KinchStalker Posted November 28, 2022 Report Share Posted November 28, 2022 My laptop may have just gone FUBAR. For the last ten days or so it's been not detecting the replacement battery I got a couple months back. I know it's still in there because the battery charge was showing up, but the computer doesn't draw power from it. This has resulted in restart loops where some fluctuation in power supply or something messes a thing up and I have to go into boot menu stuff. Now, the keyboard lights flicker when I turn it on, but no boot happens. I reinsert the battery and it goes into a preboot sequence but that crashes when it tries to initialize the battery, and we go back to the keyboard flicker loop. (Which is all that happens when I try to boot without the battery altogether.) It's four years old, so repair likely isn't a realistic option. All historical work is on indefinite hold. Transcription is just not feasible on a smartphone. I apologize for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted December 11, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2022 I brought my laptop to a local repair place, and while the diagnostic hasn't happened, I believe I have enough saved up to fix the issue. I backed up all of my files related to puroresu research, but again, transcription isn't feasible on mobile. Automatic OCR for Japanese is still so poor, particularly for a language so context -dependent, that it will take you more time to correct the errors and insert skipped characters than just to plow through it yourself with Kanjitomo, one to four characters at a time. And I can't do that. The last thing I was working on was the next entry in the Otsuka/NJPW thread, which will at least cover the Inoki/Oki match and the surrounding context. (Inoki vs Kobayashi II will either end this post or start the following one.) I wish to start it with a detailed Oki bio; and I have 1200 words written on his life through 1965. One of the last resources I transcribed before my laptop crapped out was an interview with Kim Duk, which provided excellent information. But I want a better sense of Oki's place in the Korean wrestling industry when he came to NJPW. He was its biggest star, yes, but I read that he was considered "anti-mainstream". I need to know what other promoters were working in the market before I am comfortable putting out the Oki bio, because those promoters would end up working with Inoki. I have a two-part G Spirits bio of Pak Song that I want to transcribe. Even though his match with Inoki doesn't happen for another two years, this article is the likeliest among my available resources to contain the necessary details. (There is another G Spirits interview on the JWA with the late former Tokyo Sports reporter and AJPW planning department head Teiji Kojima. I am quite interested in it, and while I am aware that that might sound like a waste of time for those interested in the NJ thread...I have to keep myself interested in this, okay?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkc31 Posted December 11, 2022 Report Share Posted December 11, 2022 I hope all of your computer issues get fixed. It has been pure joy finding new material from you to read. Thank you for all your hard work providing us incredible new information we wouldnt have otherwise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
club Posted December 12, 2022 Report Share Posted December 12, 2022 22 hours ago, jkc31 said: I hope all of your computer issues get fixed. It has been pure joy finding new material from you to read. Thank you for all your hard work providing us incredible new information we wouldnt have otherwise! I cosign all the above. These threads have been an amazing resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted December 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2022 Bad news, brothers. The laptop is, indeed, FUBAR. I don't know when I will be able to get a new one. Any transcription is off the table for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted January 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 Just wanted to give an update. It looks like I will be able to get a new laptop soon, but I am waiting for the funds to come through. I have a computer available to me, but I do not have the authority to install Java on it, which Kanjitomo runs on. (I tried a mobile app called Kaku, but I just could not get a good workflow going with it. Even more than Kanjitomo, it was clearly designed for manga and visual novels, not dense text.) I have written over 2000 words of what originally was supposed to be the next entry in the NJPW/Otsuka series, which would at least cover the Kintaro Oki match. But 2000 words of that have wound up being solely about Oki's early career and the birth of Korean wrestling. I am preparing a thread solely devoted to that, so that I can get this information out there without bloating the Nooj series. What I have written goes up to the end of 1965. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted January 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 Bad news. Funds for a new laptop are much more limited than I expected. There are some posts that I plan to write in the interim, such as one about the Tokyo Sports show which Loss will soon reach in his newsletter. But as before, I cannot process much of the resources I have acquired, due to my inability to type Japanese. As earlier stated, I refuse to continue the NJPW thread until I can transcribe a Pak Song serial that should give me context on the South Korean promoters that Oki competed with, and who Inoki later worked with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted February 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2023 A positive update. I have just been given a 2009 HP laptop for free. Its 4gb of memory are not ideal for Kanjitomo, which uses over 900mb on its own, but I can work with them. KinchStalker is getting back in the business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinchStalker Posted March 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2023 This is the final update. I received my new laptop on Monday. It's in the midrange of what I wanted, but it will serve my needs much better than the 2009 HP. However, I am taking a small vacation from serious puroresu research. This is where I feel I need to pull back the curtain for you guys. For the past two years, my transcription and research have not just been a hobby, but my life. I can afford to invest so much time into it—in other words, I can afford to transcribe entire books with an app that only transcribes four characters at a time—because I am unemployed and live in a residential care situation. It has been rewarding to accidentally become an expert on Showa period puroresu, don't get me wrong; there is still a great thrill to uncover so much information that was simply never going to get through to the West, filtered as that range of knowledge has been through Meltzer (and Fumi Saito). It is not a life I can live forever, though. The tedium of transcription, which you could definitely feel seeping into my Four Pillars book recaps, has been very taxing on my mental health (the best analogy I can make is to imagine if you were forced to sit down and solve hundreds of captchas every day). There are simply no English-language resources that are of any use to me when it comes to detailed historical coverage of puroresu. This has been such a major part of my life that I have literally not read a book in years. When I went to AEW's Portland show in January, I knew nobody, and felt the loneliest I had in a long time. I have made friends through wrestling, to be sure, but they're all screen friends. I want to build a healthier, more sustainable relationship with this hobby in 2023. I am planning to find some part-time work this year that will not impact my benefits. This will cut into the time I have to transcribe Japanese materials, but I hope that I can use extra funds to commission proper translations of Japanese articles. I want to spend time to make some in-person social connections. I certainly want to continue my weight loss! (I was 310 last February and have gone down to 265. I want to at least be under 230 by the end of the year.) So, please do not expect much from me here for a little while. Right now, the only puroresu work I am doing is a longhand draft of the first chapter of a Jumbo biography, which I am writing out to assess what details I may need to seek an interview with Tsuruta's brother to gather. (Hopefully I can give the guy some money to answer my questions.) Meanwhile, I am reading my first book in years. It's one that I only got halfway through in 2016; getting dumped by my high school sweetheart left me in no condition to finish it. But it has stuck in my mind ever since, and I started my second attempt a few days ago. I used to be a hardcore literature guy, if you can believe it (my handle, which I have used since high school, is partially a Ulysses reference). Really want to get back in touch with that part of myself. I apologize to those who were anticipating a rush of productivity when I got my new laptop. But if I am the only person who does what I do (at least for the old stuff), then I have a responsibility to make this work more sustainable on my end. I cannot kill myself trying to tell their stories: not if I want to get through telling them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted March 15, 2023 Report Share Posted March 15, 2023 Take care of yourself and the rest will take care of itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah's_Savior Posted March 16, 2023 Report Share Posted March 16, 2023 I feel you on this, ultimately you need to find the healthier and hopefully healthiest route for you during this lifetime. Burning yourself out doesn't help a research project in the long term and getting back into other hobbies can sometimes recharge you so that when you're ready to get back on the saddle, you can make great strides. All the best Cameren and hope everything works out for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguakun Posted March 18, 2023 Report Share Posted March 18, 2023 I have been thoroughly enjoying your work, and I appreciate the effort you've put into it. Please take this opportunity to rest well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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