Updated: Apr 20, 2016
As a Family
- We’ve landed back in Bali, and are enjoying the villa we finished renovating here last year. Here’s a more complete video tour of the house and interviews with some of the family about our lifestyle while we’re here.
Brandon
- Preparing a keynote speech and some classes I’ll be teaching at the Savvy Musician in Action Conference at Columbia University this June.
- Writing scripts for videos to share on on my YouTube channel and through the blog. I want to get better at speaking and figured this would be a good way to practice. I also have a lot of helpful information I’d like to share, and video seems like a good method to do so these days.
- Still doing regular interviews – I seem to get asked every couple weeks or so. Here’s one of my favorites about making love the center of your business. And here’s another that’s more about the financial and lifestyle side.
- Reading or recently read the following books:
- Doing Good Better by William MacAskill (Finished. Great book about ways to measure the effectiveness of our charitable efforts. Since reading this book, I’ve changed some of my giving habits, and have set up recurring donations to a few organizations that appear more cost effective at improving quality of life – more than just those that are cost-efficient at running with low admin overhead. It’s the philosophy of givewell.org vs charitynavigator.com. See also 80000hours.org.)
- The Presence Process. (Second read. I read this before a few years ago and it’s the best book I’ve found for getting me into a consistent habit of meditation, which I’ve fallen in and out of over the years. The book is leads the reader on a personal inner journey of transformation, and it’s fascinating for me to study and experience the process.)
- Smart Cuts by Shane Snow (Reading. “How hackers, innovators, and icons accelerate success).
- Emotional Freedom by Judith Orloff, M.D. (Reading with Jen. Wow. Some great stuff here about understanding emotion.)
- All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald S. Passman (Reading / on the backburner)
Jen
- Preparing for her presentation later this year on emotions and relationships for the Life Without Instructions Conference.
- Taking weekly voice lessons
- Writing blog posts about our travel adventures
Emily (age 12)
- Studying French through DuoLingo.
- Creating her own language and phonetic alphabet.
- Programming a website about life hacking.
- Writing more songs and music videos, which she is now selling on iTunes! Here is one of her latest:
- Taking Irish dance lessons online from a teacher in Kansas
- Drawing
- Chatting with friends across the world via Skype
- Writing more on her blog
- Enjoying online games such as Minecraft and AnimalJam.
Marie (age 10)
- Lots of sleepovers, playdates, and classes with her friends
- Practicing handstands and gymnastics tricks
- Creating and solving her own math problems and drawing math related artwork
- Reading the Warrior Cat books on the Epic app
- Taking online digital art lessons from a professional artist in Germany
Aysia (age 4)
- Swimming with mommy almost every day
- Pretending to be a bunny or a kitty
- Playing AnimalJam (often with her sisters)
- Reading books on the Epic app (or usually, having them read to her)
Past summaries of what we’re doing now
