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  <channel>
    <title>Parenting &amp;mdash; Dino’s Journal 📖</title>
    <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting</link>
    <description>A peek into the mind of a sleep deprived software developer, husband, dad and gamer.</description>
    <pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:58:22 +0000</pubDate>
    <image>
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      <title>Parenting &amp;mdash; Dino’s Journal 📖</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Journal Entry - 006</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-006?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Interesting Reads&#xA;&#xA;The Three-City Problem of Modern Life -- interesting read and social commentary about the lives we live today. We either live in the city of reason, of faith, or of technology. Living in one city isolates us from the rest of the world and that makes us feel incomplete. &#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;&#xA;7 Tips to Stand Out And Land The Job -- has great advice for job interviews.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;&#xA;A Roth IRA is one of the most powerful wealth building tools that the average person can use to become extremely wealthy... -- good info on ROTH IRA accounts. &#xA;&#xA;^ This is probably only applicable to US readers, as a ROTH IRA is a specific tax-advantaged account offered by the government. But if your country has a similar offering, then some of the info might still be useful.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;On Social Media&#xA;&#xA;Social media is like a sandbox where you can observe mimetic theory and mimetic desires in full display.!--more--&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;&#xA;Staying off social media while you know all your family and friends are there, is like missing out on a party that you&#39;re invited to, a party that goes on 24/7, every day of the week and year.&#xA;&#xA;Some people, actually most people, can&#39;t resist the urge to join the party. That&#39;s because we humans have this need to connect and to belong to a tribe. That&#39;s what the creators of social media figured out and made use of. It is one of their crowning achievements. They&#39;ve fabricated this need, this desire, to be online all the time, to browse the news feed and like and comment on every single interesting post that comes our way.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Parenting&#xA;&#xA;My kid just texted me 🌭 -- great tip on the use of family code and passwords. I didn&#39;t even know this was a thing.&#xA;&#xA;Perhaps the reason teens isolate themselves when they&#39;re overwhelmed instead of coming to us... -- seems like great parenting advice on not shutting out your toddler when they&#39;re having a tantrum.&#xA;&#xA;The Research Behind Picky Eating -- it looks like, the more you pressure a child to eat something (like say veggies), the more they will not want to. And it doesn&#39;t just stop there. Research seems to indicate, that if you continue forcing this issue, the kids will end up not liking the food even when they turn into adults.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Quotes&#xA;&#xA;  Sometimes to touch the light, you must first touch the darkness.&#xA;  ~ Galadriel, Rings of Power, Season 1 - Episode 5&#xA;&#xA;This might just seem like a good quote to be shared online, but I think it is a deep theological observation. Have you ever wondered why wherever there&#39;s good, there&#39;s evil? Wherever there&#39;s light, there&#39;s darkness? &#xA;&#xA;It&#39;s because evil is a parasite that latches on to the good. &#xA;&#xA;Now read that quote again and hopefully you&#39;ll gain a new appreciation of it.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Spirituality&#xA;&#xA;Choosing to follow Christ means choosing exile, but the flip side to it is that the key to living a joyful and happy life, is to follow God’s will. So by choosing exile, you still ironically find the path to living a joyful and happy life.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;&#xA;Feeling stressed out? Feel like you can&#39;t keep up? Feel like you&#39;re drowning in anxiety? Talk to God and lay it all out on Him. If you put God first, then everything else will fall into place.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Misc&#xA;&#xA;I finally have a reason as to why walking in nature is better than say, walking in a parking lot, even if that parking lot is surrounded by trees. &#xA;&#xA;Before you read my reason, just know that I am a car guy. &#xA;&#xA;Taking walks in a parking lot makes me look at cars, which then gets me thinking about my car, and wondering why is it that I&#39;m driving an old car, when I could be driving something new like this one over here, or that one over there. Walking in a parking lot basically has the potential to distract me with thoughts of wanting to buy a new car. That goes away when I do my walks in nature, because well, what am I going to think about, wanting to buy a new tree? &#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;&#xA;One of life&#39;s mysteries is this itch, want, need, to buy new books even while the number of unread books in my bookshelves keep on increasing.&#xA;&#xA;This is why I&#39;m putting a lot of effort into clearing out my online to-read list, as well as dropping a lot of the RSS feeds I follow. If I want to make progress with reading all the unread books in my bookshelf, I need to let go of reading all these interesting articles and blog posts on the internet.&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #PersonalFinance #SocialMedia #Parenting #Quotes #Theology #Spirituality #Christianity&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-006&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3 id="interesting-reads" id="interesting-reads">Interesting Reads</h3>

<p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/technology-philosophy-three-city-problem/">The Three-City Problem of Modern Life</a> — interesting read and social commentary about the lives we live today. We either live in the city of reason, of faith, or of technology. Living in one city isolates us from the rest of the world and that makes us feel incomplete.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CihzxOWPRZQ/?igshid=ZDg1NjBiNjg=">7 Tips to Stand Out And Land The Job</a> — has great advice for job interviews.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CivFSOgJqRl/?igshid=ZDg1NjBiNjg=">A Roth IRA is one of the most powerful wealth building tools that the average person can use to become extremely wealthy...</a> — good info on ROTH IRA accounts.</p>

<p><em>^ This is probably only applicable to US readers, as a ROTH IRA is a specific tax-advantaged account offered by the government. But if your country has a similar offering, then some of the info might still be useful.</em></p>

<hr/>

<h3 id="on-social-media" id="on-social-media">On Social Media</h3>

<p>Social media is like a sandbox where you can observe mimetic theory and mimetic desires in full display.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Staying off social media while you know all your family and friends are there, is like missing out on a party that you&#39;re invited to, a party that goes on 24/7, every day of the week and year.</p>

<p>Some people, actually most people, can&#39;t resist the urge to join the party. That&#39;s because we humans have this need to connect and to belong to a tribe. That&#39;s what the creators of social media figured out and made use of. It is one of their crowning achievements. They&#39;ve fabricated this need, this desire, to be online all the time, to browse the news feed and like and comment on every single interesting post that comes our way.</p>

<hr/>

<h3 id="parenting" id="parenting">Parenting</h3>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CisYi4zOpgo/?igshid=ZDg1NjBiNjg=">My kid just texted me 🌭</a> — great tip on the use of family code and passwords. I didn&#39;t even know this was a thing.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci2es89Nsfi/?igshid=ZDg1NjBiNjg=">Perhaps the reason teens isolate themselves when they&#39;re overwhelmed instead of coming to us...</a> — seems like great parenting advice on not shutting out your toddler when they&#39;re having a tantrum.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CjDcbPgOT7A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">The Research Behind Picky Eating</a> — it looks like, the more you pressure a child to eat something (like say veggies), the more they will not want to. And it doesn&#39;t just stop there. Research seems to indicate, that if you continue forcing this issue, the kids will end up not liking the food even when they turn into adults.</p>

<hr/>

<h3 id="quotes" id="quotes">Quotes</h3>

<blockquote><p>Sometimes to touch the light, you must first touch the darkness.
~ Galadriel, Rings of Power, Season 1 – Episode 5</p></blockquote>

<p>This might just seem like a good quote to be shared online, but I think it is a deep theological observation. Have you ever wondered why wherever there&#39;s good, there&#39;s evil? Wherever there&#39;s light, there&#39;s darkness?</p>

<p>It&#39;s because evil is a parasite that latches on to the good.</p>

<p>Now read that quote again and hopefully you&#39;ll gain a new appreciation of it.</p>

<hr/>

<h3 id="spirituality" id="spirituality">Spirituality</h3>

<p>Choosing to follow Christ means choosing exile, but the flip side to it is that the key to living a joyful and happy life, is to follow God’s will. So by choosing exile, you still ironically find the path to living a joyful and happy life.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Feeling stressed out? Feel like you can&#39;t keep up? Feel like you&#39;re drowning in anxiety? Talk to God and lay it all out on Him. If you put God first, then everything else will fall into place.</p>

<hr/>

<h3 id="misc" id="misc">Misc</h3>

<p>I finally have a reason as to why walking in nature is better than say, walking in a parking lot, even if that parking lot is surrounded by trees.</p>

<p><em>Before you read my reason, just know that I am a car guy.</em></p>

<p>Taking walks in a parking lot makes me look at cars, which then gets me thinking about my car, and wondering why is it that I&#39;m driving an old car, when I could be driving something new like this one over here, or that one over there. Walking in a parking lot basically has the potential to distract me with thoughts of wanting to buy a new car. That goes away when I do my walks in nature, because well, what am I going to think about, wanting to buy a new tree?</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>One of life&#39;s mysteries is this itch, want, need, to buy new books even while the number of unread books in my bookshelves keep on increasing.</p>

