• Overnight Oats Philosophy

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    We all have booms in our life. Periods where we get really into something. My current boom is overnight oats. "Ugh, an entire blog post about  oats, pass!", I hear you say, but stay with me.

    Why overnight oats? They're easy for one. I spend 2 minutes each night and breakfast is ready in the morning. Buying some pop-tarts would be even quicker, so it's not about the time. It's more than that. 

    Overnight oats perfectly encapsulate some life tenants.

    Take it Slow

    You can't make overnight oats without time. It's right there in the name. Life is the same. All around us – society, the media, entertainment, they all encourage us to rush. Don't miss out! Final sale! Get  yours before it's all gone.

    But I don't care. Embrace "missing out". Final sale? They've had a "going out of business" sale for the last 3 years. Takin' a while, innit? They got theirs? Good for them. I didn't need or want it anyways.

    Keep it easy

    Overnight oats are easy. Put some oats and milk into a container, cover it, and whack it into the fridge. Done. Life should be the same – keep it easy. This doesn't mean to be lazy and don't challenge yourself. Rather, take those hard things, put systems so they become your default and easy.

    It's hard to keep trim (still working on that) when you have a house full of unhealthy snacks tempting you. Easy is stocking healthy foods in a way so they're accessible when you need a snack.

    Make healthy easy and healthy will become your default.

    Keep it whole

    Making oats I'm able to control and pick exactly what goes into them. Organic oats, (almond) milk, organic chia seeds, organic cacao, some honey or (real) maple syrup. All things that our bodies have been eating for hundreds of years. As much as possible, we should prefer food to be as whole as possible. 

    It's not a breakfast cereal or supermarket bread with gums and pastes and powders to make it ship and store well on a shelf. It's not a lie.

    For my 38th revolution around the earth I hope to continue being like my overnight oats: Slow, easy, and whole.

  • Checkin to Verve Coffee Roasters

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    in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
    Enjoying a birthday coffee time at Verve. Smells amazing as they’re roasting coffee in house. 😋 ☕️ (Ice for me as it’s 33 out)

  • Response to London Sunrise

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    This weekend, I attended the State of the Browser conference in London, an event run by the London Web Standards community. I stayed in the city for a few days to attend the event. One of the highlights of my trip, aside from the delightful and engaging
    London sunrises are something else. I enjoyed them running in London a while back. Especially near Big Ben.
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    Morning Run
    20 degrees out. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Went for a run rather than fix a bug in Tanzawa.

    5.0km

    35.4min

    40.4m climbed

    165.8avg bpm

  • The Week #169

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    • 🍂 Autumn suddenly arrived this week. One day the low was 25 and the high was 33. The next day the low was 19 and the high was 27. This summer was very long and we didn't have but one typhoon to bring some relief from the heat. Very very glad it's over.
    • 🏄‍♂️ We visited the Enoshima area for the first time since...March. Leo and I splashed a bit in the still warm water. Afterwards we all went to the aquarium to check out the sharks. Despite us visiting on a regular basis over the years, I don't think we've ever looked slowly at the entire aquarium...it's always a bit of a rush.
    • 🚟 As we walked to ride the monorail home we saw a homeless person. Leo didn't see him. But as we got close, he said "kusai" (stinking/smelly) aloud. After we crossed the street, Leo got small talking to about learning to think things without saying them and that not everyone has a home to go home to each night and not everyone can take a bath every day. He seemed like he understood.
    • 🏮 Our local shrine took out the mikoshi for the first time in since 2019. The last time they did it was actually the day we moved in to our house. Along the road leading to the shrine is a small festival with games and food.
      Vendors selling food on the road leading to the shrine

      We bought some yaki-soba (stir fried noodles), tako-yaki (octopus balls), and some cotton candy. Leo's wanted to try cotton candy for a while so he was very excited to try it. A surprise to no one, he's a fan.
      Father and son making tako-yaki
    • 🎶 I made a great batch of Mexican style pinto beans and found a new favorite YouTuber, ArnieTex. His channel focuses a lot on cooking the food I used to eat in Texas. Why the music note emoji, you ask? I  taught Leo a song that every kid should know about beans*. You know the one, it goes something like:

      Beans, beans the magical fruit.
      The more you eat, the more you toot.
      The more you toot, the better you feel.
      That's why we eat beans at every meal.

      And I'm quite happy / proud to say that he's memorized it and sings it too me a couple of times a day. His small grammatical mistakes are also cute. I kinda like his version "The more you toot, the better the feel".

      * I also learned there's a version where first two lines are "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you fart" from a co-worker. They'd never heard the magical fruit version and I'd never heard the heart version.
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