daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
こんばんは！
I am very tired and falling asleep, but I wanted to post this photo, which is of my Pinky:St figurine, as seen through the viewfinder of my Fujifilm X100T camera, but backwards. As if she were the photographer. If you are on Instagram, feel free to follow me there!
I hope you had a nice Thursday. Can you believe it’s already September?
おやすみなさい！
– バロン 
こんばんは！
Today I worked from home, which is nice to do once in a while. I don’t know if I am more productive at home or in the office, but I can say that it is a different kind of productivity. At the office, there’s always a lot of urgent matters that come up and need my attention, but when I work from home, it’s usually pretty worry-free.
Of course, there are days that are just crazy, but the past few times I’ve worked from home, the email has been quiet and I can focus on my work. It’s nice!! But of course, it is kind of lonely too. And I like the coffee ☕, tea 🍵, and fizzy water at the office.
Today’s photo is of my work-space at home. I spent some time tidying up and throwing stuff out, and I think it made a big difference so I wanted to share with a picture! But when I saw the photo, I realized that I still had a lot to do so I cleaned up more, and now it is getting really nice. 😄
You can see my work laptop on the left side. I’ll do most of my work there, and when I face that direction, I can look out the window which is great. If it’s a sunny day, it brightens my mood and gives me energy.
If I need to work in InDesign, I’ll switch over to my desktop computer with large monitor and do the work, then transfer it back to the laptop via Dropbox or a USB stick. It’s a convenient set-up! But most of the time, the desktop computer is playing music while I work. 🎵
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This morning I took my son to school early because of his band practice. I snapped this photo of the lovely sunrise and wanted to share. I hope you had a great day!
おやすみなさい！
– B
こんばんは！How’s it going?
Tonight, Mariko and her friend Kumiko cooked a delicious Indian meal of Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, and Naan. 🍴 It was completely homemade, with fresh ingredients brought home from the Indian market, and everything tasted so much better than the store-bought versions. Thankfully, they made so much that we’ll be able to enjoy it for a couple more nights. 😄
I’m very happy that our kids like to eat all kinds of different foods, even spicy types. Life is a lot more interesting if you have a willingness to try new things, isn’t it? It’s good to be adventurous!
Speaking of being adventurous, I’m happy that Bay has an interest in traveling ✈️, just like I did at his age. And I am thankful that my parents also like to travel… my dad took me to Paris 🇫🇷 when I was young, and they even let my brothers and I travel to London 🇬🇧 on our own. How fortunate that my mom worked for a major airline… that had a big influence on my family!
Looking back now, those early travels had a big affect on the way I live my life now. And of course when I traveled to Tokyo with them, that REALLY changed my life… I wouldn’t have moved to Japan 🇯🇵 and then gotten married to my wife if it weren’t for that trip! So I guess I am a bit biased in that I encourage people to travel.
Of course a huge part of traveling is sampling the local cuisine. That is one of the highlights of any trip we go on. And it doesn’t have to be fancy… I think it’s important that the food is local and authentic. Besides being delicious, the local hangouts are usually inexpensive as well. Win-win!
Well, today’s post was a bit of a ramble, but oh well, that’s me. 😆 I hope you had a nice Tuesday!
おやすみなさい！
– B
こんばんは！How’s it going?
I’m always amazed that the cats can be comfortable enough to sleep just about anywhere. In the photo above, Anko is taking a nap on top of Lani’s crate. Even though there is a thin blanket on top, the wire crate can’t be that comfortable, can it? 🐱
But the cats’ favorite place to lounge is on the handlebars of our exercise bike. Sometimes both of them get up there and take naps together. I guess that perch is in the prime location, right in the middle of the living room so they can have a view of the kitchen, the breakfast area, the aquarium, and their room. And maybe they feel safe up there since Lani cannot bother them! 🐶
I hope you had a nice Monday, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
おやすみなさい！
– バロン
こんばんは！How’s it going?
I read something the other day that I thought was cool. It went something like, “It’s not a setback, it’s a plot twist.” I haven’t had many setbacks in my life, but it’s fun to think of your life as a story, isn’t it?
I know that the quote is meant to help someone who is hurt or grieving, but even when a good thing happens to you, it is a major event in your own plot and it may be worthwhile to spend some time thinking about it.
Or find things to be thankful for.
Or building upon what happened and learning from it.
The protagonists in stories are affected by these major plot events and it shapes what they do and how they think. As protagonists in our own stories, it might be healthy to take a look at our own script as it is being written and evaluate it from time to time.
Maybe this is a naive way of thinking, but it’s fun to ponder these things sometimes.
Today’s photo is of the sunset as seen from our house. I really love the clouds around Austin these past several days.
I hope you had a refreshing weekend, and let’s have a great week, wherever the plot takes you.
Take care,
– B
