Craft By Zen

👋🏽 Hi! This is Jeremy's Craft by Zen


    • 2024 Log Recap
      Posted

      The final counts are up. We have the following distribution of media for 2024.

      MediaCount
      🎥 Movies161
      📺 TV Shows10
      🎮 Video Game3
      📕 Books9
      🎤 Musical1

      Some of my biggest highlights I pointed out in another post.

      I’ll leave that here again because it was a really fun list to put down.

      • The film that I want to finish: Past Lives (2023)
      • The weird film: Poor Things (2023)
      • The cringiest TV series: The Curse, Season 1 (2023-2024)
      • The book that resonates the most: The Psychology of Money (2020)
      • The unexpected book find: Frostbite (2024)
      • My RomCom of the year: Upgraded (2024)
      • A great TV find: Ramy (Seasons 1 and 2). I still need to watch the 3rd season
      • The cry-fest film: Suzume (2022)
      • My good 90’s find: Go (1999)
      • The most intense non-intense film: Challengers (2024)
      • Unexpected horro series: The first four Ring movies from Japan. Absolutely better than the American ones.
      • Best horror from this year: The Substance (2024)
      • RIP Dame Maggie Smith: Gosford Park (2001)
      • Hallmark Movie of the year: Sugarplummed (2024)

      I’ll add in there I also enjoyed Quiz Lady on the plane ride home, although that was on January 1st.

      I didn’t read enough books this year. They were mainly non-fiction. The highlights were Frostbite and The Golden Thread.

      We saw Hamilton this year, our only musical. Totally worth it!

      I tried to include video games, although I’m terrible at finishing them. Maybe I should add an “in progress” for some of those because I don’t always finish them.

      In terms of TV shows, we’ve enjoyed the new Fallout show. Morgan’s really enjoyed Dune Prophecy. I watched all of the Good Place, which was wonderful, and has a bittersweet ending.

      Filed: 🚰 Stream
    • 2025 Week 01 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      End of year news, RIP Jimmy Carter. I've changed the format so it's less emphasis on categories and more on the actual notes I take during the week.

    • 2024 Week 52 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Christmas to NYE I took a bunch of notes. From AI to app recaps, from annual reviews to uplifting stories, a great way to catch up on all of my missed consuming for the year.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • 2024 Week 51 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Notes in the margins, AI, shut-downs, and Jesus models.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • Introducing Discord Server
      Posted

      I’ve started a Discord server! This is a place for more group setting conversation. I have found Discord as a much easier way to interact with people, which I wish was more the case of other social media. The real-time nature of old-school IRC mixed with modern features allows us to make fun, creative conversation. Just abide by the code of conduct of being respectful. With anything, moderation is the key.

      Enjoy!

      Filed: 🚰 Stream
    • These are a few of my favorite things
      Posted

      An alternative to a gift guide and best of list. Showing my favorite things of this year, whether it be films, music, or ideas.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • 2024 Week 50 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Things learned in 2024, care packages, home library, and Notre Dame.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • 2024 Week 49 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Best of 2024, LLMs as choose your own adventure, the guide to estimations, and the LED lights that blind you.

    • 2024 Week 48 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Bitcoin attacks, post-political feelings, principled, and newsletter recommendations.

    • 2024 Week 47 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      AIs appear better than doctors, influencer presented news, Bob Lee's murder trial begins, and poetry from Mary Oliver.

    • 2024 Week 46 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Throw away that black spatula, fence sitting, web clipping made cool again, the rough parts of kubernetes, and a doggy election rigged.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • 2024 Week 45 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Week notes are back. There's a backlog of content. We are mostly busy from moving, so these will be more sporadic. We cover election week, a warning from the EFF, a look BTS for Google's NootbookLM, and some more obits and recommendations.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • Newsletter - Closing on our house
      Posted

      Newsletter - A short, yet sweet newsletter about welcoming to a new neighborhood.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
    • 2024-11-07

      📍 Location: In transit between Redwood City and San Jose riding the Caltrain

      Current Media

      Currently reading: The Golden Thread - How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Claire

      I cannot recommend this book more. It’s an interesting look at fabrics that frankly I didn’t know I would enjoy. But, having read Kassia St. Claire’s other book about color, I knew I was in good hands.

      Personal News

      We bought a house! I have a note about the home buying process I want to blog about at some point. My latest newsletter talks more about this.

      There’s been a flurry of projects I want to get off the ground. They have been paused by the home buying and moving projects. It’s looking like 2025 is going to be a big year.

      Election Woes

      Everyone is feeling depression from the election. The sweep of bad outcomes and polarization of the country really make me feel depressed. I’m sick of hearing the reasons people feel one way over another. I can feel my rigid thinking defaulting the election decision of keep calm and carry on vs chaos. We elected turbulence, and for selfish reasons. In my mind, America would rather favor personal gain over keeping with the status quo, which is not what either party stood for. Instead the fractured feeling I have is one of unhopeful malaise when it comes to civics.

      On the opposite end, this is another awakening for personal and collective calling for creating a better life, despite civil unrest. Yes, our rights are being stripped from us. But it takes resilience and a calling of refuting the next establishment to make a life we all want. And sometimes, that means reaching across the aisle, not despite of it.

      I think revisiting Vi Hart’s video post-2016 election is important.

      Then, there’s this video from Adam Conover about why he isn’t worried about the election.

      I have some conflicting emotions about the message. Part of it certainly feels right where the change we make with others is more important than who we elect while acknowledging the harm the Republican ticket has. Yet, there’s also the changes we have seen as a response to the upset, like the sweeping changes of the 2018 election. While I foster a lot of hate for the president-elect’s racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, anti-democratic, and violent rhetoric, of which there is a lot, there is a path of moving forward and carrying on, despite the setbacks.

      What we know is, things will get absolutely worse, especially for women and minority communities. We know the little things we say in public can be overblown on the National stage. We know we need to be nicer to one another and foster humility, like being able to point the finger back at ourselves.

      This long rant just to say, while I don’t think things around us are going to get any better for the foreseeable future, we are the ones who will make an impact. There’s enough hate in the world, and I would like to think there’s some glimmer of hope in the future. For everything else, it’s up to us. If Victor Frankl’s taught us anything, we need to think of how the future can be better in order to survive the perils of today.

      See my other posts:

      Filed: ⌚ Now
    • 2024 Week 44 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      Looking beyond ozempic, Dublic halloween hoax, my dive into fabrics, radical covenants, and obits.

    • 2024 Week 43 - Weekly Notes
      Posted

      A break in format - the quiet art of attention, conferences, vercel and microfront-ends, and some recommendations.

      Filed: ✍🏼 Writing
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I'm currently leading application development at Clear Labs.

I write essays on eclectic topics, from programming, cooking, and strange habit of collecting obituaries.


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Newsletter Series

I have put back together my newsletter after years of absense! These are primarily updates on my blog, "Craft By Zen", and maybe some highlights to the new articles I've written. There might be some life updates as well. I'm doing away with the old format of weekly longform essays, and trying some new things with my newsletter.

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