First off, what have I been doing since my last post?

Well as I noted in my Digital Declutter 2024 post, my focus was to read more books. And that’s what I have been doing.

During my digital declutter, I finished reading one book. That book was Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia. Great book if you’re interested in how to live longer, while maintaining a high quality of living.

A little after my digital declutter ended, I finished reading The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Excellent book if you’re trying to understand how/why we make the decisions we do with our money.

At the moment, I’m currently reading a few other books:

• C# 12 and .NET 8 – Modern Cross-Platform Development Fundamentals – Eighth Edition by Mark Price — this is work related and is just me trying to catch up with the latest in the .NET field.
• Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky — I never finished reading this, so I decided to read this again from the start.
• Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual by Jocko Willink — I finished reading this already but am re-reading just because I want to. I’m also trying to build more discipline into other areas of my life, so I thought it would be the perfect book to read.
• The Will of the Many by James Islington — high fantasy novel from the same author who wrote The Licanius Trilogy, of which I’m a fan of.
• Word On Fire Bible Volume II: Acts, Letters and Revelations — currently making my way through Acts of the Apostles book and surprised at how interesting the stories are.

What have I been doing other than reading books? Well with the extra time from not having to write on here, I've been trying to finish video games (currently near the end of Final Fantasy XV), playing video games with the kids/family (Stardew Valley is a great local co-op family game), helping the kids get better at baseball, catching up to TV shows (Jack Reacher is pretty good), taking longer naps, and many more.

So that's what I've been up to recently. Before I end this post, I also wanted to cover other things that I wrote about on this journal, namely Digital Gardens and my note-taking practice.

I'm still using Obsidian to take down notes. In fact it is still my primary note-taking app and that probably won't change for the foreseeable future.

I still have a Digital Garden, if having a collection of linked notes is what's considered one. But I don't subscribe to the idea of planting seeds or growing trees to grow my digital garden. If anything, what I used to call my Digital Garden, is now really just a personal knowledge base or a second brain. It is a repository of everything I've read and noted down, available for me to reference when I need to.

I also no longer follow the Zettelkasten way of taking down notes. I simply could not keep up. I do not have the mental bandwidth at night, nor do I have the time to go through my notes without burning out. That said, I've taken some practices that worked for me and simplified it.

I still do a daily log or what they call fleeting notes, and I still do a reference or literature note when reading a book. But I don't spend time processing notes the Zettelkasten way. I will link notes under a specific theme and leave it at that.

Taking a page from James Clear (author of Atomic Habits), my bare minimum requirement for my notes are, that they are in digital form and that they are searchable. And since I use Obsidian for note-taking, searching notes is easy. Storing notes in a text file with support for using Markdown is just icing on the cake.

So now we get to why I haven't been posting on here.

I mentioned above that I had a variety of reasons for not posting, but in this update I want to cover just one: I avoided writing on this blog because it was stressing me out.

Back in 2023-08-01, I ran into the Living a Simple and Quiet Christian Life video by Alex Wilson. Watching that video forced me to re-evaluate my online activities. It changed my perspective on blogging, especially blogging under your real name. Regarding this blog specifically, that same day I wrote this down on my bullet journal:

I don't want the fame and recognition. I mean yes, I want a little of it, but I don't want all of it. If I'm being honest with myself, I'm actually scared of the attention, the popularity, the fame. I think it is the source of stress on my websites/blogs where I don't hide behind a pseudonym or an anonymous persona.

Maybe it's time for Dino's Journal to come to an end.

This is not the first time that’s happened. I’ve always just pushed through after a short break. But I’m also aware of the fact that I keep running into this issue over and over. When I was going through my digital declutter, I was at peace, because I didn’t have to worry about what I’m writing on this blog. After my digital declutter ended, the thought of writing something for this specific blog/journal was stressing me out instead of bringing me relief.

And so that's why I haven't posting on here.

And this is why, on a number occasions before, during and after my digital declutter, I have contemplated bringing this blog/journal to a close. It’s not that I have ran out of things to share or write about. It’s just that, I felt so much peace not having to worry about something I wrote in this blog, or what I will write for this blog.

So does this mean this blog/journal is coming to an end? Sort of. This will most likely be my last post on here. I'm not deleting this blog/journal, but I most likely won't be publishing new content either.

I'm also not planning to abandon Write.as. I still have a number of other blogs on this platform and I plan to keep posting to those for the foreseeable future.

They say people start writing to a journal when they're going through something important in their lives. I guess that journey for me has come to an end, this journal has served its purpose.

I appreciate everyone who've taken the time to read my posts on this journal. It has been a blast. Thanks for reading and peace be with you all!

Tags: #SiteUpdates #Reflection #Blogging #DigitalDeclutter #DigitalGarden #NoteTaking #Zettelkasten #TheEnd

Blog Posts vs Notes on a Digital Garden

An interesting observation I've made is that I bookmark blog posts, but I do not bookmark notes from digital gardens.

Does this mean that blog posts provide more valuable information? Not necessarily, but they have their advantages from a reader's perspective.

