Distributed systems are everywhere: social media, internet of things, single server systems — all part of larger, distributed systems. But how do you define a distributed system? A distributed system is, according to Leslie Lamport (father of distributed computing), a system in which failure of some component (or node) impacts the larger system, rendering the whole system either unstable or unusable.
A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn’t even know existed can render your own computer unusable – Leslie Lamport
To better understand distributed systems, we can model their behaviors using nodes and messages. Nodes send messages to one another, over unreliable communication links in a 1:1 or 1:N fashion. Because of the assumed flaky communication, messages may never arrive due to node failure. This simple model of nodes and messages, however, does not take the nodes capturing events into consideration; for this, our model must be extended into a slightly more complex one, introducing the concept of “state” being stored at each node.
When evaluating distributed system, we can and should leverage models. Without them, we’d have to rely on building prototypes and running experiments to prove our system; this approach is untenable due to issues such as lack of resources or due to the scale of the system, which may require hundreds of thousands of nodes. When selecting a model, we want ensure that it can accurately represent the problem and be used to analyze the solution. In other words, the model should hold two qualities: accurate and tractable.
Using Models. Source: Georgia Tech
Building distributed systems can be difficult for three reasons: asynchrony, failures, consistency. Will a system assume messages are sent immediately within a fixed amount of time? Or will it be asynchronous, potentially losing messages? How will the system handle the different types of failures: total, grey, byzantine (cannot tell, misbehaving) ? How will the system remain consistent if we introduce caching or replication? All of these things are part of the larger 8 fallacies of distributed computing systems.
CAP Theorem. Source: Georgia Tech
Ultimately, when it comes to building reliable and robust systems, we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Choose 2 out of the 3 properties: consistency, availability, partitioning. This tradeoff is known as CAP theorem (which has not been proven and is only a theorey). If you want availability and partitioning (e.g. cassandra, dynamodb), then you sacrifice consistency; similarly, if you want consistency and partitioning (e.g. MySQL, Megastore), you sacrifice availability.
Yes! I’m finally registered for the distributed computing course. This course is hot off the press! It’s spanking brand new to the OMSCS program and offered for the first time this (Spring 2021) term. I’ve been eagerly waiting over two years for a course centering around distributed systems, combining both theory and practice.
The course is taught by professor Ada, who also teaches Graduate Introduction to Operating Systems, which received the highest accolades from previous students who wrote reviews over at OMSCentral review. I bet this class will raise the bar, intellectually challenging and stimulating our minds. According to the course’s syllabus, we’ll bridge both theory and practice by delivering 5 programming projects, the assignments based on University of Washington’s Distributed Systems Labs that are published in this repository: https://github.com/emichael/dslabs . The projects will require us students to:
Build a simple ping/pong protocol
Implement an exactly-once RPC protocol (parts of lab 1 reused)
Design and implement a primary-backup protocol to teach fault-tolerance
Implement the famous Paxos
Implement a key value stored using Paxos and implement a two-phased commit protocol
I’m particularly interested in the last two projects: paxos and two-phased commit protocol. I had first read the original Paxos paper about four years ago, when I first joined Amazon, but never implemented Paxos myself; and I only recently learned about two-phased commit protocols a month or two ago when taking advanced operating systems last semester and it’s a topic I want to understand more deeply.
I’m hoping that during (and after I take this class) I’ll be able to apply the principles of distributed computing to effectively analyze the reliability of existing and new services powering Amazon Web Services. Moreover, I’ll incorporate the lessons learned into my mental model and refer to them as I both design and build new systems
First things first: I’m grateful for surviving this difficult, weird and straight-up dystopian year. 2020 was the absolute worst; although the year will permanently leave its mark in our memories, we’re all ready to leave it behind, ready to move on. Who could have, apart from maybe Bill Gates during during 2014 Ted Talk, predicted a global pandemic forcing all of humanity into stay-at-home lockdowns? To add fuel to the fire, forest fires broke out in the Pacific Northwest, smoke blanketing the sky, rendering the air unbreathable, tightening the lockdown’s grip and exacerbating the already untenable cabin fever.
