Now

📍 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:

• On Anxieties, Depression, And Suicide Prevention
• On Obituaries

📍 Location: San Jose, CA

It’s been a season since the last now post. Besides getting married, I’ve also went on a honeymoon, got COVID, and now re-settling back into my normal routine. This website got changed quite a bit again where the home page is now a feed. I’m still thinking through what I want it to ultimately look like, and you may see more changes soon.

The week notes have been keeping me fresh with new ideas of what will be in store for the future.

Much of my time has been dedicated to playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with my wife. We haven’t played a lot of D&D, so there’s been a learning curve to the possibilities with this game. The world building is very rich.

I’ve been meaning to write in Camp NaNoWriMo, but it’s been hard with the little downtime that I appear to have. If I review my week notes, it looks like AI, obituaries, productivity tools, and tech have really taken my attention. I’ve been meaning to cut out the dopamine-filled addictions like social media doomscrolling and replacing it with reading. It always feels like an assault on my senses, especially with the current political upheavals the US has been facing.

📍 Location: San Jose, CA

I’ve slowed down on the website updates and have focused more on projects and writing. I think there’s always a balance to strike with what more I could do versus what really matters.

We have a little over a month until the wedding. The final details are being looked at. When people tell me wedding planning is no joke, I can echo that sentiment.

We bought the Brooklyn Nine-Nine boxset and have been watching through the series. Netflix has the first four seasons, but there wasn’t enough closure for the remaining seasons, and iTunes or Apple TV had a sale, so we’ve been putting that in the background while we work on the wedding. It’s nice to have something grounding.

As for books, I’ve been wondering if I should read “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro. It’s a monster of a book about Robert Moses. I was listening to 99% Invisible’s mini-series about the book, and it sounds intense.

I’ve been slowly making my way through Cal Newport’s new book, “Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout” as well as Emily Nagoski’s new book, “Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections”.

My partner is starting to use Capacities, and I set up an account to also try it out in tandem. There’s a lot of good ideas in that app, but I’m not sure I’m going to covert from Obsidian. I’m used to my tool, and I’m probably going to stick with it for now.

📍 Location: San Jose, CA

I have been making major website updates, and I’ve written about a few of them, including curations, classifieds, and my migration over to buttondown. I’m both scared and excited to write again on a monthly basis, or at least that’s the cadence I want to build. For more about website updates, I’ll do another post soon. I’ll leave now for what’s actually happening with me.

Since the last update, I’ve bought my suit for my upcoming wedding.

I’m still reading How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra, although it’s taken a back seat to The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels. It’s one of those can’t put down books for me.

Since the last post, I’ve also watched The Curse and Poor Things. Like my anti-library, there needs to be a section for books.

There has been a Reduction in Force (RIF) at my current company again, and while prospects for the future are high amongst the upper staff, it does breed some not-so-great sentiment around the mind and the office. I’m not in full panic and find a new job mode. But I do feel saddened for the people who have been let go.

I have an undisclosed project that I’m working on the side, but I don’t want to reveal any details until it’s final. I have a problem with talking too much, and not working on that project.

As for the things that have been interesting me as of late, I’ve been using Perplexity AI for about half of my searching needs, and it’s been extremely helpful for the research type tasks I’ve been investigating.

Ta ta for now! 🎩

📍 Location: San Jose, CA

I’ve talked extensively about my dad’s health issues at length, so I thought it might be worth talking about other things that I’ve been currently doing. It’s a new year, and I’m prepping more writing for 2024, including a first entry elaborating my yearly theme, the “Year of Renewal”.

I’m getting married this May! Most of my time is spent planning until then. Otherwise, I’m chugging away working at Clear Labs, taking care of little Yuzu, and finding any free time to have dates with my fiancée.

Little tired Yuzu sleeping on pillow

Reading

I’m currently reading “How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World” by Deb Chachra. I absolutely loved her newsletter.

On that note, the next book after I finish that book is “Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles” by Jay Owens.

Website updates

At some point, I plan on making a “curation” section, that will supercede my “Lindy Library” and maybe collapse my books and films section. Undecided how it will look. I absolutely love going to the library or bookstore and seeing blurbs of small reviews, and I thought it would be lovely to show collections of found items the same way.

Also, you may see more tiny projects on the website, much like my JSON editor of last year. I’m loving Make Real, so I might use that as a good prototyping tool.

Watching

I’ve gotten some kudos from multiple people about my media logs. I’m continuing to log my media for 2024, hopefully more comprehensive than last year. There are still some movies I’ve watched that I have to parse from my fiancée’s watch history.

I have a bunch of new releases in my queue, including The Curse, Poor Things, The Boy and the Heron, Afire, and Anatomy of a Fall.

Miscellany

I’ve been playing with the Anbernic RG35XX Plus, and I absolutely love it. I’ve been able to play games I haven’t gotten the chance to, including “A Link to the Past”, “Final Fantasy II”, and many others. The emulation and controls are absolutely everything I wanted, and more.

Happy 2024!

📍 Location: Hayward, CA

Every weekend, I’ve been slowly moving to San Jose, so I haven’t been able to spend enough time with my hobbies and side projects. This website has seen a down tick in content, and I’m looking forward to writing more in the near future. Certainly post-move.

To spend the in-between time not thinking about code, I’ve been playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. We recently finished Cult of the Lamb, and it felt pretty special.

I went to the Figma conference last week at San Francisco Moscone Center, and it was a packed event. I’m excited to dive deep into more UX work.

📍 Location: Hayward, CA

Finishing up the book, Laws of UX. It’s a great primer on the topic and I’m looking forward to sharing it with my team. Also reading “Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock” by Jenny O’Dell.

Slowly moving to San Jose, California. The apartment has been finalized, and we have two months to move in. Also, planning my wedding for May 2024.

Deployed and continually making improvements to this website. I’m using Astro.js and re-learning Svelte along the way.

I’m nearly done with playing through Hogwarts Legacy.