Summer finally arrived in Bellingham and I've been outside enjoying it. I've been getting more into running with one goal: enjoyment. We welcomed a new dog, Namgil, from Jeju Island, Korea in May and have been enjoying evening walks to the Little Squalicum Estuary and its views of Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island.
When I haven't been outdoors, I've been writing lots of code. In addition to my professional software development work, I've been working on a small AI-powered application that helps me read Japanese. It doesn't do any actual translation though—instead, it takes each character and sets of characters and provides me lots of context (e.g. grammar, kanji radical composition, cultural and piece-specific insights) so I can piece together my own understanding of the text. I've been using it to read poetry and books in their original text instead of relying on someone else's translation.
In the last year or so, I've become really interested in proximity-centric infrastructure and design. I'm now car-free, which has been lovely. The experience has made me think a lot about how dramatically infrastructure shapes how we experience the world. I've been reading lots about city planning, transportation, zoning, etc. Proximity feels like a key part of so many big issues (climate, environment, health, connectedness, etc.) and I want to continue learning more about infrastructure that frames proximity.