The Weekly Write-Up #36

OCD, The End, a New Beginning, and Farm-life!

Jun 26, 2023

A fiction book, but not like others I’ve read!
Who won the NBA Finals?
Apple Vision Pro: Outstanding or Overpriced?
I LOVE farming (not what you think)!

Literary Picks

OCDANIEL

While I was out-of-town last weekend, I had a lot of time on my hands because of the 12-hour car ride. I decided to read a book on my Kindle that I’ve been wanting to read for a while. As with most books I read, it is fiction, but this book is actually quite different from many I have talked about before. Instead of the usual sci-fi or fantasy, this book is more down-to-earth. I’m talking about OCDaniel (a very creative, yet slightly annoying name for a book) by Wesley King.

OCDaniel is about a teen named Daniel, who has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which drastically affects his life. He feels the need to do certain routines and gets “zaps” if he doesn’t do them right, in which case, he has to do it again. While many can identify this as OCD, Daniel actually doesn’t know that he has OCD, until later in the book. The plot of this book was pretty good. It wasn’t just about OCD, but it also focused on various elements of Daniel’s life as a teen. He has a murder mystery to solve, a football championship to win, a book to write, and he wants to do all of this while not revealing his OCD to anyone. I thought the plot was very intriguing, and I read the whole book (around 250 pages) in 2 days. What I appreciated more than the plot, though, is what Wesley King taught me about OCD. Wesley King, the author, actually has OCD and wrote this book to help people (with and without OCD) be more aware of it. Many people, who think they don’t have OCD or don’t know about it, do actually have OCD (the protagonist in this book is an example). Another problem, I believe, is after not having something a certain way, some people say “that’s my OCD” when in reality they don’t have OCD (I’m guilty of this). Frequently, I hear people do this, and it really bugs me because I know people who actually have OCD, and it can affect your life much more than just making you do one or two things a specific way.

This is a great book, and one that I highly recommend, especially to those who are diagnosed with OCD, think they might have OCD, or know someone with OCD. It will help you see that there are others in this world with OCD, and you are not alone. For those who don’t have OCD, this book will help you learn more about OCD so you can better understand people who have it. This book is great for ages 12+ (my dad even read this book and my mom wants to, so adults can definitely read it too). Take a look at this book on Amazon.

Watchlist Wonders

NBA FINALS

Yes, yes, I know the NBA Finals finished over a week ago. I was going to talk about it last week, but I didn’t have time to write a newsletter. Therefore, I’m talking about the NBA Finals this week, though I am sorry if this is old news now. For those of you who don’t know, the NBA Finals is played over a series of 7 games. The first to win 4 of these games wins the finals. After a great season and playoff run from both of these teams, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets were pitted against each other in the NBA finals. The interesting thing here is that the Nuggets were the 1st seed, while the Heat were the 8th seed, which is quite an interesting matchup. Let’s look at a quick overview of each of the games…

Game 1: Nuggets 104, Heat 93: The Nuggets showed their dominance in game one. Nikola Jokić (DEN) gets a triple double and scores 27 points, though Bam Adebayo (MIA) scored 26 points. The Nuggets led for most of the game, with Miami beginning to make a comeback in the 4th quarter, but they couldn’t make it happen. The Nuggets won the first game of the finals, 104 to 93.
Game 2: Heat 111, Nuggets 108: After losing in game 1, the Heat kept it very close in game 2, scoring around the same number of points as the Nuggets in each quarter. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Miami was able to pull ahead a bit and win by a mere three points, making the series 1-1!
Game 3: Nuggets 109, Heat 94: Game 3 turned out to be a fantastic game for the Nuggets' offense as two of their offensive players (Murray and Jokić) obtained 30 point triple-doubles! This was the first time everthat two players from the same team both achieved this in one game! Overall, the game was close until the 3rd quarter when the nuggets took a 14 point lead, which they would only expand before the end of the game, making the NBA finals 2-1.
Game 4: Nuggets, 108, Heat 95: This game was very similar to game 3, at least in terms of scoring. The Nuggets scored only 1 point less, while the Heat scored 1 point more than in game 3. They had a 13 point lead after the 3rd quarter, which they would keep until the end of the game. Since the series is 3-1, the Nuggets only need one more win…
Game 5: Nuggets 94, Heat 89: Miami needs to win game 5 if they are to stay in the finals. Miami took an early lead in both the first and second quarters, and were leading 51 to 44 at half. They couldn’t hold this lead, as the Nuggets scored more on offense, as well as limited Miami to only 20 points in the 3rd quarter and 18 in the 4th quarter. The game came down to it with only minutes left to play, but the Nuggets just edged Miami out to WIN!

