Dev team at work surprised me with a teddy bear and balloons to celebrate Baby Caleb's arrival. — I am grateful!
I have a two monitor setup at the office. I did my compliance training by turning off the other monitor. It helped me stay focused on finishing my training session.
I went down to the first floor to use the restroom. My eyes were tired and my neck was tense. As I got into the restroom, I noticed strong heart palpitations and what seemed to be an incoming headache. Usually, when this happens, it's because of eyestrain or not getting enough sleep. This was the first time in a while, that I really wanted to have my Fitbit with me, so I can double check my heart rate. I left my Fitbit at home though, so I have to check manually.
Visited Baby Caleb at the NICU today. He was in his own room. It was located all the way back, at the end of the hallway. He had two lights still on him. He was sound asleep when I arrived. I said “Hi”, though not loud enough to wake him up. I waited for the nurse to arrive.
When the nurse did arrive, she was bringing along his chart. He has been feeding well. He drank up to 80 ml of milk, which is twice as much as when I was trying to feed him. That's good news.
Another bit of good news is that his bilirubin/jaundice levels has gone down from 14 to 12.8. The doctor will not allow him to go home until the level drops below 10. So, he still has some ways to go.
Before we get to the new set of rules, here are some notes on the additions and changes I've made for this new version.
I'm allowing the use of Facebook Messenger
This is the main app that my friends and I use to communicate with each other. I don't see a need to cut myself off from my friends this time around.
I'm allowing the use of Safari and Feedly
One of my goals in this second digital declutter is to catch up on my readings of articles and blog posts. I have so many open tabs of articles and posts I want to read in Safari right now, it is not even funny. So, I'm allowing the use of Safari this time around to help me get through all those tabs. That also means catching up on my unread items in Feedly.
Not allowing Micro.blog and Sunlit apps
I signed up for a Micro.blog account just last month. Great service. I love what they are doing for blogging and personal websites. I use the official Micro.blog app and the accompanying Sunlit app on my phone. However, I will not be using those apps during this digital declutter to see what effect they have on me.
Meanwhile, my email inboxes have been getting unwieldy. The number of unread posts on my Feedly account keeps on growing. I have not been reading books as much as I used to. I have not been learning new skills. I'm starting to get exhausted because I feel like I'm in a race to do lots of stuff, even if nobody is asking me to do them.
Recent posts I've read have made me question whether this is the best use of my time and my reader's time. I've started to wonder whether I've been producing something of value for myself and my readers. I wonder if maybe I'm just going through the motions. Like trying to look productive, even though I'm not. If that's the case, then I'm just wasting everyone's time, mine included.
Went to our Chiropractor to get an adjustment. Davin also got an adjustment. It is great that Davin is no longer scared of our Chiropractor.
After the visit to the Chiropractor, we dropped off Coney at the hospital. She went to visit Baby Caleb at the NICU.
While she was there, me and Davin ran some errands. We got gas and went to the bank. Then we picked up Coney and went to Olive Garden for lunch. We decided to order seafood entrees. They were not bad at all, considering Olive Garden is not known for their seafood entrees.
Next day...
Watched an episode of Rotten on Netflix. The episode I watched was about water and it also specifically covered bottled water. It was an eye opener. Born and raised in a developing country myself, we had access to clean and safe drinking water. Sure there were often times when our water supply was rationed, but when it was available, it was always clean water. Contrast that to another developing country like Nigeria, where they don't even have stable access to clean water. It really makes you wonder how many people (myself included) take things like tap water for granted. Watching that episode has motivated me to find ways to use tap water more often than bottled water.
I know I just recently wrote a music log post. And I don't usually do them in quick succession. Not to mention, I don't usually write posts on Sundays. But ever since I heard a wonderful rendition of Dan Schutte's “You Are Near” in the televised Mass I was watching, I have been wanting to do a Sunday Music Log post. What was holding me back, was finding a similar rendition of the song that I could share online. I couldn't find one, so I sort of gave up on the idea.
