Okay. Back home. Tucked in. It’s 2:30am. Time to go to sleep finally. 💤

After a weekend of hacking on LoFi software where we talked about EMRs and hospital applications, I now find myself in the ER with a sick child, experiencing our existing system. Everything’s under control, so I sit here and observe.

Welp, it’s been 5 days nursing a feverish teenager. Now it is time to go to the clinic and find out what is actually wrong.

After waiting around all day (9am to 5pm) we now know. Pneumonia.

The Oh No pink character from Alex Norris’s [webcomicname.com](https://webcomicname.com)

The People vs Anglocentrism: What’s it like to be a non-English speaker in an online world dominated by US tech bros? 🌍

h/t to Dame.Outlaw

Reminds me of 2018 with Cambodian keyboard problems.

Look what arrived! You can download a copy here.

A lotta friends in this mag 🥰 Looking forward to reading.

#opensource #governance

2 copies of the zine “Change is in the cards: Governance Transitions in Open Source Communities”

Oh this would have been a very fun thing to attend! I recorded a number of Mongol spots when I lived on Iki.

iki-guide.com/archives/…

15yo: What’s the difference between waffles and pancakes? 🥞 🧇

12yo: Waffles are just pancakes with abs. 🥁

Started reading: Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 📚

Already 15% in 🚀

I can’t stop watching her covers! 🎵🔥

Ominous 😳

Half a fortune cookie and a strip of paper with the words: YOU WILL BE HONOURED.

Osechi day 2 🍶🍱🎍🐍

Chad holds up a saucer of sake over an assortment of colourful foods (with a Daiginjo sake bottle in the background)

Over the past couple of months I have had some conversations with a few people about what conferences are worth going to in 2025. I started putting together a list hackmd.io/@chadkoh/…

Good morning! It’s drinking time 🍶

A bottle of Daiginjo with English labels! In the background is osechi

明けましておめでとう🎍 Happy New Year!

Just got back from 初詣 We rang the bell and got おみくじ。2025 is the year of action 🐍 and doing good for everyone. Let’s do it together! 💪

Temple bell with Buddhist flag panels Close up of the bell. Note the inscription 世界平和カナダ鐘 “World Peace Canada Bell”Inside the temple AltarChad holds up an Omikuji

On this New Year’s Eve we are watching the 紅白 highlights on YouTube and making snide comments, as is the ancient Japanese tradition 🙃 アケオメ everyone!! 🎊

youtube.com/playlist

Bowl of kitsune so a with tempura in the background

Best of 2024

zoom photo through a sakura tree to a train crossing a bridge. Next to the bridge is another sakura tree in full bloom. The train is wrapped with a Super Mario World design for Universal Studies Japan, with depictions of the Princess, some Shy Guys, and more characters from the franchise

Favourite photo of the year: The Nintendo World train in Osaka through cherry blossoms. Taken during April’s Micro.Blog photo challenge

What a year. 😫 Closed down a company. Pulled all roots out of Japan and moved to a new city in Canada. Began settling down. Kids in a new school. Started a consultancy. Engaged with local community. Reconnected with old friends and family. Deepened my intellectual development. Found new paths to explore. Lots of progress on all fronts I suppose… Phew! I needed this winter holiday 😅

40 Questions

Last year I started using Steph Ango’s 40 Questions framework for annual reflection. Here are a few for public consumption:

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions?

No, but completed more than I thought!

What cities/states/countries did you visit?

What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?

Not a musician, but the YouTube Reactor TeeGo Crxzy who introduced me to Pete & Bas and a number of other artists, got me back into listening to UK Drill and Grime. I have discovered tons of new areas of music to explore because of TeeGo. Glitch Gang! 🤘

What did you do on your birthday?

Went to a bistro close to Osaka Castle with my family and was served a dessert with the message “Happy Wedding” 😅 After that went home to a couple of policeman knocking on our door. But that is a story for another time.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Fiscal hosting opportunity in Canada, and it’s possible impact on open source in this country!

How would you describe your personal fashion this year?

New Air Force 1s, knit pullovers, light grey jeans… Dad-hop? Or… like… Ted Lasso?

What kept you sane?

Meditation.

Of my daily practice for the year I only missed 3 days, ending the year on a 282 session streak.

Who was the best new person you met?

Oh lordy, I met so many people this year I cannot just pick one. This year, especially the last quarter, I have been on a networking tear. There are so many comrades out there trying to good, if you just reach out. Now that I am meeting them I hope 2025 becomes a year for doing good together. 🥂💪

Best of Reading 📚

Each year I submit some of my best for Fiction and Non Fic. This year for Fiction hands down it goes to The First Law Series. My brother recommended this grimdark fantasy trilogy and I just ate it up. I listened to the audiobooks narrated by Steven Pacey who is on the level of Jim Dale for skills… just absolutely brilliant.

In non-fic, the book that made me the most angriest (and recommend the most) is  The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality which examines the legal methods used to secure capitalism as our society’s only mode of operation. I grouped this book with a few others in a post about economistic thinking if you are interested in knowing more about the world we live in.

An honourable mention goes to Governable Spaces (see my chapter notes). This book has given me a handy framework for thinking about how to make emancipatory online community.

As a last comment, this year I spent more time reading papers about Internet governance and policy which I have been sharing with a group of others. You can check those out at: lemmy.ml/c/mae

Best of Watching 📽

So much reading so I didn’t watch much film or television this year, and of my 23 watched films, half were re-watches. This year I really feel like I don’t know what is going on in popular film. The only two films I saw in the cinema were Dune 2 and Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

Funnily enough, I watched three films starring Leo DiCaprio. Although it is not the highest rating, I still think about Killers of the Flower Moon a lot though.

For tv I went through Slow Horses seasons 2 to 4, and also finally caught up on the most recent Doctor Who. This year was more for the reading.

The Numbers for 2024

🖋 25 long-form posts on the blog

✉️ 12 email monthly newsletters sent

📸 1922 photos and vids on Flickr

📚 36 books read

🎞 23 films watched

🧘 362 days of meditation

Previous annual wrap-ups

Pre-ordered a number of books for next year, so my reading is pretty much decided for the first few months. I use Bookshop.org and Libro.fm and have both set to attribute sales to Mosaic Books, my old independent bookstore in Kelowna. Don’t live there anymore but still give what support I can 📚❤️

Last meditation 🧘 of the year. I missed 3 days this year, but got a good long streak in the end.

insig.ht/VtryaWguM…

📚 Loaded up on some 2025 books from here heatmap.news/culture/2…

@heatmap.news @HeatmapNews@flipboard.com

#books #climate #climatecrisis

Today was mochi 🍡 pounding for the New Year 🎍at Nikkei Center, then popped over to Aberdeen Centre for a shop and a snack🧋 and then to Tsujiri for a matcha parfait 🍵 Pretty full day! 😋

People with large wooden mallets taking turns hammering mocha in large stone bowl. The floor is covered in blue tarp, and people sit around the edges watching and waiting their turnFrom the top floor of a shopping mall looking into a plaza where a fountain show is happening. There is a giant Xmas tree and a huge plush reindeer and Santa displayA matcha parfait with chestnut, Shiratama, and monaka on top