Recent content on Longest Voyage
I came across a video from Jared Henderson on an online sentiment that new books are not as good as the old ones. He touches on a few ideas on why he thinks this idea is going around. One of his points was discussing the sheer volume of books. Even if the increasing ISBN volume per year is misleading, it is still a large amount of words to read and we have a discovery problem. Last month, Rebecca…
There’s something about knowledge and understanding that is fascinating. With all the technology at our disposal, knowledge is readily available. But understanding is not. I think of math classes in school where I felt this the most. Because there was a score tied with how well I could grasp the concept of the week. Learning the steps alone did not make it click in my head. Some concepts…
I got an email this week from my online Japanese school that I’ve been learning from for the last 4 or so years. I had taken a class from the head teacher years ago and at the end of it, she started up a more formal company. Recruiting more teachers and setting up a variety of classes. I joined pretty much right away. Did a few different classes from a JLPT class to group conversation…
I recently started an oil painting class. For many different reasons. One is getting a hobby off of the computer. Get away from the screen. Out of the apartment. Another is more Japanese practice. It’s a small art school. They do not speak English at all. My work environment since moving to Japan has been mostly in English speaking bubbles 1 . This is a great way for me to force the practice…
Heads up: rambling related to LLMs On some weekends, some of my siblings are hanging out on discord so I am able to see them on and message them. Sometimes they’ll be sharing a game that they’re playing and some other friends may watch or just hang out in the chat. It’s fun to pop in and say hi. The time difference with Japan and US is pretty big. Often I am doing something in…
It’s starting to get back into warmer temperatures here already. Which means getting sick from temperature jumps, but get to hear a group of guys sing Backstreet Boyss in the park. Weekend adventure to another cafe We checked off another cafe off our list. This one had a lovely rounded high ceiling. All wood inside. Super cosy. The place had been in business for over 40 years. They have a…
We bought this little book of cafes in our region. The region is big enough that some of them are still an hour or two away if we were to take a bus or train to get to them. Luckily, this book highlighted some within walking distance from us. I felt good knowing I had already been to one of them. Yesterday we went through the book and picked one near by. We might do one further out next week. The…
At some point I made this mental connection that tummy rumbling sounds kinda like a frog. And your stomache is kind of a bag. My wife and I find this amusing. The frogs in our belly. When we are sitting on the couch discussing dinner, “Ah, Mr. Frog says it’s time to start cooking.” On our lazier weekend mornings we’ll be cuddling in bed wondering if it’s time to wake…
I woke up unmoving for a while. I should work out. Go to the gym. Maybe if I do it tomorrow it’ll fit the 3-days-a-week routine better. Monday-Wednesday-Friday. It’s better to do it tomorrow. But I get up anyways. Later than I normally like to go to the gym. I am already late. Wonder how many people are already there. Are the benches all taken already? Maybe.. Just maybe it’s…
I flew back home for Thanksgiving. Wife was not able to join me this time, but it was good to be able to see the family. It was a good chaotic time as it always is. I had my fill of egg nog, which I had attempted to make a week or two before and it came out more like bad pudding. Most of the house managed to get sick the week of Thanksgiving including me. I did manage to hit a lot of the good…
The weather cooling down has been fantastic, but we are in the next season. When we open our windows it’s there. We go on walks and it’s just everywhere. Next to our garbage bin, houses are lined with it. It’s stinky season. And it’s my favorite. Our house plants are doing well. We grew some mini-tomatos, but a lot of them turned red while they were too mini. It’s…
Some of my family came to visit. Their first time to Japan. I think we knocked out all the main food things to get. Sushi, ramen, okonomiyaki, sakura mochi, taiyaki. I was able to take the week off during their visit. Family feet looking at the feet of Tokyo Tower It was a good time. Lots of catching up. My pinky toe blistered halfway through the week from all the walking. Lots of touristy things,…
“They just say that because they want it all to themselves.” My friend explained as he pours himself a cup. At the time, no one else our age was drinking coffee, but he loved it. The doubious claims we were told about it stunting your growth didn’t stop him from drinking it. But the flavor immediately killed it for me. I preferred my chocolate milk. Thinking back on it.…
