Month of June 2025
Japan Family Trip & Phishmas
Theme of the Month - Japan Family Trip & Phishmas
The questions/thoughts that led me to the posts for June 2025 were:
What laws would I enact?
What questions do I ask Evie to spark her imagination?
How was Italy Road tripping in 2014?
What are the side effects of mass AI adoption? What will it be called?
How was Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea?
//Samoyed dog cafe in Osaka
My favorite part about travel is capturing awesome stories through photography. I think the act of pressing the button (now just pressing the screen) makes me remember the scene. Even if I’m behind a camera/smartphone, I feel quite connected as I’m helping the future-Clemens with the TBs of memory flashes.
My second favorite part is food. I’ve snuck out many nights in Japan to eat dinner, walk around for 2 hours exploring, and eat second dinner. I’ve got the appetite of a hobbit.
The last part of the travel anatomy is the novelty of firsts. I remember my first trip to Nepal trying parahawking for the first time (paragliding with a vulture eating from your hand). Or my first experience of a traditional wedding behind a Nara shrine in Japan. It scratched this deep itch of wonder.
I can see the same novelty through the eyes of Evie, who had a number of firsts (seeing shrines, eating local ramens, petting owls, dressing up in kimonos, throwing ninja stars) while we explored Japan. I’d like her to catch the travel bug and want to discover the joy going off the beaten path. I hope for wonder. With the digital world now a recycling of AI-generated slop, what we have left is the real world experiences. What we have left is ultimately real human connection.
Phish show in Austin was incredible. Totally brain defragmentation and reset. There’s something joyful about eating BBQ, drinking beer, and watching cartoons. Happy to be in good company.
The blogposts I’ve published this month were:
These are random laws I think would be super useful to enact. I hope these are bi-partisan and shape my personal third party.
I still go through this list and ask Evie some random questions that spawn from this. i think it’ll practice her imagination and help express herself better when she discovers so much of work will be about writing narratives and asking questions.
![[Travel Advice] Italy Emilia-Romagna Road Trip](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4GE2!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F496f02b2-ffef-4025-a935-a6fb53304477_740x494.jpeg)
Italy road trips are so much more fun with a local. This was a throwback from Dec 2014.
I thought about this major shift and creation of buzzwords based on the new normal. This was a really fun one to write and insightful to read with this framing of social impacts.
![[Travel Advice] Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xGdY!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fee5ca5f0-580a-41de-9ac0-3ce2e0df4735_4000x1848.jpeg)
Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea were intense. We should have done it later in our trip so we didn’t have jet lag. Mistakes were made, but they became happy opportunities.
Some ideas for July 2025?
[Travel Advice] Universal Studios Japan Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter - Just a breakdown of some lessons learned with Super Nintendo World.
[Travel Advice] Japan with Family - The full end-to-end trip travel advice with some photos and details on itinerary.
30 Adulting Things - Adulting is so hard.
30 Things I’d do with AGI - I realized while writing this that I don’t need to wait until AGI to do these things. AGI just makes it easier for those who are lazy. I should be prioritizing and executing in the now before it gets fully saturated.
30 More AI Buzzwords - Latest buzzwords from reading some different research papers and looking at headlines.
30 New AI Careers - Rethinking our post-labor economic jobs. Let’s all switch to the gig economy.
30 Future Decade Goals - We split the next 30 years into goals per decade as mapped out by Evie’s age. This was a great activity in long term planning for her ages 6-16, 16-26, and 26-36.
Kicking off “Her Life in Lists of 30” - I think I have enough material from my monthly lists of 30s to cover this and launch it in 2024. Maybe I’ll find a publisher for this book? I think I’ll be happy with more substack subscribers than a single book defining a decade. If it’s popular, maybe I’ll do a book tour!
Thank you for reading and I hope everyone stays safe! See y’all in the new year!
Please suggest a list of 30 and I’ll write it! I’ve written 300+ lists of 30 and only publish ones that I think other people would enjoy. It’s my fun brainstorming routine.
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