• 🛰️ In Japan, even the smallest elementary school students go to school on their own. They all go together so there isn't much risk. On days where they don't have after school care, they just come home. Leo certainly knows his way home, but once he has his independence...you never know...he might get sidetracked. We got a popular GPS unit that also allows him us to relay voice recordings to each other.
• 🎥 I'm on a "classic" movies kick. Leo and I watched 3 Ninjas (1992) together. He usually doesn't make it entirely through live action movies in English, but he made it through this one. I also watched Short Circuit (1986) (my second favorite movie with Fisher Stevens) – so good.
• 🛂 I made an appointment to get Leo's passport renewed. I didn't realize the US embassy was literally next to my usual subway exit when going to work. I've started looking at plane tickets to visit Seattle this summer and...$6,500 usd for just tickets....and when combined with the weak yen...ouch...for a week? Hmmm....

A new VHS transfer from original NOS tapes. Hosted by Robert X. Cringely. All rights reserved by PBS Broadcasting and Channel 4.

1. Tagged with
2. video
3. computing

• 🎓 Leo graduated pre-school. While technically the main event was watching each kid walk up to the front of class and receive their diploma, the real main event felt like the thank you party immediately after. You see, Yumi has been preparing for a "thank you party" the past ~6 months...and it is finally over. The gifts were delivered and the videos / presentations we made played on the projector without issue.
  
  For most of the kids at Leo's school they're finished with the school for good. Lucky for Leo, he can still go through the end of the month when my wife and I are working, so he'll be able to meet his friends that will attend other elementary schools for a bit longer.
  
  After the ceremony itself we went to McDonalds with a couple of his friends and their family – I'm sure this will become one of those long-term memories.
• 🎥 I watched two movies this week: Napoleon (on Apple TV+) and The Greatest Night in Pop (about the making of We are the world(Netflix)). I had heard a bit of hype about Napoleon, but it was just okay. On the other hand, The Greatest Night in Pop was a real fun watch. I'll sometimes listen to "We are the World" song when I need a pick me up and the world seems like it's going to shit. It was fascinating to see how quickly the entire song / thing came together. I'm starting to feel like good work demands tight time constraints to ensure focus....
• 🌸 It was a beautiful 20 degrees out over the weekend. Spring is coming and I can't wait. I know in summer I can't wait for winter, but really I just want ~20 degree weather to come. t-shirt and perhaps a jacket.
• 👓 With all the flowers and trees blooming, there's heaps of pollen floating in the air. We bought Leo a pair of glasses to protect his eyes and ease his allergies. When he's wearing his glasses and a flannel he looks like a clone of me.
• 🤒 Between work being super busy with a buncha new responsibilities and my personal life packed with kids stuff...I've had minimal/no time for "fun" (though I did get some cafe time this week, which was nice). Either way, my body finally had enough and is forcing me to rest with a 39 degree fever. Thankfully that's the symptom. Here's to resting, also an important job.

The report delves into the nuances of Parisian cycling culture, exploring the vibrant community of riders who navigate the city's streets

1. Tagged with
2. cycling
3. transit

America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is officially open, a long-awaited moment that helps pave the way for a succession of large wind farms.

1. Tagged with
2. wind
3. electricity
4. “climate
5. change”

Something missing from this series on estimation, until now, has been a discussion of how to “break down” a project into a well-defined task list. I’d not previously written about this because, to me, it’s largely intuitive. But it isn’t for everyone, so this post fills the gap, and explains in detail how I break down projects into a task list.

1. Tagged with
2. programming
3. project management

• 📱 I've realized there's a few different habits I have from growing up without a whole lot. One of them is using things until they're falling apart... and then some. It's good because it means you're not always out spending money on things you just want and don't actually need. But sometimes using things for so long begins to introduce some (big or small) stresses and annoyances into your life that you just kinda get used to.
  
  Enter my iPhone XR. I bought it when it came out in 2018 to replace my iPhone 6+. I only bought the XR because of hardware fatigue on my 6+. One of the pins broke so I was no longer able to charge it...it was bitter sweet using it for it's final charge...knowing that it wouldn't wake up.
  
  It's been 5.5 years since I got my XR. I've replaced the battery on it...at least once and the current one is almost in needs servicing territory. As you can imagine software hasn't gotten any nimbler since its release. Launching the camera from the lock screen used to be instant-ish. Now it takes seconds, if it even works, causing me to miss opportunities or introduce some unneeded frustration and or friction into my day. Searching for apps takes ages. Every interaction on it has gotten slower.
  
  But It still technically works just fine. I can make calls on it and it charges. I don't need to worry about a pin breaking to charge it (I usually use a charging pad). It must be under-clocking itself because of the the battery health, so another new battery would probably eek out another couple of years on it.
  
  But I've noticed these aforementioned habits of mine and I'm going to try and change them. Buying a new phone isn't a financial burden (thankfully 🙏🏻). I don't even want a new phone, I'd be happy if my current phone just worked like it did when it was new. Either way, it is causing me stress and 'tis the season to use some of my hard earned yennies to remove stress.
  
  This is a very long-winded (public) justification just to say I ordered a yellow 256GB iPhone 14. I considered a t 15, but that yellow was not nearly yellow enough. I'm curious to see how it compares to my yellow XR. 
• 📡 Removing more stress, I'm looking at changing cell providers as well. I currently use OCN Mobile ONE. Two phones, both with voicemail and 10GB of data is around ¥4,000 a month. But it's an MVNO, so data is frequently slow during rush hour. We also run out of data towards the end of the month (you may remember a bullet point dedicated to this on our last visit to Disney in December). Whenever I go aboard I have to buy a sim card/e-sim and deal with that. 'tis the season to use some of my hard earned yennies to remove stress.
  
  I'm looking at switching to Docomo's ahamo. It will work out to be a bit more per month, but whatever. It has more data, the same docomo network quality I'm accustom to (excellent), and international data included, so I'm never without connectivity abroad.
• 🏢 I've been promoted to the global Head of Engineering for Comms (inbound/outbound emails/sms/phone calls etc..) at work. I'm excited by the new challenge of leading a much larger  team. Though this does mean my number of pull requests will likely significantly decrease...maybe more energy for Tanzawa? (Probably not)
• 💈 In preparation for graduating pre-school Leo got his hair cut. The barber asked me if I wanted them to shampoo his hair...my response was the same as usual, ask Leo (it's not my hair/head). To my surprise (and hence why it's being included), Leo got his hair washed for the first time while getting his haircut 💪.