Top of mind

This weekend was MLK weekend. It's important to reflect on all the struggles and sacrifices that were made to get us where we are today.

I don't have anything poignant or novel to share. Instead I encourage you to use this time to read some of MLK's works and reflect on what we can do to make society better for everyone.

Read: Letter from Birmingham jail

Releases

• Gaming on Ubuntu with Proton - I released a new video about gaming on Ubuntu. It was the first video I've done in awhile and it shows. I realized that I need to focus on making videos that are complimentary to the work I'm trying to do (this video does not) and that I have a long way to go to get my videos to a quality level I'm satisfied with. I'll be sharing things more often (at least once a week) on the blog and YouTube to force myself to focus on complimentary things and get better at production. I think sharing is something I like doing, is an area where I have a lot of room to grow, and is useful in building a community of people to create with - all things I'd like to improve on. I'm creating videos on my Fujifilm x-t4 - the same camera I got for photos - and that's proved another thing to try and learn. Will report back with findings.
• Genuary 2021 - I've released my first entries in Genuary 2021 - a daily generative art challenge
• System - Choosing a news source - I released a quick post on my general system for auditing and choosing a news source. I was getting into some internet fights about bias and fact checking so wanted to solidify my thoughts and verify my claims.

Stresses

My biggest stress is still my poor system execution. In 2021 I've performed far worse in my systems than I have previously. I think part of this is due to lack of motivation and another part is that I'm now tracking my systems more rigorously, so I've noticed when I'm slacking more consistently.

I don't think there's much I can do about motivation but there is stuff I can do about execution. To combat this malaise I've modified my systems a bit:

• Created a habit tracker to show when I've hit and missed my systems
• Streamlined my system for taxing myself when I break my habits. Tax includes losing content consumption privileges and giving $25 to charity.
• Streamlining backlog systems so I always know what's most important to do next and why

With these changes, I hope I can again shift my execution to run more off discipline than motivation. We'll see.

Learnings

• DSLR - I've been learning a lot about my Fujifilm X-T4. I'm trying to get into street photography and use it for my YouTube videos.
• Blender / 3D - I've been learning a lot about Blender and 3D modeling. This year I wanted to shift my art to better fit my vision stylistically and conceptually. My vision has shifted again in the past few weeks but one thing that's stayed the same is that I think 3D is the correct medium for me and that learnings here will pay large dividends in many of my future projects.

Gratitude

• I'm grateful that the world hasn't ended yet. Let's see what this inauguration has in store for us.