| date | 2012-08-30 00:00:00 UTC | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| tags |
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| title | #28 - TL;DR: California is Awesome. | ||
| aliases | #28 - TL;DR: California is Awesome. | ||
| draft | false | ||
| enableToc | true | ||
| permalink | 28 |
I'm going to keep this as short as possible. There is a LOT to cover if I want to cover everything, so I should keep rambling to a minimum if I can. Rambling. Ram Bling. Weird. Minimum. Mini Mum. Strange. I can. iCan. Okay now you're just messing with me.
I already wrote up my Top 5. It's a photo edition Top 5. It's also a Top 15. I couldn't whittle down my trip into just 5 pictures. Even those 15 pictures don't begin to portray what a fun-packed adventure I had. I'll probably sneak a couple more here in the body of the column, just to be sneaky.
Side note: My Pandora is rocking pretty hard right now. My station named The Greatest Station Ever is pretty much just that.
So. I went to California. The story, if you hadn't heard, begins with an invite from a good friend of the family, Sally Hanson. She was a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding in July. During this period she transitioned from being "friend of my family" to "a friend of mine". After the wedding, I confessed to Sally that I hadn't seen much of country and I needed to travel more. She told me she would gladly show me around California if I bought the tickets. I thought she was kidding. She wasn't.
Let me tell you two things to start this whole thing off:
- I had an amazing time in California.
- I had the world's greatest friend working hard to make sure that was true.
Now allow me to set the tone for the story:
Beautiful friends having a beautiful lunch on a beautiful beach on a beautiful day (Thesis: California is beautiful)
Rather than go through a long narrative of everything that happened during the trip, I'm going to take a barebones note structure approach (thanks education!):
Wednesday I flew from Kansas City to Phoenix, and from Phoenix to Los Angeles. I got the seat with extra leg room again flying out of KCI. That's twice in a row. Sally picked me up in her Prius. That car is awesome. Driving in LA looked horrible. We went to Malibu beach. I walked in the ocean for the first time in at least 5 years. We ate the best biscuits in the world. I'm fairly confident. I saw Sally's neighborhood. It is cute. Where I would live if I lived in LA. Thursday We hiked to the Hollywood Sign. Pictures were taken from behind. Pesky fog put a slight damper on an otherwise amazing view from the top. Life goal #1 accomplished thanks to Sally. We met my cousin Sharon for Korean lunch. It honestly wasn't bad! Sharon took us to Family Guy. I saw the office and what a few people do there. It was a fascinating look into a world of complexities I never even thought about. I wish I could see Sharon more often. Sally's friend and former coworker Auggie took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of CBS. I got a second look into the world that makes television go. An empty lot vs a fully built set. The difference is astonishing. Auggie was very funny and couldn't have been a better host. Sally, her friend Huston, and I eat at a French place near her abode. Huston was very nice and I got to know him far less than I would have cared to. Sally and I went to a variety show at The Groundlings. I enjoyed it. I think Sally enjoyed it more. Friday I was on the phone for a good portion of the morning for a (potential, probable) work-related matter. Sally took me paddleboarding. I am good at balancing on a paddleboard, the thing most people have trouble with. I am terrible at making a paddleboard go, the thing most people can do easily. Paddleboarding absolutely destroyed my back. I spent the better portion of the evening taking it easy and taking anti-inflammitories. Sally's friend Ben invited her over to listen to an album on her record player. That album turned out to be soon-to-be-released "Night Visions" by Imagine Dragons. I listened to to it with her and Ben and Dan, who just so happened to be two members of the band. No big deal. Ben and Dan both made me laugh a lot. They, too, were good people. I've since heard a song of theirs during the preview for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Saturday Saturday was spent mostly in the car. Sally drove us something like 10 hours up to northern California. The drive consisted of the ocean on our left, the mountains on our right. I got carsick cause I'm a huge wuss, noncolorfully speaking. We talked a whoooole bunch. Luckily she is a great conversationalist. She introduced me to "This American Life". I am now a big fan. Italian dinner. The waiters were in formal attire. Very nice. Sunday Sally took me to meet her friend Greg in San Fransisco. Greg is a director, currently working on a project for the Discovery channel. We three got a spot of tea. Soon Greg and Sally will be working together on a full-length feature film. I am fully excited for both of them. Greg tells great stories and is was very entertaining. I met Sally's friend Audrey and her husband Kyle. We went shopping for a dinner party. We had said dinner party. There I met Sally's mother and sister. All those involved made me feel right at home. The dinner was delicious and the party was one of my favorite nights, entirely thanks to the people. Monday I. WENT. TO. GOOGLE. I had lunch at Google with Sally and a designer named Michael. He introduced us to a few of his fellow Googlers and told Sally and I what to see on campus. I'm glad Sally is a great people person. I was too stoked/overwhelmed/excited to do or say anything of actual value. We went to the Google Store. I got $140 worth of Google swag. I call it swag cause that's what they called it. I paid for it using my Android phone and Google Wallet (naturally) We also watched the movie Premium Rush. Google outshined the movie easily. GOOGLE! THE GOOGLE! Life goal #2 accomplished thanks to Sally Tuesday I ate breakfast with three Hansons. They are great people. I was glad I got to see them again. Can't wait for next time. We went to a redwood forest. The trees there reminded me of myself. Tall and extremely good looking. I saw a couple small towns where I could easily see myself settling down with a family. I saw Sally's high school. It was strangely deserted for being in session. We ate and hung out on the beaches of northern California for the better part of the day. It was a perfect cap on the perfect trip, to be cliched. Wednesday #2 I swallowed sadness and flew home. Don't get me wrong. I love the people here. I just don't love the +20 degree temperature difference and the lack of a certain very charismatic and enthusiastic friend. The whole experience opened my eyes to not only the great ways of California, but the greatness of travel and new life experiences. As they say, I was blind, but now I see.
Tyler, I want you to really listen to me... My eyes are open. That Fight Club reference didn't match the picture in mood or tone... but if I get an opportunity to reference Fight Club you should bet I'll do it.
Reoccurring themes from the trip: Sally's friends and family are wonderful, treated me very nicely, and were generally fun to be around. Sally impressed me in some new way. I don't think I've ever owed anyone a bigger thank you in my entire life. I don't know how I could possibly begin to repay her. I will start by just saying it...
Thank you, Sally.
- I arrived at the airport to leave an hour and half early due to eagerness. The terminal was empty.
- The first place Sally took me was a beach in Malibu. It yielded one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.
- We hiked the Hollywood sign... ended up behind it somehow. The fog makes this picture not do justice for how beautiful Los Angeles is. Also worth noting: LA is more to the right.
- We met with my cousin Sharon for Korean lunch. The stuff in those bowls was mostly edible food!
- Sharon is a character designer at Family Guy (not pictured) also, sometimes American Dad (pictured!). Side note: The bottle I'm holding is carbonated water. Apparently that's a thing there. I don't get it.
- Sally used to work at CBS. She pulled a few strings and I a one-man tour of their lot. I saw, among other awesome things, the Big Wheel!
- This is the air of confidence of a man who thinks he can probably handle paddleboarding on the Pacfic.
- This is the stubbornly defeated pose of a man who can make a paddleboard turn, but can't make it go forward.
- San Fransisco has a hill or two.
- This picture was taken just to prove Sally is a hippie hippie hippie.
- I got some swag at Google. I WENT TO GOOGLE. AAAAAA!!!!!!!
- 1 big goof and 3 wonderful wonderful people. Breakfast with the Hansons.
- Amongst the redwoods I never felt more at home.
- Northern California beaches are definitely my cup of tea. I had a cup of tea in San Fransisco, by the way. Not shown: the sequence of shots showing that I fell over backwards doing this handstand.
- The (now official) Sally and Aaron signature pose. Faces not representative of the overall nature of the trip.
"Whoa!" "DUDE!" and/or "That is amazing!' Me, constantly
"Thanks for reaffirming a commonly held stereotype" Ira Glass, quoted to the best of my memory from this edition of my new favorite way to pass the time in a car, This American Life
"Lily, how about take off your humble pants" Sally Hanson
"Sometimes you make funny jokes" Sally Hanson's accidentally cutting compliment. Quote of the trip.
title: '#448 - Workout Routine, Routine' description: How to lift and how to go about how you lift tags:
- LIFE date: 2024-01-18T00:00:00.000Z aliases:
- '#448 - Workout Routine, Routine'
- '#448' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '448'
I’ve been doing the same basic routine for the past few years, for the most part. I don’t think I’ve ever shared it on here. It was New Year’s Resolutions time, so why not share a thing that I’ve enjoyed that I believe to be pretty alright.
Full body. No set “days per week”, but ideally at least 3. Each workout is built around three of the “big 6” compound exercises, one or two sets of accessory exercises, and takes around 45 minutes to complete.
![[448-1.png]]
Compound exercises 1, 2, and 3 are dependent on the day.
| Day | 5x5 Lift | 4x7 Lift | 3x10 Lift | Accessory Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day A | Squat | Bench | Pull Up | Chest |
| Day B | Deadlift | Bent Over Row | Overhead Press | Biceps |
| Day C | Pull Up | Squat | Bench | Core |
| Day D | Overhead Press | Deadlift | Bent Over Row | Shoulders |
| Day E | Bench | Pull Up | Squat | Shoulders |
| Day F | Bent Over Row | Overhead Press | Deadlift | Triceps |
Proceed through the days A to F in order. Then start again at A.
Miscellaneous notes:
- You can swap out similar variations for any given compound exercise (e.g. incline bench instead of bench).
- Weighted pull-ups and assisted pull-ups should be used to hit the rep ranges.
- Rest periods should be 1-3 minutes between sets
It’s not “optimal” to literally do the same routine for forever. Your body adapts to new loads and stressors, then you hit a plateau. This is the law of diminishing returns in action. To combat this, you have to change things up from time to time. But - if you’re constantly changing things up, you may not stay on any one thing long enough to progress it. So, the right approach is something in between. Many workout programs are scheduled to last for 8 to 12 weeks with this in mind. The approach to how you vary your routine up over time is something I’ve not paid enough attention to historically. That’s changing this year.
In 2024 I am going to do four different workout routines. Change things around and try to learn some. So for the next 3 months I’m not doing the routine from above that I’ve been using for years. Instead I’m doing a push/pull/legs routine, which plays nicely into my 3-2-1 goal1.
