Dino’s Journal 📖

It's the end of the year and for some reason I'm itching to start writing journal entries again. I considered just turning this into another Weeknotes post, but I don't think I can keep up with that schedule. So, this will be the start of a new journal entry series.

I say new because I've had a journal entry series before. If you are a returning reader, you've most likely even read them. If you are a new reader, then you missed out on a number of cringe-worthy personal posts. And that's part of the reason that series came to an end. I somehow outgrew that phase and no longer wanted to write about overtly personal stuff.

So, for this new series, one of the things I want to focus on is just sharing what I've learned. Instead of this journal/series being about “What's been going on with my life?”, I want it to be more about “What have I learned today?”

Also, I won't commit to a schedule for posting. It could be once a month, once every 4 months, or even just once a year. Whatever it will turn out to be, I'll write one when I feel like writing. So before that urge to write fades, here goes.

The Chosen is a television show about the life of Jesus, that I never knew I've always wanted. Until this show was created, I didn't even know I would have an appetite for this kind of show. There have been a lot of depictions of Jesus in movies and films, but none tell His story like this show does. The twist here is that the life of Jesus is told from His' followers point of view; that's why it's titled The Chosen.

In this show, you get to see what Jesus was like in the eyes of Simon Peter, James and John (sons of Zebedee), Matthew the tax collector, even from the eyes of Mary Magdala.

In fact, the first episode of Season 1 revolves around Mary Magdala. And it is a beautiful, heart-warming episode. If you've ever felt lost, alone, abandoned, with nowhere else to go, Episode 1 might resonate with you very deeply. Episode 1 is what got me hooked on this show. The ending brought tears to my eyes.

In the past few months, I have prayed the Rosary and read the Bible more times than I could count. This is more than I've ever done during the last 10 years of my existence. How did I manage to do it? I did it by telling myself this statement as I settle down at my desk at night:

If you have time to play video-games, then you have time to pray the Rosary or read the Bible.

As you can see from the example above, I'm simply following the format for this statement: “If you have time to do X, you have time to do Y.”

At first glance it sounds like I'm only guilt tripping myself into doing said activity. It might even look like I'm only tricking myself with the use of the statement. And maybe I am. But I like to look at it a different way. It as a way to refocus on my priorities. Playing video-games is a past time of mine, but it is not a priority for me — working on my relationship with God is.

I stumbled upon the Mayonnaise YouTube channel a couple of days ago. Mayonnaise is a rock band from the Philippines that makes some really good soaring rock music. Needless to say, I'm a fan. While most of their songs are written in Tagalog, they do some in English too. I was delighted to find out that they do covers of popular rock songs from the early 2000s. Here are two that are really good.

Most people know Yellowcard. Most people know their hit song “Only One”. It is my favorite song from Yellowcard. This is a very nicely done cover by Mayonnaise.

The subject of this short film is the theologian John Hull (1935-2015). He recorded the words featured in the film in an audio diary. The recording began in 1983, when he became fully blind after several years of progressively losing his sight.

Watch this short film and you'll gain a much better appreciation of your gift of sight.

Link: Notes on blindness

Listening to John's words as he describes the despair and the hole he finds himself in, trying to break through the wall of blindness, but never getting anywhere — it was at times hard to listen to. But that's what makes you really appreciate being able to see right now.

We can't go on a walk, or a run, or a bike ride without sharing photos that we did so. We can't read a book without sharing a photo of the book we are reading. We can't drink a latte without first sharing a photo of it. We can't eat without sharing a photo of the food we are eating. We I can't listen to music without sharing what song we're I'm listening to. We can't live our lives without documenting a part of it — if not all of it — online.

Why? Why are we doing all this? Why do we feel the need to do all this? Does anybody else think that's not normal? I've been asking myself those questions for months now.

There's lots of advice on what to do to take control of your data online. For instance, you should have all your blog posts and photos under your domain name, so you keep control of them. And if you're not concerned about that, there's lots of advice on what platform is the best for photo-blogging, long-form blogging, micro-blogging, etc... There's all sorts of advice regarding the best ways to manage your data online. But no one seems to be asking the question, why?

A good read on why you might want to make use of “Read It Later” apps, like Pocket or Instapaper. Tiago also goes through his preferred setup and why it works for him.

Link: The Secret Power of ‘Read It Later’ Apps

Below are my two takeaways from reading this.

Make better use of idle time with a reading list

In this article, Tiago Forte quotes David Allen on the benefits of having an organized reading list available all the time. The reason being, is that life is full of these random moments where we don't have anything to do. Having an organized reading list can come in handy during those moments. It is better to spend that time reading something good, than to spend that time browsing social media or consuming junk information.

A compilation of goals from Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. All of these goals were from my Master League games.

Let's start off with this beautiful free kick goal from Arcas. I surprised myself here with the amount of curve he was able to put on that ball. Wonderful goal.

One of the results of practicing digital minimalism, is that I have more time to think. The problem is, I’m finding that thinking is hard without being able to write my thoughts down.

Where to write it down, is not as important as being able to write it down.

Processing thoughts and ideas, while trying to keep everything in my brain, is hard. I could spend a good amount of time thinking about something, then my brain will switch gears and think about something else, and I lose most of what I thought about prior to the new idea popping up.

That's because we can only hold on to at most, four to seven items in our head at any time. Which means our brains are not designed to think through or remember multiple things at once. It also means that if we try to keep everything in our head, we will be taxing our brain. It is not an efficient way to think. And so, I have to write my thoughts down.