For a couple of years we kept a very small apartment in Kyoto for monthly visits while we were taking care of my parents-in-law. The rent was cheaper than getting a hotel each time, and my parents stored stuff there which justified the expense. The apartment was on the very edge of southwest Kyoto in a neighbourhood called Rakusai Newtown, a housing project started in the 1970s for the families of men working in the factories of West Kyoto.
10 years ago today I swore off meat. I adopted a plant-based diet because according to Drawdown it is one of the most impactful things an individual can do to fight climate change, especially in Canada which is a large country with a concentrated beef sector, contributing to a lot of GHGs. 🥗
From Evgeny Morozov’s essay Socialism After AI:
The driving imperative would not be “growth” measured as ever more commodities, but the enlargement of what people are actually able to do and be, individually and collectively.
On that view, AI would be judged by whether it opens new spaces of competence, understanding, and cooperation, and for whom. A tool that lets teachers and students work in their own dialects, interrogate history from their vantage points, and share and refine local knowledge would score highly.
Daughter and her friends just showed up at our front door singing Xmas carols. They have been going around the neighbourhood. Apparently it is an annual tradition for the Drama kids here. 😄
The Japanese Canadian Legacies Society launched a new website with educational resources for K-12 teachers. It has lesson plans, exercises, and tons of images to help students learn about the internment of 22,000 Japanese-Canadians from 1942 to 1947.
Happy to be alive … and to know all of you wonderful, inspiring people!
(Also, I’m pretty sure all the sedatives from yesterday have worn off 😊)
Today been a busy. Launched Protocols for Publishers ✨ London early in the morning, then took a taxi to get surgery. Now just woke up. Feeling groggy with a pool of blood on my pillow. Answered a few messages, mostly inbox is full of reservation notifications for the event. Lovely! Back to sleep 😴
Just finished The Trouble With Peace and couldn’t help myself and immediately picked up The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie 📚
Of the Top 20 Apps of 2025 on the Canadian iOS App Store there are only 4 I use, and all of them begrudgingly. I am like the Scrooge of popular technology, aren’t I? (Considering I still use an iPhone, I suppose not.)
Coast Contra is back at The Table!! (ﾉ＾◡＾)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻
So many online meetings today, back-to-back, that by the end I was losing my voice 🗣️
Went to the neighborhood Holiday Party and met some more of my neighbours. Then we finished decorating the tree. 🎄
Today is an uposatha day so maintaining my fast while all these cookies are being handed out did not make me a particularly holly jolly elf. 🙃
This month has been… well, not easy.
But today I have had some time to relax. So I am sitting in my reading chair catching up on @mekongreview.com which always delivers on cool insights and new books to add to the pile. 📚