I wrote at the end of last year about doing some cleanup on my feeds. I had the new years break to try and get used to the various timeboxing plugins. To be honest, I have been having a hard time doing it well. I have that lingering habit to start typing in a website when I get a tingling of boredom. I found another person attempting this on Mastodon. They likened it to quiting smoking. I…
Lots of discussions about social media going on lately. A failing of the tech industry that most people find it easiest to be on giant cruise ship. And then jump to another cruise ship once the buffet starts giving people food poisoning. Tech industry failed to make it easier for everyone to use sailboats. Ranting metaphor aside, I do think there’s a lot of value in owning your own space. At…
Taking the new year holiday to try and prepare for the upcoming year. Trying to review the last year and figure out where I’d like to do something different. I am going through my social media feeds and trying to konmari 1 as much as I can. Being selective on people with good signal to noise. Removing people who are (often quite understandably) reacting to something frustrating, rage…
Phew, made it to the end of the year! Just gotta do keep doing that. I went through my previous posts from the year. Completely forgotten what I’ve written about, but catching up was (un)fortunately easy because I posted way less than I thought. I didn’t quite do super well on the “writing” portion of my “paint, read, write more” goal. But I do feel I am still…
The end of Summer is so close. We have a few days forcasted to be popping back into 30°c this week, but overall we’ve dropped down to the point where we can go outside without regret. We escaped out to Karuizawa to visit some friends. Karuizawa is a bit of a resort town. About an hour north of Tokyo. It’s an absolutely beautiful area filled with trees and views. And is cooler than…
Been having a lot of moments lately where I sit down to do something creative and I can’t manage to get anything down. I try to at least spend a few minutes to see if I can get over that initial hump of getting started. But that hasn’t been working. Routine has been particularly helpful for me. Until my environment or schedule gets knocked around. I would do something for months, but…
Wrote this and realized it fits well in this months IndieWeb Carnival . Go check out what some other bloggers are talking about in response to the “tools” prompt. Anna has a recent post on the ephemerality of digital . I grew up spending way too much time on the computer. In my mind, putting things on paper was the way for it to get lost. My parents seemed to like to moving houses as I…
Going to talk about the Lord of the Rings books and Moonbound by Robin Sloan. The blurb on Moonbound mentions how the books feel like a mixture of Tolkein, Terry Pratchett, Ursela K. Le Guin. And it’s pretty much that. If you enjoy those authors and looking for a sci-fi fantasy, it’s worth checking out. Here’s your warning that I will be talking about details in this post that…
When you’re learning a foreign language. There’s difficulty in finding the right content to learn from. If it’s too hard and you’re looking up things too often. You can’t really absorb the content. The just-right and too-easy cases both have a common problem of: you start reading and realize you’re not interested in the content. I feel like this hits me for…
Golden week finished up a few weeks ago. A good time to reset and enjoy some hobbies and explore. S and I checked out a few stations near where we’re looking to move to something this year. Trying to find something further out from central Tokyo. Hoping for cheaper rent 1 . Even though it’s further out, the area is actually a bit more lively than our current station. It’s a…
I am a pretty big fan of working from home. But I am accumulating that “I need to get out more” feeling. S and I have gotten into our routines. And going out is generally not in that routine. A lot available to us in Tokyo, but huge crowds are also included in that “a lot”. It’s a huge amount of energy to wade through it. You end up tuning out while going through it.…
Trying to keep on the reading, writing, and painting focus for the year. I have a hard time right now doing extra hobbies during the week. I have been mentally drained from work to do much of anything afterwards. But I’ve gotten a tiny bit of painting done lately. An orange/citrus/yuzu looking fruit. A strawberry. It's so wild how your mind sees the painting differently as you're doing it. I…
This is my IndieWeb Carnival post . The main focus of the carnival is to motivate people to write on their personal sites. Each month a different blogger hosts the carnival and they decide a theme. This month is hosted by Manu and if you haven’t guessed from the title the theme is “digital relationships”. – My real introduction to the internet was Neopets. We got non-dial…
During the holidays my uncle slipped while ice skating and Christmas eve a hospital trip. He’s doing fine now. At the time, my mom not really sure how to feel about the news mentions: You know you’re getting old when people stop laughing when you fall. To which I grabbed my mothers hand, looked her in the eyes, and said: Mom, I’ll always laugh when you fall. I still haven’t…
Arrived back in Japan after a quick holiday trip to the US. It was a wonderful time with the friends and family. I checked off a lot from the “I want to eat this when I get back” list 1 . My partner was able to put more faces to names and vice versa. The family back home is working hard and persevering through tough challenges. But they’re also filling it up with laughter and love. I…
Train line near Kichijoji Winnie and her partner have been making their way through Japan. Starting from Fukuoka and working their way east. It’s been fun seeing her blog entries and photos. In one of her posts, Winnie talks about the stimulation she gets by traveling: I had this epiphany (or re-epiphany) today on why I am less depressed when I travel. Apart from the obvious dopamine hits…
The western corner of Tokyo feels nothing like the concrete sprawl of its city. First time we went was sometime early last year . After several trips, we’re slowly forming a routine. Hike for a bit, get back to Okutama station, have some fish and chips and craft beers while we chat about the mushroom ladies 1 . For the route that we often hike, the question is now: do we start at the lake or…
We finally had a day that wasn’t miserably hot. But that was due to a typhoon. The morning was blasting rain. Shops were closed down. People largely sheltering inside. I am on my way with very wet pants to the dentist. Trying to be tactical with my umbrella usage to not ruin my partners nice umbrella. The rain raged through and calmed down by the time my teeth had been cleaned. Just a…
Few years ago 1 , I would be really quick to join any community that seemed even remotely interesting. Dozens of forums, websites, etc. If it had anything that was remotely adjacent to my interests I would sign up. I was only ever deeply connected to a very small number of them, but I would be quick to join. You’d make friends over time with other members. Play games with them. It was a good…
At some point I became a morning person. Maybe not necessarily socialable, but I am getting up and moving around by 6:30 or so. This week I started using some of that morning time to begin running again. Thinking by starting in August it’ll only get more comfortable as the weather cools down. So I wake up and immediately go for my run. My eyes are still struggling to open, but I am out the…
I came across a blog post highlighting a Japanese watercolor painter, Yoko Tada, who is getting a collection of works published. Yoko Tada is 100 years old. They started painting when they were in their 80s. I am still quite far away from my 80s (for now). But I love hearing stories like this. It’s refreshing to hear about. There’s so many stories of artists, musicians, and even…
This will probably be scattered and uninteresting, but I wanted to write about a few things since it’s been a portion of my time this last year or so. Before moving to Japan, I attempted the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The levels have changed over the years, but basically it goes from N5 as the lowest to N1 being the heighest. No idea why they prepend the N to it. Also, no…
At the beginning of May, Japan has a string of holidays that cluster together. At some point in time this became to be known as “Golden Week”. From what I understand, the name came about due to some movie company making extra money during the string of holidays. Then eventually became a marketing campaign and the name landed like Christmas Chicken 1 . We didn’t really have much…
There’s something about the cold air at night in Tokyo. It’s not every night, but there’s a sort of fragrance. It comes like the smell before rain or snow. Often mixes with the smell of cooking fish, sesame oil, or garlic as you walk down quiet residential streets. It feels nostalgic, but I can’t really tie the smell to any interesting event. It brings me comfort, but I…
Winter felt like it came late this year. My hometown got some icy weather, while all the chances of snow I had in Tokyo ended up not happening. Early morning Shimokitazawa before almost any shop is open. Many stores in Japan open rather late. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the cold weather, but I’ve been exhausted these last few weeks. S and I have been having extra busy…
In November, I visited back home for the first time in nearly three years. It was a short two week trip. I visited very few friends and spent the rest of my time either working remotely or spending time with family. It was so incredibly good to see the family. The usual passage of time things that slip by you when you stop looking: the niece and nephews getting bigger. But had a few internal…
Writing’s great. It’s a great example of easy to start, hard to master. Almost any device has some amount of capability to write on it. If you need a lower bar then you can go to paper and pen 1 . Then dropping even lower you can use the bar itself and write in the dirt. But I don’t have any credibility to “talk about writing”. I’ve read a couple of books about…