The lockdowns and the constant bombardment of never-up-lifting coronavirus news ate away my health: physically, emotionally, mentally. I miss playing tennis with friends; I miss striking up conversations with both friends and strangers — I miss pre-pandemic life. But above all else, I miss not fearing that the person breathing next to me will sneeze and spread the virus. That’s the thing with COVID-19: even when it’s not on your mind, it’s on your mind. It’s always just beneath the surface, swimming around in your subconscious. Is it normal to dream nightmares where you are sitting on a public bus and the only one wearing a masks?
Notwithstanding the global pandemic, 2020 blessed me in many ways. Below, I’ll share some life updates — the good and the bad — that tend to revolve around two north stars (who says you can’t more than one north star): family; and personal development. Then, I’ll close the post out with what’s lined up for 2021.
Looking Back
Family
On Parenting
“(Parenting) is a young person’s game – Mom”
After becoming a parent, I stopped snapping harsh judgements of other parents for their shortcomings. Because surprise surprise: parenting is HARD. These days, whenever I witness some toddler throwing a tantrum because their cup happens to be colored blue, my heart goes out to their parents. Parenting has taught me to hold more sympathy, more understanding, more patience, towards all parents, including my own. Because the old adage rings true: “We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves”.
Jess and Elliott smiling for the camera
The way Jess raises Elliott motivates me to become a better father. Watching Jess mother is like watching Picasso show up every day and paint his canvas — it’s an honor. And really beautiful. Jess speaks so softly to Elliott, never losing her patience, her tone always somehow miraculously combined with light-hardheartedness, seriousness, curiosity, warmth, humanity, and above all else: love. Without skipping a beat, Jess will dive face first into a ball pit, crawl around on all fours, and proceed to chase Elliott. She’ll neatly decorate Elliott’s plate of food every day — every meal. She’ll fly up the stairs as soon as Elliott makes a peep in the middle of the night. All these moments … it’s all art unfolding in front of my very eyes. With Jess leading the way, I’m confident that Elliott will grow into a well adjusted human being.
I’m still the same person
Yes — I’m a dad now. My life looks radically different. But fundamentally I remain the same person (apart from the new salt and pepper hairstyle). Before fatherhood, I used to think that once I stepped into my new role, the very core of who I was would somehow shift, that all my previous dreams and desires and aspirations would somehow get tossed the window. Because you hear that sort of story all the time, right? From books, from friends, from everyone. Maybe the cessation of one’s desires does really happen for some parents: but not me. Don’t get me wrong, being a dad is one of the proudest titles I hold. There’s just still so much I want to accomplish in my life. And I’m lucky that I’m in good company; they get to join my journey and I get to join theirs.
Unexpected moments of happiness
Elliott breathes joy into my life and constantly puts a much needed smile on my face: every time she smiles; every time she lays a wet one on either Metric or Mushroom. Sometimes, she acts cute on purpose: she’ll slowly tilt her her head to the side and send you a smirk. She knows how to tug at my heart. But most of the times, she’s just doing nothing, just being herself, and I catch love feelings washing over me.
Elliott kissing her “deer” (it’s a llama, but she loves deer…so its a deer)
Fur daughters
Before becoming a human father, I was first a fur father to Metric and Mushroom. I continue to appreciate them, for guarding Elliott at night, for licking up all of Elliott’s food that she splatters on the floor, and for teaching me more about humanity than any human.
Two silly dogs occupying the front and passenger seats in the car
House move
We packed up all of our belongings and moved out of our rental house located in North Seattle, relocating to the suburbs of Renton. Even though Jess and I will always miss North Seattle — Cloud City Cafe, Maple Leaf Park, Magnuson Park, Grateful Bread — moving to Renton, in retrospect, was the right decision. We simply had outgrew the previous house; Elliott was constantly crawling back and forth, from one corner of the living room to the next, not much square footage for a baby locked inside in the midst of a pandemic. And for that reason alone, we traded our city lives for a home that offers some more breathing room.
