World War Z Archives - Lifestyle Architecture Lab

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

Hope you are starting the weekend relaxed and on a good note.

The past week I struggled to get any walks or runs in. So it was quite literally (only) working from the home week.

I’m excited for this weekend as there is an audio/microphones webinar I’m attending to learn more about improving audio quality (for my podcast/youtube videos), where an expert from Shure will be sharing his ideas, techniques and different types of equipment.

This week I listened to an audiobook for 2-3 days consistently (The Ride of a Lifetime). Listening to the experiences of people who have reached the highest level of their expertise is just awesome!

Moving forward to the newsletter, here is my weekly creative progress –

My Language learning is going consistent at the moment. Learning 15-20 minutes every day. I think when I’m able to understand movies and literature, then I’ll announce here which language I’m learning.
My book reading progress – (added another interesting book to reading list this week – 3rd one)
1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company – Progress 40% (Audible)
2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Progress 20% (Audible) – no much progress on this one last week.
3. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry – Progress 20% (Audible)
4. World War Z by Max Brooks – Progress 15% (Audible)

That’s it for personal and creative updates.

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

Issue 199 // Week 35 // 2020

A tribute to an Indian Cinema Legend —

AK Hangal – इतना सन्नाटा क्यों है भाई.. (Why it is so silent, brother…)

This line is famous in Indian Cinema because of AK Hangal. On 26th Aug 2020, it was his 8th Death Anniversary.

He has worked with all the legendary actors in Indian Cinema. He has played each and every character role there is. He had this soothing elderly presence in most of the movies in the 80s and the 90s.

He lived for 98 years and died on 26th Aug 2012. May he rest in peace.

He participated in the freedom movement, he was a tailor running his own shop, set up the tailors-union in Peshawar, debuted as an actor at the age of 52 and featured in 200+ films.

Tribute to AK HANGAL
(1 Feb 1914 – 26 Aug 2012)

Seen here in ‘Chitchor’ & ‘Namak Haraam’. pic.twitter.com/Oc5VVlgUHn
— Film History Pics (@FilmHistoryPic) August 26, 2020

A product or rather a tribe I’m finding myself attracted to —

Mechanical Keyboards – They have been like an underground movement of sorts from a long time. With different layouts (60%, 40% etc), custom keycaps, led lights and a whole plethora of customization options, the Mechanical Keyboards have come a long way.

Earlier only the gaming community seemed more attracted to these kinds of custom keyboards. But now these keyboards have started getting the attention of the mainstream creatives as well.

But it still remains an expensive hobby, in India, I remember the TVS Gold Bharat Keyboard since my childhood, which has been the choice of professionals who have to type a lot. But now as the Internet is bringing the world closer and making it smaller. A whole new world of possibilities in Mechanical Keyboards area is opening up.

I couldn’t imagine someone will have a YouTube channel just dedicated to Mechanical Keyboards, reviewing them, making us listen to the ASMR sounds of keyboards. That’s next level shi*. But here is a channel which does exactly this – Taeha Types

If this got you interested and excited, you can check out below video to learn more about Mechanical Keyboards –

An article and upcoming tech I’m fascinated by —

All about Neuralink by waitbutwhy – Neuralink is a new interface on which Elon Musk (the founder of Tesla and SpaceX) is working since past couple of years. He thinks that the current way of interacting with computers (by keyboard, mouse or a digital pencil etc.) limits our bandwidth while talking to computers. So in the Neuralink project, he’s trying to make a direct interface between the human brain and the computer. I think they are almost there with this interface. Neuralink just did a demo where a pig was implanted with Neuralink implant and they showed how they get the information of neurons firing in the brain as the pig touched different things.

I know it sounds scary that you can just think and the note will be written on the computer or a file will be saved or more. It is scary but at the same time, it’s exciting too. But will this make us cyborgs? I don’t know, maybe we are already cyborgs. Computer and Mobile phones are our second brain nowadays. Without them, we are like almost stripped away from power. So instead of getting scared from what’s coming, we should learn about it in detail.

To learn everything about Neuralink, check out the article (title link or click here). It’s a long article as are most of them on this blog waitbutwhy. But it’s worth spending that time to learn about how humans evolved till here and what is Neuralink and where we might be heading.

Here is the demo video –

A song I loved —

May Be by half•alive – Stumbled upon this beautiful groovy rich song by half•alive from Now, Not Yet album on Spotify.

Definately lifted my Mood, check it out –

Quote which I found meaningful –

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating them is right. They are missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
— Eric Hoffer

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 199 // Week 35 // 2020

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Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

First of all Happy 74th Indian 🇮🇳 Independence Day!

It’s been 74 long years since Indian-freedom from British empire and India has progressed and grown like an old Banyan tree with its branches coming out from various directions. Many branches (people) are still suppressed and some are thriving in exponential ways but the majority part which is the main stem of this thick tree (the Indian middle class) is growing ever so slowly.

Technology, Finance and Banking all have been the main pillars of the progress of our nation but still the most important of all is the people who are the main pillar and they will always be (maybe until an Artificial Intelligence or a machine takes its place).

I’m glad I was born in this country and have been part of this progress. But there is a long road still which we are yet to travel and I think while we are on this road trip, might as well enjoy!

Moving forward to the newsletter, here is my weekly creative progress –

I’m approaching 50th (consecutive) streak of a new language learning class (on Duolingo).
Podcast Episode 24 is ready for publishing and launching in a couple of days and finally, another long-pending Episode 25th (have been following up with this guest for 9 months) recording very soon.
My book reading progress – (added another interesting book to reading list this week – 3rd one)
1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company – Progress 25% (Audible)
2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Progress 15% (Audible)
3. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry – Progress 10% (Audible)

That’s it for personal and creative updates.

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

Issue 197 // Week 33 // 2020

An essential oil I’m curious to try —

Neroli oil – An essential oil distilled from the blossoms of the bitter orange or Seville orange (Citrus × aurantiumsubsp. amara) and is used to make perfumes.

Neroli oil blends well with other oils such as Jasmine oil, Lavender oil, Rosemary oil and all citrus oils.

This Pale-yellow neroli oil emits a sweet, full-bodied citrus aroma with a slightly spicy, slightly bitter undertone.

If you are an essential oil connoisseur. You might like this one.

Here is the amazon link for buying if you are interested.

An article I found interesting —

Pandemics Come in Predictable Cycles. If I’m the Smartest Guy in the Room, We’re in Big Trouble – Max Brooks who is the author of the books – zombie fiction World War Z and the latest Bigfoot fiction – Devolution etc, shares a lot of insights in this conversation – how science fiction turned him into a disaster expert and how many things he has written in his books have come true (a pandemic though not zombie one and how people are forced to be inside homes – as mentioned in his book Devolution).

The most admirable thing I found while reading Brooks books is how thorough his research is. He even mentions in this article that for one hour of writing there is almost 100 hours of research done by him.

Really enjoyed reading about Max Brooks’ life in this written interview. A good read.

An interesting but scary model graph I found out —

This mathematical model helps estimate the riskiness of different activities based on one potential route of coronavirus spread: itty-bitty particles known as aerosols.

Recollection of Historic fact from 15 Aug (may be as this newsletter is Independence day special) —

Surrender of Japan – The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan’sleaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate more favourable peace terms.

On August 6, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered that the Allies’ terms for ending the war be accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of surrender (pictured below).

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS *Missouri* as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945