The feed of updates to Notes Of
A couple weeks ago I decided I’d like to be able to play the upcoming NBA 2K27 game after a little hiatus. I’ve bought almost every iteration since about 2003. It was almost a yearly tradition. My old PS4 had broken down, so I needed a new platform first. After a bit of research it looked like an Xbox series S would be the cheapest way to go about it. I wouldn’t have access to my PlayStation…
This one has been nagging me in the “ Recommended for you” section of my Kindle for a while. I had always ignored it because the cover didn’t look appealing (I know) and I figured I had outgrown the LitRPG genre even though it reignited my love for reading all those years ago with Ready Player One . An alien invasion chooses Earth as the next host of their televised game show where humans have to…
I don’t like having things around the house that I don’t use any more, so every now and then I enjoy selling stuff that has been gathering dust. One of those was my guitar amp. I bought it around 3 years ago for $280 and have since upgraded (to a lovely Yamaha THR II if you’re curious). When it came to setting a price, I first had a look around the marketplace to get a rough idea. Pricing used…
In our house, everyone absolutely loves books. That’s why they’re pretty much everywhere, sprinkled around in strategic but also random locations—on the coffee table, under the TV , beside the bed, on any desk, on side tables and on top of drawers to name a few. This way there’s always one within easy reach to distract you in a way doom scrolling never could. I noticed it’s also become a nice…
When my partner’s Squarespace subscription came up for renewal, I thought “ Wait a minute. That’s a lot of money for functionality she’s not even fully using .” So I started looking around for alternatives and landed on WordPress when I realised I had a spare domain slot sitting unused on my shared hosting plan. A week later we relaunched her online store and cancelled Squarespace which reduced…
After recently discovering and finishing The Name of the Wind , I was looking for a book that scratched a similar itch. Now I usually browse bookshops or the Kindle store for my next read, but with AI being all the rage these days I turned to good old ChatGPT to make a recommendation based on what I liked. That’s when I stumbled upon The Will of the Many and all it took was this quote from Lynette…
I naturally gravitate towards things that are well designed. Always have. This ranges from furniture to digital apps. Today I want to write about two apps in particular that that I use frequently in my daily life: 1Password and You Need A Budget ( YNAB ) . In fact, I’ve been using both for over 10 years now even though they changed their pricing model to subscriptions but that’s another story. I’m…
A few years ago I went to the music shop and bought pretty much one of every guitar pick they had in store. I wanted to try them all out to see which one I would like best. I ended up choosing the Dunlop Flow Standard 0.73mm and stashed away all the others. Then the other day while playing the guitar, I had an off day and was frustrated with my picking because it wasn’t as precise as I’d like. For…
The Name of the Wind has been on my wishlist for a long time but I always saved it for later. I heard many good things about it, so I wanted to be in the right context to enjoy it fully. Maybe wait until the next big vacation or something? Who knows when that would be. So in the end I pulled the trigger after I ran out of things to read. And I’m really glad I did. This is the first book of The…
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the ephemeral nature of experiences. Every moment that appears fades away soon after. If you happen to practice meditation, you get reminded of this every so often. As parent, I see my son grow and evolve on a daily basis. He does new things all the time but what about the things he used to do? I often ask myself silly questions like “ When is the last…
I’ve been spending more time on my phone than I think I should. So for the past week I made a conscious effort to reduce my screen time. I blocked access to social media sites to reduce temptation and left my phone on a dock in the living room inspired by Cal Newport’s phone foyer method . My rule was that if I wanted to check it for anything, I’d have to go there instead of carrying it with me. I…
I enjoy reading through Manu ’ s People & Blogs series and find it particularly interesting how people approach their writing and publishing process. I thought it would be fun to share my own, especially since my approach is maybe a bit less organised and more focused on the freedom to write and publish posts as I go. Since this blog is primarily for my own enjoyment, it should come as no surprise…
The other day my son was happily flipping through pages of his many books. Sometimes he enjoys reading by himself and I thought it would be nice to sit with him and read my own book. Now it’s no secret that I really like my Kindle , but the issue is that he gets distracted and wants to play with it as soon as he sees it. That’s when I remembered I had a couple of unread physical books on a shelf.…
I really enjoyed Terry Hayes’ previous book I Am Pilgrim so I was really excited to get my hands on his latest release. My friend who initially recommended it to me mentioned back then how everyone has been waiting for The Year of the Locust for years. After doing a bit of research on my own it turns out most people didn’t believe it was ever going to happen. So here we are, finally. Is this…
I love music. However when I was a poor college student I couldn’t afford to pay for albums–digital or physical. So once I got a job I subscribed to Rdio and later Spotify. The value proposition seemed almost too good to be true. You can listen to pretty much everything anywhere for the price of an album every month? Unbelievable. But when I bought a new car about 10 years ago I did something…
