I subscribe to a great ‘word of the day’ list from Anu Garg. Everyday she sends a word out with definitions and usage. Sometimes they’re topical,… other times funny. I look forward to it every day.. Todays word was “ikigai”.. a Japanese word that roughly translates “reason for being”. Here’s the entry for the word from the email.

ikigai

PRONUNCIATION:

(I-ki-gai) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. A sense of purpose or something that gives a sense of purpose; a reason for living.
2. Something that brings fulfillment or enjoyment.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Japanese ikigai (a reason for being), from iki (life) + -gai (worth). Earliest documented use: 1972. The French equivalent is raison d’être.

USAGE:

“Have you found your ikigai? It’s never too late to start on a better path to living.”
Harvey MacKay; Here’s a Design for Living; Arizona Republic (Phoenix); Oct 10, 2022.

The post came with the following graphic

I think it’s a really elegant way to think about your ‘reason for being”..  aside from generally trying to be a good guy.. I think of my reason for being is “making science fun and relevant for others”.. When I think through the 4 lobes of the drawing it really fits…

What’s your ikigai ? 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Ps  Today is my friend Katie’s birthday.. Happy birthday Katie.. You’re amazing !

ps.. I found tipper walking through work with this sign.. pretty cute

Diane and I took a great hike today with ou friend Doug.. We ddi the Duck Brook trail from Bolton Notch road back to our house. It used to be the long trail.. but is now a spur trail because the main LT has been rerouted to take advantage of the Winooski hiking bridge. That means this trail is nearly always empty.. it’s beautiful with lots of changing terrain.. it’s not so well marked anymore, so we always have to add time for getting lost 🙂

It’s always nice catching up with Doug.. he’s about he same speed as us.. and we manage to solve all the worlds problems while we talk on our hikes. 

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Beautiful snow today so diane and I went up one of our favorite ‘nontrails’./ we hiked up the hills around honey hollow . The snow wasn’t deep enough yet for snowshoes (hasn’t been all winter !.). but glad we had spikes on !

Later that afternoon I headed over to South Burlington high school for one of the FIRST TECH Challenge Scrimages.. The championship is only about 3 weeks away.. so the teams were super excited to test out their robots. This year we’ve already had 2 scrimmages like this which is Huge progress for us !

nite all. nite sam

-me

Diane and I took the afternoon to travel up to Fairfax with our friend Jimmy to see Runamuk Male. Jimmy is in investor in Runamok and wanted me to take a look. It’s a very cool setup.. the owner Erich and his team make specialty maple products which they sell all over the world. In edition to shipping high grade syrup they have about a zillion flavored syrups.. We got to tour the facility to see how they do their small batch runs.. then we got to taste some of the most exotic ones.. Our favorites were the sparkly syrup with edible mica flakes and the black licorice maple (.. we also tried cinnamon, lemongrass, berry flavors and many others.. it was really delicious and fun !

Later in the afternoon we headed to generator to work with the first FRC robotics team. The team  is working  hard to get their robot ready for to show the younger kids at the upcoming FLL event . 

I’m amazed at how much progress they’re making !

After that , we went and met my friend Lapo and his GF Change for dinner downtown. Lapo is a really great CS phd student  friend of mine. He taught me the wonders gf P5.js.  which I use all the time now. Chenge is also working on her Phd . She’s an evolutionary biologist.. Lapo calls her the Evo Diva (as in Eco-Devo.. or evolutionary development) . Super nice hanging out with them !

On the way home we spontaneously decided to drop in to Barnes and Noble to check for travel books We hadn’t been in there for at least 10 years.. maybe more.. iIt was both comforting and creepy to see that  t’s exactly as it was a decade ago.. same folks having out on a Friday night. 

Some things never change !

nite all. nite sam

-me