I haven’t planned the whole year out yet, but by the end of the year this table will be full.
| Jan, Feb, Mar | Apr, May, Jun | Jul, Aug, Sep | Oct, Nov, Dec |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push/Pull/Legs | Dunno yet | Dunno yet | Only curls all day |
| Eating slightly more | Dunno yet | Eating slightly less | Dunno yet |
One neat thing about this approach is that it lines up with my Generalized Fitness Benchmark tests. I will be doing the same test at the end of each 3 month routine. In theory this should allow me to objectively observe results of each time span.
Also, obviously, my Personal Data Warehouse keeps me honest.
This post is too long. I switched weightlifting apps after 8 years with the Strong App. I now use Hevy, which is essentially a clone of Strong, but with additional niceties. I recommend it.
Sadly, there isn’t a workout app that tracks per lift strength training progress and heart rate/pacing info during runs. So, my tools for fitness tracking are still an amalgamation of things.
Spotlight is a feature of iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS. It is part search box, part command prompt, and it’s the main way I do LOTS of things on my iPad and Mac. It is single-handedly the main reason why I now get a little bit frustrated when I switch to my Windows machine or any of my Raspberry Pis (which run Linux).
The shortcut to pull up spotlight is cmd + space. I use it for:
- Opening new apps
- Running Siri Shortcuts (which I do multiple times/day)
- Adding new reminders
- Adding new events to my calendar
- Initiating Google Searches
- Doing math calculations & unit conversions
- Changing settings
I have one again. Same name. “We Scene a Movie” wherever you get your podcasts. Or here.
![[448-2.png]]
I updated [[Tools I Use|my public repo of tools I use]]. It’s current. Also it exists, if you didn’t know.
I’ve written two Columns’ worth of material on accident. My next Column will come in a week and be about my notes, which I’ve recently figured out how to re-publish to the internet.
Despite the cold spell. Despite slow progress on some long-term projects. Despite the terrible 3s. Life is really good. I'm happy. In case you were wondering.
They got rewarded for needing a crutch. Jeff Fuller - about people solving a puzzle using the clues I provided, rather figuring it out
date: 2013-04-20T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- META
- TOOLS title: '#79 - Pros & Cons' aliases: '#79 - Pros & Cons' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '79'
This column is dedicated mostly to things I thought about during my Thailand trip that didn't necessarily really belong on the last post. When contemplating things, I almost always make mental pros and cons lists - so that is the theme for today's post.
For my travels to Thailand, I flew Delta. Normally I book travel through a Expedia or Kayak or some other 3rd party travel site; but for this trip I went directly through the airline's website. Here are some thoughts about that and about my experiences on this trip:
Pros: Going directly through the airline's website makes flight switching and cancellations easier. Delta in particular offers a spectacular in-flight experience for international travel. Each passenger has a ~8 inch touch screen built into the seat in front of him. This screen rotates up and down to accommodate different heights. Things available for FREE: Movies. Music. TV shows. Games. And the selection was actually really good; and YOU got to pick what YOU wanted to watch/do WHEN and IF you wanted. Here's a very incomplete list of what they had: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World All four Pirates movies All three Batman movies (the new ones) 500 Days of Summer Silver Linings Playbook Star Trek (the new one) All the Avengers movies (which I'm writing more about in my next column) The Watch Yes Man Wreck it Ralph The two most recent Bourne movies Brave Bridesmaides Crazy, Stupid Love The Departed Horrible Bosses How to Train Your Dragon In Bruges Les Miserable All three Lord of the Rings The Hobbit And probably a hundred more.
Cons: Delta is not impervious to delays. I had 6 total flights on this trip. 2 of them were delayed. I am so very fortunate that it happened to be the last leg of the journey both times (I didn't have subsequent flights to miss).
Thailand uses the metric system. Thai money is called "Baht", and each baht is roughly 3 cents in American money. Here are my thoughts about both of those things: Pros: When pricing things in stores, baht makes more sense. You want a candy bar and a water? That's 30 baht. It's not "$1.98... but really $2.27 with tax". The system is easier and more logical. Another thing I came to appreciate is how the value of their coins and bills is weighted. In America, $1 doesn't get you much of anything. If you want a cheap meal, you usually need a $5 plus some additional bills or coins. Baht is different. Baht comes in coin form, then there are 20, 100, 500, and 1000 baht bills (that I saw). This translates to ~$0.66, ~$1.33, $16.67, and $33.33. Things over there are a little bit cheaper in general, so these amounts work out pretty well. A 20 baht bill gets you a snack. 100 baht bill gets you a meal. 500 baht gets you a new outfit. 1000 baht will feed you for a week at the grocery store. The value their bills are broken into makes paying for thing with physical money less of a hassle. I like kilometers. They are more useful than miles. A mile is a loooong distance. Within a city, miles are almost useless. You have to say things like "half a mile", "quarter of a mile", etc. The precision you get with Kilometers is useful in urban environments. Also for speed. Kilograms and grams make more sense to me than pounds and ounces. Why is there 16 ounces in a pound? Why is base 10 wrong all of the sudden? And why 16? If you're going to break base 10 for anything - choose base 12. Or base 2. The electrical engineer in me makes me have to include that (I'm neglecting to mention that base 16 is also important for EE work).
Cons: Their bills are all different lengths. The higher value bills are longer than the smaller value bills. This makes sense, but it's not as convenient for bill storage. Meters aren't as useful for measuring height. For me, it's easier to break down height into X feet and Y inches, instead of just Z centimeters. It's kind of the opposite of the money situation. Celsius is only 5/9ths as precise as Fahrenheit. In my life, the relevant temperatures exist (except for the extreme cases) between 0 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Celsius this roughly corresponds to -18 and 38 degrees. Fahrenheit makes more sense in terms of daily life. I am not water. I wish the whole world ran the same system... that I got to orchestrate.
Thailand marked the first time I got to use my Maxpedition Sitka the way I always envisioned it being used. It was an illuminating experience and it made me aware of some things I didn't know I liked about the bag and some things I didn't know I didn't like. My thoughts: Pros: My bag has some security features built in that I never really appreciated before. The zippers of all three main compartments can be pulled to a single point of the bag. At this point is a tie-down system that you can corral and cinch down all the zippers in. This system is subtle and its use is entirely optional. If you choose to use it, to get into any of the compartments, you have to uncinch the tie-down cord, loosen it, then do the zipping. This theft deterrent was much appreciated when I had a bag containing everything important in my life behind me on a very crowded bus or train. It adds some confidence that you'd notice if someone was trying to get into your bag. The integrated water bottle holder is fantastic. Nalgenes fit like a glove and hold a LOT of water. There are two different places within the bag that perfectly accommodate my tablet. This allows for some flexibility with packing things. The one-shoulder sling-around design is awesome. When sitting on public transportation I didn't have to stop and awkwardly flail my elbows around to remove my bag before sitting down. I just slung the bag around in front of me and plopped down with it on my chest. When I did that, I could easily get in to my stuff. The Sitka is the perfect size for your "personal item" on an airplane. It is small enough to slide easily under the seat in front of you and leave some foot room, but big enough to carry entertainment for a 12 hour flight. I think the bag looks kind of cool. In pictures it looks like it is meant to be there, at least moreso than a bookbag. It seems more of a "part of you/your outfit", and less of an afterthought.
Cons: The one-shoulder design causes back pain and more shoulder fatigue than I expected. You can mitigate this by packing lightly, but it only helps to a point. Even with only the absolute bare essentials, your shoulder and back will hurt after a few hours of walking. This could be aided by a bag that allows you to switch shoulders... but the Sitka doesn't. Cinching the whole bag tighter to my torso and using the supplemental stabling strap helps... but not enough. I had to strap it on backwards or take it off and carry it like a briefcase to give my shoulder and back a break on a daily basis. Originally I thought the Sitka was the perfect size for every occasion... but I was wrong. It's too small to pack for a 3 day trip (where something the size of a full bookbag would be perfect) and packing for a day of walking around leaves a ton of empty space (the main compartment was usually empty - all my storage needs were met by the smaller compartments). It sits at a kind of awkward in-between stage. It definitely excels more for "put your stuff in a bag to take to your friend's place for the night"-type situations. Doing a bit more research into this area I find many of the same bags I considered originally almost a year ago. I even ran across a couple in Thailand:
5.11 Rush 6 - smaller & lighter but with and overall wonky appearance and without a waterbottle holder. I am not going to get a new EDC Bag. All the ones I looked at were flawed. My Sitka is the least of all evils.
Preface Pros: I was a little more in the moment. The nagging thought "you should check your phone" subsided not too long after I removed my SIM card. I had to make peace with "not knowing". This is something you don't have to do much when you have a fully functioning smartphone. How many fluid ounces are there in a cup? I didn't know. I couldn't know. I just had to be okay with not knowing. I was more connected with nature and each of the environments I found myself in.
Cons: I had no refuge for when things got overwhelming. If I get too stressed out by any given situation, I can usually look to my smartphone for a distracting and stress-reducing minute or two. Without it, when I was uncomfortable and Melissa wasn't available to chat, I had to sit there with my discomfort. This could be looked at as a good thing, a growing experience... but it certainly made a few occasions harder. During the multiple occasions we were lost or hungry, I was completely unable to help. This was the cause of some of those stressful occasions I just mentioned. I couldn't talk with anyone who wasn't directly in front of me. If I wanted to send a message to my parents that I was alive and doing fine, I had to go through Melissa. I did this on a couple of occasions - but it would have been nice to be able to send pictures and notifications when I so pleased.
One final note: Blog News! Google just integrated Google+ Comments with Blogger. Now, the comments you post of the Google+ announcement of each post will show up underneath the actual post!
Sweet.
Top 5: Pretentious Ways I can Start Sentences With (and will!) 5. When I was with my Navy SEAL buddy the other day, we were talking about our mutual Division 1 National Champion friend who... 4. Ah, I remember when I was getting the personal tour of CBS Studios I ... 3. When I was in New York visiting my my sister at the D1 school she played volleyball for I remember... 2. My fiance, the former beauty pageant contestant and current US Ambassador in Asia is...
- Oh yes, when I was snorkeling in the Andaman sea off the southern coast of Thailand I...
