Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO3200 “Waiting for the Movie” Austin, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today my new set of ukulele strings arrived in the mail! After that debacle yesterday at Guitar Center, I guess mini-karma came into play and my Amazon order came a day early, and on Sunday, no less. I strung up my ukulele and it sounds so much better! And the low-g sounds really good too. The reason why I wanted to make the switch is because I wanted to play one of the songs from Kiki’s Delivery Service, and the tabs/lesson I found uses the low-g. I’m making some good progress on learning the song so I am pretty happy.
I really enjoy playing the ukulele because I think it sounds nice and relaxing, plus it’s only got four strings so my brain can understand it. A regular 6-string guitar is too complex for me, I’m not embarrassed to admit. 😆
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This evening we all went to see Avengers: Infinity War. I won’t give away any spoilers but I’ll just say that the interaction between the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor was so funny. Easily my favorite part of the film. I’m really not that big of a fan of superheroes, but Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor are my favorites so it was cool to see them together.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Dinner” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today was a tiring day… I didn’t have a chance to sleep in because Bay had an SAT test at 8 am, so I needed to make him breakfast and drive him over to the high school, 25 minutes away. After that I went to the local library to vote in the city elections, then I went back home to pick up Koa and take him to the high school for his percussion contest.
I had a couple hours before picking up the kids so I went to Strait Music to see if they had a set of special ukulele strings. The set of strings I wanted is called “Low G” because the G is an octave lower than standard ukulele tuning. That particular string is a heavier gauge. Anyways, Strait Music didn’t have it in stock, so I called Guitar Center to see if they did. The salesman there confirmed that they had it in stock, and I specifically asked if it was “Low G” and he said yes. So I made the drive over, which was not an insignificant one, but when I arrived, they only had the regular sets of ukulele strings. The guy said, “Sorry about that. I don’t really know about ukuleles.” I was pretty pissed. 😤
Ugh. Anyways, I headed back home, then picked up Koa from the contest, and then made the trek over to the other high school to pick up Bay.
When we got home, Mariko had returned from work and we had some time to relax a bit before some friends came over for dinner. It was so delicious! We had a Korean-style dish with chili paste, mochi, veggies, chicken, and cheese. Accompanying that was an assortment of Korean veggies and then chawanmushi. And as a bonus, our friends brought over some uni! I was so full, but so tired too from a long day.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/15 sec, ISO3200 “May the 4th” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。May the Fourth Be with You!
In honor of Star Wars, I wore my one and only Star Wars shirt, a Uniqlo shirt that my family bought for me when they were in Japan. I still love the design! But there are seemingly random numbers on it, which must have some significance, but I don’t know what they refer to. 2, 1, 3, 3, 8, and 5. Maybe one day I’ll find out.
Today I also learned that SCANDAL will be having a concert in Dallas on September 16th! Unfortunately, I will be in China on a tour. But I’m not that bummed out because I have already seen SCANDAL in concert twice. They are pretty great, though! If you want to see a great show, go catch them on their US mini-tour!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/9 sec, ISO800 “Bread Fails” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
The past few days, Mariko has been baking a ton and sharing/selling bread to friends. And sometimes (not often) she has a bread fail… which is great for me because while the bread might not look perfect, it tastes great. 😀
The photo above shows some of the bread fails, but they still look great, don’t they?
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/340 sec, ISO200 “Blue Sky Coming” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
For the past few years, I’ve been simplifying my life in many different areas, both large and small, for instance, my camera gear, decluttering my closet, book collection, and tidying up my home workspace. But another area that I enjoy simplifying is my digital life. There are many areas of our digital lives that have gotten so cluttered and complicated, and I’m going to write about the ones I’ve identified and worked on. For tonight I’ll start with bookmarks.
I’ve been online since the early 90s, and I’ve been saving, organizing, and filing away bookmarks ever since I started using NCSA Mosaic. That’s a couple decades worth of bookmarks! Of course, I don’t keep everything, but I’d say that my collection of bookmarks has hovered at around 3 year’s worth, growing and shrinking as I find time to delete obsolete ones.
But just this past week or so I’ve been going through them and ruthlessly decluttering. First, if I look at a link and don’t know what it is by name alone, I’ll delete it. It’s obviously not important enough to keep if I don’t even know what its name is referring to. I won’t even check to see if the link is active.
For the second pass, I spend a few moments thinking about if I’ve clicked on the link within the past few months. If not, I delete. This clears out a ton of links to old hobbies that I am no longer interested in, DIY repair links to things that I’ve already fixed, shopping research for things I’ve already bought, etc.
After that, my bookmarks collection is really streamlined!
But what is the benefit of having a stripped-down collection of bookmarks since keeping them doesn’t cost anything? Well, I believe that even if a bookmark is in a hidden away in a folder, it still occupies a bit of space in my brain. But by consciously deleting the link, it frees up that space and gives a bit of closure – I know that the bookmarks folders don’t have anything obsolete or useless in them. No loose ends!
I also think that when I know I’ve streamlined the bookmarks, I’ve simplified my life and jettisoned those things that aren’t essential to me. It’s sort of a digital representation of letting go of real things that are not useful to me any longer. When I look at the folders that are lined across my bookmarks toolbar, I can see right away what’s important to me, and it kind of keeps my priorities in line. For instance, my folders are Blogging, Music, 日本語, Work, Art, Fun, Photo, Kids, Wellness, and Finances. And some subfolders are Travel, Reading, and Motorbike.
And a little technical bonus: because Chrome bookmarks sync across my entire account, when I clean up on one browser, the rest of my devices get cleaned up too. It’s like magic. Cloud magic! 😄
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Today’s photo is of the clouds breaking up to reveal clear evening skies.
I hope you had a nice hump-day!
おやすみ！
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
