Saturday-Pentacle, Week 27 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

Post of the week –

Google Translate

This week I’m sharing the app which recently blew my mind. It’s a simple app but works magic!

Apart from translating text. It also translates audio recording (spoken clearly). But the part that blew my mind was live translating!

Just open the app click on the Magic  Camera button and point your phone camera towards anything with a foreign language, it’s translated in real-time. Like shown in the image below. Istn’t it magic?

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users)
• Android Play Store (for Android users)

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Aide-mémoire!

I came out of that wooden door and it shut back on its own behind my back. She was sitting on the couch right in front. Her face was a little red, I couldn’t understand. As soon as I approached her, I saw tears rolling down her eyes!⠀

She didn’t even know I had come out until I sat right next to her on the left. She quietly said in her Israeli accent. “Hey….you are back.”⠀

I couldn’t say a word, I was presumably sad. But seeing her jotting down something in her handmade diary, which she bought somewhere from middle India while her explorations, I said, “What are you writing?”⠀

“I’m in love. So I’m writing about it before the moment passes by.” She replied while struggling to smile.⠀

I smiled back even though I too was feeling sadness.⠀

I waited another few minutes, for her to finish. Then I asked, “May I see it?”⠀

She said, “No, I can’t let you see, it’s personal. It’s between me and Mama India.”⠀

I giggled, listening to her kiddish response. But I respected her decision of not showing me the mémoire.⠀

Then she laughed through her tears while spilling a few of ’em (tears) on my face when she shook her face with laughter, and said, “Oh! my dear, I wrote about this entire journey I took through India and people I met, like you! It’s really difficult for me to think about the fact that I’m leaving in a few hours. I love India and every time I come back I experience something new through which I find a new piece of my soul.That’s what makes me keep coming back.”⠀

“Will you come back again next time?” I asked.⠀

“Of course, I will. To touch the surface of this great country, To touch the water of the mother Ganges! To meet you!! I pretty sure will come back!” She replied smiling while still having her eyes wet.⠀

She moved forward teary eyed and we hugged each other.⠀

“Is she an old Indian soul, who crave for her motherland while being in the body of an Israeli woman?” I thought while we hugged.⠀

After hugging I looked into her eyes and I had the answer.

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

How to Create a Chain Reaction of Good Habits – This one is classic article by one of my favorite writer James Clear. This article explains how to ignite chain reactions toward creating a good habit chain. If you have 5 minutes, read that article, if you have just one minute, read the below summary in two sentences.

Summary of the article – Any habit follows another habit in our live, for example, when you wake up, you brush your teeth and take a bath afterwards, which are interconnected activities to get clean. So If you hit one domino it will automatically strike and let the next domino fall, creating the domino effect.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

Jobs (2013)

I had been contemplating to watch this movie from a long time now and this week I did.

I’ll rate it 9/10. One point off for that Ashton Kutcher smile, which I couldn’t relate to Steve Jobs. But apart from that Ashton did justice to the Jobs and Portrayed the character very well. This movie is motivational but in a strange way. It provoked the emotions it should have and also did well in most of the parts to provide the vision and spirit Jobs had.

2hrs 8min well spent.

Here is a YouTube link which is working and I think Apple might as well let it be working as they would want it to spread to as large an audiance as it could, afterall it’s a movie on their crazy Superhero!

If you don’t wanna watch the free version hers is a paid version (It’s just Rs. 25) – Jobs (2013).

Quote I’m pondering on lately – Today I’m going to give you two quotes.

1. Which is inspired by the movie – Jobs (2013)

“When you grow up, you tend to get told that the World is the way that it is. Your life is just a live your life inside the world and try not to bash against the walls too much but that’s a very limited life.

Life can be much broader. Once you discover one simple fact and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is just there and you’re just gonna live in it vs embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it and once you learn that you’ll never be the same again.”

– Steve Paul Jobs [ ‘Jobs’ The 2013 Movie – seek to 1:55:00 – 1:56:00 ]

 

2. Which is from the book – The Dip by Seth Godin

The opportunity cost of investing your life in something that’s not going to get better is just too high.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple of things I could use your help with:

1. Have a relevant topic, which I should be covering? Write to me directly or fill out this form and let me know.
2. Join my reader’s list – It helps us a lot when you become a subscriber, it smoothens you experience on Lifestyle Architecture Lab. Being on email list provides you additional benefits like some exclusive content, webinar’s, free goodies and all of it will be FREE. Please click the link above to join now or put your email address in the below box and hit subscribe.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle, Week 24 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

App I’m enjoying using –

Life Cycle – Track Your Time Automatically

If you are a health or Lifestyle data nerd. You gotta check this app out. Basically, it tracks your every move. Like Sleep, commute, office hours, home hours, outing hours and everything else in your 24 hours. If you integrate it with your apple health kit data or Google fit data (in the case of Android devices), it provides more accurate results.

