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

I mean, sure, it is 10 years old. Some of the paint is chipping. The seats are no longer brand new. Some of the buttons on the steering wheel have lost their symbols. The headlights are starting to look hazy. Some of the wheels have curb rash. There is a big chip on the hood scoop. There is a gash on the passenger side rear wheel fender from scraping a parking lot column in Galveston. I mean yes, it is old. But isn't this still the same car I dreamed of owning a decade ago?

And now that prompts a different question: Was it the car that I really wanted? Or was I just looking for something new?

Are we buying something because we like it? Or are we actually addicted to the idea or feeling of getting something new every so often?

Then I remembered that an explanation for this was provided in the documentary The Minimalists: Less Is Now. The explanation goes like this:

When we finally get what we want, that car, that house, that new phone, we are happy for awhile. But then the brain normalizes all of that. And so after a while, we end up with new wants and new desires. The high bar that we just recently achieved, now becomes the baseline from which to start wanting to acquire more stuff.

So, you can see how that can quickly become a vicious, never-ending cycle of wants and desires. The solution in my opinion is to detach.

I wrote this post way before I wrote this other one. It just sat in my drafts folder and I had forgotten about it until today. But as you can see, just like that other post, the solution is the same.

Tags: #Reflection #Minimalism #Detachment

And to get more, you'll start looking for ways to outdo your previous efforts. This usually means acquiring more possessions (maybe even more expensive possessions), acquiring more recognition, acquiring more fame, etc...

Think of a person who is addicted to likes in social media. A certain post, photo or video can only get you so much likes. So what are you to do next? Post even grander photos and videos of course.

So, as you can see, it is a vicious cycle that will ultimately leave you miserable, because you can never really satisfy your desire for more. Practicing detachment however, gives you permission to appreciate what is in this world, but not have them weigh you down with the desire for more.

Tags: #Reflection #Detachment

So, I'm starting to realize that the smartphone in and of itself is not the cause of distraction. Rather, it is just another form of distraction. Distraction has always been with us. It just takes on different forms as human civilization advances.

The problem was/is distraction itself. The solution was/still seems to be the same — to set up an environment that is, as much as possible, devoid of distractions, so that you can do your best work.

Tags: #Reflection #DigitalMinimalism #Distraction #SmartphoneAddiction

“We lost!”, my son said as he finished 10th place in a Mario Kart race. He said this happily by the way, in a way that only a child could ever do. This is what we lost when we grew up. We lost that childlike innocence. We lost the ability to see the world through the eyes of a child. We lost the ability to be happy in any given moment like a child could.

The question I have is, how do we get it back?

#Reflection

I noticed that I write down notes with the expectation that I'll be publishing them in the future. This causes me to write longer, fuller sentences in an unconscious attempt to make my notes ready to be published with minimal editing.

I think this bogs down my note taking process. Instead of writing down notes for the purpose of referencing them in the future, I write down notes with the purpose of stringing them all together into a future blog post. I think that if I stop writing “ready to be published” notes and instead go back to writing notes just for myself, that will make my digital garden a lot easier and less exhausting to maintain.

#NoteTaking #DigitalGarden

After taking down my public digital garden, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I cannot explain it. I didn't realize it had that effect on me. Maybe this was another case of oversharing on my part, similar to what happened with my previous Journal Entry series.

#DigitalGarden

Saying I don't Know Is Okay — when you're in a meeting or job interview and somebody asks you something you don't know the answer to, instead of faking an answer, you can say, “I don't know, but I'll find out and follow up with you”.

#Work

hobbies for the hell of it — excellent read on seeing hobbies for what they are; an activity that brings you joy.

#InterestingReads

Monday Master Class: Rapid Note-Taking with the Morse Code Method — great note taking method from this blog post.

#NoteTaking

I just realized, with my digital garden now offline, I don't have to put in too much effort making sure the references and citations in my notes look polished and ready to be published online. I can leave them as a link if I want to and worry about attribution later on, when I actually have to publish something online. In the event that the note doesn't even make it into a published post, then I ended up saving time not having to add a polished, proper looking citation that wasn't even needed in the first place.