<p>This is why I&#39;m putting a lot of effort into <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/on-managing-my-to-read-list">clearing out my online to-read list</a>, as well as dropping a lot of the RSS feeds I follow. If I want to make progress with reading all the unread books in my bookshelf, I need to let go of reading all these interesting articles and blog posts on the internet.</p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:JournalEntry" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">JournalEntry</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:PersonalFinance" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">PersonalFinance</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:SocialMedia" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">SocialMedia</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Quotes</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Theology" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Theology</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Spirituality" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Spirituality</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Christianity" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Christianity</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-006</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2023 02:45:35 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Digital Minimalism w/ Wisephone Creators Chris Kaspar &amp; Jon Lentz | Pints with Aquinas</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/digital-minimalism-w-wisephone-creators-chris-kaspar-and-jon-lentz-pints-with?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Tuned in to learn more about the Wisephone, but stayed for the parenting advice and philosophical/theological discussions. Excellent podcast. Well worth the 2 hours run time.&#xA;&#xA;If you are a parent of young kids and you are concerned about how distracted you are around them, then you will find a lot to relate to in this podcast.&#xA;&#xA;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-oIKC9FCMI&#xA;!--more--&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;Takeaways&#xA;&#xA;As mentioned above, the whole podcast was a little over 2 hours long. Here are some of my takeaways from watching it. Note that most of these are not direct quotes. I tried to capture the idea as best as I can, but I would suggest watching the podcast to get the context and fully appreciate them.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;When Matt, the podcast host, mentioned that he no longer gives out his phone number to everyone, and that he now only corresponds with people through email, which he can only do so with a laptop that stays at his office, John Lentz said this (not a direct quote):&#xA;&#xA;  What is more loving, giving 10% of your all to everyone? Or giving 80-100% of your all to the people you love?&#xA;&#xA;You have to pick and choose who you want to be able to reach out to you 24/7. By opening yourself up to be interrupted by anyone, you stretch yourself out too thin. And so you can only give so much of your best to people. &#xA;&#xA;By going the email route for correspondence, you actually give yourself time to disconnect. You&#39;re no longer expected to reply right away. Now the expectation is, you&#39;ll get to their message when you check your emails. You&#39;ll get to it when you get to it. People will need to learn to wait for a response, which can be hard in today&#39;s world of instant messaging.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  Children are like arrows. It&#39;s our job to pull the string, point them hopefully in the right direction, then release and let go.&#xA;~ Chris Kaspar&#xA;&#xA;A very good analogy of what it means to be a parent.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Most parents usually have a plan on how to introduce kids to the subject of money. We usually go about it slowly. And the lessons progress over time, going through a number of years until we deem them responsible enough to handle money. Why don&#39;t we have the same plan for the technology that we hand out to our kids? &#xA;&#xA;Most parents, including me, will allow their kids to use an iPhone or an iPad and call it a day. I see now how that is reckless. We have to teach kids how to handle technology, just like how we teach them to handle money.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  We use tech to escape God, but simultaneously, God uses tech to protect and reach out to us.&#xA;~ Chris Kaspar&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  They (your kids) will only be here for a short time. My wife is a gift to me and she will only be here for a short time. I will only be here for a short time.&#xA;~ John Lentz&#xA;&#xA;That&#39;s a great reminder of what we are losing, when we spend our days distracted with social media or the phone in our hands -- we are losing time with our loved ones.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Lastly, an interesting explanation of why the company is named &#34;Techless&#34;. I previously thought it meant &#34;less technology&#34;, which equates to &#34;techless&#34;, makes sense, right? &#xA;&#xA;But actually, the company name alludes to what John the Baptist said in John 3:30, &#34;He must become greater; I must become less.&#34; With regards to the company name, it means &#34;God must increase, technology must decrease.&#34; It&#39;s a very paradoxical name for a technology company.&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Bookmarks #DigitalMinimalism #Parenthood #Parenting #SmartphoneAddiction #Spirituality&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/digital-minimalism-w-wisephone-creators-chris-kaspar-and-jon-lentz-pints-with&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Tuned in to learn more about the <a href="https://techless.com/pages/features">Wisephone</a>, but stayed for the parenting advice and philosophical/theological discussions. Excellent podcast. Well worth the 2 hours run time.</p>

<p><em>If you are a parent of young kids and you are concerned about how distracted you are around them, then you will find a lot to relate to in this podcast.</em></p>

<p><iframe allow="monetization" class="embedly-embed" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FL-oIKC9FCMI%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DL-oIKC9FCMI&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FL-oIKC9FCMI%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=d932fa08bf1f47efbbe54cb3d746839f&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" title="YouTube embed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
</p>

<hr/>

<h2 id="takeaways" id="takeaways">Takeaways</h2>

<p><em>As mentioned above, the whole podcast was a little over 2 hours long. Here are some of my takeaways from watching it. Note that most of these are not direct quotes. I tried to capture the idea as best as I can, but I would suggest watching the podcast to get the context and fully appreciate them.</em></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>When Matt, the podcast host, mentioned that he no longer gives out his phone number to everyone, and that he now only corresponds with people through email, which he can only do so with a laptop that stays at his office, John Lentz said this (not a direct quote):</p>

<blockquote><p>What is more loving, giving 10% of your all to everyone? Or giving 80-100% of your all to the people you love?</p></blockquote>

<p>You have to pick and choose who you want to be able to reach out to you 24/7. By opening yourself up to be interrupted by anyone, you stretch yourself out too thin. And so you can only give so much of your best to people.</p>

<p>By going the email route for correspondence, you actually give yourself time to disconnect. You&#39;re no longer expected to reply right away. Now the expectation is, you&#39;ll get to their message when you check your emails. You&#39;ll get to it when you get to it. People will need to learn to wait for a response, which can be hard in today&#39;s world of instant messaging.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p>Children are like arrows. It&#39;s our job to pull the string, point them hopefully in the right direction, then release and let go.
~ Chris Kaspar</p></blockquote>

<p>A very good analogy of what it means to be a parent.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Most parents usually have a plan on how to introduce kids to the subject of money. We usually go about it slowly. And the lessons progress over time, going through a number of years until we deem them responsible enough to handle money. Why don&#39;t we have the same plan for the technology that we hand out to our kids?</p>

<p>Most parents, including me, will allow their kids to use an iPhone or an iPad and call it a day. I see now how that is reckless. We have to teach kids how to handle technology, just like how we teach them to handle money.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p>We use tech to escape God, but simultaneously, God uses tech to protect and reach out to us.
~ Chris Kaspar</p></blockquote>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p><a href="https://youtu.be/L-oIKC9FCMI?t=704">They (your kids) will only be here for a short time. My wife is a gift to me and she will only be here for a short time. I will only be here for a short time.</a>
~ John Lentz</p></blockquote>

<p>That&#39;s a great reminder of what we are losing, when we spend our days distracted with social media or the phone in our hands — we are losing time with our loved ones.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Lastly, an interesting explanation of why the company is named “Techless”. I previously thought it meant “less technology”, which equates to “techless”, makes sense, right?</p>

