I had a fairly productive day and I’m really happy a friend of mine reminded me of the importance of power naps. I was extremely sleepy at around 3pm and a 30 min nap completely reenergised me so I got a lot done at the night time. I have to be consistent with those as it will increase my productivity and study capacity significantly.
Java Training
Returning to Hibernate today after a good night of sleep wasn’t too bad. I have to remember that frameworks are always scary at first but once you spend some time with them you get used to it all. Today I learned the basics of yet another Java tool, J-Unit, which is a library made for Test Driven Development.
I can’t stress enough that this is the best course I’ve come across so far. Not only the instructor follows all best practices of the industry, he also uses a project for teaching (which I think is underrated) and explains everything thoroughly, which caters to beginners like me or to advanced users who may speed the videos up to pick up the important parts.
Arts
I have a very consistent routine and given my priority in life right now is to study, all I do is sit on my computer or go to work. So I’ll provide variety in my life by immersing myself in the world of arts again. I used to be way better at this, always searching for new high quality music, literature and arts in general but it slowly faded as I got into the world of self-improvement and latin dance.
I read some self-help books that changed my life but now I’m ready to go back to literature using the incredible Audible, which allows me to get to know way more works that it’d be possible by just reading.
Also, being a dance teacher I had to listen to latin music most of the time for the last few years but in this new chapter of my life I’ll dive into the best of the music that’s being released now or that’s been released in the past few years so I can create a nice soundtrack for my life. I used to be really good at it, thanks to Alvaro Pereira Junior, music critic at Folha de Sao Paulo (the biggest newspaper in Brazil, who used to curate the latest music. He was responsible for some life-changing music in my life.
The first work of my new artsy phase is the Album Fetch the Bolt Cutters by American singer Fiona Apple. It was a little bit beyond my musical tastes but I did save a couple of songs. My favourite track, “Ladies”, is not as untraditional as the rest of the album.
Podcast and Book
Today’s podcast was with Murray Carter, a Canadien knives-maker. He has fantastic stories about his time in Japan. I find stories of craftsmanship fascinating and this one isn’t different. It’s obviously super inspiring right now as I’m learning the craft of programming. The podcast also made resurface curiosity about Japan and the importance of learning languages in general. I HAVE to visit one day.
I’ve also continued “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. It’s a fantastic book to live by. Super simple and to the point. If anyone is having existential issues in life I can’t help but think reading this book over and over wouldn’t bring some tranquility.
Today’s input
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfJ67R_RuA