What do you suppose would be the worst encounter on a dating app? Maybe you’d meet a charming but psychopathic killer. But then you wouldn’t live to tell the tale. Or how about an equally charming but pathological liar who stole more than hearts — 42 hearts and then some.

But who would do such a thing and why? Let us turn our attention to 39-year old Takashi Miyagawa of Osaka, who did precisely that.

Before we get into the story, it spread like wildfire across news outlets in Japan a few months ago. I gathered more information to add…

Parenting

I blocked my son’s arm mid-air like Chun Li and held him by the wrist and my piercing stare. “Hands are not for hitting,” I said while reminding him of the storybook.

He huffed and puffed. Frustration bubbled until his face was raspberry red, and then he resorted to high-pitched screaming at what sounded like 150 decibels, setting off the equivalent of fireworks. He knows this is unacceptable in our apartment when we can hear our neighbor’s sneezes. …

PHOTOGRAPHY

What I See

When my daughter was 3 years old, I got her a fake wooden camera from Etsy. It has a cute little viewfinder, a focus ring to turn, and a shutter button to press. It was perfect for the monkey-see monkey-do phase where children copy everything you do. This was one way I learned that the best way to encourage positive behavior is to model it. Not that I wanted to push photography onto her, but it happened naturally and was an interest I didn’t mind fostering.

What I didn’t expect was how far children go to mimic your actions.

Since…

PHOTOGRAPHY

My eyes light up whenever I see hydrangea flowers peppering bushes. Here in Japan, they bloom when spring transitions into the rainy season. Hydrangeas love to drink up all the water, and the approaching summer heat makes them sprout like popcorn.

An interesting blurb on the history of its name from Bloom This explains:

The name ‘Hydrangea’ originated from Latin, leading back to as old as 1739, named by Grovonius, a botanist. He thought that the shape reminded him of an ancient water pitcher. Hence, combining the words ‘hydro’ (water) and ‘angeion’ (barrel/pitcher), resulting in the name Hydrangea.

My ex was a fine example of The Nice Guy. So nice to the point of being suspect.

He was a super sweet smooth talker. But in the years we were together, none of his words stuck with me, because he cast compliments like a net, in all directions. He worked his charm to inflate anyone’s ego, but by the end, I resembled a punctured balloon, and would leak what little love I had for myself.

Compliments are not created equal. We have the genuine ones, the white lies, or worst of all, back-handed compliments. I didn’t hear any of…

I’ve seen a surge in small businesses marketing goods on Instagram using in-app video functions. I do not own a shop myself, but as a customer, I can tell you why this works even better than solely selling on a website.

I can see this method working with various products. Anything there’s a demand for. The example I’ll be using is my latest addiction — crystals.

Instagram Marketing With Video Functions

Instagram Live

There are two options to sell interactively on Instagram; one is broadcast in real-time for users who join the live stream chat rooms. …

I have been going to a secret spot in the springtime for the past decade. It’s within biking distance from my home, along a river in the outskirts of Tokyo with rows of cherry blossom trees dotting both sides — a view you never tire from, like the fleeting chance to see an old friend once a year.

It’s a quiet residential area. Dogs dash around. You will see people jogging or biking down the gravel paths parallel to the riverbanks while kayakers drift in the water. I don’t ever expect anyone to disturb me here or for me to…

Sometimes you start a piece in your element right on track. But the submission can come to a halt when an editor steers you along a detour with a suggestion here and there, or maybe you had blind spots and missed how it was a mess everywhere. And if it’s a mess, editors recoil. As Roz Warren has said, “there’s no point in polishing a turd.”

Except, this time, I hadn’t submitted a turd. In my mind, I had it in the bag. I thought it was the shit. …