Travel: We were in Hyderabad for a friend’s wedding. Wedding’s are a wonderful opportunity to meet some good old friend’s. This one was no different. Been a busy week otherwise shuttling between meeting friends and family, and finishing up some admin chores. Didn’t get around taking Meena to the ’touristy’ spots. Will have to plan another trip for that.
Did visit the Infosys campus though. Back here after eight years! While not much seems to have changed, the space does look super green. The plants of the 2000’s are now huge trees almost shrouding the walkways.
Tests and firsts: Meena cleared the FSOT early this week and it’s likely that we might have our OA’s together somtime later this year! Shasta was with her grandmother and S for more than four hours while we were out.
Interesting tools this week:
- Came across Firefly III- A self-hosted finance manager. Yet to install it. Does look pretty interesting!
- Mapinseconds is one nifty tool to map out geographic datapoints with ease.
- Sometime over the next week, I plan to install Paperless. Looks pretty promising for digital document archiving.
Interesting podcasts this week:
Now that I don’t have a commute to work, I had to find ways to incorporate listening to podcasts during the day. Over the last couple weeks, I got back into the groove by tuning into podcasts while cooking. Takes me about an hour to fix meals for the family and it’s quality time I could further enhance listening to some great channels.
- Came across The Memory Palace while listening to Radiolab. With terrific audio placement and Nate’s equally endearing story-telling, I sense this channel being my go-to in podcasts. Absolutely loved his piece on FDR and the USS Iowa.
- Meena introduced me to Nat-Geo’s Overheard. With whale songs and scuba diving in pyramids, this channel does sound pretty promising.
Interesting reads this week:
- The Independent posted an article on how, many large ships were fitted with scrubbers to release gases into the ocean waters to circumvent pollution laws. It is viscerally depressing how corporate firms diligent actions are driving us all down an abyss. Makes me question at times if individual pro-climate action still has any effect…
- Intrigued by the Memory palace podcast, some deeper reading on the USS Iowa - ‘Don’t shoot! We’re Republicans!’
- The Climate change crisis migrants: The keys’ are sinking and we still don’t get it. Do we?
- The UK is getting rid of its ‘get-out after graduation’ approach. Brilliant move by Boris! The world and work dynamics have changed and it’s time countries and companies realize heavy measures need to be put in place to facilitate retaining top talent. It’s a clear win-win!