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Checkin to London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Long ass flight -
Checkin to ANA LOUNGE
Off to LHR ๐ฌ๐ง. Had me curry but forgot to take a photo. -
The Week #316
by James- ๐ Before bed each night we read to Leo. This week we started having reading time where we all read together for 10 - 15 minutes before we read to him. After a couple of weeks, we finished reading Matilda. I haven't read the book since I was in the 5th grade and mostly relied on the movie/play for my recollections of the story, but it did end differently than the movie. (Spoiler alert!) Not by a huge amount, but they did not have the adoption papers ready to go.
- โบ๏ธ I tried to sell the tent and failed, but not because of a lack of trying. The company that I'm selling it to sends you a box, you put the tent in the box, then Sagawa comes and picks it up the next day or so. The large box was said to be a rectangle that would fit the tent and a bit. However, the box that arrived was a smaller square box. Thankfully I could send them a message on LINE and get a new box ordered, but I won't be able to actually sell the tent until next month when I'm back from a trip.
- โ๏ธ I watched a video about Global Village Coffee House, the name of 90's esthetic that was everywhere e.g. Starbucks etc... and it made me feel like it's ready for a revival. With all of the stupid things happening everywhere, how nice would it be to get a coffee, sit on some comfortable seating, and think about us as the global village that we are. So good, right?
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The Week #315
by James- ๐ Summer vacation started with a 3-day weekend in Japan (Marine Day). We spent the half of the day in Kamakura. Blue Bottle opened a new cafe in area so we decided to pop in for an iced beverage and some reading time. Afterwards while wondering around looking for lunch we went to Muji Cafe for the first time. Looking back, this visit really speaks gentrification of Kamakura, especially on the komachi dori side of things...but also the spaces were big and easy to get seating at.
- ๐ I finished reading Getting Things Done and continue to stick with it. I think it's helping me get a lot things done (imagine that?) that have sat on the back burner for far too long because I'd remember them when I couldn't action them, then forget when I had the time to actually do it. Silly things like store the winter clothes properly or selling the tent. And also the not so silly things like organizing the futon closest downstairs, which has been a place I try to close the doors and not think about because I didn't know where to start. In recent years he wrote a team version, which I am looking forward to reading next.
- ๐โโ๏ธ I made my two runs for the week and it's far too hot to run. Even at night the heat and humidity don't stop. Even going slow you start off fine, but by the end of the 30 minutes a single bottle of Aquarius isn't enough.
- ๐ป I went for beers with one of the foreigner dads in Leo's class. It was a lot of fun to be able to build some relationships outside of work, but also especially in Leo's school. I wish I had done this sooner. We're going to get together again this summer after we both do our trips out of Japan.
- ๐ต I found this banger of a set inside a dry cleaners in LA. I'm loving this trend of just DJing from wherever.
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by JamesMonday Activity
Even in darkness the suffering continues ๐ฅต. 31c 70% humidity 8pm. At least this should make autumn runs feel easy in comparison.4.4km
32.5min
14.2m climbed
avg bpm
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Checkin to MUJI com
Lunch ๐ -
Checkin to BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE KAMAKURA CAFE (ใใซใผใใใซใณใผใใผ ้ๅใซใใง)
Enjoying a cold brew in this heat. -
The Week #314
by James- ๐ฏ Using OmniFocus and GTD has really helped me get more organized at work and at home. Things I would continually forget, remember, tell myself I'll do in 10 minutes, then subsequently forget about are actually getting done. It's been really good.
One area that I think it's a game changer for me at work is being able to explicitly track waiting for/delegated tasks with dates. Not that I couldn't do this before by writing notes or adding things to calendars, but I can create a custom perspective (effectively a custom query) of all tasks in the system and show them...then they appear along side my tasks in the forecast / the tagged items so I can follow up more consistently. - โ๏ธ Japan's infamous summer heat has finally shown up. We're still on the more mild end in Yokohama/Tokyo, but 92% humidity is 92% humidity.
- ย ๐ฎโ๐จ We had one of those rough days going to school that we haven't had in the past few months. I can't believe every day was like that. I know it's about more than just school, but I can't help but wonder if an environment like an international school would be better for the boy...
- ๐ฏ Using OmniFocus and GTD has really helped me get more organized at work and at home. Things I would continually forget, remember, tell myself I'll do in 10 minutes, then subsequently forget about are actually getting done. It's been really good.
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The Week #313
by James- ๐ฟ We saw Toy Story 5 in English. What a film, perhaps my favorite one yet? The writers really do hit the nail on the head about the challenges that parenting in the world of prolific screens provides. How do you balance between keeping your kid engaged with the real world and socialising with their friends (when a lot of that starts to happen online). And when every kid is a dopamine addicted iPad kid...how do you find that balance? (The answer is enforced boundaries, but that gets harder and harder to enforce as they get older and cleverer and you're tried).ย I know I'll hold out on connected tech for as long as feasible.
- โ๏ธ I've felt a bit like my brain has been all over the place. Work. Home. All the tasks popping into my head all the time. As fate would have it, Tim Ferris had David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done and reposted it this week in episode 873. I am not a regular listener to his podcast, but it seemed wildly appropriate. Almost the algorithm has made the leap to mine directly from my head (though it's just plain ol' RSS).
This in turn encouraged me to re-read Getting Things Done. It's been 20 years since I read it and, my life wasn't nearly complex enough back then to really need it. And it's been like an epiphany. Still early days (and I haven't finished re-reading it), but having a single inbox for all things is helping my mind relax. And that's because everything is in one place, rather than split across Slack reminder me later, Obsidian, written down somewhere, or in my inbox. If there's something I need to do, I add it to.... - ๐ป OmniFocus 4. The last time I tried OmniFocus in an attempt to start GTD, I was too cheap to go on all in and thought I could manage with just the iPhone app. Needless to say, when most of your work occurs at desk, it's suboptimal to need to reference your phone each time. Now a single license works across platforms, so it's easier to add all the things in the moment.
The app itself, I am still getting used to, but it's made me remember an era of macOS history that is gone. You know the one. Back when every app was native and they were crafted for the platform, not web apps bolted into a wrapper. What a breath of fresh air.
