• Checkin to MOKICHI TRATTORIA

    Lunch ๐Ÿ˜‹

  • The Week #293

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    • ๐Ÿ‘ต My mom has come to visit us for a week and a bit. She flew in to Narita, which meant I had to go to Narita for the first time in about 3 years. It's so far away. This time I tried taking the SkyLiner (changing at Ueno) as Jorudan told me it's about ยฅ1,500 cheaper than taking the Narita Express (NEX). There were soo many tourists in Ueno (makes sense, line direct from the airport to a world class city terminates there). The train itself was fine, but, maybe because its popularity, I saw private security folk walking down the aislesย  on the train โ€“ it almost didn't feel like Japan.

      Having ridden both I think I prefer the Narita Express, especially as I do not need to transfer. On the way back we took the Narita Express and I saw a group of skiers do a walk of shame from the first class towards the back of the train with a conductor following them.

      Train antics aside, it's been really good to just hang out and take things easy with my mom. It's not her first time to Japan so the pressure to play tour guide is off.ย  And that's good because....
    • ๐Ÿค’ Leo developed a fever the day before Mom arrived and it only got worse the next day. We kept Leo back on Monday and he slept for about 20 hours. He got what was going around the school as there have been class closures and this time it was his class' turn โ€“ closed through Thursday. So if he goes to school this week it would just be Friday.ย 
    • โ„๏ธ We got proper snow in Kanto! I...didn't take any photos or I'd share them. Snow is great as a kid, but as an adult, once a year is more than enough for me.ย 
    • ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป I made my first PR into Tanzawa in <checks notes> more than a year. It was a smallย  optimization to the /runs/ page to help an N+1 query I put in there. I had some ideas of using Claude to help me upgrade dependencies and do some maintenance work, but stopped when it started asking for subscription plans and such like โ€“ not about the actual cost, but extra decisions that didn't want to make. Let's hope the next PR isn't in another year.

  • The Week #292

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    • ๐Ÿš— I got the estimate for the repair and it's about 300,000 yen ($2,000) and it will take about 3 weeks(!) to fix once I put it in the shop. I've requested they get a EV prepped for as a loaner, but we'll see โ€“ it might be a gasoline kei (in which case it will probably sit in my driveway unused).
    • ๐Ÿ“š Somehow this failed to make it into The Week a couple weeks back. Netflix has been in Japanese for a while with Leo and getting back into English was always met with resistance. Then Leo started asking for his Switch in Japanese. I thought with how reading homework is a battle everyday, maybe he does need read Japanese in a context that he enjoys and that'll level-up his reading abilities, which in turn will open the gates for reading actual books.

      So we made a deal โ€“ the switch can go in Japanese if Netflix stays in English and he agreed.ย  He's kept his end of the bargain and my theory seems to be correct. He's started reading his Dragon Ball manga of his own volition and not saying "I'm tired" every other frame.ย 

      To encourage this we made another deal โ€“ when he finishes reading a manga, I'll buy the next one in the series. He finished reading volume 1 of Dragon Ball Super and read for 10 minutes in bed of volume 2.
    • ๐Ÿ“น You are being mislead about renewable energy is a long and excellent look at renewables. His framing about gasoline being something you pay for once then it's gone forever vs paying for durable goods (panels/batteries) is something I knew intuitively but couldn't quite articulate. And the bit about putting solar panels in place of corn used for ethanol which compares the miles we can drive on the same energy is an eye opener. Renewables are the frugal energy choice these days. Please watch.

  • The Week #291

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    • ๐Ÿš— I was wrong about the heater. There was heat coming out, but it couldn't get away from the heater, so despite the room being 16 degrees, it thought it was already at temp and 23 degrees. Turns out there was a chunk of plastic that I didn't notice had a slot for and it needed to be pushed back in, a bit embarrassing.

      But not as embarrassing asย  when the repairman slipped when ringing my doorbell, sending the pointy end of his ladder into my car door, causing scratches and a gash in the metal... ๐Ÿซ  The dealer will fix it (and his insurance will cover it), but it's going to mean replacing the entire body panel. The staff told me that the colors won't match exactly, so I assume my newish car is going to look like it came from a chop shop (probably not actually the case, but still).
    • โŒš๏ธ I got my Apple Watch in 2020 and blogged about what my hopes and dreams for having it would be. For the most part, it's lived up to all of those. The watch is coming up on 6 years of everyday use. I need to charge it twice a day (once in the morning, once before bed, and don't stay out too late).

      For battery life sake, I've always had the screen off by default and it's supposed to turn on when I raise my wrist. But I feel like it only does that half of the time. Little annoyances are adding up where I think it's time to replace it. While I had been mulling about getting a cellular connected Apple Watch for a while (theory being I could go out without my cellphone and still be connected), but reality is I am going to take my cellphone with me because it's far easier to control music/podcasts on it. And I don't want to charge something everyday, or even every week.

      This week I wore my Casio G-Shock for the first time since getting my Apple Watch...and I kind of loved it. It's still on the original battery, it's easy to read. It's just a watch.

      I think I will switch back to it for a while and only use my Apple Watch when I'm running and sleeping. After a month or so if I still feel like it, I may pickup a Casio GBD200 so I can at least track steps / runs. 2-year battery life and less than 1/3 of the cost of an Apple Watch.

  • Checkin to ๅ—่›ฎๅฑ‹ ๆน˜ๅ—ๅฐๅบ—

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    in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan
    Coffee run
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