I think it's just easier to settle on a blog post I want to read, than to pick notes to read from a huge digital garden. It kinda relates to the article I read about Overchoice. It is hard to make a choice, when there's too many choices to make. And that's usually the situation with notes on a digital garden. The chronological or reverse chronological order of blog posts, which is looked at as a bad thing nowadays, is what makes it easier for me to pick something to read.

There's also the fact that blog posts usually contain an author's processed and synthesized notes. They are more coherent and they serve to paint the bigger picture on a certain topic. Notes on a digital garden on the other hand, are really atomic sized thoughts. This means a reader will have to piece together ideas by following the links provided on the notes. That makes reading blog posts a better use of your time, because the author has already pieced together the notes for you.

Literature Notes vs Permanent Notes

I used to get confused about the idea of “writing things down in your own words”. I somehow thought that made the note my own. Writing it down in your words does make it your own version of a thought or idea. But that doesn't make it your own original thought or idea.

Which lead me to this...

One way to distinguish between a Literature Note and a Permanent Note is by asking this question: “Is this someone else's idea or mine?” If the answer is, “It is my idea.”, then it is a Permanent Note.

Misc

Lastly, if you want to publish your digital garden online, but don't want to pay for the “Publish” feature from Obsidian, check out Quartz. This is an open source repo that can turn an Obsidian vault into a digital garden website.

When my “Publish” subscription ends, I plan on giving Quartz a try.

Tags: #JournalEntry #DigitalGarden #LiteratureNotes #PermanentNotes #Zettelkasten

It'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't think of it as a blog. It is not. There are no published dates. There's no RSS feed. There's no email subscription. The URLs to specific notes will probably change every week. It is really a digital garden/personal knowledge-base.

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's a mesmerizing and very interesting way to see what other countries/cities look like.

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's extremely disheartening. We've been extremely lucky to not have lost power or water at all. But that wasn't the case for everyone else. Last week's winter storm really showed how the state of Texas is just not ready for this kind of weather. I'm hoping that the state can learn from this and be better prepared for the next one.

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One thing people don'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's the point of the Zettelkasten, to make you think and consequently learn and possibly gain new insight and ideas. But I'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's tough.

I believe in the end it is still worth it though.

I'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.

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'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't want to deal with it. There'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't want to use it to post new photos.

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've been trying to find a replacement for Instagram for some time now. And knowing myself, my brain won't shut up about it unless I try... something.

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.

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.

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.

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.

~ Daily Gospel Reflection by Bishop Barron

A great definition of faith.

“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.”

~ From Matthew, Chapter 6

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't we do it in a way that doesn'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”?

Fasting is normally associated with food. But I think it can be applied to digital activities. In which case, isn't digital minimalism just another form of fasting?

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.

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

Listening to a My Chemical Romance track and still loving it after all these years. I'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'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.

Man, that guy changed my life as far as my musical tastes go. I didn't even know that guy personally. He was just another regular on that channel. I'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.

Caleb is now getting better at walking by himself around the house. He's growing up too fast! It happened exactly like what was said in this post. Our baby/infant is gone. He's now a toddler.

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

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLc_d8wpSD9/

I'm finding that Instagram can be a surprisingly good place to find parenting advice.

I'll end this post with a photo of what dad life looked like last week.

Yup, that's Caleb standing and playing by himself. Like I said earlier in this post, no longer a baby. Now a toddler.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Blogging #DigitalGarden #Music #Parenthood #Parenting #Spirituality #Writing #Zettelkasten

I've also taken to adding articles/posts that I want to read, into my Are.na Bookmarks/Reading List bucket. This seems to help decrease the unease that I feel, from not being able to immediately read interesting articles/posts. Since I know that I will eventually get to them someday in the future, it allows my brain to relax and focus on the current task at hand.

Since I have been trying to read less, a problem that I'm running into is what to do with my free time when I can't read. I would prefer to work on my digital garden, but I cannot do so when I'm not at home. This is because my notes in Obsidian, while synced to a Github repo, are not easy to work with via my phone. So, I now have a lot more time to think through things because I'm trying to read less, but during those times I can't work on my digital garden. That's one big limitation with my Obsidian setup.

That said, maybe I should look at it as a benefit in some way. I shouldn't be using my phone that much anyway.

I shouldn't be scared or embarrassed of publishing/sharing my digital garden online. This is because I will never get feedback on my thoughts and ideas if I keep them private. Not getting feedback means not knowing whether I'm on the right track or not. I need feedback on what I'm doing to see how I can get better.

If seeking feedback is to be desired, then wouldn't that be a valid use case for sharing posts on social media? I mean if the goal is to get more feedback, can you do better than social media in that regard?

Now to be clear here, I'm talking about sharing posts on social media. Not spending time on social media. Totally different things.

You should link to new notes from existing notes. This enables an existing note to grow, by adding more related notes to it.

