It was a fun concert. In the third section they played mandolin renditions of hit songs from decades ago while the crowd sang along. Made me imagine being in my 70s at a concert singing “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Killing in the Name” 🤔 🎼
Current status: mandolin concert 🎶
Started reading Becky Chambers’ acclaimed solarpunk novel about a tea monk serving up comfort and I think this prayer will be immediately understood by my comrades @fission.codes, @robin.berjon.com, and more 🙏 🤲 🙇♂️
Started reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers 📚
Just watching this new show “Rainbow Closet” and it’s intense 😭
The power of a national broadcaster. (バリバラ is another good show!)
And now Kakuei Tanaka’s house is on fire!? #2024GoesHardOnJapan
Thinking about another annual retreat to Tokyo. Last year I went up for a few days, stayed at the Tokyo Dome Hotel, and met up with some old IRL friends, new Internet friends, and some startup meetups. FUN! Thinking about going again in Feb. Who should I meet this time?
It’s the 7th of January so time for a steaming bowl of Seven Grasses
Concentric circles of content
Boris goes through his complex social media setup: Mostly POSSE bmannconsulting.comBoris Mann https://bmannconsulting.com/blog/2024/01/06/mostly-posse/ I appreciate the walkthrough and seeing others’s setup. After about 3 months on Micro.blog I feel like I could still go further. I am partial-POSSE (Publish on Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) but not quite ready for PESOS (Publish Elsewhere, Syndicate to Own Site). POSSE ± PESOS? I use Micro blog as my main launch point on the web now, cross-posting to my 🦋 Bluesky (@chadkohalyk.
Watched Forrest Gump tonight for the first time since I saw it in theatres when it came out in 1994. Wow, still stands up 👏 😭 👏
Perfect blue sky for some 初詣 ⛩️
2024 is “The Year the World Votes” because nearly half the world will be voting for new national leadership. Here is a roundup from FP. A big year for fighting disinformation.
This panel of women leaders from the Yukon was a fun listen and very inspiring for 2024. The assumption of subsidiarity in the North reminds me of what I read in Graeber+Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything #governance
Earthquake! Whoa we felt that in Kyoto
明けましておめでとうございます🎉🐲
ゆく年くる年 is literally my favourite TV show. I look forward to it every year! #nhk
Sent out my final newsletter of the year! Now it is time to kick back, get the noodles going, and watch some end of year Japanese TV (for the last time…) 🎍🔴🎤⚪️🐲
Best of 2023
I think this photo is my fav of the year. Historically my annual “best of” posts are a roundup of the best books and film I consumed, but this year I would like to add a little bit more about personal developments. With my father-in-law passing in 2022, this year was about cleaning up the estate, healing, and enjoying Japan before returning to Canada. We were able to get quite a bit of travel in: Tanegashima, Kagoshima, and Kirishima in the south; a summer break in Iki; and in the north Iwate, Fukushima and Aomori.
Hagia Sophia
As described in my previous post, Istanbul is a city of layers. Nothing demonstrates this more than one of the gems of the city: the Hagia Sophia. Built on the site of an earlier Christian church erected in 336 AD by Constantius II (son of the Emperor Constantine) the current building was made in the 532 AD by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. For a thousand years it was the largest building in the world.
Nice discussion with @becedo.bsky.social on how Nihon Shoki & Kojiki are treated through time newbooksnetwork.com/meanings-…
If you want to hear what’s IN the Chronicles, I recommend this great podcast by @tatsushu@historians.social sengokudaimyo.com/podcast