Hi, my name is Raymond Kaya, 嘉屋レイモンド in Japanese and 카야 레이몬드 in Korean. I live in Honolulu, Hawaii.
My formal education was in science and mathematics. However, after graduating, I worked at various unrelated jobs, eventually gravitating more and more toward accounting-related work. As for accounting, I was told that I was good at what I was doing, but I honestly didn't find the work interesting or rewarding. In the pre-personal computer days, I actually moved between office and manual labor jobs several times. This pattern began changing with the advent of personal computers in the office.
My first direct experience with computers was as an accounting assistant at a small European bakery. We used a CP/M machine with the SuperCalc spreadsheet program installed. Without the benefit of today's user-friendly tutorials and videos, I relied on the manuals bundled with the machine to learn enough to get started. I began creating my own spreadsheets and, among other things, eventually converted their fixed tables of dough recipes to a flexible format based on the target weight of the dough.
When I worked at a tire company, I learned to program by first debugging software written in interpreted BASIC by a local computer consultant. Soon I purchased my own computer and studied various programming languages on my own—PASCAL, C, some 8088 assembly language—and finally settled on Modula-2. I assisted in porting the data from CP/M to MS-DOS, then later converted the software from BASIC to Modula-2.
In my free time at home, I wrote various utilities to test the limits of my programming. I uploaded various DOS utilities as freeware to CompuServe, GEnie, and local bulletin boards in Hawaii.
When I started work at a local tug and barge company, I moved away from coding (reinventing the wheel) by utilizing FoxPro, a popular database program, to manage data. I made it a point to input all tug movements along with revenue and expenses, and over time, I was able to answer many of the VP's questions and generate custom reports on demand.
It was during this period that I heard of Reiki, a form of energy healing. I learned that a Reiki Master was leading a group of practitioners performing group treatments. I arranged to attend one of these sessions and received a sample treatment. To understand better, I decided to take the First Degree class and began practicing with that group. Soon Reiki became a sort of obsession, influencing how I viewed things and changing my priorities. Not long afterward, I took the Second Degree class. I realized that my thinking—my approach to Reiki—was different from my teacher's. I began seeking answers on my own.
I combined programming with Reiki to create a website which I called "ReikiLinks." It hosted a page I wrote, Overview of Reiki, which outlined my thoughts on Reiki. In addition, I created a directory of Reiki practitioners from all over the world. I also added a forum where Reiki practitioners could exchange ideas. Using these connections, I learned how other practitioners viewed and practiced Reiki. I made new acquaintances as individuals found my personal Reiki page. After I became a Reiki Master, students began entering my life, teaching me as much as, or more than, I ended up teaching them.
I actively taught for about four years, and in the meantime, other aspects of my life were changing. People once close to me moved away or moved on. My priorities changed, and I lost touch with my former Reiki students and my Reiki friends. Several years passed.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when I joined Facebook. Then, after much trial and error, I created a couple of Facebook Groups, "Hawaii World LEN" and "Korean LEN." However, I soon felt that Facebook was too rigid, too controlling, for someone like me. I liked what I heard about Bluesky, so I joined. I am much more relaxed and comfortable here. I recreated the concepts of the former Facebook Groups as Bluesky profiles:
For the last several years, I have been working in the nonprofit sector, so I created the following, which has no direct relationship to either my current or former employer:
Here's my personal profile at Bluesky, where I post about whatever happens to interest me at the moment, along with updates and observations that don't necessarily fit into one of my topic-specific profiles:
I also maintain a LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/rklen, which summarizes my professional background, employment history, and education.
I am active as a Yelp user: Raymond K. I use Yelp to learn about restaurants, services, and other businesses that interest me. After visiting them myself, I often write reviews based on my own experiences and point of view.
It's because I'm aware of myself now, as separate from anyone else, that I can't imagine a world without my consciousness.
Realistically, in the literal sense, I know the world, the universe, existed before I was born. But at what point did my consciousness begin? And where will it end?