On my plate: okayu (rice porridge) with miso and green onion

Rodger Swan was a young man who made videos and shared them on the internet. He uploaded over 130 videos before his death this January and in telling the story of his life in Japan, impacted far more people than his nearly 8,000 subscriber count indicates. This simple passion of Rodger’s turned out to be far more meaningful than probably anyone could have guessed, inspiring a global audience and reminding many of us to follow our dreams, whether they take us halfway across the world or involve staying home to read Goosebumps. The Japanese Vlogging community familiar with Rodger was understandably grief-stricken by the sudden news, but a glance through Rodger’s video comments reveals that he touched a much larger group of people worldwide. Many have posted tribute videos, some have shared their favourite Swan stories, others, like me, have written about Rodger’s life.

He was that normal guy that everyone watched grow up. We saw him turn from a boy into a man…And as we watched that Rodger grow, we fell more and more in love with him. We fell in love with his normality. We well in love with his selflessness. We fell in love with the hope there were still people like Rodger left in the world. (via Kevin O’Donnell)

It may seem a touch superficial, a bit overly dramatic perhaps that such a mass of people who barely even knew Rodger are mourning his passing, but I assure you the sentiments are sincere. Rodger was a small part of a niche that stood for something much larger and more real: for compassion and curiosity and unyielding courage in the face of the less-travelled path — the perfect example of why blogging is more than just unchecked journalism or uncensored ranting, but instead an important medium deeply rooted in human interest in a way no other format does justice. Rodger’s published videos really did resonate with people, so called strangers, and through his candid monologue and honest storytelling, Rodger managed to inspire, to change, to make a difference. He moved some of his audience to learn Japanese, he enabled some to make the sacrifice of the world they know for a world much greater, and he affected many, myself included, in ways still unknowable, just by spending a few minutes every week with his video camera.

I think it’s impossible to imagine or count or know just how many lives Rodger touched…It’s a funny thing, moving across the world, as Rodger did, because you wind up being intertwined with the lives of people you never in a million years would have expected meeting. (via Kevin Cooney).

It takes a man every bit as amazing as Rodger Swan to remind us of the kind of people we’d like to be, and his character remains strong to this day. His videos leave behind a legacy, proof that Rodger’s life was far more meaningful than his death could ever be. We could pin Rodger’s appeal first as Tokyo Swan and later as Iwate Swan to many things, from his prolific posting to his relaxed and endearing on-camera attitude, but perhaps the most influential aspect of Rodger was his sincerity. For all the skepticism vloggers face, it’s easy to forget that the youtube audience actually can make an authentic connection with people like Rodger, people who are too genuine not to bond with, and while the phenomenon is a rarity, it’s also one of the most comforting connections we can have. The appeal of a young man thousands of kilometers away with unusual interests may not be apparent at first glance, but from those first videos it’s easy to see why so many felt so close to Swan and found solace in his shared journey.

His death…serves as a powerful reminder that ultimately, what matters is loving, caring, sharing, and being true to yourself. And doing that today, not tomorrow. The honesty with which he shared his life was touching. I found his attitude inspiring, and comforting too – knowing that this good person was out there. (via Joseph Tame)

I don’t claim to have known Rodger personally, and I don’t count myself among his acquaintances, but I do know a number of us touched by his work are keeping him and his family in our thoughts. I will always remember the way his videos and words and views on horror movies left a lasting impression that may not have made us family, but made us far from strangers. So goodbye, Rodger, you will be missed.

It’s been a lot harder than I thought it would be, saying goodbye to the people, saying goodbye to the places, and what you’re used to, because you do, you make connections, you meet people, and you form bonds, and that can be a difficult thing to walk away from because you’re never going to get this again. It’s never going to be like this again. But there’s always hope. You never know, one day we might meet again, so in that sense, you always have to stay positive. (via Rodger Swan).

Nong-Shim is a Korean food manufacturer known for their spicy instant noodles as well as a few varieties of shrimp crackers. When my local convenience store started carrying the brand along with the classic Japanese brands and the ever ubiquitous nissin cup-o-noodles, I thought I’d give their products a go to see if there was any validity to the “hot and spicy” promised on the packaging.

I picked up a few of the different offerings and started with the beef-flavoured cup (containing no actual beef, surprisingly) and I have to say, it’s much better than the atrocity I picked up last week: Maruchan’s Yakisoba. To begin with, the tiny cup holds a surprising amount of noodles, complete with lots of dried veggies, mostly green onions and mushrooms that rehydrated fully compared to the usual corn/carrot fare. You can see the sizable chunks in the pre-cooking shot below.

Generous flavour packet as well full of what was honestly a decently hot and spicy soup base. Sure it’s not tongue searing, but it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart and I personally find it pretty refreshing to have a bit of the good stuff in the instant noodle aisle. It was bright red, so from the get go I thought it promising.

Packaging is sturdier than your average instant noodle cup, more plastic than styrofoam, and the paper is coat to keep the water and steam in. I noticed the difference when the noodles were completely plump and ready before my 3 minute timer was up. I quite enjoyed the taste, and especially liked that you could add less of the flavour if you were sensitive to spice or worried about the nutritional intake. It’s pretty easy to spot in the bright red and black graphics, though not often easy to find. Much more popular are the company’s shrimp and “vegetal” flavoured Kimchi bowls.

Price wise, all the Nong-Shim products seem to rank about the same as the upscale and fancier instant noodle bowls, on par with something like Kraft easy mac or Chef Boyardee, though to my taste buds, far tastier (about 1.50 at my local 7eleven). Health-wise the Shin Cup also on par with other instant noodles, complete with 65% of your daily sodium intake, though the Shin Cup also has 2g protein and 12g of fiber, and 0 trans fat if you’re counting. Surprising for a convenience food, actually.

Overall I rate the shin cup pretty highly. I look forward to giving their packets of Yeul Ramyon and the larger Kimchi-flavoured noodle bowl a try soon. I’ll be sure to share my findings. But first, I have some noodles to finish!

On my plate: homemade pizza with yellow pepper, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, and goat’s cheese

Today Apple announced the release of their newest mobile device, a tablet with the unfortunate name of iPad. Is it a neat device? Can it do cool things? Was huge step forward for netbooks and e-readers? Yes. Was it a bit of a letdown? Absolutely.

It’s slick, with that fancy interface familiar to iPhone and iPod Touch users, but with the added juice of a netbook. The tablet itself boasts a new chip I’m sure we’ll start seeing elsewhere, a ridiculous battery life of 10 hours, and finally answers that question of who wants to watch a movie on an eight centimeter screen. But for the company that made me reconsider digital convergence, the people that made me inseparable from my mobile phone, the design team that made me require more of my technology, the iPad was terribly disappointing.

While it’d be easy to say the iPad was overhyped (it was) or that it doesn’t tout any groundbreaking UI changes from the iPod Touch (it doesn’t), these aren’t the disappointments. To be honest, I applaud those choices. Apple doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel when they have an interface they know works, an impressive library of apps and games that already exist, and a landscape of other tablet products that, well, suck. In many ways, the iPad is a good move, and hopefully will get us moving in the right direction. Why the long face then? The truth is, the iPad is most disappointing because it isn’t for me. I’m not the market, and here’s why: sure it has a big touch screen, but the iPad doesn’t do anything my other devices don’t. It doesn’t even do something better than my other devices.

It’s supposed to fill that gap between the smartphone and the computer, right? Well (and this is why I used to hate digital convergence) it doesn’t fill that gap particularly well for people like me. It isn’t a suitable computer for me because 1) I can’t edit on it, 2) it has no input ports, 3) you can’t multitask, 4) the price point and AT&T contract don’t match my wallet or my fancy. But it isn’t a suitable mobile device for me either because A) I can’t put it in my pocket, B) the charge isn’t long enough for serious travel, C) it still requires a computer to add content, and D) I already have a device that can run the same apps, has the same 3G coverage, and fits in any purse. It doesn’t turn-by-turn navigate as well as an in-car GPS, it’s much harder to read and offers fewer books than the Kindle or the Nook, and is much too large to make a convenient phone call. So when I, an extended traveller who would love nothing more than an in-between device that let me stop worrying about laptop theft and international roaming charges, can’t see the point of owning one, you have to wonder with whom the appeal lies.

It isn’t supposed to be a computer, or a phone, or even an e-reader. That’s all well and good, and perhaps I’ve judged the iPad too quickly, but if that’s the case, then what exactly is it supposed to do? If you’re the business commuter who occasionally looks at a photo, might like to read a book or watch a movie, and really needs to edit spreadsheets, then the iPad is for you. Since Apple hasn’t given me a reason to need the iPad like I need my iPod, then it’s going to be up to the developers to provide the impetus. Perhaps this was Apple’s plan all along, since the app store has singlehandedly carried the iPhone through competition. In that regard, it isn’t a bad plan at all, but as it stands out-of-box, the iPad is for people like my father, like that girl that always takes the Red Line to the last station, and for the the grandparent that, when it isn’t masquerading as a digital picture frame, uses the iPad to play FIFA with their grandchildren. Maybe it does fill the gap between computer and phone for these people, maybe your answer to “do I really need another device?” is a resounding yes, and maybe mac developers will come out with a trillion different uses for this thing that deem it indispensable. All of this is possible, I don’t deny. Only, right now at least, the iPad doesn’t do much for me.

On my plate: delicious vegetable pot pie from wee feast

Back by popular demand, I’ve got another batch of words of wisdom to help you cultivate the right attitudes for change. Check out my first post on mantras to live by to get started on the subject.

1. What you do everyday is more important than what you do occasionally. (via Gretchen Rubin)
It’s so easy to burn out on change, whether it’s a lack of willpower or a commanding pace of life, so when all seems lost, remember that what you do every day is way more important than what you do every once in a while. The everyday actions are the things you’re really committed to, the things important enough to make it into your already crunched day. These are the things that stick with you. If you’re going to make a change, don’t focus on being able to deadlift 150kgs, focus on lifting every day. Change starts on a much smaller scale than we think, just as the small routines we complete have a much larger impact than we might have imagined.

2. Shoot for the stars, you may land on the moon. (via my dreamy nature)
I’ve always said this phrase to explain to people why I’m such a dreamer. I think big and you should too. Really big. Expect to get there. It will seem absurd to everyone else, but when you aim for the big fish, you inevitably end up somewhere cool, regardless of whether you catch the whopper in the pond or not. Don’t be afraid to overshoot or to aim high. How else do you wind up on top? Ask yourself what really makes you and the greats of the world different, and you’ll be surprised how often we scale ourselves back instead of letting ourselves be big picture thinkers.

3. Make no apologies. (via Ross Wells)
I’m not ashamed of who I am and what I do, and even someone as infallibly confident as myself often makes too many apologies. Ramit Sethi calls it the “Eeyore effect”, I call it “youtube syndrome,” but anyway you slice it, overapologising is no good. Creative people often fall into the trap of apologising when they miss a post or the sound is bad or the focus off. I do the same thing. I used to regularly kowtow a world of “sorry”s when I sent a newsletter out too close to the end of the month. Don’t. Just show up with what you got and make punctuality or presentation or production value or whatever your private area for improvement. Not only will most people never notice, but you end up putting your best foot forward. I did a documentary shot entirely in noisy, crowded, dark restaurants all over Los Angeles. Sure the picture was grainy, the noise floor was higher than heaven, and the subjects hard to understand, but what are you going to do when you know your shooting conditions suck? You go with your gut. You do your best. You make no apologies.

4. You can’t eat the meat until you kill the cow. (via Outlandish)
It sounds like something Dr. Phil would say, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. You do have to walk before you can run if you don’t want bruises on your face, but the old adage is so much more than that. Once you’re ready for a steak, it’s really easy to start thinking about how you’re going to get it. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, if you want the meat you have to kill the cow first. So before you grow livid wondering where the steak life promised you is, pop in Bread and Barrels of Water until you remember that you haven’t killed the cow yet.

5. As in the beginning, so in the middle, so in the end. (via Danielle LaPorte)
It’s a Buddhist proverb I’ve heard before to describe infinite nature, but Danielle LaPorte gave it a whole new meaning for me. In her regular appearance with Mark Kelley on CBC, she spoke about trusting your intuition and your first impressions when it comes to business. While I do believe humans can change, I agree that most of us are unwilling to. If someone comes off as rude at first, they generally continue to be rude and are still rude when you decide to stop taking their rudeness. As it was at the start, in those first few seconds you thinsliced the situation, so it usually ends up being. Stop fighting the things that are unchangeable and changing what you can: in LaPorte’s case whether you work with them, in Buddha’s case how you look at the world, and in your case too.

A bit of a preview of coming attractions straight from the heart of my own creative lair and into yours via the interwebs. Get ready, unlikelysquiggle.com is about to get an overhaul.

On my plate: “clash of the snacks” — chips with salsa, chile con queso, and quacamole, homemade bean and cheese nachos, onion rings and taquitos, blonde oreos, pretzels, and bagel bites, all washed down with a margarita and a Cowboys victory (not to mention Perseus and Laurence Olivier saving the world from a gaggle of angry Greek gods)