#DigitalGarden

Most good choices feel like sacrifices in the present, but reward you with something good in the future. Most bad choices feel good in the present, but has potentially devastating consequences in the future.

#Reflection

Using the Zettelkasten method for taking notes, as opposed to the basic “save the notes in a searchable format” method, is like going the micro-services route as opposed to building one big monolithic app. Both still work. And both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

#NoteTakingSoftwareDevelopmentAnalogy

In the end, this shadow is but a small and passing thing. There is light and high beauty, forever beyond its reach. Find the light and the shadow will not find you. ~ Bronwyn, Rings of Power, Season 1 Episode 6

#Quotes

The truth sets you free — Interesting take on the truth setting you free. It is not the truth that sets you free, but the Truth Himself (the way, the truth and the life He said) is the one who sets you free.

#Christianity

I was contemplating trading in my old Nikon D3200 for a newer mirrorless camera, like a Nikon Z5. However watching this review made me realize, that the D3200, being the cheap entry level camera that it is, would be a good one to let the kids use if they want to explore photography. Instead of letting them try out photography on a newer, more expensive mirrorless camera, let them try it out on the D3200.

#Photography

Finally figured out how to use an if statement on an Excel spreadsheet. It basically works just like a ternary operator in programming. If condition is true, return first value, otherwise return the second value.

Source: IF function

#Excel

What's the point of working out, or taking walks, or trying to be active, when I'm not even losing weight?

For those days when you have that question on your mind, here's a different perspective: All that walking and working out and moving around, is what's stopping you from gaining all that weight back. You might not be losing weight now, but you'll be in a much worse state if you decide to stop living an active lifestyle.

#Reflection #HealthAndFitness

What I'm liking about note taking apps with the bi-directional linking option (like Obsidian), is that it helps me avoid writing redundant information. It does so because it allows me to simply add a link to another note from the current note I'm on. It kinda supports the “Don't repeat yourself” principle of software development.

#NoteTaking #NoteTakingSoftwareDevelopmentAnalogy

Series: #JournalEntry Tags: #Reflection #NoteTaking #DigitalGarden #Work #InterestingReads #NoteTakingSoftwareDevelopmentAnalogy #Quotes #Christianity #Photography #Excel #HealthAndFitness

Creating habits: how long does it take to form a habit? — the title pretty much explains what this article is about.

So, how long does it take to form a new habit? Apparently, it takes an average of around 66 days, or 2 months, to form a new habit. That is way longer than what is normally mentioned in articles or magazines I’ve read. That means if you want to build a habit of doing pull-ups right after waking up, you need to consistently do it for 2 months straight.

After reading this essay, Peter Thiel's Religion, and finding out about the idea of mimetic theory, of us imitating others, my mind was opened up. I'm starting to see it around me. Most of everything we do is imitation. I don't quite know yet what to do with this new found information, but I'm excited to find out more about it.

Blogging and Digital Gardens

A digital garden is where you go to think. And once you've sorted through your thoughts and ideas, you go to your blog to write it all down, then share it to the rest of the world.

Splitting one big blog/website into smaller more focused blogs/websites, is you, the author, shifting the responsibility of categorizing/filtering content away from the reader. Instead of the reader having to deal with figuring out how to only subscribe to content on your website that they like, you break it up for them so it is easier for them to pick and choose what to follow or subscribe to. It might not be the most efficient use of your resources or your time, but it is more respectful of the readers time.

The more I work on my digital garden, the more I become convinced that my Digital Garden as it is in Obsidian, does not need to be shared online. What needs to be shared is the content, which already makes its way into my posts on my various blogs/websites.

Nutrition

Always wondered why most recommendations for eating chicken is to eat one that doesn't have skin on it. Well now I know. That's because chicken skin has high amounts of saturated fat.

Why does that matter? It matters because saturated fat can increase your LDL (bad cholesterol). So, if you are trying to keep your cholesterol in check, take off the chicken skin before eating it.

Spirituality

Heard these lyrics in a song:

Show me all your scars and I'll show you the cross.

Yeah, we all have our scars, we all go through our own suffering. But take a look at what Jesus, the son of God, endured on the cross for you and me. Let that put your scars and suffering into perspective.

You cannot change God no matter how hard you pray. God will do what He wants because He is God and you are not. The key though is that He always wants what's best for you. So even if He does whatever He wants, it's always taking into account what's best for you.

^ Thought inspired by one of Bishop Barron's Daily Gospel Reflection.

Misc

Found this pretty cool and free Anime Avatar Maker.

Writing is addictive to me because just like woodworking, we are creating something tangible that can be shared with other people.

The same feeling or motivation that drives secular people to share their causes online, is the same feeling or motivation that drives religious people to share the Gospel. Its finding something that you are so invested in emotionally, that you cannot help but share it with other people.

This applies to anything that hits you on an emotional level. If it made you feel something, you will more than likely want to share it with others.

Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #BuildingHabits #MimeticTheory #Blogging #DigitalGarden #Reflection #Nutrition #Spirituality #Christianity #Writing

I think one thing that contributes to toxic discussions and debates online, is that people cannot accept a difference in opinion anymore. It's like everyone has this need to correct someone else online, to tell them that they're wrong and that their beliefs are stupid. The better reaction is to take a deep breath, understand that you don't agree with what you've just read and just let it go.

There's so much more to life, than spending your precious time trying to tell someone else online that they're wrong. Every once in awhile, you have to be able to just let it go.

Tags: #Reflection #OnlineBehavior

Tags: #Reflection #Parenthood #TheSimpleThingsInLife

I say new because I've had a journal entry series before. If you are a returning reader, you've most likely even read them. If you are a new reader, then you missed out on a number of cringe-worthy personal posts. And that's part of the reason that series came to an end. I somehow outgrew that phase and no longer wanted to write about overtly personal stuff.

So, for this new series, one of the things I want to focus on is just sharing what I've learned. Instead of this journal/series being about “What's been going on with my life?”, I want it to be more about “What have I learned today?”

Also, I won't commit to a schedule for posting. It could be once a month, once every 4 months, or even just once a year. Whatever it will turn out to be, I'll write one when I feel like writing. So before that urge to write fades, here goes.

Interesting Reads

The Power and Joys of Turning Off — Great post on the simple joy of going offline.

Every Blogging Option Sucks — Pretty good round up of current blogging options. While the author didn't end up choosing write.as, it did fairly well compared to the competition.

Praxis and the Indieweb — Great read on the potential and challenges with the IndieWeb. It is an interesting take because most of everything you read online about the IndieWeb is all positive. This is the first one I've read that tries to argue against it.

But perhaps the most important thing I've learned from reading it is mentioned in the quote below:

The problem is that this construct fails in two key ways, legal and conceptual. Legally, any and all content that you post to a silo is no longer “your content”.

The quote is talking about the idea of POSSE: Publish Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. It's basically posting content to your own site first, then syndicating it elsewhere. But there's a problem with doing that. If you post the same photo that you posted on your site, onto a social network like say Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you end up giving them ownership of that photo.

Yikes. Was totally not aware of that.

Reflections

A problem with my Weeknotes posts is that I have to decide what gets included on a post, based on what I’ve written down during the week. If I wrote a lot, then there are a lot of decisions to make.

This is one advantage that impromptu blogging has over my Weeknotes posts. With impromptu blogging, I only write down what I want to write about. And I only ever do it when I really want to get something out.

And this is why this post is a “journal entry” and not another Weeknotes post.

We live in an age of distraction, not an age of doubt. ~ Father Joshua Whitfield (Sunday Homily)

All I can say to that is, amen Father Joshua Whitfield.