U-haul filled to the brim
Personal Development
Graduate School
I completed the second year of graduate school and it continues to serve its purpose: deepening my understanding of computer science. Interestingly though, my acquisition of new knowledge does not always reflect in the grades that I receive. For example, I bled sweat and tears while taking “Compilers: Theory and Practice” course, burning the midnight oil, pouring roughly 30 additional hours per week (on top of work) when I normally clock 10-15 hours for every other course. Despite all the additional time I threw into the course, I received the lowest grade I ever received in graduate school. But receiving a lower no longer irks me. Because graduate school is not about earning high marks. It’s about changing the way you think.
Collaborating with other students
Earning a masters can feel lonely. So last semester, Fall 2020, I stayed active on the course forum, replying to other student’s questions as well posting new threads to spark conversation. I would share links to relevant blog posts. Also, I started something called “war room” study sessions, where a handful of us students would hop on a Zoom call together and study together for the exams; I’d share my screen and together, we would tease out the right answers. This student collaboration was the highlight of the course: connecting with other students wards off loneliness. Wanting to stay connected with other students once the course ended, I started a private mailing list for other graduate students who are also specializing in computing systems at Georgia Tech. To date, over 50 students subscribed and the list continues growing.
Career as a software engineer
I love my job as a software engineer. Every day, I make magic happen behind the scenes, continuing to breathe life into the Amazon (Web Services) Cloud. But this past year, work sucked the soul out of me. First, several on call rotations melted my brain into mashed potatoes. I turned into a drooling zombie after being alarmed out of bed at 3:00 AM and after staring at the computer screens until 10:00pm — three nights in a row. Second, workplace politics threw a wrench into the game and for the first time in my career, I was viewed as someone who no longer wanted to advance their career: all because I turned down a senior engineer’s offer to lead a particular project; to make matters worst, I used to consider that senior engineer as someone in my corner, someone who advocated for my career. The entire experience left a poor taste in my mouth and I still haven’t fully recovered from the sense of betrayal.
Getting in touch with my feelings
Separating self-worth from work
“But there was a chance to chart your own course”
– Dolores from Westworld. Season 3
For most of my career, I’d measure my self-worth by the quality of the code or prose that I write. I often would only publish my work once I considered it to be “perfect”. Not anymore. I no longer buy into perfectionism because perfect does not exist. Perfection is subjective. I now focus on “shipping it”, delivering work at an accelerated rate. Ironically, my work quality has not degraded; in fact, I would say has improved in some aspects since I’m now producing, practicing and flexing my skills more than before.
Getting lost in one’s work (aka “blackholes”)
“I see your brain”
– Jess Boyd
I cannot count the number of times when I’m stuck solving a difficult problem, gluing myself to the keyboard, spinning my wheels, never breaking focus for hours and hours: Jess calls these my “blackholes”. Sometimes, intense focus pays off. Sometimes I arrive at the answer, all the self-induced tension resolving. But most of the times I fail to move forward, fail to make even an inch of progress, stuck in the same spot. Only after stepping back from these difficulty problems do I realize that I should’ve distanced myself earlier, allowing some time — even 5 minutes — to pass in order to see the problem with fresh eyes.
Identifying as an introvert
In December, I had picked up a book while walking the aisles at Barnes and Noble, the book titled “Networking for people who hate networking”. The book ships with a friendly, short 10-question quiz that helps you assess where you land on the spectrum of introversion. After answering the quiz and tallying up the points, I discovered that I’m highly introverted! Learning about introverted tendencies has helped me explain — not only to others, but to myself — some of my quirks, including the never-ending craving for alone time. Being introverted helps explain both why large social events drain my energy dry and why I wake up at 04:00 AM: no wife, no kids, no dogs — just me time. So I’m thankful for stumbling on the book and now I feel less guilty about my own introverted tendencies.
Marketing oneself
On a daily basis, I fear coming off as someone who excessively boasts, someone who reeks of arrogance. Not wanting to be perceived this way, I usually stop myself from sharing my original content (e.g. writing, music, videos); up until recently, I’d cringe when hearing the words “marketing oneself”. But my adverse reaction to marketing has been replaced with a shift in perspective: I now define marketing as solving other people’s problems and adding value to their lives. This new mind-set, combined with separating my work from myself, enables me to more freely share my thoughts.