<p>But actually, the company name alludes to what John the Baptist said in John 3:30, <em>“He must become greater; I must become less.”</em> With regards to the company name, it means <em>“God must increase, technology must decrease.”</em> It&#39;s a very paradoxical name for a technology company.</p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:DigitalMinimalism" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">DigitalMinimalism</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenthood" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenthood</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:SmartphoneAddiction" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">SmartphoneAddiction</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Spirituality" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Spirituality</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/digital-minimalism-w-wisephone-creators-chris-kaspar-and-jon-lentz-pints-with</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>Journal Entry - 004</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-004?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Interesting Reads&#xA;&#xA;Personal Publishing Principles -- this is a great read for someone interested in creating/maintaining a personal website or a personal blog. &#xA;&#xA;One good tip that was shared in that post is that a personal website/blog is the perfect place for you to experiment with your own ideas. Not everything will work out of course, but keep trying and some will. &#xA;&#xA;This also tells me that if your personal website won&#39;t allow you to do that, then you probably have a professional website as opposed to a personal one.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/ id=&#34;pics-or-it-didnt-happen&#34;&#xA;‘Pics or it didn’t happen’ – the mantra of the Instagram era  -- extremely good read on the use of social media, and how it changes the way we think and go about our daily lives.!--more--&#xA;&#xA;One of the problems with social media that is highlighted in this essay, is that while social media gives everyone a voice, everyone on social media is also speaking at the same time. This means that if you want to be heard, you will want to speak louder, and you&#39;ll want to do so more often than everybody else. If you don&#39;t, you risk becoming somebody who shouts into the void with nobody even glancing your way. &#xA;&#xA;So you can see how this can make people addicted to constantly posting photos, status, updates, etc... Each post becoming grander and grander just so you can get more eyeballs and hopefully likes/comments on it.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;Christianity&#xA;&#xA;From Mk 10:46-52:&#xA;&#xA;  As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. &#xA;&#xA;  On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” &#xA;&#xA;  Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. &#xA;&#xA;  Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.&#xA;&#xA;This gospel passage is a great example of being persistent with your prayers. Bartimaeus kept calling out to Jesus even as he was getting reprimanded by the people around him. He was being told to shut up, but he kept calling out anyway. And eventually Jesus answered his call. The lesson here is to be persistent with your prayers.&#xA;&#xA;You could argue that he kept on calling because he was blind and desperate. True, that seems to be a valid point. But then, why wait till you&#39;re blind and desperate before you persevere in your prayers? I feel like you open yourself up to more gifts and blessings from the Lord, if you don&#39;t wait till you&#39;re blind and desperate.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;When Jesus says, &#xA;&#xA;  &#34;Whoever comes to me and does not hate Father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.&#34;&#xA;&#xA;... what He means is that any of those cannot be loved more than God himself. To be a disciple means to put everything else second to the love of God.&#xA;&#xA;Source: Bishop Barron, Word on Fire Bible Volume I, p386&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;There is a beautiful comment on this Youtube video from Christian Gospel that goes like this:&#xA;&#xA;  GOD is like oxygen. You can&#39;t see HIM, but you can&#39;t live without Him! The GOD that fought with David is the same GOD that will fight with you &amp; for you! Your next chapter will be amazing. GOD is changing your storyline to happy &amp; healed!💕❤🙏🙌&#xA;&#xA;&#34;GOD is like oxygen. You can&#39;t see HIM, but you can&#39;t live without Him!&#34; Love that analogy!&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;Reflections&#xA;&#xA;One of the great things about social media is that it made it really easy to give everyone a voice (see interesting read above). The problem is, it comes with a price. You pay for it with your data and attention.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;People who weren&#39;t on social media before, didn&#39;t have the urges to post photos or post status updates. It makes me think that this is something that has turned into a habit over time. And since it&#39;s become a habit for most people, it is hard to stop.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Writing for yourself is writing to a private diary or journal. Writing to an audience is when your writing is shared to the public.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;Quotes&#xA;&#xA;  What is weird? Someone who is different? Or someone who is different than you?&#xA;~ Sensei Wu, Ninjago&#xA;&#xA;Ninjago is easily becoming my favorite kids TV show. It is filled with insightful quotes like this one. Sometimes I feel like they made the show for adults, just as much as they made it for kids.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  &#34;Children are perhaps the most unmistakable evidence of goodness in a world so bogged down by suffering and anger.&#34;&#xA;~ Jared Zimmerer, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;Parenting &#xA;&#xA;Is the internet hurting the youth? -- Gary Vee  -- seems like excellent advice on how to handle kids and their use of the internet.&#xA;&#xA;For those who don&#39;t want to click the link because they&#39;re allergic to Instagram or Reels, the advice is this: Build your kid&#39;s self-esteem first before letting them loose on the internet.&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #Blogging #SocialMedia #Christianity #Spirituality #Reflections #Writing #Parenting&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-004&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2 id="interesting-reads" id="interesting-reads">Interesting Reads</h2>

<p><a href="https://www.cjchilvers.com/personal-publishing-principles/">Personal Publishing Principles</a> — this is a great read for someone interested in creating/maintaining a personal website or a personal blog.</p>

<p>One good tip that was shared in that post is that a personal website/blog is the perfect place for you to experiment with your own ideas. Not everything will work out of course, but keep trying and some will.</p>

<p>This also tells me that if your personal website won&#39;t allow you to do that, then you probably have a <em>professional</em> website as opposed to a <em>personal</em> one.</p>

<hr class="sb" id="pics-or-it-didnt-happen" id="pics-or-it-didnt-happen">

<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/26/pics-or-it-didnt-happen-mantra-instagram-era-facebook-twitter">‘Pics or it didn’t happen’ – the mantra of the Instagram era</a>  — extremely good read on the use of social media, and how it changes the way we think and go about our daily lives.</p>

<p>One of the problems with social media that is highlighted in this essay, is that while social media gives everyone a voice, everyone on social media is also speaking at the same time. This means that if you want to be heard, you will want to speak louder, and you&#39;ll want to do so more often than everybody else. If you don&#39;t, you risk becoming somebody who shouts into the void with nobody even glancing your way.</p>

<p>So you can see how this can make people addicted to constantly posting photos, status, updates, etc... Each post becoming grander and grander just so you can get more eyeballs and hopefully likes/comments on it.</p>

<hr/>

<h2 id="christianity" id="christianity">Christianity</h2>

<p>From <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/10?46">Mk 10:46-52</a>:</p>

<blockquote><p>As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.</p>

<p>On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” <strong>And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”</strong></p>

<p>Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.</p>

<p>Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.</p></blockquote>

<p>This gospel passage is a great example of being persistent with your prayers. Bartimaeus kept calling out to Jesus even as he was getting reprimanded by the people around him. He was being told to shut up, but he kept calling out anyway. And eventually Jesus answered his call. The lesson here is to be persistent with your prayers.</p>

<p>You could argue that he kept on calling because he was blind and desperate. True, that seems to be a valid point. But then, why wait till you&#39;re blind and desperate before you persevere in your prayers? I feel like you open yourself up to more gifts and blessings from the Lord, if you don&#39;t wait till you&#39;re blind and desperate.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>When Jesus says,</p>

<blockquote><p>“Whoever comes to me and does not hate Father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”</p></blockquote>

<p>... what He means is that any of those cannot be loved more than God himself. To be a disciple means to put everything else second to the love of God.</p>

<p>Source: Bishop Barron, <a href="https://www.wordonfire.org/bible/#volumei">Word on Fire Bible Volume I</a>, p386</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>There is a beautiful comment on this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36hBlBGVFSs&amp;ab_channel=mattmaherVEVO">Youtube video</a> from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmlSxRqfLPfvJOO_8q4kuVQ">Christian Gospel</a> that goes like this:</p>

<blockquote><p>GOD is like oxygen. You can&#39;t see HIM, but you can&#39;t live without Him! The GOD that fought with David is the same GOD that will fight with you &amp; for you! Your next chapter will be amazing. GOD is changing your storyline to happy &amp; healed!💕❤🙏🙌</p></blockquote>

<p>“GOD is like oxygen. You can&#39;t see HIM, but you can&#39;t live without Him!” Love that analogy!</p>

<hr/>

<h2 id="reflections" id="reflections">Reflections</h2>

<p>One of the great things about social media is that it made it really easy to give everyone a voice (see <a href="#pics-or-it-didnt-happen">interesting read</a> above). The problem is, it comes with a price. You pay for it with your data and attention.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>People who weren&#39;t on social media before, didn&#39;t have the urges to post photos or post status updates. It makes me think that this is something that has turned into a habit over time. And since it&#39;s become a habit for most people, it is hard to stop.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Writing for yourself is writing to a private diary or journal. Writing to an audience is when your writing is shared to the public.</p>

<hr/>

<h2 id="quotes" id="quotes">Quotes</h2>

<blockquote><p>What is weird? Someone who is different? Or someone who is different than you?
~ Sensei Wu, Ninjago</p></blockquote>

<p>Ninjago is easily becoming my favorite kids TV show. It is filled with insightful quotes like this one. Sometimes I feel like they made the show for adults, just as much as they made it for kids.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p>“Children are perhaps the most unmistakable evidence of goodness in a world so bogged down by suffering and anger.”
~ Jared Zimmerer, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute</p></blockquote>

<hr/>

<h2 id="parenting" id="parenting">Parenting</h2>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfY6jCIgH-P/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=">Is the internet hurting the youth? — Gary Vee</a>  — seems like excellent advice on how to handle kids and their use of the internet.</p>

<p>For those who don&#39;t want to click the link because they&#39;re allergic to Instagram or Reels, the advice is this: Build your kid&#39;s self-esteem first before letting them loose on the internet.</p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:JournalEntry" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">JournalEntry</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Blogging" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Blogging</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:SocialMedia" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">SocialMedia</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Christianity" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Christianity</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Spirituality" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Spirituality</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Reflections" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Reflections</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Writing" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Writing</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/journal-entry-004</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2022 18:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Weeknotes - 018</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-018?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[They gave me a CX-5 as my loaner car for last week. It was a 2020 Grand Touring Reserve model, which means AWD with the turbo! It was hilariously fast, for a family CUV that is. That Mazda SkyActiv 2.5T engine is strong. Love the power in everyday driving.&#xA;&#xA;2020 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring Reserve AWD - a loaner car I was given while the service department had my Mazdaspeed3.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Got back my Mazdaspeed3 last Saturday. I&#39;m glad to have it back. But I also have to say that I was so spoiled by that CX-5 turbo loaner car. It was a really good car!&#xA;&#xA;Anyway, cost to repair the leak in the Mazdaspeed3 transmission was $1,071. It was actually the transmission shifting mechanism that was leaking, not the transmission itself. Thankfully it was an affordable repair bill. And that&#39;s thanks to an emergency fund set up for times like this. &#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;So, no need to trade in my car then. Though that CX-5 turbo did make me think twice about trading in... Is still making me think twice LOL!&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Lord of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition&#xA;Lord of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition&#xA;&#xA;Started reading the Lord Of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition book. This was a much appreciated Christmas gift from my brother.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;There&#39;s apparently a way to forward/send emails into OneNote. Got this idea after reading Tiago Forte&#39;s One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email, which is a great read by the way.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Here&#39;s some good parenting advice from an Instagram post on how to handle your kids when they lie to you.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Up to Episode 6 now of Vincenzo and man, what a good show! There were a couple of interesting things in Episode 6 that caught my eye, most notably the interaction between a Buddhist and Catholic character.&#xA;&#xA;There&#39;s this scene where a Buddhist monk was carrying a huge wooden cross, like Jesus was on his way to crucifixion. The monk was carrying the abandoned cross to donate to a nearby church. It struck me as a beautiful scene, where people can cast aside their differences and just be kind to one another.&#xA;&#xA;That scene then led to a conversation between Vincenzo and a Buddhist monk regarding enlightenment.&#xA;&#xA;  Vincenzo: &#34;If I go live somewhere far away, like in the middle of the ocean, will the anger inside me disappear?&#34;&#xA;&#xA;  Buddhist monk: &#34;It doesn’t matter where you live. What matters is whether you still have the anger inside you or not.&#34; &#xA;&#xA;  Vincenzo: &#34;Does that mean that I need to achieve enlightenment?&#34;&#xA;&#xA;  Buddhist monk: &#34;The only way to get rid of your anger is by fighting it. Stand your ground and fight back. Enlightenment is what you get when you win that battle.&#34;&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Weeknotes #Cars #Mazda #CX5 #Mazdaspeed3 #LordOfTheRings #Productivity #Parenting #TVShow #Vincenzo&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-018&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>They gave me a CX-5 as my loaner car for last week. It was a 2020 Grand Touring Reserve model, which means AWD with the turbo! It was hilariously fast, for a family CUV that is. That Mazda SkyActiv 2.5T engine is strong. Love the power in everyday driving.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/0WrqGB1D.jpeg" alt="2020 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring Reserve AWD - a loaner car I was given while the service department had my Mazdaspeed3."/></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Got back my Mazdaspeed3 last Saturday. I&#39;m glad to have it back. But I also have to say that I was so spoiled by that CX-5 turbo loaner car. It was a really good car!</p>

<p>Anyway, cost to repair the leak in the Mazdaspeed3 transmission was $1,071. It was actually the <em>transmission shifting mechanism</em> that was leaking, not the transmission itself. Thankfully it was an affordable repair bill. And that&#39;s thanks to an emergency fund set up for times like this.</p>



<p>So, no need to trade in my car then. Though that CX-5 turbo did make me think twice about trading in... Is still making me think twice LOL!</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/cVsbALye.jpeg" alt="Lord of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition"/>
<img src="https://i.snap.as/VVDGyWd2.jpeg" alt="Lord of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition"/></p>

<p>Started reading the Lord Of The Rings 50th Anniversary Edition book. This was a much appreciated Christmas gift from my brother.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>There&#39;s apparently a way to <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-email-to-send-notes-to-onenote-notebooks-f513b641-ab0d-41cc-8dab-2a66f5d141e7">forward/send emails into OneNote</a>. Got this idea after reading Tiago Forte&#39;s <a href="https://fortelabs.co/blog/one-touch-to-inbox-zero/">One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email</a>, which is a great read by the way.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Here&#39;s some good parenting advice from an Instagram post on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMUki2wAgw6/?igshid=1so2bpd7b5wj6">how to handle your kids when they lie to you</a>.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Up to Episode 6 now of <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81365087">Vincenzo</a> and man, what a good show! There were a couple of interesting things in Episode 6 that caught my eye, most notably the interaction between a Buddhist and Catholic character.</p>

<p>There&#39;s this scene where a Buddhist monk was carrying a huge wooden cross, like Jesus was on his way to crucifixion. The monk was carrying the abandoned cross to donate to a nearby church. It struck me as a beautiful scene, where people can cast aside their differences and just be kind to one another.</p>

<p>That scene then led to a conversation between Vincenzo and a Buddhist monk regarding enlightenment.</p>

<blockquote><p>Vincenzo: <em>“If I go live somewhere far away, like in the middle of the ocean, will the anger inside me disappear?”</em></p>

<p>Buddhist monk: <em>“It doesn’t matter where you live. What matters is whether you still have the anger inside you or not.”</em></p>

<p>Vincenzo: <em>“Does that mean that I need to achieve enlightenment?”</em></p>

<p>Buddhist monk: <em>“The only way to get rid of your anger is by fighting it. Stand your ground and fight back. Enlightenment is what you get when you win that battle.”</em></p></blockquote>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Weeknotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Weeknotes</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Cars" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Cars</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Mazda" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Mazda</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:CX5" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">CX5</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Mazdaspeed3" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Mazdaspeed3</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:LordOfTheRings" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">LordOfTheRings</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Productivity" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Productivity</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:TVShow" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">TVShow</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Vincenzo" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Vincenzo</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-018</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Mar 2021 12:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Weeknotes - 016 </title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-016?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[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.&#xA;&#xA;The Chosen One - Harry Potter themed birthday cake.&#xA;span class=&#34;imageCaption&#34;This cake not only looks good, but also taste good. What the Harry Potter design hides, is a delicious Ube flavored cake. Yum yum!/span&#xA;&#xA;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&#39;s a nice way to look back and see how much your child has grown.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;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&#39;m watching Kuroko&#39;s Basketball on Netflix and I&#39;m enjoying it so far.&#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;I&#39;ve started noticing that I get annoyed at myself for driving aggressively at times. I used to think it was my car, a 2013 Mazdaspeed3, that caused it. It surely doesn&#39;t help that it&#39;s a fun car to drive. But no, the car doesn&#39;t drive itself. I&#39;m the one driving the car. If I&#39;m driving aggressively, it&#39;s because of me and not the car. So, I&#39;ve been wanting to understand why I drive aggressively at times. And so I bought a book...&#xA;&#xA;The book I bought was, &#34;Curbing Your Road Rage: and Other Important Tips for Getting Along on the Road&#34; by Gordon Feinberg. It&#39;s a short book; just 41 pages. But I&#39;m surprised at how much it affected my driving. &#xA;&#xA;My driving is very relaxed and peaceful nowadays. So much so that I&#39;m now wondering if I can move on from the Mazdaspeed3 and get into a bigger family car, like a Mazda6 or an Accord.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Luka hits the game winning shot against the Celtics. That was quite a game!&#xA;&#xA;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6GouMa9a_o&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;A fellow Write.as blogger, Mike, wrote this entertaining piece, ‘‘Twas the night before tmo. It is obviously a playful take on what was happening on the read.write.as feed then, but was a fun read nonetheless. &#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Found a great read on the topic of SEO by Scott Nesbit.&#xA;&#xA;Got the link from jlelse&#39;s Blog.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Here are some really nice quotes from a book that I&#39;m trying to finish, The Light of All That Falls by James Islington. I&#39;m already 700 pages into the book and there&#39;s still some ways to go. I love the occasional philosophical discussion on morality and free will/choice in this book.&#xA;&#xA;  “It’s not enough to fight for the right side. You have to figure out how to fight the right way, too. If winning is truly all that matters, then we’ve lost sight of what’s actually right and wrong in the first place.” &#xA;&#xA;  ~ Davian&#xA;&#xA;This quote reminds me a lot of something I read from Ryan Holiday last year.&#xA;    &#xA;  “Remember that your past does not define you — no matter the consequences. Choice is meaningless without consequences, and a privilege we do not deserve if we will not face them.” &#xA;&#xA;  ~ Raeleth&#xA;&#xA;This one is deep. Choice is meaningless without consequences. Let that sink in for a moment. We live in a world where our actions and choices bear consequences. However, most people would rather not think about the consequences of their actions. And that is sad.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Teach your kids to be comfortable with being bored, so that they won&#39;t need to rely on gadgets and devices to keep them entertained.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Lastly, I&#39;ll end this post with another #FunnyThingsMyKidsSay entry. &#xA;&#xA;Davin: &#34;Mom, I can see the weather... I think it&#39;s Thursday.&#34; 😄&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Weeknotes #Basketball #DigitalMinimalism #Driving #Parenthood #Parenting&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-016&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>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.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/xJvqxsGu.jpeg" alt="The Chosen One - Harry Potter themed birthday cake."/>
<span class="imageCaption">This cake not only looks good, but also taste good. What the Harry Potter design hides, is a delicious <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/what-is-ube/ar-BB18yLwj">Ube</a> flavored cake. Yum yum!</span></p>

