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

Helped Davin build a makeshift house using Lego blocks. I can now see why the wife likes helping Davin with his Lego blocks; it is fun.

Last week, the Dallas Mavericks won a game that I watched on TV. I guess I’m not cursed after all haha. They just suck this early in the season.

After that win, they went on to play an excellent game against the Denver Nuggets. Jokic hit the buzzer beater to send the game to overtime. But unlike the previous seasons, the Dallas Mavericks were able to close this game out. They need more games and wins like this, to develop their ability to close out games.

Then on the next game, the Mavs get another win against the Magic. They're starting to play better as a team now. Luka is also starting to play like the MVP candidate that critics say he is. He admitted to being out of shape when the season began. But he is starting to look like the competitive Luka that I saw in last season's NBA bubble in Orlando. Things are now looking good for the Mavericks.

Managed to get some exercise done while watching the Dallas Mavericks vs Denver Nuggets game. Not a bad way to watch the game.

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One thing I really like about the TSWBI Eco-T Fountain Pen is the transparent ink reservoir. Makes it easy to see how much ink is left. It is also fun to see the ink sloshing inside the reservoir.

One thing I don't like about it, is that it feels scratchy when writing. I tried flushing the pen to see if it improves ink flow. It did improve ink flow a little, but it was still scratchy.

So, I tried changing the way I gripped it. I usually hold pens in an unconventional, almost upright manner. I tried holding it in a more reclined angle. And now more ink is coming out. The more reclined I hold the fountain pen, the more ink comes out and the less scratchy it feels. It's actually starting to feel great writing with this fountain pen.

Halfway through The Light of All That Falls. I’m constantly astounded at how grand and epic the story is. It is a story spanning thousands of years. And yet, they all weave in together beautifully. It is probably the most complicated story I’ve ever read. But it is complicated in a good way. It makes me wonder how in the world the author even thought of writing a book like this.

Some nice quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas.

“All fear arises from love; since no one fears save what is contrary to something he loves.”

That’s true. And is something to reflect on whenever fear is blocking your way forward. Maybe this quote can remind you to ask yourself, what is it that you really fear in the first place? Or in other words, what are you scared of losing?

“May I not desire to please or fear to displease anyone but you.” ~ The Wise Ordering of One’s Life, St. Thomas Aquinas

This is a good reminder for me to not seek validation elsewhere except above.

One of the thoughts I had last week was to combine my Dev blog and this journal into one. This is the 3rd or 4th time this idea has surfaced in my head. Soon I'm going to do something about it.

Caleb is starting to get better at walking unassisted. Last week, he was able to take 4 steps before falling down. Pretty soon, he is going to be walking away from Coney and me. He's growing up so fast!

Just discovered that Microsoft Teams now has Markdown support. Wonderful!

The AC fan in my Mazdaspeed3 started to make a ticking noise last week. The sound goes away when I turn the fan off. Doesn't seem to be related to engine speed or the AC kicking in.

Anyway, I just spent money on a new clutch and a suspension refresh. So, getting another issue so soon is annoying. But the car also has over 106,000 miles already. So, it's not like this is an unexpected breakdown. Just hoping it is an easy and affordable fix. Repairing the car is still cheaper than buying a new car.

Listened to the Top Songs of 2020 playlist that Spotify generated for me. Without having gone through all the songs in the playlist, I have to say that “Skeletons” by Heartist has got to be one of, if not, my top song of 2020.

On the third episode now of the k-drama IRIS and it keeps getting better and better. I didn't have to wait for a few episodes for it to become entertaining. Love the soundtrack, the developing story and the characters. Oh and Kim Tae-hee is so pretty in this show.

Have gotten the wife addicted to Minecraft. Was talking to her about the stuff I learned in a tutorial for the game. She tried them out while playing on the Switch. Pretty soon she was buying the game on her old gaming PC. Thankfully, the game runs really well on that old gaming PC of hers. Unlike Minecraft Dungeons LOL.

Tags: #Weeknotes #Basketball #Bookmarks #FountainPen #Minecraft #TVShows #Heartist

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.

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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.

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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