Being surrounded by all the festive sales and offers for the past four months, it’s been absolutely exhausting to not fall for any unnecessary purchases. Especially difficult given that I look at them through the screen of this two year old smartphone. Sigh! 1-2-3 Breathe-in …
I’m finding it a lot hard recently to focus on any form of writing. I’m making it unnecessarily difficult. In the push to write good, thought out posts, I am not writing anything at all. Thoughts, they are abundant. I need to make sure I unburdened the mind of them, in time.
I find it so difficult to stick to a routine, especially a daily one. Whenever I make my mind to try doing something daily, it’s as if the whole universe gets down to foil my resolve. I need to get better at it.
“If you don’t have time to do it right, you’re unlikely to have time to do it over,” reminds Seth Godin. Simple, yet so poignant. I wish I could live my life being aware of this somewhere at the back of mind. It’s not the most efficient way to get the results every time. Being cognisant however that halting is an option always helps.
Our society does not look at “giving up” respectfully. Especially if one does so without being successful. But cashing out early, accepting the failure, is always a sensible option.
Giving up early is problematic. But hanging on just to delay the inevitable is foolish.
With another tumultuous year coming closer to end, it was time to start reflecting back. As I did last year, my Now page is the best place to start. I updated it one last time this year. Over to review how I spent the year, always wonderful to read the strikethrough entries.
I recently got nostalgic and got my daughter a new toy I played with as a child. As is her habit, she became curious and began asking questions on how it works. She did find out, and of course, decided to make a video of it. So, a new video premiered today.
I watched Incredibles 2 recently for the second time. I liked it a lot better on repeat viewing than I did the first time. Perhaps I just had too many expectatios from the sequel to one of my favorite Pixar movies. It’s fun, kept me at the edge of my seat throughout. 🎥
To everything that we do, there is always something we haven’t. Time is like a balancing scale. When balanced, more things are not on it than there are.
When I recently wrote this, I had no idea it’s going to only go downhill. There are a lot many things off the scale now.
I love emails, sending and receiving them. In today’s world of social timelines where you shout into a void and expect an echo back, the medium of email feels a lot more personal. Drafting a long email to a friend today reminded me of the time when I wrote letters to my family, a few pages long. When we carefully selected and penned the words to convey the emotions we were living through. Physical letters were replaced by their digital form, the email, but the manner we communicated didn’t change.
With email, there’s no urgency, no pressure of read receipts and associated expectations for response. And when the response does arrive, there’s a feeling of connectedness. Instant messages, those words we spurt in burst, don’t exude that sense of affinity. A well-thought email does; it makes you mindful of the fact that someone cares.
One is a letter, another is messaging. It’s unfortunate that we have forgotten how to draft the former. I wish I knew more people who shared my liking for this medium.
I watched the pilot for Superstore today. Looks to be a fun, feel-good show. Need such shows to wind down the hectic days with. 🎥
It was around three years ago that I had recorded the first episode of a microcast. Now that I am back on the premium plan on Micro.blog, do I want to record and hear my voice again? More than that, can I keep up? Nope, I hear?
Every time I feel agitated or uncomfortable or frustrated, I pause and go on with my 5-deep-breaths routine. I have been doing this a lot lately. Such have been the days.
Based on our research and findings, we assess this to be one of the most technically sophisticated exploits we’ve ever seen, further demonstrating that the capabilities NSO provides rival those previously thought to be accessible to only a handful of nation states.
The last Sunday was pretty productive. I finished writing a personal story that I have been meaning to pen for some time now. I wasn’t sure before what story I wanted to tell. I also published the next video with my daughter. The feedback to both has been encouraging. Yay!
I’m pretty sure the “fediverse” refers to the federated social network that is Mastodon (where every node typically serves many people), whereas the IndieWeb instead focuses on a decentralized, not federated, social network where every actor controls their own node
Liked a tweet by Pelle Wessman
Now that there is a better support for drafts and scheduling posts in Micro.blog web interface, I can’t believe it didn’t exist till now. It was refreshing to hear Manton acknowledhe the same during Micro Monday. That said, I wish I could directly schedule a post from the web editor rather than saving as draft followed by schedule, as it is now.
I recently cribbed about how my smartphone was becoming the pesky little distractor again. I was planning to go back into a shell, keeping the device away from me for longer durations. However, I realised I may change the way and try being mindful this time.
I was hit by this thought during my guided meditation session today, when I came across this insightful observation.
In trying to bend our will to that which is helpful, we strengthen our ego. In letting go of the things that are unhelpful, we free ourselves of our ego. Same intention. Different outcome.
