Well, my wife and I have officially been living in Austin 🤠 for two weeks now. We have had a great transition from Washington to Texas and even though we miss the evergreens and mountains we are enjoying the different type of greenery that the Texas Hill Country has to offer. Weirdly enough, it snowed last Sunday!

Due to the consequences of the pandemic, I am still mostly working from home. I joked with Tara the other day that it still feels like we are a short drive away from family and friends because we are still doing what we have been doing since March of last year. Social distancing, working from home, and only leaving when we really need to.

Watch 👀

I know we are super late to the hype train that existed for this show but, Schitt’s Creek is genuinely one of the funniest shows I have watched. We are trying to balance binging the entire series while also taking it easy because we know we don’t want it to end. Each character is so well played and thought out, and I can already tell that it will be a favorite for years to come.

I have linked Kraig’s videos before, and I am sure I will for some time but his most recent one of him hiking near a volcano in Guatemala has some stunning visuals. The format for this video is different from his meditative ones, but I still think it is relaxing and a great escape (especially from the chaos of the last two weeks). Brighter times are ahead.

Read 📚

This year I started off by reading a fantasy novel called, Sabriel. It was written in the mid-90s, and I am really enjoying it. I expect I will finish it by the end of next week because I look forward to any moments I can squeeze in an opportunity to see how the story will play out. The world in which it takes place has a unique type of magic.

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That does it for this week. In the coming weeks and months I am going to start sharing the process I have for the different systems I used to help me reflect, write, and think. I am especially excited to talk about a new app I started using.

Stay safe, wear a mask, read books, and love one another.

Happy New Year to everyone! The end of 2020 has been a wild ride for Tara and I because we have been packing and preparing for a big move and a new chapter in our lives. With the holidays, finishing school, and a new calendar year I am very excited about improving on my habits and for some new experiences.

Listen 🎧

For those that read my post on ‘Yearly Themes’ a few weeks ago I had mentioned that I learned about this process from the Cortex podcast. A few days later they posted their episode talking about 2021 themes and I think it is worth a listen. Even if you don’t have anything prepared for the first day of the year it is still never too late to slow down and think about how to pivot your life in a direction you desire. We are constantly moving in and out of different seasons in our lives.

Read + Watch 📚🎞

One of my favorite parts of December is all the ‘Best of the Year’ lists that get posted. For books, here are my two favorites: Ryan Holiday, Kottke.org (this link will provide many great lists to look at.) + Bonus link that is entirely centered on book design for the last year.

A social network I got really into this year, Letterboxd, has many great lists for films to watch. One of the crew members curated a list of the top-rated films from all the members of Letterboxd for release in 2020. Two of the films I enjoyed from this list are: Sound of Metal and Wolfwalkers. One 2020 film that I am really looking forward to watching is Nomadland. I’m still thinking about what I am going to consider the best film of 2020, but I think the best film I watched in 2020 was, A Hidden Life.

One last read I recommend for those interested in the why behind learning history and how it can help us be better citizens. “The aim of history class isn’t to get students to love or loathe their country. It’s to prepare them to live in it.”

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Tara and I are about to start a new part of our life in Austin, Texas. We are going to miss the Pacific Northwest more than we can describe with words. Our family, the mountains, friends, home, etc. However, we are excited to see what life has to offer for us going forward.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to the rest of winter and a new year. If in the next few weeks you find that life is just as hard as it has been or not going the way you thought it would in “2021”, don’t be discouraged. No matter how we define the time we are in, life will always bring us opportunities to adapt and change. How we respond to those opportunities is what defines us.

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” -Marcus Aurelius

Happy Holidays to all of you! This is going to be a Friday night edition. I’ve had my head down with school, work, and my previous post pretty much all week. I love December and all the things that happen within these 4 weeks. We have already watched Home Alone (my personal favorite Christmas movie) and we are so excited to watch some more classics as well as some new ones too. I hope all of you are finding this holiday season well, considering the circumstances, and are looking forward to some time alone or with your closest loved ones. This is one of the best months of the year to think and reflect on the philosophies of life.

Read 📚

If you haven’t watched The Queen’s Gambit yet, I highly recommend that you do. It is not perfect and has a few flaws, but regardless I still think it is worth the time. One of the better shows we have had the opportunity to watch this year. Anyway, I stumbled upon this interesting piece on one of the advisors, Garry Kasparov, who was a Russian World Chess Champion. He played an important role in making sure the games were real and the atmosphere of the chess world matched what it was like in the 60s. There are some definite spoilers so read it after you watch it.

Play 👾

More on the chess theme… I started using the Lichess.org service well over a year ago to play matches with my brother and random people on the web. From the research I have done it seems to be the best out there. It is free, open source, available on almost everything, and has a great community. If you are excited to learn more about Chess and want to play it more, feel free to add me, @alpinew0lf.

Another fun game I’ve been playing recently on iOS is called, Two Spies. It has been out for a while now, but they are introducing “Season 1” of a new multiplayer experience on December 9th which looks like it will make it even more fun. The game is exciting, requires you to slow down from other fast-paced mobile games, and it’s beautiful.

Funny comic to end this week’s edition: