David Chart's Blog

Author: David Chart

  • One Month Checkup

    Today was Mayuki’s one month check-up. She’s fine. Right, well that’s that, then. OK, a bit more detail, although there really isn’t a lot more to it. I had an interview with a potential new student immediately beforehand, so I had to go straight to the clinic from Mizonokuchi. Fortunately, I made it in time,…

  • Shadowrun, Fourth Edition

    Shadowrun is a cyberpunk roleplaying game with elves and magic. It’s set in, in this edition, 2070, after magic returned to the world in 2012, awakening dragons, elves, dwarfs, orks, trolls, and magic. The player characters are freelance criminals who do dubious work for corporations. Although, since large corporations are effectively countries, they might better…

  • Better Not Die, Then…

    Today, I got a letter from the life insurance company saying that they wouldn’t insure me. I didn’t know I was that sick. Actually, I suspect I’m not, but the combination of asthma, slightly high cholesterol a year ago, and non-Japanese may have put them off. This means that I can’t get really useful life…

  • Atheism and Agnosticism

    Recently, atheism has become a a major topic of discussion. One of the most notable proponents is Richard Dawkins, professor of zoology and originally author of The Selfish Gene (which is, incidentally, a very good book). The debate has even made it into the Guardian with some frequency. All this attention to the topic makes…

  • Mayuki is a Good Girl

    So, one reason why I’ve not been posting much about Mayuki is that she’s been good. Sleeping, particularly at night, drinking milk, using nappies, and waving her arms and legs around in a generally uncoordinated fashion. Pretty good for a baby of her age, really. She’s also been cooperative with my teaching; she’s been quiet…

  • Growing Bigger

    Oops, I seem to have skipped a few days there. We went back to the clinic on Monday to have Mayuki looked at, and she now seems to be putting on weight at an acceptable rate. We’ve increased the amount of formula she’s getting in addition to breast milk, because she’s still a bit behind…

  • A Routine?

    Things seem to be settling into a bit of a routine now. Obviously, it’s still a routine that gets disrupted and moved about by Mayuki’s moods, but even that can become routine. I don’t know when in the evening i’ll have to carry Mayuki around the living room to keep her calm, but I can…

  • Taking to the Bottle

    We took Mayuki for another check-up yesterday, and her weight is not climbing quickly enough. It looks like Yuriko’s milk has not come in fully yet. Mayuki’s weight has been going up, so obviously milk has been coming through, but there hasn’t been enough. So, we’re on to supplementing with bottle milk for a little…

  • Life Insurance

    Yesterday, I applied for life insurance. Now I have a daughter, this has become rather necessary. As is normal with these traditionally complicated and intimidating things, I had to do it in Japanese. (At some point, I will have to make a will in Japanese as well. The main reason that hasn’t happened yet is…

  • Feeding Troubles

    You would think that, if anything were instinctive, breast feeding would be. Apparently not, however. We went for another check-up for Mayuki yesterday, and she doesn’t seem to be getting enough to drink. The main problem seems to be that she has been sleeping through times when she should be fed, and hasn’t been attaching…