The cover photo is from picking up my wife from the airport in the early morning. Xi'an is truly a popular tourist city, with many tour groups even in the middle of the night. ✈️
"心迹逐影" means the footprints of the soul flow with the shadows, recording, tracing, and reflecting on one's inner world. At the same time, I recommend interesting information I come across every week.
I've delayed this for another month (why is it "again"?). Whenever it's the weekend, I don't know what to write. Life is quite ordinary, spending the day at work and playing with my phone, not reading books, watching TV shows, or movies. I'm thinking of making some changes starting next week. I've actually done some different things in the past month.
Evolution of Tools#
flomo#
During the weekends, I don't know what to write, mainly because I haven't been keeping records or planning. When I want to write, I can only rely on my memory to recall what happened this week. But the brain is not naturally designed for recording, it's for thinking. Tools can be used to record these things.
So I started using this app by Shaonan, which I got as an annual membership from an event organized by Grow last year. I gave it to my wife, and she's still using it. It's quite easy to use.
I'm also reading Shaonan's book, "The Method of Note-taking," learning some better ways to take notes and make them useful for myself.
Craft#
Craft is where people go to ideate, organize, and share their best work.
When I have nothing to do at work, I start exploring note-taking tools. In the end, I replaced Notion and Feishu Notes with Craft. It combines the advantages of both, and I need multi-platform support and convenient sharing. I didn't use it before because the free version only allowed 1000 blocks, which wasn't enough. Now it's unlimited, and the free personal version is more than enough for me as a user.
Now I mainly use it to write blogs, weeklies, etc., while flomo records fragmented content.
Rize#
Rize is an application that automatically tracks your work progress. I've used various pomodoro timer tools before, but they didn't work well. I've been using Rize for almost a week now, and besides the price, I don't see any other issues. It's really worth the money.
No need to manually enable focus, it automatically recognizes whether you are currently focused. For example, if you are coding and have WeChat or other chat tools open, it will remind you that you are being interrupted. It's better than other pomodoro tools and allows for better control of your focus.
There are also some other apps, and I will write a complete review of my experience and post it on my blog.
Interests#
Open Source#
There's an open-source project called cover-paint that hasn't been updated for half a year. At that time, it only had around forty to fifty stars. I don't know who recommended it, but the number of stars suddenly increased, and it finally achieved the achievement of being the first open-source project with over a hundred stars.
Running#
Looking at my keep records, the last time I went running was in 2019. I haven't been exercising for four years. I truly admire myself. My weight has also increased by nearly twenty pounds since getting married.
I started running again this week. Although the distance and pace are not great, I managed to stick with it. I read online that for beginners, it's best to control your heart rate and run while keeping it low. Don't focus on speed for now, let your body gradually adapt to exercise.
Walking the Dog#
Last week, my wife went on a trip, so I took on the responsibility of walking the dog, once in the morning and once in the evening. I thought if the dog stayed in the cage all day, it would get bored. So the next day, I put the dog on the balcony. When I came back from work, I was really afraid that the curtains on the balcony would be chewed up. Fortunately, the dog only chewed a big hole in the back of the sofa, which happened to be big enough to fit its head.
Interesting Things#
Books#
A book written by the author of flomo about note-taking techniques and how to make them useful for oneself.
Collection#
An article from The Economist that I studied through the LEC channel on YouTube.
TV Series#
The story revolves around a conversation between Einstein and Auburn by the lake. One day, when they punish you enough, they will offer you salmon and potato salad, give a speech, and give you a medal. Please remember, it's not for you, but for them.
This reminds me of a quote from "In the Name of the People": Heroes are powerless in the face of power, heroes are tools in the face of power.
Originally published on Late Night Pick-up