The DENVER NUGGETS WIN! This was the Nuggets’ first finals win in team history, so a big celebration for Denver. Nikola Jokić earned the MVP for his outstanding performance throughout the finals, including his two triple-doubles. Miami certainly played well (especially for being the 8th seed in the finals), but the Nuggets were the clear victor here! Congrats to the Nuggets for winning the finals! I wish it were the Indiana Pacers winning, but I’m going to have to wait a while for that…

Tech Thoughts

APPLE VISION PRO

I talked about WWDC23 in my last newsletter. The one thing I didn’t really cover much though is probably the thing that many of you are most intrigued by: Apple Vision Pro. Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s new AR/VR Mixed Reality headset, and let me just say, this thing is awesome! The problem is that it costs $3,500 which is a HUGE price tag! Let’s talk about it…

First off, I would like to mention that the tech in Apple Vision Pro is off the charts! Apple Vision Pro has a micro-OLED display that contains more pixels than a 4K TV for each eye (23 million total pixels), advanced Spatial Audio technology, 12 cameras, 5 sensors, LiDAR depth sensors, four infrared cameras, the powerful M2 chip, the new R1 chip, and the brand new operating system: visionOS. To most of you, all of those specs probably don’t mean much, so let’s look at what Apple Vision Pro can actually do. It blends digital content with your physical space, allowing you to play games, watch movies, and even get work done. You can watch Disney+, surf the web, listen to music, look at your photos, check your email, message, edit documents, and use so many more apps that will be featured in the brand-new App Store exclusively for visionOS. Since all of this is placed in whatever space you are in, there are no boundaries for the size of these apps, so you can create the ultimate theater, workspace, or gaming area right in your home. You can watch movies on as big of a screen you want! Not only are these experiences just bigger, but completely reimagined. Watching sports games, getting work done, and everything else can be entirely different. All of this looks remarkable, and my descriptions don’t do it justice. Go to the Apple website, so you can see what I’m talking about here (then come back). The capabilities for these apps on Apple Vision Pro are endless, and I’m excited to see what Apple and developers are going to come up with for this device! Something you might be wondering is how you operate this device. It might surprise you to know that there aren’t any controllers, as with many other VR headsets. Apple Vision Pro uses its wide array of sensors and scanners to detect your eye and hand movements. You select things by just looking at them, push buttons by tapping your thumb and pointer finger together, etc. From what I have heard, this works very well. Apple Vision Pro as a whole is a huge leap in technology! The Meta Quest and other products simply can’t compare! I would even venture to say that there isn’t an argument here. Apple Vision Pro is the best headset out there!

But it certainly isn’t the cheapest! Apple Vision Pro comes in at a whopping price of $3500, which is very expensive! Two questions then arise: 1) Why is it so expensive? 2) Who is going to buy this? The reason this product is so expensive is simply the technology inside of it. As we already talked about, it has a huge array of sensors, cameras, two powerful chips, and basically a 4K TV in each eye! Manufacturing this isn’t cheap, and if you add up everything in Apple Vision Pro, the price begins to make sense. Also, this device could end up replacing many other devices. It can replace your Mac, iPad, and Apple TV because it can do most of the things those devices can, but more! Again, when you think about it this way, the price begins to make a little more sense. Still, though, who is going to pay $3500 for this device? Well, maybe more people than you might think. When computers, phones, and many other devices first came out they were expensive, but many people still bought them. Could the same be said for Apple Vision Pro? Maybe. If I had to guess, Apple will probably make a new “cheaper” option in the upcoming years that the average consumer can afford. We will just have to wait and see. Who knows? Maybe ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, we will all be walking around with one of these strapped to our faces…

As you can see, I’m very excited about this new device, but also a bit skeptical (mainly because of the price). Apple Vision Pro will be available early next year. I didn’t cover everything about this device, so you should go to apple.com to learn more about this fascinating device! So, there are my thoughts on Apple Vision Pro. I would love to know what you guys think! What are your thoughts on this product? Would you buy this? Leave a comment to let me know and join the conversation!

Wild Card

AGRICOLA

There is almost nothing more fun than keeping a farm. Building your house, tending crops, keeping animals, and everything else that comes with owning a farm. This is one of my favorite pastimes! Of course, I’m talking about the board game Agricola, which is Latin for farmer (Latin knowledge flex)! As I mentioned in my favorite board games list, Agricola is a fantastic game!

In Agricola, you manage a farm, and each player competes to build the best farm possible, and thereby, gain the most points to win the game. In this board game, you have to do a bit of everything. You have to expand your farm, buy animals, grow different kinds of crops, feed your family, work for resources, build improvements for your farm, and so much more! Agricola is played over a series of rounds, where you can do all of this by placing workers on various spaces that allow you to take the aforementioned actions. There are six harvests, but the time between the harvests gets shorter as the game goes on, making the game more challenging. Agricola is the type of board game where just as you feel like you are getting the hang of it, the game is over!

Agricola can be played with 1–5 players. I think any number of players is pretty enjoyable (besides 1), although the game can get pretty long if you are playing with more players. Agricola takes a decent amount of time to play; it can be anywhere from 60-150min (depending on amount of players). Although it is fairly complex, I think it is a great game for getting into difficult board games. I would recommend it for ages 12 and up. Once you learn the rules and get the hang of the strategy, the game really isn’t that difficult.

Overall, I love Agricola! It is a game that I have been playing for years, and one that I have really grown to love! It certainly deserves the fourth place it attained on my favorite board games list. You can purchase Agricola here. Bonus: if you already own and love Agricola and want to take it to the next level, you can buy the $135 15th anniversary edition here. (My family doesn’t own either of these versions. We own the original version since we bought it a long time ago). Anyway, Agricola is a great game, and I would recommend checking it out! So while I probably wouldn’t be good at actual farming, I can put up a great game in Agricola!