-
by JamesI really enjoyed Make Your Life Better by Doing Less by Scott Young. People tend to focus on a better life by adding things to our lives. But adding things spreads us thin, guaranteeing that we don't improve in where it really matters. Rather, we should subtract and focus on those things that really matter to us.
I think about my morning running habit. Or more accurately, my lack of running habit., You see, I used to run a few times a week, but I kept adding more to my plate. First it was a habit of readingย Twitter for 5 minutes. Then I added Slack for 10 minutes. Oh and Hackernews. One cup of coffee. No, make that two.
Beyond filling my head with noise when I first wake up, it pushed my morning schedule and spread me thin. Sleeping in five minutes breaks my entire schedule and it's much easier to skip a run when I tell myself "I don't have the time".Previously, Iโve asserted that the hard way is often the easy way. Committing to doing something you know will be hard, paradoxically, often results in an easier time than opting for something that seems easy.ย
This passage reminded me of when I decided to build Tanzawa instead of making a custom theme for Wordpress for my IndieWeb-ified blog. It's much harder to build your own CMS than to just point and click โ but getting it the way I want is much easier.Instead of clarifying our pursuits into the few, difficult obstacles they represent and deliberately crafting strategies for dealing with them, weโve opted for a myriad of seemingly easy problems. Except the easy problems end up filling up our lives, leaving little room for what really matters.
I couldn't say it better myself. -
The Week #47
by James- In Covid-19 News this week, we're now consistently about 500k shots a day. Progress! And in even better news starting next month Covid-19 vaccines will be made available to all under 65 at the same time. I really, really hope this turns out to be true.
- I hit 30 checkins at parks with Swarm. Pre-dad me would have never imagined the local park would be such a fixture of everyday-life.
- I haven't worked much on Tanzawa this past week. I think it's from finishing two projects at work (one of which I can't wait to share later this month) and outside of work being busy with Leo from wake until I sleep. He's starting to wake up around 5:30-ish when the sun's fully up and I've been "sleeping in" from my usual 4:30 to 5:30. Then as soon as I finish work I'm either picking him up or he's ready to play or go to the park.
- Leo's stayed the night at grandma's house giving me my first "me time" since my couple hours riding to and from Enoshima a month ago.ย I spent it re-watching Long Way Up. What struck me re-watching it was how much I didn't remember from the early episodes and just how "vloggy" it is, in the best possible meaning. Are there any good travel blogs out there anymore? Either way, I'm sure they've mostly been on hold this past 18 months.
- Thinking about travel blogging reminded me how much I wanted to travel long-term when I was in college. Reading books like Vagabonding, watching documentaries like A Map For Saturday and Walking the Camino, dreaming of being out in the world. In a sense I did when studied abroad for a year Japan in college. But now that I live here and fluent, it's just life, isn't it?
- Speaking of life, we had a bit of a scare on the train. Recently Leo's wants to hold the overhead handles when we ride the trains. If there's not a seat, I let him as we can sanitize his hands when we get off the train. Today we were standing next to the door and so focused on him not holding the handles,ย I didn't realize his hands were on the door. When the doorsย opened his fingers slid into jam(!). Thankfully it only took a light tug to free them and he wasn't hurt. A good lesson for us both.
-
Checkin to KUA`AINA
Forgot to take a photo of my delicious burger. :doh: -
Checkin to Katase Higashihama Beach (็็ฌๆฑๆตๆตทๆฐดๆตดๅ ด)
Needed to see the ocean. ๐East Beach -
by JamesRewatching Long Way Up since we canโt travel. Making me think about my long planned โTripsโ feature in Tanzawa. ๐
-
Checkin to ไบไฟฃๅทไบไธ็ฎๅ ฌๅ
Watching the bullet trains go by. So fast.The tail end of the Shinkansen. Barely got it. -
Checkin to Starbucks
Post kindergarten activity lunch. -
by JamesHackers move poster came. Turns out movie poster sizes are non-standard and you can't easily buy American movie poster sizes in Japan. Luckily I found a shop that specializes in movie posters in Osakaย that a) knew the problem and b) has frames fit for the various sizes.
Framed and ready to hang. Woo!Hackers: Their Crime is Curiosity -
-
Checkin to Starbucks
Enjoying the new issue of @OffscreenMag with a small coffee as a reward for sending in my taxes.Offscreen #24. The gradient cover is fantastic.
