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

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle – Week 48 – 2017

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Saturday-Pentacle, Week 48 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

Saturday-Pentacle - Week 21 - 2017

Website of the week –

Medium.com

I’ve been reading on Medium.com since after a couple of years (around 2014) it’s launch back in August 2012. I’ve seen it grow from few thousands of readers to millions of readers now.

Lately, they changed the branding of Medium.com from a green theme to a classic black and white with above Monogram logo. Even though I felt comfortable with the green theme and logo but this classic update to the site is welcoming. Nonetheless, the reading experience is the same and better.

I found very deep and moving articles on Medium.com and I would recommend my readers at Lifestyle Architecture Lab to make reading on Medium.com a habit. Because it’s really good and will help you grow intellectually than quora/Facebook/Twitter etc.

It’s a long-form reading experience made awesome. You won’t even notice when you finish 1500-2000 words long article in a jiffy.

Here is the link for you. or you can just click the logo and go to Medium.com.

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Just met this amazing @furballstory crew at the airport.
.
When I talked to them. They said they were helping people out, who were in stress due to delayed or missed flights with the help of these therapy dogs.
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Met cuckoo (who my sister is holding and Angel (who im holding). They were amazing and indeed our stress was relieved after meeting these amazing people and these super furry trained dogs.
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They are based out of Delhi but were visiting Bombay for the first time.
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Bombay! We need some more of the @furballstory

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

The Girl at the Bar – After a long time I felt connected to written words. I story which moved me. Poked me somewhere deep inside. I can’t say it’s a love story or a tragedy, it’s woven with love, tragedy and nostalgia. That’s what make it beautiful.

A quote from the article to give you the intensity of it –

“People say whiskey is a complicated drink,” Toshiko said. “But for me, it’s a very simple drink — it just happens to be mixed with a lot of complicated feelings.”

― Toshiko

I’m reading/watching/listening to —

Songs of Experience

U2 released their next Studio Album yesterday (1st Dec 2017). When I found it on Apple Music I felt extremely excited, because their 2014 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ has powered my long running workouts since then and I found a connection with this old band which I couldn’t find with the latest rock bands.

I’d recommend you start with the below playlist on YouTube, which starts with the song ‘You’re The Best Thing About Me’.

I don’t know there is something about U2…

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

― George Eliot

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.

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle – Week 37 – 2017

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Saturday-Pentacle, Week 37 Issue

“Saturday-Pentacle”

Saturday-Pentacle - Week 21 - 2017

App of the week –

Trello

Time for a new app this week. Trello is a modern app for organizing about everything in your life. A work project, a healthy routine, a kitchen redesign project? Trello gets all these done in a beautiful way. It has a refreshing design and logic. It has four main components in it’s design as an organizing app –

  1. Boards – For each project you create a board.
  2. Lists – In each board you can put tasks into lists.
  3. Cards – In each list you can put a main task as a card, each card can have more details of the task and sub tasks as checklists.
  4. Menu – Like it’s name, menu is for certain tasks like filtering your cards, changing board background and activity log etc.

As I’ve been following Trello from past few years but not until recently I started using it more than just glancing. I found it quite satisfying for organizing purpose and design wise. In earlier days of Trello I couldn’t digest it’s horizontal design but now I’m growing more and more fond of it as I’m using it.

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

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Paint the world you need to see!
.
When you don’t know how to exist in the world you are in, paint the world with your imagination on the canvas of life as you need to see.

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

To Eat or Not to Eat? The Skinny on Intermittent Fasting – You are doing strength exercise for fat less or getting lean but it’s not working? This article might have something helpful for you.

Summary of the article – This article suggests intermittent fasting along with strength training to speed up your fat burning process. As the name suggests the logic is to put an extended gap between your meals. Intermittent fasting can be done in many ways, few ways mentioned in this article –

  • 16/8 method – Skip breakfast, and consume your first meal at noon and keep eating up to eight o’clock in the evening, then repeat.
  • 5:2 diet – Fast for 2 days in a week and those 2 days need not be back to back. Calorie consumption should be cut to 500-600 calories.
  • Eat Stop Eat –Eat what you want for 24 hours and then take a complete break from food on the following day. Repeat once or twice a week.

In all these methods Calorie-free beverages are allowed and food you take in the non-fasting hours shall not be compromised by eating burgers or other junk food. Be conscious with what you put inside your stomach.

I’m reading/watching/listening to —

1% Better Every Day – This is a keynote speech by one of my favorite Author James Clear. In this speech, James puts his habit forming theories across with Stories and tells us how being 1% better every day in even seemingly trivial things of our every day life can expand our potential exponentially.

Quote I’m pondering on lately – 

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

― John Lennon

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.

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