Bonsai takes your patience to the next level when the results of your efforts can take years to finally show! Of course, me, always gravitating towards hobbies that ground you, and make you persevere taking time and effort, I dug deep into bonsai caring. Having some minutes a day to monitor their progress, and a few hours a year to prune, fertilize, repot, etc., is absolutely relaxing.

The trees have an automated irrigation system for summer days when their watering schedules become too intense. It is basically a stand-alone raspberry zero that controls a small pump on a fixed interval basis, but it is integrated with my home automation system and can be controlled remotely too. This feature has saved me many times when having to leave home for a few weeks at a time, like when I go back to Mexico for a brake.

I currently take care of various species of local trees, including a cherry (桜, the one in the picture), prune (梅), black pine (黒松), privet (イボタノキ), etc.

This interest came exactly when everybody was always inside their houses doing quarantine. Living in a 15m2 apartment, I thought I could go crazy without some type of entertainment. At the time, I found that listening to music from vinyl records was another good way of grounding myself, so I decided to acquire a non-functioning vintage amplifier to better enjoy the experience, with the idea to find whatever problem it had and repair it myself.

After days of component measurements, and replacing some obviously faulty capacitors, it became clear that the bias transistors were leaking current and that had fried both step-up transistors and a single power stage arrangement. Unfortunately, being old models, finding a replacement for all of them was nearly impossible. I even tried sourcing them from Akihabara, a well-known place for finding electronic components, without success. Internet searches only confirmed that newer low-quality replacement components would not be a good fit, and could even introduce further stress to the already old components.

Instead, I decided to replace the faulty components with modern transistors by doing some interesting combinations. For the bias transistors, I used two thermally-bonded modern transistors that matched the original catalog specifications (it can be seen in the picture as the component with a zip tie to maintain the bonding :D). The step-up transistors were directly replaced with modern equivalents. For the power transistor arrangement, however, I had to manufacture a circuit board that provided the same Darlington arrangement as the original packaging, which can be seen in green, at the left section of the aluminum heat fins.

This project was absolutely fun, and now I enjoy listening to my music almost every day. Nowadays, I have a raspberry pi loaded with Raspotify to directly stream music to it.

Diving is a great way of enjoying weightlessness and an almost flight-like experience. It is also quite technical and could be dangerous when done recklessly, so I like to use my knowledge in pressurized gas handling and risk assessment to have accident-free experiences. I am a PADI certified rescue diver, but thankfully I haven't had the need to use that part of the training.

I have dived in Mexico in multiple locations, from high-altitude locations in fresh waters, e.g. Media Luna Lagoon (~1000 m, 38 m dive), Las estacas (~955 m, 10 m dive), various Cenotes (including a cave diving experience); and various salt-water locations, e.g. Sunken ship in Veracruz (20 m dive), Shark diving in Playa del Carmen, Coral Diving in South Australia, etc.

I haven't had the opportunity to dive in Japan, but I'm always looking forward to an occasion!