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Having a blog again, especially one weekly post is changing how I interact with the internet. It’s making it fun again.

Like most I had a blog in the early 2000’s and it slowly faded from use with the rise of FB, Twitter, and other social media. But by limiting myself to those platforms, I also limited how I could share.

There is no “save draft” of a tweet. And you can only fit so much nuance in 140 280 characters.

Now, with a blog, when I find something that looks like I’d want to share or I might want to share, I simply append the link to the latest The Week post. Then, either throughout the week, or in the 15 minutes before posting, I expand upon that link, maybe even add some context. Sharing has become more about than just sharing some random link or video. I have the space to show how it relates to me and make it personal, rather than just a simple retweet that gets lost in the stream.

I didn’t realize it, but I was missing that space. My own cubby on the internet. No longer being locked into a format, time, or design decided by someone I don’t know gives me a place I can call home.

No algorithms. No ads. Just me.

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  • I started working on a new, lighter design for my site. Which you’re probably looking at right now. It’s heavily inspired by solar.lowtechmagazine at the moment, but I’m planning to tweak it more as time goes on.
  • I made the short drive to Kamakura with the family to visit Patagonia. I used to visit Kamakura regularly, but with the surge of tourists and overtourism it’s become so full of people that I try to time my visits to “off-season”. With tourists not being allowed into the country it was so much quieter. It feels a lot like when I first visited Japan in 2006.
  • While in Kamakura I took the opportunity to ride one of my favorite trains, the Enoden. Leo’s getting old enough where we can ask questions of each other. My favorite exchange of the trip was when I asked him if he likes riding the train. His (translated) response: “I like riding the train. Mom, do you like riding the train, too?”. It was cute to see him wanting to make sure that mom was also having a good time.
  • I found this guy that collects photos from flea markets in Japan. Whenever I See pictures like these, I always wonder about the people in the photos.Who are they? What they did? How’d life treat them? Worth a visit.

Love watching the mountains in the distance turn purple as the sun rises and trains passing as I run. Should try and get a photo sometime, but I’ve stopped running with my phone.