Shohei Ohtani home run ball is shared by Japanese fans
This is delightful. I can’t imagine it would happen in the United States, but I wish it would. ⚾️
Finished reading: Silence and Beauty by Makoto Fujimura 📚
I probably should have looked into this a little more before I started reading. I expected it to be about the practice of silence, and not the famous Japanese novel. It’s been ~15 years since I read the novel, so that limited my engagement.
Consortio Dei podcast #21: Geoff Holsclaw
Really fun to talk with my friend Geoff about the relationship between neurology and spiritual formation.
Happy with the results of this weekend’s project — finished building a simple cabinet for our 3D printer in my office closet.
Pleasant realization today that the pieces were already in place to access my Obsidian ‘Writing’ folder from IA Writer on my iPad for a little more of a focused writing space.
I’ve been backing up my vault to a Github repo, so I can use Working Copy pull that repo, and then open it in IA Writer.
Finished reading: The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi 📚
I don’t like the format of books that try to frame big concepts into narrative dialogue between wise sage and learner…so that was hard to get past. That said, there are some thoughful ideas in here that I’m mulling.
A weekend well spent included adding these display shelves above my writing desk. And now the outcome is a morning well spent…
Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚
I usually prefer fiction where I feel more engaged with the characters, but enjoyed this storyline. I’ve read Station Eleven, but enjoyed this one enough to prioritize reading The Glass Hotel as well.
Enamored with this line from _Sea of Tranquility_📚, and expect I’ll be mulling on it for a while:
“My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it.”
Finished reading: Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil 📚
I’ve kind of had my fill of enneagram books after reading quite a few, but this one also hit on the theme of ‘true self’ that I’m trying to explore this year.
Considering How I Journal
I’ve been trying to make some sense of how I journal, and, I suppose, of how I’ve specifically been journaling for the last few years.
Personal Journaling
I have entries going back to 2004 in the Day One app. Yeah, I’m quite certain that predates Day One by several years. I had been journaling digitally already when I started with Day One, and I liked that app enough to migrate all my previous entries. I’m glad I did, because I’m still using it.
I wish I used it even more, but I shouldn’t be too hard on myself since I have over 4000 entires in there. I’ve used it in myriad ways in different seasons, including capturing books I was reading, movies I had seen, coffee I was brewing at home, or even occasional notes about formal meetings or informal lunches with friends.
But there has been one constant across all that time, and it is that I’ve always used day one to capture personal reflections. At times, that’s been morning pages (as described in The Artist’s Way), journaled prayers (both structured or freely written), or particular things I wanted to write about that felt too personal to write elsewhere. But the persistent word here is personal … in Day One I have often tried to put words to what was happening inside me, thoughts to intimate to share in most any other setting beyond perhaps a trusted loved one.
Practical Journaling
In more recent years, since 2018, I’ve been more deliberate about practical journaling as well. This is shaped more by notes about my day, or things I find interesting to track.
This practical journaling began in a Bullet Journal, as I wanted to try my hand at shifting from digital to analog even for tracking my tasks. I kept up with that notebook for about 9 months, and it mostly worked, though I found projects hard to manage. Ultimately I found that tracking tasks still made more sense to me in an app, and I’ve been in Things ever since.
But I also like that piece of bullet journaling that takes time to capture notes or highlights of each day, and started looking for ways to maintain that. That has been through a few different digital settings, but at this point I’m deeply invested in Obsidian, with a template for a daily note that captures both structured themes and random notes every day.
I guess if Day One tracks my personal and internal life, then Obisidan tracks my practical and external life. Sometimes I wonder if it is needless complexity to maintain two different kinds of journals, and that’s why I set out to write this. And the conclusion is…its still working pretty well for me.
Finished reading: The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch 📚
Spent the day pursuing The Solace of Fierce Landscapes
Finished reading: The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller 📚
I’m on a little side quest to explore the concept of true self this year. I’m been aware of this book for a long time, but when I noted the subtitle mentions the true self, it jumped to the top of the pile.
Growing weary of apps or features being discontinued or no longer supported in hardware that is 2-5 years old. This past month it has been Arlo cams, WD network drive, and Lego Droid Commander.
Finished reading: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 📚
Finally got to this one after it sat on my Kindle for a couple of years. I’m not a heavy Sci-fi reader, but enjoyed this one. Still trying to decide if i will continue in the trilogy.
I veered out of my WordPress lane late in 2022 to contract and help build a new NextJS based site for Fleetio. The new site launched today and it’s fun, and satisfying, to see it in the wild.