Then in today's Mass, Dave and Lauren Moore, the couple who sings in the televised Sunday Masses that I watch, sang a beautiful rendition of “I Am The Bread Of Life”. Once again I was filled with this urge to write a Sunday Music Log post. I went on to the Catholic Diocese of Dallas website to find a way to contact the diocese. I wanted to ask them if they have recorded videos of the songs that Dave and Lauren Moore sang in Mass. It turns out, the diocese has a YouTube channel where they uploaded recordings of the televised Masses I've been watching. Within those videos are the exact rendition of the songs that I watched, and now want to share.
So, first up is this beautiful rendition of Dan Schutte's “You Are Near”. The song starts at around the 48:22 mark.
This song brings back good memories. Memories of me as a kid singing it in Mass at school. Memories of me playing the guitar, while our group of altar servers sang this song in Mass. It's such a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Where can I run from your love?
If I climb to the heavens you are there
If I fly to the sunrise
Or sail beyond the sea
Still I’d find you there
O Lord, I know you are near
Standing always at my side
You guard me from the foe
And you lead me in ways everlasting
Walking is increasingly mediated by technological gadgets worn on wrists or gripped in hands. We spend an increasing amount of time ‘screening’ the world – taking in most of life through a contracted frame that captures objects of immediate interest. To live with eyes on the screen is to be attached, stuck in the frame, taking in what is presented to us and re-presented to us again. But representation – even in fine-grained pixilation – is not experience. To experience is to perceive. When we look at a screen, we might see something, but we don’t perceive. To live life through representations is to live passively, to receive rather than to experience.
I am so grateful that I discovered the IndieWeb. Owning my content and posting my thoughts on my own site instead of a silo like Twitter gives me real freedom. I can decide how my thoughts are displayed (I like to make them available to everyone without advertising), I can edit them and they stay available for as long as I want.
People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.
It's a rather gloomy Friday. But I welcome the cooler temperatures, if only to get away from the Texas summer heat. Time for another music log then. Today's music log features rock covers of some popular hits.
Note that I'm trying something new in this music log. In addition to the embedded YouTube videos, I also added song links. This gives readers more options to listen or even purchase a song. They are not affiliate links. I do not get paid whatsoever if you decide to click on one of those links. I just thought of adding them to support the artists.
First up is “Mirrors” by Our Last Night. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the band Our Last Night makes some of the best rock covers I've heard. This is no exception. This a great rock cover of Justin Timberlake's hit song “Mirrors”.
Should be our last day at the hospital today. The hospital staff was taking awhile with the discharge papers though.
Baby Caleb is still in the NICU and won't be able to go home with us until he gets better.
It is already late in the afternoon and the discharge papers are still not ready. So, we decided that I should go pick up Davin while Coney attends a NICU Discharge class.
When I arrived at the baby sitter, Davin was busy playing on his iPad. When he finally saw me, his face lit up. He ran toward me and gave me a hug. Then he immediately started talking about the game he was playing. It was really good to see him again after spending three nights at the hospital.
After picking up Davin, we drove back to the hospital to pick up Coney. Then we drove to the pharmacy to pick up Coney's pain meds. Then we picked up dinner. After a quick dinner, it was time to drive my brother to the airport.
It was a particular joy for me to visit the sites associated with St. Ignatius of Loyola on a recent film trip. But the most moving locale was a little church in Manresa built around the cave where the young Ignatius spent about nine months preparing himself spiritually for his life’s work. What he learned at Manresa is that our attachments to various created goods—money, power, pleasure, and honor—stand in the way of our responding to God’s will for us.
~ Bishop Barron
A really good homily that talks about the practice of “Agere Contra”, which means “To act against”. I believe that you can apply “Agere Contra” to most things in life. You don't have to be religious to practice it. For instance, I can see the practice of “Agere Contra” being very effective against social media and smartphone addiction.
Visited Baby Caleb at the NICU today. He was in his own room. It was located all the way back, at the end of the hallway. He had two lights still on him. He was sound asleep when I arrived. I said “Hi”, though not loud enough to wake him up. I waited for the nurse to arrive.
After the visit to the Chiropractor, we dropped off Coney at the hospital. She went to visit Baby Caleb at the NICU.