I finished watching Long Way Round while waiting for new episodes of Long Way Up. The adventure travel reminded me a lot of blogs I used to read when I was in high school¹ and college² and dreaming of studying abroad in Japan and living in Japan in general.

In those days, we'd blog, maybe post a bad photo or two, and commented on each others' sites. Nobody knew each other in real life, but, over time, you'd get a real sense of community. You were of course following the posts, but there were also a regular cast of commenters that you'd also get a sense of knowing. It felt authentic...and innocent.

Why can't we have this today - but on larger scale? How would you even find these sites on the modern web? Everything is hidden behind "the algorithms" and or paid for by a marketing campaign. Can you even find them?

¹ Sushicam.com was a great photo blog by a guy living in Japan. I used to have a few prints of his and also bought his old Canon 10D - until my parents said "If you have enough money to buy a camera, you have enough money to pay rent".
² Justin Klein was a great blog from a traveling programmer. Not just Japan, but all over the world.

6 month inspection/oil change. Love this green Freed.

Tech Companies Are Destroying Democracy and the Free Press

The collapse of journalism and democracy in the face of the internet is not inevitable. To save democracy and the free press, we must eliminate Google and Facebook’s control over the information commons.

The digital commons shouldn't belong to any single mega-corp. It belongs to all of us. Help in the fight by running your own domain and POSSE your content to the silos.

7:20 am, Izumi-ward, Yokohama, Japan

Morning walk between the local elementary school and a farm.

micro.blog #ADayInTheLife photo challenge.