Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

If you have been reading the newsletter from some time now, you’ll know, I’ve been learning a new language!

This weekend will mark the 30th consecutive Day of my language learning and oh boy! let me tell you, making the learning like a game where daily playing it and making a streak, makes it so much fun. It changes the way you think about learning. My favourite language learning app – Duolingo has done just that. I think that’s the reason I’m able to stick to it. Sense of competition between online peers and rewards/trophies, that too has it’s own advantages.

I hope this learning continues and I finish the course in the coming few months!

Coming to some mental clarity talk, it has become really like a mental block to create or work on something new in these trying times for me. I’ve even been struggling with my own podcast since a month where I have a few episodes sitting in my editor window and I just couldn’t move an inch further.

To resolve this block, I talked to a couple of my creative friends, re-read a few chapters from the book – The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Set on my computer for some more blocked sessions but finally, I got through some editing and about to finish the next episode. Creative work sometimes become so hard that it’s even hard to explain.

Anyway, moving to the book reading/listening progress, I finished the big Sherlock Homes series book 2 finally and started the next two book –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

An interesting tweet —

A Trip across America – Trailer and Crank Story – I came across this twitter thread last week and it made me feel weirdly connected to this old story from 1984.

How this guy (back then a kid) and his family embarked on an epic road trip across America. A lot of emotional moments and some funny ones in this travel memoir of sort.

A ad which stole my heart (specially with it’s video editing) —

You Can’t Stop Us – This new Nike ad is on another level of editing. Even though I loved the emotion in this ad but the editing! that stole my heart. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4dDs0T7sM

A video I learned from —

What We’ve Learned from Write of Passage – This conversation between my favourite online writer and Twitterati (David Parell) and his business partner (Tiego Forte) was a class in its own way. They discussed how making their online class about online writing and learning about the whole process of how to improve their students’ experience, changed the whole game for them. Really interesting conversation if you are interested in online course creation and more.

Music I re-listened to —

Michael Kiwanuka – Cold Little Heart (Live Session Video) – This 11+ minutes Michael Kiwanuka song was on repeat this past weekend. This song touches a nerve suddenly right in the middle of the song and then you can not stop playing it again.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.

— Marcus Aurelius

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, 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 195 // Week 31 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

In the past week, I posted a creative challenge each day on my Vibely Lifestyle Architecture Community (link for the same at the end). As I was creating these challenges for my community, it gave my own creativity a new spark and I was able to come up with new ideas every day.

Apart from that, it was not a very peaceful week at the work front. Too many things going on at the moment. Just trying to calm the storm down.

As I’m sitting too many hours while working from home, to get my body moving I started going on long walks since past 1-2 weeks. I’ve been enjoying my late evening walks as I use that time to listen to my audiobooks as well. It gives me a clear phase shift between work and self.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock Holmes only this week –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

An interesting art portfolio —

Art from Sifty Kaur – Found this artist on the interwebs and her art is really interesting – oil painting on canvas, drawings and paintings.

Check it out, here is one of her artworks –

An interesting tweet —

London to Culcutta journey on bus – Found out that there was a bus service which used to tour London-Calcutta (India) route and it existed till 70s.

I just wonder how the passengers would have coped for so long a bus journey. I wish I had a time wheel to go back and travel in this bus.

Check out the tweet below for details –

https://twitter.com/RKDasgupta/status/1277694020916056064

A home architecture story I loved —

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Pavana holiday home – This Houzz story on the Rang De Basanti director – Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra‘s Pavana Home was a great home architecture story.

He has this multi pavilion home near Pavana Lake in Maharashtra which has a mesmerizing view and a design created like a jigsaw with interlocking structures making it whole and then some!

Music I’m loving —

Everyone Lied by Dorvin Borman – Loved the Grungy vibe of this song and put me in flow state.

Beautiful drum and synth amalgamation!

Quote which I found meaningful –

The only way to learn it is to do it.

— Archimedes, “Sword in the Stone”

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, 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 194 // Week 30 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Last week went fast for me as I had been working on multiple creative works. My first short podcasting course is out! (Check out the playlist at the end of this page), a new podcast episode is launching in this week and another story coming soon in “Lifestyle Design in Action” series.

