Tag: 2023

Reading/Listening

I am currently reading/listening to:

• The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Audible)
• The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carroll (Kindle)

I finished listening to Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson and reading Trackside by Bharath Moro. I have updated the books list on the blog, accordingly. I was stuck in a reading rut for a long time. Trackside helped me break out of it.

I have also started reading The Hindu e-paper and Frontline magazine again. I am sharing articles that I like on my Twitter and Mastodon feeds. I might add them here in future editions of the Weekly Notes.

OTT

I watched:

• Fubar (English)
• High Crime (English)
• Kathal (Hindi)
• The Mother (English)
• Mother’s Day (English)
• Ponniyin Selvan 2 (Tamil)
• Pachuvum Athbhutha Vilakkum (Malayalam)
• Neelavelicham (Malayalam)
• Enthadaa Saji (Malayalam)
• Pakalum Paathiravum (Malayalam)
• Pookkaalam (Malayalam)

Spirals

Spirals are what you would call rabbit holes today. Perhaps they are much more deeper? I hope this section clarifies what I meant by the title of this blog, Parallel Spirals?

Commonplace Books

I have mentioned Megan Rhiannon’s videos in the YouTube section of my previous post. She integrates her planner, commonplace book, etc. into one document. She includes stickers and cut-outs in her commonplace book. This got me interested into commonplace books. I watched many videos on this, but these made sense:

I discovered another person who used a notebook instead of a phone for a period of time, while searching about commonplace books. The last time this came up on my radar was on Weekly Notes 02/2023.

Religion

I had gone through some reading on Indian philosophical traditions last year. The YouTube algorithm suggested a video about the Kashmir Shaivism’s poet Lal Ded. I enjoyed the videos from the Let’s Talk Religion YouTube channel. Watching Acharya Prashant’s interview had diverted my focus towards Vedanta. Three specific videos on the Let’s Talk Religion spends time on the three schools under Vedanta that caught my attention.

Nikhil Kamat

I enjoyed watching all episodes of the podcast hosted by Nikhil Kamat. But, I liked this episode the most.

I think Varun Mayya’s explanation (of which there is a clip) of how ChatGPT works may be better than Cal Newport’s explanation.

Antinet/Analog Zettelkasten

I found Scott P. Scheper’s YouTube channel through watching Morgan’s YouTube channel. She has been explaining how to setup a physical Zettelkasten to her mother and mentioned Scott’s YouTube channel as an inspiration.

I found Scott’s method more thorough. But, before I got there I went through videos by Nicole van der Hooven for more ideas on digital Zettelkastens. Her video on why she personally used Obsidian over Roam, has had me open Obsidian after a very long time:

I even sampled Tiago Forte’s video on visual note-taking and signed up for Milanote. I might use it to write my first sci-fi novel.

This brings us back to Scott:

Graphene

An editorial written by a former Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar in The Hindu sent me down the materials spiral. I was once (around 2007-08) interested in material sciences. I watched a few videos on NPTEL on material sciences and specifically on graphene and Carbon nanotubes.

WordPress

I attended the 20th anniversary celebrations of WordPress in Pune. I had thought that I joined WordPress in November 2006, but it seems that I had actually joined WordPress in June 2006.

I was on Blogger before I was here. I had started blogging around 2005, if memory serves me correctly. But, as you can see above, I could be wrong.

Writing

I wrote one blog post. No newsletter edition.

Reading

I am currently reading/listening to:

• Pacific Edge – Kim Stanley Robinson
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport

OTT

I watched the following on OTT:

• The Diplomat (English)
• Patthu Thala (Tamil)
• How to Get Rich (English)

YouTube

I watched a lot of YouTube this week. I am not able to watch so many videos.

I missed sending out Weekly Notes 16/2023, as I was not well.

Writing

I wrote one blog post.

I wrote one newsletter edition.

Reading

I am currently reading/listening to:

• Pacific Edge – Kim Stanley Robinson
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport

OTT

• Pranaya Vilasam (Malayalam)
• Vellari Patanam (Malayalam)
• Mrs. Undercover (Hindi)
• Rana Naidu (Hyderabadi)
• Dear Vaappi (Malayalam)
• How to Get Rich (English)

YouTube

Writing

Writing at work was good.

I wrote a blog post on the tree walk I went with my daughter.

I wrote the 50th edition of my space newsletter, since July 2019.

Reading

I read/listened to:

• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport (now reading)
• The Great Derangement – Amitav Ghosh (now listening)

Badminton and Cycling

I did not cycle nor play badminton because of a muscle spasm in the back.

OTT

I watched:

• Khalipurse of Billionaires (Malayalam)
• Romancham (Malayalam)
• Purusha Pretham (Malayalam)
• Maheshinte Maruthi (Malayalam)

YouTube

Soviet Rocket Engines

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P Sainath

What does a Quantum Computer look like?

IndieWeb

Writing

Writing at work was good.

I wrote the newsletter, Pradeep’s Space Newsletter #49. 49 posts since July 2019.

Reading

I read/listened to:

• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport (now reading)
• The Great Derangement – Amitav Ghosh (now listening)

Badminton and Cycling

I had a back injury. This allowed me just two days of playing badminton this week.

The same meant that no cycling got done either.

