I see many photos in my Instagram feed of the sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japan, which are blooming right now. Several years ago, when we moved into our house, we planted a cherry blossom tree in our backyard so we could enjoy the sakura each year as well. Although the blossoms look beautiful, Mariko pointed out that they are not as nice as the ones in Japan because the trees are not supposed to have leaves on them at the same time as the blossoms. And it’s true, the ones in Japan are all flowers, and no green. Nevertheless, I still think the flowers look terrific.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO250 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！ Hello! We made it to the weekend. It was such a quick week it seemed! But the cold weather came back today, along with the rain. Luckily the forecast for the rest of the weekend looks sunny and warmer. ☀️ Koa has a baseball tournament so I hope the baseball fields have time to dry out before the games.
Tonight’s dinner was a super trifecta of sorts… we had takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba. And a nice cold beer to round out the meal. The takoyaki and yakisoba are typical foods served at festivals in Japan, from small stands, so tonight’s meal reminded me of when we lived there, and of course a festival is fun so they are feel-good types of food! 😋 I find it fascinating that smells and tastes can transport you back to different parts of your life. It’s great.
The photo for today is of the sky and clouds that I saw on the way to work. Last night there was a storm, and in the morning there was a break in the clouds when I took the photos. But later in the day, the clouds and rain returned. ☔ In the evening, it cleared up and we’re looking forward to a nice weekend. I hope to take some photos outdoors!
Hi, this is the first day of the A-Z Challenge! (It’s my first time doing it, but was nudged along by Jamie Lyn Weigt 😄) So, without further ado…
A is for “Anime”
I often say, “I’m not a huge anime fan…” but when I do watch, I usually enjoy it. Of course it depends on the story. For instance, I don’t like sci-fi/mecha anime too much, but I do like adventure and slice-of-life types of stories.
Just recently I finished a great 13-part anime series titled “The Pilot’s Love Song” which takes place in an alternate reality, but a lot of the tech is similar. For instance, the story revolves around flying, and the planes they use are all prop-type, and they use conventional guns, but there is also some supernatural components as well. And of course, their world is a series of stepped discs, suspended in the air, with floating islands and a rainbow barrier surrounding them all.
I thought the artwork and the air combat was pretty cool. The story is interesting, although predictable, and thankfully the opening theme song (video below) and closing song are good. That’s important because they take up so much of each episode (I don’t skip forward)!
“The Pilot’s Love Song” ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, but I don’t think a second season is in the works. I hope they make one, because it was fun and I need to know how the adventure continues! You can watch the first season at Crunchyroll.
So now I am looking for more anime to watch. If you have any suggestions (especially if they are on Netflix or Crunchyroll) let me know!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！ Good evening!
Today’s weather was so warm and humid, but it felt nice to be outside. I went outside at lunch to buy some lunch at the food truck, and I was wearing a jacket even though it was in the 80s. I am not sure if my office is cold, but I feel like I am freezing while I work so I usually have a jacket on and then I just wore it outside and tried to warm up… and it helped for an hour or so, but then it was back to freezing. ❄️
Today’s photo is of a Vietnamese-style sandwich on a homemade baguette that Mariko made. It was super delicious, and the jalapeños were spicy! I love the heat. The hotter the better! 🔥
Well, tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to getting a lot done! I don’t have any meetings scheduled so I need to put my head down and crank out a lot of tasks. By the way, I am still using Toggl to track my work and that is going well. Once I got used to clicking on the task as soon as I start new work, it is second-nature now. I often switch between things, like I am gathering graphics files, and then I see an email come into my inbox. Before I check the mail, I click on the task in Toggl, and then check the email. When I am done with the email, I click on the task I was doing before that, then continue with the task. By doing this, I get a very accurate representation of where I spend most of my time. Yesterday, for instance, I spent 2h 36m responding to and writing email… which to me is astonishing. I would have never thought I spend so much time doing that! But I can’t argue with the data.
I guess I was getting overwhelmed with work for a while there, and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t seem to finish certain projects… I knew I was working hard, but I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong. But now I have the visibility into exactly where my time goes… and I can see that I simply have too many things on my plate right now. Although that is a problem, at least I can pinpoint what it is and not worry that I am doing something wrong. It’s a big step in improving my daily workload and estimating time!
Alright, it’s now getting late and I am going to read. Take care!
おやすみなさい！
– バロン
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My camera & photos
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?
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/800 sec, ISO200
