The new school term started today. The children seemed a little nervous, somehow. Restless, hearts beating — but looking forward to it, too; that came across.
"Cats and casuca", where Yu was exhibiting, has ended safely, and most of the works shown have gone to new owners, it seems. Works made with care colouring someone's everyday life. When I imagine that person glancing at the work and feeling soothed or warmed, and being glad, I feel happy too.
To those who came to the venue, thank you.
To those who took a work home, thank you.
Yu's own thoughts are here ↓
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcukv2okzZ5/
This year again there isn't enough water, and the rice field is in a sorry state.
It has rained on some days recently, but water never returns to the channel or the field.
Drought, stationary rain bands, melting glaciers. I'm bewildered by changes that make me wonder whether we've crossed a tipping point of climate change. I think this is an age with much to learn from the lives and ways of great people before the Showa era.
Recently I started meditating.
I asked AI to teach me a few five-minute morning meditations I could do indoors, and every morning it suggests "today, this one". I'd been interested in meditation, but what made me decide to try was learning that Joichi Ito does it. That was about two years ago, mind.
In Eastern thought, too, I learned the importance of shindoku — being careful when alone — and I make deliberate time each morning to face myself.
Do you?
At the moment I'm working on developing AI skills, and on writing a Kindle book about rice growing.
It's a practical handbook of rice growing in step with nature, which I've been doing for fourteen years now.
Several chapters are already up on note, and I'll keep adding, so please read them if you like.
note (in Japanese) https://note.com/flow_move/m/mf27d0c7032a1
Back in July I thought upland rice might be effective for natural farming under a changing climate, but living things do need water, and I've paused to wonder what to do. The fields that had relatively more water and the ones that dried out early really do grow completely differently.
Making things with AI has become normal for me, and I'm re-examining assumptions I used to take for granted.
Until now the website was built the orthodox way, with Xserver and WordPress. I'm still using it, patching as I go.
But since Claude Fable 5 appeared, AI has become genuinely usable, so we can work together. Hand it the browser and it just finishes the job on its own, so I can do other things. That's how much routine work can be delegated now. It's astonishing.
From here on, the website will be built and managed with Cloudflare and Sanity. Moving the domain email is no problem either.
When I had AI estimate it:
- Now: Xserver, roughly 990 yen a month + MyASP 6,600 yen a month (from late September) = about 7,600 yen a month
- After migration: zero monthly fees + only the domain at about 1,600 yen a year = about 130 yen a month
A cost saving on the scale of switching from a big-three mobile carrier to a budget one. This is something I want to deal with early.
Prices will keep rising bit by bit, which means interest rates will probably creep up too. We have to defend ourselves.
And so this has gradually turned into a gloomy topic.
We've had economic activity centred on money, so the reaction is large.
That's exactly why I think time spent facing philosophy and thought is needed more than ever. "Only now, only money, only me" is far too irresponsible.
Sharing techniques for riding the money game of the capitalist economy,
and sharing insights gained by facing what really matters — empathy, and acknowledging in each other the loveable, irrational humanness.
Both matter, I think. But I can't quite find the grace to enjoy a money game I've been forced into. Maybe my viewpoint is off.
Asking myself that too, I walk forward step by step.
(Hideo)