Saying goodbye to Trump
I burst into tears of joy while listening to the radio, when NPR broke the good news that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Trump being out of the picture restores some of my faith in humanity (despite the fact that an overwhelming number of Americans voted for him). Of course, Trump will somehow continue stealing the spotlight; like cancer, he’ll reappear and crawl his way back into politics over the next few years. Nonetheless, he’s out of the presidential picture for at least the next four years.
Leaning forward
Good bye New Year’s resolution. Say hello to habits
New years resolutions can be useful, but more often than not, most people abandon them within a few weeks or months. I’m no exception. So instead of penciling in some lofty goals for the year, I’m directing my energy towards cultivating healthy habits: existing habits I want to retain; new habits I want to develop. Because I believe that how we live everyday is how we live for the rest of our lives.
Masters in computer science
In fall 2021, I’ll graduate with a masters in computer science. Between now and then, I’ll need to complete three more courses: high performance computing; distributed computing; graduate algorithms. The main motivation for graduate school has been — and will continue to be — stretching my brain and forcing myself to see problems through a different lens. Because when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Communication skills
Every morning I sit down and write. And I write. And I write. I’ve committed myself to the craft for three reasons. First, writing helps me untangle the web of thoughts constantly buzzing around in my head; it’s easy to trick ourselves into believing we fully grasp a topic … that is until our incomprehensible prose exposes our lack of understanding. Second, writing, I think, is the key ingredient that distinguishes good engineers from great engineers. Some of the best engineers I worked with don’t just “know more”; they leverage their writing skills to influence the roadmap. Third, most simply, I enjoy the never ending pursuit of becoming a great writer. And someday soon, I’ll have the chops necessary to write my own memoir.
Human Connections
Cultivate marriage
Before having children, I never understood how children coming into the picture would cause parents to drift apart. I get it now. Unless you carve out time for one another, unless you deliberately nurture your relationship, raising children fills up the entire day. So Jess and I are tossing ideas out in the air, looking for creative ways to turn into each other. Some ideas we toyed with so far include: starting a book club, writing together, recording song covers together. Really, I don’t think the activity itself matters — it’s just spending some quality time together.
Stay connected with friends and family
Family zoom call
Earlier this year in the midst of the pandemic, I text messaged some old friends and after some back and forth chit-chat, I realized that I both miss and crave human connection. Because a warm, fuzzy feeling warmed my body after they shared updates around their family, their work, their world; me staying off of social media — Facebook and Instagram — for close to 5 years doesn’t help either. I essentially miss their moments, big and small. Wanting to stay more connected to friends and family, I often question should rejoin social networking. Probably not. From my perspective, the positive benefits are outweighed by the negative ones; the mindless thumb scrolling and lack of privacy are both the primary reasons I severed myself from these closed-in platforms. So, instead of plugging back in into social media, Ill continue with my own method for keeping tabs on people’s lives: a simple excel sheet.
Closing
Elon Musk offered some brilliant career advice that can be summed up into a single sentence: “If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing; so, keep moving forward.” But for 2021, I’d be completely content with regressing back to the way society looked prior to the pandemic. So, come on 2021, let’s do this. I hope — I pray — that the pandemic ends this year and that we all return back to some sense of normalcy.
Ira was not born an amazing story teller. Early on in his career (in his early 20s), he realized a gap existed between his current and future skills. And when asked what kept him moving forward, Ira Glass responded:
Just over the horizon
I feel like I could … imagine a thing … which didn’t exist, that was so much better than what I was doing. And … and it’s like it was just over the horizon. And … I didn’t have any other goals. Like, I really thought like I can’t do this now, and I’m not sure how you get to the point where you can do it. Um…and I think, I’m stubborn. And I act on faith.
The above quote deeply resonates with me, especially when it comes to my current writing abilities. I know — I feel — that I can produce good writing: cohesive; coherent; and beautiful. And like Ira, my writing skill gap lives just over the horizon: I just need to continue practicing, continue learning, and ultimately, continue producing large volumes of work. All that hard work, plus the two most essential ingredients: faith and luck.
