This week is a week of a lot of travel. I traveled to Mumbai to attend my high school reunion. I also went to two bookshops – Kitabi Chai (X and Mastodon) and Pagdandi.
Started writing for NaNoWriMo 2024.
2. Chapter 2
I am listening to Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman again.
I went for my high school reunion on Saturday, 26 October 2024. The high school reunion was in the school premises in Mumbai. I was going to school after 22 years.
I met many of my teachers there and a few friends from my batch. We met the support staff, some of who are still working there.
There were batches from 2000 to 2014. Since I was from batch of 2002 there weren’t too many people I know. But, meeting the teachers was a great pleasure. I didn’t speak much though. I just return to the way I was in school when I go there.
I have not been very disciplined about writing these Weekly Notes in 2024. I have not enjoyed writing on WordPress. But, the alternatives are either too technical or too expensive or the process to pay for them from India is too convoluted.
But, I do not want the rest of the year to be the same. I want to be consistent. This is a small effort towards that.
I have had the honor of writing three articles for The Hindu. These are:
All three were edited by the brilliant Vasudevan Mukunth. The third one specifically needed a lot of that editing brilliance.
This allows me to get back to my weekly newsletter which will begin again next week.
I am also planning to write daily for National Novel Writing Month 2024. This will be posted on thinkdeli.com.
I am presently reading Stephen King’s On Writing.
I recently finished listening to Chetan Bhagat’s 11 Rules for Life. I picked it up on Audible, which is still advertising it to me despite it being in my library. I found the advice neither philosophical like the Stoic self-helps nor generalist self-help. It seems somewhere in the middle. Closer to the generalist self-help but slightly above.
The second half of this year has been better but my tsundoku is growing everyday.
We are in Kerala on account of Onam. Celebrated Pooradam which is Children’s Onam today.
My last blog post on this blog was on 3 November 2023. Since then, I have been writing on another website. I did not post about it here because it was an experiment.
I am back now.
I had moved from WordPress to Blot. Blot is a service that allows you to write in an editor of your choice. You can then upload the document on Google Docs or Dropbox, and the Blot will publish it.
I had an itch to try out a service other than WordPress. I was partly impressed by the IndieWeb movement. I was in love with open source software. I was in love with simple software.
This is a post to help you catch up with what has happened since I last wrote here.
I am still living in Pune with my family. I went on two drives this year – one to Tamhini Ghat and another to Panshet Dam. I celebrated my son’s first birthday in Pune.
I had the honor of having two articles published in The Hindu – one on ISRO Chairman Dr. S Somanath’s comment on having more rockets than satellites, and a recap of space events on the occasion of National Space Day. Thanks to VM for the opportunity.
My reading has been slowing down this year. So has my listening on Audible. This implies that my writing has also been affected. My space newsletter writing has also not been regular. My work-related writing has improved after a slump in the first half of 2024. I am very happy with Q3, 2024.
I will move all the posts I wrote on the other blog to this one. I will link to them on my weekly updates so that you can read them.
I missed sending out the forty-second edition of the Weekly Notes. I think Weeks 42 and 43 are pivotal weeks of this year.
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Working Column – my Tumblr posts
I finished listening to:
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I went for the 7th International Pen Festival Pune 2023 held at Erandwane in Pune on 21 October 2023. Vishwesh had shared the presence of the festival in the Chalchitra community a day before.
We had briefly discussed the revival of fountain pens in the Clear Writing Cohort meetup in Pune on 15 October 2023. Hence, shared this invite to this community as well.
There was a Comet EV four wheeler to test drive and buy. But, more interesting to me, were the group of Urban Sketchers who were present at the entrance, using various types of pens to sketch at the venue. You can see the work of the urban sketchers by following this tag on Instagram.
I purchased a few things:
I purchased three Beena V’sign Stride ink pens. I bought a lot of Japanese Midori stationery from an online store called Faces and Places. I purchased an artisanal leather pouch for a pocket book and my pens from Dvadaria Brands.
Venus Traders who co-hosted this event have a “super stationery store” on FC Road where many of these ink pens are available.
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A lot of outing happened this week after the monsoon pause. We went to the mall on Thursday. I met up with Saurabh in Pune.
I have not written my fortnightly space newsletter for three fortnights now. This is a streak I would like to break.
I completed a couple of long-uncompleted work items. Feels like a load off my shoulders.
I wrote one blog post here.
I finished writing about the zettelkasten, in my zettelkasten. I am following it up with Andy Matuschak’s Evergreen Notes.
I am presently listening on Audible:
I am presently reading:
I am reading the following articles/essays/stories –
Cycling is a practice I want to continue. I went cycling last Sunday and Monday before taking the cycle to work on Tuesday. I haven’t cycled the rest of the week.
I wrote a lot this week. Most of them have been work but I have managed to pull aside some time to write about Scott P Scheper’s version of the Zettelkasten, that he calls Antinet this week. I am exploring Andy Matuschak’s Evergreen Notes this week.
I also wrote the broad contours of the novel that I will write for NaNoWriMo 2023. Title is TBD.
I have not written my fortnightly space newsletter in two fortnights.
I am writing but things are not in kilter yet.
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Parallel Spirals 