Six (?) Months Without MS

My growing disgust with the tech world’s grotesque insistence on shoving LLM/GenAI down our throats finally reached a fever pitch last year, and I began divesting myself of all as many ties to those companies as I could. The worst offender in my own professional workflow was, of course, Microsoft.

I cancelled my Office 365 subscription and, hardest of all, switched to the Ubuntu operating system in August or September of last year. I didn’t write it down, exactly, but.. Around six months ago. So, here we are, half a year later, and I wanted to do a review on how it’s going.

I started off with a “soft switch,” double booting my laptop with Windows. I had to make sure that I could still handle all my professional tasks, after all. But since I had been using LibreOffice for all my document work since spring, and LibreOffice comes bundled with Ubuntu from the start, I was pretty confident.

And now, roughly six months later, how’s it going?

Fine. Better than fine. Great. I have replaced everything I needed on Windows for work with either free or one-off purchase accounts. Not only have I broken away from broken LLM bullshit, but I’ve stopped paying licensing fees for software!

I use a lifetime subscription to PCloud for cloud storage, which has a native Linux app. I use the Free and Open Source (FOSS) Evolution email app for all the different accounts I’ve amassed. I use FOSS OmegaT for my translation tool, one I’ve used for years anyway, and again it has a Linux app.

In that time I have had zero problems doing my work, which includes creating and editing enormous documents with multiple rounds of edits using track changes and comments. Edits on Strange Buildings? All done in LibreOffice Writer on Ubuntu (And The Ark was all done in LibreOffice on Windows…). In fact, I get the feeling that Writer on Ubuntu handles those big jobs a bit more smoothly than Word did on Windows. No issues with compatibility, no terrible formatting issues, no muss, no fuss.

Other work tasks, like generating and editing PDFs or writing presentations have gone well, too. I did have one mishap making a presentation in PowerPoint then editing it in LibreOffice Impress, but I have worked out a backup and autosave system since then and have had no issues. I run my work tracker/to do sheets and invoices in LibreOffice Calc (Excel compatible).

Right now, there is only one single task that I have to sometimes perform (maybe once a year) to make my job easier—but is not essential—that requires software I can only find on Windows. So, I have used Windows exactly ONCE since last October.

Otherwise, I simply don’t need Microsoft, and I’m still investigating ways around even that one little use.

There is a certain intimidation factor to Linux, I will admit. Many app installations have required me to use the terminal instead of the clear GUI interface that Windows users feel most comfortable with. But all of that is copy/pasting commands, anyway. Not like I have to memorize code or long-winded user manuals or something. Honestly, the only real frustration I’ve had is that one work client has set up a special email address for me and their security settings are odd so lots of email clients won’t even connect to it. That’s not Linux’s fault, that’s the client. But even then, I found a way around it.

Ubuntu just works, for me. Absolutely every bit as well as, if not better than, Windows 11 ever did.

I’m not going to tell anyone they should do what I did. We all have our own comfort levels with technology and our own bullshit thresholds. But I can say that I see absolutely no reason to ever move back to any Microsoft product, and if you have even the slightest tolerance for non-GUI software tinkering, you might give Ubuntu a try. It’s probably simpler than you fear, and it’s as functional as most people probably need.

The pain of Pedantry

The city I live in, Hikari, was into last year home to Yamamoto Akira, a master of chōkin metal chasing and what is known as a Living National Treadure. He passed away just over a year ago, and the city has finally managed to put together an exhibition of his work.

It’s incredible to see. Vessels of metal or lacquerware etched and inlaid with intricate designs both abstract and representative. Each one not only representing hours of painstaking with, but a lifetime of dedication to the art.

Beautiful.

The exhibit opened today and I stopped by unaware that it was the day for the media and various dignitaries to get a guided tour. I hung around the periphery, avoiding the camera and enjoying the beauty my own way.

Then, I overheard the guide talk about a piece I had yet to see, a small vessel inlaid with a “kingfisher.” She described how Yamamoto had wanted to create an image of the rare bird but couldn’t find one to use as a reference, so consulted with the head of the local birdwatcher’s association to track one down.

