For today's music log, I have two songs with really great intros. I'm talking about the kind of intros that will get you pumped up and ready to rock. I'm deviating from my usual sharing of songs from Spotify, to instead sharing music videos from Youtube. This is so you can actually listen to the intros of these two great rock songs.
First up is the song “Hell Yeah” by Rev Theory. I've only heard of Rev Theory a few years ago, but this song is apparently from way back in 2008. I know musical taste is subjective, but I believe this song has one of the best intros as far as rock and roll songs goes.
And so I’ve been very interested in a new book by Jenny Odell called How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. She describes a world where “every last minute” ends up “captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily.” But in the midst of push notifications and likes and friend requests, a “certain nervous feeling, of being overstimulated and unable to sustain a train of thought, lingers.”
Sounds like a book I should read. Adding it to my “books-to-read” list.
I didn’t solve everything in my strolling, but I started to notice some patterns. I was finally able to hear God’s voice because the noise was turned down. I couldn’t block it out with the distractions–parties and drinking and social media and to-do lists and podcasts and music and movies and shows and idle fretting about work—that were my preferred methods. Instead, I just had to be present to exactly what I was feeling at each moment. If I was sad, I just had to be sad for a bit. If I was excited, I just got to experience it rather than try to share it on an online profile. If I was worried, I lived through the worry instead of numbing it.
I experienced something similar when I started practicing digital minimalism. I even wrote it down in my journal. Without distractions, it was like all of a sudden I had all this time to think, to be present, to live in the moment, to hear God.
Yesterday I talked about why I created a new Facebook account. Today I'm listing down some guidelines for myself, concerning the use of my new Facebook account. My main goal here is to be able to manage a Facebook account while still minimizing distractions and keeping my attention intact. I didn't go through my #DigitalMinimalism journey just to throw everything away with a new Facebook account. I'm incorporating lessons I've learned from my year away from Facebook. So here goes.
Let’s look more closely at the anatomy of boredom. Why is it so damned boring to be stuck in a departure lounge while our flight is increasingly delayed? We are in a state of high arousal, anticipating our imminent arrival in a novel and stimulating environment. True, there are plenty of shops, screens and magazines around, but we’re not really interested in them and, by dividing our attention, they serve only to exacerbate our boredom. To make matters worse, the situation is out of our control, unpredictable (the flight could be further delayed, or even cancelled) and inescapable. As we check and re-check the monitor, we become painfully aware of all these factors and more. And so here we are, caught in transit, in a high state of arousal that we can neither engage nor escape.
Ever wondered why you get bored while waiting for your flight in the departure lounge? Well there you go.
There were two major events recently that made me reconsider creating a new Facebook account. First is watching the PBS Frontline documentary, The Facebook Dilemma. While it didn't change my views on the dangers of Facebook and social media, at the end of Part Two of that documentary, there is this striking quote from Zeynep Tufekci:
They're not going to do this as long as they're doing so well financially and there's no regulatory oversight. And consumer backlash doesn't really work because I can't leave Facebook, all my friends and family around the world are there. You might not like the company. You might not like its privacy policies. You might not like the way its algorithm works. You might not like its business model. But what are you going to do?
I feel trapped in the same way. All my family and friends are on Facebook. None of them maintain personal websites or blogs like I do. It's not that FOMO got to me, but more of the fact that they can't seem to reach me after I've deactivated my Facebook account. It doesn't help that all my really close friends, my “barkada” as we call it in my native tongue, they all live in a different continent than me. So, I don't have the luxury of hanging out with them on weekends to maintain our friendship. Had I had that option, I'm positive I could have gone on without a Facebook account.
It is the Monday before Thanksgiving and I fear that I've overspent my money buying stuff online. You only get the best discounts during this week though. – So if you only shop once a year, might as well be shopping on this week.
Played the old video game Rocksmith on my old gaming PC. The game actually still works! It was released like maybe 7-8 years ago? It's great that it still works. I still think it is one of the more fun ways to learn how to play the guitar.
Wireless backup camera for my car arrived late last night.
Didn't get to see the Skills Challenge, but I believe Bam Adebayo won it. It's interesting that a number of bigs have been winning the skills challenge, considering it seems to be more suited to smaller players that play the guard position. I guess that goes to show how skilled the bigs are nowadays.
3-point Contest
Buddy Hield won it and I'm not surprised that he did. That guy can flat out shoot threes and is not afraid to shoot threes anytime during a game. Every time I see the Kings play the Mavericks, Buddy Hield is always shooting threes and making most of them. Devin Booker put up a good fight and like what Reggie Miller said, has a beautiful shooting stroke.
Davin, patiently waiting for his turn on the merry-go-round...
A chance encounter between a F/A-18F Super Hornet and an upside down Su-33 Flanker-D fighter jet.