Stephen Lyman

You’re describing every day but perhaps today even more than others.

Excellent turnout for my talk last night. Over 30 guests enjoyed my origin story, a primer on why they should treasure their local indigenous spirit, and some excellent Honkaku Shochu.

Sold all of the books I brought and the special bottles I brought did not come home with me.

My heart aches every time. Makes me more grateful I moved to Japan where this fear doesn’t exist.

2022: 19,592 gun homicides in the US and 4 in Japan.

You’re >150x more likely to be murdered by gun in the US than Japan.

This is a social and legislative failure of massive proportions.

For anyone in Fukuoka tomorrow, I’ll be giving an English language talk about Japan’s indigenous spirit, honkaku shochu.

Guests are primarily from the city government, tourism, and hospitality sectors, but anyone is welcome.

I’ve only been there once but had chills the whole time.

Also got to the 9th inning in the daily trivia contest - room full of visitors. Anyone present could answer a❓fastest to get in the hot seat. I made it.

If I’d gotten the last question right I would have won a scale model of Camden Yards.

Saw him hit 3 HR in a game his rookie year in old Tiger Stadium on July 24, 1999. Did it out of the 9 hole.

A week later he homered off Roger Clemens.

I thought either of these games might have been his last batting 9th, but he wasn’t moved up until August 4th.

And now we watch a similar swing toward illiberalism within the American tech industry.

This book was published in 2008 as Obama became president. The future looked so bright.

Hard to believe how much that “hope” message has collapsed under the weight of grievance-driven populism.

Where things get truly dire is in how readily German industrialists bowed to the national socialists, providing the resources needed to finance their overthrow of the fragile Weimar Republic & usher in one of the darkest periods of western history.

This innovation is a blessing and a curse. It’s allowed humans to expand to 8.1 billion and counting when natural fertilization methods might have capped that at 4 billion or so. Of course, that’s also 8 billion of us contributing to an ongoing ecological disaster (my commentary, not the book’s).

The Alchemy of Air cover photo. Written by Thomas Hager in 2008.

Long overdue read: The Alchemy of Air.

I didn’t study chemistry so I’d never learned about synthetic fertilizers. Multiple Nobel Prizes were earned for the innovation of capturing nitrogen from the atmosphere. This, unfortunately, also provided an ample supply of weapons grade explosive material.

Every day the headlines get even dumber.

(7/33-7/10): 8 day summary. One 1.3km run. 106km ridden. 238 minutes of tennis (9-4 record). 4 rings closed.

Days exercised 191/191
Exercise sessions 207

🏃‍♂️ days 108 (143.4km)
🚴‍♂️ days 77 (1153.1km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 58
🎾 24x
32:06 of tennis (71-29 tiebreak record)

I don’t remember him at all.

Beyond that it’s a global failure for climate change communication.

The tragedy in Texas is horrible, but let’s be clear about who is at fault. This is a failure of leadership. Technologies exist that can provide early warning of floods. And yet the federal and state governments left it to the poor county of 50,000 souls to figure it out.

(6/23-7/2): 10 day summary. One 2.5km run. 89.5km ridden. 154 minutes of tennis (8-4 record). 3 rings closed.

Days exercised 183/183
Exercise sessions 197

🏃‍♂️ days 107 (142.1km)
🚴‍♂️ days 71 (1047.1km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 54
🎾 21x
28:08 of tennis (62-25 tiebreak record)

NY Times top tier trolling of the kakistocracy.

(6/20-22): 3 day summary. One 1 mile run. 2x rides 23.8km.

Days exercised 173/173
Exercise sessions 187

🏃‍♂️ days 106 (139.6km)
🚴‍♂️ days 71 (957.6km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 51
🎾 19x
25:34 of tennis (54-21 tiebreak record)

This is where beer and sake are definitely different. Nobody just does. It’s a highly traditional apprenticeship system.

Yes though the steamer runs for about an hour for a commercial batch. One particular nuance that can make it challenging is getting the moisture content of the steamed grain right for optimal koji enzymatic activity.

It’s not even a theory. Koji has been grown on steamed polished barely for hundreds of years to make honkaku shochu in Kyushu and nearly as long for Tokyo Shimazake, which received WTO GI status in 2024.

Not a bad choice if you’re in Kyoto.

(6/10-19): 10 day summary. 2x runs 3.8km. 8x rides 133.6km. 80 minutes of tennis (2-2 record). 4 rings closed.

Days exercised 170/170
Exercise sessions 184

🏃‍♂️ days 105 (138.0km)
🚴‍♂️ days 71 (933.8km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 51
🎾 19x
25:34 of tennis (54-21 tiebreak record)

(6/9): 17.2km ridden to go over 800km on the year, 81 minutes of tennis taking me over 24 hours on the year (6-3 in tiebreakers). Ring closed.

Days exercised 160/160
Exercise sessions 182

🏃‍♂️ days 103 (134.2km)
🚴‍♂️ days 63 (800.2km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 47
🎾 18x
24:14 of tennis (52-19 tiebreak record)

(5/31-6/8): 9 day summary.

89.2km ridden over 6 days. 4 runs for 5.1km, no tennis (sadly), 1 ring closed.

Days exercised 159/159
Exercise sessions 180

🏃‍♂️ days 103 (134.2km)
🚴‍♂️ days 62 (783.0km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 46
🎾 17x
22:53 of tennis (46-16 tiebreak record)

(5/21-30): another 10 day summary.

140.5km ridden over 10 days. No runs, no tennis (sadly), 2 rings closed.

Days exercised 150/150
Exercise sessions 170

🏃‍♂️ days 99 (129.1km)
🚴‍♂️ days 56 (693.8km)
🏃‍➡️ rings closed 45
🎾 17x
22:53 of tennis (46-16 tiebreak record)

Pay ¥1300 ($9.05 USD) for clinic visit.

Go to pharmacy in the ground floor of the same building for drugs.

¥1170 ($8.15 USD) for meds.

Total time away from home: 57 minutes.

Japanese Healthcare

Wake up with cold symptoms.

Visit ENT website, add name to queue.

Wait @ home for “your slot is coming soon” email.

Go to clinic, fill out health survey.

Wait ~10 minutes to be seen.

Get prescription for antibiotics & symptom control drugs.

What are the Diamondbacks doing with Jordan Lawler?

He’s only had 4 starts after his call up 13 games ago and he’s 0-13 with 7 Ks.

Either let him play and learn how to hit in the big leagues or send him back down to get regular playing time.

Thank you for beating the Yankees.

Pretty twin killing. And uniforms.