Vanderal Talagi
03/05/2026 #4
I have worked on my body quite a few days over the last week.
On Wednesday I went to weightlifting. It was more tough than usual, potentially because I was coming off of being sick last week. 70kg felt heavy when it usually doesn’t. I did get some good technique improvements though.
Friday, I went to basketball scrims with my older brother. It was a 4:40am start coming off of a bad sleep. My team won the first few games, but ended up gassed out by the end and losing the rest. I wasn’t as sore or tired as I thought I would be afterward, but the early start it really kicked in at the end of the day sitting at my office desk.
This morning I ran 10K alongside my younger sister and older brother. It wasn’t easy, but it was great having family alongside to chat with along the way. The first kilometer was a wake up call and the eighth was the point where I needed a break. This has me thinking about joining the work run club in the mornings, but I’ll see how I feel about it tomorrow.
It feels different getting cardio in, it has been a while since I have done aerobic exercise. I definitely feel more tired and not enthused to do anything. I don’t feel the need to wait around and see if any of my friends will play games online, though I do end up scrolling a lot more on my computer.
I haven’t read as much over the last few days because I have been so tired. I really need to improve my schedule to become a well rounded individual. Good media I have consumed over the last few days has including the finale of Michelle Khare’s 7 marathons over 7 continents over 7 days which was inspiring as ever and find404’s video on the Moab race. I need to find more good content and consume that rather than endlessly scrolling.
In regard to creating, I haven’t yet found another outlet for creating other than this. Though I am keeping an open mind.
Looking back on this week I definitely need to get my schedule sorted to attain my goals of becoming a well rounded person otherwise I might just burn out before getting any real traction. In fact that will be this weeks goal, draft a schedule to follow to attain the 3 hours each day needed.
28/04/2026 #3
Often I find myself getting into a self help binge, where I am reading and watching things about how to improve my life without ever actually putting things into practice to get better at a thing, pick up a hobby that I stick to or improve myself. From what I can tell reading things here and there online, other people come across this problem as well.
There is a magic to seeing someone excel at something or challenge themselves to do something hard and DO IT. It’s inspiring watching Michelle Khare doing her challenges; amazing watching Hank and John Green do a bunch of good in the world (I recently read Turtles All The Way down, it was a very good read); and awesome lapping up beautiful musical acts such as RAYE on the Graham Norton Show
I’m easily moved to watery eyes with not only a great story, watching Scrubs and Coco can do it for example… but so far I haven’t taken the steps to make magic… I even blogged about this very thing at about the same time last year.
Though it always does, this time feels different.
For starters, there are 3 entries on this website now… that’s a good start. But going back to the self help binge, I have realised that I have a tendency to follow the same patterns. This time the idea of becoming a Renaissance man for my future children has stuck.
This video by Odysseas proposes the idea ‘Become A Renaissance Man With 3 Hours/Day’. To summarise the idea, a way to become a Renaissance Man is to use 1 hour of your time each day:
Working on my body, I want to find something I can commit to on each of the days, so far I weightlift on Mondays and Wednesdays. This Friday I plan on going to the morning basketball run with my brother, we’ll see if I can make the habit stick. That leaves Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday with an hour to fill working on my body.
Consuming good content, first off have taken steps to shut off the bad content. I have a limit of 6 20 minute periods that I can access Chrome and Youtube on my phone and I’ve blocked shorts using ScreenZen. That’s cut down the time on my phone dramatically. I have found that I spend more time reading now that I have put that restriction on myself, because I can’t really do much else when sitting on the couch or lying in bed.
Creating. I have this page… I doubt anyone in the world will read this… maybe someday if I create the magic that I aspire to create. Other than this page, and the fun little gifs I enjoy creating I need to find something else to fill the hour. But this will be the hub of my journey.
I’m excited to find what I will fill the hours with. The plan is for this time to replace all of the time I spend mindlessly scrolling and consuming, with things that are more interesting and fulfilling.
With this sentence I’ve filled an hour creating and now I’ll make a gif to go at the bottom. Sweet as!
26/04/2026 #2
Today I did quite a few things other than go on my phone. I started my day reading instead of going on my phone; did a terrible job whacking the hedges; did the laundry; went for a walk with my sister; made burritos in a way I had not done before; and put a hook onto the back of the bathroom door for Erika, my fiance, to put her clothes on.
I even created the picture of my cat Montie which is bobbing beneath the header of this page.
I feel so much more fulfilled having used up my time in such a way. I even learned some things too, like the fact that I will need to hire a professional to do the hedges and that the door to our bathroom is hollow.
I don’t know how often I will update this page, but at least for now the motivation has not waned.
25/04/2026 #1
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about just how much time I have been spending on my phone. The amount of time I spend consuming absolute rubbish instagram, reddit and youtube content without creating anything. This has been a struggle of mine for a very long time.
Additionally I find myself having bursts of inspiration, much like this one, where I create something… but then more often than not never keep going.
I revisited some of my old projects, from the previous website design I made, videos of me singing, to the youtube videos I had filmed and realised things could’ve been different.
If I had worked on these or various other skills, instead of spending hours on social media sites like a zombie, I could have gotten a lot more out of this lifetime.
I want to change this though, I want to be a renaissance man, a well rounded individual with a strong ability to learn and with a skill set that makes me uniquely qualified to tackle different tasks.
When I eventually have kids, I want to be a good role model and not use screens so that they aren’t afflicted by the current brain drain that devices create; I want to be healthy and fit so that the DNA I pass on is healthy; and I want to have practical skills, including the ability to learn hard things, to be able to pass on.
How am I going to do this… I’m not sure yet, this is another one of those bursts of inspiration… that’s the next step. Though this web page will be one of the places where I will make changes and start creating, as well as where I will document progress.
This is a start.