Reference: Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes for Knowledge Management

While trying to build my digital garden, I keep running into this issue where I don't know where to put my software development notes. These are notes that I want to keep, but at the same time, I don't think they are considered permanent notes. For instance, a listing of the CSS frameworks I need/want to learn is not exactly a permanent note. And I don't know where to put them. They don't exactly fit into my Zettelkasten folder, nor do they fit into my Reference folder.

Just realized that I have this habit of trying to turn all notes I take into permanent notes. They don't have to be. Not all notes are meant to become permanent notes. I need to remember that.

The following are my literature notes from reading How to Take Smart Notes – One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking by Sönke Ahrens last week:

“Nothing motivates us more than the experience of getting better.”

Seeking feedback, both good and bad, is one of the most important factors for success says psychologist Carol Dweck.

Adding comments to a blog is one way to get/seek feedback. — Page 53

Rewriting in your own words what you’ve just read in a book, is one way to gauge your understanding of it. — Page 54

We don’t get better at multitasking the more we do it. We just think we get better. But that’s because we don’t test ourselves to see if we actually perform better while multitasking. — Page 59

Separate the different tasks of writing and focus on each one explicitly. For instance, while trying to write, don’t be trying to proofread at the same time. Also don’t write as if you’re writing something ready to be published already. That will slow you down. I think that’s what slows me down. — Page 62

When writing something, like a paper or essay, it helps to have an outline in front of you, so you’re not tempted to think about what else you need to write. — page 62

It is easier for us to remember things that are connected to other thoughts and ideas. This is one thing the Zettelkasten helps us with, making connections between notes. — Page 69

Our brains will stop nagging us about unfinished tasks if we write them down and have a system in place that will guarantee that we won’t forget about the tasks. — Page 70

It’s okay if I end up writing longer literature notes, as long as they get turned into permanent notes in the future. — Page 76

Ahrens mentions that literature notes are usually written with an eye towards what's already in the slip-box. This goes against advice I read about writing literature notes mainly against its original context. — Page 76

Our brains are drawn to information that confirms what we already know. This can make it hard to be selective when it comes to note taking. It also feeds into our confirmation bias. — Page 79

Writing notes by hand is superior to digital note-taking. — Page 80

Writing down notes using our own words can tell us how well we understand something. — 85

If re-reading is not ideal for learning, then what is? Elaboration. And that’s what the Zettelkasten forces you to do. — Page 89-90

Apparently we can only hold on to at most 4-7 items in our head at any one time. So does this mean that having to juggle multiple websites and deciding what to post on each one can be taxing on my brain?

Maybe that's one of the reasons I get exhausted from maintaining multiple websites. Deciding what to post on one of them drains my mental stamina more than I realize. There’s too many decisions to make with multiple websites.

An idea: Instead of bundling everything up into one big Weeknotes post, maybe I should pick just one topic per day of the week to include in a Weeknotes post. That probably means I will leave out so many other journal entries. So, maybe a compromise is to pick at most 3 entries per day to include in a Weeknotes post. There's probably a number of ways I can do this. I'll just have to try it out and see what number works for me.

Judging from the amount of content in this Weeknotes post, I obviously did not implement that idea. I was lucky enough to have enough time to actually write this post. But the next time I'm short on time, I will try it out.

An idea: Create a “Software Development” version of my Weeknotes series, where I can focus on software development content.

What is driving this is my need to make searching for software development content on this site easier. I don't want to to dig through a long Weeknotes post to find a specific software development related entry.

“Sometimes it’s not the message. It's the timing.” ~ Tal’kamar, The Light of All That Falls

No matter how convincing an argument or message is, if the one receiving the message is not ready for it, then it won’t be received well.

Sometimes people need to change, before they can look at the same message in a different light. So it’s not that the message has changed, but that the person has changed.

Kinda like how I changed my viewpoint on adding comments to this journal.

If Jesus, the son of God, regularly took time to pray, shouldn’t we do the same?

You know that thing you do when you end your prayer? Saying amen? Don’t say amen as a way to disconnect from God. Say amen as a call to action.

So now, instead of ending your prayer and going back to your regular life, say amen and use it as a cue to start doing God's work.

Reference: Sunday Mass Homily by Father Tony Lackland

A good read this week was Out of the Matrix: Early Days of the Web (1991) by Daniel Kehoe.

Thirty years later, it is easy to overlook the web’s origins as a tool for sharing knowledge. Key to Tim Berners-Lee’s vision were open standards that reflected his belief in the Rule of Least Power, a principle that choosing the simplest and least powerful language for a given purpose allows you to do more with the data stored in that language (thus, HTML is easier for humans or machines to interpret and analyze than PostScript)...

Second time I ran into this rule of least power. The first time was in Al Khan's information overload article.

How do I apply this “rule of least power” to my career as a software developer? I ask because I specialize as a C#/.NET Developer. Maybe the answer is to not specialize and learn more programming stacks?

... Still, I hope its utility as a platform for commerce does not eclipse our original vision of the web as a means for sharing the world’s knowledge.

So the web was originally made to share knowledge. And I think that's what we do when we blog. At least, that's what I hope I'm doing on this journal — sharing knowledge.

