A Doctor’s Brain, A Computer’s Renewal

Whenever I open my computer, I am bombarded with advertisements urging me to buy Windows 11, as support for Windows 10 is ending. But I hear Windows 11 has its own share of troubles. So, at the end of last year, instead of buying a new computer, I switched my OS from Windows to Linux—Zorin, to be precise. No issues at all. In fact, the system runs faster and feels refreshingly new.

Then, right at the start of the new year, my computer's battery died. Since I use it only at my desk, this was no real problem. But, as I had some Amazon points saved up and there was a New Year's sale, I decided to get myself a mini PC. It looks like a toy that fits in the palm of my hand, yet its performance is more than twice as good as the machine I had been using. Of course, I wasted no time installing Zorin on this fine little device as well.

After finishing the setup, I configured my word processor for vertical writing. I also adjusted character spacing and created templates for "Meikyo" (a newspaper column) and for composing tanka and senryu. I named the icon "Doctor Brain." Immediately, I composed a poem:

A single click—Up pops my vertical screen,But alas,Not a single verseComes to mind.

It has been a year and a half since I started working as a part-time health checkup doctor at Kensei Hospital in Hirosaki. Perhaps it is the fate of my generation—the baby boomers—to find ourselves compiling bar graphs in Excel, tracking the number of cervical cancer screenings each month. Watching the numbers grow keeps me motivated to stay active. But, as my 77th birthday approaches, I wonder—just how much longer can this old doctor keep going...?