Plus I’m really excited about the interactive community we just launched on Vibely (app). Where we are starting up with Daily creative challenges for you all. So join in the fun (here is the special link for you to join)

Moving further, this year couldn’t get worse with all the unexpected things. Jagdeep (veteran actor) passed away this past week. I share about him in the 2nd point of today’s pentacle.

I focused on some exercise and meditation again this past week and tried centring my energy and focus. I’ve started going on long walks in night time (safe distance and when fewer people are there). The monsoons are here but we are just sitting home, it’s all that we wished for when we were in offices, but now as we are home, all we wish for is to go out! Life is such.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 70% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 70% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

A tweet I found really insightful about meetings —

In the Work From Home era, meetings have increased drastically. But as an employer you should focus on how to reduce unnecessary meetings and as an employee you should think on the below points to make a meeting useful (if at all it was) –

A beloved veteran Bollywood actor who passed last week —

Jagdeep (Soorma Bhopali) passed away – A veteran actor famous for his roles like Soorma Bhopali passed away. I loved his Sholay performance so much.

His real name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey and he’s the father of actor, voice actor, dancer, comedian, impressionist – Javed Jaffrey.

May he rest in peace.

A new service I’m curious about —

Hey.com – It’s a fresh take on one of the most important communication mediums EMAIL.

Did they reinvent it?

Not exactly, but they considered all the thing wrong about the current email services and tried to fix them and it took them over 2 years to get most of the things right.

I loved all the subtle nuances it has, but it got a hefty price tag of $99/year! But if you are considerate of privacy and time and less frustration weighs more for you then money, then this is it. It’s a great email service.

Here is a detailed demo of the service (loved how the CEO himself gave the entire demo, shows that how passionate a founder CEO can be) –

Music I’m loving —

Songs of Innocence by U2 – Sifting through my iTunes playlists from 2014, I found the U2’s album which they launched in a big surprise at Apple’s fall event in 2014, Apple presented a free copy of U2 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ to everyone with an iTunes account. I still have that album on all my Apple Devices.

Here is the entire album’s playlist. If you are up for it! (I love it btw, it was my companion on my marathon training sessions in 2014~15) –

Quote which I found meaningful –

In matters of style swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

— Unknown

Before saying “see you next week”

I want to share my first short course on Podcasting in collaboration with LMT (Last Moment Tutions). If you are curious about podcasting, you should check it out. I share a beginners guide to podcasting in this 5+1 part video series.

Here is the YouTube Playlist of it (because short course is FREE, main course coming soon!) –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, 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 192 // Week 28 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

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Saturday Pentacle Weekly Newsletter - Banner
By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

I hope your health is good and you are holding up.

Another week passed by and with so much happening in the world right now, news has become the worst form of media. So I’m not actively listening to the news for many days now. If something is important it still reaches, you. Instead, I focused on my first-course creation (Psss..Podcasting for Beginners) and also focused on consuming targeted content on skills I wanted to acquire (like a new language learning) or the content I really loved (yeah I binge-watched POI for few days).

Getting your mind away from focus is also as important as to focus. Between focus and not focus there is a subtle balance. If you walk that line then you cop better with your own physical and emotional states.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week, and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 60% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 50% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

An article i found interesting —

How A Love Of Nature Makes Your Kid Smarter, More Creative, And Less Distracted – This article is basically a summary of Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

If you are a parent you should definitely read this and if you are not, still it will make you feel nostalgic about your childhood.

A Good summary to read.

A podcast episode I loved —

Hugh Jackman – Tim Ferriss sits down with The Wolverine in this episode (pun intended) and talks about Best Decisions, Daily routines, reading first thing in the morning as a couple.

This was one of the good interviews I listened to in long time, which i really enjoyed!

Check it out!

A book I added in my reading/listening list —

The Overstory: A Novel – This book is recommended by Hugh Jackman in the podcast in the second point. He mentions that what you are done reading this book, it basically changes how you notice nature around you and look at things.

P.S.: This book turns out to be on Trees and it has won the Pulitzer price as well. (you can get your hopes high)

Music I’m loving —

Ocean by Native – Discovered this song last week on YouTube, what a gem of a song!

Beautiful lyrics immediately fell in love with it.

Few lines to get you curious –

“I’d rather see the ocean once in a lifetime
And miss it for the rest of my days
Than never feel the sand beneath my naked feet
And never hear the sound of breaking waves“

Quote which I found meaningful –

when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

— Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

That’s it for this week.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.
Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, 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 191 // Week 27 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading