Weeknotes – 015
The biggest development from last week, was that after weeks of thinking about it and talking about it on this journal, I finally published my digital garden online. You can find it here.
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