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The Week #229
by James- ๐ฌ I flew back to Japan. It's good to be home, to be with my family, to sleep in my bed, and to get back to familiar routines. As one would hope, everyone was excited upon my return. And everybody liked their souvenirs. Leo saw the Scratch coding book I bought him exclaimed "yattaaaaa!" (hooray) while raising his arms.ย
- ๐น๏ธ We made our first game using Scratch. It was a simple game where you try to get a character to jump up the screen to reach a door. Scratch is too advanced for him as it requires being able to read, but maybe this will provide some motivation.
One very cool thing I realized is with his iPad we can easily add his own drawings to his games. We can take a photo of his drawing, then in the photos app deep press the character, this will select just the drawing itself, giving us a buffer with a transparent background, which we can then and copy/paste into a new png.Jump Link featuring Dark Link
One unfortunate thing I hadn't realized about Scratch was that Apple removed the app from the AppStore. So while the webapp works for making the game, he can only play the game on a proper computer with a keyboard because it requires arrow keys. Perhaps an excuse to get an iMac to act as a family computer?! - ๐โโ๏ธ I ran my first 10km in a very long time, at least for this year. It wasn't entirely on purpose but my hotel happened to be about 5km to the Eiffel tower and I didn't want to visit Paris for the first time and not at least see it. So on my final day I went on a photo run there and back. Long slow runs are the way to see a city.
Eiffel tower as seen from the Seine
The tower itself is quite impressive. On the way back along the Seine I saw a fantastic eco-houseboat as well. It had a green roof, solar panels, heatpumps...the works!Eco houseboat
Back in Japan and jetlagged, I went out for a run at 4am and unintentionally ran a personal best 5k at 3 seconds below 30 minutes. Compared with the last time I ran a 30 minute 5k back in August, it felt easier this time.
Lastly, I've now got 90 runs this year in the bag. My goal of 100 runs in a year is well within my reach.ย LFG.
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by Jamesโ๏ธ Jet lag pb ๐ฏ๐ต
Up since around 1am. May as well use the time to run. Accidental PB on a 5k. Below 30 minutes proper. ๐5.0km
30.4min
25.4m climbed
167.7avg bpm
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Checkin to Tokyo International (Haneda) Airport (HND) (ๆฑไบฌๅฝ้็ฉบๆธฏ (็พฝ็ฐ็ฉบๆธฏ))
Home ๐ -
Checkin to Air France Lounge
Eating all the cheese while I still can -
Checkin to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) (Aรฉroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
Arrived way early. As per usual. -
Checkin to RER Paris Gare du Nord [B, D]
Bye bye Paris -
Checkin to Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel)
Itโs bigger than youโd imagine. Quite impressive. -
by James๐ซ๐ท Au Revoir Paris
Last morning in Paris. Along the river in the other direction to see the Eiffel Tower before heading home. Also check out this houseboat. Solar, heat pumps, green roof. Love it.10.1km
81.4min
40.2m climbed
159.4avg bpm
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Checkin to Bouillon Chartier
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The Week #228
by James- ๐ซ๐ท I took the chunnel to Paris. I've was gonna say I had never ridden a train that crossed borders before, but that's false. I once rode Amtrak from Everett, Washington to Vancouver and back. Besides the quality and speed differences (no match with the Eurostar), you go through both passport controls back-to-back and customs before boarding, so when you get off in Paris you just go.
First impression of Paris: the buildings are mostly quite similar (6 story) and the store fronts are very cute (the flowers!).
When walking from my station to my hotel they were also cleaning the streets. Was very good to see the entire operation: leaf blower, street scrubber, and pressure washer all fully electric. It's still loud, but not nearly as loud and zero local pollution.Cozy breakfast nook - ๐ I don't have much time to actually be a tourist in Paris, so I decided to see cities my new favorite way: long slow runs. I ran for about an hour from my hotel around to Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and the Louvre. One day I will go inside the Louvre and enjoy its art, but that day is not today.
- ๐ฝ๏ธ I also learned in detail the phrase why "you don't want to see how the sausage is made" is the way it is. I got it in theory. But it never crossed my mind that a sausage could be gamey and like...still having bits come out when served. I couldn't finish it. Not enough to make me a vegi forever, but I think my new strategy when traveling might be to order vegetarian until you get the lay of the land. The smell is seared into my nose.
Besides that one sausage the food has been incredible. I've been absolutely ruined on bread, butter, and cheese. It's all so good here. The best one was served to me at a friend's flat...it's butter, but it has like pockets of intense salt, almost like instead pop-rocks. I'm ruined. Going to need a specific category in my monthly budget labeled butter and cheese when I get back.Croissant and Pan aux chocolat
- ๐ซ๐ท I took the chunnel to Paris. I've was gonna say I had never ridden a train that crossed borders before, but that's false. I once rode Amtrak from Everett, Washington to Vancouver and back. Besides the quality and speed differences (no match with the Eurostar), you go through both passport controls back-to-back and customs before boarding, so when you get off in Paris you just go.
