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The Week #62
by James- This week was my last week at BP. I spent it heads down trying to get one last (part) of a project completed and while I didn't get it polished, I was able to get the basics completed. Literally merged about an hour before I finished. It's nice to have a few weeks free and clear without between gigs.
- 15 minutes after I finished, I had an on-boarding call with my employer of record (basically my actual legal employer until Octopus gets an entity in Japan), going over paperwork requirements to get fully signed up. It was nice to chat with them. The call itself was mostly in Japanese, but everyone on the call speaks English, so it was interesting to hear word replacement here and there.
- Covid cases continue their decline and Leo's school was canceled until the end of the month. His school seems to be on the more cautious side of this, as not all schools are canceling in our area. The teachers have a 40-minute zoom activity each day, but Leo has zero interest. It's too much stress (for both of us) just to try and get him to watch or dance with it all, so I think we'll be skipping them.
Assuming the state of emergency isn't extended beyond Sept. 30th and he goes back to school as per usual starting in October, I'm a bit concerned it's going to be a big struggle each morning again. - There's a local farmer's market(?) nearby where local producers can bring their veg for sale. The back wall has the names of photos of the farmers who sell their produce there. I took Leo there with the bike and bought veg that isn't usually in the local co-ops like red bell peppers (not sweet ones, same flavor as the green ones, just red) and butternut squash, as well as some super fresh leaks (negi) that still have moist looking dirt on them. Cutting the negi and it was so fresh it kinda oozed like when you cut some aloe vera to treat a sunburn.ย
Best of all, it's helping me live up to my values better by consuming more food that's made locally in my city, rather than some nameless farm in hokkaido or tochigi or even abroad.
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Technology I Use
by JamesComputer Setup
My main computer is a mid-2014 15" Macbook Pro with a 2.8Ghz Intel i7 CPU, 16GB ram, and 512GB SSD hard drive. It got a fresh battery back in January so it should be good for another few more years.
I do feel the limits of it occasionally, but not often. As it's been a while since I've gotten a new computer, I am getting the urge to replace or augment it. If I replace it outright, it would probably be with another Mac, Thinkpad, or a Frame.work.
If I were to replace it with a desktop, it would probably be a used Mini PC coming off lease from some business. But since I mostly use my personal laptop from the kitchen table (not my home office), I'd need to remote into the desktop most of the time. But I'm not sure I'd do that.Home Server
I have a 2012 MacMini with 16GB of ram acting as a home media server. I got it from my brother and the clips that hold the ram in are broken / missing (I have no idea how). So it's using a broken cd-r (as is how I received it) to create pressure to keep them in place.
This server also runs mac OS and is hooked up to my ScanSnap and a Drobo withย 14TB of storage. Since it redundant, only half is actually usable. As is, it'ss fairly under-utilized with just Plex and iTunes. Maybe spending time on r/SelfHosting could improve that. If I were to get a new Mini computer, it would likely be replacing both my laptop and my home server.
Work SetupI've been working remotely / working from home for all but 2 years of the past decade. I've always kept my work setup separate from my home setup in that period. Currently my work computers are provided by my employer and they're generally the latest MacBookPro that's refreshed every 3 years.- Keyboard: Happy Hacking Lite2 USB with a US layout
- Headphones: Airpods on mobile.ย Sony MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm at my desk.
- Mouse: Magic Trackpad and a random Microsoft Optical mouse
- Webcam/Microphone: Built in. (I really should upgrade this)
- Monitor: Dell U2720QM 27 inch 4K
Software- Operating System: macOS Catalina at home, BigSur at work. Ubuntu on my servers.
- Browsers: Firefox
- Terminal: Terminal.app / iTerm2
- Code Editor: PyCharm / emacs
- Music: Plex / YouTube
Phone
iPhone XR (Yellow, 64GB)Watch
Apple Watch (Series 5)Site Technology
This site is powered by Tanzawa, an open source blogging engine I started building about a year ago. Tanzawa is built with Python/Django with a splashes of Javascript (Stimulus) for the maps. Mapping is powered by Leaflet.js. -
Response to
by JamesCurating a set of RSS feeds is like stepping away from the agoras and finding a little cafรฉ, somewhere to sit and watch from a distance, to gather the words of the other patrons. Somewhere familiar where we recognise the regulars. We might never interact beyond a nod of appreciation but, in our own way, we come to know these people or, at least, what they allow us to know.
This is such a good way to think of RSS. Your RSS reader is your neighborhood coffee shop.
