About

Social networks, Fun projects and Current work

Introduction

Hi, I’m Cody! I’m interested in computers and programming, media, language, communication, science, philosophy, epistemology, Making Music and Bitcoin, skateboarding, and Taking Children Seriously.

A little about the blog->
For years I’ve been blogging and content aggregating on and off on various platforms.

I started programming and using computers seriously in high school. I started with HTML and CSS, and dabbled a little with PHP. In 2018 I taught myself Ruby on Rails, and finished a course on modern JavaScript (ES6) in 2022. I learned React in 2023, but prefer to work with Hotwire. If you’d like to see the source code for this simple site, perhaps there’s something you’d like to glean for your own home, the source code is open and available on GitHub.

Work and growth->
In 2010, I graduated from Indiana University with a double major in East Asian Languages and Cultures and Communication and Culture. I worked on two art publications, and focused on making videos and film (including some 16mm work). I also worked at WTIU and the IU Radio/Television services department.

Post gradation from IU, after a short stint raising money delivering submarine sandwiches on a bike without health insurance for Jimmy John’s in 2011, I taught English as a CELTA certified English as a Foreign Language instructor in Japan. I worked at a well-known company in the industry, Interac, for almost 4 years. Through Interac’s contract system I taught hundreds of kids of all ages at a dozen or so elementary and pre-schools in Sakai (Osaka) and Aioi (Hyogo). 

In the Fall of 2013 I accepted a position at a nice little private English school called Northwood in Tatsuno (Hyogo). I passed the JPLT N2 while working at Northwood, and lead professional development for two new hires. 

I married in 2015, and left Northwood and English teaching to help manage the family wholesale oyster business and contribute the best way I know how, using my computer skillz.

Oysters and challenges->
Funabiki Shoten was established in 1956, and is a third generation family run company. We primarily ship oysters in bulk to a few dozen wholesale markets across Japan. We operate three online shops (Rakuten, Yahoo, and our homepage), a direct to buyer (e.g. restaurant) platform, and a ‘Furusato-noze’ shop. We don’t raise the oysters ourselves, but we do store live oysters on the premises at our factory. Oysters are seasonal, though that’s changing a bit because of bio-technological advances like triploid oysters. So, in the summer we also sell boiled octopus, grilled conger eel, frozen ‘oyster’ salmon, and dried shrimp. 

I'm almost constantly working on several projects at work. But, here are three projects I'm most proud of: 
  • a HACCP certified electromagnetic seafood flash-freezing facility, from construction to product sales (HACCP certified factory team leader)
  • Product design and branding for all oyster products, including the Samurai Oyster character (Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut/ Videography, SEO). And recently (2023-2024 season) a luxury product called Kiwami.
  • A back office Rails app which unites and automates order processing from across the aforementioned e-commerce platforms (Full Stack: Ruby on Rails, HTML/CSS, JS, Heroku/GoogleCloud)
  • A multilingual completely custom online shop for our Samurai Oyster brand using the Solidus platform.

Fun->
I like Bitcoin and have dabbled a bit with it, though it's hasn't been a priority. I make music still, but haven't published much in awhile. But, you can hear and drop some sats for my old work over at my profile for CozyOrb on WavLake.

Personally, I'm inspired and driven by the work of David Deutsch (Fabric of Reality, The Beginning of Infinity) and Karl Popper (The Open Society and its’ Enemies, The Myth of the Framework). Likewise, I’m a supporter of Taking Children Seriously (TCS), and try to help grow knowledge in fun non-coercive ways. 

If you’d like to contact me I’m on X, Bluesky, or you can e-mail me (my name, Cody Baldwin, all lowercase, no spaces, at g mail).

無限の彼方へ,
Cody