“He's standing on something, right?” A fellow farang (foreigner) said this to her friend while we were all standing in the monorail running through Bangkok... I don't think she guessed I would hear her and chuckle about it later.
description: The Internet's Home for Chaos Art tags:
- TECH
- FEATURE date: 2022-04-10T00:00:00.000Z title: '#419 - Love Letter to r/Place' aliases: '#419 - Love Letter to r/Place' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '419'
The internet is home of some of the absolute greatest1 things that humanity has to offer.
- The index to all knowledge.
- The worlds biggest and best encyclopedia.
- The most advanced calculator ever conceived of.
- An unending font of entertainment and education.
- The most dynamic organization tool ever made.
Amongඞthose ranks, I believe /r/Place deserves to go down as one of humanity’s best artistic achievements.
Reddit, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, is a social media network that likes to call itself 'the front page of the internet’. Unlike, say, Twitter or Facebook, in Reddit you don’t follow individual people, instead you follow topics which are are broken out into ‘subreddits’. Links are posted by the users in each subreddit and upvoted or downvoted depending on how much other users valued the content.
On April Fool’s day, 2017, the subreddit /r/Place was created. Unlike other subreddits, r/Place housed not only a never ending list of posts, but also a web application/distributed social art experiment.
There was a canvas. Any logged-in user could choose to place a colored square (aka ‘tile’) somewhere on that canvas. After placing your tile, a cooldown timer counted down (typically 5 minutes) until you could place another tile. In theory, you could build your own little piece of art or write your name pixel-by-pixel slowly over time. But that’s not what happened. No tiles were safe. The canvas was a 1000 by 1000 grid. All one million places were filled within a couple hours. When you tried to build something by yourself, it was doomed to be covered over by a group of users who choose to work together to do something else.
Fun fact that doesn’t fit anywhere else in this post: r/Place was created by a guy named “Josh Wardle”... who also created “Wordle”.
In 2017 I tried to make something myself, like I’m sure 90% of people who participated did. After 2 or 3 very quickly squashed attempts, I banded up with the users of /r/SHIELD to work together on a chunk of canvas that we dedicated to the then-ongoing “Agents of Hydra” subplot2 of Season 4 of the show “Agents of SHIELD”. We held our ground amongstඞthe furious fighting and our little contribution, imperfect as it was, remains a part of internet history.
This is what Reddit made, through a great and beautiful chaos, between 4/1/2017 and 4/4/2017:
Here was the little chunk I helped with:
The Hydra logo is near the bottom right corner of the full image.
The final image is THE product of 2017 /r/Place... but it’s not the only interesting thing that came out of it. There were articles analyzing how the web app was made, how individual groups formed, and how well the content of the final image represented a cross section of internet culture at the time. There were two other big products worth mentioning.
This is the entire 3 day experience packed into 46 seconds. This particular video gives you a chance to see the whole picture, but then focuses in on different sections of the board to see how the individual artworks formed, evolved, and died over time.
{% include video id="RCAsY8kjE3w" provider="youtube" %}
This is a scrollable, zoomable, scrubbable interactive timelapse of the whole 2017 r/Place. I had no idea this existed until just now. It is incredible.
There’s even this wonderful place-atlas project that shows you just how much was packed into the original r/Place. You can get lost exploring the atlas. Only the brave amongඞus should dare enter.
The popularity of r/Place may have caught Reddit by surprise. Every single year there were plenty of users who called for a resurgence of r/Place. People asked for it to be an annual event. People reminisced about the 3 days they spent creating together. The internet, as a whole, regarded r/Place as a triumph of culture, art, community, and engineering.
Several days in advance of April Fool’s day this year, Reddit announced they were reviving r/Place. I felt nostalgia crossed with excitement. We all knew what it was like last time. We knew to be excited. What we didn’t know, though, was that this year was going to be different.
Day 1 worked exactly like the 2017 edition of r/Place worked. The canvas was 1000x1000. There were 16 colors. I allied up with a group of folks who were making an art piece dedicated to the long awaited sequel to my favorite game of all time - Hollow Knight. A group of subscribers to the /r/HollowKnight subreddit built a new sub specifically to coordinate the placement of HK art amongඞthe chaos. The new subreddit /r/hkplace spawned a Discord server, for more tactical and immediate communication, several templates were created, shared, voted on, and ultimately implemented by us 3000+ people on the Discord chat server. At the end of Day 1 we’d successfully built a 75x78 art piece in a prominent position.
That’s “the Hornet” from Hollow Knight, who will be the main character of the long awaited sequel “Silksong”. She was built, coincidentally, right next to the logo for the game “Elden Ring” (not pictured above). The two games share a lot of common elements and an overlapping fanbase, so the communities decided to partner up to help each other out.
Sometime shortly into Day 2, the canvas unexpectedly doubled in size to 1000x2000, and the color selection grew by 50% to 24 colors. People reformulated their plans. Groups that were already successful sometimes spawned entirely new works of art together. Groups that had previously failed tried again. We created a 2nd piece in collaboration with a dozen+ other indie game followings.
The Knight from Hollow Knight is sitting with Ranni the witch, from Elden Ring, surrounded by characters from other games.
As most were predicting, Day 3 saw another expansion to both the canvas and color palette. When all was said and done, the canvas was 2000x2000, a full four times bigger than the original r/Place - and the color palette was twice as complex. Combining those factors the size, scope, and fidelity of 2022’s r/Place was completely unexpected.
With the expanded canvas, the coordinated groups grew more and more ambitious. None moreso than the French, who claimed (and for the most part successfully defended) nearly 1/10th of the final section just by themselves.
My faction continued the collab with Elden Ring, placing yet another Hollow Knight character superimposed over a tree from the Elden Ring lore.
All said and done, the collaboration between r/Eldenring and /HKPlace represented 24500 pixels, aka 0.6% of the total surface area. Three thousand of us chatting, splitting into dedicated groups to serve specific roles, running democratic votes, and planning collaborations with factions representing entire countries managed to do something great, yet we represented less than 1 percent of the total space. If that’s not any indication of how big r/Place was, I don’t know what is.
I was there when it all disintegrated.
The original 2017 experiment ended when the site stopped letting you place new tiles. Suddenly the way things were at that moment were the way they would be forever. Everyone spent the past 4 days assuming that's what would happen sometime today. We jockeyed for position and held our territory, hoping it would look like what we wanted when time ran out.
But that's not what happened. I was defending my chosen artwork when I noticed that the color palette went from 24 colors to one color: white. Reddit threw a switch and the only tiles anyone could place were white. So that’s what the people did.
Everywhere, all at once, the canvas and all the collaborations amongstඞmillions of people began disintegrating at once. All we could do was watch, or help end things faster. Once the final pixel turned white, /r/Place was over.
So this is how the Place ends. Not with a bang, but with a whiter.
(⬆ That's a blank white picture, in case it wasn't clear.)
Just before I posted this, Reddit publicly released everything from 2022’s r/Place - including this scrollable, zoomable version of the Canvas!
This is the state of the canvas after the final colored tile was placed:
I can’t believe this got made already. The Place Atlas 2 currently has 7000 entries pointing out things in the final image and given them some context. If you were so inclined, you could waste an entire day looking around.
Imagine if someone would do that. Can you imagine.
🙄
Total tiles placed: 160+ Million. Unique users who placed tiles: 10.4+ million.
An immediate and enduring mainstay of both 2017 and 2022 was the presence of national flags... often highly elongated flags.
In 2017 the overlapped area between the French and German flags was turned by both countries into the flag for the European Union.
This year around, people didn’t settle for just a flag. Every nation that could hold the space turned their flag into a national work of art:
Dotted all around the canvas between adjacent pieces of art you’ll find hearts that split in half . These came to mean the teams working on each art piece agreed to respect the border, or event to help each other out.
The groups fell into four basic categories - people working in the name of a country, a video game (or video game streamer), a meme, and then everybody else. This was the pattern in 2017. It was the pattern again in 2022.
A so-called “cult” of 2017’s /r/Place was ‘The Void’. It popped up several times throughout the experiment, dragging down all surrounding art into a black spindly mass of horror. The Void came back time and time again around the canvas. It found an enduring home on Day 3’s expansion, until collectively, we reached out of the void.
Other similar factions included the Blue Corner, Rainbow Road, and the Green Lattice.
Not around in 2017, the viral social game “AmongඞUs” played the biggest role in 2022’s /r/Place. The colored AmongඞUs characters with their signature backpacks and visors started popping up all over the canvas, invading every other art piece. Estimates of a single snapshot taken near the end placed the Amongi count in the mid-2000s. In every textured surface in the art we created, there would inevitably be someone hiding these characters amongඞus.
Top: original image.
Bottom: Modified by me to accentuate the fully-in-tact and well-formed crewmates hidden amongඞus. Open the ‘official’ final image above and zoom in... you’ll see them everywhere.
Maybe the real art was the friends we made along the way. u/ggAlex
title: '#124 - Mid-October' date: '2013-10-17' aliases:
- '#124 - Mid-October'
- '#124' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '124'
Motto: the Fattening
The October Project is half over. Brief recap - I'm doing a month long project that can basically be summarized as "Eat more, workout more"; and it's half over. Although I've done a shakey-at-best job of meeting my goals, it has already revealed a couple of interesting things:
First off, I now weigh 227 lbs... meaning I've gained 7 pounds in 17 days. I think the majority of that weight has been in areas I wasn't hoping to gain weight in - but I think some of it went where I wanted. If I hit 235 lbs (another 7 pounds) before the end of October I'm going to STOP. Note that 235 lbs is not my goal weight. I think 225 is probably where I'd like to be. Having said that, I'm 227 right now and still trying to gain weight because I'm stubborn and because I don't like to give up on projects.
The other, much more interesting thing that's happened is my macronutrient ratio has remained 99% constant. Macronutrients are basically groups of different nutrients your body needs. Some fitness folks/dietitians will tell you you should maintain certain ratios for optimal health, so I decided to track them. That's all I know about them really - other than I apparently CANNOT change my ratios! At all! I've been focusing on getting more fats and proteins... and the data shows that I absolutely cannot.
Let's break it down:
Basically, despite an intentional change in eating habits I have only affected my macronutrient ratios by less than a percentage point.
Like I said - weirdly consistent.
Speaking of changes involving food -
There's still no official announcement for the Android 4.4 (Kitkat) or the Nexus 5. I'm bummed. I ate a Kitkat today to console myself. I've eaten more Kitkats since they announced Android's upcoming "Kitkat" name than I have eaten in the past 3 years combined. I think Nestle owes Google a big thanks.
