{"id":42726,"date":"2024-09-11T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=42726"},"modified":"2024-09-06T11:58:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T18:58:49","slug":"whats-in-my-now-dan-dao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/whats-in-my-now-dan-dao\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s in my NOW? \u2014 Dan Dao"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/whatsinmynow.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Sign up here<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0to get\u00a0What\u2019s in my NOW?\u00a0a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m a data analyst by day and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/shawneeunion\/\">an artist who draws people<\/a>\u00a0on his free time. Figuring out things is my biggest hobby. Check out\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/portraitclub_atx\/\">@portraitclub_atx\u00a0<\/a>if you&#8217;re looking to draw with other people in Austin, TX<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42728\" width=\"254\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan1-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 254px) 100vw, 254px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan2-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42727\" width=\"559\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan2-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan2-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan2-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2024\/09\/dan2.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>PHYSICAL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>I stopped using pump style lotion bottles because a good amount of lotion was left behind and hard to reach. My favorite solution has been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/PyhX4C\">FIFO (First in First Out) Squeeze bottles<\/a>. They can be used store anything from ketchup to paint. There&#8217;s a large rear cap that makes filling the bottle simple and also helps when cleaning it out in the dishwasher. Another bonus is the valves are replaceable if they ever wear out.<\/li><li>I still have a mix of old and new devices that need different USB ports to charge. The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/DIAS\">Anker Powerline II 3-in-1 cable<\/a>&nbsp;covers 95% of all my devices with USB micro, C and Lightning ports. My old cable lasted four years of daily use, and Anker replaced it under their lifetime warranty.<\/li><li>I&#8217;ve really enjoyed using fountain pens for drawing and writing the past two years. Fountain pens are endlessly customizable with different ink and nib sizes.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/AaRQPAz\">The Pilot Varsity<\/a>&nbsp;is a great first fountain pen if you want to try them. It&#8217;s affordable and writes wonderfully, as good as pens 4-5x it&#8217;s price. If you&#8217;re brave you can even refill it following some tutorials on Youtube.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>DIGITAL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>I purchase products monthly from AliExpress and overseas. It can be a hassle to keep track of all the different shipping companies.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.17track.net\/en\">17Track<\/a>&nbsp;covers most shipping companies and have apps on iOS and Android. The updates are timely and the app is simple to use.<\/li><li>I use&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/whisper\/\">Whisper AI&nbsp;<\/a>to transcribe meeting recordings on my computer for free. The transcriptions aren&#8217;t perfect but I&#8217;m really impressed by the speed and accuracy of the package. I followed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ABFqbY_rmEk?si=b5ggL2lcQdo7Kjkc\">this guide<\/a>&nbsp;to get started.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>INVISIBLE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>A strategy I use to curb non-essential spending is to limit it to the first 10 days in a month. For the other 20ish days I&#8217;m forced to wait and evaluate my upcoming purchases for next month. I do give myself exceptions on things like great deals and limited available items though. Most of time I realize I already have something that suffices and that great deal will still be there in a few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>issue #185<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2303],"tags":[1553,2389],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42729,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42726\/revisions\/42729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}