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by JamesMorning Run
40 minutes and over 5km. Trying to start the week right. Love this little park area in front of the station.5.4km
42.9min
23.8m climbed
164.4avg bpm
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by JamesAfternoon Run
Ran to Marsh today. Good electronica to just keep on moving. No deep Yokohama photos today.4.1km
30.1min
25.7m climbed
167.4avg bpm
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by JamesAfternoon Run
Made a balloon to celebrate Derek Wessman ‘s recent birthday. Also it’s my usual course. Happy birthday, bother!3.7km
28.9min
21.8m climbed
161.7avg bpm
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by JamesIt's threatening to rain and sometimes raining...so I skipped running today and fixed some outstanding bugs with Tanzawa instead. RSS feeds no longer have that weird spacing at the top and checkin photos are no longer blurry. Much relieved.
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by JamesMorning Run
Still humid enough to count as swimming, but at least the clouds are keeping the sun at bay.3.8km
28.0min
14.2m climbed
168.3avg bpm
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The Week #164
by James- Immediately after building the Strava to Blog feature into Tanzawa, I promptly stopped running. This week, after a conversation with a co-worker about not putting work before your health, I went running 3 times in the last 7 days. It's been great and I hope I can continue, despite it being hot and humid.
- I biked with Leo to and from the co-op twice. He's getting stronger and made it further up the hill. Another week or two and he should have it down. Riding bikes together like this reminds me of riding bikes with my dad along the beach growing up in California. I'd love to do this with Leo, too. But our new car (heck, even our old car) wouldn't fit either of my bikes and his bike. Maybe this is the excuse I need to buy a Brompton folding bike..and start training for the world championships.
- Immediately after writing that last sentence I went down the YouTube rabbit hole of Bromptons and wow. Before I was also thinking "A Dahon would probably be fine, too", but they're large enough (because of the larger wheels) that I feel like it would decrease me actually taking it places via the train. But again, not buying a Brompton, just want to enjoy riding bikes with my kid where we won't get hit by cars and we're not climbing hills in every direction. ( Which really makes it sound like I'm buying a Brompton because *gestures everywhere* hills ( I'm not...this year. Really.))
- Over the past...at least since I moved to Japan, it's been difficult to keep in contact with my Dad. I have a US Skype number, but I don't keep Skype open nor does it make my phone ring..so I don't notice someone calls me until months after the fact. We've tried using LINE, but again, it doesn't make my phone ring and then my dad has to remember to check it. Email works for sending photos, but it doesn't really work for video, plus it feels a bit formal, what with needing a subject and all.
Last week I got an iPad for my dad and this week I helped him a router with WiFi over the phone so he could use said iPad on it. Now we can use iMessage to send photos, videos, and texts to keep in contact easier. We did a test FaceTime call with it and the camera is so good...I can actually see my dad. Hopefully this will make it easier to keep in touch and for me to share photos and videos of his grandson.
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Keeping positive in the face of climate disaster
by JamesAn internet buddy of mine posted in a private Slack group we're part of about how the weight of climate change is affecting his mental health. With the wildfires, heatwaves, and hurricanes coming for California(!), it's easy to feel despair. This post is my (slightly edited) reply.
Having a child was a kind of catalyst for me and climate change. Action is how you fight the weight of climate change. None of our individual actions will solve the climate crisis alone (as it’s largely a systems problem), but action breads action from those around us.
In Saving Us (great book, highly recommend), one of the things the author talks about is how one person’s actions influence their neighbors. For example, let’s say a neighbor sees you doing X that’s positive for the climate (composting, getting solar installed, switching to electric transport / cycling).
This in turn influences your neighbors- Directly, as it creates an opportunity for discussion about this topic with your neighbors. They might be on the fence about doing any of these and they can chat with you about it and your motivations. This plants and water seeds in their mind about the issues, as well as creates deeper community bonds, and we’re going to need them.
- Indirectly - neighbors that pass by your house notice X…so it plants a seed…and a few house down they see X again. After a period, X is now an acceptable and something that this neighborhood does. You can see solar panels spread through neighborhoods like this - one person got them, then a few houses down, and a few houses down, then a few house down…and pretty soon the neighborhood is powered by the sun (either by panels directly, or by the excess the neighbors are pushing into the grid).
