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As expected, the Japanese Government lifted the state of emergency last Monday. Despite that, not much changed for us. Neither Emma nor John have started schooling again and I’m still working entirely from home. As the week progressed, the number of new cases rose, suggesting that a resurgence is a very real possibility as the amount of social interaction increases. Eri and I still aren’t sure what to do about Emma and John.
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I made it through the application process for the robo-adviser Theo and was rewarded with the ability to send them a modest amount of yen to begin my investment. I did so dutifully and promptly lost money. The investment recovered that amount by the next day before dipping again slightly and this is why you don’t obsessively check these things.
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I very nearly purchased a refurbished iPad Pro. I use the very good Refurb Tracker service to keep an eye on new iPad Pros that come onto the Japanese store. Very, very, very few of the 2018 models ever make it so it was somewhat of a surprise when last Monday I got an e-mail advising me that some were available. I made (or avoided, depending on how you want to look at it) the mistake of knowing ahead of time precisely what I wanted to get. By the time I’d made a decision, all the models were gone.
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My backlog of articles decreased ever so slightly. I recommend Dan Luu’s ‘The growth of command line options, 1979-Present’ and Hillel Wayne’s ‘This is How Science Happens’. Both are far more entertaining than their titles would lead you to think.
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In the nick of time, I published my annual spring list of podcasts. It’s quite long and probably of limited interest to really just about anyone but I’m glad it exists. I was going to say I wish I’d started doing it earlier but I just checked my old blog and realised that I did! The format is a bit different (and the pages have no CSS styling) but here’s 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. I should copy those over to articles.inqk.net.
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After I hunted around on Apple Music for Sarah Blasko’s cover of ‘Hey Ya’, I came across a playlist of covers recorded as part of Triple J’s regular ‘Like a Version’ radio segment. One of my favourites was Bob Evans’ cover of Lily Allen’s ‘Not Fair’ (Apple Music). It reminded me how much I enjoyed Allen’s writing from that period. Her version of the song is pretty great, too (Apple Music).