I was intrigued and confused. Intrigued because I love kingfishers. Confused because they’re not at all rare and it would take maybe a day to find one reliably.

When the crowd moved on, I made my way to view the piece. It was, as I feared, not a common kingfisher, kawasemi in Japanese, but a crested kingfisher, or yamasemi.

The piece was named wrong.

Yamasemi, crested kingfisher (crest lowered)

A large black and white bird with a crest and long beak perches at the tip of a bare bamboo branch. It looks out to the left. — Yamasemi (crest raised)

And that one little discrepancy damaged my enjoyment of the event. Which is silly, because it’s probably just some tiny miscommunication that has no bearing on the beauty or mastery of there piece. But man, it really bothers me. Because it’s a lovely depiction of a yamasemi, but kawasemi it ain’t.

Upcoming Translations

2026 is well under way. January has blurred by, and as February approaches I am stunned to realize that I have two translations coming out next month.

First up is a title that has probably flown under the radar for many. The Ark by Haruo Yuki is a dark mystery about a group of university friends and one hapless family trapped in a bizarre underground building after an earthquake. Not only are they in danger of drowning as water floods the building with no way out, one of their group begins murdering the others for unfathomable reasons.

This one was, if I’m honest, very difficult to translate. Not on a technical level, but on an emotional one. Translation is an act of reading. The deepest kind of reading. As a translator, I try to wring every bit of nuance out of a book, plumb the depths of every reference, and to do that I have to read the book repeatedly. And this one is bleak. Almost nihilistic. But at the same time, it is a deeply clever book, and compelling in its exploration of how people behave in the most extreme of situations.

The UK cover to The Ark by Haruo Yuki. It shows an underground passage with a ladder to the right side, rising water, and the title reading top to bottom.

I think this one will appeal particularly to hard-core mystery fans. It comes out February 12, 2026 from Pushkin Vintage Press.

And later that month comes the long awaited Strange Buildings by Uketsu. This is his third novel, and the follow-up to Strange Houses. It is an entirely new story, but once again features “The Author” and Kurihara looking into secrets hidden within floor plans. This time, the chilling mystery spreads across Japan and goes into some of the darkest places imaginable.

It really feels like a bit step up for Uketsu as an author. More ambitious, more confident, and more skillful. If you liked either of his other books, you will LOVE Strange Buildings. But do be warned: it includes frank discussion of the exploitation of women and children, and heartbreaking descriptions of child abuse.

The UK cover for Strange Buildings bu Uketsu.
A yellow background holds a crude house cutaway including many pictures of scary things, like a figure in a barred window, and a bloody knife.

Strange Buildings comes out February 26, 2026 from Pushkin Press in the UK and March 3, 2026 from HarperVia in the US.

And, of course, I have not been sitting idle in the meantime. I have two more translations underway, with another two in contract negotiations. Keep your eye on this blog for updates!

Book Review – Olyoke

Olyoke, by Vincent Endwell. Coming in March 2026.

The cover to Olyoke by Vincent Endwell. It shows a landscape with a distant town and amusement park amid green hills. In the foreground, an amorphous figure that is vaguely human floats in the sky.

This was another ARC from Tenebrous Press, which is doing lots of cool things with horror in the weird mode. Many of the books they put out fall outside my personal taste zone, but I always appreciate the creativity and drive behind them. But this one fell well within that zone.

I am going to struggle to summarize this one because it is… Nebulous. I think it qualifies as a collection of short stories, but all of the stories fit together to create a much bigger story, which is probably why Tenebrous lists it as a novel on the website. The stories are, or the novel is, all set in and talk about the town of Olyoke, built on a swamp in Tennessee, but the Tennessee is arguably not the one we know. Because things happen in Olyoke that do not happen in our world, and no one really seems to question that.

The swamp is full of gray-eyed worms and gray-eyed people who have lived there since long before. Ghosts of people who never died haunt the religious/music theme park. The men who drained swampland to build the town vanished in the night or went mad because they drank the water flowing from a mysterious girl trapped in a tree. And people in the town dream of other worlds where they have other faces, and an approaching cataclysm that is either a cleansing flame or an unstoppable titan was foretold by one of several prophets who founded cults in the town.

