Books 2019

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Books 2019

Juan Orozco
Juan Orozco

Scattered was my favorite book in 2019. I learned a lot about myself and my son. I'd like to think that it's helped me cope with my own symptoms but also improved my relationship with my son. I understand him a lot more and can therefore approach him with love instead of frustration. It's also a very interesting read into what goes on in the mind of a growing child.

Dare to Lead was my second favorite. Brene has exploded in popularity in recent years with her research on vulnerability. She's awesome and her work echoes so deeply in my soul.

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, I think, is a good Stoicism 101. I've been interested in Stoicism for some time now but never really educated myself on it like I've wanted to. This is the start and it came at a great time.

Honorable mention to Fall of Hyperion. Oh my glob. Dan Simmons is amazeballs. Long books but perfect lengths for my drives to/from the office when I was at Cisco. 👨🏽‍🍳👌🏽

COVID-19 Update

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COVID-19 Update

Juan Orozco
Juan Orozco

The scariest part of this crisis is how bad it is now and knowing that it will soon get worse.

I'm trying to separate my fears from where I am now, that is, I'm trying to focus on what can I do right now. This is hard. We had big plans this year, we wanted to sell the house and finally fulfill our dream of full-time RVing. I'm not sure what that looks like now. As I process my feelings, though, I remember that there are more important priorities. Staying safe and helping where we can are our top 10 priorities.

I don't think anyone should feel guilty for thinking selfishly or feeling depressed. I think we're all just trying to cope. Still, we need to figure out what to do next, what is the next action that moves us closer to a goal.

For us, for me, the goals are making sure we don't get sick, helping where we can, and be a positive role model for others. We're also trying to look ahead and make sure we're making good decisions for our future.

We are going to get through this - we'll definitely all be different because of it, though. The decisions we make together right now will dictate if we are better or worse when this is over. We can feel selfish and act selfishly which makes us selfish. Or we can feel selfish and act courageously which makes us brave.

It's ok to think selfishly but we can't let that rule our actions.

Notebooks

Juan Orozco
Juan Orozco

Field Notes make some amazing notebooks. My favorite, to this day, is the Shelterwood from the Field Notes quarterly subscription. A pocket sized notebook wrapped in a super thin vineer of cherry wood - just beautiful.

Unfortunately, they're just too small for planning and daily use - at least for me. To try to understand why, I experiemented with the opposite side of the spectrum. I started using an extra large size Moleskine cahier to see what my experience was with more real estate.

I realized two things. 1) Turning pages back and forth, searching for things, is a waste of time. Page turning reduces task momentum. I sorta follow the bullet journal framework so I like to see as much of my day and week as possible. And 2, my daily notebook needs to be portable and "deskable" (basically, it needs to be easy to carry and can also comfortably share a desk with my keyboard and mouse and coffee).

Evernote Moleskine Notebook

I don't have any shortage of notebooks at home and I quickly found an unfinished Evernote Moleskine I've had for years. In fact, I started writing in it in 2012.

For the past month, this size has been great. Still wish it was slightly smaller but I think I'm going to try a soft cover next to see if that helps make it more portable.

Field Notes are still great notebooks. I find that I still carry them when I'm working in the yard or generally just out and about - it's really easy to use my Spacepen and take down a few notes. I can then "inbox" my small notebook into my main notebook. But I don't use it for journaling anymore.