Hello there!
It’s been 7 exact weeks since I’m inside my home. Lockdown seems to be extending and there is no clear sight of the remedy to this till now. But I’m keeping my eyes on the research and also the political weather around this, as things might be going towards a political storm as countries are calling out China on this blasphemy. Good to keep your eyes and ears open.
But still, keeping our optimism up and being safe at home for ourselves and the people who can’t be at home, should be our priority.
Over the period of this time, my “work from home” situation has kept me well occupied. I was working like a mad man for many days until I decided to have clear cut-off timings a few weeks ago. Start at 10 am and go up to 7.30 pm, keep a transition from work to personal life. I’m going to write a proper blog post about the tools and techniques I’m using to be productive at home. (Expect it soon in your inboxes).
Coming back to the newsletter and to the book listening progress, While I was not making much progress on the audiobooks till last week. – “The Sign of the Four” of the Sherlock Holmes series and Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway. This week I inched further and the sherlock book is about to come to an end very shortly and I read Joe Calloway’s book 25%. Plus I also started reading one of my old half-read book – The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand since last week on my Kindle. So last week was better from reading perspective. So good to progress, even if it’s not huge.
Anyway, without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.
Issue 181 // Week 17 // 2020
An useful resource I found —
Flickr Photo Album of Obama’s time in WhiteHouse – I loved the Obama Administration since I read about Barack Obama himself and then I read the book Becoming by Michelle Obama and felt more close to both of them.
Recently I found this collection of photos of the Obama Administration in the Whitehouse (posted by the US govt long ago) and it gave me a lot of new visual stories about this amazing couple.
I just loved the photo album. You can check it out too.
An article I found useful —
How To Create Products That Sell For Decades – I love the writing of Darius Foroux and have been following him since the past 4-5 years.
Here is an article he wrote about Ryan Holiday‘s strategy on making timeless products that sell.
Here is a piece from the article itself to give a hint of the entire thing. But I recommend you should read the whole thing, it’s well written and useful.
Ryan’s process for making a perennial seller goes like this:
- Adopt the mindset of a creator that makes classics
- Create a great product that stands the test of time
- Perfect, package, and position into a compelling offering
- Promote it through different marketing channels
- Capture an audience and build a platform that stands the test of time
A how-to guide I found really useful for making my DSLR into a webcam for awesome quality —
How to use a DSLR camera as a WebCam – In the lockdown as we are finding it convenient to get on a video call and get in touch with colleagues and friends. Usually, our laptop PC / Mac webcams are not as great.
What if we could use a DSLR lying around in our home as a webcam, awesome right?
But it’s not very easy to do if you don’t have a USB to HDMI cable. So this particular method helped me to be able to use my Nikon DSLR as WebCam.
If you are struggling as well, this video might help you. (Plus I’m making a simple blog post about this the process I took, few additional steps to remove the inconvenience.)
A song I loved —
Serenity by Mallika Barot & Asxem Dlean – Found this really beautiful piece done by Mallika and Asxem. Made me feel at peace.
To be noted that Mallika Barot is the daughter of Ranjit Barot, who is a renowned musician and has worked with Coke Studio projects and even with A.R. Rehman.
Please enjoy the song.
Quote I’m pondering on lately –
Write like you speak. Then improve how well you speak.
— David Perell
Before saying “see you next week”
I posted a few pictures on Instagram. You can check them out here or go to my Instagram for the whole stories and more –
Until Next Saturday!
Thanks for reading.
Himanshu
Hey friends, I’m Himanshu, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories. Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!
No spam, ever. Only great stuff.
Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 181 // Week 17 // 2020