Now

This is what I’m up to right now. Inspired by Derek Sivers’ /now page movement.

🎺 Writing a new album w/ Run and Punch

We’re early in the process but we have some fun ideas planned that I’m excited to explore. Our latest release was a ska/punk cover of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston.

🧠 Starting up a blog to share my book notes

I’m using this as motivation to engage with my book notes so I can get the most out of my reading instead of just letting the knowledge go in one (eye?) and out the other. I’m also experimenting with the generate podcast feature from NotebookLM which is so insanely cool. You can read (or listen to) my first one here: Book Notes for “Building a Second Brain”.

📝 Rebooting my PKM / note taking system

I’ve used many tools over the years for note taking, starting with Evernote back in the day to modern stuff like Craft and Bear. I moved to Obsidian ~5 years ago and love the mix of power and simplicity. However, my note taking practice became just enough of a chore that it slowly fell out of use. I feel like every system needs a revisit every few years to realign with what’s serving you where you are right now in life. I’m simplifying using tips from Building a Second Brain and it’s been exactly what I needed.

🏋️‍♂️ Strength training

I went deep on strength training about 3 years ago and built about 12 bounds of lean muscle. It felt great! I had so much energy and was in the best shape of my life. Now I’ve mostly lost those gains so the goal this year is to get back on it and go for 15-20.

📚 Reading “Cthulhu Mythos Tales” by HP Lovecraft

I received a collection of Lovecraft’s classic horror stories last Christmas that I recently picked back up. It’s a beautiful blue bound book of cosmic horror. Being a fan of the genre it’s been a treat to finally read the source material that inspired movies like “In The Mouth of Madness” and “The Color Out of Space,” and video games like “Still Wakes the Deep” and “Deadspace.” Even though Lovecraft’s bigotry occasionally detours into the occasional unnecessary and awkward racial commentary they’re still fun reads over all. Sometimes it’s best to separate the art from the artist.

🎮 Playing ARC Raiders

Embark Studios have done a fantastic job with this extraction shooter. It’s just really fun to play and the player interactions are surprisingly positive (over all). The movement and mechanics are buttery smooth and the gameplay loop is rewarding. It’s hard to balance having both PVP and PVE coexist in the same game but they’ve managed to pull it off.