Other odds & ends -
I am listening to one of my favorite podcasts, This Week in Google, and they just mentioned the other podcast I always listen to, This American Life. It was awesome.
Last night I went with my good friend Nick to watch Bo Burnham do his new standup comedy routine "What". It was great. It was genius. It was probably the most entertained I've ever been by someone performing on a stage.
Also - there's this picture.
Top 5: Things I'm Hoping for with the Nexus 5 (and am almost guaranteed)
5. Your standard "faster processor, faster gpu, etc etc etc faster faster" stuff
4. At least a bit of a battery life bump over the Nexus 4 (keep the wireless charging, though)
3. Optical Image Stabilization
2. LTE Service
1. That I can get one
Quote:
“I'm a realist. When life gives you lemons... You probably just found the lemons.”
- Bo Burnham -
title: '#175 - List of Projects' date: '2014-06-08' aliases:
- '#175 - List of Projects'
- '#175' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '175'
Motto: The Project Project is Projected to be a Success
I do projects. That's what I do.
This post will be written in a Buzzfeed-type fashion. A list of things with a picture to represent each thing. Basically I'm serving up Facebook sharing gold here.
A list of the Medium-to-Long term projects I am working on (in some capacity):
"Don't Panic" - a comprehensive review of education.
Think of it as a personal wikipedia, written entirely by (and for) myself, covering the scope of things that I learned in academia. One day I realized that I wasn't going to retain everything I ever learned, but I was pretty good and taking what I learned, organizing it, and presenting it in such a way I could relearn it quickly. The project is still in its early beginning stages even though I started it over 3 years ago. One day I'll pick it back up and keep going with it. Then I'll give it to my children, who will find it very helpful (provided they study Electrical Engineering).
http://aarongilly.com or http://wvz7x7.com or whatever - a legitimized website version of the Column with bonus whatever else I feel like putting up there.
I have given a brief history of the Column several times throughout the Column (there's a whole "meta" tag for a reason). Basically, it all started with a geocities site. Then Xanga. Then a website. Then Tumblr. Then this Blogger. All previous instantiations of the Column are long gone. I'd like to go back to a website now that I have an idea of what I'm doing. Incorporate videos, projects, blogs, pictures, whatever I feel like. Yup.
"My Nth Year" - My running video-for-a-second-a-day project.
I stole the idea for "My 24th Year" from a video called "What Madeline Did in 2011" that I found early on in 2012. I'd link to her video, but it's pulled down. You can find re-uploads of it if you Google it, though. Either way. I successfully filmed every day last year and put together my favorite video I've ever made. I'm 54 days away from completing "My 25th Year". That means I"m 55 days away from starting "My 26th Year". I don't plan on stopping this project any time soon. Maybe at my funeral there will be a screening of a (hopefully) super long video where you can see snippets of my entire life. Maybe not.
The Life Tracker - My running "track ALL the things!" project.
A year and a couple of months back I had an idea for a huge project: a one-stop-shop for tracking everything in life that I was letting run away from me. Over the next few weeks I learned how to write scripts for Google Spreadsheets and Google Forms and threw together the Life Tracker. It has been expanded upon and improved for over a year now. I've managed to track about 75% of the weeks between its initial inception and today. In fact, today is marks the end of my 40th week Life Tracking. Thanks to this project I can tell you that I eat 2635 calories/day on average. Those calories are 34.5% from fat, 45.2% from carbohydrates, 19.9% from protein, and 0.4% from alcohol (I only know that one because of the process of elimination). I work out 2.4 times per week (not enough). I spend too much money. I am better at accomplishing managerial and social tasks than I am mental, physical, and work related ones.
Build a Computer - from scratch ("scratch").
I know phones pretty well. I am alright with tablets, too. I do not know computers. This is pretty bad for a guy who studied Computer Engineering for a few weeks (in my defense, I did change majors for a reason). I want a future-proof rig built around my personal tastes and needs. That is to say, one with a boatload of storage and the internals necessary for prosumer-level video editing. I think I'll be a videomaker for quite some time into the future.
Leave Windows - Microsoft, more like Microhard...ly interested.
That was stretch. Anyway, I don't like Microsoft anymore. I don't want to depend on any of their products in my everyday life. While I do a hefty portion of my computing on my Chromebook nowadays, Chromebooks will probably never full encompass all my computing needs. I'm mostly interested in Linux at this point, but I haven't ruled out joining the legions of Apple users, either. I'm waiting for Elementary OS ISIS to come out and My 26th Year video to come to a close before I start considering the switch. A major limiting factor right now is the decrepit state of Video Editors on Linux. I will retain hope.
Android Development - writing applications for Android.
I am a huge fan of Android. I have coding experience. Why don't I write applications for Android? That's a great question. I've taken preliminary planning steps towards my ultimate goal of creating a better Life Tracker as an Android application. I could write a whole post about my plans for this, but I'll just leave it off with the rough screen mockup from above. I'm waiting to set up a coding environment until after Google I/O at the end of this month... also maybe until I make the switch from Windows to something else. Maybe I'll develop on that Linux computer I'm going to build from scratch, eh?
Set up a Home Media Server & combined digital library - I should be able to see my own content on all my stuff.
Melissa and I have developed a respectable collection of photos, music, and videos. The problem is that those things exist in little silos on our computers. I can access her music. She can't access my photos. Neither of us can watch the dumb videos I make on our TV (unless we go through YouTube). I have digital copies of my entire DVD collection that do me no good. I want to set up a Home Media Server - likely using PLEX. I want to create higher-quality digital copies of my physical media. I want to buy all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Blu-Ray and digitize it. I'm not sure which type of implementation I'd like to pursue - Network Attached Storage or just running it off a computer. Maybe I'll run it off on that Linux computer I'm building from scratch to use for Android Development?
Learn to Music - I fully anticipate the .gif above will embarrass my wife.
I am married to a Music Teacher/Therapist. My wife can play instruments I've never even seen before, my father-in-law plays in a band from time to time, and I can't keep a steady beat to save my life. I want to learn how to play enough music to actually enjoy my time with a guitar/piano/whatever. I'd love to be able to record music with Melissa someday. Right now, I'd be about as useful as a goat in a recording studio. Maybe I'll be able to record and mix music on that Linux computer I'm building from scratch to use for Android Development and Home Media Serving?
30 Day Challenges - Yes, I'm still doing these.
October of last year: Eat a ton of protein and workout 5 days a week - success!
January: Paleo + CrossFit - success!
February: Read 5 books - read 3 books
March: Write every day - success!
April: Run 50 miles - run 15 miles and stop for the rest of the month
May: Enjoy myself - massive runaway success!
June: A GoPro a Day - in progress
July: ...because I haven't figured out my Top 5 yet, I'll utilize it for future 30 Day Challenges.
Graduate School - this is a project, right?
Both Melissa and I want to put ourselves through grad school (because we're simultaneously dumb and smart). This deserves to be on this list because it's on the list I've had on my phone for the past couple of years.
Top 5: Future 30 Day Challenges
5. No Reddit, Social Networking, Videogames, or Television
4. Become a Yes Man
3. Spend an Hour Outside Every Day
2. Eat Out Zero Times
1. Accomplish One of the Projects Listed in this Column
Quote:
“At first it's like beer fruit loops, but then it's just fruit loops fruit loops.”
- Melissa -
title: '#186 - Fitness Baseline' date: '2014-07-21' aliases:
- '#186 - Fitness Baseline'
- '#186' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '186'
Motto: Bro, do You Even Lift? (or run? or stretch?)
I've been working my new job position for a few months now. I see parts of it creeping into my regular life. I've begun thinking about some things in terms of "deliverables" and begun using terms like "baselining". Today's post was written to satisfy an idea I had earlier today. Also, the Top 5 is kind of interesting.
Melissa and I were talking about our medium-to-long term plans and goals. We touched on our 3-5 year plan. Nothing set in stone, but we've introduced each other to our desires and expectations. One of the things we agreed on was the a continuation of the "healthy" focus we've had. In fact, we want to become even more health-conscious. I told her that, even though I look a little better than I used to, I don't really feel any better. I don't feel "fit". I wouldn't feel "fit" until...
Then I trailed off.
Then I made this face:
What is my definition of "fit"? I mean, what does that even mean? How would I know if I were there?
Looking up "fitness baseline testing" I've found some of the following:
- Pushup/pullup tests - as many as possible
- One-rep max for press, bench, squat, and deadlift - doing 1x, 1.5x, 2x, and 2.5x your body weight, respectively.
- 1, 2, 3 mile run - 5, 12, and 19 minutes seem like common baselines
- CrossFit Baseline WOD - Row 500 M, 40 air squats, 30 sit ups, 20 pushups, 10 pullups for time
I found most of those things across a few different sources. There were a few more things, but it boiled down to the above + cruft. That's what other people tend to think a "fit" person could do.
I think it's fair to say that "Fit" is subjective and ever-changing. I've told my buddies that I want to be able to lift heavy things, run far distances, jump with agility, and still be able to touch my toes. My definition of fit is different from yours, theirs, or anyone else's - because I'm the one applying it.
So, what should I be able to do before I consider myself "fit"?
Here's what I'll consider a "rough draft" list:
- Run 1 mile in 6 minutes
- Run 3 miles in 20 minutes
- Hold a plank for 2 minutes
- Do 50 pushups in a set
- Do 15 pullups in a set
- Press 75% my bodyweight
- Bench my bodyweight
- Squat 150% my bodyweight
- Deadlift 175% my bodyweight
- Mastery over some of the more common-yet-difficult yoga poses - crane, half moon, twisted half moon, warrior 3, tree, standing splits
Spoiler: I can't do all of those things. I don't think I can do any of those things right now. And what's sad is I already adjusted all those goals downward to set myself up for actual success.
Over this coming week I think I'm going to try to test myself with all of the above goals to establish a fitness baseline. Pending follow through, results will show up here in the form of a new post in about 6 days.
These aren't my long-term goals. Eventually, I'd like to be in the "1000 pound club" (combined bench, squat, deadlift total of over 1/2 ton)... but I've got several years worth of work to do, I think, before I could get to that.
The Top 5 comes from a new summary view I added to my Life Tracker: Diet by day of the week. It's also the view that lets me see what my high scores are. High score calories: 4770 in a day. High score protein: 266 grams. High score on fats: 208 grams. High score on carbs: 583 grams. None of those figures came from the same day as any other.
