Willing to relocate: Yes (currently based in Fukuoka, Japan with full permission to work)

Technologies: Javascript/Typescript, Svelte, SvelteKit, Vue, Nuxt, React, Next.js, ThreeJs, WebGPU, CSS, Tailwind, PostgreSQL, Firebase, Pocketbase, Supabase, Playwright, Google Cloud, AWS, Ruby on Rails

Email: laurie.in.{the country I live in}@gmail.com

Hi, I'm Laurie Griffiths. I'm a senior full stack engineer with over 10 years of experience. I am based in Fukuoka, Japan with permission to work in Japan or the UK. I'm a native English speaker and I speak Japanese.

I have experience with a variety of modern and older web stacks. Recently I have enjoyed using SvelteKit to produce performant, accessible websites with great developer experience. I also am a proponent of automated testing and have implemented CI/CD in multiple legacy codebases to allow large-scale refactors and updates without fear.

Also, I produced the game engine and IDE that runs the successful History Mysteries series of escape room board games: https://historymysteries.club/

I am currently contracting and looking for new opportunities, either full-time or contract.

Try things out. Literally anything. Sports, music, arts, tech. It is so much easier to try out a wide range of things in college.

Find time to reflect. No one here can give you a blueprint for a good life so take some time to think about all the things you are doing, your studies, the company you keep and if these align with your values.

Actually do things. Lots of people sit around talking about their big ideas. Only a small fraction actually do something. It's much easier to poke holes and criticize what other people have done and much harder to stick your neck out and do something.

[1] https://andymatuschak.org/prompts/

Willing to relocate: Yes (currently based in Fukuoka, Japan with full permission to work. British passport holder)

Technologies: Javascript/Typescript, Svelte, SvelteKit, Vue, Nuxt, React, Next.js, ThreeJs, WebGPU, CSS, Tailwind, PostgreSQL, Firebase, Pocketbase, Supabase, Playwright, Google Cloud, AWS, Ruby on Rails

Email: laurie.in.{the country I live in}@gmail.com

Hi, I'm Laurie Griffiths. I'm a senior full stack engineer with over 10 years of experience. I am based in Fukuoka, Japan with permission to work in Japan or the UK. I'm a native English speaker and I speak Japanese.

I have experience with a variety of modern and older web stacks. Recently I have enjoyed using SvelteKit to produce performant, accessible websites with great developer experience. I also am a proponent of automated testing and have implemented CI/CD in multiple legacy codebases to allow large-scale refactors and updates without fear.

Also, I produced the game engine and IDE that runs the History Mysteries series of escape room board games: https://historymysteries.club/

I am currently contracting and looking for new opportunities, either full-time or contract.

I remember many years ago in my music lessons being shocked that some people can hear multiple notes played simultaneously. I've never found much material on learning this skill.

First, we learnt verbs in the -masu form. Nomimasu, tabemasu and so on.

Then we learnt this song (to the tune of Clementine)

chi ri i tte mi ni bi nde kiite giite

It's a quick mneumonic to help you go from the polite verb to the "te-form" ending. I hummed it in my head while working out the conjugation before it became natural and "obvious".

[0] https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/asa220...

Permanent residency applications are being judged incredibly strictly. Citizenship applications need 10 years of continuous residence up from 5. Business manager visas have gone from needing 5m yen of capital to 30m yen.

It seems pretty clear that the goal is to get workers in for some productive years but make the path for staying difficult. I guess that's one way to solve an aging population problem.

To put things in perspective, Japan is an island and has entry and exit controls on the borders, so it is estimated that 0.05% of the population is illegal immigrants (people not leaving when their visa runs out). And the police can and do stop visible minorities to confirm their residence status on the spot. It is compulsory to carry identification documents if you are a foreigner. (There are questions about the legality of this but it is common and widely practiced).

[1] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/10/27/india-valua...

- Client company address changed 4 years ago and the paperwork wasn't filed within 2 weeks.

- A late pension payment 2 years ago.

- Pension and health insurance were paid on time, but the date stamp on the physical payment slips was smudged and so "did not prove" that it was paid on time.

- City hall workers didn't send out health insurance slips in time, applicant (through no fault of their own) couldn't pay by the deadline.

This level of strictness is affecting people's lives, ability to make plans, get mortgages etc.

To add to this, permanent residency application times are now very long. After you complete your application some people are waiting nearly 2 years to get a response. There is a lot of vagueness about what happens if the rules change during your application period.

Perhaps there has been a communication mix up here?

(also, when I tried to sign up to your service it was impossible to actually log in)

Perhaps there has been a communication mix up here?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47498642

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

I find engaging like this helps my memory already on its own, but if I'm ever really stuck with a name I just take a quick look at my phone. The person is usually linked to the event where I first met them or similar.

For maps, I have a folder called Places and each markdown file in there is a place. I add latitude and longitude to the frontmatter and then display them on a map.

[1] https://github.com/pyrochlore/obsidian-tracker

Try to separate out 'ruminating' from 'thinking'. What's the difference? For our purposes 'thinking' has a fixed outcome and an end point. Trying to solve a coding problem. Working out how to make dinner. Calculating your taxes. When you reach your goal, you're done and you stop. 'Ruminating' has no end point. There is not end or action associated with it. The tricky part is that it often masquerades as thinking, so you feel like you're solving a problem.

For example, you do a job interview and you go over and over what happened in your mind. "Maybe I should have answered this differently". "Maybe I should've prepared some more of these questions". Of course, you can't change what happened in the past. You're just rolling the ideas around in your head and probably making yourself feel worse and worse. Rumination can be focused on the past, the future or even some hypothetical, imaginary situation ("What if I lost my job", "What if my house burnt down"). Again, actual preparation (Saving an emergency fund. Getting insurance) has an action associated, but rumination never ends, it just keeps going around in your head.

The other thing is to keep an accurate record of your performance. This will be different for everyone, and varies a lot depending on the job. The key thing is to make the record as close in time to the action as possible. For example, you feel like your pull requests aren't as good as other people's. Don't wait until the end of the week and then reflect on the quality of your work. Instead, every time your make a pull request, write down an accurate, objective assessment of the quality.

People who suffer from imposter syndrome tend to forget their wins and remember their losses again and again (there's that rumination!). By having an accurate record that you made yourself you can cut through this and show to yourself your true performance.

For anyone thinking about trying out Obsidian, here are some problems I have solved with it:

- Remembering where I met someone, what we talked about and then connecting up with them at a later date. My ability to remember names is easily 10x because of obsidian.

- Seeing who in my family's birthday is coming up soon and their address so I can send them a card.

- Graphing how far I've run for each day/week and any quick training notes.

- Showing me friend's restaurant suggestions on a map when I've got a free evening and I want to try something new.

And all of this stored locally and synced onto many devices.

If you're curious I highly recommend starting simple. Don't worry about plugins, just write a quick daily note every day about the information that is important to you. When you feel like you're outgrowing that, adopt a structure that fits you and solves your problems.