Online prescence
I’m not sure about the allure of instant messaging (or any online communication platform tbh). I’m the type of person to just immerse in some entertainment without any regards of anything happening in the online world. Sometimes I want to see if what I’m immersing myself into has an online community, but usually it’s either that it’s on a platform I’m not in (or don’t use anymore like reddit) or that it has some sort of group infighting that I don’t have the spoons to really know. Sometimes I found someone online that has some overlap with my interests at the time, and follow them on social media, but it doesn’t really amount to anything as I don’t really initiate the conversation (how does one start an online conversation). I’m quite the introvert irl, but I still feel that it’s easier to start a conversation with the person in front of me rather than texting on my phone or laptop.
I mean I do the occasional programming things, seeing that I’m a CS major and all, but online communication just feels like a black box sometimes.
Flying a kite
It’s been a while since my family decided to go to the beach. We brought a few kites with us (one standard kite and another resembling a bird). The bird kite is difficult to control as it has a tendency to lean to the right before falling from the sky. There is a way to balance it, by releasing the string for a while and reeling it back in (that kite uses a fishing rod for some reason). I could sustain that for around half an hour before my hands started aching from the constant reeling.
Despite that, it feels a bit refreshing to be inhaling the salty sea breeze while doing that repetitive, needless action. Perhaps I should be more willing to go to vacation instead of staying in the house doing nothing.
Podcasts on headphones
I’ve never got the trend of podcasts or audiobooks before. I usually set my phone’s volume to the max and try to enjoy it while doing the dishes, but the sound is muffled due to background noise and loss of quality when putting the volume to max.
Some months pass and I have a nice bluetooth headphone gifted to me. It’s miles better than my laptop and phone’s speakers, so that’s something. You can really listen to the bass on songs. I decide to try listening on a podcast to see how it is, and now I can see how people actually enjoy this.
Even without Active Noise Cancellation enabled (my ears feel like it was about to pop with ANC, don’t know how people like it), it blocks background noise decently for me to listen. Plus, being a wireless headphone means that the volume doesn’t diminish while I’m walking as it just stays near my ears, overall giving an immersive experience.
So if you feel like podcasting or audiobooks aren’t your thing, try using headphones to listen to them. You might end up liking them after all.
tags: lifestyle, podcasts, blog
A try on digital minimalism
I had tried minimising my screen time countless times, so I’m trying something akin to an accountability book this time around. In this book: - I have to do an entry I want to open my phone/laptop for any specific purposes - Add other things if I accidentally open it (e.g. YouTube, social media)
Hope that this is going to last. Currently on my second day and it’s getting frustating adding all the entries.