Rick Cogley has been sticking out like a sore thumb in Japan since 1987! 日本語もOK. CEO & Founder, eSolia.
I family, our Shiba "Maru", coding & scripting, moving.
Yokohama ⇆ Tokyo

Identity & Sharing

• Proven.lol Proof
• PGP Public Key
• Git Repo for this Site

Now Professionally

eSolia is 25, which we're really proud of! 🎉🥳🎊

eSolia has been in our "WorkStyling" location at Shiodome near Shimbashi, for a few years now after 10 years in Toranomon. We decided to move to a serviced office after having our office sit empty during the COVID epidemic. Although our fixed office is small, it is fine for us because our staff are roaming around all the time anyway, and WorkStyling allows us to use their facilities all over the city.

As a professional services company, we need to increase our process maturity so our success depends less upon individual quality, rather having that quality built in by default. It was a sea change to move to a remote or mobile office situation, and we took advantage of the situation to really revamp how we do things. We migrated everything to Microsoft M365 early in 2023, and have been working hard on becoming compliant with ISO 27001 so that we have a solid information security program in place. It's taking time though, because I want to make it as easy to implement as possible for people.

Initially we tried to implement workflow via Sharepoint, but it requires more development resources than we are willing to commit, so we are focusing on handling our workflow in our cloud database - PROdb - and using its mobile app to initiate much of our workflow. So far, this is working out pretty well. We use Sharepoint for what it's good at, which is to act as a basic intranet and file store, with version tracking. We also use the the truly excellent webhook.site to seamlessly integrate between our systems, updown.io for monitoring, and Fathom Analytics for website and app analytics. Don't get me wrong, Sharepoint's capable, but Microsoft is good at marketing. To really make use of it, you need a dev team, and be prepared for the cost of ongoing maintenance!

Some superior services I'm working with recently are Postmark for sending transactional and broadcast emails, ImprovMX for flexibly receiving and forwarding email, Bouncer for validating and verifying email addresses, and Deno Deploy and Netlify for efficiently hosting websites. Special shout-out to the Deno team for the new "EA" version of Deploy. Fantastic!

Now Personally

This year I have been pretty down, with a number of things that just didn't click. I feel like things are finally picking up again and we are on the cusp of something good, but it's not quite there yet. Action is the key to fight depression and procrastination I find, but sometimes you just need to let yourself go through a blue period.

Lately I'm enjoying Slow Horses and tentatively watching the Ed Gein series, but it's heavy going and maybe not for me despite the great performances.

In May 2021, our Shiba "Maru" came to our home, and it'd been big lifestyle change with him in our lives. We have fallen into a rhythm with him, and have found a day care he loves to go to - Petcare House Green, in neighboring Fujisawa. Although of course we love him to bits, it's sometimes good to have a day to reset and not worry about walks and so on. We tried various other places, but he didn't take to them for whatever reason, so we are really glad to have found "Green". He gets excited when he gets to go, which is cut to see, and really loves the lady who comes to pick him up. He's always a little irritated when he comes back though, probably stress from being with some dogs he likes and one or two that he doesn't. He has a routine when he comes back: he pulls his bedding out of his crate, and violently shakes it. 🫨 Green has been taking a long break while they re-build their facility. I imagine it will be really hard to get a reservation when they re-open!

Last summer I did not hike, but just walked the dog a lot and did some kettlebell and macebell exercises with basic Tai Chi, pretty regularly. Last month I got COVID and I have had a chronic cough. Doc x-rayed and said I have bronchitis.

I continue to be impressed with my Ultimate Hacking Keyboard 60 v2, a split design where one's wrists can be kept straight. It has helped with my wrist pain. Recently UHK have released a slightly bigger version, the UHK 80, which I think I now "need". I cleaned the UHK 60, removing all the keys and putting them in an ultrasonic cleaner, swabbing out the dust and detritus from the chassis and under where the keys were, and cleaning the contacts where the expansion modules connect. Feels good! ⌨️

I also got some other devices to work with: a Ratta Supernote Nomad, which is a fantastic e-ink tablet that makes note-taking fun, and a Kindle Paperwhite. I'm studying and reading more than ever.

Wise Words

“Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.”
― Joni Mitchell, 'Big Yellow Taxi'

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubt, while the stupid people are full of confidence.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.”
― A.E. Housman, "A Shropshire Lad"

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“Returning hate for hate mul­ti­plies hate, adding deep­er dark­ness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness can­not dri­ve out dark­ness; only light can do that. Hate can­not dri­ve out hate; only love can do that.”
― Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune, 'Litany Against Fear'

“We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.”
― US President Jimmy Carter

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”
― Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World"

“It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person. I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. I’ve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice.”
― Coco Chanel

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance