Every autumn and winter, I avoid turning on the HVAC units and space heaters in my apartment until absolutely necessary. The reason I wait is because:

• Those units are not energy efficient, which causes environmental waste and a higher electricity bill.
• The air becomes dry, which causes dry mouth, dry nostrils, and dry eyes.
• My spouse and I have different thresholds for bedroom temperature.

To address these concerns, I decided to buy a heated blanket and make it "smart."

This year, I participated in the Step Up Challenge by TELL Japan, which is an event to honor the people who lost their lives to suicide in Japan in 2021. The purpose of this event is to raise mental-health awareness and funds for TELL to continue providing lifesaving services to the English-speaking community in Japan. Although you can participate in the event solo or as a group, I decided to join as an individual.

This is my first blog post!✍🏻

Blockchain, an increasingly popular technology that can be used in a range of industries, is essentially a decentralized peer-to-peer system that's connected to create complete sets of data. These nodes reside on servers that run on various operating systems and computers of varying levels of power. Aside from verifying transactions for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, an increasingly popular use for blockchain technology is as a decentralized cloud storage solution.