YouTube

Tweets

Submissions are now open for our Imagine 2200 #CliFi writing contest! Check it out and submit your story here: https://t.co/EaQHYc4c4z

Deadline: June 13, 2023#ClimateFiction #SolarPunk

— grist (@grist) April 4, 2023

Another non-native of Thiruvananthapuram, but who was in love with that city. His work will live on…@pradx https://t.co/QIUWzwJ2kM pic.twitter.com/869rAJCksP

— swarnalatha @swarna@mstdn.social (@SanerDenizen) April 5, 2023

DEBUNKING A HINDU SCIENTIFIC CLAIM :

According to Hindus, the Hanuman chalisa gives us the distance between sun and earth

Claims like these have become popular with the rise of Hindutva intellectuals such as Subhash Kak and J Sai deepak

— Danvan Ex brahmin (@NERAZZURl) April 4, 2023

doomscrolling #ai pic.twitter.com/gmPb9rdbvr

— Prateek Arora (@ekpraet) April 4, 2023

Richard Feynman on the importance of doing.

Today's doodle pic.twitter.com/9YmxiclDko

— Ramnath (@rmnth) April 3, 2023

a painting of @isro's LVM3 (GSLV Mk3) rocket rising to orbit pic.twitter.com/wA1u2OHmUT

— Daylight ⚛️ (@Daylight44492) March 30, 2023

Writing

Another week where most of the writing was focused on work. I did not get any other writing done.No blog posts. No newsletter post.

Reading/Listening

I read/listened to:

• Ahalya – Koral Dasgupta

Badminton and Cycling

I got back to playing badminton this week. I got the badminton racket gutted again.

I got no cycling done this week.

YouTube

Writing

I delivered a lot of writing work this week. Left me in a high. But, this did not overflow to other writing. No blog posts. No newsletter. No other writing.

OTT

I watched:

• The Rocket Boys – Season 2 (Hindi) – finished
• Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (English)
• Pathaan (Hindi)
• Vaathi (Tamil)
• Lost (Hindi)
• Suits (English) – in progress

Reading

I read/listened:

• Ahalya – Koral Dasgupta – in progress
• A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden – Maggie Appleton
• Digital Gardening for Non-Technical Folks – Maggie Appleton

Badminton and Cycling

I am probably going to focus on one and not on both. I stopped the badminton middle of this week. I am going to focus on cycling.

I cycled for a day for about 11.3 km.

YouTube

Twitter

All of you #space #isro enthusiasts who wanted to know why the C25 Cryo stage of LVM3 now sports a white colour, as opposed to the usual black/grey… the reasons are environmental-friendly manufacturing, reducing Solar absorptivity and using a light weight material.. read on.. https://t.co/CpSAMqhlq2

— Sidharth.M.P (@sdhrthmp) March 24, 2023

How did an ordinary estuary fisherman become Kerala's dreaded 'Ripper Jayanandan'? Is he really the dangerous killer the police have made him out to be, or is he truly innocent as he claims?

A goosebump-inducing investigation by the fantastic @mknid.https://t.co/vq6dmXF3Yk

— Lakshmi Priya 🌈 (@lakshmibindu95) March 21, 2023

Writing

Focus continued to stay on work related writing this week. I hope to complete and deliver many of these in the next week.

I managed to write one blog post:

• Role of ISRO in the future?

I managed to also send out one edition of Pradeep’s Space Newsletter:

• Pradeep’s Space Newsletter #48

I wrote one post on my Tumblr, Working Column:

• Practical Materialism

This week’s writing was not of the quality that I would have preferred but means that I shipped content.

OTT

I watched:

• Rekha (Malayalam)
• Ela Veezha Poonchira (Malayalam)
• The Rocket Boys – Season 2 (Hindi) (in progress)

Reading

I am reading/listening to:

• J Krishnamurti – A Life of Compassion beyond Boundaries – Roshen Dalal [Audible]
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport [Kindle]
• Building Your Second Brain – Tiago Forte [Physical Paperback]

Badminton and Cycling

Another week of no cycling.

Played badminton on all days save one.

YouTube

Writing

The lower volume of work completed in Week 9 meant that more work-related writing got done than anything else. I did not write any blog posts. I did not publish the weekly space newsletter. I did not attend the RozWrite sessions.

OTT

I watched:

• Nanpakal Nerratha Mayakkum (Malayalam, Tamil)
• Alone (Malayalam)
• Adrishyam (Malayalam)
• Thattassery Kuttam (Malayalam)
• Christopher (Malayalam)

Of the lot, I enjoyed watching Nanpakal… the most. I had to watch the review by Baradwaj Rangan to really appreciate the movie more.

Reading

I am reading/listening to:

• J Krishnamurti – A Life of Compassion beyond Boundaries – Roshen Dalal [Audible]
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport [Kindle]
• Building Your Second Brain – Tiago Forte [Physical Paperback]

Cycling and Badminton

Another week without cycling. I played badminton on all days this week.

YouTube

Writing

Again, a poor writing week. Two weeks in a row means it is time to buck up.

I was able to write three blog posts for the blog:

• Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter
• Four Thousand Week
• Mumbai to Pune

I did not publish the weekly space newsletter. I did not attend the RozWrite sessions. The contribution to the work writing was lower as well because of power cuts and fever.

OTT

I continued watching OTT. I moved from watching Malayalam and to other languages:

• The Law According to Lidia Poet (Italian, English voice over)
• Triptych (Spanish, English voice over)

I especially liked the alternate rock intro music and music interlaced in a period drama in Lidia Poet.

Books

I finished listening to Four Thousand Weeks and wrote a blog post about it.

• Audible: J. Krishnamurti: A Life of Compassion Beyond Boundaries by Roshen Dalal
• Kindle: So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

Cycling and Badminton

I did not get any cycling done.

I played badminton only on two days. I played on Monday and Wednesday. I had a beginnings of fever on Tuesday and actual fever on Thursday and Friday.

YouTube