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The Week #117
by James- I changed the top page of my site from being a list of posts to being a more "curated" view. With just the latest 3 statuses being shown (and no next button to easily view older ones), they feel less permanent/easier to write. I've still got a few "widgets" I'd like to add to the front page before it's "complete", but that's requisite on getting the data into my site first.
- Japan announced it's going to opening up to tourist and visa-waver travel again from October 11th, provided you have either 3 shots or a negative post prior to boarding. After 2.5 years closed, I imagine it's going to be quite the cluster at the airport as they re-learn how to deal with actual volume again. I'm also curious how things are going to go when people who are used to mask free life come, en masse, to largely still-masking-at-least-in-the-shops-trains Japan. Clash of the cultures?
- We had a public holiday on Friday to celebrate the first day of autumn. We met with some longtime friends for lunch at their house, which was a nice change of pace. We hadn't seen this set of friends in about a year. Because we're usually the ones doing the hosting of social events, it's nice not to have to get the house looking presentable just to have it messed up a couple hours later.
- Leo took a test at swimming. Before he went he told us "I have something important to say" and he took my wife to his room where he said "I'm gonna do my best on the test later". For his test he had to push off from the edge and glide for 3 meters while keeping his head underwater for 5 seconds. He passed with flying colors. What's more is, after the test, he received a special recognition from Y.M.C.A. for embodying their core values: caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. This wasn't an "everybody gets a medal" situation either, only one person class could receive it. I'm really proud of him.
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by JamesHaving a night / morning without kids in the house really allows you the space to do that thinking you've been meaning to do but just can't. (Thinking about my next rotation around the sun and what I want to do / who I want to become).
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Checkin to Starbucks
Soy Pumpkin Spice Latte. Tis the season and all. -
by JamesSo happy that Japan is finally opening its borders, full visa waiver travel is back from Oct. 11th. Come take advantage of the Β₯142/dollar exchange rate!
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Checkin to Starbucks
Theyβve started doing tasting notes at this Starbucks. Nice ππ» -
by JamesDecided to just run with the new homepage. So it is displaying images in statuses, but that's only as I'm not explicitly filtering them out. My site temporarily looks like an infinity mirror.
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The Week #116
by James- Nanmadol, the biggest typhoon/tropical storm since accurate recordings began made landfall in Japan. It's blowing sustained winds are 108 kilometers per hour (67 mph) and gusts up to 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. Nanmadol is actually over Yokohama/Tokyo as I write this. Usually typhoons pass quite quickly, but this storm seems like it's taking its time boating along at around 20kph. I enjoy a good storm less than I did when I was younger, perhaps because I'm responsible for handling any damage might occur.
- We made reservations to go camping next month at Well Camp Nishi Tanzawa. We'd talked about it before, but neither of us went camping as a kid, so it's a bit daunting to get started. One of our friends from pre-school whose husband camps and is trying to get his family more into camping invited us, so we decided it's now or never. Getting the basics camping for a family is relatively expensive. I'm justifying it in my head in two ways: it's good preparation for disasters and each successive trip is quite affordable. Not to mention it gets us out into the Japanese mountains and countryside which is so beautiful.Β
- I started on a redesign just the main page of my blog (and really for Tanzawa as a whole). Rather than just being a list of full blog posts, I'm going to make it more summary driven. I plan to remove the streams sidebar from the homepage, so I'll have the full horizontal area to use. Right now I'm thinking about a just a small feed at the top with my last 5 "status" posts (truncated and linked to the full post) at the top.Β
Other widgets I want, but I'm undecided where / how they'll look are:Β- "Last seen at: ...", with a link to my latest checkin postΒ
- A 4x4 widget with my recent photos (unsure if this should depend on proper Photo posts or just show the recently uploaded/public photos).
- A list of recent posts (non-status, things with titles).
- Maybe some kind of map with recent checkins.
- Would love to integrate weather or other real-time / stats data.
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Checkin to Ootoya (倧ζΈε±)
Dinner! Yum! -
by JamesA couple days late, but Hackers was released 27 years ago. It's my favorite movie, for both nostalgia and soundtrack. But the thread on HN made me realize another reason, Hackers shows how it feels to code, not just what it looks like (which is boring, just a person looking at a terminal).
Hack the planet!