Top 5: Days of the Week in which I Eat the Most
5. Friday - 2582 cals on average (stdev = 684 cals)
4. Sunday - 2582 cals on average (stdev = 671 cals)
3. Saturday - 2710 cals on average (stdev = 584 cals)
2. Thursday - 2754 cals on average (stdev = 691 cals, highest standard deviation)
1. Tuesday - 2762 cals on average (stdev = 562 cals, lowest standard deviation)... the most interesting one. Why do I eat so much, so consistently on Tuesday?
Quote:
“if you can pull 500 on deadlift but can't clip your toenails... what good is that?”
- Josh -
title: '#217 - Short Google Fit Rant' date: '2014-11-05' aliases:
- '#217 - Short Google Fit Rant'
- '#217' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '217'
Motto: Google Fit, Not Quite Fit for Duty (HEADLINES, SON)
This entire update is about Google fit. If you don't care, I suggest you skip it.
I love Google Fit. It sits in the crux of things I really like. Seriously, if you threw some sort of Marvel superhero in there somehow I might explode. It shows amazing potential, but I think Google is doing a horrible job with the release.
Google Fit is an aggregation platform/app for all of the health & fitness data from the various diet, workout, sleep apps available on the Play Store. It will shine when it aggregates all of that data.
However.
Right now, this is all you can get to integrate with Google Fit:
- Strava (Beta) - a running/bicycling app
- MayMyRun - a running/bicycling app
- Runtastic - a running app
- Runkeeper - a running app
That's it... I think.
I say "I think" because there is NO WAY TO SEARCH FOR APPS INTEGRATED WITH GOOGLE FIT. They have NOT aggregated them in the Google Fit app. They have NOT aggregated them in the Google Play store. There is NO WAY to know what apps are available to use for data gathering. I found those four apps after looking online, looking at the developer site, and searching the Play Store for half an hour. I'm not happy about that. The killer app of Google Fit will be the integration... so why are you making it so difficult to find apps that play nicely? Even if there really is only 4 (which I doubt), SHOW ME THOSE FOUR! If I search for "Google Fit" on the Play Store, there are zero ZERO ZERO apps in the first 50 apps that integrate with Google Fit.
Seriously.
You're giving anyone who's not a fanatic Googler or a fanatic quantified-self advocate reason to look at the app, decide it's only a glorified pedometer app, and dismiss it.
Also - the only apps I can find so far are 4 runnings apps. Where's the diet trackers? Where's the sleep trackers? Where's the weightlifting, interval training, and/or anything other than "steady state cardio" apps? What about some sort of happiness/mood/mental well being app? What about glucose, blood pressure, or other type trackers?
The app itself also has room for some obvious improvements. What's the deal with the blue graphs here?
Those blue graphs are so short. The grey box showing me the average and range for each day is so short, it can't even display the text contained therein. There is no semblance of data resolution here. Why have a graph if you can't get information out of it?
Also, here's a specific complaint. That grey box says my average heart rate was 114 beats per minute. If that were true, I'd be in a serious pickle. My resting heart rate is somewhere around 65 in actuality. My watch, which measures my heart rate every 5 minutes, does NOT report that data into Google Fit. Instead, it only reports instances where I manually instigate a heart rate reading... which I generally only think to do when my heart rate is elevated for some reason.
Google, I see SO MUCH POTENTIAL HERE ----- but I am disappoint.
On the plus side - integration with the "LifeSum" dietary tracker is coming... and that app is beautiful. Seriously. Look at this app:
Seriously. That's gorgeous.
Top 5: Things that Need to Happen to Achieve Google Fit Zen
5. A greater number of apps to choose from for integration.
4. A greater variety of apps to choose from for integration. Heart rate. Diet. Weightlifting. Really ANY metric beyond some sort of step-based thing.
3. Integration with fitness devices. Even my Android Wear watch doesn't really do what I want.
2. Better data views.
1. A way to FIND all of these things. Why are they hiding this stuff?!? It's madness!?
Quote:
“Everything!”
- the Google Fit app's "what's new" section upon its release -
title: '#246 - What I''ve been Doing, First World Problems, & USB-C' date: '2015-06-23' aliases:
- '#246 - What I''ve been Doing, First World Problems, & USB-C'
- '#246' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '246'
Motto: Have you had enough, or are you thirsty for more?
It's been a couple of weeks, hasn't it? There's probably some good reasons for that:
Melissa and I hosting Johanna for a couple of days.
The surprise party for my dad's retirement.
Me studying for & taking the GRE.
Melissa and I spending lots of time at the pool.
All of those are contributing factors to the lack of updates; but I think the biggest thing that's affecting* my usual "Aaron projects" is the learning I'm doing on Udacity. It's made me realize that my projects could all be done in better ways. This makes me want to redo the projects again. Knowing that I'll redo them makes me less compelled to continue the effort of regular maintenance. Why write a lot if I anticipate changing the Blog over to my own website? Why do the Life Tracker if its format will soon change drastically? It's a stupid, artificial change that has had a measurable impact on my rate of productivity... and that's an effect* I was not expecting.
*After 10+ minutes of Googling & reading, I'm 90% sure I used the right form of affect/effect in these two spots.
The term "First World Problems" gained popularity around 4 years ago. It is typically used to denote trivial issues that really only effect privileged people (e.g. "My book ran out of batteries"). Today I thought about another, more real but less trivial issue that effects only those with with good means: destructive consumerism.
I don't want to get super serious on this topic. The Column is not a place where I like to dump serious stuff. It strikes me, though, that the majority of the non-poor will never fully take advantage of the opportunities that are already available to them. When you get something new it comes with a certain novelty. After a bit, the novelty wears off. Once you've used up a certain percentage of the "goodness" that you can wring out of whatever toy you got, you just move onto the next one. You never really explore EVERY possibility because you didn't have to. I was seriously looking at an Android TV device the other day. A toy which accomplishes so little beyond what my current stuff already does, that you'd have to include tons of qualifiers like "slightly" or "technically" while listing them out. My Playstation is capable of doing so much more than I use it for. The Chromecast & my computer are capable of ridiculously cool things that I haven't been forced to explore. There is a bookshelf full of books next to our couch. I've read exactly 2 of them. I probably should, but I don't.
Ostensibly, you already own everything you truly NEED to own.
Speaking of First World Problems - plugging USB ports in the wrong way is a classic. Soon, that will be a thing of the past. USB-C is coming and it's going to be great.
Top 5: Reasons I'm Looking Forward to the Coming USB-C Standard
5. It will replace USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, Firewire, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, and power cables.
4. It will replace your phone, tablet, laptop, and monitor's various cables.
3. When you have a single connector/cable to handle all of the above, your Laptop can suddenly have 4 USB ports instead of 2 USB ports, an HDMI port, and a port for power. The 2 USB-C cables in your bag can plug your laptop into the wall & your phone into your laptop. Or your phone into the wall & your laptop into a external monitor. Or your phone to an external hard drive and your laptop into your external battery pack.
2. The connector is completely reversible. You'll no longer plug things in the wrong way - or grab the wrong end of the cable. No matter how you grab it, it will work.
1. It's simple. It's clean. It will make the idea of using different cable standards for different things seem archaic in as few as 5 years. Kids won't understand that we used to have to care about WHICH cable we got. To them, plugging stuff in will be as simple as putting one of the wires from the drawer between the two things. That's it.
Quote:
“My knees and lower back would have fragmented and exploded and killed everybody in the room, and I would have to learn to walk on my hands." - Josh, positing what would happen if he squatted what Jon squats -
title: '#306 - COMEBACK CITY' date: '2017-02-07' aliases:
- '#306 - COMEBACK CITY'
- '#306' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '306'
Motto: Think Outside the Box, but Color Inside the Lines
The title of this post is not a reference to the Super Bowl. I didn't watch it. I have heard how it went, but I was too busy learning how to ski and spending the better part of my 3 hours on the slope flat on my back. The title of this post is a reference to the progress my aforementioned back has made since the end of January. It was really bugging me, as I mentioned in my previous post. In that post I didn't convey my real thoughts about how chronic pain sucks and how it affects you very well. It's the worst. It's a constant reminder that your body is limited, your time here is limited, the experiences you will have on this earth are limited by both of those factors. Rather than continue down that depressing path, I'll just say that I'm back to feeling good again! Anti-inflammatories work like a charm. As much as I hate relying on a prescription to be normal - I'd rather be on one and feeling normal than off one and gimping all over the place.
Is "gimp" an offensive term in 2017?
Anyway, my "Life Tracker" metrics have made MASSIVE improvements since my back started feeling better. I have already worked out more in February than I did in all of January. My macro ratios are back on track. Productivity is up. Everything has been going really well. It felt good enough to ski the other day. My back held up pretty well considering I spent 2 of the 3 hours we were out on the slope laying flat on it. Sometimes being 6'9" is hard.
I found out something pretty cool just now. Two of my drawings from my previous post show up in searches on Google Photos I make for the people depicted in the drawing. That is to say - I did a good enough job that Google facial recognition software realized who I was drawing.
Columns used to be shorter. They've grown over time. I'm going to make this a throwback by stopping right in the middle of th
Top 5: Favorite Movie Quotes (a.k.a. "Quotes from My Favorite Movies")
5. "'Go for it' 'You can do it'? That's not inspirational, that's suicidal. If Pickles goes for it right there, that's a dead cat. "
4. "That's my secret... I'm always angry."
3. "Name one thing you'll need a rope for."
2. "I'M THE DUDE PLAYIN' A DUDE DISGUISED AS ANOTHER DUDE!"
1. "You met me at a very strange time in my life."
Bonus Points* if you can name all 5 of those movies.
Quote:
"I suddenly wish I had a cold pack for my knee and my butt."
- Melissa -
* legally I'm obligated to tell you that no purchase is necessary to enter into the Bonus Points sweepstakes. If you're 18 or older you're eligible, just send an email to ThisIsAJoke@gmail.com**.
**I don't own that inbox. You won't get a message back.
description: A quick look at my new notetaking system. tags:
- NERDCRED
- PROJECT
- META
- FEATURE
- 30DAYS date: 2020-04-11T00:00:00.000Z title: '#390 - My Notes' aliases: '#390 - My Notes' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '390'
I have been hard at work during this forced shut-in. Every minute I'm not with my wife and son, nor sleeping, nor eating, nor practicing guitar, nor working from home, nor doing standard chores3, I have been building a new system of permanent notes.