That's also totally the opposite of what we do on social media. There's more sharing of highlight reels going on there, than there is sharing knowledge.

By the way, the author of this article also created Yax, which seems to be a simple website builder. Might be worth checking out.

Notes from The One Thing You Need to Learn to Fight Information Overload by Al Khan:

Alright, you might think starting with a thick old book might be too farfetched right now, though. But luckily, great thinkers have been old-school-blogging since Montaigne. Yep, they wrote essays. They’re filled with so much wisdom that you can finish them in under 2 hours and still get more than that of a modern book. Most of them are translated pretty well, so you can still get their ideas in more easily understood forms. I get my essays on Gutenberg.org and push them to my Kindle for reading. Awesome stuff.

Great idea on finding essays to read from great thinkers of the past.

Also, one last thing: Read books and essays made by the inventors, discoverers, thinkers, and field founders. They are most likely to change how you think.

This advice makes sense. Books from inventors, discoverers, thinkers, and field founders will probably change how you think, simply because they themselves changed the game in their respective fields.

One of the best ways to learn something is to try and teach it to someone else. This is where a blog can help.

When I write a “how to” blog post, I'm not doing it for the sole purpose of teaching other people. I do it as a way to solidify my understanding of what I've just learned. If readers learn something from my post, that's just icing on the cake.

So I've had my photo-blog/microblog for a few weeks now. I'm still asking myself, what am I gaining from doing this, other than the satisfaction of sharing a sky photo? I don't know.

I still think that $5 a month for a hobby photo-blog is too much. If it was my main website or blog, then I can justify paying $5 a month for it. But I'm having a hard time justifying it for a hobby photo-blog.

And I honestly don't know why I keep on doing it. I'd rather be working on my digital garden, but I get this urge to share sky photos ever so often. And I'm fine with that, if it doesn't cost me anything. But in this case, it does...

Maybe it's time to go back to my Write.as powered photo-blog. I don't pay extra for that one, since you get 3 blogs for one Write.as Pro subscription.

Having one blog that covers all sorts of personal topics (instead of one blog per topic) is like having a newspaper. Not everyone is expected to read everything on it.

A personal blog is made for you and not the readers... so if you want to cover a broad range of topics in there, you can do so.

References: https://bloggingwithoutablog.com/blogs-is-one-enough/#comment-147610 https://bloggingwithoutablog.com/blogs-is-one-enough/#comment-147635 https://bloggingwithoutablog.com/blogs-is-one-enough/#comment-147666

The Dallas Mavericks get a great, come from behind win against the Atlanta Hawks.

I've noticed a change in the rotation by the Mavs. Luka usually plays the whole first quarter. The past few games though, he's been going to the bench a lot earlier. Like he would get subbed out in the middle of the first quarter. I think this allows other players in the team to take point and find their own rhythm.

This is good because they're no longer solely relying on Luka making plays for them. It seems to get other players going offensively earlier in the game, which helps Luka out later in the game.

It also seems to be working so far as the Mavs have been winning, barely winning at times, but still winning their games recently. They also won the game against the Pelicans. That means they're on a 4 game winning streak right now.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Basketball #Blogging #Bookmarks #DigitalGarden #DigitalMinimalism #LiteratureNotes #Productivity #Spirituality #Zettelkasten

That's two different diseases — Alzheimer’s and Heart Disease — that gets pretty much the same recommendation to reduce carbs and sugar intake. This should really make you rethink how much sugar you should be ingesting everyday.

It took you years to put on all that weight. Don't be too hard on yourself if you're not losing weight fast enough. Think of losing weight more as a marathon than a sprint.

I've found a compromise for using my gel pen and fountain pen. When I'm at home, I use my fountain pen to write on my bullet journal. Anywhere else, and on any other notebook, I use my gel pens or ballpoint pens.

A few days ago I wrote this on my journal:

“Almost to the end of the k-drama Iris. It's a really good show!”

Then I got to the end. And wow. That ending was horrible! I had planned to say so many good things about this show. There's the amazing plot. The great acting. The pretty good fight scenes. The great story about love and friendship. But it was all brought down by the horrible ending. I can't even recommend it to my wife anymore, not after I've seen the ending. Such a disappointment. The show was great 95% of the time, until it got to the ending. Unless you're a sucker for horrible endings, don't waste your time on it.

Started watching Enola Holmes. I like what I've seen so far. I stopped midway because Caleb kept playing with the remote. But yeah, I like the movie enough to want to finish it.

Came across a long list of public Zettelkastens/Digital Gardens.

One thing I struggle with while trying to build my digital garden/personal knowledge-base, is determining whether a note is just information, or if it is a note that is worth keeping. One way to determine that is to ask the question, “Does this note provide a lesson or insight that will stand the test of time?” If the answer is yes, then it probably is a permanent note.

Spent some time last week moving software development related content out of my weeknotes posts, into their own stand alone posts. Also tried adding “backlinks” to the pages just to see how they look.

I can probably streamline this process in the future by publishing software development content in their own posts in the first place. Then I can just add a link to them in my weeknotes post. This approach also opens up the possibility of keeping my software development posts in a dedicated dev blog, as opposed to being another post on here. For now I'm leaving them here. We'll see how it works out over time.

Came across this post last week. The author makes an interesting argument about avoiding backlinks. It is one you should probably consider if you're trying to build a digital garden.

Backlinks without context are useless. And to an extent, they are a waste of time. Following a backlink that doesn't have any context, could lead you to information that is irrelevant to your research. This is time that you could have spent following a link that could have lead you to something more meaningful.

I'm guilty of this, like when I added backlinks to the software dev posts that I moved out of their respective weeknotes post. I'll clean those up in the future.

A great read from last week was The One Thing You Need to Learn to Fight Information Overload by Al Khan.

One of the things I learned from that, is that the more you read, the more time you need to allocate to digesting what you just read. Apparently there is such a thing as reading too much. And reading too much means your brain is always occupied with someone else's thoughts. You need to give your brain time to process what you just read.

This in turn made me realize that I put in so much stuff into my daily logs, because I read a lot or run into a lot of thoughts and ideas. But I also noticed that I don't give myself time to really reflect on them. I give myself what, 10-15 minutes before bed to migrate my notes into Obsidian and into my Zettelkasten. I don't think that's enough time to really digest all that I've written down.

The Mavs are struggling this season. Their season might be in jeopardy if they don't find a way to start winning.

They should really be a better defensive team this year considering the changes they made to their lineup. And they've shown flashes where they played stellar defense. But they're just not consistent enough. And when it comes down to critical moments in the game, their defense doesn't shine through. Until they improve on this, I don't see them getting to the Finals anytime soon.

Kristaps Porzingis also needs to assert himself in the post. Multiple times during the game against Golden State, a smaller guard switched over to guard him. Instead of exploiting the match-up, he either took a long range jumper or passed the ball. Doing so makes it so much easier to guard him. If he instead backs them down into the post, then he could possibly draw a double team, and then he can kick the ball out to the perimeter for an open three point shot. I mean, I'm not sure why he doesn't even try to do this more often. I think Luka plays on the low post more often than him. That's ridiculous.

After a 30-point loss to the Golden State Warriors, it is a little reassuring to see them win the next game. The next few games are crucial. If they can't find a way to shore up their defense and win some games, I don't see them even reaching the playoffs this season.

Tom Brady is the GOAT. Just saying.

I'm starting to run into issues with maintaning this Weeknotes series. It took too long to write this post. I spent more than an hour trying to get this done. And I even had to cut out a number of items (a day's worth of entries even) I wanted to include in this post. I need a better way to determine what gets included in these posts. I simply don't want to spend too much time writing them.

I thought writing weeknotes on the weekends was the way to go. But I'm finding that I just don't have enough time to write when I prioritize spending time with my family.

The article from Al Khan that I linked above, provided a way to filter out what to read. I need something similar to filter out what to write, so I can do it faster. Because if I don't find a way to streamline this writing process, this will turn into a chore. And once it does, I'll most likely stop.

All this stress over spending too much time writing a post, just makes me want to try out the Publish feature from Obsidian. Instead of writing a blog post, I could be working on my digital garden/personal knowledge-base. Then I just hit publish every weekend or so, and new notes show up online. No more fussing over publishing a blog post in time before the new week starts.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Blogging #Basketball #DigitalGarden #FountainPen #Nutrition #PublicHealth #Zettelkasten

Got a TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen as a Christmas gift. I've been using it last week and I'm still not a big fan of it. But I also can't seem to stop myself from using it. There's something fascinating about a fountain pen that makes me want to write with one.

I think my Zebra Sarasa Grand Gel Pen writes better. But I need more time with the TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen before I make a final judgement.

For my Zettelkasten in Obsidian, I decided to no longer keep links between my Daily Notes and my Permanent Notes. This is based off what I read in Ahrens' book saying to discard or archive Fleeting Notes. And that's pretty much what my Daily Notes are, a collection of Fleeting Notes.

I'm removing the links, but I'm still archiving them though. And that's because I use the Daily Notes to create my Weeknotes post. It also makes those notes searchable via Obsidian.

Ran into an interesting discussion on micro.blog last week about RSS Feeds vs Email Newsletters. Someone made a good point that non-techy people already know how to handle emails. But those same people most likely won't know what is, or how to use an RSS Feed reader. This is probably the best reason to offer email subscriptions, even if you're not into monetizing your blog.

A writing tip I found online is to write to a specific person. In my case, I should imagine that I'm writing directly to one of my kids.

Distractions stop you from achieving greatness.

Received a Fitbit Inspire 2 as a Christmas gift. Here are some quick notes on it compared to my old Fitbit Charge 2:

• It is so lightweight compared to the Charge 2. I sometimes totally forget that I'm wearing it.
• The battery life is so good. I've been using it for over a week now and I still have 57% battery left.

