50 - Quarantine Re-Entry
Instead of ruminating on the past, let's present the present.
"What's been happening Vince?"
Well, I'm glad you asked!
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Lockdown's back! Did it ever really leave? It's been a relatively seamless transition back to quarantine conditions; I think we're all used to it. It was almost natural to fire up Discord/Zoom, play some Tabletop Simulator, play some Skribbl.io, play some Trivia Murder Party, keep the mind occupied while the body is under lockdown conditions.
- One corollary that I've found is that I spend a lot more time in front of a screen. I'm trying to be conscious about how much time I spend in front of it...and try to get away from it as much as possible. Was it like this in the Depression days? Maybe they got Monopoly-eyes instead of computer-eyes. Who knows...
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I watched Hamilton! What a show. I've been listening (and loving) the soundtrack for nearly 2 years now, and it's such a compelling story to listen to. The movie release was the first time that I'd actually seen the whole show, and I fully understand the hype. The costumes, the choreography, the set pieces, the performances - they were just amazing. I particularly enjoyed Jonathon Groff (from Glee days!) as King George, sassy and incredibly entertaining!
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I've read about 40% of the books that I borrowed from the library before the first quarantine started. Key recommendations below from the list:
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A Wunch of Bankers by Daniel Ziffer: if you're interested in the banking royal commission, and want to read about the fact that all banks suck (just in varying degrees) read this! He writes in an entertaining but heart-breaking way; you feel the hilarity in the situation when bankers don't answer questions honestly, but then you realise 'hey there are people who literally have lost their houses and livelihoods'. Still a great book!
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The Knowledge Illusion by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach: it's a 'branch' book - the key idea is that though we have our own stores of knowledge, and we think we know a lot, we all have the 'illusion of knowledge'. We actually store a lot of knowledge outside of our minds; in our bodies, in our surrounding environment, online, with our family, with experts. And often we feel like we know something, when we actually have just taken it on belief (e.g. listening to scientists and believing them). An interesting read nonetheless!
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Exhalation by Ted Chiang: from the author of the story that inspired 'Arrival' by Denis Villeneuve comes another excellent short story collection. The first story in the collection, 'The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate' is one of my favourite time travel stories that I've read in recent times, telling the story of a gate that allows you travel backward 20 years in time. 'The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling' continues Ted's fascination with how language affects how people think and communicate with others, telling parallel stories of an African tribesman learning to write, and a futuristic world where all memories are recorded and replayable.
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I just finished watching Masterchef (as I'm sure a lot of you did as well) - absolutely wondrous few months watching people cook amazing things. Always makes me think 'yeah I could do that!'. The Junior Masterchef series coming up will probably exacerbate that feeling...
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We have an airfryer at home now - and I've been making a variety of foods in it. It has like...trays that we can take in and out, as well as a rotisserie, spinning thing in the middle of it. We've done roasted peanuts, cashews and macadamias, sweet potato fries, normal fries and chicken. Super fun, super easy to use (but a bit hard to clean...). Thanks Kmart!
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I've started to use Notion to organise my life - pulling disparate information into databases on a cross-platform, cloud-based application. It's quite easy to use; I had it a long time ago, when it was limited to 1000 blocks, but I was scared I would run out so I didn't go any further. Now it's become unlimited blocks, so it's quite useful. The templates they have for lists vs databases is really cool - I have an entire media queue that I now use to track what people recommend - and I can pull everything into one place instead of having it in random notes all over the place :)
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I've been quite meh about doing things - it's hard to motivate myself to do things, and I'm missing hanging out with people in real life. Not just seeing friends when I went over to their places, but also people at work, or being in crowds. It's much more invigorating, I feel, but I know that our current lives are probably going to be the normal for a long time. I'm slowly adapting to a new way of life.
Hope you're doing well! Let me know what's happening in your life :)
Chat soon :)
✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Here's your daily reminder to look after you posture - A recommendation that isn't a real-life thing, but is still important nonetheless! I feel like I've been conditioned to see the word 'posture' and then instinctively sit up, which is good. Hopefully it works on you too!
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Irvin's Salted Egg Fish Skin - when I was in Singapore, I was recommended to buy these snacks to try. I love fish skin when we have hotpot, so I was keen to try these crisp, umami-coated fish skin crisps as snacks. I've been saving up for a special occasion (since I'm not much of a snacker), so I broke these out at the start of Lockdown 2.0 (if not now, then when?). They are DELICIOUS - the salted egg has a really lovely flavour that is well complemented by the textural crunch of the chip. They don't sell them here but if you find some fish skin snacks around Melbourne please let me know!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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GPT-3 writing in the style of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - I've recently been getting into articles about this new technology, GPT-3, that was released by OpenAI. It writes coherent sentences and paragraphs using just a prompt; the outputs are phenomenal. Some of them are shit, but a majority of them are indistinguishable from real writing. Take a look at this collection!
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Personal Renewal - a speech by John Gardner - a speech given to a group at McKinsey in 1990 about self-renewal. As you start to feel stale, it's important to work on how to reinvent and remake yourself so that you can give your life meaning. A poignant quote I loved - "There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are" - did you think of anyone in particular?
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Revenge Bedtime Procrastination - a fascinating concept of trying to maximise 'me-time' at a time when so many things are outside our control. We steal from our robotic daily routines to try and have more control over our lives when everyone else is asleep - a form of self-revenge that you both win and lose.