We depend on our willpower to control our situation. We achieve the results but don’t train our minds. As a result, we harden our habits and behaviour. What if we change our approach. What if we acknowledge the unhealthy thought. But rather than becoming more rigid, we become softer. Rather than rejecting, resisting, we let go.
Interesting. I tend to depend on my willpower to not fall for the poor habits. That hasn’t worked well for me — I avoid the habits for some time, but soon am back to natural poor state. My problems with my smartphone are an example of this behaviour. So, why not accept that my device is a bugger? Be mindful of the fact that my subconscious reaches out for the device frequently. And when it does, acknowledge it and let it go.
Be mindful of the attraction, but not be burdened by willing self into resistance. Remind self of the negative outcome and detach. Can I train my mind to not fall for the attraction but ignore it naturally?
One approach is rigid, based on will, based on control. Other approach is based on awareness. Recognising the thoughts that are helpful and engaging with them. Recognising the thoughts that are unhelpful and letting them go.
I have no idea if this would work for me. Who do I trust more, my willpower or my ability to be mindful? I have seen my willpower falter. Maybe I should give mindfulness a try this time. That’s what I have decided to do.
It is reports like these that convinces me we are getting surrounded by mindless robots. To add to that, we are screwing with the nature too. So, there would be soon no one we can depend on. Sigh!
For hours, as word of the coming storm spread, as many as 15 workers beseeched managers to let them take shelter at their own homes, only to have their requests rebuffed.
After all the festivities, my daughter was back with an idea for her next video. As usual, she was ready with all that she wanted to talk about. We recorded on Sunday, and first thing she said was, “I had a lot of fun, dad”. And it shows — the new video premiered this week.
I published the first (planned) issue of the newsletter via Micro.blog today about my first evening in Sydney. I’d scheduled the post & it worked as expected. Sure, I want to improve the styling of the emails. But it’s good to post at a single place. All feedback welcome!
I love Pringles crisps. But the way they stack up, I could never eat them in a bunch — I feel guilty to eat more. As if I am emptying the can sooner and denying others of this wonderful cooked Potato. Fascinating how the container impacts your behaviour. Equally fascinating is the history of this brand of snacks. For example, the attempt was “to develop a new kind of potato chips to address consumer complaints about broken, greasy, and stale chips, as well as air in the bags”.
Well, chips haven’t changed much. And they didn’t even want to — as if they wanted to make the greasiness their identity.
The product was originally known as Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips, but other snack manufacturers objected, saying Pringles failed to meet the definition of a potato “chip” since they were made from a potato-based dough rather than being sliced from potatoes like “real” potato chips.
All the technicality aside (yes, the shape of the crisp has a name), they just don’t taste like chips. They are different. And yet, “no one can eat just one”.
Sunday evening today was supposed to be a distraction-free, creative session with my tools. It was anything, but. Don’t you hate it when someone else’s plans become unplanned, unavoidable commitments for you? The price human pays for being a social animal 🤷🏽♂️
I was wishing my daughter good night today and she left me with a weird analogy. “… something something .. like a tomato wrapped in chocolate”. I have no clue what it means. Does it mean good or bad? I can’t sleep now and she is sound asleep. Kids, I tell you.
I’ve moved all the posts from Ghost to Micro.blog. With a single outlet for all my writing now, I’ve got an archive of the posts, the likes of which would make the future newsletter issues. With each update, this place continues to be better and closer to what I need. Yay!
After a welcome phase of independence from my smartphone, I am back to fidgeting unnecessarily with the device. I keep it close to me when I shouldn’t. Notifications have started pestering me again. They hack my focus away. I know the reason, I have given up on my resolve to not hand over the control. It didn’t happen instantaneously. It happened gradually, over time. Now I feel the burning sensation like a slowly boiling frog.
There was a time when I used to go to any extends to stay away from the device. Keep it in the next room. No apps. No notifications. Never next to the bed. YouTube disabled. And on and on. Eventually, every time I picked it, a bulb lighted in my brain reminding me to not surrender.
And the pesky device conquered those defences one by one, without me realising. It started with a few apps. Then their notifications. Then a need to watch and share a YouTube video from the device. Before I realised, I was wishing good night to my phone lying in the bed.
Today, I was on my computer, the powerful personal computer which can cater to all my commands. But I reached out, as if out of habit, to the smartphone just to peek at those apps, the web versions of which I had just visited. I knew I was sick again.
My smartphone has become the most personal thing I own, but also the one I need to frequently stay away the farthest from.