We had a quiet New Year's Day celebration with the family. It was Caleb's first New Year's Day celebration with us. He celebrated by walking around the house multiple times. Assisted walking of course. He can't walk by himself just yet.

Was trying to get sleep, but was getting annoyed at my kids who were playing on the bed.

One thing I learned from The Last Dance documentary is to always turn a negative into a positive. It is similar to the perspective change shared by James Clear. And that led me to this:

I am grateful that I have kids who bother me when I'm trying to sleep. It means I've been blessed with playful kids.

Content moved to... While working on a Blazor WASM project last week...

Been playing MyTeam mode in NBA 2K21 lately. I'm finding that the Flip Push freelance set is great for a team with a good point guard like Chris Paul.

Michael Jordan on being true to yourself :

It's never gonna be enough for everybody. I know that, I realize that, cause everybody has a preconceived idea in terms of what they think I should do or what I shouldn't do. The way that I go about my life is that I set examples. And if it inspires you, great. You know, I will continue to do that. If it doesn’t, then maybe I’m not the person that you should be following.”

~ Michael Jordan, The Last Dance

Finished The Last Dance documentary last week. Wonderful documentary. A must watch for any basketball fan.

The Dallas Mavericks get blown out by the Charlotte Hornets after their huge win against the LA Clippers. Every time I watch them play, they lose. I'm cursed.

I also watched their game last night against a depleted Chicago Bulls lineup — and they lost as well. Arrrgh.

Content moved to... WriteFreely Archive Page Generator

To say that Mary is the Mother of God is to insist on the density of the claim that God truly became human. As Fulton J. Sheen commented, Mary is like the moon, for her light is always the reflection of a higher light.

A wonderful analogy from Fulton Sheen.

Catholic theology has drawn a further implication from Mary’s status as Mother of God—her role as Mother of the Church. If she is the one through whom Christ was born, and if the Church is indeed Christ’s Mystical Body, then she must be, in a very real sense, the Mother of the Church. She is the one through whom Jesus continues to be born in the hearts of those who believe. This is not to confuse her with the Savior, but it is to insist on her mission as mediator and intercessor.

~ Daily Gospel Reflection by Bishop Barron

Emphasis on “not to confuse her with the Savior, but it is to insist on her mission as mediator and intercessor”.

Catholics are known for not really reading the Bible that much. In yesterday's homily, Fr. Kevin Wilwert shared some good books (the Bible is a collection of books) to get started when reading the Bible for the first time.

• Psalms
• Gospel of Mark
• Letter to the Romans

I'll end this post with what is quickly becoming one of my favorite Bible passages:

Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

~ Matthew 11:28-30

The part where Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;” brings me back to my previous post. Like I said in that post, not all the problems of today need to be solved with something new. Sometimes, all we need to do is to look to the past to find the answers.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Basketball #Blogging #Fitbit #FountainPen #NBA2K21 #Spirituality #Writing #Zettelkasten

I ran into an issue while working on the previous weeknotes post. My weeknotes post show up on this journal, but it has software dev related posts. That makes me think that those should be on my dev blog. And now I wonder, maybe I should have just one website in the first place.

Now the problem with having one website that houses all kinds of content, is that my personal posts would start showing up alongside my dev related posts. I remember Scott Hanselman said that you should keep overtly personal information out of your tech blog. That's pretty much why I have a dev blog and a separate personal blog/journal. I also think that the advice on separating them still makes sense. But I also feel, based on experience, that having to maintain multiple websites can be exhausting.

After pouring out my heart and soul, my personal life into this online journal, I now have this urge to move on and leave it all behind. I no longer want to post something overly personal.

Had I decided to remain with an anonymous journal like Inquiry suggested in the past, I probably wouldn't have a problem with all the personal posts I wrote. But I really wanted to “own my words”, so this is what I get for doing so LOL.

On a related note... I wish I could start over with my domain and websites. Or, just leave everything behind and start fresh on a new blog/site.

Spent an hour dumping my thoughts into Obsidian. They were about the four websites (dev blog, this journal, music blog, photo-blog) that I'm currently maintaining. The question I have for myself is, can I combine all four websites into just one? And if so, can I do it on Write.as, Micro.blog, WordPress or some other platform?

I am in the process of trying to figure out, how to narrow down the number of my sites from 4, to at most 2. One thing I've started to notice from other .NET developers, is that most of them don't have personal blogs. They blog about software development and that's pretty much it.

And now that I think about it, if my intent with blogs and personal websites is to remind people that I'm still alive, then putting out posts on my dev blog is good enough. I don't have to get all personal in a personal blog/journal like this one. I don't need to share all the personal details. If the point is really just to tell other people I'm still alive, then posting about something, and it doesn't have to be a personal topic, is good enough.

In the interest of trying to decrease the load of maintaining multiple websites at once, I think I need to stop writing a post for each song I add to the playlist for my music blog. I should instead write a post for when I have a new playlist out. I think this will lessen the load on my part, and will keep me less distracted during the day.

Fast forward a few days...

