Bright day

Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec, ISO6400
Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! How’s it going?

Today I spent the first half of the day at the baseball fields watching Koa’s team play back-to-back games in the bright morning light. It’s only April, but the Texas sun is already strong. In fact, I got a nice sunburn on my arms! Koa’s team lost both games, but they had fun and scored a decent amount of runs. Tomorrow, Koa is playing in another one… the All-star game! ⚾️ He was one of the players chosen to represent his team, so that means 3 games in two days. And on top of that, Monday night, he has another regular game! so 4 games in 3 days. It’s crazy! Normally there are not so many games in one stretch, but there were a couple earlier games that got rained out, so these are make-up games. I think Koa is going to be one tired player!

Today’s photo is of my latest Instax prints and the cool set of markers I use to take notes on them. I love the Instax prints so much. They have a wonderful charm about them… Even my mediocre photos look nice when printed on instant film! ☺️

I am about two-thirds of the way through Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, and I am enjoying it a lot! It’s interesting and fun… a nice light YA read, and great for a change of pace. I recommend it. In fact, I am going to read more right now before I sleep.

おやすみなさい and take care!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Friday!

Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1000
Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! It’s Friday!

I’m not sure when it happened, but Friday nights changed from a time to celebrate and go out for dinner and drinks, to a time to just relax at home. It’s kind of a different celebration I guess… 😊

But I enjoy it nonetheless! Spending the evening reading a good book… it’s very cliché, right? But I look forward to it! 📔

Today’s photo is of our black and white cat, Anko. Kittens play so much, but they tire out easily. It’s part of their charm. 🐱

Time to read! おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

A-Z Challenge – M

M stands for “Maps”

I’ve been kind of a map otaku ever since I was little. In my previous post, I talked about visiting the library when I was young, and one of the things I loved to look at there was the atlases and map books. These were the large books that were near the reference librarians and were items that you couldn’t borrow. But they were so fascinating to me! I actually have a bunch of maps I saved from National Geographic magazines that I had subscribed to. In fact, that was kind of the reason I had a subscription… because the Nat Geo maps were so nice! 🌐

These days, I like to explore using Google Maps, but it’s fun to look at paper maps still. I have a few road atlases, and my old Tokyo map that I used so much. I’ll never get rid of that one! It was my constant companion when I moved to Japan. A real life-saver.

Right now I am reading a book that I borrowed from the library called “On the Map” which is all about the history of maps (so far). It’s fascinating! I highly recommend it if you are a map otaku like I am. 😄

A-Z Challenge – L

L stands for “Library”

I’ve always enjoyed going to the library ever since I was little. My parents used to take us to the excellent Torrance Public Library, which was pretty huge, and really fun for a kid. The children’s section was upstairs on the second floor and I remember heading up the stairs that were just past the checkout desk and heading up to check out the cool books about dinosaurs or space or even just look at all the World Book encyclopedias.

As I sit here now typing this post, so many memories are coming flooding back to me… one of the strongest is of how the library smelled… for some reason the elevator had a distinctive odor… something industrial like oil or rubber. Anyways, I love that smell, but the only time I’ve encountered it is at that library. I wonder if it still smells like that after all these years… I’ll definitely have to check the next time I am in Torrance. I am curious to see if the rock and gem collection is still on display at the entrance to the library. That was always a treat to see those cool geodes!

But there are many things that I cannot remember… like the exact layout of the library… I think because these are children’s memories, I don’t recall a lot of the sections that had the grown-up books. Those areas are all very hazy in my mind. Which is odd, because when I was in high school, I had a part time job at the same library and had to shelve books in all sections. So I should have strong memories. I wonder why this is.

Anyways, the local library that we visit now is much smaller than that of my childhood, but it is top-notch. I always find something good to read there! And there is a pretty good manga section, plenty of dvds to borrow, and they even have ebooks that you can borrow by browsing the catalog online from anywhere! It’s such a great service. (you download the books to your Kindle)

Anyways, I am so happy that we have access to another wonderful library. With so much to be cynical about in the world these days, the public libraries have a kind of purity about them that is comforting. It’s like a reminder that there is still good in this world. ☺️

 

A quick post

Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO400
Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! Hello!

As you can see from the title of this post, it’s going to a be a short one. The reason is because I am reading a book “Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City” and I am itching to get back to it. So far, it’s a lot of fun! I enjoy Young Adult fiction a lot. It’s a nice change of pace and mixes up the rhythm of things. 📔

Today’s photo is of one of the fish tanks at the pet store. Bay and I went there to buy another Tiger Barb for our 10-gallon tank. We just have two of them, and they are not getting along, but I read that Tiger Barbs are schooling fish and they do better when there are several together. The guy at the pet store said the maximum he recommends for our size tank is only 3, so we just bought a single fish. Happily, it seems like the three are getting along pretty well! よかった! 🐠

Also, our Malaysian Trumpet Snails seem to be healthy and eating away at the algae. Not enough that it looks cleaner, but I am expecting the snails to multiply their number and become an army of aquarium-cleaning monsters. Hopefully that happens soon.

OK, how was that for a quick post? 😮

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto