Hello there! 👋
First time writing this letter on Leap Day. I actually rebooted this newsletter in mid-2020. On that last Leap Day we were 10 days away from moving to Iki Island. We had handed over the keys to our little house in Kelowna and began a nomadic life that we never expected to last this long. This month, in 2024, we just handed over the keys to our apartment in Kyoto. Yes, after 18+ years in the family, the Kyoto apartment is now sold and passed on to the next family. That was probably the biggest task of the estate cleanup after the passing of my father-in-law. We are clear to return to Canada.
And thus this month we had a call with a real estate agent in Vancouver who has started sending us a steady supply of potential apartments in the Lower Mainland (which is what we call Vancouver and its surrounding suburbs). I look forward to the day when I can just live in the moment and not have to worry about the next move…
Anyways, shall we talk about the past for a moment? Below are some links to some spring adventures I got up to. Getting out of the house and connecting with new people and old friends (including some Ritsumeikan people I hadn’t seen for more than a decade) was a theme for the month. Also, I had lots of feedback about my last newsletter note on FUN which has been as surprising as it has been gratifying! There is more in that vein we should explore.
But I shall leave it here for this month since there are lots of links to share below.
Next month is cherry blossom season, which I am very much looking forward to as we now live by Osaka's premier cherry blossom area. 🌸🌸🌸 Stay warm! Spring is afoot.
— Chad
🖋 From the Blog
Networking our networks
Community-building in Tokyo
"we all can't be Buddhas"
A tip for Big Tent community building
GitHub's Innovation Graph
Tracking software dev collaboration between countries
More on Decentralization
An additional note on my attempt to process some nuance around decentralization
🧭 Elsewhere
📸 Photos from my trip to Tokyo Link →
📷 Plum blossoms at Osaka Castle (a little early) Link →
📸 Giant lion-dog Link →
A delicious new keyboard every day! Link →
"Live in a small apartment rather than a big, drafty house... Fly rarely... Work less... exercise ... Tax the rich... basic income... capital toward home care and nursing homes, not arms...neighborhoods dense and walkable..." etc Link →
The 2025 Republican playbook is a disaster for climate change (among other things) Link →
“No ethnic aisle here — tomato sauce and soy sauce are sharing the space.” On supermarkets in Vancouver suburbs. Link →
AI. 😂 👀 😥 Nails it. Video →
📖 What I’m Reading
Global Digital Data Governance: Polycentric Perspectives edited by Carolina Aguerre, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, and Jan Aart Scholte
(24% Complete)
The initial chapters are really exciting, explaining and applying the polycentrism of Ostrom. It is clear the way through the centralization-decentralization dichotomy is polycentrism.
Connect with me on GoodReads → or on Bookwyrm →