<p>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&#39;s a nice way to look back and see how much your child has grown.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>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&#39;m watching <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80063153">Kuroko&#39;s Basketball</a> on Netflix and I&#39;m enjoying it so far.</p>



<hr class="sb"/>

<p>I&#39;ve started noticing that I get annoyed at myself for driving aggressively at times. I used to think it was my car, a 2013 Mazdaspeed3, that caused it. It surely doesn&#39;t help that it&#39;s a fun car to drive. But no, the car doesn&#39;t drive itself. I&#39;m the one driving the car. If I&#39;m driving aggressively, it&#39;s because of me and not the car. So, I&#39;ve been wanting to understand why I drive aggressively at times. And so I bought a book...</p>

<p>The book I bought was, “Curbing Your Road Rage: and Other Important Tips for Getting Along on the Road” by Gordon Feinberg. It&#39;s a short book; just 41 pages. But I&#39;m surprised at how much it affected my driving.</p>

<p>My driving is very relaxed and peaceful nowadays. So much so that I&#39;m now wondering if I can move on from the Mazdaspeed3 and get into a bigger family car, like a Mazda6 or an Accord.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Luka hits the game winning shot against the Celtics. That was quite a game!</p>

<p><iframe allow="monetization" class="embedly-embed" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FG6GouMa9a_o%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DG6GouMa9a_o&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FG6GouMa9a_o%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=d932fa08bf1f47efbbe54cb3d746839f&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" title="YouTube embed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>A fellow Write.as blogger, <a href="https://mikesplaces.site/">Mike</a>, wrote this entertaining piece, <a href="https://mikesplaces.site/twas-the-night-before-tmo">‘‘Twas the night before tmo</a>. It is obviously a playful take on what was happening on the read.write.as feed then, but was a fun read nonetheless.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Found a great read on the topic of <a href="https://buttondown.email/weeklymusings/archive/weekly-musings-101-on-seo/">SEO</a> by Scott Nesbit.</p>

<p>Got the link from <a href="https://jlelse.blog/links/2021/02/2021-02-23-ihvex">jlelse&#39;s Blog</a>.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Here are some really nice quotes from a book that I&#39;m trying to finish, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36111098-the-light-of-all-that-falls">The Light of All That Falls</a> by James Islington. <em>I&#39;m already 700 pages into the book and there&#39;s still some ways to go.</em> I love the occasional philosophical discussion on morality and free will/choice in this book.</p>

<blockquote><p>“It’s not enough to fight for the right side. You have to figure out how to fight the right way, too. If winning is truly all that matters, then we’ve lost sight of what’s actually right and wrong in the first place.”</p>

<p>~ Davian</p></blockquote>

<p>This quote reminds me a lot of <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/its-not-enough-to-be-right-you-also-have-to-be-kind-ryan-holiday">something I read from Ryan Holiday</a> last year.</p>

<blockquote><p>“Remember that your past does not define you — no matter the consequences. Choice is meaningless without consequences, and a privilege we do not deserve if we will not face them.”</p>

<p>~ Raeleth</p></blockquote>

<p>This one is deep. <em>Choice is meaningless without consequences.</em> Let that sink in for a moment. We live in a world where our actions and choices bear consequences. However, most people would rather not think about the consequences of their actions. And that is sad.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Teach your kids to be comfortable with being bored, so that they won&#39;t need to rely on gadgets and devices to keep them entertained.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Lastly, I&#39;ll end this post with another <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:FunnyThingsMyKidsSay" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">FunnyThingsMyKidsSay</span></a> entry.</p>

<p>Davin: <em>“Mom, I can see the weather... I think it&#39;s Thursday.”</em> 😄</p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Weeknotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Weeknotes</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Basketball" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Basketball</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:DigitalMinimalism" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">DigitalMinimalism</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Driving" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Driving</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenthood" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenthood</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-016</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 02 Mar 2021 04:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
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      <title>Weeknotes - 015</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-015?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[The biggest development from last week, was that after weeks of thinking about it and talking about it on this journal, I finally published my digital garden online. You can find it here.&#xA;&#xA;It&#39;s a work in progress, so there will be changes. In fact, the nature of it means it will probably be forever under construction. When you go through it, don&#39;t think of it as a blog. It is not. There are no published dates. There&#39;s no RSS feed. There&#39;s no email subscription. The URLs to specific notes will probably change every week. It is really a digital garden/personal knowledge-base.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Matt shared this wonderful website on Mastodon. What an amazing find! It allows you to watch, what looks like dashcam videos, from all over the world. In an age where travel and road trips are put on-hold, this website lets you experience virtually driving in another country. It&#39;s a mesmerizing and very interesting way to see what other countries/cities look like.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Power outages and water shut-offs all across Texas. People have died in accidents on the road and at their own homes because of the cold. It&#39;s extremely disheartening. We&#39;ve been extremely lucky to not have lost power or water at all. But that wasn&#39;t the case for everyone else. Last week&#39;s winter storm really showed how the state of Texas is just not ready for this kind of weather. I&#39;m hoping that the state can learn from this and be better prepared for the next one.&#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;I finished reading How to Take Smart Notes – One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking by Sönke Ahrens last week. Here are the last set of my literature notes for it:&#xA;&#xA;It is not possible to think through things deeply, without writing down your thoughts. — page 95&#xA;&#xA;Connecting thoughts and ideas to other thoughts and ideas can help us remember them in the future. Again this is what the Zettelkasten forces you to do. Which is why it can be considered a tool for thinking and learning. — Page 103 &#xA;&#xA;Ahrens says to add links to other notes, or links on other notes to your new notes when adding a permanent note to the slip-box. I guess this means you can edit existing notes to add links to new notes. — Page 107&#xA;&#xA;Great ideas develop over time. They don’t all of a sudden materialize inside our heads. We would have to have been thinking about a problem and been trying to solve it for a good amount of time, before a good idea dawns on us. — Page 121&#xA;&#xA;When writing down permanent notes, don’t forget to ask questions. Try to see what’s not there, what’s not covered. — Page 126-127&#xA;&#xA;The fewer choices you have, the less decisions you have to make, the less mental resources you have to consume to make a decision. — Page 130&#xA;&#xA;One way to enforce one idea per note is to make sure the contents of a note fit on a screen without having to scroll. — Page 130 &#xA;&#xA;When writing, keep a second document open where you can put text that you’ve cut out of the draft you are working on. This allows you to come back to them later if you need to use them. At the same time, it allows you to continue working on your draft without worrying about the parts you cut out because they didn’t have any function in the draft. — Page 145 &#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;One thing people don&#39;t seem to mention about trying to build a digital garden -- it is a tough mental workout. A lot of the things you do as part of it, elaborating and writing notes in your own words, then connecting them to other permanent notes, requires a lot of thinking. And yes, that&#39;s the point of the Zettelkasten, to make you think and consequently learn and possibly gain new insight and ideas. But I&#39;m just pointing out, that doing so requires a lot of mental stamina. And when you do it at the end of a long work day, when your brain is already fried, it&#39;s tough.&#xA;&#xA;I believe in the end it is still worth it though.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;I&#39;m thinking of creating a new blog (yet again) just for sharing photos. Like an Instagram replacement, but as a personal blog. I want to keep Above the Earth and Seas as just a photo-blog for sky photos in the future.&#xA;&#xA;I would have just gone with Instagram for this, but they made some changes that really annoy me. In the past, I could block all notifications on the app. But now, they&#39;ve added notifications for people or accounts to follow. And I cannot seem to find a way to block those notifications. It is annoying and I don&#39;t want to deal with it. There&#39;s also the likes/hearts component of it that messes with my head. That said I still use Instagram to find great content that can only be found there. I just don&#39;t want to use it to post new photos.&#xA;&#xA;Yes I know. I keep telling myself I need to cut down on the number of websites I have to maintain, but I also keep wanting to try out new ones. I&#39;ve been trying to find a replacement for Instagram for some time now. And knowing myself, my brain won&#39;t shut up about it unless I try... something. &#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;A personal blog can be thought of as another form of a notebook or paper to write on. It allows you to dump down your thoughts, so you can think through them.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite and all-powerful personal God, we are never in control.  &#xA;  &#xA;  This is why we say that faith goes beyond reason. If we can figure it out, calculate precisely, predict with complete accuracy, we’re in charge—and by definition, we are not dealing with a person. Would you use any of those descriptors in talking about your relationship with your husband, wife, or best friend? Instead, you enter into an ever-increasing rapport of trust with such people.  &#xA;  &#xA;  One of the most fundamental statements of faith is this: your life is not about you. You’re not in control. This is not your project. Rather, you are part of God’s great design. To believe this in your bones and to act accordingly is to have faith.&#xA;&#xA;  ~ Daily Gospel Reflection by Bishop Barron&#xA;&#xA;A great definition of faith.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;  &#34;When you pray,&#xA;do not be like the hypocrites,&#xA;who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners&#xA;so that others may see them.&#xA;Amen, I say to you,&#xA;they have received their reward.&#xA;But when you pray, go to your inner room,&#xA;close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.&#xA;And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.&#34;&#xA;&#xA;  ~ From Matthew, Chapter 6&#xA;&#xA;I have always wondered about this in regards to praying before eating meals in public, like at a restaurant. Yes I know we should give praise to God for the blessing of having food to eat. But shouldn&#39;t we do it in a way that doesn&#39;t draw attention in public? Because otherwise, are we not like the hyprocrites, &#34;who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them&#34;?&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Fasting is normally associated with food. But I think it can be applied to digital activities. In which case, isn&#39;t digital minimalism just another form of fasting?&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Finished watching Spenser Confidential. It was a great movie. Hilarious at times and action packed. Love that a lot of the fight scenes were hand-to-hand combat. Looking forward to the sequel, if they ever come out with one.&#xA;&#xA;Warning to the parents out there. It is a rated R movie, so definitely be wary when watching around kids.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Listening to a My Chemical Romance track and still loving it after all these years. I&#39;m reminded of the time back in 2005-2006, when I was on an mIRC channel chatting with some friends. You know how you could share what song you&#39;re listening to in the public chat? Yeah we used to do it then. Someone on the channel noticed what I was listening to and told me to check out My Chemical Romance. &#xA;&#xA;Man, that guy changed my life as far as my musical tastes go. I didn&#39;t even know that guy personally. He was just another regular on that channel. I&#39;m so grateful that he took the time to tell me about an emo rock band back then. I wonder where he is right now? I hope he is doing well and still rocking out to My Chemical Romance.&#xA;&#xA;https://open.spotify.com/track/7lRlq939cDG4SzWOF4VAnd?si=9313d93c9a1541b1&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;Caleb is now getting better at walking by himself around the house. He&#39;s growing up too fast! It happened exactly like what was said in this post. Our baby/infant is gone. He&#39;s now a toddler.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;When your child says, “Dad look at this”, what they really want is for you to notice them.  &#xA;&#xA;Source:&#xA;https://www.instagram.com/p/CLc_d8wpSD9/&#xA;&#xA;I&#39;m finding that Instagram can be a surprisingly good place to find parenting advice.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;I&#39;ll end this post with a photo of what dad life looked like last week.&#xA;&#xA;Caleb already standing and playing by himself&#xA;Yup, that&#39;s Caleb standing and playing by himself. Like I said earlier in this post, no longer a baby. Now a toddler.&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Weeknotes #Blogging #DigitalGarden #Music #Parenthood #Parenting #Spirituality #Writing #Zettelkasten&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-015&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The biggest development from last week, was that after weeks of thinking about it and talking about it on this journal, I finally published my digital garden online. You can find it <a href="https://publish.obsidian.md/dinobansigan/">here</a>.</p>

