A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Finally got around installing PixelFed on a Hetzner server. Absolutely love it! It’s truly an Instagram clone sans the tracking. The lead developer has some interesting updates up his sleeve and I am very keen to see how this project shapes up as it evolves out of beta. Meena suggested Nik and I work on the 3D puzzle Nik’s had for quite sometime now. Worked on it till about 0200 the next day morning and finished setting up this beautiful musical box puzzle. The engineering could have been a bit more nuanced. However, had a terrific time working on this. ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Earlier this week I helped Sharath setup a nextcloud instance on the RaspberryPi 4 that we got him for Christmas. Installed the DietPi OS, moved the user data over to a 5TB WD disk and while at it also setup a pi-hole for the network. Weather wise, this was one odd week. Had a good dusting of snow on Tuesday night and a balmy 60 degrees for most of the weekend. The kids had early school closures and we made sure we hit the trails. ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Convincing their parents last minute, Divyaa and Raaghuv drove up to Maryland with us. The kids had a ball of a time in the last row of the Sienna. We stopped over at Durham for the night and met Uncle Lou the next day for breakfast. Of course also visited Fuqua school of Business. Rajesh graduated from here and we so wished he was alive to show us around this campus. A gentle reminder to check-in with everyone near and dear every once in a while… ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: The drive down to Florida was pretty uneventful. But for some holiday traffic near Virginia, we had a pretty smooth drive, clocking about 15 hours in total. A random talk with a runner at the Baseline trail coaxed us to run a longer distance the next day. Got the four kids and Sharath onboard too. Well, the kids decided to sleep-in on Sunday, while Sharath and I head out to the trail. Realised I didn’t carry cash, so we decided to run unsupported. Running conditions were just right with a good blend of drizzle and rain. The beauty of winter is that you can cover so many more miles in the dark! Was mostly helping Sharath pace and finish within 3 hours. Wrapped up with 14.5 miles under his belt. Not a bad way to close out the year! ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Got a RaspberryPi 4 kit for my eldest brother. Can’t wait to set up a homeserver for him. On my nudging, the second eldest, setup a homeserver sometime back and we’re very impressed with the speed and crisp loading of the photos he’s currently hosting on a nextcloud setup. On a similar vein, I’m testing the cloud provider Hertzner. They’re super cheap and seem to be pretty good. Will probably port over my services from Digital Ocean over the next few months if I find them stable. ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: We performed Shasta’s Ayusha homam last weekend. Both Meena and I were inclined that athimber - a super role model in the family perform it. Athimber and Appa recited the Rudram 11 times prior to the actual homam. Coincidentally, It was also Appa’s 83rd and Adi’s 2nd birthday! Aparna flew in from Florida and the rest of the family drove down from CT and NJ. We’re extremely appreciative that they could all make it! ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Between Shreya’s birthday party in CT, the usual thanks-giving meet in NJ and Ankur’s wedding in NY; this week has been pretty busy with lots of domestic travel. We had winter storm Ezekiel right by our tail, as we made our way back from Albany on Sunday! Meena sent in her cheek swab to get added to the Marrow donor registry. Another family member did the same with DKMS. Manni mentioned she might sign-up for that too. Might need a nudge few days later, but I think we’re there! ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: Happy Birthday little munchkin! At 00:00 on the 19th, Amma and I celebrated your birthday with just the three of us; with you fast asleep on amma’s shoulder, as we were waiting to board the flight to Hong Kong. This will be your longest [34hrs] birthday so far. We’re supremely thankful to have you with us and we’re beyond surprised how you make parenting feel so easy(mostly). As you grow in this mad, illogical, crazy yet mesmerizing world; we hope we’re able to will expose you to people, countries, realms, religions, experiences, wildlife, nature and above all nudge you towards making this a better place for everyone. As cliche as it sounds, time IS flying! ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention_:_ Last Saturday, Meena and Shasta joined me in Trivandrum, where we spent a few days with my uncle. I would have liked to show Meena around, but with Shasta not keeping too well and a quick fly-by trip to Ernakulam, we didn’t have much time. Mama’s never flown before and he was ecstatic both during and after the flight to Kochi. Supremely glad we could fit that in. Also, while repacking the check-in bag in Kochi, Meena spotted a little mouse scurrying inside! Likely that this one hopped in from Trivandrum and we’re beyond surprised it wasn’t noticed in the scan at the airport! ...

A glimpse of the past week and the few articles, podcasts, tools, videos and music that captivated my attention: All of this week was spent facilitating an educational tour in Kochi and Munnar for a group of 50 kids and 5 teachers. With a robust blend of experiential learning(a day in a tree plantation), adventure activities (Tree Jumaring, High ropes, Kayaking, High ropes, zip-lining, slacklining), team building activities(Raft building, Treasure hunt, Rangoli) and Cultural immersion activities(Kalaripayettu, mock Onam celebrations, Kerala Sadya), the last few days were pretty densely packed. ...