Getting colder again
The season’s a-changing again. Summer is making its way past mid-Autumn, and the chill is settling in again. But this year will be a little bit harder, given I won’t have the capability of travelling to the tropics to skip part of winter, it means the cold will be extra long and continuous.
This year, I have made preparations by installing heaters, and draft excluders around the house. Hopefully it will make a good difference in making it warmer and more habitable than before.
Easy Learning
Started to learn Spanish via Duolingo lately. The way Duolingo is structured, makes it less strenuous on rote learning, and engages memory reinforcement by writing, completing by selection, and by auditory responses. It also identifies the areas in which I had made mistakes and gives explanations when they are made.
I always thought that gamification is a gimmick, and will not work in the long run due to the exhaustion of novelty, but so far, it has surprisingly kept me on track with learning Spanish. Will see how long I’m able to keep up with this streak.
Oliver’s 1st Birthday
Attended a virtual birthday party via Zoom for the baby of a mate of mine. The marvels of technology (coupled with the inconvenience of traveling these days) made for a very interesting meet up between countries of Brazil, Ireland, Germany, Portugal and Italy, and with even more nationalities than the calls are connecting. Interestingly, none of the participants are Irish, even though through a quirk of fate, everybody has known each other from living in Dublin, aside from my mate and I, which went a longer way back.
It was great to catch up and see everybody, even if not in person. It’s so funny to see my friend being a father now, so far away from the days when we were just young and starting out and trying to make a dent in the tech business world.
It really made me think and reflect about life again - what’s the meaning of it all? It certainly doesn’t look and feel the same way as I had imagined how it should be like when I was in my 20s. I’m not looking for an answer, but in reflection, I noticed that what I had for dreams, goals and aspirations seemed to have shifted with time, and the notions of “I must, I have to” seems to be replaced more by “it’s ok, life’s just what it is, let it be”. Whether it’s age, wisdom or resignation, I’m unsure.
Perhaps it will take another couple of decades to figure out.
