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It snowed last Monday (NHK World)! I probably should have encouraged the kids to try and build a snowman or something but they ducked out to the backyard for a bit and that was it. I enjoyed a walk through the falling snow to lunch at Mos Burger.
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King Charles was diagnosed with (some form of) cancer (BBC).
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Bluesky opened to the general public on Tuesday (TechCrunch). I’ve had an account since July 2023 but never really got into it, preferring instead to spend most of my time on Mastodon. I’m not sure why being generally available felt so significant but it prompted me to (1) work out how to use my inqk.net domain as part of my handle and (2) add cross-posting support to this blog. This means that if you’re like Brandon, you now need never follow me on Mastodon again! All the posts will be on Bluesky, too. I’m still not that optimistic about its prospects (not least because of Threads) but I remain a fan of the AT Protocol and hope it succeeds.
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Emma had another observation day at her school and so we didn’t attend Yoyogi Chapter this weekend. That ended up working out all right, though, because it enabled us to visit Ferdinando and his family in the afternoon. Rowan wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t able to play with either of Ferdinando’s younger children which was a bit of a shame. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see them again soon and that’ll given Rowan another opportunity.
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Back in January, I mentioned that I’d tried to get back into Japanese study as the new year began but it hadn’t stuck. This week, I tried a new tack: I create a ‘habit’ for it in Awesome Habits. So far things have been progressing well enough. Rather than worry too much about any particular long-term ‘goal’, I’m just trying to spend 45 minutes a day studying. I figure if I can do that every day for a year, I’ll have gotten… somewhere.
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Since I’m less concerned with what I’m studying and more concerned with that I’m studying, I’m allowing myself to count episodes of Japanese dramas. That’s got me back into My Dear Exes (Netflix). I was sure that I’d mentioned watching this during my stay in the hospital last year but a search of my weeknote archives indicates that’s not the case. I’d forgotten how much I love the show and think it’s one of the best written Japanese dramas I’ve ever seen. Unlike a lot of Japanese TV that is on Netflix, it has English subtitles. If you’re looking for a 10-episode series that’s a bit different, I highly recommend checking it out.
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Things continue to be a bit fallow in the video essay department but I did enjoy this CTI Summit keynote that Cliff Stoll delivered back in 2017. I somehow wasn’t familiar with Stoll (Wikipedia) but he is very much what you would picture if someone said ‘eccentric physicist’. Indeed, he plays the part of absent-minded researcher so well, I initially assumed it was a bit.
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Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2023 was announced at the end of January and I spent a chunk of my music listening this week dipping in and out of the playlist (Apple Music). Check it out if you too want to pretend you’re still young and hip.
