Well, hello Apexians! It’s J.D. here back from a couple of weeks in Hawaii. Happy new year to you. I hope your holidays were grand.
As often happens when I take an extended break, I’m having trouble adjusting to the Real World. My daily life is pretty chill by most standards, but vacation life is moreso. It’s strange to come home and have to process email, etc. But I’m doing it! And while I’m doing it, I’m collecting links to share with you all. Links like these…
“My sister is marrying into wealth. I’m jealous.” [/r/povertyfinance/ on Reddit] — “My sister is marrying into a ridiculously wealthy family, which is great, I’m truly happy for her. What I’m feeling isn’t really jealousy, more like astonishment at just how big the gap is. I had no idea the kind of frivolity involved in being rich.” [Nearly 600 comments about lives of the rich and famous.]
The definitive introduction to Building a Second Brain. [Forte Labs] — I discovered Tiago Forte’s “building a second brain” methodology a couple of years ago. I like it. I’ve s-l-o-w-l-y been implementing his system for myself. Like David Allen’s “getting things done”, the system itself is the friction point. Unlike GTD, with BASB even implementing pieces of the system are useful. Two of my now-daily tools come from this system (Instapaper and Readwise), and I’m working on making a third tool part of my life (Obsidian).
Frugal vs. independent. [Morgan Housel] — “The world tells you – even by a mere whisper – that everyone should want the same things: A big house, a nice car, advanced degrees, credentials, social clubs, etc. I like most of those things. But you have to realize how much of their appeal is an attraction to status, which can be completely different from happiness.” Excellent stuff from Housel, as always.
Lastly, here’s a video that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with deliciousness.
While in Hawaii, Kim and I re-discovered our love for musubi, that Hawaiian treat (or is it actually Japanese) consisting of seaweed wrapped around meat and rice. When we lived in Portland, we went out of our way to visit a local Asian market that had amazing chicken katsu musubi. In Hawaii, of course, spam musubi is more popular.
We resolved that we’d learn how to make this snack for ourselves. And this video from Plays Well with Butter explains how to make authentic spam musubi:
I have’t tried this yet — my musubi mold will arrive tomorrow — but I’m looking forward to doing so. Looks easy and delicious!