As I mentioned in my year end review, one of the landmark habits I picked up in 2023 was using a Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system on a regular basis. Specifically Obsidian. I’ve been using Obsidian for the last 6 months now, and it’s become such an integral part of my workflow that it’s the first app I open when I boot up my computer. And when I didn’t have access it to it for a month when my PC stopped working, I felt that I’d lost a part of my brain. In this post, I’ll explain how you can quickly get up to speed, and also show you best practices and little hacks to make your experience that much better.
2023 Year in Review
The following is a review of the big themes and takeaways of the last year. To catch up what’s already happened in 2023, I’d refer you to this post.
“The image has to read on the first glance”
Interview with illustrator Mohith Mohano
This is the first of a series of interviews with artists, illustrators and creatives. Mohith Mohano is an illustrator and designer based in Kochi. He’s had a fantastic year designing illustrations for movies and TV shows like Rocket Boys, Thallumala, Ankahi Kahaniya and Thurakmukham . In another life he was an architect who then quit to follow his passion for art and storytelling. The following is the transcript of a phone conversation. Edited for clarity
And now for something completely different
This art/freelance life can be a lonely one, there are few people who I can relate with and can talk at length and intelligently with me about the sort of things I’m going through on a regular basis. I haven’t found much community for art perhaps because I haven’t been going out much, because I’m in Chennai, or because art is a niche and it’s acolytes tend to be like cats- they’re shy, socially awkward and can only be found when they want to be found.
I’ve also noticed that it’s hard to find any in depth interviews with Indian creators. If you want to know what brush pen Kim Jung-Gi you’ll find no dearth of resources but for inspiration closer to home, the internet comes up with a giant blank.
My cousin gave me a suggestion a few weeks ago- if you can’t find community, build it yourself! So that’s what I’m going to try out. I want to do an interview series with artists as an excuse to meet and nerd out with these elusive figures. This wasn’t something I ever thought I’d be doing, and I’m figuring out as I go. I’d love some feedback- guests you’d like to see, thoughts about the format, etc. Much excite!
I’m still here
Err…it’s been a while since you last heard from me. Yes, I’m alive and well. I quit my corporate job in Austin, TX about this time last year and moved back to India for good shortly after. What have I been doing you ask? Prepare for an entirely more detailed answer than you were hoping for
- Went on the Jayamoorthy Fam’s All American Summer Vacation of ’22. Austin, Colorado, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York and San Diego in 3 weeks!
- Moved back to Chennai and stayed with my family
- I travelled to Kochi and Bangalore for about a month and made some new artist friends
- I was briefly in a relationship
- I did a Vipassana 10 day silent meditation course.
- Made friends with an outdoor cat called Ashi. Nursed her back from a nasty fracture and got her back into the wild
- I moved into an apartment by the beach in Chennai and set up my art studio/office space
- I’m done with the bum life and am now ready to work
US129- Tail of the Dragon
Deal's Gap and back
Wrenching on the Yamaha WR450
A noob's guide to getting trail ready
3 weeks ago I bought a used 2004 Yamaha WR450 for a song, with the idea that it could be an affordable way to get into dual sporting and generally get more technical with my riding. It’s been 3 weeks of the most wrenching I’ve ever done, and the most fun that I’ve had getting my hands dirty in a long time.
Infernal
Born in a cauldron of Fyre,
Skin, scalding and wet from primal birth.
The tongs glow red with Rage as I break apart the remnants of the shell, so it can hatch in full view.
I see it clearly now-
Scales glisten with albumin and liquid light. The room grows darker and I feel a sudden chill, as if the infernal being were absorbing energy from the surrounding hearth. Growing steadily brighter I make out a silvery form, an unmistakable beak, made of metal no man could think to craft.
Shrill wails emerge from this terrifying spore. Echoes of pain, of mistakes from past lives described in agonizing detail, in inscrutable language. It’s eyes beady and blacker than the night, seethe, at what I could not tell you.
What I do know however (and I could not tell you how I came to this conviction) is that Tiberius was destined to become a King among Kings. Resurrection was his birth right.
Road poetry #1
From the Oachita to the Ozarks
A Mighty fog blankets the Oachita and the Sun is reduced to a pale ghost And I slow down to take in this ethereal landscape. The trees expire, and I see their spirits dance above the thick grass leaving carpets of mist above clearings, lingering like a lover's kiss from the night before
The trees are shorter now compared to the trees in the midwest No dancing hawks like in the Smokies, or perhaps it's too early and wet for them (it must be 7am)
Backroads while the most scenic, can also be the most frustrating It's now daylight and morning traffic has slowed to a crawl. Enough is enough, I decide to cross the double yellow line to overtake the slowpokes in front of me Only to find myself in the world's stupidest game of chicken, a bike vs a truck. To be fair though, every game of chicken is the world's stupidest game of chicken.
And the horizon swallows the Sun like he were nothing more than the pit of a fruit And belches a cloud of fire and vapor until all that remains of the once mighty lord Is a pink smear In the canvas of the sky
"…You can't miss what you ain't had Well I can I'm sad and there will be tears I've no doubt There may be smiles But a few…" - Frank Ocean, There will be tears
I have put some serious miles on the road and otherwise at this point. And I have to say that the morning sky is the morning sky everywhere and is always beautiful