No sign for talent
And when I hear what I was doing, I can see why. It wasn’t good. Years ago, one of our producers dug up one of those pieces. Because I said, “Oh, I did a piece on that, when I was 26”. And she just dug it up and she said “This is amazing. There was no sign that you have any talent for radio. There was no sign that you will ever turn into something good. At all.” And when I hear it, I hear the same thing: You can’t tell.
So just keep dancing with your craft and have a little faith. Not just in yourself, but in the universe. Because the time will come when luck will pay you a visit.
Like almost everyone else working remotely due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, I struggled with adjusting to the work from home situation, more than I could’ve possibly anticipated. I found difficulty in my daily routines suddenly disappearing; my deeply ingrained habits vanished out of thin air: no more commuting to the office; no more breathing in the fresh, cold air during my walks to the bus; no more swinging by the local gym for a short 30 minute mental and emotional exercise; and no more leaving the house. On top of wrestling with the change in routines, the constant at home interruptions kicked me in the butt:
No way to shut people out; no way shut myself in.
I cannot begin to count the number of moments where I reached a deep state of focus, only to be interrupted, either by my adorable daughter or by one of my two dogs or by my beautiful wife. Although these interruptions knocked me off my balance, I’ve adapted to them and, on some level, grown to appreciate them. Without my family unit, I would be just another lone wolf. And I’ll take interruptions all day long over being lonely.
Look at the above example, the four sentences. Now, take each of those sentences and imagine you poll an audience of 100 people, asking them the following question: “Does the author want you [the reader] to give Fred either a thumbs up or thumbs up?” How do you think the audience answer? More than likely, the audience answers as follows:
a) mostly thumbs down for Fred
b) mostly thumbs down up for Fred
c) slightly more thumbs down for Fred
d) slightly more thumbs up for Fred
What the heck is going on here?
Why? Why when we present the audience with semantically equivalent sentences — but with the order of the words re-positioned — do their perceptions of Fred swing in completely opposite directions?
Three dimensions
The answer lies within how the author structures the sentences, how the author arranges (and rearranges) the words to leverage the reader’s expectations, using the following three dimensions: stress position, main clause, length (because each of the above example sentences run the same length, we won’t discuss this dimension, but just bear in mind that the longer a clause, the more the readers emphasize it). With these dimensions in mind, let’s deconstruct the first two examples. But first, let’s define the stress position.
Analysis of example (a) and example (b)
The stress position (which emphasizes certain words) sits immediately to the left of any of the three punctuation marks that denote the end of a semantic closure: a period, a semicolon; a colon. Because our examples only house a period, so let’s focus our attention there, starting with the first example: “Although Fred’s a nice guy, he beats his dog.” In this example, “he beats his dog” is the main clause and occupies the stress position. For these two reasons, the audience will generally (not always) emphasize Fred beating his dog and as a result, they give him a thumbs down. Next, moving on to the second example: “Although Fred beats his dog, he is a nice guy.” With this sentence, the author subordinated “Fred beats his dog”, reducing the sentence’s importance; “he is a nice guy” now holds the stress position and lives as the main clause. Therefore, Fred gets a thumbs up.
Leverage reader’s expectations
You can emphasize certain words within your sentences by leveraging reader’s expectations. Take advantage of the inherent structure within the English language, by applying the three simple techniques: place important (what you consider important) words in the stress position; make them the main clause; and lengthen the clause for additional for additional emphasis.
Like many other aspiring authors, I’m always sharpening my writing skills, dozens of writing books (including one of my favorites: On Writing by Stephen King) lined up on my bookshelf. Almost all these books share the same stance when comparing the active and passive voices. They strongly prefer the active voice over the passive voice. Always. Black and white. No grey area. Their justification? The books claim the passive voice sound weak when compared to the (strong) active voice.
Sorry — that’s baloney.
