Hello! from Rick Cogley

Maru the Shiba was “helping” Akko read the paper this AM. Cuteness overload every day. 🐕

Happy Halloween everyone! My wife got me a frankenstein wagashi. She trying to say something?! 🎃

What an exciting World Series! Congrats to the Dodgers (Shohei’s wish came true), better luck next time to the Yankees. The games were so exciting, you couldn’t assume anything. Freeman’s performance will be the stuff of schoolboy dreams. When’s the season opener again?! ⚾️🍾

I tried verifying my LinkedIn profile via Persona, but it won’t let me select the US presumably because it detects me in Japan. What an idiotic system, that tries to prevent fraud but actually causes more of it because people have to resort to vpn hacks if they want to verify. 🤷

We cleaned and prepped our old house over the last 2 months preparing for guests who had got free air tickets. Turns out those were “standby” ones and they couldn’t come. 🥲

Heading to the US, first time since before COVID. Will see family and a client. Somehow the flight to SFO tonight didn’t get cancelled, but Haneda is empty. ✈️

“Bookie” is a good series, funny and dark with a great cast.

PSA: as more than 120 people (many elderly, per AP news) died of heatstroke in Tokyo in July 2024, record heat and heat warnings continue. Learn the signs (high temp, lack of sweat, slurred speech, confusion, headache, nausea, dizziness etc) and first aid for heatstroke, and take precautions! 🥵

Is anyone using breathing techniques like the Wim Hof method or 4-7-8 or box breathing? I’m thinking of trying it for a while and wanted to ask anyone’s experiences. 🧘🏼

Maru the Shiba doesn’t recently run around like a crazed mongrel after his walk, but today he ran around like a crazed mongrel after his walk. Of course we encouraged it; always good for a laugh. 🐾💨

Some snaps from a night strolling and eating in Shinjuku Tokyo, a few years back. 📷

Maru the Shiba looking cool on a hot summer day 😎

If you use a Yubikey for MFA for your Apple Id: it failed for me during the install of a new Mac (rejected the correct PIN), so I opted to setup later. When I did so, MacOS raised an error about the Yubikey being a keyboard, so I resolved that first, then was able to setup Apple Id. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Jogged about 13km from Totsuka to Kamakura in the Xero H-Trail sandals on Saturday early AM, then used the shower facilities at OSJ Shonan Club House before meeting A for lunch. Convenient, and they had a full range of Altra shoes! 🚿

Had my hugo build scripts all break at once, because of some deprecations. Fortunately an easy fix. ⚙

I’ve been wearing “barefoot” shoes for jogging for a few years now, and decided to try these Xero H-Trail running sandals. Wore them this AM on a 3km jog on various surfaces, and they worked well even in the rain. The key was to not grip the toe post too much and to stay relaxed. 🏃

My US driver’s license is expired so I am getting an International Drivers License to be able to rent a car when I visit. It should be easier than this, but, I just want to say that the process at the police station in Totsuka was super simple, friendly even. 👮

JIS finally released the Japanese language version of ISO 27002, called “JIS Q 27002:2024”. This is the guideline to ISO 27001’s annex A, a good practice guideline for implementing infosec controls. Now we don’t have to rely on beta translations. 🚀

Have you heard of the important BSI Standard PAS 5222:2024, developed to give guidelines for safeguarding children during out-of-school activities? My hope is that ISO and JIS pick it up. 🛝

Maru’s favorite spot, looking handsome after his trim. 🐕

Lucky Brews for this lucky dad! 🥰

Daughter 2 brought delicious cannelè sweets in various flavors from Shinagawa station. It’s a celebration! 🥳