Meadow

Last updated: 2025-10-16

Hi, welcome to my now page! You can see previous versions here.

So.. ahem.. hello! It's been a while since I last updated my now page. My previous update was almost two months ago! I could tell you the usual, that life got in the way, or that I've been busy with work or some other excuse, but the truth of it is that I just didn't feel like it. You know, sometimes you do something because it's fun, but then it's no longer fun anymore and you still feel like you should do it.

I have been struggling a bit with wanting to write on my blog but not really wanting to do the work to make it happen. I know, silly. This morning I saw an email from Derek Sivers about some new updates he pushed to https://nownownow.com/, so I thought I would use this as an excuse to write here 😊 also, updating my now page is kind of like writing on my blog but not really. Much lower stakes, or at least it feels so, even though it's basically the same as doing a normal post (just with more structure).

Now

• As mentioned above, I've been wanting to write something but have been struggling with actually sitting down and doing it. I think I'm just getting in my own way, the old problem of feeling like I don't have permission to do it. I'm still journaling daily which I guess is good. Updating my now page is also good. Baby steps.
• I have been playing the new Hollow Knight: Silksong on my Nintendo Switch. It's a great game! Though I've found I quickly get tired of smacking bugs around so I've been taking breaks every couple of days. Still, lots of fun. I imagine this is also a contributing factor of why I haven't been writing on my blog that much 😆
• I replaced a huge chunk of my screen time with reading, which is great! However, I recently realized that I've not read any blog post in quite a while. Not so great. I believe reading blogs one likes is essential to (1) cross pollinate ideas, and (2) get inspired.
  • There's so many talented people out there! The other day I saw a really nice idea from Veronique about making hand-made cards with her website written on them. I would love to do this. At least I would if I lived in a city rather than in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. Still, very neat. I might actually do it whenever I have to go on a work trip or something.
  • I also read a series of posts from Wil Wheaton that really resonated with me and where my mind is right now.
• On the other hand, these days I'm finding it hard to sift through the noise of the digital world. It's easy to get distracted by other more-flashy-but-less-nutritional stuff. Maybe I'm just hiding in my books?
• I'm trying to get mentally prepared for NaNoWriMo. I've never participated, but I might just do it this year. Not planning on writing anything publishable, but more as a way to get the old gears moving. Unclogging the pipes by forcing water through them.

Reading

(you can also find me on Hardcover)

• On Writing by Stephen King
  • Man I really need to get back to reading this! It's been a long while that I don't touch it but I do want to finish it. There's a lot of good stuff in it.
• The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
  • I've had this book recommended to me many times and now I can see why! I'm almost in the middle of it and I'm really liking it so far. The author knows his stuff, and the parallels he makes with modern science help (me) better connect the ideas together.

Watching

• After a long while of not watching anything, wife and I started a rewatch of "Big Band Theory". I forgot how funny it is. And oh how different are the characters in the first episodes vs the later ones. It's nice seeing the different pieces fall into place, and both the authors and actors trying out new things till they find a mixture that works.

Projects

• Aether -- I wanted to do a real life project in order to get some experience with the Django Framework. I started by implementing something a simple: a status website like https://status.cafe/ . Eventually I ended up bolting lots of other functionality on top: cross posting to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Status.cafe; drafts; persistent profile pages. I'm thinking of adding something like Tumblr's post schedule/queue but I'm not rushing it.
  • I use Python every day at work and it'd never occurred to me to look into Django. Of course, I knew about it but always thought Python would be a terrible choice for a web server because it's not very efficient, at least not when compared with compiled languages like Golang. But lately I've began to appreciate just how important flexibility and ease of use are when one is a single person maintaining multiple projects.
• I'm also working on a tentative project I'm calling Hoarder. It's a bookmarking service for links and text and images (knowledge in general). It's still not super well formed as an idea though it's already quite functional!
  • I don't know yet where it's going or if I'll keep working on it so I haven't announced it anywhere. However, I'm already using it for my own bookmarks so I guess that means it's functional enough for the average person?
  • If you by any chance do try it out then I would love to hear what you think about it 😊