<p>It&#39;s a work in progress, so there will be changes. In fact, the nature of it means it will probably be forever under construction. When you go through it, don&#39;t think of it as a blog. It is not. There are no published dates. There&#39;s no RSS feed. There&#39;s no email subscription. The URLs to specific notes will probably change every week. It is really a digital garden/personal knowledge-base.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p><a href="https://write.as/matt/">Matt</a> shared <a href="https://driveandlisten.herokuapp.com/">this wonderful website</a> on <a href="https://writing.exchange/@matt/105714791532835628">Mastodon</a>. What an amazing find! It allows you to watch, what looks like dashcam videos, from all over the world. In an age where travel and road trips are put on-hold, this website lets you experience virtually driving in another country. It&#39;s a mesmerizing and very interesting way to see what other countries/cities look like.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Power outages and water shut-offs all across Texas. People have died in accidents on the road and at their own homes because of the cold. It&#39;s extremely disheartening. We&#39;ve been extremely lucky to not have lost power or water at all. But that wasn&#39;t the case for everyone else. Last week&#39;s winter storm really showed how the state of Texas is just not ready for this kind of weather. I&#39;m hoping that the state can learn from this and be better prepared for the next one.</p>



<hr class="sb"/>

<p>I finished reading <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507927-how-to-take-smart-notes">How to Take Smart Notes – One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking</a> by Sönke Ahrens last week. Here are the last set of my literature notes for it:</p>

<p>It is not possible to think through things deeply, without writing down your thoughts. — page 95</p>

<p>Connecting thoughts and ideas to other thoughts and ideas can help us remember them in the future. Again this is what the Zettelkasten forces you to do. Which is why it can be considered a tool for thinking and learning. — Page 103</p>

<p>Ahrens says to add links to other notes, or links on other notes to your new notes when adding a permanent note to the slip-box. I guess this means you can edit existing notes to add links to new notes. — Page 107</p>

<p>Great ideas develop over time. They don’t all of a sudden materialize inside our heads. We would have to have been thinking about a problem and been trying to solve it for a good amount of time, before a good idea dawns on us. — Page 121</p>

<p>When writing down permanent notes, don’t forget to ask questions. Try to see what’s not there, what’s not covered. — Page 126-127</p>

<p>The fewer choices you have, the less decisions you have to make, the less mental resources you have to consume to make a decision. — Page 130</p>

<p>One way to enforce one idea per note is to make sure the contents of a note fit on a screen without having to scroll. — Page 130</p>

<p>When writing, keep a second document open where you can put text that you’ve cut out of the draft you are working on. This allows you to come back to them later if you need to use them. At the same time, it allows you to continue working on your draft without worrying about the parts you cut out because they didn’t have any function in the draft. — Page 145</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>One thing people don&#39;t seem to mention about trying to build a digital garden — it is a tough mental workout. A lot of the things you do as part of it, elaborating and writing notes in your own words, then connecting them to other permanent notes, requires a lot of thinking. And yes, that&#39;s the point of the Zettelkasten, to make you think and consequently learn and possibly gain new insight and ideas. But I&#39;m just pointing out, that doing so requires a lot of mental stamina. And when you do it at the end of a long work day, when your brain is already fried, it&#39;s tough.</p>

<p>I believe in the end it is still worth it though.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>I&#39;m thinking of creating a new blog <em>(yet again)</em> just for sharing photos. Like an Instagram replacement, but as a personal blog. I want to keep <a href="https://ateas.dinobansigan.com/">Above the Earth and Seas</a> as just a photo-blog for sky photos in the future.</p>

<p>I would have just gone with Instagram for this, but they made some changes that really annoy me. In the past, I could block all notifications on the app. But now, they&#39;ve added notifications for people or accounts to follow. And I cannot seem to find a way to block those notifications. It is annoying and I don&#39;t want to deal with it. There&#39;s also the <em>likes/hearts</em> component of it that messes with my head. That said I still use Instagram to find great content that can only be found there. I just don&#39;t want to use it to post new photos.</p>

<p><em>Yes I know. I keep telling myself I need to cut down on the number of websites I have to maintain, but I also keep wanting to try out new ones. I&#39;ve been trying to find a replacement for Instagram for some time now. And knowing myself, my brain won&#39;t shut up about it unless I try... something.</em></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>A personal blog can be thought of as another form of a notebook or paper to write on. It allows you to dump down your thoughts, so you can think through them.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p>Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite and all-powerful personal God, we are never in control.</p>

<p>This is why we say that faith goes beyond reason. If we can figure it out, calculate precisely, predict with complete accuracy, we’re in charge—and by definition, we are not dealing with a person. Would you use any of those descriptors in talking about your relationship with your husband, wife, or best friend? Instead, you enter into an ever-increasing rapport of trust with such people.</p>

<p>One of the most fundamental statements of faith is this: your life is not about you. You’re not in control. This is not your project. Rather, you are part of God’s great design. To believe this in your bones and to act accordingly is to have faith.</p>

<p>~ Daily Gospel Reflection by Bishop Barron</p></blockquote>

<p>A great definition of faith.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<blockquote><p>“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”</p>

<p>~ From Matthew, Chapter 6</p></blockquote>

<p>I have always wondered about this in regards to praying before eating meals in public, like at a restaurant. Yes I know we should give praise to God for the blessing of having food to eat. But shouldn&#39;t we do it in a way that doesn&#39;t draw attention in public? Because otherwise, are we not like the hyprocrites, “who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them”?</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Fasting is normally associated with food. But I think it can be applied to digital activities. In which case, isn&#39;t digital minimalism just another form of fasting?</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Finished watching <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81005492">Spenser Confidential</a>. It was a great movie. Hilarious at times and action packed. Love that a lot of the fight scenes were hand-to-hand combat. Looking forward to the sequel, if they ever come out with one.</p>

