I clearly haven’t written in a while. I missed July entirely and don’t have much to say new now. I’ve found the idea of “Attention” and “Monthly Topics” isn’t working out so well. I keep layering on new things to focus on and I’ve come right back to where I was before I started this; Trying to do too many things never with enough time. While it did help me focus in on a number of activities I’ve been generally meant to pursue, most of which I perhaps wouldn’t have made the time for otherwise, the intentional singlemindedness kind of took the joy out of doing a lot of these activities. I clearly need to find a balance between my interests, motivation and structure. With that said, I’m on the verge of trying something new that might accomplish just that, but the new thing itself will be a bit of a discovery process. More on that later I guess?

So instead, this month I’ll write about some cool things I’ve found and have recently enjoyed. Feel free to check them out.

Cool new podcast:

Lost Terminal by Namtao

In his words: “A hopepunk podcast following the journey of a little satellite trying to understand what has happened after Earth stops returning his calls.” A really fun short ~15 min/week podcast that is already in it’s 13th season. I liked it so much I put all my other books and podcasts on hold and binged 12 seasons to catch up. (somewhere between 20-30 hours of content? roughly a long audio book…) I even support it on Patreon now and have submitted ideas. You can find it on YouTube and most podcast streaming services.

Cool new toy:

KeyChron Q11 Split Keyboard

I have always been slow at typing. In the past few years I have made an effort to use the website [www.keybr.com] to improve! unfortunately, one thing keybr cannot do, is stop my damn right pointer finger from drifting across the centerline and hitting the T, G, and B keys (and stop the occasional left pointer from touching the H). It really slows me down. BUT FEAR NOT!! the KeyChron Q11 fixes that by simply removing the key from the proximity of the offending finger altogether! Combined that with rotary knobs and macro keys that are incredibly easy to configure, and it’s one of the best keyboards I’ve ever owned. It won’t be for everyone, but check out Keychron in general. Quality products and something for almost everyone.

Cool new App:

Obsidian I am actually writing this post in Obsidian right now. It’s a cross platform notes application working primarily with markdown documents and storing all information natively on the host system, not in the cloud. One of the chief reasons I find it useful is because it has excellent cross platform sync support. There are over 1k community plugins for additional features and I’m refining how I use it everyday, but even it’s base functionality has been a productivity game changer for me. For a quick video on the advantages and basic features check out this video on YouTube (also made by Namtao the creator of Lost Terminal). :)

Cool new book:

The Art of the Impossible by Stephen Kotler. I’ve read one other Steven Kotler book before, Stealing Fire, about altered states of consciousness, and thought it was fascinating. The part that interested me the most was the concept of Flow states. This new book is almost entirely about how to consistently engaging in flow states for peak performance. Good read and hopefully something I can apply.

Well that’s all for now. I’m not committing to one post per month anymore so hopefully I’ll write more soon, but you’ll hear from me when you hear from me. <|>