“Live in a small apartment rather than a big, drafty house… Fly rarely… Work less… exercise … Tax the rich… basic income… capital toward home care and nursing homes, not arms…neighborhoods dense and walkable…” etc

www.newyorker.com/books/und…

Started reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell 📚

Today at lunch I popped down to Namba Yasaka ⛩️ for a bite 🦷

More pix 📸 www.flickr.com/photos/sa…

(The plum blossoms are out!)

Chad poses in front of a small building designed to look like the head of a lion dog

Just an hour left in the last day of January, so sent out my monthly personal note with a little advice that might make you feel a bit better… it’s working for me! buttondown.email/chadkoh/a…

On decentralization

I really appreciated Mark Nottingham’s memo RFC 9518 on Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards. In it he provides a wide-ranging and balanced introduction to the topic in quite a short article. I have been collecting bits of arguments for decentralization (in a centralized location of course 😉) for the past couple of years, with the intention to write something round-up, but have struggled. I am so glad Mark did it, and so much better than I could!

Continue reading →

Spoke at Osaka Web Designer and Developer Meetup about my journey in tech. Talked about the never-ending technologies I had to learn, and the socio-economic context around each career shift. We then discussed future trends.

📸 www.flickr.com/photos/sa…

Chad standing in front of a room full of people gesticulating in front of a projects slide titled "Ye Olde Web" with icons for IE4, Netscape Navigator 4, Homepage Builder and Dreamweaver

Watched this vid yesterday arguing that El-P is the most influential white rapper. So catching up on his non-RTJ stuff while doing laundry and chores around the house (like installing a new daughterboard on my keyboard)

Chilly blue sky from under the life insurance building

A building with outward arches almost like an elongated mushroom. I am not sure what this architectural feature is called

Mmmm 😋 Ethiopian coffee and walnut cheesecake o’clock at Ourlog Coffee Roasters ☕️ 🍰

Close shot of a slice of cheesecake and a cup of black coffee. A paper label describes the coffee: &10;&10;Ethiopia&10;Chire Washed&10;Region&10;Sidamo Aloresa Chire&10;Farm: Nigussie Gemeda&10;Height: 2000m&10;Process: Washed&10;Variety: 74112&10;lemon ginger brown-suger sweetCoffee roasting machine with attached MacBook Air

They even sent stickers all the way to Japan for me! Thanks @jean!

Envelope from Portland to Osaka, 2 Micro.blog stickers, and a hand written note from Jean “Thank you for microblogging!”

Gonna be up in Tokyo on my annual retreat from Feb 18 to 21. What should I see? Who should I meet?

The high school volleyball teams brought home some silverware from the regional tournament this weekend!! 🙌🎉 Girls Volleyball team got first place 🏐 and the Boys Volleyball team got second 🏐🏐 💪💪💪 But, in a not-so-twist, I bet you can tell me WHO received the LARGER trophy??? 🏆 🤔🤔🤔 🫠🫠🫠

TIL that Wikipedia maintains a list of hoaxes, ie. times the org has been tricked, and how long it took to correct the record. Talk about institutional transparency! Can you imagine a {insert “trusted” institution} doing this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia

“Change moves at the speed of trust.”

CO₂ emissions from Osaka to Tokyo:

🚅 Shinkansen is 4.2kgs/person

✈️ = 12x🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅

🚗 = 30x 🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅 🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅🚅

From www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023…

Tragic discussion

unseen-japan.com/noto-peni…

Spotted on the entrance to a Starbucks at Umeda St. Other than seeing one small pro-Palestine demonstration (4 people) I haven’t seen much here. Mostly just disbelief on the news. This might not even be related! 🤷‍♂️

Small sticker on a wall: Boycott Starbucks

Started listening to: His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik 📚

Saw a review: “imagine Aubrey-Maturin, but Stephen Maturin is a dragon.” Instant download!

cover of the book

SLIM lander press conference hence starts in 5 mins www.youtube.com/live/Udh6…

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon was launched last September from JAXA’s southernmost facility at the Tanegashima Space Center. I visited last spring and got a tour and ate “moon rice” for lunch. Photos: 📸 🌙 🍚

www.flickr.com/photos/sa…