<p><em>Warning to the parents out there. It is a rated R movie, so definitely be wary when watching around kids.</em></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Listening to a My Chemical Romance track and still loving it after all these years. I&#39;m reminded of the time back in 2005-2006, when I was on an mIRC channel chatting with some friends. You know how you could share what song you&#39;re listening to in the public chat? Yeah we used to do it then. Someone on the channel noticed what I was listening to and told me to check out My Chemical Romance.</p>

<p>Man, that guy changed my life as far as my musical tastes go. I didn&#39;t even know that guy personally. He was just another regular on that channel. I&#39;m so grateful that he took the time to tell me about an emo rock band back then. I wonder where he is right now? I hope he is doing well and still rocking out to My Chemical Romance.</p>

<p><iframe allow="monetization" class="embedly-embed" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fembed%2Ftrack%2F7lRlq939cDG4SzWOF4VAnd&display_name=Spotify&url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Ftrack%2F7lRlq939cDG4SzWOF4VAnd&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.scdn.co%2Fimage%2Fab67616d00001e02cab7ae4868e9f9ce6bdfdf43&key=d932fa08bf1f47efbbe54cb3d746839f&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=spotify" width="300" height="380" scrolling="no" title="Spotify embed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>Caleb is now getting better at walking by himself around the house. He&#39;s growing up too fast! It happened exactly like what was said in <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/didnt-even-get-to-say-goodbye-mikala-albertson">this post</a>. Our baby/infant is gone. He&#39;s now a toddler.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>When your child says, <em>“Dad look at this”</em>, what they really want is for you to notice them.</p>

<p>Source:
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CLc_d8wpSD9/">https://www.instagram.com/p/CLc_d8wpSD9/</a></p>

<p>I&#39;m finding that Instagram can be a surprisingly good place to find parenting advice.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>I&#39;ll end this post with a photo of what dad life looked like last week.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/HFN9qLkh.jpg" alt="Caleb already standing and playing by himself"/>
<em>Yup, that&#39;s Caleb standing and playing by himself. Like I said earlier in this post, no longer a baby. Now a toddler.</em></p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Weeknotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Weeknotes</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Blogging" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Blogging</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:DigitalGarden" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">DigitalGarden</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Music" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Music</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenthood" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenthood</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Spirituality" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Spirituality</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Writing" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Writing</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Zettelkasten" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Zettelkasten</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/weeknotes-015</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 21 Feb 2021 07:29:32 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>How to raise a resilient child | Judith Locke</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/how-to-raise-a-resilient-child-judith-locke?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[I have been slacking off on sharing bookmark posts lately. It&#39;s not that I haven&#39;t been reading new articles or posts. I&#39;m still reading, almost everyday. I&#39;ve just been so busy at work and at home that I run out of time to write bookmark posts. After reading a lengthy article for instance, it&#39;s usually time for me to get back to work or help with the kids. I&#39;ve no time left to write down my reflections on the articles or posts I&#39;ve read. So, going forward I might eschew that practice in favor of getting more bookmark posts out faster. The goal of my bookmark posts was always to bookmark and share what I think are good reads anyway. Writing down my thoughts on it are just a bonus.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;This is a great read on the topic of parenting. Specifically, how to avoid over-parenting your child. I myself think that I could be considered a &#34;helicopter dad,&#34; so this read was a very good wake-up call for me.&#xA;&#xA;Link: How to raise a resilient child&#xA;&#xA;!--more--&#xA;  Since then, scholars have coined terms such as ‘helicopter parenting’ and ‘overparenting’ to describe a type of parenting that involves an excess of care, including being overly protective, not letting the child make their own decisions, over-the-top affection, and holding overly high academic and social expectations for the child. This parenting approach has been associated with harmful consequences for children at the time and later in their lives, including increased anxiety, poorer leadership skills and creativity, increased narcissism, reduced self-regulation skills, increased alcohol use, poorer life satisfaction and reduced distress tolerance.&#xA;&#xA;Yikes! Must avoid &#34;helicopter parenting&#34; then.&#xA;&#xA;  ... I asked the parents to come back, and provided a session where I told them to aim for different goals in their parenting. I encouraged them not to focus purely on ensuring their child was always happy and successful in the here and now, but rather to develop in her the five skills that will be helpful in the long term: resilience, self-regulation, resourcefulness, respect and responsibility...&#xA;&#xA;If you are a parent, or soon to be parent, this is the main reason you&#39;ll want to read this article. The author covers how to help a child develop resilience, self-regulation, resourcefulness, respect and responsibility.&#xA;&#xA;  If you use your own resourcefulness to solve your children’s problems, they won’t get the chance to learn how to adapt. You risk setting yourself as the solver and your children might continue to look to you for resolutions, even at an age when they should be solving situations themselves&#xA;&#xA;That actually explains a lot...&#xA;&#xA;  When you prioritise your children’s rights over their responsibilities, you prevent them from learning the skill of accountability and from experiencing the wellbeing benefits of contributing to society. Remind your children that there is equal, if not more, happiness in what they do for others than in what others do for them.&#xA;&#xA;That&#39;s great advice!&#xA;&#xA;  Smoothing the way through ‘lawnmower parenting’ serves to make your children ready for smooth roads only. Constant hovering around your children only makes them even more reliant on your presence. As the person who loves them most, don’t ask yourself what you can do to help your children every day, but what you can do to help them help themselves. That’s a parenting action that will truly prepare them for the bumps, twists and turns of the life journeys stretching ahead of them.&#xA;&#xA;Another good one.&#xA;&#xA;hr class=&#34;sb&#34;/&#xA;This post is Day 38 of my &amp;#35;100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Bookmarks #Parenting #100DaysToOffload&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/how-to-raise-a-resilient-child-judith-locke&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>I have been slacking off on sharing bookmark posts lately. It&#39;s not that I haven&#39;t been reading new articles or posts. I&#39;m still reading, almost everyday. I&#39;ve just been so busy at work and at home that I run out of time to write bookmark posts. After reading a lengthy article for instance, it&#39;s usually time for me to get back to work or help with the kids. I&#39;ve no time left to write down my reflections on the articles or posts I&#39;ve read. So, going forward I might eschew that practice in favor of getting more bookmark posts out faster. The goal of my bookmark posts was always to bookmark and share what I think are good reads anyway. Writing down my thoughts on it are just a bonus.</em></p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p>This is a great read on the topic of parenting. Specifically, how to avoid over-parenting your child. I myself think that I could be considered a <em>“helicopter dad,”</em> so this read was a very good wake-up call for me.</p>

<p>Link: <a href="https://psyche.co/guides/to-help-your-children-put-the-helicopter-in-the-hangar?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=b16ae6427a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_16_05_40&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_411a82e59d-b16ae6427a-70852215">How to raise a resilient child</a></p>



<blockquote><p>Since then, scholars have coined terms such as ‘helicopter parenting’ and ‘overparenting’ to describe a type of parenting that involves an excess of care, including being overly protective, not letting the child make their own decisions, over-the-top affection, and holding overly high academic and social expectations for the child. <strong>This parenting approach has been associated with harmful consequences for children at the time and later in their lives, including increased anxiety, poorer leadership skills and creativity, increased narcissism, reduced self-regulation skills, increased alcohol use, poorer life satisfaction and reduced distress tolerance.</strong></p></blockquote>

<p>Yikes! Must avoid “helicopter parenting” then.</p>

<blockquote><p>... I asked the parents to come back, and provided a session where I told them to aim for different goals in their parenting. <strong>I encouraged them not to focus purely on ensuring their child was always happy and successful in the here and now, but rather to develop in her the five skills that will be helpful in the long term: resilience, self-regulation, resourcefulness, respect and responsibility...</strong></p></blockquote>

<p>If you are a parent, or soon to be parent, this is the main reason you&#39;ll want to read this article. The author covers how to help a child develop resilience, self-regulation, resourcefulness, respect and responsibility.</p>

<blockquote><p>If you use your own resourcefulness to solve your children’s problems, they won’t get the chance to learn how to adapt. You risk setting yourself as the solver and your children might continue to look to you for resolutions, even at an age when they should be solving situations themselves</p></blockquote>

<p>That actually explains a lot...</p>

<blockquote><p>When you prioritise your children’s rights over their responsibilities, you prevent them from learning the skill of accountability and from experiencing the wellbeing benefits of contributing to society. <strong>Remind your children that there is equal, if not more, happiness in what they do for others than in what others do for them.</strong></p></blockquote>

<p>That&#39;s great advice!</p>

<blockquote><p>Smoothing the way through ‘lawnmower parenting’ serves to make your children ready for smooth roads only. Constant hovering around your children only makes them even more reliant on your presence. <strong>As the person who loves them most, don’t ask yourself what you can do to help your children every day, but what you can do to help them help themselves.</strong> That’s a parenting action that will truly prepare them for the bumps, twists and turns of the life journeys stretching ahead of them.</p></blockquote>

