We were notified last week that we could now get the Covid-19 vaccine. Good timing too, since our state governor decided to reopen Texas 100% and took away the mask mandate.
After two days...
We got our 1st dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. I thought it was going to be a drive-through setup, but it was not. And so we had to bring Davin and Caleb along with us, as we fell in line with other people. Had I known it wasn't a drive-through, we would have left Davin and Caleb at the babysitter.
Thankfully, once we got into the vaccination center, we found it to be a very organized event.
The highlight of last week was a birthday celebration for our little guy. Shout out to the wife for the wonderful decorations and theme. She really outdid herself this time around.
This cake not only looks good, but also taste good. What the Harry Potter design hides, is a delicious Ube flavored cake. Yum yum!
One thing that I thought was a great idea, is to take pictures of your kids as they hit some milestones. Then you can use those pictures as decorations for the birthday party, or just add it to a family photo album. It's a nice way to look back and see how much your child has grown.
After watching the horrible ending on the k-drama Iris, I kinda lost my appetite for watching TV shows. However, I still wanted to watch... something. So, last week I decided to watch some anime instead. I'm watching Kuroko's Basketball on Netflix and I'm enjoying it so far.
Last week I intentionally decreased the amount of stuff I've been reading. This is to give my brain a chance to digest what I've just read.
I've also taken to adding articles/posts that I want to read, into my Are.na Bookmarks/Reading List bucket. This seems to help decrease the unease that I feel, from not being able to immediately read interesting articles/posts. Since I know that I will eventually get to them someday in the future, it allows my brain to relax and focus on the current task at hand.
Since I have been trying to read less, a problem that I'm running into is what to do with my free time when I can't read. I would prefer to work on my digital garden, but I cannot do so when I'm not at home. This is because my notes in Obsidian, while synced to a Github repo, are not easy to work with via my phone. So, I now have a lot more time to think through things because I'm trying to read less, but during those times I can't work on my digital garden. That's one big limitation with my Obsidian setup.
That said, maybe I should look at it as a benefit in some way. I shouldn't be using my phone that much anyway.
Had this conversation with another blogger about a book he read. Similar to what I learned from reading The Great Cholesterol Myth, the same advice is given on a book about Alzheimer’s. And that is to limit carbs and lower/avoid sugar intake to reduce inflammation.
That's two different diseases — Alzheimer’s and Heart Disease — that gets pretty much the same recommendation to reduce carbs and sugar intake. This should really make you rethink how much sugar you should be ingesting everyday.
It took you years to put on all that weight. Don't be too hard on yourself if you're not losing weight fast enough. Think of losing weight more as a marathon than a sprint.
I've found a compromise for using my gel pen and fountain pen. When I'm at home, I use my fountain pen to write on my bullet journal. Anywhere else, and on any other notebook, I use my gel pens or ballpoint pens.
A few days ago I wrote this on my journal:
“Almost to the end of the k-drama Iris. It's a really good show!”
Then I got to the end. And wow. That ending was horrible! I had planned to say so many good things about this show. There's the amazing plot. The great acting. The pretty good fight scenes. The great story about love and friendship. But it was all brought down by the horrible ending. I can't even recommend it to my wife anymore, not after I've seen the ending. Such a disappointment. The show was great 95% of the time, until it got to the ending. Unless you're a sucker for horrible endings, don't waste your time on it.
So, it turns out subscribing to a Write.as blog via an Outlook email address, means you might run into issues with Markdown formatting in the emails. I tested it by subscribing to this site using two different email providers. The email that I received in Outlook had formatting issues. But the same email in Protonmail did not have issues.
Helped Davin build a makeshift house using Lego blocks. I can now see why the wife likes helping Davin with his Lego blocks; it is fun.
Last week, the Dallas Mavericks won a game that I watched on TV. I guess I’m not cursed after all haha. They just suck this early in the season.
After that win, they went on to play an excellent game against the Denver Nuggets. Jokic hit the buzzer beater to send the game to overtime. But unlike the previous seasons, the Dallas Mavericks were able to close this game out. They need more games and wins like this, to develop their ability to close out games.
TWSBI Eco-T Fountain Pen – an affordable fountain pen for beginners.
Got a TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen as a Christmas gift. I've been using it last week and I'm still not a big fan of it. But I also can't seem to stop myself from using it. There's something fascinating about a fountain pen that makes me want to write with one.
I think my Zebra Sarasa Grand Gel Pen writes better. But I need more time with the TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen before I make a final judgement.
For my Zettelkasten in Obsidian, I decided to no longer keep links between my Daily Notes and my Permanent Notes. This is based off what I read in Ahrens' book saying to discard or archive Fleeting Notes. And that's pretty much what my Daily Notes are, a collection of Fleeting Notes.
I'm removing the links, but I'm still archiving them though. And that's because I use the Daily Notes to create my Weeknotes post. It also makes those notes searchable via Obsidian.
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.
The Rockets did not play a traditional center in their victories over the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans over the weekend despite having 7-foot reserves Tyson Chandler and Isaiah Hartenstein available. Houston became the first team to go an entire game without using a player taller than 6-foot-6 since the New York Knicks in a Jan. 31, 1963, win over the Chicago Zephyrs, according to research by the Elias Sports Bureau.
The link is for an article about a trade that sent Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks, but the quote above is the most interesting part of that article for me. I think that small ball lineups is a preview of the future of NBA basketball.
Centers playing with their back to the basket, backing down defenders is a rare sight in the NBA these days. Joel Embiid is probably the last dominant, back to the basket center the NBA has left. Most other tall centers/power forwards nowadays prefer to shoot perimeter shots anyway. Yet these same players can sometimes be too slow in defense, especially in “switch-all” defensive schemes.
Only two NBA players are averaging at least 25 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game this season. One of them — surprise, surprise — is the Lakers’ LeBron James. LeBron has had himself a long career during which he has dominated every inch of the floor for a very long time. He arguably has the most varied skill set in the history of the game, and it has earned him career averages of 27.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. This is just kind of what he does; it’s his version of normal.
The other player averaging at least 25, 7.5 and 7.5 is 20-year-old Luka Dončić of the Mavericks. That is not normal; that is special. The complete list of players ever to average 25, 7.5 and 7.5 over a single season looks like this: LeBron, Oscar Robertson (six times), Russell Westbrook (twice), Larry Bird, James Harden and Michael Jordan. None of those legends was as young as Dončić.
After every Dallas Mavericks game this season, I keep telling my wife, “Luka is special. He's really good!” At this early in the NBA season, my wife is probably already tired of hearing that from me.
