James Zhan in real life.

Weeknotes #2, July 27–August 2

What brought me joy

  1. I discovered the indie typeface, Missive Serif, last week and started using it for headings and UI elements. This week, I set it for the blog list page as I found that I much preferred it over Rosario (font for body text). I really love how the blog list looks now!
  2. It was a rather cool week in Toronto so my wife and I were able to keep the windows open in our home rather than using the AC. On Tuesday evening, after having our favourite Peri Peri chicken takeout for dinner, my wife got all cozy on the couch in my studio while I was doing stuff on my computer. The sounds of light traffic and rustles of leaves and nice breeze came through the opened window. I felt so content and peaceful in that moment.
  3. I had some incredible coffee this week thanks to the beans from Sorellina and Prodigal. I opted for my TORCH Mountain Dripper rather than the usual V60 this week just for a change and the brews were very juicy and fruity. I should use the Mountain Dripper more often (it can be prone to clogging sometimes depending on the beans).
  4. A brand I’m affiliated with had been struggling to send me my commissions after they changed their platform. We were going back and forth for several weeks, and at some point it almost felt like I was never going to get paid, but eventually we figured it out and I got paid!
  5. I’ve been making good progress with migrating notes to Octarine. It feels good to finally have a centralized personal knowledge base; I’ve also been really enjoying using Octarine—it’s such a fantastic app. I’m excited to continue to add and organize stuff in it.
  6. I came across the typeface Rubik and really liked its round terminals. The typeface has such a calm, friendly yet neutral look. I set it as the font for Octarine and BusyCal (my go-to app for calendar & to-do’s) and I love it. The typeface brings me extra joy every time I use these apps.
  7. I attended my regular therapy session this week and left with a bit better understanding of some of my mental struggles and ways to help cope with them. It was a really productive session!

Piano

I had really good practices this week! I started recording my practices to track my progress, review my playing and help overcome music performance anxiety. I was really nervous in the first recording, which caused me to make more mistakes, but I already felt much more confident during the second recording. Knowing that I was being recorded also prompted me to be extra careful with my playing because it felt like there was some stake in it, which I think will help me make progress polishing the 6 pieces in my repertoire.

Other stuff

Upcoming week

#weeknotes