Something to Keep
‘Googling “derealization”, hating what you find
That unapparent summer air in early fall
The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all’
Bo Burnham, That Funny Feeling
A Second Look
Over the last couple of years, I made it my personal mission to save my favorite quotes in the form of notecards. At first, I thought this was going to be a waste of time, but whenever I use my notecard system, I’m so glad I started it. Years ago, I was saving notes digitally, but I’d inevitably lose them. I’d change computers, or they’d get buried in a sea of files in the cloud.
I can see my notecard system where I’m sitting right now. I know writing down quotes isn’t for everyone, but how else are you going to remember everything you read, watch, or listen to? What a bunch of notecards and a box to store them in give you is priceless: you get access to thoughts and ideas that resonated with you.
The quote at the top of this article might mean nothing to a lot of people, but it meant a lot to me. And unless I write it down, I know I’ll forget it down the line. Sometimes, I go over some quotes, and they take me somewhere I haven’t been in a long time. Other times, I see them with fresh eyes, and they still make sense, but in a different way.
If you take anything from this article, it shouldn’t be that there’s one way to do things. Maybe using an app makes sense for you. What you should take away from this article is that future you will be happy you took the time to save ideas that resonated with past you. However you choose to do it, that’s invaluable.
Something I Liked
I’ve been sick the last couple of days, so I spent a lot of time inside with nothing to do. I was feeling so bad that I couldn’t concentrate for a long time, so I spent a long time doing different activities.
I kept reading The Second World War, which I highly recommend as a primer on the global conflict. Each chapter focuses on a battle or important event, but it doesn’t cover everything (to be clear, the book is 1,000 pages long, so it does an enough job as an introduction to WWII). I found myself doing a lot of research whenever I had doubts about any particular battle or person.
Whenever I felt better, I gravitated toward music. Since I couldn’t play guitar, I ended up watching live videos of favorite artists. Randomly finding that Bo Burnham song I quoted above was a pleasant surprise, to say the least, and I can’t wait to recover from this cold to rewatch it.