Instead of sharing music that I’m listening to right at that moment, I should just curate songs instead. Sharing music while I’m listening to them, can be distracting. And it doesn’t serve any purpose other than to share something I’m listening to at the moment. Building and curating a playlist though, is intentionally creating something that could be valuable to someone else other than myself.

I'm not sure what to do with my Above the Earth and Seas blog. It started out as a place to share photos of the sky. This was mainly to make use of my 3rd free write.as blog and to make use of the snap.as image hosting feature. But as you can tell, it doesn't really have a specific purpose, other than a place for me to share photos of the sky.

I'm not sure what benefit I'm getting from it. I'm not sure if it provides any value whatsoever. I'm not even sure if it is reaching people who are interested in photos of the sky. Currently, there's 1 email subscriber. Unlike this journal or my music blog, I haven't received any messages from a reader regarding any of the content in it. So the question I'm asking myself is, is there any value in continuing to post if no one is even benefiting from or appreciating the photos?

What I'm quickly realizing with regards to blogs, is that without a feedback loop, I don't know if my efforts are just being wasted. I don't know who is benefiting from it or even if I'm benefiting from it. Which is why...

Sometime this week, I ended up creating an Instagram account for my Above the Earth and Seas blog. As far as ease of use goes, it is so much easier to post to Instagram. While yes, I have to use a phone, I spend less time looking at a screen when trying to post something. There's also a feedback loop and the comfort of knowing that I'm not posting to a void. I know people on Instagram can find the photos through the hashtags. And there is a huge community of people posting photos of the sky in it.

That said, I now remember another reason why I was trying to post photos on a blog versus on Instagram. It's the way social media primes your mind to expect likes/hearts. It gives me the urge to want to check the app over and over again.

Anyway, like I did in the past, I plan on only having the Instagram app installed on my phone during weekends. That should limit the amount of time I have the app installed on my phone. And if that doesn't work out, I'll just call it a day on my photo-blog and move on.

While I'm on the subject of Instagram, I thought Sunlit was going to replace Instagram for me. It did not, or more specifically, it couldn't. While it is a great place to post photos (because there's no likes/hearts feature in it), I also have no way of curating a feed like I can with Instagram.

To be fair, I don't think the creators of Sunlit intended it to be a replacement for everything that Instagram does. I'm just saying, that to get my car photos fix, I still have to login to Instagram every now and then. Because that's where you can find the best Mazdaspeed3 photos on the internet.

On the subject of Mazdaspeeds, I installed a Chicco Myfit car seat, alongside a Chicco Nextfit convertible car seat in the Speed3. There's just enough space for me or my wife to sit beside the Nextfit, which is set up as rear facing in the middle. So, it turns out you can install car seats two across in a Gen2 Mazdaspeed3.

And lastly, finally bought lowering springs and shocks for the Speed3. I decided to go for the Eibach Pro-kit/Koni STR.T Struts combo. I'm refreshing the suspension because for the first time since I've owned the Speed3, some of the tires are showing signs of cupping. And well the ride can sometimes feel choppy. Not surprising since my Speed3 has now over 105,000 miles.

If a literature note contains thoughts and ideas from another author, then my own blog posts and journal entries cannot be thought of as literature notes. The ideas contained therein would be considered permanent notes, because they were my own thoughts and ideas.

This is me attempting to understand how to use the Zettelkasten method to build my personal knowledge base.

Wouldn’t digital be easier? Yes. But I don’t want this to be easy. Writing them down by hand forces me to take my time and to go over everything again (taking notes on a Kindle is too easy and that’s the problem).

~ The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read by Ryan Holiday

So, with the Zettelkasten method, you create “literature notes” when taking down notes while reading a book. Ryan Holiday uses something called a Notecard System. It's another way of taking notes while reading a book.

If you're looking for more ways to take down notes while reading a book, there's also the Idea Index method that Cal Newport mentioned in his blog.

We are all experts in something. Teach everything you know. Knowledge is squandered unless it is shared. Don't die with your greatest lessons still inside of you.

~ “Email is Where Keystrokes Go to Die.” by James Clear

No matter what you think of yourself, you are an expert in something. So, don't keep all your knowledge to yourself. What's the point of acquiring all that knowledge, of building a digital garden, of building a personal knowledge base, if you let it go to waste by not sharing it with others? Pass it off to your kids, to your peers, to anyone willing to listen and learn.

Going meta here, but the above is what I believe to be an example of a “Literature Note” in the Zettelkasten method. You find a good quote or idea from something that you're reading, you then write it in your own words and file it in a literature note.

I previously mentioned that migrating notes from my bullet journal into Obsidian seemed redundant. Well today's brilliant idea, is to not migrate them at all. If I need to look up info for writing my weeknotes post, then I'll look on both my bullet journal and Obsidian vault.

Spent some time watching Sword Art Online this week and it has its hooks on me once again. The ending to the first half of Season 1 was a great cliffhanger. Then the plot twist in the second half of the season caught me off-guard. If you love MMOs, or have played MMOs, you'll find plenty to like in this anime. If you love MMOs and anime, then you'll love Sword Art Online.