Some situations call for passive voice. What I’m saying is this: sometimes passive voice outperforms the active voice. Voice selection depends on whose story you want to tell. Here’s a simple example: Jack loves Jill. In this example, Jack (the subject) loves (the action) Jill (the object); as readers, we expect that the following sentences revolve around the subject, Jack. But, what if the author really wanted to focus the story on Jill, instead? Simple: change the voice from active to passive. Switch the subject from Jack to Jill and change the tense: Jill is loved by Jack. Jill (subject) is loved (the action) by Jack (agent).
How about taking a look at an example of changing the voice (from passive to active) adds confusion to the mix. In the two examples below, the top is written in passive, the bottom its active voice equivalent.
Passive voice. Source: Gopen (2020) video companion PDF
Active voice. Source: Gopen (2020) video companion PDF
Does the conversion improve the movement, improve the quality, improvement the passage as a whole? No! If anything, the new passage confuses us readers! We are now distracted, our attention pointing towards the scientists, when we should be focusing on the science.
There are no shortcuts to becoming a great writer. As Stephen King says, great writers need to read a lot and write a lot. But that’s not enough. Nope. I’d argue you need to take writing one step further: imitate good writing.
Imitating great tennis players
When I was a young boy, about 8 or 9, I imitated all the top tennis players. I’d slip on my worn-out tennis shoes (leaving the laces untied, a bad habit that I cannot seem to shake, even as an adult), slide into my above-the-knee shorts and position myself in front of the 10″ CRT television. I’d then watch the tennis legends from the late 90s, mirroring their every move. Gripping my imaginary carbon fiber tennis racket, I’d bend my knees and point my finger into the sky as I leaned into the platform serving position (aka trophy position) just like Pete Sampras, I’d shuffle my feet like Michael Chang, I’d glide towards the net to serve and volley like Patrick Rafter. Over time, my tennis game became an amalgamation of theirs (of course, I never reached their levels). And I believe that this approach of mimicking the greats should be applied to aspiring writers who want to improve their craft.
Claim: Great writers reverse engineer
Great authors imitate other great authors. In “Sense of Style”, Pinker asserts that good writers are avid readers and that they have “absorbed a vast inventory of words,idioms, constructions, ropes, and rhetorical tricks, and with them a sensitivity to how they mesh and how they clash.”
One example of an author who took this deliberate approach to learning the craft is Elizabeth Gilbert. In her book, Big Magic, she talks about how she studied from great teachers: “teachers that live on the shelves of your great library, that live on the walls of museums, that live in recordings made from decades ago”. She states that “No living writer has ever taught me more about plotting and characterization than Charles Dickens has taught me.” Although she didn’t study from Charles Dickens directly she did “spend years privately studying his novels like they were holy scripture, and then to practice like the devil on my own”.
Imitators
Another example of such an author who took a rigorous approach to learning the craft is Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin would read articles, take voracious notes, and set them a side for a few days. When he returned to his notes, he attempted to rewrite the article, using his own words. Then, he’d compare his writing with that of the original and took stock of where his writing fell short. His vocabulary was weak, so he worked on expanding it. He had also noticed another shortcoming: his organization (or lack thereof). Tackling this head on, he would decompose some piece of writing that he admired into sections and copy each of them onto their own index cards. After mixing the cards a pile, he’d then attempt to rearrange them in the correct (original) order. That’s how he practiced organization skills. That’s amazing discipline.
Why don’t more of us take this same approach? Well, some do, like Stephen King.
Stephen King
In “On Writing”, Stephen King shares about how, when he was a child, he would read comic book after comic book after comic book, reading whatever he could get his hands on. Believing that imitation precedes creativity, King would “copy Combat Casey” comics word for word in (his) Blue Horse tablet, sometimes adding (his) own descriptions where they seemed appropriate.”
Hunter Thompson
One final example: Hunter Thompson. “He chose, rather than writing original copy, to re-type books like The Great Gatsby and a lot of Norman Mailer, the Naked and the Dead, a lot of Hemingway. He would sit down there on an old type-writer and type every word of those books and he said, “I just wanna feel what it feels like to write that well.”
Summary: Go and imitate
There are no short cuts. Clear out space on your cluttered desk. Make a neat stack of all the books that you want to write like. And come to terms that, writing is a life long journey of reading and writing, a never ending cycle of these two activities.
