The world is still weird, but if youāre reading this, odds are youāre even weirder.
Insert pithy quote where a famous person said itās good to be weird.
Iāll be honest, Iām all out of pithy wisdom, to that I had much to start with. But the world is moving - forward, backward, or sideways - and my friend Nick told me Iām overdue for an update, so here we are.
If I havenāt heard from you recently, consider this an invite to change that.
Itās hard to say when Iāll be able to leave Japan again, so all bets are off for travel. The shine wore off Zoom meetings (not that Iāve slowed down), so it feels like a lot of us are re-retreating from public life. I respect those of my friends who can post small updates to social media and have the patience to engage with the gold between fun, ignorant, and interesting responses.
For now, I remain a digital hermit.
šļø Hereās whatās up right now:
š§Ā Listening to:Ā I havenāt been listening to anything new thatās blown my mind over the past couple of month, but I did make varied, low-key playlist for my local cocktail bar. This isĀ a pretty good sampling of whatās banging my earholes lately.
šĀ Reading: The Dog StarsĀ was a surprisingly good post-apocalypse novel, where everyone dies in a (what else?) pandemic. Peter Hellerās travel and outdoors background lends believability to elements I typically find boring and contrived. As Anny told me, I enjoyedĀ Shadow and Bone and have just started the second book on the trilogy. Business related:Ā Unleashed,Ā Fix This Next,Ā Eat Your Greens, plus a few I canāt recommend.
š„Ā Taido:Ā As of next week, weāre able to use our dojo again, so itāll be great to be on a regular schedule of training with others.
šĀ Thinking about:Ā GMB crossed a major milestone with ten years in business now behind us. We havenāt done any kind of promo or announcement yet, because it doesnāt feel like a good time for celebration right now, but we plan to do something special for our clients later this year when we complete some product updates. But what Iāve really been thinking about is whether or not I want the next ten years to be a continuation of the same things weāve been doing so far, and the answer to that is: no. So a lot of my time lately is going into designing the company we need to become to grow into the company I want us to be ten years from now.
šØāš©āš§āš¦ People & Family:
š« Next week begins summer vacation. Since COVID cases are increasing again in Tokyo, we wonder if it may extend longer than currently planned.Ā
āŗ Thereās not a ton of great travel options right now, but weāre going to Yamanashi for a few days to camp out and get away from the city for a while. Itāll be my first proper vacation this year (I had vacations planned in April and June, but they got canceled when shit got weird).
š“ My friend Bryan just turned old yesterday. HBD, brother.
š§° Things Iām finding useful:
š§āāļø I met one of the founders ofĀ Apollo NeuroĀ in Croatia last year and tried an early version. Finally got the production model, and itās oddly effective for helping me focus and relax on demand.
šø Another gadget I waited quite a long time for: myĀ SPARKĀ amp is tiny, sounds amazing (Positive Grid has the best component emulation around), and is controlled by a handy iOS app. I preordered it back in November last year, and between COVID and international shipping, it took a while, but Iāve been playing a ton lately and enjoying it more than I had since moving to Japan.
āļøĀ TravelĀ = Nope!
š¤·āāļø Non-Japanese citizens are still facing a lot of uncertainty right now. Though the government isĀ justĀ (as in, in the past couple of days) starting to allow re-entry, this is so far limited to permanent residents and requires some onerous restrictions and hoops to jump through. At this rate, Iām not gonna be leaving for quite a while.
If youāve scrolled this far, I have a favor to ask:
Donāt stop fighting.
People are saying that COVID is over. Thatās bullshit. Theyāre saying the protests against police brutality are over. Also bullshit. The economy is doing fine. Bullshit. Democracy is working. Bullshit.
We get tired of being angry all the time, so when someone comes along and tells us everything is fine, we want to believe it. But things arenāt fine.
Whatever youāve been fighting for, donāt give up just because the fight got boring.