I have also noticed that this is the first anime that Davin has shown an interest in. It could be very well be that he is old enough to be interested in anime. But I also think it's the story and the characters. To an extent, Sword Art Online draws some parallels to Minecraft Dungeons. And I think that's what draws him in.

As far as blood and gore, there's not much in Sword Art Online. So, I'm not worried about Davin watching it. My only concern is that in the second part of Season 1, there's noticeably more sexy scenes and some nudity implied in the episodes. It's not enough to stop me from watching it around him, but it makes me a little wary of it.

Just realized that I'm publishing posts from my music blog, which has music exclusively shared via Spotify, into the read.write.as feed, where a lot of people seem to not be a fan of Spotify. I kinda feel like I'm putting a target on my back for doing so. Maybe this is not where I should be publishing my music blog posts to.

It's been awhile since we've had a Tornado warning issued where we live. Was trying to rock baby Caleb to sleep, when I kept hearing what sounded like a motorcycle going back and forth. It took me awhile to realize that it was the tornado sirens making the sound. Grabbed the wife and Davin and lead them into a closet, where we hid until the threat passed. Thank God that nothing serious happened around our home. Though I heard other people were not as fortunate.

New idea is to listen to “ambient” music while coding. It is an interesting idea, because it means I can stop getting interrupted by running into really good rock songs when working. Got this idea from Vincent's about page.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Bookmarks #Blogging #Mazdaspeed3 #Meta #SocialMedia #Zettelkasten

I already have a .NET wrapper library that can query their service for my posts. It might be a fun project to try in the future.

Struggling so much with the “ASP.NET Core 3 and React” book. I am simply following the instructions in the book, but I keep running into compile errors. The compile errors are brought about by the use of other libraries to help with development. I've had to spend more time troubleshooting the errors than actually reading the book.

At the end of another frustrating night trying to troubleshoot the errors, I realized the crux of the problem. The reason I was running into so many errors, is that the latest version of the libraries I was using, was not compatible with each other.

I'm moving to a new team mid-December. It's a front-end web development team. So, I have less than a month to learn React JS and ASP.NET Core.

And now you know why I'm struggling through an ASP.NET Core and React book.

Caleb is in full-on sleep regression mode this week. One night, he woke up a little past midnight and kept waking up every hour until like 5 am. We barely got any sleep. Even when Coney and myself took turns watching him, we both still had a rough night.

Migrating notes from my bullet journal into Obsidian seems kinda redundant. I've been trying to differentiate between what I write on my bullet journal and what I put on Obsidian. But at the end of the day, I still migrate notes from my bullet journal into Obsidian. So, why not just write exclusively in Obsidian? If I did, I could actually switch to a smaller Field Notes notebook for managing tasks. Maybe something to explore in the future.

Make a list of your 12 favorite problems and use them as a guide for what to tackle going forward. These problems will help you figure out what you need to be researching going forward. This seems like a great idea to help get started on a digital garden or personal knowledge-base.

I found it on Maggie Appleton's site, but the idea is supposedly from a certain Richard Feynman.

If permanent notes are the only ones that go into the “slip-box”, then they need to be worthy enough to be considered a permanent note then. And as far as digital gardens go, I think they are the best ones to share online. Fleeting notes get discarded. But literature notes, that served as inspiration for creating a permanent note, should be saved in a “reference box”.

Right now, all these boxes go against my workflow. I have multiple folders based on a certain topic. So not exactly the same setup. Though I'm starting to think that having just three folders – Fleeting Notes, Reference Box and Slip Box – would make everything simpler.

We post pictures of our lives. Okay, that’s nice. We share stupid memes. We all need a little humor. We debate politics, religion, economics, and a few dozen other topics. And what do we gain? Not much. Very few truly listen, and nobody really wins. We’re basically throwing hours of our lives away.

~ Dan Erickson, Social Media Is Mostly a F@cking Waste of Time

So I knew that pressing WIN + D in Windows will minimize all screens. I didn't realize pressing it again will bring all those screens back up. Useful, in case you accidentally minimize all screens.

I understand the “digital garden” metaphor as this — You plant seeds (ideas, thoughts) and tend to them until they grow into a tree with multiple branches (interconnected ideas and thoughts). You tend to the tree and in the future it will bear some fruit (articles, books, essays, videos). You do the same thing with other seeds and pretty soon you'll have a forest?

What I'm starting to realize is that I don't seem to be building a “digital garden” with Obsidian. What I'm building seems more of a personal wiki, a personal knowledge-base, a second brain. It's less of a garden and more of a collection of thoughts and ideas that I don't want to forget. There's not enough space in my brain to store them all, so I dump them out into Obsidian and build on it separately. So, really it's more like a second brain then.

Nothing in this world last, therefore nothing in this world must be the subject of our deepest desires.

Tags: #Weeknotes #DigitalGarden #Zettelkasten #BulletJournal #SocialMedia