There really is something magical about being able to connect with people over time on the web that's separate from the noise machines. -
Response to
by JamesThe more I think and write about tech, the more I'm convinced that the tech doesn't really matter all that much without the correct mindset. If people are not having more interesting and profound interactions online, it is not for lack of tools. It's for lack of good intentions.
For as long as there's been the internet there's been "poor" interactions online. Humans, at least part of the time, find a way to argue some of the time.ย
The correct mindset can help you have better interactions online. But keeping the correct mindset is quite difficult when you're up against an algorithm that optimizes to keep you enraged and anxious.
The tech absolutely matters, but only in so much as it allows unadulterated communications and community. You can't find that on the big social networks without really trying hard, but you can find that on the IndieWeb. -
by Jamesไปๆฅใฏ@beproud_jpใงใฎๆ็ตๆฅใงใใใๆฌๅฝใซ่ฏใไผ็คพใๅๅใๅชใใใฆ่ฏใ๏ผๅนดๅใงใใใ่ฒใ ใใใใจใใใใใพใ๐๐ป๐ปใ ๆฐๅๅคๅใฎๅ้กใๅใ่พผใใใใๆฅๆใใ@OctopusEnergyใซๅ ฅ็คพใใพใใ๐
Today was my last day at BeProud. It is a really great company. My co-workers were really nice, it was a good 4.5 years. Thank you for everything๐๐ป๐ป. I'm joining Octopus Energy next month to help combat climate change. ๐ -
by JamesSo many posts I want to reply to on my blog, not enough time to sit and write a reply.ย Will have to setup some drafts so I don't forget.
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๐ Climate action cannot wait for pandemic to end, medical journals warn
by JamesGlobal warming is already affecting people's health so much that emergency action on climate change cannot be put on hold while the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, medical journals across the globe warned on Monday. โHealth is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of theโฆ
Should be common sense that we canโt wait any longer. Hard to believe that heat related among those over 65 is up over 50% in the last 20 years.- Tagged with
- climate change
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The Week #61
by James- Grocery deliver is quite common in Japan (and has been for a while). We've had a weekly delivery of the basics for years, mostly since Leo was born to help us save time and ensure we always have something in the house. Due to an a couple of cases of covid in their distribution our vegetable order was canceled. Fair enough, it happens, no big deal.
That combined with Fraser's post got me got me thinking about vegetable delivery, again. Besides grocery, some farmers will actually send you a weekly box of whatever is in season for a set price. I could get more local produce and perhaps more importantly, more variety, too. - It's been raining all week (again). But with the rain also brought consistently cool temperatures in the low 20's. It's been fantastic.
- Leo is becoming more like me each day and it's kinda fun. On Sunday he looked outside and said (albeit in Japanese), "Hey look, it stopped raining. We could take our bike to the coffee shop. Let's go ride our bikes to the coffee shop".ย I was thinking the same thing.
- But rather than another trip to Starbucks we went and picked up proper Vietnamese food.ย I haven't anything beyond the occasional pho since we moved to Japan, as there just aren't that many restaurants. Houston has a large Vietnamese population, so the food is everywhere and we'd get it quite often. So good and, man did I miss it.
- JR announced they're retiring the double-decker Shinkansen. I've only ridden the Shinkansen a couple of times and rode this particular train a few years ago on an employee travel trip to Niigata.ย I think it may be the only double decker bullet train? Either way it's an end of an era.
- For Leo's second birthday I got him a talking Woody doll. A few months after he got it, he threw it and a wire came loose inside. I thought I could fix it if I soldered that wire back, but unfortunately I either botched the job or something else is broken. YouTube is full of videos fixing them, so it seems to be a common problem. I wish I had taken it to the Disney store when it first broke.
- With Leo's school canceled for another week, I had to watch him on Monday. After his 40 minutes of zoom pre-school (which they're doing great, especially given the difficult circumstances) we went on a good loop riding the monorail and enoden. We had good luck and managed to see a limited express while on the Shonan-Shinjuku line, rode an Olympic wrapped mono-railed, saw the blue and green style Enoden trains, and rode the new Odakyu train. Only on the subway did the driver close the shades so Leo couldn't watch out - but I imagine that's because of the glare from the lights making it difficult to see while driving.
- Grocery deliver is quite common in Japan (and has been for a while). We've had a weekly delivery of the basics for years, mostly since Leo was born to help us save time and ensure we always have something in the house. Due to an a couple of cases of covid in their distribution our vegetable order was canceled. Fair enough, it happens, no big deal.
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Checkin to Enoshima Station (EN06) (ๆฑใๅณถ้ง )
300 series.
