December Favourites 2020
Table of Contents
- December Favourites 2020
- 🍿 My Favourite Movies of the Month
- 📺 My Favourite Shows of the Month
- 💪🏽 My Favourite Lifestyle Changes of the Month
- 🎨 My Favourite Art of the Month
- 🎬 My Favourite Videos of the Month
- No Enemies
- 🎸 My Favourite Music of the Month
🍿 My Favourite Movies of the Month
Don't Let Go
Rush Hour 2
Inside Man
Rush Hour 3
John Wick 2
📺 My Favourite Shows of the Month
💪🏽 My Favourite Lifestyle Changes of the Month
30 Day Challenges
I've been feeling that life might be a little too short not to deep dive into a new skill or challenge every month, so I'm going to try maintaining a consistent habit of partaking in a 30-ish day challenge every month.
Added social drives to my interpersonal directories
In an effort to ensure that I'm constantly surrounding myself with the people who bring me the most joy, I've decided to tag everyone in my life with the specific social values of mine that they fulfil. My core social values are comfort, energy, respect, fun, and cognitive stimulation. I'm hoping that this will also be a useful resource for understanding who in my social circle I can go to when I'm craving the fulfilment of a particular value.
Introspective Therapy
Earlier this year, I realised that I had a tendency to experience a dip in my energy level, motivation, and mood during the second half of each month. I figured that my months always started off strongly because of my first of the month habit of creating monthly goals and reflecting on the previous 30 days. This month I decided to give myself a middle of the month sensory deprived introspective therapy session, where I would sit in silence and darkness and reflect on the most burning topics in my mind. I felt revitalised after talking to myself and I didn't experience my usual end of month dip, so I'm going to be incorporating these sessions on the 15 of every month and hope that it maintains its appeal enough to keep me nice and boosted.
🎨 My Favourite Art of the Month
🎬 My Favourite Videos of the Month
- Prior to the rise of common literacy, most writing was done with the intent of being read aloud, so punctuation was pretty much mainly used to assist with cadence and tonality
- The semicolon was born in 15th century
- In the 18th century, prescriptive grammarians believed that there was a definitively correct way to write english; grammar as a natural science
- Traditionally, you can separate punctuation into two categories: separators and terminators (ex. periods and question marks)
- Proper rules were forged in privilege. They actively disregard dialects, and second language speakers
"You know what's a really easy way to clarify what somebody means, instead of scrutinising their grammar and punctuation? Asking them. To ignore that is to value the punctuation over the person and that is boring."
- Language is alive and open to interpretation
- Social Minimalism [4:08]
- Make sure that everyone you let into your life is bringing value, whether that's comfort, levity, mental stimulation, or whatever. Just as long as they are not bringing any of your social anti-values.
- Introspection isn't only recommended, but should be required [4:45]
- Complain to your journal before you complain to people [6:33]
- "Paper will always be more patient than people."
- Recognising small moments is what creates memories. Appreciate them as they're happening [6:50]
- Noticing that a moment will become a memory is a gift and a talent. You can sharpen that talent by noticing small moments everyday that make you happy.
- Collaborate with others. It will add value to everyone [7:39]
- Those who landed on top came to believe that their success was their own doing, a measure of their merit, and that those who lost out had no one to blame but themselves.
- This way of thinking about success arises from a seemingly attractive principle: if everyone has an equal chance, the winners deserve their winnings - this is the heart of the meritocratic ideal.
- In practice, however, not everyone has an equal chance to rise. At Ivy League universities, for example, there are more students from the top 1%, than from the entire bottom half of the country combined.
- Meritocracy is corrosive to the common good. It leads to hubris among the winners and humiliation among those who lose out. It leads them to forget the luck and fortune that played a role in their success.
- We need to rethink three aspects of our civic life: the role of college, the dignity of work, and the meaning of success.
- We should rethink the role of universities as arbiters of opportunity. We should focus less on arming people for meritocratic combat, and focus more on making life better for people who lack a diploma, but who make essential contributions to our society.
- We should remember that work is not only about making a living, it's also about contributing to the common good and winning recognition for doing so.
No Enemies
You have no enemies, you say?
Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes! If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You've hit no traitor on the hip,
You've dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You've never turned the wrong to right,
You've been a coward in the fight.
- Grotesques: As a literary concept, grotesques are all about the blurring of boundaries (classic example: Alice's Adventures in wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
- Common traits include:
- Disharmony or paradox
- A combination of the comic and the terrifying
- An extravagance and exaggeration of reality
- A sense of alienation where something once understood and expected becomes foreign and threatening