Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Review: Patagonia Half Mass Messenger Bag

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It might surprise you, but until Quora gave me a Patagonia Half Mass , I'd never owned or used a bicycle messenger bag. Yes, despite al...
Friday, May 27, 2016

Bowen's First Bike Tour

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It was time for Bowen's first overnight bike tour. We grabbed the bike, detached the front section, and stuffed it into the Honda Fit....
Thursday, May 26, 2016

Review: Do Fathers Matter?

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Do Fathers Matter? is a book about fathers as parents. As a father myself I checked out the audio book from the library and eagerly listene...
Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Review: Uncharted 4: A Thieves End (PS4)

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I never buy games on pre-order. I'm the kind of person who can wait for months, buy it on discount, and then resell it for a profit. But...
Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Review: Rayman Legends (PS Vita)

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I rarely review games that I can't (or won't) finish, but I'll make an exception for Rayman Legends . Rayman Legends is a platfo...
Monday, May 23, 2016

Review: What It Is Like To Go To War

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After I read Matterhorn , I went to see what other books Karl Marlantes had written, and the non-fiction work What It Is Like To Go To War ...
Friday, May 20, 2016

Review: Ancillary Justice

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Ancilliary Justice  won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards, but it took me multiple tries to get into the novel enough to read it...
Thursday, May 19, 2016

Review: Lonely Planet Tokyo, Kyoto, and Japan

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Compared to the cost of a trip to Japan, buying guidebooks is cheap. So when the local library ran out of copies to checkout, I didn't h...
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Review: eConnect Japan

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I have a T-mobile Simple Choice global plan. But word from one of my friends who visits Japan frequently is that it was unreliable, and he ...
Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Review: The Eagle Tree

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I rarely read my Kindle First books, despite frequently selecting one and downloading it to my Kindle anyway. The Eagle Tree is a rare exce...

A few EOS M3 Tips

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I promised not to provide a long-term review of the EOS M3 , and indeed, I won't. I didn't do most of the shooting during the Japan ...
Monday, May 16, 2016

Review: Bastion (PS Vita)

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I picked up Bastion on the PS4, but because of cross-play and cross-buy, ended up playing it most on the PS Vita. If I had to summarize the ...
Friday, May 13, 2016

Review: Deuter Kid Comfort III Baby Carrier

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In 2013, I killed the Kelty FC 3.0 Child Carrier . My rule with equipment is that if I kill it once, I'll exchange it at REI. If I kill ...
Thursday, May 12, 2016

Review: EFM 11-22mm STM /4-5.6 IS

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When I first bought the EOS M3 for Xiaoqin, I stuck with the prime lenses. First, the EFM 22/2 is very sharp, tiny and light, and the lac...
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Japan 2016: Thoughts and Conclusions

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Japan is very kid friendly. Before we left Xiaoqin was told by people that strollers, etc. were a handful to manage in Japanese cities. We l...
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Japan 2016: Mitaka

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We got up at 6:15am, got everything packed and left the hotel, making the 7:04 Kintetsu Express to Kyoto. At Kyoto station, we bought brunch...
Monday, May 09, 2016

Japan 2016: Nara

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We grabbed a bus to Kyoto Station and then went in to buy tickets for the express train. To my dismay, the primary ticket machines were inco...
Saturday, May 07, 2016

Trips Index

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The trips index that used to be on the navigation bar on the left of the blog has finally gotten too unwieldy. I'm replacing it with thi...
Friday, May 06, 2016

Japan 2016: Kyoto

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The Shinkansen was a great experience, but to my surprise despite it being a mid-day trip we had a hard time getting seats in the non-reserv...
Thursday, May 05, 2016

Japan 2016: Matsumoto

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After our customary early breakfast, we checked out and proceeded to walk to the bus stop, which would take us to a relatively small JR trai...