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π My 90's TV!
by JamesGo back to the 1990's via this nostalgic TV simulator and relive the original ads, music videos, movie trailers, shows and more!
Really love this βtvβ that lets you flip through channels of 90βs TV. Nostalgia rules. -
The Week #160
by James- My results came in from the dermatologist and as I expected, it's a basal cell. We're going to try this chemo creme for 4 weeks and see how it reacts. 3-days a week after I shower before bed I put the creme on the spot / surrounding area, and as it's quite strong, I wash it off in the morning. I've only used it one night, but it looks like it's already clearing it up.
- An electrician came out to quote for installing an plug outside to charge our new car. While the Sakura "supports" 6kw charging, it won't ever charge faster than 3kw. Rather than "future proofing" the house with a bigger (and more expensive) setup than I can use,Β I decided to go with a regular 200V port outside.
- In more household electricity news my solar panels hit their 3rd mwh (3,000 kwh) of generation π.
- Beau Miles released a new video on YouTube, "Renovating a canoe while running a marathon". I really like his approach to life (as portrayed in his work) as it always inspire me to do more things than sit on my computer.
- Since Amazon closed down an English bookseller they bought (I forget the name...but they sold through Amazon), getting English books in a timely manner at reasonable prices has proven to be a bit more difficult. The cheap yen isn't helping matters in those regards either. Then I remembered ebooks are a thing that I've used / enjoyed in the past. I started looking at kindles (the paperwhite looks quite nice)...and while I'm tempted to buy some new shiny electronics a friend reminded me I already own a kindle. Instead I charged my 10-year old kindle and started using it. Immediately I picked up some books that I left off reading a few years ago. And since it syncs automatically, I can pickup on my phone / computer / kindle. It's great.
Then I bough a new book and remembered why I stopped using it. I've got 2 Amazon accounts: US and Japan. My kindle is associated with my US account as I bought it when I lived in the US and my regular shopping occurs from Japan. Naturally you can't merge libraries across accounts because DRM nor can you do household sharing (it doesn't exist in Amazon Japan).
My solution is to stop buying ebooks from Amazon. I returned the book unread and instead started purchasing them from Rakuten (Kobo). As is, just buying them from kobo leaves me in no better position, as their books are DRMed and I'd need a kobo reader to read them (or a non-kindle). With a bit of finagling I was able to remove the DRM so I can read kobo epub ebooks on my kindle. The purchase experience isn't as seamless as it would be if I was in a pure Kindle camp (and I would be if I didn't need to share across accounts). Totally against the license for using the books. But also totally fair use as I'm just trying to read them on an existing reader. Hooray for re-using things we already own and generating less e-waste.
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The Week #159
by James- Each year at Leo's pre-school (and it seems most pre-schools in Japan) once summer vacation starts, they have one night where the oldest kids get to spend the night. This week included that night. What do they do at school? They gave us a link to an unlisted YouTube video (that I've archived) that shows us exactly what they were up to.
Each class made their own dinner together. They all peeled carrots, potatoes, and slice onions for curry. The kids started the fire that they cooked over as well. Leo managed to peel part of his fingernail off π. Beyond making dinner on a bbq, they also went hunting for bugs in a nearby forest. When the sun went down they had a campfire, sang, and roasted marshmallows. For bath time (not included in the video) all the kids took a dip in this big pool. They looked like they had a great time and I'm happy Leo could participate. - Without Leo at the house Yumi and I were able to go out for dinner and coffee like the old days and it was a lot of fun. Most importantly we didn't need to worry about how long we were taking because family was watching Leo...we could just go with the flow. I don't know how long it's been since we've been able to do that, but it's been a long time.
- This week has been hot. Everyday in Kanto has had a slow of 25 - 26 (79F) and a high of around 37 (99F). Combined with the humidity and the best thing you can do is hide inside the house until the sun goes down.
Having solar certainly makes it easier for me keep cool without thinking about it...but even with these long summer days, I'm not sure if it's the heat, the angle of the sun, or a combination of both, but my generation is actually lower than it was in April. On these bright sunny days I generate about 16 kWh a day, while there were times before where I was generating 18kWh+. I've noticed too that my panels almost never get up to 2.6kWh like they did during spring, instead topping out 2kWh... - Tokyo Gas was representing Tokyo-to in the inner-city baseball tournament. Work offered tickets for everybody, so a bunch of us went to watch some baseball and root for home team. I took Leo with me as well so he could see his first baseball game.
The game was at Tokyo Dome from 10am and we had to be there by 9:30am. It takes about an hour and a half for us to get there and we left early so we didn't need to rush. Whenever I ride into Tokyo with Leo when it's just the two of us we usually take the green-car. This time we enjoyed breakfast during the trip.
As for the actual game - it could have been more exciting. The first 9-innings were completely shutout, 0-0. After that they did a *hybrid* sudden-death where the team at bat starts with a player on 1st and 2nd base, so it's easier to score. We ultimately lost in the 11th or 12th inning with JR Shikoku got run.
When we got back to our station I asked Leo if he had a fun and he simply said "No", which makes sense, shutout baseball isn't very exciting, no matter how many dancing pacchos there are on the dugout.
- Each year at Leo's pre-school (and it seems most pre-schools in Japan) once summer vacation starts, they have one night where the oldest kids get to spend the night. This week included that night. What do they do at school? They gave us a link to an unlisted YouTube video (that I've archived) that shows us exactly what they were up to.
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Checkin to Tokyo Dome (ζ±δΊ¬γγΌγ )
Letβs go Tokyo Gas! -
Checkin to Kamakura Pasta (ιεγγΉγΏ)
Cold pasta is my favorite summer dish in Japan.