By using it for past 6 months, I’m able to see patterns like my health go down in fewer sleep months or I feel amazing if exercise hours are more. If you are not a data nerd, don’t bother. It might be overwhelming for you. But if you are! It may be worth having a look.

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users)
• Android Play Store (for Android users) – Not yet available on Android, but probably will shortly, keep on watching.

My most popular Instagram post recently —

A modern Thhela!

Carrying the plants of today, a carriage of yesteryears.

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

Michael Phelps to race a great white shark as part of Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ – I think the title says it all. But check out this BBC article for details.

It’s gonna be The Great Gold Vs The Great White this shark week on Discovery.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

This video blew my mind. We are heading toward the future or it’s already upon us?

The 3D printed guns! Augmented reality! and now the shapeshifting food?

Excited to be alive in these times!

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.”

—VIKTOR FRANKL, Auschwitz survivor and founder of Logotherapy, Man’s Search for Meaning

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple of things I could use your help with:

1. Have a relevant topic, which I should be covering? Write to me directly or fill out this form and let me know.
2. Join my reader’s list – It helps us a lot when you become a subscriber, it smoothens you experience on Lifestyle Architecture Lab. Being on email list provides you additional benefits like some exclusive content, webinar’s, free goodies and all of it will be FREE. Please click the link above to join now or put your email address in the below box and hit subscribe.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle, Week 21 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

App I’m enjoying using –

Werdsmith

Journaling is something which everyone should do on daily basis. As I got introduced to daily journaling through Tim Ferriss’s podcast, I was really fascinated by the morning pages routine told by Tim. Journaling usually sounded to me like a teenage girl’s thing, but as I read through Tim’s blog post, it got me converted. I started journaling from that very day (almost one year ago) and I started with a physical notebook where I will jot down the morning feelings and things happened the previous day/night.

To my surprise, it felt great to jot down the things from previous days, believe me or not I started getting great ideas which I had lost jotting down the previous day, or sometimes they came out of the blue just because I was writing my thoughts.

After a few weeks, I got introduced to Werdsmith app through another podcast or blog (i think it was Aileen Xu from lavendaire.com) but not very sure. I downloaded this app and immediately fell in love with the minimalist approach. This app is specifically designed for writers as it doesn’t have any other frills like capturing or saving photos or any other media for that matter. You can start a project and inside the project, you can write your journal entries. What extra it provides is the word count and lets you keep track of how much you have written. You can also set a daily word goal. I kept it at around 500 words then slowly graduated to 1000 and 1500 words. Oh boy, I kept up with writing for months and months on this app and still, it’s one of my favorites in the notes/writing apps.

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users).
• Android Play Store –  This app is not yet available for Android platform.

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Sepal on the sand!⠀

In the golden hour lying on the sand, I saw this sepal, lying there in the sand and passing a mesmerizing shadow, it was eternally beautiful. ⠀

Hey, Petals! don’t be proud, the sepal is still beautiful without you.

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

How to Keep Feces Out of Your Bloodstream (or Lose 10 Pounds in 14 Days)– As I’m experimenting with different types of diets. Paleo is certainly one of them and this article by Robb Wolf on Tim Ferriss’s blog is an amazing piece of information on Paleo and a gives a head start if you want to start with a diet that’s actually the ‘The Original Human Diet’ as stated by Robb.

This diet method basically comes in an overlap with low carb diet, restricts all the processed foods (processed pasta, noodles etc), dairy (some dairy items). It actually takes you back to the stone age diet where humans hunted for their food or ate the veggies which nature provided. Ancient humans didn’t farm or made any processed foods, so this diet eliminates all of that crap. The benefits of this diet is you’ll be eating very less carbs, high protein and a good amount of Fat. Why? Well, because turns out, scientifically carbs are something, if eaten in high amount, starts supplying the energy needed for body and then Fat which should be used as energy provider, becomes idle and sits over your guts and makes into that nasty tummy.

