Lately, I am all about having a starting point or anchor point. When I am stuck on where to begin tasks, chores, or errands and I can't decide where to begin, there is the starting point. Go there and head out.

In computer mode it is the to-do app where all things flow into. For home mode, I start at the back right corner of the office/living room and work out from there. On drums it is a paradiddle on the snare but lately it is a half-time shuffle.

The goal for me with a fixed starting point is to eliminate the "where to start" and "what to start on" decisions. If I can get moving on things, I'll keep going for hours. Getting going is the slog through the mire for me. 

I ran across the idea of using moon phases as triggers to get things done. It has really stuck with me. It's one of those plain as the nose on your face level ideas. When you buy a daily planner or use a digital calendar, there is usually a moon phase in there or easy to add. It is cyclical.

Just for fun, I asked an AI to assist me with organizing my to-do system but align it with the moon. It gave me a lot of ideas to play around with in the future. There was one idea that made me point at the screen and say, "That rules!"

It told me to use the moon phase icons on my projects . That is genius. That is taking an icon and using it at full power. I can tell I love the idea because I had to rush to blog about it.

Here is what it suggested:

🌑 New Moon: Planning, starting new projects
🌓 First Quarter: Action, building momentum
🌕 Full Moon: Completion, evaluation
🌗 Last Quarter: Reflection, clearing

It could be a Kanban . It can be done with a .txt file. It can be done in an app. It can be done with paper. The actual moon could be a trigger for project review.

Oh look...today is the new moon, I should review all projects in planning phase.

I am stoked to start implementing this. Project organization is not my most favorite, so anything to make it easier to do, easier to understand, and kind of fun rules.

: If this is an idea from someone somewhere, let me know so I can credit them here.
: Kanban is pronounced kahn-bah. Full stop.

By chance, the station where the onsen hotel we booked six months ago was the same station a friend of our opened up a French bistro. We went to it and surprised him and met his wife.

He got married and moved to a big city in Japan and was going to set up a small shop there. After a few months, they realized something wasn't right.

Nothing was a challenge. They weren't learning anything new. So they sought out a beautiful onsen town in the mountains and moved there. They remodeled an abandoned clothing store into a wonderful bistro.

While we were there and talking about their shop he said a thing the stuck in my mind the rest of the trip.

Change really isn't a change if you are just moving you and your stuff to a different place.

They said so far all the good memories they have had opening the place is the learning how to do everything. Learning the new is the exciting part. Keep learning.

The ¥100 store by our place has a party section. There are really small air pumps that people buy for filling balloons. They make perfect keyboard dust cleaners. Sure beats compressed air cans.

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." ~ Confucius

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." ~ Epicurus

The amount of camera gear laying around here reached critical mass. As a self-gift for the holidays, I gave myself the gift of camera gear organization.

Went to the massive electronics store in Akihabara called Yodobashi Camera before rehearsal and did some browsing. It’s kinda insane how many choices there were just for bags.

Since I already have a backpack I love, I went for a thing called a camera box. It’s a Lowepro GearUp Pro Camera Box XL II which is a soft case with velcro dividers that I can throw into my bag for times when I need to film.

Wasn’t too spendy, has two different ways of opening it (flat or standing) and the grey outside/fluorescent orange inside look rad. Everything fits in it perfect with the adjustable divider walls. Very cool to finally have all the stuff in one spot instead of scattered around the place.

Usually we do Osouji (大掃除) at the end of the year but this year we decided to start in on it a couple weeks early. We'll do the actual washing of things the last day or two. Today we got started on the decluttering.

My "system" for this task is running things through two questions:

1. What is it?
2. Where does it live?

When I stuck to that, things got done. When I deviated, distraction set in.

Took advantage of the dollar to yen exchange rate and leveled up my winter coat. A random fashion reset which is rare for me. Enough so that my significant keeps asking me "who are you". Nothing too crazy but it's for sure a departure from previous vibes. Getting used to the length but have a longer one is already better for waiting on a train platform.

We set up a compost bucket on our veranda to see if we could get some free dirt from our food scraps. I wasn't skeptical but also wasn't 100% sure if a bucket can keep up with two people. It's working pretty well actually. The soil is dark and rich and it's generating heat.