frozen octopus

My watch has an action button. You can set it to do things like "turn on the flashlight" and many other things. One of them is to "run a shortcut".

I finally got around to making a shortcut where I can dictate (or type) into Drafts and make a quick note. I set the action button to run that shortcut.

It rules. I can get a thought out my head and captured in seconds. I can do it on a crowded train without pulling out a phone. I can whisper the idea and it can still understand me.

Steps

1. Make a shortcut called "Action Button"
2. Add the "Get Device Details (Extended)" action and set it to "Device Is Watch"
3. Add the Dictate Text action
4. Add the Set Variable action, give the variable a name, and have it accept Dictate Text
5. Add the "Create Draft" action and have it accept your variable
6. Set you watches Action button to use your Action Button shortcut.

The only way I could get it to work was by using a variable. I tried to create a a Draft by accepting the dictated text directly and nothing would happen. Adding the variable step made it work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Woke up today thinking about how much money hotels in Japan hotels are leaving on the table because of their tattoo rules.

One of the biggest attractions for vacation in Japan are the hot spring baths. A majority of hotels have rules barring people with tattoos from using the bath.

Estimations:

• estimated percentage of Americans with tattoos is 30%
• estimated visitors from America to Japan is between 1 and 1.5 million

That means around 400,000 Americans that visit Japan can't use the hot spring baths. Most don't travel alone so it's probably likely their group will choose a hotel that they can all enjoy together.

Let's use an easy price, like $100 for one night, to calculate.

400,000 people * $100 = $40,000,000 (or ¥5,981,400,000)

Rooms are more expensive than that usually. That number doesn't include food and drinks even. That's a lot of money left on the table because of body art rules.

Got some half-priced katsuo at the supermarket last night. Marinated it in sesame oil and vinager overnight. ¥200 tasted like ¥2000 for lunch today.

After watching a video about iterative thinking, it made me feel less bummed about trying ways to organize projects in my to-do system. The video reminded me to enjoy a failure because you get to try the next idea. Each attempt is a chance to level-up the skills.

Yesterday ruled. We went to see a friends photography exhibit at Tennozu Isle station. A very cool exhibition and nice to chill out by the ocean.

After that we went to see a legendary 1970s punk band called Totsuden Danboru at a live house called 七針 (nana hari/seven needles) near Hatchobori station. Such a cool spot to see a show.

One of my pinball philosophies is if you win a free game in pinball, you leave it for the next person. Better someone else comes along and gets the joy of finding it.

I usually don't have a better game if I play the free game so it's better to leave it and move on to a different machine.

Buying a pencil satisfies many needs for me. My hunter/gatherer genes get a chance to do something when shopping without spending tons of money. My brain/heart feels less guilty for stomping around a store and leaving empty-handed. My hands love it because holding a pencil is the closest thing to holding a drumstick in the stationery store.

I use them at home, work, and band practice. The only small drawback is that once they're sharpened down to shorter than your hand, the balance gets weird. At that size, they're cool for writing a tiny note or putting in an everyday carry bag. Mini-golf pencil-sized pencils are a pain for writing for five minutes straight, though.

My solution lately is that when a pencil gets shorter than hand width, it graduates to "cross-off" level. The longer pencils have to do the hard work of writing word after word on checklists and brain dumps. The short pencils get the honor of crossing off completed tasks and ideas. They stay in the flow until they sharpen away into oblivion.