• The Week #261

    by
    • ๐Ÿฆƒ I strolled a in a long park area in downtown Yokohama and to my surprise there was this guy walking chickens and a turkey. What's more is that after their walk along the river, he corralled them into a doggie-stroller, with the turkey perched on the handle. And he spoke to them like they were dogs and they listened. The entire time I thought where on earth do these birds live, there's nothing but high rises around here. I could have asked, but instead decided to enjoy the mystery.
    • ๐Ÿซ I watched the BlackBerry movie and really enjoyed it. It made me (again) a bit nostalgic for a time when life wasn't ruled by a rectangular glass handheld. And I'm not the only one. Gen-Z is also wants a BlackBerry.
    • ๐Ÿซ We went to see where one of the international schools we are considering is located. Not that a map isn't sufficient, but is a commute to it realistic. In this case, I think it is (primarily as it's on the way to my office). It might mean me commuting into the office everyday, which would be an adjustment, but as there's good reason, not unwelcome. I reckon it would also require a more structured morning routine on my part, but again, sometimes a forcing function is good.

  • The Week #260

    by
    • ๐ŸŽฎ We went to a trial lesson? demo? of an "eSports" after-school program that's based around Minecraft. Basically for an hour each week kids gather and (along with the teacher) plan what they're going to build, present it, build it and so on. There's also opportunity for group work where they have a vision of what to build and figure out how to divide the work and build. I can see it teaching a lot of useful skills. We're not going to join, but the idea itself was pretty neat.
    • โ˜€๏ธ It's allegedly the middle of the rainy season in Kanto. And yet, last week it was bright blue skies and 35 degrees out. Each year I remember how miserable summer is because you can't go out and do anything. I need to find more hobbies around the house that aren't sitting in front of a screen....
    • โ›ฐ๏ธ I started on a new branch on Tanzawa over the weekend. For what? Comments. I'd like to have experiment with having comments directly on my blog, rather than relying on replies from social media or webmentions. No idea when it will be ready, but hopefully not too long as I'm using a django package that does commenting. Watch this space.

  • Checkin to ๅ—่›ฎๅฑ‹ ๆน˜ๅ—ๅฐๅบ—

    by
    in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan
    Ice coffee tasting while picking up some beans. Balmy 31 out.

  • Checkin to Blue Bottle Coffee

    by
    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Taking a much needed day off. Iced latte and a lemonade.

  • The Week #259

    by
    • ๐Ÿ’” Air India Flight 171 crashed shortly after take off. Usually when these accidents happen they happen far away with people I do not know. They're always tragic, but they're "just" the news. This time was different. Maybe you guessed that when I posted at 1:30am. This time I lost a dear colleagueย  and fellow Commrade (what we call members of the Comms team at work), Heer Baxi.

      Heer was my co-captain at work, my counter part on the product side. She was smart and kind and a diligent worker. We talked most everyday. She'd get on early calls with the team and clients in APAC. Even in the most difficult situations she remained calm and positive. Her influence at Kraken went well beyond the Comms team and she was loved by clients and partners alike.

      After her trip to India we were planning on a trip to Tokyo so we could plan out our strategy for the next ~year of work. Where did the team and products need to be and how are we going to get there. 30 minute calls at the opposite end of the work day make those kinds of discussions difficult. They call for zero-lag conversations and enough time and space so that all of the dopey ideas can come out. The next few years are going to exciting and I was so looking forward to leading the group together.

      It hurts. But the support I received from my co-workers helps it hurt less. All of the hugs. Walk and talks. To steal a quote, bad things shouldn't happen to good people, and Heer is the best of people.
    • ๐ŸŽณ I thought this week's post would be just the single point above. It felt so all encompassing. But then I remembered some advice from another co-worker about handling grief and how being present in the moment and finding something you enjoy can help.

      Sunday was Father's Day. Yumi and Leo got me this sweet elastic band for my bento box which has tako-san wiener on it. It goes really well with the dark wood of my bento box.

      We went bowling first thing in the morning. Leo has gotten strong enough that he no longer needs the little slide to get the ball down the lane. He also managed to get two strikes and his pure joy and excitement when he did is something I don't want to ever forget. After bowling we went for lunch as a family at Pepita Lion (so soon again!) and I thought going a bit early would mean we don't need to wait. But turns out it's father's day and all of the other families with kids also had the same idea, so we had to wait (but only for 10 minutes).
    • ๐ŸŒ I think I've switched to Vivaldi. I'm not (yet) using it any differently than Firefox, but that day will come soon. Why? Mozilla seems to be shoving AI and random things into Firefox and it seems like they're just not focusing on making a better browser. I kinda hate that using Vivaldi gives Chrome more rendering engine dominance, but alas.
1 of 700 Next