adamcotton wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:42 pm It is worth bearing in mind that Japanese often state their family name first and their given name second, so the Costa Rican authorities may have misunderstood this.

Adam.

Though the under-60 generation has often tried to accommodate western style, which can get very confusing. Sometimes they introduce surname first, sometimes given name; some capitalize the surname, some don't. And, being Japanese and very polite they don't correct being addressed incorrectly. I've seen correspondence to VIPs as "Dear Mr. [given name]." It goes both ways though, the situation also confuses some Japanese concerning how western names are used, and when to use which name. Seems though that in general we all let it slide.

Another banana republic enforcing little laws with no environmental value.

Surely, "everyone" knows not to collect in Costa Rica without a permit, right?

It "may" be Motoaki Kinoshita, a Japanese Lep researcher. The name in the article is given as "Motoaki" which AFAIK is a given name, not a surname. Maybe a Japanese member will clarify the identity of the victim.

Well, it's been three days since 25% or so of my collection was picked up by one of the big retailers.

If I had to pick one word, it's relieved. There was a lot of very desirable but hard to find species, and I'd felt guilty about having them. Now, what he doesn't cherry pick out for himself will be made available to collectors.

Beyond that, I have to share what a dummy I am.

I'd scheduled w/ Cornell for pick-up this Wednesday.

And for weeks, I've watched my lovely lady every night and on weekends: patching, sanding, painting. Day in, day out. And finally, she's done. The walls are all refreshed, the trim moulding all painted, some of it new. Then she vacuumed the whole house, and steam cleaned the carpets. She's really knocked herself out- I mean really- she's exhausted.

Then it dawned on me.

Wednesday, the day of Cornell pickup, is the day the house gets listed for sale. Open house is Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

Now, what is the chance that in moving a whole lot of drawers through one freshened hallway, and down one steam cleaned set of stairs, that nobody bumps a wall or gets dirt on the carpet? I don't know, but it's not zero. Which would mean that I'd then have to tell me missus that we ruined her hard work the day before the open house.

That, I think you will know, would be the death of me. So I had to reach out to Cornell and ask for a postponement. Dummy.

Cabintom wrote: ↑Fri Mar 21, 2025 8:08 am About a month ago I had to urgently relocate away from Bunia. I was able to charter a Cessna Caravan out, but it was filled with our team members and other colleagues, so non-essential belongings were left behind. My collection sits there as we wait to see what will happen .

Sorry you had to depart, but I've been there and done that. Having a bag ready to go is an old method to save the most important, because there's often no warning- just grab and go.

Historically, I'd kept my collection to a 100 drawer maximum, and any excess was sent off, but I got lazy and sloppy (frankly, free time is somehow less than ever- how can that be?)

About 1/3 of it is being picked up by a well known retailer today. About 1/2 is being picked up by Cornell next week. I'll retain about 24 drawers, of which (I am PRAYING) some will be empty for future use.

This plan, I hope, satisfies several concerns: (1) it keeps me in the game, (2) it disperses my collection so that one event won't destroy my legacy, and (3) collectors like some folks here have the opportunity to get hard-to-find specimens.