This post is 100% about that. So bail out now if you're not interested.
It's been my ambition to never let what's important to me fall by the wayside. In a coincidence of events, one of those things I've deemed important also helps me arm myself with the tools and techniques to handle all the other things: managing my knowledge.
When I graduated college I realized if I wasn't careful I would have already achieved my maximum level of knowledge. I was fresh off classes like Partial Differential Equations and Electromagnetic Interference. I didn't want to reach 45 and realize I was dumber than I was at 25. I set out to review & summarize everything I ever learned into a sort of pseudo study guide for every class ever. As I wrote about in my previous post, I ultimately gave up on the idea (after doing a 50+ page outline, in fairness to myself).
![[390-1.png]]
Recently I've been reading a lot of books (again, wholly thanks to Libby, Axis 360, & RbDigital, and taking lots of notes. Each book had its own little summary page. Somewhere in the middle of my 24th book summary, I realized the the notes I was writing for this book that were incredibly similar to notes I'd previously written for other books... and that was happening a lot.
Enter How to Take Smart Notes.4 It changed my goal. I didn't want a bunch of independent book summaries - I wanted smart notes.
"Smart Notes" is a much less German term for the Zettelkasten Notetaking Method. In short, the Smart Notes system consists of a few basic concepts.
- Atomic Notes - short notes that cover only one idea
- Unique IDs - all notes are uniquely identified
- Linked Notes - notes reference other notes by their IDs
- Basic Tagging - notes are tagged with relevant topics or themes
- No organizational hierarchy
The end result is a mass of small notes, linked together in a network via their natural relations to one-another... very much like how ideas work in your head. You keep this repository active, and add to it incrementally for the rest of your life.
For waaay more information, check out the book, footnote 3, or watch this video.
First, I gathered all my book summaries. Then, I jotted down a short list of (literally four) online articles that I've found very insightful. After humming and hawwing for literally 3+ months, I decided on an implementation strategy. It's based in Notion.
I am utilizing two linked Databases in Notion: one for Sources and one for Notes.
My sources database contains book summaries, article summaries, names of & links to podcasts, and names of individual people. It does NOT contain "clippings" or any wholesale copy/paste content. This choice was made partially to prevent possible future plagiarization, but moreso because when I did have other people's writing in there all my searches for stuff I knew I'd written were returning results written by other people. It made the whole process of rediscovering what I already knew more difficult.
![[390-2.png]]
The sources each have properties for type (book/podcast/article/person), a relevant URL, a status (reading/atomized), a relation property to the Notes database for all the notes that source generated, then a rollup property counting the notes in the relation.
My notes database has properties for tags (multiselect), source (Linked database to "Sources"), created (auto date), updated (auto date), a summary, and a "to do" checkbox. I'm not utilizing some sort of "UID" property, because their URL functions that way. Instead my notes are named with a few keywords describing them - such as "Known/Unknown Matrix" or "Naturals vs Strivers".
![[390-3.png]]
The notes themselves are, thus far, a few paragraphs long each (on average). I utilize callouts, colors, bolding, italicizing, images, @mentions, and "links to page". I have a template that gives me a place to write the note, a horizontal rule, then a H1 header for "Related Notes". Under that header I'll manually create a series of "Link to Page" for any related notes. I also utilize @mention page links in the body of the note when I reference the concepts covered by that note (part of the reason why naming the notes something lexically useful is beneficial).
Here is my Notes database and Sources - if you really see how it's working. I intend to leave it open for viewing by anyone interested. I'm the the method isn't perfect. It could be improved upon, but seems to be working well enough for me. I can open & search the entire thing from my phone or any browser.
I can export the entire database to a .CSV with all my properties and individual markdown files whose links to other notes still function. Both methods of linking, @ links and "Links to Page", produce relative links that I can traverse between in VS Code. Images are stored in a folder per page, and in properly exclamation-mark-linked as you'd expect in Markdown. Those, too, can be traversed via clicking in VS Code (and, presumably, other tools more squarely aimed at creating a Zettelkasten).
![[390-4.png]]
I finished atomizing all 24 of my book summaries over the course of about 12 days. I read my own summaries, broke them apart into their constituent components, and created Notes for those components. As I went, I linked new Notes to notes I'd already taken. Sometimes I'd go back to a note I'd already taken and add more to it, to cover information from a different source on the same topic. Concepts like how "Routine Frees the Mind" and the benefits of "Being Unavailable" were well-covered by multiple sources.
These are all going to change immediately. This is a living database. Here's a snapshot circa this post.
![[390-6.png]]
I have 270 notes.
Currently I have 19 categories.
I've tagged notes 550 times, which means each note has two tags on average (not an important stat, but it was free).
My two highest categories are philosophy and productivity. I've got >100 notes on both of those. The third highest category, business has less than 50. I guess I'm specializing in the philosophy of productivity.
![[390-7.png]]
In that chart, blue = books, orange = articles, and grey is for other.
The most-cited (i.e. most impactful?) books I've read are Essentialism and Atomic Habits. There's a bit of recency bias with Essentialism and the 3rd most-cited book Stillness is the Key. They are both very good, but also helped out by the fact that I was actively doing this project while reading them.
I wanted to do a network diagram to display how the notes were linked, but I don't really have the means to produce such a diagram without doing an amount of work that, frankly, I'm too tired to do. I'll figure that out someday, then put it on here in whatever post.
In other news - I'm bringing color back to my Top 5s & Quotes.
- The Bullet Journal Method
- Deep Work
- Essentialism
- Getting Things Done
- Atomic Habits
Look at how much flavor is on that Dorito... regular, boring Dorito for scale.
Josh - along with a picture of two Doritos
title: '#141 - Ad Nauseum' date: '2014-02-12' aliases:
- '#141 - Ad Nauseum'
- '#141' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '141'
Motto: I'm Really Proud of the Title of this Post, Too
On the first of this month I wrote about my experiences while on a Paleo diet. I mentioned that I felt better throughout the day. I slept better. I woke up easier. I no longer had any stomach issues. Now that I've been off Paleo for a couple of weeks, I'm surprised at just how BAD it is going back to regular foods. I feel like I'm constantly nauseous or bloated. I am getting headaches. I can't fall asleep as quickly or easily. I don't sleep as well. Basically, things suck.
What I'm saying is this, I'm more impressed with how bad going back to normal food was than how good the diet made me feel. I'm talked with Melissa about this and she largely agrees - Paleo was great. It was also terrible and too restrictive, but going back to normal foods cold turkey has been rough. We have discussed a long-term dietary change. More whole foods, less boxed crap.
Speaking of Melissa -
She's great. I generally shy away from writing about her because I always feel awkward when I read other people doing this stuff type of stuff, but sometimes it just needs to be said. She's been killing it lately with planning our wedding AND she's in her first year of teaching. That takes some sort of crazy ability I can only dream of having. I have a great fiance and I'm very happy that someday soon I'll have the honor of calling her my wife.
Speaking of dreams -
I've been having this recurring daydream for the past several months that I want to share with you:
I put a couple of notebooks and a small Chromebook into my Timbuk2 bag. I sling that over my shoulder, and hop on a bike. I ride that bike to a coffee shop and fill a travel mug. Then I ride to the library. I sit down in the library for several hours over several days over several weeks, working away on a heavy project using my lightweight Chromebook running lightweight applications. I write and I write, and I create something awesome. Something that didn't exist before I sat down. Something I made using only my brain, a very simple computer, some caffeine, and the resources found at my local library.
I want to make that a reality. It's startling how many things I've done lately in the pursuit of this dream. I upgraded Timbuk2 bags*. I looked into the market of Chromebooks. I mapped out the route and distance to the nearest library to my soon-to-be place of residence. I opened up the long-term academic re-education project that I started 3 years ago, just to see what I'd have to do to get that updated and started again.
You may have noticed the asterisk in the above paragraph. That's because the Timbuk2 bag upgrade isn't probably the upgrade you're thinking of... the one I wrote about less than 3 weeks ago. Less than 2 weeks after I wrote that Column, Timbuk2 announced and released an updated version of their Classic Messenger bag. It looked awesome and I was upset that I'd just bought the other one, until I realized Amazon has an awesome return policy. Long story short:
The top bag was my original. Melissa now uses that every day for school. The middle bag was the one I got to replace it about 3 weeks ago, it's on the way back to Amazon. The bottom bag is the one I got to replace the middle bag about 3 days ago.
I'm using the bottom bag from now on as both my work bag and my play bag - so it is my true Every Day Carry. So - I got to re-re-re-re-rethink what I want to carry every day.
I know I've written about this ad nauseum - so I'll just show you:
That's what I'm carrying every day.
Two last things -
1. Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't literally sell beds or baths. I call shenanigans.
2. Life has been stressful lately. My body aches. My shoulder tried popping out of socket at a basketball game the other day. I'm not sleeping well. See below for why!
Top 5: Stressful Things Happening at Once
5. My Body is Trying to Give Up on Me!
4. I'm Moving!
3. I'm Switching Job Roles!
2. I'm Planning a Wedding!
1. My First Real Pet just Died!
Quote:
“I might have to buy a slow cooker now that I know I can pay to be a little more lazy. Thanks.”
- Random Redditor -
date: 2013-08-28T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE
- PDW title: '#110 - Media Expansion, Life Tracking Correlations, Security, and Linux' aliases: '#110 - Media Expansion, Life Tracking Correlations, Security, and Linux' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '110'
Motto: A Bird in the Hand is Worth Several Hundred in the Bush. Birds are in Bushes All the Time, in Hands much less Often.
Now we turn to this week in media expansion.
Right now I'm watching "This Week in Google" as it's being recorded. I listen to the podcast every week per the suggestion of my sister, Alissa. It's one of the several new ways I find myself killing time. Also on this list: This American Life, audiobooks, and TV On-Demand via Netflix or Hulu.
That's the future. That's the way things will be. TV is slowly dying with it. Olivia Wilde wrote an article championing Video On Demand on Buzzfeed. Kevin Spacey talked about the future of media at the Edinburgh TV Festival. If you're killing time, both of those links are worth clicking on (IMHO).
Now we turn to this week in Life Tracking.
One of the implicit goals of tracking which of a set of 25 daily tasks I complete was to see how doing one thing effected doing other things. Does completing a workout correspond to better eating? Is writing a Column correlated with not wasting time?