Actually... I can say a few more. I think what Father Joshua was saying, is that the challenge with the people of today, is not that they doubt, or that they don't have the capacity to believe in the existence of a creator. The challenge with people today, is that most are distracted by social media, the internet, and so many other things and activities, that they never find the time and solitude to think about the answers to existential and theological questions like:

• Where did we come from?
• Why are we here?
• Where are we going?
• Is there more to life than this?
• Does God really exist?
• What happens to us when we die?

Is it wrong for me to say that finding answers to those questions, is more important than say, checking up on your Instagram feed tonight? Or even dare I say, more important than publishing that new blog post? I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #Reflection #Blogging #Spirituality

Why? Why are we doing all this? Why do we feel the need to do all this? Does anybody else think that's not normal? I've been asking myself those questions for months now.

There's lots of advice on what to do to take control of your data online. For instance, you should have all your blog posts and photos under your domain name, so you keep control of them. And if you're not concerned about that, there's lots of advice on what platform is the best for photo-blogging, long-form blogging, micro-blogging, etc... There's all sorts of advice regarding the best ways to manage your data online. But no one seems to be asking the question, why?

Why do we need to post photos of our lives online? Why do we need to document everything that's happened to us? Why do we need to have all of this data online?

In an age where we are more connected than ever through the internet, why is it that we feel more alone, especially when we are offline? In an age where we can add hundreds of people to our friends list, why is it that we feel like we don't exist if we're not posting online?

Is it because we feel like we are missing out on everything happening online? Is it because of FOMO? Is that why we keep posting status updates, keep sharing photos, keep writing blog posts?

Or is it because we feel like we don't exist if we don't see a piece of ourselves online? Is it because we feel like we don't exist if no one comments or likes our posts online?

“Hey, hey, look over here, I've uploaded a new photo, I've shared a new blog post, I've got a new Instagram story, I'm playing a new video game, etc... I'm still alive. Talk to me.”

I say that, because I believe that's one of the reasons driving this constant need to share online — to remind other people that we exist.

At least that's the case for me. Is it the same for you?

I still can't wrap my head around it. The internet has allowed us to connect with more people than we could ever be connected with, on a personal level. And yet, we feel more isolated than ever before.

And I think that highlights another issue. Our basic human need for social connection is not getting fulfilled. Not with the way we live our lives nowadays.

Because it's so easy to connect with other people online, that's what we end up doing. But I can't help but feel like, that's why it's not enough. The online connections and interactions we engage in, are not as fulfilling or satisfying, as the personal interactions that used to be a staple of our everyday lives.

Of course the pandemic is not helping things right now. But we have been living this way before the pandemic. It's not like this is only a problem now.

No matter how many photos we upload, how many status updates we make, how many blog posts we share, there's still something missing. We're still constantly checking that feed. We're still waiting for those likes to come in. We're still waiting for the confirmation that let's us know, that other people know we're still alive.

On the flip side, all you need is just one game of Settlers of Catan with family and friends. The resulting satisfaction from that social interaction is... immeasurable.

I've been thinking about how the older generation lived. With no smartphones in their pockets, they didn't have portable cameras to bring with them when they ventured out into the real world. It also means that even if they brought a camera with them, there was no way to instantly share a photo afterwards. And even when they got home, there was no social media app or website waiting for them to upload all the photos they took that day. So, I'm thinking that they most likely didn't have these constant urges to share everything online.

To be able to go out, do things and live life without feeling the urge to share everything online — how liberating must that have been? I would love to be able to experience that — to not even have the urge to share online a beautiful photo that I just took. To not even have the urge to share the really good song that I'm listening to right now. To not even have the urge to write a blog post about the crazy thing that happened to me or to the world today.

However, knowing what I know now, it seems impossible to go back to that naive way of living.

I believe that the technologies in the world that we live in today, has altered the way we think about life. And more importantly, it has altered what it means to be alive. It is not enough now to know you're alive. You also have to prove it to the rest of the world too — because otherwise, it feels like you don't exist.

Tags: #Reflection #DigitalMinimalism #Blogging #SocialMedia