Note for vegetarians – Paleo diet has a good amount of meats involved, but as I’m a vegeterian myself, I found out there is a superb amount of resources available online for the vegetarian options. One of them is this one. For example, you can replace one egg with one tablespoon of chia seeds in 1/4 cup of water.

What kind of diet’s you have experimented with? Please share in the comments section below.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

UNREMARKABLE – Saw this 10 minutes short film on Vimeo (Staff Pick), there was just 3-4 scenes but it blew my mind away, I was flabergasted for few moments.

Note – This is a MATURE video and contents some graphics (dead nudes and postmortem scenes) so don’t watch it if you below 21 or a weak hearted person.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.”

— Napolean Hill

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple of things I could use your help with:

1. Have a relevant topic, which I should be covering? Write to me directly or fill out this form and let me know.
2. Join my reader’s list – It helps us a lot when you become a subscriber, it smoothens you experience on Lifestyle Architecture Lab. Being on email list provides you additional benefits like some exclusive content, webinar’s, free goodies and all of it will be FREE. Please click the link above to join now or put your email address in the below box and hit subscribe.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle, Week 20 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

App I’m enjoying using –

Zero – Fasting Tracker

I’ve been experimenting with different kind of fasting techniques and as I follow a few biohackers, I got to know about the Zero app (named for the amount of food you eat while fasting) through Kevin Rose. This app helps people who are fasting by offering specific sunset times to sync eating with their circadian rhythm. You can also use custom intermittent fasting durations or pick two days a week for reduced caloric intake.

Why fasting you ask.

Fasting is a good way to switching back to a normal healthy eating routine after a chaos by traveling or a family event or anything disrupting your eating routine. What got me fascinated about Fasting is that some researches show that it prevents Cancer!

All the other benefits of fasting are covered in a wonderful video series by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, where she interviews scientists Dr. Valter Longo, Dr. Satchin Panda, and Dr. Ruth Patterson. I highly recommend that you watch all three of these videos if you’re new to fasting.

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users).
• Android Play Store –  This app is not yet available for Android platform.

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Tulle filament!

it is nothing, really,⠀
a mordant for the soul, a tulle filament⠀
twitching in a raincoat of lightning….

Piece of Poem taken from “The Biography of a Wish:” by Janette at hellopoetry.com⠀

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

10 Digital Workplace Trends Shaping the Future of Work – An Interesting article based on a report which was a result of a study based on various organizations and employees surveying about Digital Workplace. This article implies that the digital workplace as we know it and are adapting to, might not necessarily be taking us to a more productive direction. You’ll also learn from this article what’s in the future of the Digital workplace culture.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

Once, This Island Had Just One Tree—Look at It Now – A really fascinating video about an Island which had just one tree (literally) and now has been transformed into an example of terraforming a landscape.

This transformation started in the 19th century when Joseph Dalton Hooker saw this Island as a blank canvas, ready to serve as home to an ecosystem of his own making.

Ascension Island was quite barren when Charles Darwin visited but it, and he had little good to say about the remote, rocky place. But Joseph Dalton Hooker saw the opportunity and took it.

Watch this fascinating NatGeo video to see the island yourself.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Before you leave….Check out my latest Q&A Tuesday podcast (audio) post, where I answer a few questions sent by you guys (my readers) every week.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple of things I could use your help with:

1. Have a relevant topic, which I should be covering? Write to me directly and let me know.
2. Join my reader’s list – It helps us a lot when you become a subscriber, it smoothens you experience on Lifestyle Architecture Lab. Being on email list provides you additional benefits like some exclusive content, webinar’s, free goodies and all of it will be FREE. Please click the link above to join now or put your email address in the below box and hit subscribe.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle, Week 19 Issue

Hello friends!

If you are reading this for the first time, Welcome! Please get an introduction to Saturday-Pentacle by clicking here.

Recent update: As the main purpose of this exclusive mailer is to provide quality reading and content, hence after reading your feedbacks and doing my own analysis, I’ve removed a few sections and cleared out some clutter from Saturday-Pentacle. Because it’s all about mindfulness and minimalism.

I’ll keep on shuffling the current sections as and when it will feel relevant.

Be well,
Himanshu

PS. – I’m on Instagram

“Saturday-Pentacle”

App I’m enjoying using –

Runtastic Heart Rate Monitor & Pulse Tracker

I’m a fitness enthusiast. Ok, I’m actually a little more than an enthusiast. I keep trying different health tracking devices or apps as they show up. ‘Runtastic Heart Rate Monitor and pulse tracker’ is an app which I’m using from past few years and I’ve seen it coming together amazingly that now it has become a benchmark app in heart rate monitoring. It uses your camera and flashlight to see the blood flow in your finger and monitor your heart beat and pulse from there. Such an innovation.