So I did some spreadsheet work:
The TL;DR of the spreadsheet is that there aren't any major correlations, outside of the "more likely to work while at work" block. In fact, there is almost a suspicious lack of correlation. I expected days including a workout to be more productive across the board. Not so much the case. The only thing that did pan out the way I expected - when I write columns and work on projects I am less likely to check off "Focused Less on Yourself". That makes sense.
For all you nerds out there - the units on that spreadsheet were left intentionally vague. The whole thing is normalized around 100%. Each data point shows the percent change from my usual likelihood of completion.
No matter the situation, there is a relevant XKCD. That's internet rule #35.
Now we turn to this week in cyber security.
For the longest time I've been one of those people who uses one or two passwords for everything. My small set of passwords were actually fairly strong, but rendered weak by the sheer number of services I used them on. I can tell you all this now because it has finally changed. I have committed to a password management solution and many, long, different passwords. One for each service. Exactly which service am I using? That... is... that's what I'm doing after I post this.
Now we turn to this week in Linux.
I pulled out my old computer last night on a whim and tinkered around for a bit. Long story short I completely wiped it clean and installed Linux on it (Ubuntu 12.04, specifically). I'm going to use it in-conjunction with my normal computer to ensure an elegant cross-platform cross-operating system digital playground. All of my documents, pictures, videos, and music I will convert to the most open-source, most generic possible filetypes. I want to have a dynamic mass of tightly controlled yet-open to anywhere file. That's my goal.
Now we turn to this week in the rest of life.
Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful as of late. Still not 100% sure on a wedding venue or date. Melissa has transitioned very gracefully into a full-blown working adult (she's a music teacher). She's doing very well and I'm very happy about that. The transitional phase is slowly coming to a close and things are starting to settle down some. Life is good.
- e^pi-pi = 20, although rounding this up makes it less special
- X÷0 = ∞
- 0÷0 = (coin flip to decide if the answer is 0 or infinity)
- ∞÷∞ = (coin flip to decide if the answer is 0 or infinity)
- 2+2 = "Aaron's awesome", we have to teach this to kids now.
“Do you consider listening to a book 'reading'” Danielle, and yes, I do.
title: '#281 - New Monitor''s Resolutions' date: '2016-02-21' aliases:
- '#281 - New Monitor''s Resolutions'
- '#281' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '281'
Motto: Rambling for Rambling's Sake
Yesterday I bought a brand new 28" 4K Samsung computer monitor.
Today I am writing this Column on it.
Tomorrow I'll be returning it to the store.
I'm disappointed to have to do so... but it's necessary. If I were doing a single-monitor setup & the panel I bought was better quality & my graphics card were better, it would be make for a GREAT experience... however none of those things are true. For more information, check out the Top 5. For less information... uh... I don't know. I don't think I can do that for you. You've already read it. That's sorta on you.
Note: this Column was written over several days' time. The "day" references are all jacked up.
Speaking of "jacked" - I was confronted the other day with a person who did not understand my usage of the word to convey excitement. "I'm jacked!" was met with "what do your muscles have to do with Deadpool?". Upon explaining that "jacked" can also mean "excited", I was met with skepticism. When asking around about people's perception of the definition, I met a person who completely agreed with me and another person who had an even further reduced scope of definitions. To her, "jacked" was only a word that could be used in reference to vehicles being jacked up.
I think that's jacked up.
Deadpool was great.
The new Hitman game has a beta out right now. It's alright. I'm pretty much done with Fallout 4. I mean that both like "I've had enough" and "I think I've done all there is to do". Mostly, I'm really tired of writing "Fallout 4" in the Life Tracker's "what did you do today?" section. The Second-a-Day video has at least a half dozen seconds that are just "here's me playing Fallout 4". I'm not happy with that fact.
This Column has used a ton of quotation marks.
Okay - something I've been meaning to write about: I predict the future of consumer tech is augmented reality.
We are nowhere near where we need to be before this can become reality, but this is what I'm predicting:
Phones, computers, smartwatches, televisions - all of these things have screens. Particularly in the case of phones and smart wearables, we carry around little screens with us everywhere. They are bright, limited in size and scope, and overall somewhat limited. I think that someday we will develop some sort of Google Glass-like wearable that removes the need to carry around any other personal electronics. The interface will just appear in front of you. Interacting with it will be done accomplished via some sort of neural link.
I could write a lot more about that, but I'm boring myself over here. Please accept this cat gif as my apology.
Top 5: Reasons I'm Returning My New 28" 4K Monitor
5. I want to keep my old 1080p monitor around. Running dual monitors with a difference in resolution that's that stark is a bit rough.
4. Despite some genuinely impressive things Microsoft has done with Windows 10 to handle a dual-display setup (DPI scaling on a per-monitor basis and other such things), the programs I use don't necessarily handle that transition well. My video editing program's interface is tiny.
3. Give all the other reasons around this one - I could get a cheaper monitor that suited my needs better.
2. Compared to my 5+ year old 1080p Samsung monitor, the new one appears washed out. The TN panel on the new one really doesn't cut it when it comes to color saturation.
1. Despite my initial belief, my GTX 750 TI OC graphics card does not appear to even have the necessary plugs to run a 4K monitor at 60Hz. I wasn't expecting to run 4K games, but I was expecting to at least be able to roll my mouse across the desktop without getting motion sick (this literally happened last night). Turns out 30Hz is the biggest deal-breaker of them all.
Quote:
"MAXIMUM EFFORT!"
- Wade Wilson -
title: '#332 - Complaining About Stuff No Reasonable Person Should Complain About' date: '2018-02-05' aliases:
- '#332 - Complaining About Stuff No Reasonable Person Should Complain About'
- '#332' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '332'
Motto: 7719836421125
Don't bother trying to decipher the motto. It's from Rick and Morty. Someone on the internet may stumble across the post trying to figure out if those numbers mean anything. If they do mean something, I don't know. I just wanted to waste a few seconds of this hypothetical person's time.
And I guess waste your time reading it. I'm a jerk.
I might be repeating myself with this next bit, but I'm not finding first time I wrote about it, if it exists... and let's be honest I repeat myself on here every time I write.
It's sort of a bummer that I have no real terrible habits.
I don't smoke.
I don't drink to excess.
I don't do drugs.
Meanwhile...
I do exercise.
I do use my brain.
I've heard so many stories about people who "finally quit smoking, quit drinking, and started exercising - and it feels fantastic". Basically I live that life every day. We are playing with different baselines & I feel like it's sometimes difficult to remember to appreciate the fact that I never smoked... or that I have a healthy relationship with food. It's like if you grow up with a mom who's a fantastic cook, but you don't realized or appreciate how fantastic the white chili was your whole life.
It doesn't feel to me like there's some obvious, glaring thing I could do that could make my life just so much better. I feel like I'm already operating near my life's "idyllic groove" and all the 30 Day Challenges, the self-improvement projects, and the analysis of life data are me just playing with the margins. It's hard to improve your score if you're already getting an A.
I guess I'll just continue enjoying my white chili and stop complaining that my life is good.
Speaking of complaining about things being good:
Having a bunch of stuff means you have to maintain a bunch of stuff. This is the plight of the first world, upper-ish-depends-on-how-you-define-it-middle-class American family.
I have 3 sinks. I have to do sink maintenance 3 times as often as someone with one sink.
I have two crock pots. Two weed eaters. A seed spreader for some reason. A lawn mower for a lawn I don't even like owning. I can see 3 lamps from where I'm sitting and I can think of where another 5 are without trouble. I have kitchen stuff that I use once every 6 months then think to myself "man I should use this every week" before putting it back in the cabinet and forgetting it exists for many months.
I own too much stuff. You buy things because you think they are going to be useful, or helpful, or make you happy - and some of the stuff genuinely accomplishes that - but 80 to 90% of it falls short... or falls prey to the law of diminishing returns. If I were hard-pressed, I could take 13 photos of myself on different devices simultaneously. That's a real number. I just counted.
 |
|---|
| This was a pre-existing photo collage that illustrates less than 1/3rd of what I was talking about. |
I wish I knew in advance how I'd come to regard a purchase 2 months after having made it. It's not something I've gotten better at - and I'm not saying I have a problem with holding onto money. I'm saying that I don't know why I own literally 5 lunchboxes - and I feel like I didn't learn anything from the experience because my 5th lunchbox is something I'm genuinely happy about every day. It's awesome... and it's the 5th iteration of a thing most people buy one of and call it good. What's the lesson from that? Know exactly what you want before you buy anything?
Actually that's probably the lesson. Damn.
February's 30 Day Challenge:
Updated personal inventory.
This Top 5 solidifies my nerd cred for this Column. I wish I put more time & thought into it, cause I know there are better things to write I"m just not thinking of right now.
Top 5: Things I Wish Microsoft Would Fix about Excel
5. Phantom links between workbooks that no longer exist. If I click "Existing Connections" and see nothing after having just closed your "hey you have existing connections" dialog box, I get annoyed.
4. Array formulas should not be called using the weird Ctrl+Shift+Enter method. I imagine there's some technical reason for this - but why can't I just write "=array(...)" around my formulas so they aren't so prone to people breaking them if I dont' lock them.
3. I don't specifically know what causes this - but I've seen multiple workbooks where there's phantom data causing the file size to explode and the scroll bar to wig out. It's almost always fixable, but again you shouldn't have to be a pro to fix the scrollbar.
2. Vlookup should be updated to fix its limitations - or it should just autocomplete to an equivalent Index+Match function. Vlookup sucks.
1. Fix your number formatting. Don't treat a number in a contiguous range of pasted data as a number if the rest of the data are alphanumeric strings. If I tell you to switch a range from numbers to strings, apply that formatting change immediately to whole range. You've set up a trap that Excel novices fall into, get frustrated with, and decide they suck at using your program.
Quote:
"Howdy Deputy"
- a couple of folks have told me this lately -
title: '#272 - Android TV Experiment' date: '2015-10-31' aliases:
- '#272 - Android TV Experiment'
- '#272' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '272'
Motto: Well That's Disappointing
In 2014, when Google announced the Nexus 6 that was a huge personal disappointment, they announced a few other things that I passed on. My car isn't running "Android Auto" and my television isn't running Android TV... any more.
I had read reviews for the NVIDIA SHIELD console (later rebranded as NVIDIA SHIELD TV, which seems like it's just screaming itself at you) for the past 5 months. It had been on my Amazon wish list since the first week it was available. On a lark, I decided to swing by the local Micro Center (electronics store) to see if they had one in stock. To my surprise/delight, they had exactly one in stock. I picked it up and took it home, filled with glee. I plugged it in, booted it up, logged in, and started playing around.