I’ve been using the iOS app Raivo OTP for two-factor authentication ever since I saw Derek Sivers recommend it. (He has since updated his recommendation to 2FA Authenticator .) Then one day a few weeks ago I opened the app to authenticate somewhere and was surprised to see all my keys were gone. At first I didn’t understand what happened and why everything was missing until a subscription modal…
The NBA draft was held last week over two days on June 26-27. I didn’t pay too much attention after Boston won the Finals, mainly because the Grizzlies didn’t even make the playoffs so the draft crept up on me this year. I randomly checked out Grizzlies news to see what they were doing in free agency only to find out they’d just made their first round pick–Purdue star Zach Edey. I knew nothing…
I’ve neglected a few things in the past few months, including this blog. There’s a very good reason for that though–I became a father to a wonderful little boy. It’s been such an amazing experience that has turned my entire world upside down and I wouldn’t have it any other way. One thing I’ll admit is that I severely underestimated how little sleep I would get from that point onward–people…
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to attend the AGI Open in Aotearoa New Zealand. This was a big deal since apparently it’s the first time this international design conference is held in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s hosted by the Alliance Graphique Internationale ( AGI ) , a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1952 whose focus is on connecting leaders of the global design industry. I thought…
I’ve liked the idea of voice assistants ever since I got my first iPhone and asked Siri the most random things. I’ll admit, at the time I thought it was just a gimmick that could occasionally come in handy when you need to be hands-free like while you’re driving for example. But then years later I fulfilled one of my high-tech fantasies and introduced Alexa to my home and felt like I was living in…
Almost all my reading is done on a Kindle and I enjoy occasionally window-shopping in the store for anything that might grab my attention. Since I don’t follow any authors religiously–even my favourite ones–I was pleasantly surprised to see Lightbringer by Pierce Brown being advertised with a release date. If I pre-ordered it now, I would have it first thing on the 25th of July. But then I…
I’ve been thinking about my digital hygiene recently, which meant reviewing my various services, subscriptions and providers. I’ll go into more detail in another post but as a first step I looked at all my accounts to see which ones I’m not using anymore in order to shut them down. There’s no harm in just ignoring these accounts indefinitely but why risk it? What happens if said website or app…
I was drawn to this book because I was looking for something similar to I Am Pilgrim , and The Grey Man did not disappoint. This book was a thrilling page-turner from the very first chapter, with the action and suspense building up at every turn. The writing was captivating and the fast pace had me fully invested from the beginning. I’m only now venturing into this genre and I’ve found it highly…
I finally did it. I removed Google Analytics from this site and won’t be tracking anyone anymore. It’s not like I was regularly keeping up with the numbers or optimising content anyway. It’s not about that. The only reason I implemented analytics in the first place was to if my blog had any readers at all . Simple curiosity. I found it fascinating that people from random cities and countries…
I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions (mine is 1440x900 if you have to know) but I like to reflect on the year past to see what I might want to change going forward. There aren’t many things I want to change at the moment. Just one: being intentional. This applies to all aspects of my life whether it’s relationships, how I spend my free time or how I show up at work. I want to carve out more…
Locke Lamora is the leader of a gang of con artists and thieves called the Gentleman Bastards . They’ve all been raised since childhood to make a living by stealing from the rich thanks to a variety of techniques and disguises. Think of Ocean’s Eleven in a Renaissance fantasy setting with a sprinkle of the Godfather to keep everyone in check. Locke is instantly likable due to his charisma and…
I was at the airport with a friend when I asked them what their favourite book was. “ You have to read I Am Pilgrim right now, it’s so good”, was the answer. And so I hopped on my Kindle and downloaded it in time for our upcoming flight. Thrillers aren’t usually my type of book, but this one hits different. It is a page-turner for sure and once I started it was very hard to put down. The story…
I grew up with video games. It’s been one of my favourite hobbies ver since my dad let me play on the Atari 7800. Soon after we got the Playstation and I was hooked. Later my mind was blown when I played online for the first time with other people on the Dreamcast. During my teenage years and beyond I’d play almost anything from role playing games to first-person shooters. In the past couple years…
I’ve always been fascinated by the origin of humankind. How did we go from cavemen trying to figure out fire to being able to fly huge airplanes through the sky? I’m deeply interested in the many steps that led not only to our present day progress but also to our very existence in the first place. This was my first book by Bill Bryson and I went in with high expectations based on his track record.…
I started my mindfulness journey a few years ago when I was looking into ways to look after my mental health. I had made sure to take care of my body through exercise but hadn’t paid too much attention to my mind. I figured having a busy mind with lots thoughts was probably the same for everyone else. I guess not. A particularly stressful situation in my personal life was the trigger that made me…
This was a strange book. It’s as bad as the title suggests. I feel like I was fooled by positive online reviews and I regret finishing it. I expected more humour based on the title, but all I got was weak horror, a woman with a mid-life crisis and unlikeable characters. Gift this to someone you don’t like. ★☆☆☆☆