It’s so hot out already.

• 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.

BLT in Chigasaki :)

Coffee break after riding the Enoden.

Burger time!

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.

Nice and cool. Autumn is coming. 涼しくてしょうがない

• I migrated this blog from NYC to Frankfurt, Germany so it's now powered by 100% renewable energy. It's a small step towards making my blog more sustainable and I documented the process so you can migrate your Digital Ocean droplets to sustainable regions powered by renewable energy.


• While writing that post, I wondered if it would actually help anyone or make a difference. Chris used my guide to migrate his blog to renewable energy sources. Progress!


• On the topic of waste - Gerry McGovern wrote a great article you should read called Cloudwaste. We never think about the cost of a search (after all, it's "free") - not quite.

Google estimates that carrying out a single search takes about 0.0003 kWh (1080 joules) of energy. That’s the equivalent of leaving a 60-watt bulb on for 17 seconds. In 1999, it was estimated that there were one billion searches on Google. In 2019, there were 5.2 billion searches a day, and 1.9 trillion searches a year. That’s the equivalent of leaving a 60-watt bulb on for one million years.

• I set a goal to run 40km this month and I managed to smash that goal running a total of 60.9km (37.8 miles) in August. I'd like to match the same distance in September. Hopefully it will be a bit easier as summer winds down.


• I finally bit the bullet and am trying out Apple TV+. I haven't had a chance to watch what I actually want to watch (Greyhound, and the Beastie Boys documentary, but I have been enjoying watching Snoopy in Space with my son. In the first few episodes Snoopy goes to Johnson Space Center and they go to Space Center Houston. I used to live across the street from JSC and in the area for a number of years, and it was fun to see that they took the time to accurately depict the buildings.


• Leo got his first proper haircut. The hairstylist used to specialize in kids cuts when she was first starting, so she's a pro. She's even got a barber chair that is shaped like a sports car. Leo didn't flinch or cry or anything until she got out the hairdryer. He didn't like that.