One silver lining of COVID-19 is that I’m working remotely from home and despite the constant interruptions, I’ve grown to appreciate situation. I’m afforded experiences not normally available to me when working physically in the office. Among which is seeing my daughter grow up, right before my eyes. Every day, I catch these fleeting moments, such as her lifting her chin up and staring softly and lovingly at her mom.
Yet, these beautiful moments strike fear in me.
I have not been able to shake that idea that that Elliott will forget about the dogs — Metric and Mushroom — once they pass away, memories of them vanishing too. Compared to us humans, dogs live a short life span, an unfair reality. And my dogs, in particular, have likely reached their half-life. So, every time the two dogs roll around on the floor with Elliott and every time Elliott puckers her lips and lays a wet one on their noses, I simultaneously feel both joy and pain. Joy for the current moment. Pain for the future.
I fear that Elliott’s memories of the dog will fade because I too forgot about my first dog. Apparently, I grew up with a German Shepherd, named Champ. Apparently, Champ was present in the first two years of my life— but I have zero recollection of him.
I do wonder, though, how much of Champ left an imprint on me. Did his presence early on in my life influence my “random” decision of choosing a German Shepherd breed for my first dog?
Perhaps.
Back to my Elliot. I painfully understand that she’ll only remember, if I’m lucky, fragments of her first two dogs. She’ll forget their unique smells. She’ll forget the countless number of times we pulled out dog hair from her mouth during lunch. She’ll forget all the times she woke up from a nap, screaming for them to join her in bed.
She’ll forget the first day she met the two dogs, the day we brought her home from the hospital, when both dogs dutifully slept by her crib, neither dog leaving her side, obediently guarding her. She’ll forget all the times she purposelessly threw scraps of food on the floor for them to lick off the ground.
But as her father, I’ll never forget. I’ll remember them, cherish them, and hold on to them, dearly.
And the best I can offer her, and myself, are capturing and collecting and sharing these memories.
So, here you go, Elliott. Here are a few snapshots of your childhood with the doggies.
I serendipitously stumbled on another Zettelkasten desktop application called Zettlr. Perusing the online forum over at Zettelkasten.de, I had noticed that at least three of four members repping the app in their signatures. Naturally, I was curious so I followed the scent on the trail and loaded up the Zettlr website in my browser.
After skimming through the description, I decided to test drive the application.
And so far, I am really loving the application. It’s beautiful. It’s use friendly. It sparks joy.
Sure, the application is still in an infancy and has a few rough edges: the application fails to open up external third party application links (e.g. DevonThink) and the support for markdown tables is clunky at best and sometimes the cursor lags behind when I’m typing at my top speed. However, none of these issues are deal breakers. And I’m certain that, overtime, the application’s performance will be improved.
Top features
Keyboard shortcuts. Want to generate a unique identifier for your note card? Type in “CTRL + L” and the app will spit out a timestamp that serves as a unique ID for other cards to reference. Just plain awesome. How about inserting a markdown hyperlink? Well, just select some text and then press “CTRL + K”, the text converted to a markdown based hyperlink. And these two shortcuts are just the tip of the iceberg.
Built-in statistics. Check out at a glance how many words you are writing daily.
Writing is on fire!
Built in emojiis. I didn’t anticipate that I would enjoy inserting emojiis into my documents. Of course, I don’t over do it and only sprinkle them sparingly. Regardless, they add a nice little touch, a spark of joy in the creative writing process.
Auto-generated table of contents. By marking down your content with appropriate headings, you get a beautiful table of contents located in the side bar (which renders the emojiis nicely too).
Zettlr: Emojii support and auto-generated table of contents
Wrapping up
Overall, I love the application so far (again: it’s only been about 3 days). I’m certain I’ll discover other blesmishes as I continue to use the application. Regardless, Zettlr allows me to enjoy creating content: I’m able to achieve a sense of flow, often losing myself in the process, thanks to both the aesthetically pleasing interface as well as the low cost of context switching between reading, editing, writing and searching.
