LMNT

When I woke up on Saturday at 4am to use the toilet, I made the mistake of picking up my phone. Instead than sleeping, I opened a conversation from the day before. I clicked a link to Parakeet only to find the website wasn’t loading. I went to this blog’s URL and found it similarly did not load. And then all the rest of my websites, none of which would load. I threw off my covers and headed downstairs to my desk. I love websites. I love making them, and I want everyone to do it. But whenever I…

App icons that conform to the bounds of a squircle are no different from the millions of constraints that define the macOS and iOS platforms we design and develop in. Of course it is an Apple-defined constraint. Most platform guidance we follow to make apps are Apple-defined constraints. Do not forget: we design and develop apps within the macOS container. We have to acknowledge that space when we design and develop apps. There was a term from an old Human Interface Guidelines document I love:…

I’ve lived in Japan for three years now, and today is the first time I’ve had a tamago sando from 7-Eleven. I go to 7-Eleven often. Maybe a few times every week. That's a lot more than I used to go to my local convenience store in Portland, even though it was the same proximity from home. 7-Eleven is where I buy milk, bread, and eggs. When I moved here, I went to 7-Eleven nearly every morning to get a sandwich for breakfast. I didn’t do it because their sandwiches were incredible. I did it…

Back on my bullshit. This guava soda is good, maybe too sweet? But these “New” (new to Japan) Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? Guys, these are not “Flamin’ Hot.” They are barely spicy. Also, they’re not even red! So I guess that is “New.”

Went up to Asakusa on a shopping mission, but the shop was closed. Yoshikami turned out to be a worthwhile consolation prize, because hayashi rice was available! I asked the guy behind the counter if I could stick my senjafuda to the wall, and he took out rag to wipe down a spot for me. Given the shadows of stickers from days past, I assume mine will one day get removed too, but I guess it’ll stick around for now!

Just passing by on my way to get jerk chicken from a nice friend.

Slop is gaining ground. Low-quality content, including AI-generated trash, is advancing on all fronts for attention. Whether it’s encouraged competitive behavior on social media or regurgitated content gobbled back up and spit back out via LLMs, we’re reaching a point very quickly where our attention is being spent on shit we never should’ve seen in our entire lives. I’ve long-held a belief that “discovery” features on social media only serve to elevate content I don’t want to see. The work…

In The Mandalorian and Grogu film, there’s a food pod where Martin Scorsese’s character serves up sandwiches, and just knowing it was a Jon Favreau film, I figured he brought in Roy Choi to help. Roy was his culinary advisor for another Favreau film, Chef, one of my favorite films. Sure enough, in the end credits, he was listed as a culinary advisor. The pair put up a video about making this sandwich that felt like a special episode of The Chef Show. All of this to say that today, we cooked up…

Last week, the neighborhood started preparing for 鳥越祭り (Torigoe Matsuri), setting out 新鮮 (shinsen, offering) in front of the 浅三 (Asakusabashi san-chōme) mikoshi. When the weekend finally came, we put on our matsuri clothes and headed to the shrine. This is Ayano’s first time participating in a local matsuri that required matsuri clothes, which we got in Nihonbashi for her last week, including matching pastel rainbow 帯 (obi, sash) for the both of us. Then we did the next-most important thing: we…

Went to see Laufey in concert, which was super fun. But the truth is that I was there to see my friend Xanthe playing in the string quartet portion of the band. Sometimes, I’m genuinely amazed with what people I know do.

My friend Xanthe was in town just for a couple days, so we did what anyone would do: eat blueberry shave ice.

Download icons from LMNT An expansion pack of 17 new Datatapes, featuring sigils and symbols ranging from mercenaries and criminal syndicates to scientific research labs and commercial spacelines found throughout the galaxy. Represent your data with marks seen in Star Wars stories, printed on the surface of ancient datatapes.

Take a moment to appreciate this cute car. Don’t you want to take a road trip in this thing?

Well, it’s time for that annual blog post. I’ve been in Japan for three years now. In short, I love living here, and I’m continuing to embrace living in my own unique way. §New Opportunities Actually, just recently I had my first proper Japanese client. Even if it came by way of Italy, I had a meeting out in Yoyogi, did the work, and everyone’s happy. I hope there will be more opportunities to work with people locally, because I really enjoy being able to communicate more closely. Also, a…

These simple wall panels have been embedded in my mind since childhood. With the addition of a darker variant from Scarif and a “green lights” version inspired by the tractor beam console shaft, these three styles can seamlessly transition throughout the day as a dynamic wallpaper or switch automatically with light and dark UI. These go great with datatape hard drive icons. Download wallpapers from LMNT

Download icons from LMNT The Imperial data vault on Scarif contained thousands of datatapes, one of them being the plans for the Death Star. After the plans were broadcast to the Rebel fleet, they were transferred to a small datacard. Now you can represent your disks and servers using these same data formats from Star Wars, including datatapes that feature faction symbols emblazoned on the surface. These icons are color-matched with all twelve Star Wars faction wallpapers I made last year.

It’s time! Here they are! Just look at these!

I’ve never had a coffee-at-home situation before, but I think I’m obsessed with this little guy.

Almost time for the best flower!

From my annual trip down to the immigration office.

It’s finally warm enough for Ayano to consider eating kakigori. I’ve been waiting for this.

Believe it or not, this is my first Mini Stop soft cream, and I’m really sorry I’ve been sleeping on this. I got a banana-vanilla swirl. But please give special attention to the most incredible innovation of our time: the waffle spoon.

I was just talking about how hard it’s been finding a good American-style fried chicken sandwich, and this place pops up. This is the current special item, a sour cream and onion chicken sandwich. A whole grilled onion slice on a fried chicken sandwich. Astoundingly smart and good. I couldn’t stop talking about how good it was when I was eating it and also several hours later. This is going to be a problem for me.

Another birthday, another DisneySea day. As far as crowds go, about the same as last year. But it never felt like we were waiting too long for anything because we avoided things with longer lines. For example, I skipped one of the Food & Wine Festival dishes, because it didn’t have a mobile order window. First up was pork with an apple-mustard sauce from Waterside Terrace in American Waterfront. (It was good!) Side note: paper maps and guides are the best because you can draw on them. It’s very…

Twenty years ago today, I made Aqua Neue, my very first “system replacement” icon set. It was a big step for me. For some reason, this was like a rite of passage. Making a system replacement set is a ton of work, because it requires a diversity of icons. It’s not just documents and folders, but also toolbar icons, sidebar icons, and trash cans. I was seventeen. I was just about to graduate from high school. Had I not pursued making icons at this scale, at this point in my life, I may never have…

I used Vivaldi in earnest for a few days. While I believe the intentions to be great overall, what I dislike seems to be deliberate decisions, either fundamental or principled, that are unlikely to change over time. Upsides You can customize virtually anything about the UI. It’s not made by Apple, Google, or Microsoft. Downsides The default settings are geared toward power-users, elevating features that most people probably don’t care about, making customizing mandatory in practice. The vast…

Still in awe about the abundance of flowers in a dense city environment.

Luka sent me a care package including Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It’s all I ever wanted, really.

There are some moments, places, little scenes, times of day that really make me feel like I’m living in a Ghibli movie.

After my first “Japanese business meeting” at Yoyogi the other day, I felt like I deserved an indulgent Milanese pizza lunch at Spontini. Gosh, it's so good and unlike other pizza around here.