Excursions

I have been down with a fever and cold for the past few days. What's worse is that my daughter has been sick too. Falling ill together doesn't often happen for us. But it is a tiring experience for all at our home when it does.

It is times like these when I am reminded that my wife is emotionally the strongest in our family. She has been caring for us as we rest in our separate rooms. She took leave from the office, knowing it wouldn't be easy. I hate to say it, but neither my daughter nor I are easy to handle when we get sick. We get fussy and irritated. We become kids. Well, my daughter already is. It is I who becomes a kid.

But I admire how effortlessly my wife handles both of us. She is a superwoman, I tell you.

Plus, the timing isn't good, either. My daughter has been looking forward to the Christmas celebrations at home and school this year. It is one of the few festivals that she loves celebrating. Bringing a Christmas tree and the unique items to decorate it. We tag along and get her some gifts. Make her wish Merry Christmas to all. She loves it. She was excited this time too. She had started singing her version of "Christmas is my favourite time of the year".

Well, it is Christmas eve, and neither of us has recovered from the cold yet.

My daughter was already bummed she missed the Friday Christmas celebration at her school. The sadness in her eyes was worse than what the illness gave her. The only way to reduce that was to make it special somehow. What can be more special than some quality family time?

So for the past two days, all of us have been together in our living room in front of the TV. Surrounded by things we would want.

Watching movie after movie. Harry Potter. Bolt. Home Alone. Penguins of Madagascar. Some by choice. Some, just because that was playing on cable.

Of course, taking scheduled rests. Playing games together. Eating all the meals together. Having a blast. Together.

Every cloud had a silver lining, mumbled my wife today. Amidst all the hustle-bustle of our routine life – our offices at home and our daughter's school – our family hadn't spent quality time. Though every form of sickness is unwelcome (and I hope my daughter and I start feeling our best soon), the sense of togetherness and family was welcome this time.

The country’s vast population and high birth rate make it an attractive market for end-products as well as a manufacturing base, while Vietnam’s workforce offers lower labor costs than in China

Source - India, Vietnam are emerging as Apple’s next hub →

Social media showed that everyone has the potential to reach a massive audience at low cost and high gain—and that potential gave many people the impression that they deserve such an audience.

Source - The Age of Social Media Is Ending →

We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty. We can leave out the willful purveyors of actual misinformation while forgiving the hard calls that people had no choice but to make with imperfect knowledge.

Source - Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty - The Atlantic →

The clock continues to log its rigid seconds, minutes and hours, utterly unaware of the global crisis that is taking place. It is stable, correct, neutral and absolute. But what makes us wrong and the clock right?

Source - The Tyranny Of Time - NOEMA →

Why am I not able to write? I lack drive. I’m curious why the words have dried up suddenly.

I have been using Matter for the last couple of days. I don’t see the benefit yet, other than a different way of doing the same? Why and when should I use this reader app?

I finished reading Rework by Jason Fried today 📚

I loved the simple, usually apparent suggestions. Most go against the proven and often advised business best practices. I love the bold ideas and the no-nonsense way the suggestions are delivered through simple short chapters. But, I am afraid I will not be able to benefit from most of them. Jason targets folks like him who are in positions of decision-making regarding how their businesses are run. Not many are in that position. So, as much as I would love my organization to follow even a few of Jason’s suggestions, I am afraid I cannot influence that.

That said, though, I will keep the book close so that I refer back to the clarity of thinking that Jason has lived his business career with. I hope it comes in handy someday.

Working on making the now page dynamic. I no longer want to manually update this page – the hassle makes me do this less often.

Google announced it’s going to start rolling out end-to-end encrypted group RCS chats to the Google Messages beta over the next few weeks.

Source: Google Messages is getting end-to-end encrypted RCS group chats →

A pretty important step for non-Apple ecosystem.

After almost a month of chaos, I sit at my desk on an evening with nothing eating up my brain. Nothing too urgent. Or Demanding. I like this sense of calmness, this feeling of being idle. It’s this hollowness, the lack of thoughts, that birth the words in me.

Otherwise, I am busy drowning those thoughts in guilty pleasures. Scrolling meaninglessly. Reading, but not really reading. Binging on YouTube videos. I do that with the hope of feeling relaxed. Instead, all it leaves me is feeling futile.

At a cultural level, we didn’t stop smoking just because the habit was unpleasant or uncool or even because it might kill us. We did so slowly and over time, by forcing social life to suffocate the practice. That process must now begin in earnest for social media.

The Age of Social Media Is Ending - The Atlantic →

My family and I watched Strange World yesterday. I don’t remember when I was this unimpressed with a Disney movie. The makers attempted to hit a lot of big ideas but forgot what story they wanted to tell. The world-building is half-baked and foolish. The emotional parts bore you. The climax is dull.

My wife quipped, “Disney doesn’t know how to make a movie with a male protagonist.” After all, when did Disney last make a movie with a strong father-son dynamic? Maybe Nemo?

This comment from Alison Willmore’s review of the movie resonated with me.

So much of Strange World’s audaciousness is front-loaded into its concept, and so little of it comes through in the execution. Its themes linger in the mind longer than any line or emotional beat in part because those elements feel so rote and secondary.

I recently moved my /now page to my wiki. Such pages sit best there, so I intend to slowly move others too.

Curbing my excitement for digital sketch notes. Trying to convince myself that I do not have time for this.

Part of the power of a network is its distributed nature. That’s a plus when it comes to tech and innovation. It’s a minus when it comes to the speed of central agreement as well as the potential for abuse.

Source: Some thoughts on Mastodon →

I’ve released a minor version of the Paper theme today. It adds support to include Mastodon and LinkedIn to your social profile links in the header. If you are already using it, you should see the upgrade option in the Micro.blog plugins directory. Demo on my test blog.

Always love the natural custard apple flavoured ice-cream! 🍦😍

I am pathetic at being social on social networks. Or may be I am just plain lazy. I read all the posts, and go through either of these.

“I have so much to say in reply. So let me do this later when I have time.”

“I have very little to say. So let me not.”

In both cases I don’t reply. Terrible!

Every time I find a book enjoyable to listen to, the number of steps I walk increases. Or the time I do house chores for. I love putting the headphones on and listening to the story progress. My current listen, The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, narrated by Derek Jacobi, is one such book. With a good intriguing plot and wonderfully involved narration, I am having so much fun listening.

As a result, I am walking a lot more and keeping my home absolutely clean. A welcome side-effect.

I finished reading: The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Holiday Ryan today 📚

Laced with real-life examples and a corresponding lesson in each chapter, Ryan Holiday presents valuable insight into handling obstacles. Nicely structured in three sensible parts – perception, action and will – this is a good, practical guide to staying balanced without getting bogged down by roadblocks and failures in life. Ryan doesn’t want to make this a guide for stoic philosophy. Instead, he sprinkles the best of the lessons throughout the book. That helps keep things simple, which most books on Stoicism fail to do.

As he mentions towards the end, many people he tells the tale of “embodied the best practices of Stoicism without even knowing it”. Ryan recommends that just doing matters more. For his intention to not complicate the philosophy, he deserves credit.

I was so giddy watching the trailer for A Man Called Otto. I loved the original character Ove created by Fredrick Backman and am so excited to see Tom Hanks play him. Love it! And I can’t wait. Yay!

I loved Ove so much that I created my own character based on him in one of my short stories, Marvelling at Life. I wrote a few more after this one with Oas, my character. I always loved writing them. I am looking forward to this movie.

One of the problems with Twitter is that it became a lot bigger and important than just a fun social network. Like someone built a fun clicker to play with and others made it a switch that can trigger wars.

A lot of dev projects. Currently, cultivating my digital garden. I am moving my notes from all the places into a single location. Both at work and off work. The small wins help.

After I wrote about my changing music habits, I’ve tweaked my habits slightly. Earlier I asked my digital assistant to “play some music”. I now say “play my favorite music” or ask it play a specific playlist. This has helped.