It is so helpful if you want to just casually keep track of your heartbeat or if you are having high bp or heart-related illness. However, please note this is not a medically recommended app from doctors, the heart rate monitor found in a hospital will give you exact reading legally and otherwise. But this app is helpful.

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• Android Play Store (for android users)
• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users).

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Look inside and you’ll see!

Cool graffiti at Shivaji Park.

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

3 Household Names That Will Disappear Because of Uber’s Self-Driving Cars – I talk about perspective all the time, but this report rather a piece of research by James Altucher is fascinating and an eye opener. It makes you think about the future which is already upon us and how we can benefit out of it. Great read!

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

Make It Count – I’ve been obsessed with Casey Neistat from past few years and this is one of the videos which catapulted him on the viral media horizon. But I’m glad that it’s not a cat video but a really inspiring and motivational. Plus it’s not at all boring, in fact, it may be one of the most amazing videos you might ever see.

‘Make It Count’ video is all about going into the unknown, doing what you love and loving the hustle. So go on and make it count.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

― Helen Keller

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple things I could use your help with:

1. Have something I should be covering? Reply to this email.
2. Join my Telegram group – I have launched a Telegram group where I’ll serve all my posts in a better way. There is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning behind the scene in Telegram, which I’m very excited to use. You’ll be able to get On Demand posts and fresh content as per your liking with the help of my Chatbots and much much more. Want to experience it? Click the join link to be in this beta program.
3. If you received this issue of Saturday-Pentacle via a WhatsApp or Telegram broadcast message, please subscribe to my email list. Being on email list provides you additional perks like some freebies or great exclusive content for people on the email list. You can join the list by putting your email address in the below box or right here.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle, Week 18 Issue

Hello friends!

If you are reading this for the first time, Welcome! Please get an introduction to Saturday-Pentacle by clicking here.

Recent update: As the main purpose of this exclusive mailer is to provide quality reading and content, hence after reading your feedbacks and doing my own analysis, I’ve removed a few sections and cleared out some clutter from Saturday-Pentacle. Because it’s all about mindfulness and minimalism.

I’ll keep on shuffling the current sections as and when it will feel relevant.

Be well,
Himanshu

PS. – I’m on Instagram

“Saturday-Pentacle”

App I’m enjoying using –

VSCO — photo editor and community

If you are a photographer who cherishes the old school film style photography, this app is for you. This app is for you. You can color grade your photos with the help of this app in the old school film camera formats. This app also offers Instagram-like filters but with more precise control on atomic levels.

Just in case if I got you curious, you can go check out this app –

• Android Play Store (for android users)
• iTunes App Store (for iPhone users).

My most popular Instagram post recently —

On the road

When there is no destination…
Journey is the destination…

Article(s) I’m enjoying (and pondering) —

Jeff Bezos explains the perfect way to make risky business decisions – Very interesting article from Business Insider on Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos strategy on making risky business decisions. But I feel, taking the risky business decisions depends on your/your company’s risk appetite as well. If you are not having resources like Amazon (or a big company for that matter) at your disposal, making a very risky business decision can throw you out from the game in one shot. So you have to think it from your own perspective as well before making that sort of decision with your business. However I love the strategy of “Disagree and commit” stated by Jeff.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to —

36 Hours in Mumbai, India – A New York times article by Sarah Khan about our very own Mumbai city from the 36 hours series, which explores different cities in 36 hours. Loved the quirkiness of this article covering 12 important things including culinary hints, fashion fixes, and local musings.

Read on if you are a traveler or love Bombay or even are just curious about Bombay.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“Stillness is the altar of spirit.”

― Paramahansa Yogananda

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

A couple things I could use your help with:

1. Have something I should be covering? Reply to this email.
2. Join my Telegram group – I have launched a Telegram group where I’ll serve all my posts in a better way. There is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning behind the scene in Telegram, which I’m very excited to use. You’ll be able to get On Demand posts and fresh content as per your liking with the help of my Chatbots and much much more. Want to experience it? Click the join link to be in this beta program.
3. If you received this issue of Saturday-Pentacle via a WhatsApp or Telegram broadcast message, please subscribe to my email list. Being on email list provides you additional perks like some freebies or great exclusive content for people on the email list. You can join the list by putting your email address in the below box or right here.

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.