It is all capital-w Weird.

And it is not just the subject matter that dodges easy grasp. The way Endwell approaches the writing is squirmy, too. Things are simply left unexplained, such as who the hell “Holly” is, the subject of the theme park that dominates the town’s center. Or why the town is overrun by red-frogs, which also seem to carry a plague?

Then there is the language use. Endwell approaches language in a not-too-unusual manner, except for the (very “now”) flexibility of pronoun use, which comes across at first as quite gender-aware until you meet someone who goes by “it” who might, actually, not be a someone?

Now, I will say that things come together. There are lots of unanswered questions but they are of the sort that really don’t need answers. And the ending, as such, does not leave the reader dissatisfied so much as… In a state of wonder. Dazed, even. Because this collection, or novel, or whatever it is seems to be swirling somewhere above mere storytelling, much as the figure on the cover swirls above the world.

This was a fascinating book. An eminently readable book. And, dare I say, an enjoyable one, if a bit outre. For those who look for stories that avoid pat explanations and neatly tied-up ends, this is definitely one worth pre-ordering.

See You Around, Joe

Just so you know, there is no happy end to this post.

Near the end of September 2015, my two-almost-three-year-old son and his neighbor friend tracked down a kitten in an empty lot across the street. We’d heard him crying for a while, but hoped his mother would come get him. There were a lot of strays around, and we were used to hearing cats cry. But this one was apparently abandoned, because even after a full night, mother never came back.

So, we decided to take him in.

A kitten, white with brown patches over his ears, his mouth open in a cry. — An accurate prediction of the next ten years.

The vet we took him to for all those initial things you have to do when adopting a stray cat told us he was probably about three weeks old, and would be a big ‘un.

The vet was right. Joe grew big and robust, topping out at 7.7 kilos (almost 17 pounds). He wasn’t really fat, just a big old cat.

He was also oddly delicate. Lots of rashes, lots of stomach issues, very easily stressed into going bald.

And he could be a real asshole.

A large cat perched on the shoulder of a while man in a blue tee-shirt. The cat is looking off into the distance like he's hunting a bird that isn't there. — What an asshole

He used to demand to climb up onto my shoulders, then decide he hated being so high and would attack my head.

He could also be really loving, especially in his later years. He became my lap cat, probably because no one else’s lap in the house was big enough to curl up on.

A closeup shot POV of a while cat with brown patches over his ears. He is sitting on a white man's lap looking into the camera. — Lap Time

The past couple of months of 2025, he became particularly cuddly. He would demand lap time in the morning, crying at me until I sat on the couch with a blanket in my lap for him to curl up in. He would demand my wife hold him at night before bed.

And then, at the very end of the year, he got weak. His appetite declined. He barely drank anything. We tried all kinds of things and finally found he would lick tuna paste snacks, which we gave him as often as we could. When the vet’s office finally opened last Monday, we took him in.

The vet took one look at his pale gums and said he had bad anemia. Blood tests showed his red cell levels were dangerously low, so we rushed him to the big pet hospital. More blood tests and x-rays showed tons of problems. An enlarged heart. A tumor near his kidneys. But his blood work was the most worrying. It indicated he probably had an underlying marrow issue, but he was too weak to handle the tests to pinpoint it.

So, we had to decide if we would look for a blood donor to boost him back to levels where we could do the tests needed to consider treatment.

Which, come on. That’s not only an enormous undertaking, it would be torture for Joe. He HATED the vet. In fact, the blood tests were so stressful he passed out and had to be given oxygen. So, we knew that we were looking at the end of his life, and the terrible choice of whether to put him to sleep.

But he took that burden from us. He stopped eating entirely the next day, and the day after that, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, he curled up on a cushion in front of a warm, sunny window, and went to sleep. My wife, my son, and I were there with him. We told him he was loved. We thanked him. We said goodbye. We wept. We weep.

God, I miss my buddy. But I am so glad we got to have lap time almost to the very end.

Love you, Joe. See you on the other side.

A closeup shot of a while cat with brown patches over his ears. He is looking into the camera. — September 2015 – January 2026. Rest in peace, buddy.