It does feel like we’ve passed a tipping point. Be part of voices that demand the system changes and encourage those around you to do the same.
This said, the energy transition is also happening at an incredible pace. We’re deploying more solar, wind, and batteries at a faster pace than ever before and it’s not slowing down. For me personally, joining a group of companies that’s fighting climate full stack was how I deal/dealt with the weight of climate change and the future I want for my kid. I am but a cog in the machine, but everyone around me has the same sense of urgency. And when it feels hopeless, I can see / hear about new wind farms/solar farms we’re deploying or see the number of people actively working on it, and I feel like…we (humanity) got this (energy transition). -
by JamesToo hot run 🥵
Departing just after 6am is too late. Having a mental map of the vending machines that accept contactless payments is a life saver.3.6km
29.1min
51.2m climbed
169.2avg bpm
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by JamesSo humid it’s called swimming 🏊🏻♂️
4.0km
31.9min
33m climbed
171.7avg bpm
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The Week #163
by James- ⛰️ Friday was mountain day in Japan. We went and saw an evening showing of Elemental. I highly recommend it. It was perhaps a bit too long for Leo, as towards the end he said he wanted it to hurry up and end...but he sat through all of it.
I haven't seen a movie at night in a very long time, but I think they're so much better than the day. Mostly because you don't come home from being out all day just to have to cook dinner and wash dishes...
After the movie we had coffee and a cookie at Starbucks. The weather was perfect outside as well, increasing my enjoyment. Before Leo we used to go to the cafe at night on a regular basis and it was really good to do that again. - 📸 I had a good conversation with an old internet buddy (since I was in junior high / high school?), Brad. We were both into j-rock/j-dramas. Our chat got me reminiscing about the old sites and online communities we used to be a part of.
Ones like lomo.box.sk, bulletin board with news and user blogs, focused on photography with the lomo cameras. For the uninitiated, the lomos are small film cameras with minimal settings and no zoom. Their marketed as an artsy and fun camera. You "shoot from the hip". And for interesting effects you don't use photoshop or some digital filter, you use colored flashes or cross-process your film.
One of the main contributors to the site was based in Tokyo, so there always good photos of Shibuya at night. I spent many a night in the suburbs in Texas thinking about how lucky he was to live in Japan and be able to walk outside and have something interesting to shoot.
Part of me misses photography, not that I was ever good or serious. I should try to carve out some time one evening/early morning to go out and shoot. Here's a couple of photos from the early 2000's I took with lomo and cross-processed. People that have followed me online for a while will have seen these before.Yours truly (~18-ish years ago). Yellow color splash and cross-processed. Galveston, Texas at night. Cross-processed. - 🐘 Leo and I finally be the Divine Beast Vah Ruta, one of the first big quests. I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn't realize I could use regular arrows or Cryonis (the ability to turn water into ice and also break said ice) to destroy the ice cubes he throws at you for well over a month. As such I had been tried using nothing but shock arrows, which are rarer.
- 🥔 We've got potatoes and onion overflowing in the house, so I made some roasted potatoes with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and garam masala. Standard flavors / spices (at least for me). I'm happy to report that Leo a) requested to eat them and b) asked that I make them again tomorrow. Yessir 🫡. The highest praise from this picky eater.
- 🚲 Leo and I rode our bikes together to the grocery store for the first and second time. This was our first time riding bikes together that wasn't in front of the house. The entire time Leo kept repeating "This is so much fun!" (but in Japanese) and indeed it is a lot of fun to ride bikes together. I'm looking forward to when his legs are a bit stronger and he can climb the small hill on the way back from co-op and stronger still so we can go to the local Starbucks.
- 🎶 I have two albums of the week this week. First is Black & White by Casey Bean. I really like Play it Cool, which he performed on a recent episode of The Beanpod, a podcast about life in Japan. The other is an album that I've probably recommended on here before... Original Pirate Material by The Streets. This one is recommended because I was in a bit of a funk...and had the lyrics to Who Got the Funk come to my head while walking the dog...and went for a run to get rid of it...lest I become a geezer.
- ⛰️ Friday was mountain day in Japan. We went and saw an evening showing of Elemental. I highly recommend it. It was perhaps a bit too long for Leo, as towards the end he said he wanted it to hurry up and end...but he sat through all of it.
