What I’m Listening To
I regularly like to pick a song and have YouTube music make a “radio station” out of it; making an “on the spot” playlist of similar songs. This popped up in a radio station based on a Harry Styles song (not even sorry) and I’ve found myself repeating it several times.
What gives me hope
This list of “Wholesome News” posted recently on Reddit. Somebody asked the question “what are some good things happening in the world right now?” And the users of Reddit didn’t disappoint. Click the link, read the list, smile, repeat as necessary.
What I watched
The Foreigner with Jackie Chan. I regularly forget how much I enjoy Jackie Chan. I mean, I like a good action flick … but Jackie always takes it to the next level. Somehow I missed this when it was released in 2017. But it’s on Netflix now, so I watched it. It stars Pierce Brosnan and Orla Brady alongside Chan. The premise is that Chan’s daughter is killed in an IRA bombing and he goes after the people who did it. But it actually goes much deeper than that and Chan oftentimes felt like a side story to the deeper political intrigue. It was really quite a surprisingly good story and movie. My one nitpick was how terrible Brosnan’s Irish accent was. He would occasionally slip into a Scottish brogue. Otherwise, well worth your time if you like action movies.
What I’m reading
In between finishing “99% Invisible”, I managed to read Tiago Forte’s “Building A Second Brain“. It’s a “self help” book focused on helping us offload … you know what? I’ll just let my Goodreads review (a rare five star rating from me) explain it to you:
Fantastic “self help” book about offloading the storage aspect of your brain to a digital system. This frees your brain for doing actually thinking, creativity, and pursuing other interests. Forte breaks down his concepts into easy to understand bits and then offers practical advice on how to implement in your life. This book is about the concept and practice, not dictating the tools you use.
If you’re at all interested in freeing up brain space to use for processing ideas and thoughts rather than storing “stuff”, you should pick up this book. Heck, even just do a YouTube search for Tiago Forte or “Building A Second Brain” and you’ll find plenty of content too.
What Surprised Me (when it really shouldn’t have)
Pearson, multi-billion dollar educational company, plans to sell their textbooks as NFTs. If you’re not familiar, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tracked in a blockchain. The blockchain is a “single source of truth” that tracks a digital object’s ownership. That means that Pearson would be able to track who owns their textbook and be able to profit off second-hand textbook sales … which are already ridiculously overpriced. I’m all for capitalism and building a better product, but I don’t think there’s enough competition in the education industry. Pearson is everywhere and has too much control. And now, they’ll have even MORE of our money. **sigh**
What I’m Looking Forward To
The next Android update will include lots of privacy features! Notifications will ALL be “opt in”. Clipboard will detect private information and automatically clear after a short time. Lots of other sharing protections built-in.
I bought a Google Pixel 6 last year because I wanted to ensure I get the latest versions of Android when they’re available. I had a “flagship” Samsung phone before that which would still take MONTHS to get software updates. As much as I dislike Apple locking you into their ecosystem for EVERYTHING (fricking iZombies), the one good thing is that 90% of all iPhones are running the latest version of iOS. Only about 15% of Android devices are running the latest; it’s so fragmented on Android. I honestly hoped Google would have a better handle on that by now. Keeping your devices up-to-date is one of the best and simplest ways to keep your information and your device safe.
What Made Me Laugh
I, like many people, enjoy a good meme. I also enjoy history. Put them together and you’ve got comedy gold!
This post has been day 93 of #100DaysToOffload
Your brain is a constant source of amazement to me❤️