Mandaris

I recently ran a half-marathon. I thought I’d include the little video that they took off me limping across the finish line.

I came across this page in a newsletter that I read. It’s a pretty cool introduction to Zettelkasten.

Zettelkasten is a note taking process and a personal knowledge management system rolled into one. It is spreading like wildfire in tech and academic circles. I promise it will supercharge your learning process.

My oldest is doing her first high school activity. She’s going to be hanging out with some other kids to work on a float for homecoming. Something that I’m not a fan of not only because of the pandemic but the fact that it’s really late on a school night… and then I think… I’m turning into my dad.

Either way, I find myself wait at home until I get that call that it’s time to go get her. I just hope that she’s happy.

‘Cause this old man can’t stay up late like he used to.

Downstream is a new podcast about the future of streaming media. Tech and entertainment companies are vying for our attention and money, all to see who will become the media giants of the 21st century. J

Jason Snell, one of my favorite podcasters, has a new podcast out about media streaming. It’s something that I’ve grown more and more interested in as we have seen so many new services being introduced in just the last couple of years.

I remember “the bad times”, where people had to get certain kinds of media by… um… having it fall off the back of a truck and onto your computer. And then netflix happened and the whole world changed. People could actually get things a legal way and support with their wallets what they wanted to see.

Now… well… there are a ton of services out there each asking for 4.99 to 15 dollars a month and it can really start adding up.

The podcast looks to be focused on those issues and more and I encourage you to check it out.

As soon as I said to myself that I was going on o bed early, a voice in my head said “No, your not”.

Today wasn’t rough by any stretch of the imagination, but it promised to be one that I’ll look back on as a list of minor accomplishments in a hodgepodge of tasks that I have in front of me.

In a way, that’s a good thing because it means that I’m employed and have a purpose in my life.

Tomorrow has a number of todo items, but I feel good about the possibilities as I’m about to do a little bit of a wind down before treating myself to a bath.

Good night, world.

Long ago, I had wanted to be a writer. More specifically, a fantasy writer. Someone who could weave tales of far off places and people. I didn’t put the time in and despite a couple attempts at NaNoWriMo, I haven’t done a lot of writing that I would point to.

I feel that I get caught up in the idea of what it means to write something meaningful.

I am comparing my writing to others on micro.blog.

I was told by a friend the following:

You compare what you perceive you lack with their best.

It’s part of what makes FaceBook work.

And it’s not fair.

It’s not fair to myself to punish myself in such a way. If I want to writer “better”, I have to define what is “better” and do the things that will make me better in that way.

Or, I can just simply continue to write because I enjoy it.

It’s not about lowering my standards, it’s about doing what I enjoy and not limiting what I can do with fear of what I can’t.

It’s also not fair to any readers.

For you, this is all you really want. Good dialog from a “decent stranger”.

You can write on Micro.blog as well.

It doesn’t have to be deep and there is plenty of room in the shallows.

It makes me very, very drowsy. It becomes incredible hard to focus on anything for a prolonged period of time, a problem that I’ve been facing more and more of as the pandemic continues.

I feel a lot of pressure to perform exceptionally well at my job because there is more and more discussion for everyone to go back into the office. I really want to make the case that I’m just as productive working at home as I am at the office.

To be honest, I don’t think being in the office could help at all because every time I needed someone, they were not at there desk. When we’re all working remotely, I knew that my questions would get answered in a timely manner.

Back to the matter at hand, I have to take something for my allergies because being interrupted by my own body to sneeze is worse then having a very slow focus throughout the day.

I’m waiting for my parents at the airport. I’ve been waiting for almost an hour even though the flight came in early. Apparently there is something going wrong with the luggage and now we’re all waiting for something to happen.

After driving around the terminal for 10 minutes, I parked over in the free parking lot. It’s actually pretty nice except for the people driving around it like it was a freeway.

I also got a really good shot of the moon. I don’t think my camera phone skills are going to get better if I only take pictures of my dog.

My youngest daughter joined a Dungeons and Dragons at her high school and was really excited about the possibilities.

She’s been having a couple problems connecting with people so my wife and I are just as excited for her. We even went out and helped her pick out her first set of dice.

Then the big day comes around…

And she comes home frustrated!

The entire play session was wasted because they had not one but two dungeon masters. And to top it off they didn’t get along and had some kind of nerd competition on who knew the most about half-elves.

I’m hoping that we can turn the experience around because she’s signed up through the rest of the school year.

Yesterday was pretty chaotic.

It feels like today went to an opposite extreme.

Just feeling lethargic and the dread that I’m going to mess up.

I started to think about what my daughter said about wanting more control of her life. With the pandemic, I don’t know if there is anyone who feels in control.

We decided that we’ll go for more bike rides and I came up with a plan to start the day with writing in the more what kind of self care we are going to do. At the end of day we’d see how much of it had accomplished.

If you know of a way raise a 12 year old girls confidence, please let me know.