Work and Workings of a Nerd – Right off the top of Kevin's head

6 Days Without Internet

When we came home on Wednesday evening two weeks ago, we noticed that the internet wasn’t working. Julie reset the router, and it didn’t work. Not that I didn’t trust her, but I also reset the router, and it still didn’t work. We shrugged, then went out to play tennis in hopes that it would be back on when we got home.

It did not, and reality set in.

Avengers: Endgame Reactions

So good. Even after reading the hype, it still beat expectations.

That is my one-line review. Everything below will spoil the movie if you haven’t watched it.

Rewatching the MCU Phase 3

Before watching Avengers: Infinity War last year, Julie and I rewatched the previous movies to get ready for the ultimate team-up. Along the way, I wrote short reviews on the MCU Phase 1 and Phase 2. With Phase 3 coming to an end in Avengers: End Game, we decided to finish our rewatch, and I have a whole new set of review.

Of course, there are spoilers abound. Let’s go!

Thoughts before Game of Thrones: Season 8

Unless you have been living under a mountain of dragonglass, you likely know that Game of Thrones is returning this weekend. I can hardly believe that it has been almost two years since we have had a new episode, but I am very ready to see how this goes.

Of course, spoiler alert for everything ahead. I will also disclaim that as a very average fan, my ideas are at best common or at worst plagiarized from others without citation.

The Evolution of My Notes

I have written a lot about my TODO list. I rely heavily on my TODO list because my brain is bad at remembering to do things, but digital lists synced to the cloud and linked to periodic reminders are much more reliable. However, I don’t only use digital systems to remember to do things: I also use them to remember important facts and my ideas. That is why I have an extensive notetaking system that has evolved over the years.

GM Tip: 5 Adventure Structures for GMs

Let me describe how adventure preparation usually goes for me.

Immediately after the last session, I have seemingly endless ideas of how the next adventure could go. Over the next week, I keep having great ideas while I’m eating breakfast, biking, showering, and everywhere else in life. Then, it is night before the next session, and I sit down to write my prep.

And then I’m stuck. I stare at a blank screen, and then realize I have been reading reddit for a half-hour and still haven’t figured anything out.

GMs can also have writer’s block, and every writer has a trick for how they get over it. My trick is to start with an adventure structure.

Getting Off Google

So my last post focused on how I switched from my @gmail.com to my @kevinleung.com email. Here’s the continuation of how I moved away from other Google services.

Getting Off Gmail

A few weeks ago, TechCrunch published stories about how Facebook and Google used unauthorized iOS apps to gather data about phone usage from external users in ways that the users likely didn’t understand. In light of these stories, I wondered how feasible it was to switch away from Google services to other platforms.

My Manager README

Last May, I read about writing a Manager README and thought it was brilliant. It took the implicit and difficult task of learning how to work with someone and made it explicit. It also was a great opportunity to reflect on my own processes and compare with how others work.

So, I took a few notes off the bat and then promptly backlogged it to be completed later.

And now, about nine months later, I finished the first version of my Personal README. It very much reads as a Manager README, but being a manager is a narrow part of my life, so I imagine this document evolving to be a more general way of helping others deal with me.

It’s now linked as a Page in the site navigation, but the first version is also reproduced below.

A Minimally Useful Amount of Skiing

Last week, I wrote about how my effort to learn Chinese has resulted in surprisingly little. Let’s talk about something that has worked out better: skiing.