<p>Another good one.</p>

<hr class="sb"/>

<p><em>This post is Day 38 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit <a href="https://100daystooffload.com">https://100daystooffload.com</a> to get more info, or to get involved.</em></p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:100DaysToOffload" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">100DaysToOffload</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/how-to-raise-a-resilient-child-judith-locke</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2020 17:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>The Relation of Violent Video Games to Adolescent Aggression | Rong Shao and Yunqiang Wang</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/the-relation-of-violent-video-games-to-adolescent-aggression-rong-shao-and?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[For years I&#39;ve read that there is no direct correlation between playing violent video games and real world aggression. &#34;You know those are just pixels, right?&#34; That is the usual response from gamers who don&#39;t believe that video games can somehow make people aggressive in real life. I would like to believe that too. However, here is one study I ran into that might say otherwise.&#xA;&#xA;  For individuals with a good family environment, exposure to violent video games had only a direct effect on aggression; however, for those with poor family environment, it had both direct and indirect effects mediated by normative beliefs about aggression. This moderated mediation model includes some notions of General Aggression Model (GAM) and Catalyst Model (CM), which helps shed light on the complex mechanism of violent video games influencing adolescent aggression.&#xA;&#xA;Now I&#39;m not a psychologist so it&#39;s possible that I&#39;m interpreting this incorrectly. If so, feel free to educate me by getting in touch with me. Anyway, from what I&#39;m reading on here, it seems like the combination of playing violent video games and growing up in a poor family environment could lead to aggressive behavior in the future. So, if you allow your kids to play Call of Duty, Assassin&#39;s Creed or Grand Theft Auto, you better make sure you&#39;re not fighting with your spouse. Actually, don&#39;t allow them to play those games until they&#39;re older, especially not Grand Theft Auto.&#xA;&#xA;It must be noted that the study is limited to a small number of participants in China. It would be nice if other countries perform the same kind of study on their own. I would be curious to see the results. So, while it might not necessarily apply to me and my family, since we don&#39;t live in China, this is still an interesting study to me. Especially as a parent who plays video games around my kids and whose kids will more than likely be playing video games as well in the future. It&#39;s already happening now. Davin already knows how turn on the Xbox and play PES 2020 by himself.&#xA;&#xA;Source: The Relation of Violent Video Games to Adolescent Aggression: An Examination of Moderated Mediation Effect&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Bookmarks #VideoGames #Parenting&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/the-relation-of-violent-video-games-to-adolescent-aggression-rong-shao-and&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For years I&#39;ve read that there is no direct correlation between playing violent video games and real world aggression. <em>“You know those are just pixels, right?”</em> That is the usual response from gamers who don&#39;t believe that video games can somehow make people aggressive in real life. I would like to believe that too. However, here is one <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00384/full">study</a> I ran into that might say otherwise.</p>

<blockquote><p>For individuals with a good family environment, exposure to violent video games had only a direct effect on aggression; however, for those with poor family environment, it had both direct and indirect effects mediated by normative beliefs about aggression. This moderated mediation model includes some notions of General Aggression Model (GAM) and Catalyst Model (CM), which helps shed light on the complex mechanism of violent video games influencing adolescent aggression.</p></blockquote>

<p>Now I&#39;m not a psychologist so it&#39;s possible that I&#39;m interpreting this incorrectly. If so, feel free to educate me by <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/comments">getting in touch</a> with me. Anyway, from what I&#39;m reading on here, it seems like the combination of playing violent video games and growing up in a poor family environment could lead to aggressive behavior in the future. So, if you allow your kids to play Call of Duty, Assassin&#39;s Creed or Grand Theft Auto, you better make sure you&#39;re not fighting with your spouse. <em>Actually, don&#39;t allow them to play those games until they&#39;re older, especially not Grand Theft Auto.</em></p>

<p>It must be noted that the study is limited to a small number of participants in China. It would be nice if other countries perform the same kind of study on their own. I would be curious to see the results. So, while it might not necessarily apply to me and my family, since we don&#39;t live in China, this is still an interesting study to me. Especially as a parent who plays video games around my kids and whose kids will more than likely be playing video games as well in the future. <em>It&#39;s already happening now. Davin already knows how turn on the Xbox and play PES 2020 by himself.</em></p>

<p>Source: <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00384/full">The Relation of Violent Video Games to Adolescent Aggression: An Examination of Moderated Mediation Effect</a></p>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:VideoGames" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">VideoGames</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a></em></p>



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      <guid>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/the-relation-of-violent-video-games-to-adolescent-aggression-rong-shao-and</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2020 18:51:55 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>On Parenting Series | Daniel Rose</title>
      <link>https://journal.dinobansigan.com/on-parenting-series-daniel-rose?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Just wanted to point out that me and my wife have been enjoying reading the On Parenting series that Daniel Rose has been sharing on the Read.Write.As feed. As a young parent, I find a lot of the info shared in those posts to be useful and refreshing. Refreshing in the sense that it makes me reconsider what I think I know about parenting. And it also challenges my preconceptions of how I think parenting should be done. &#xA;&#xA;  When you choose experience over stuff you are also choosing relationship. Just giving children stuff communicates that you would prefer them to be seen not heard. Experiences are almost always linked to engagement. Leaving town or heading out on a local adventure usually means that there are significant times where the phones are put away and we are doing something together.&#xA;From On Parenting: Experience Over Stuff&#xA;&#xA;My wife texted me that quote after I sent her a number of links for reading. She said she loved it, so do I.&#xA;!--more--&#xA;&#xA;If I may make one suggestion to the author, it is to group the posts under a hashtag so that they will be easier to find with just one link. Anyway, for my benefit, I am listing down the links to each post from the series.&#xA;&#xA;On Parenting: A Warning and An Encouragement&#xA;On Parenting: Their Sin is Not Your Sin&#xA;On Parenting: Ask For Forgiveness&#xA;On Parenting: Extend Grace&#xA;On Parenting: Be Consistent&#xA;On Parenting: Speak With Them&#xA;On Parenting: Experience Over Stuff&#xA;On Parenting: Have Expectations&#xA;On Parenting: Don&#39;t Make Excuses&#xA;On Parenting: Model Your Principles&#xA;On Parenting: Raise Adults Not Children&#xA;&#xA;Tags: #Bookmarks #Parenting&#xA;&#xA;!--emailsub--&#xA;&#xA;div id=&#34;post-signature&#34;&#xD;&#xA;div class=&#34;alert-info&#34;&#xD;&#xA;ba href=&#34;https://remark.as/p/journal.dinobansigan.com/on-parenting-series-daniel-rose&#34;Discuss.../a/b or leave me a comment below.&#xD;&#xA;/div&#xD;&#xA;/div]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just wanted to point out that me and my wife have been enjoying reading the <em>On Parenting</em> series that <a href="https://danielmrose.com/">Daniel Rose</a> has been sharing on the <a href="https://read.write.as/">Read.Write.As</a> feed. As a young parent, I find a lot of the info shared in those posts to be useful and refreshing. Refreshing in the sense that it makes me reconsider what I think I know about parenting. And it also challenges my preconceptions of how I think parenting should be done.</p>

<blockquote><p>When you choose experience over stuff you are also choosing relationship. Just giving children stuff communicates that you would prefer them to be seen not heard. Experiences are almost always linked to engagement. Leaving town or heading out on a local adventure usually means that there are significant times where the phones are put away and we are doing something together.
– From <a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-experience-over-stuff">On Parenting: Experience Over Stuff</a></p></blockquote>

<p>My wife texted me that quote after I sent her a number of links for reading. She said she loved it, so do I.
</p>

<p>If I may make one suggestion to the author, it is to group the posts under a hashtag so that they will be easier to find with just one link. Anyway, for my benefit, I am listing down the links to each post from the series.</p>
<ul><li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-a-warning-and-an-encouragement">On Parenting: A Warning and An Encouragement</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-their-sin-is-not-your-sin">On Parenting: Their Sin is Not Your Sin</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-ask-for-forgiveness">On Parenting: Ask For Forgiveness</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-extend-grace">On Parenting: Extend Grace</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-be-consistent">On Parenting: Be Consistent</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-speak-with-them">On Parenting: Speak With Them</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-experience-over-stuff">On Parenting: Experience Over Stuff</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-have-expectations">On Parenting: Have Expectations</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-dont-make-excuses">On Parenting: Don&#39;t Make Excuses</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-model-your-principles">On Parenting: Model Your Principles</a></li>
<li><a href="https://danielmrose.com/on-parenting-raise-adults-not-children">On Parenting: Raise Adults Not Children</a></li></ul>

<p><em>Tags: <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Bookmarks" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Bookmarks</span></a> <a href="https://journal.dinobansigan.com/tag:Parenting" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">Parenting</span></a></em></p>



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      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2020 19:31:34 +0000</pubDate>
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