults angry by wrecking them in game and talking shit. Modern Warfare 2 released to an all new high but ever since then COD seemed to fall off in my heart and in the world.
I played some titles after MW2, but none of them captured my heart. The shooting had always remained solid in the game, but I use the McDonalds analogy to describe Call of Duty. They carry the same consistency as Marvel films, the shooting and action are good and satisfying, but after a while every game feels the same.
Reboot
In 2019 they decided to reboot the series. Because there are so many freemium games, I rarely buy Triple A titles. IMO the large publishers and developers have constantly reduced the value of large budget games and the only Devs that seem to deliver are Rockstar and some smaller studios. COD is no stranger to the stripping of value and the devious monetization schemes of modern gaming. It’s almost a poster child for things like loot boxes, microtransactions, cosmetics, and battlepasses. As an older gamer it makes me upset to shell out money for a game that I only have access to 40% of the content for. I sound like a grampa when I say “Back in my day when you bought a call of duty you owned all of it”.
After watching one campaign mission from 2019’s Modern Warfare I ended up buying it to some satisfaction. Despite all my years away from the game, my FPS training in APEX Legends, and my better understanding of game Mechanics meant that I still did well. Most of the time I played with myself, so I put the game down for a couple of years.
Games with Friends
As a result of my hobbies a lot of my friends also play games. I have my Apex Squad, but also my friends from Japan who I hang out with on weekends play online games together. I play War Zone and DMZ casually as to me it’s just hanging out with them that is the fun part. Although I play the game casually one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in gaming are the COD Raids. Even though the shooting is often seen as the most satisfying part of the game, and yes the gunplay is good, the best part of the COD raids are the puzzles.
The online Raids suffer from the same fate as a lot of the COD missions. Annoying infinitely spawning enemies who are accurate while running for some reasons, glitches, and some other poor design choices, but when you’re not shooting the puzzles are fun. A game that forces you to work together, communicate, and problem solve with two of your friends is fun. As stated earlier in the post the best parts of these missions were not the shooting.
Running Towards a Brighter Future
I’ve began exercising more. Even if it is at odd hours, I run for my health, but also for the mental idea of running towards my dreams. If I ever get in a drift or race car, I’m not going to have my health or mental sharpness be a limiting factor for me. Like the F1 drivers I see on TV I want to have a fit body and clear mind if I get behind the wheel. I daydream of being a DJ while I’m running so it’s usually some bright EDM. If I’m not listening to music I listen to a Podcast.
Using the Nike Run app is nice because if you don’t want to do a guided run you don’t have to. I switch between going at my own pace or using guided runs, sometimes the guided run can help you get the initial spark of motivation you need to get off your ass. I like to finish off a run with some protein bars, fruit, yogurt, or vegetables and a protein shake. In order to save money I could consider buying protein and milk in bulk from the drug store.
Just Starting
Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. My brain cooks up excuses for why I shouldn’t do something. On this latest series of runs a couple good things have happened. I set my best pace in a long time. The second is I didn’t want to stop running because of a song I liked. I ran a little extra longer to listen to music.
Finally I had a daydream of performing live with my favorite DJ one day. . .it was just a daydream, but it was nice to dream of something positive for once.
Back to Work
Although I have my freelance Sharepoint and Video editing work when it comes I also started a job as a tour guide. I have just completed my training week and will be making a dedicated blog post about that. This new company feels pretty modern and forward thinking for Japan and the salary and benefits seem nice. I’m hoping this is an omen for a great year.
Much love ❤️🩵🩷
Laidback Marco
TO DO LIST
Keep better track and record of finances- Design Shirts, Clothes, Sweaters, and Products for the brand
- Make a diagram of LaidbackLifestyle funnels and web
- Redesign website to integrate product sales
- Cleanup YouTube channels, linking, and tags
- Send Ophelia, Monstercat, and Other Labels a Demo. . .how do I put together a demo and press kit?
- Visualizer for “Lost at Sea”
- Vertical Visualizer
- Visualizer for “Feel Good Inc.” Drumstep Remix
- Upload any Video To LaidbackGaming
- Finish Editing Yokohama Photos and Post Them Online
- Make a reel with trending audio of before and after edits
- Draw anime characters on them for laidbackanime
- Create Shortform Content from Nissan Global HQ
- How to Make Music Video DAW
- A7III Review
Make some Art