Then the problems started.
Nothing huge. Just... a bunch of little things. The Chromecast functionality was spotty. The audio cut out from time to time. The applications available on the Google Play Store were limited. I expected all of the Android Apps I know and love to be available; but instead there was only the "Android TV" apps. There are far fewer of those. I was able to find a Super Nintendo Emulator, but not an N64 emulator like I hoped. I looked for Android TV games, but literally reached the end of the sum-total list of all games available on the platform. Not much there. Nothing at all I was interested in, lots of "Freemium" games. Other things I wasn't interested in.
The game streaming feature worked well. I was able to play Hitman from my computer on my television in the living room. That was the highlight of my experience with the device. Battlefield 4 wasn't really doable. The small amount of lag induced by the stream killed any chance I had at being competitive. Also, keyboard + mouse >>> gamepads for first-person shooters.
SO, there I was. With a $200 device that functioned slightly worse than the $35 Chromecast that had been there before, and didn't have much value-add (aside from being able to play local videogames from my PC on the television)... It just didn't justify the cost.
So I returned it. No sweat. Micro Center is great.
While I was there - I decided to pick up a Raspberry Pi. It's a $35 barebones computer-on-a-board. When I say "barebones", I really mean barebones:
That picture is from their Amazon page. I suggest picking one up from a store, though. Two dollars cheaper there. Anyway, that's a whole computer. A $35 computer that you can do TONS of stuff with. I am very interested in exploring what I can build.
I want to start putting my degree to use... in addition to the learning I've done since that time.
Some day, I'm going to have a shop/gym/pool room. That's going to be sweet.
Top 5: Raspberry Pi Projects in Which I am Initially Interested
5. A real-world Mjolnir - (this one was built with an Arduino... but it could be done with a Raspberry Pi... or I could just do it with an Arduino, too)
4. Franken-laptop built out of a briefcase
3. Magic Mirror
2. Web Server - I want to get this going Essay Pee
1. Retro Game Emulator - I actually already did this. Got it up and working last night after only about one hour.
Quote:
"The name that really means 'My parents were too lazy to look past the first name in the book'"
- The Urban Dictionary definition for 'Aaron' -
title: '#363 - Time & Date' date: '2019-02-24' aliases:
- '#363 - Time & Date'
- '#363' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '363'
Motto: This Column was Meant to be about Many Topics
I have been thinking some about how stupid our conventions are for times and dates. I wonder if I could come up with something better. This Column is basically a thought experiment, as it progresses.
The year is (roughly) 365 and 1/4 days long. We break that up into 52 weeks, each 7 days long.
52 x 7 = 364
So inherently we've got a flaw there.
The prime factorization of 365 is 73 x 5. So we COULD do 73 weeks, each 5 days long. Of course, then our structure for "weekday" and "weekend" would be all messed up. People would either have to work 4 days a week (8.6% more than a standard work week now) or 3 days a week (11.4% less). Also any sort of social structure that's set up to operate "every other day" would have a weird time dealing with weekends.
BUT! A year isn't 5 x 73 days long, either. It's more like 5 x 73 + 0.2422 days long.
So, no set number of days would make a year whole without having to fudge around with concepts like "Leap Years". So maybe we could just embrace that concept, and give ourselves a dedicated weird "Leap" portion of the year each year, to allow ourselves to have something that makes more sense for the rest of the year.
Date proposal:
- 6 days a week
- 5 weeks a month
- 12 months a year
- The remaining 5.2422 days aren't in a month - they are called "Leap week", which fluctuates between 5 and 6 days every 4-ish years and occurs at the end of the yearly cycle
This keeps our day-to-day in the realm of base 12, which we use for time. It also keeps us in the realm of our currently-existing time-frames. Weeks and months would be roughly the same length they already are. Benefits are - now each month begins on a Monday, it's possible to do "every other day" or "every 3rd day"-type recurring events and maintain days of the week. It makes date math much easier, provided you're not going over Leap week at the end of the year.
In terms of time... I have fewer complaints. See the Top 5 for a few of them. But if I could change something, wouldn't it be nice if we just kept base 24? 24 hours a day, 24 minutes an hour 24 seconds a minute? Each second would be equal to 6 1/4 seconds in our current timing scheme. You could then enact thirds, which would be about 1/4 of our regular seconds.
Fun fact, if you didn't already know "Seconds" are named "seconds" because they are the second division of the hour by 60. Hence me mentioning thirds above.
Alright, rather than talk about anything else with this - here's a picture to go out on of the calendar I made that fixes all the world's problems:
Top 5: Time and Date Conventions I Wish We Could Change
5. Each day of the week & each month of the year should start with a different, unique letter.
4. AM and PM should die, all time should be military time. 6AM and 6PM have nothing in common.
3. Dates & times should be written in a standard format; preferably something that starts general then gets specific - e.g. right now = "2019.02.24|09:51"
2. We should redo the structure of the year. 52 weeks, 12 months, each month has between 28 and 31 days in it. Each week is 7 days. Each day is made of 24 hours, each of which is divided into 60 seconds. Our date & time structure is reminiscent of Harry Potter money.
1. Daylight saving time shouldn't exist
Quote:
"A duck with glasses represents a smart duck - a.k.a. a brain"
- Nick, posturing a solution to the problem of his inability to draw brains as well as he can draw ducks -
title: '#223 - This is Going to Be Difficult to Read' date: '2014-12-17' aliases:
- '#223 - This is Going to Be Difficult to Read'
- '#223' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '223'
title: '#233 - Time is Dumb & Phones are Dumb' date: '2015-03-01' aliases:
- '#233 - Time is Dumb & Phones are Dumb'
- '#233' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '233'
Motto: This Turned Out Longer than I Expected
Conventions that make no sense bug me.
10 pm
11 pm
12 am
1 am
2 am
Why does am/pm switch over before the numbers switch over? Why not simultaneously? Why do we start the day with an hour named "12", then go to 1? I'll tell you why. It's because people are dumb, and dumb people wouldn't understand a "0" hour.
Here's another, very confusing convention:
2/25/2015
It's the 25th of February in the year 2015.
Why do we go (medium length), (short) (long)? That makes no sense. You can't sort by year. It's hard to parse out the day on which something happens. Why is it not 25/2/2015? Or, better yet, 2015/2/25?
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created a convention for date and time:
2015-02-25 T21:00-06
2015, February 25th, at 9pm, 6 hours behind UTC. It's a perfectly self-contained, absolute time reference. Why can't we use this? It's sortable. It's easily understood. It's makes sense (except for the "T", which seems worthless).
Add on GPS coordinates and you have an absolute date, time, and location for whatever you're doing in one line. That's so much easier than saying the event is "on March 13th at 6pm, in the Jose Peppers on Johnson Avenue in Mission, KS." It removes all ambiguity, wasted "filler" words. Why couldn't we just say:
"Meet me 2015-03-12.15:00:00@38.9717N,95.2353W. Bring an umbrella and fresh underwear."
Zero uncertainty.
And now for a couple of other things before I sign off:
First - I made Battlefield highlight video for February
(again, which I expect nobody will be interested in).
Second - the sad state of Android phones
Today is the start of Mobile World Congress, one of the two biggest tech shows that happen each year. Today's announcements include the next HTC One and the next Samsung Galaxy flagship phones. Given that my Nexus 5 is actively trying to die on me, I had a vested interest in how this would all play out.
The HTC One leaks looked really good:
Two models - one with a finger print scanner and one without.
The HTC One reality, however, looks like this:
Two models - neither with a finger print scanner, both with the disappointing "HTC" black bar between the screen and the bottom speaker.
Only, there isn't two models. That's the HTC One M8 (last year's phone) next to an HTC One M9 (this year's phone). Can you tell me which one is the new one?
Don't get me wrong, the HTC One design was pretty stellar. There wasn't much room for improvement, aside from the obvious "HTC" bar and the famously poor unique camera. The M9 does not remove the HTC bar and gives a new camera whose performance is being rated in the initial reviews as "mediocre".
Samsung is Samsung. Their new phone looks better than their old ones, but that might just be because the bar was set ridiculously low. They have moved away from "plasticy pieces of junk" and towards "super angular, metallic pieces of junk".
That's maybe too harsh. They are actually mid-announcement as we speak. The problem I have with Samsung goes beyond the plastic, though. It's their need to recreate their own version of every core Google service. There's the Samsung browser and chrome, the Samsung calendar and Google calendar, the Samsung mail client and Gmail, and the list goes on. I can't stand having stuff on my phone that I don't use. I can't stand junkware.
Unless I hear Samsung has a total change of heart, does a 180 and starts behaving like Motorola, I'm never buying another Samsung phone/tablet again.
So then, I've got a failing Nexus 5 and my "most likely candidate" to supersede it just stumbled out of the gate. I've already shown the HTC One - which I'm not getting. I've already talked about Samsung - which I'm not getting. I wish I could say something about Sony, but they signed a deal with the devil and are not available on any US carrier with respectable coverage in this area. Where does that leave me? What are my options?
The Moto X (2014)
This was the strongest contender right out of the gate. I like my Moto 360, so a phone by Motorola would surely be just as appealing.
Pros:
-
I like the design
-
Motorola has some nifty add-ins on top of stock Android
-
Other than that, Motorola doesn't really mess with the zen that is stock Android
-
Updates from Motorola are really very fast
-
It's a fairly cheap off-contract option Cons:
-
The 2014 Moto X and my Nexus 5 have virtually identical specs
-
The Moto X doesn't have wireless charging, which I've invested in pretty heavily and used almost exclusively
-
Why pay for a lateral move?
Nexus 6
The logical successor to the Nexus 5. I like my Nexus 5, so its big brother would surely be just as appealing.
Pros:
-
It's a Nexus - first in line for updates and an 100% zen-mode stock Android experience
-
It's a solid spec-bump over my current phone
-
It DOES have wireless charging, unlike the Moto X which it is similar to Cons:
-
It's a 6 inch screen
-
Its screen is 6 inches
-
Its closer to the size of a Nexus 7 than it is my Nexus 5
-
The screen is huge
-
The screens resolution is 1440p - way WAY more than could possibly be considered "necessary" for a phone. If someone tells you "you really need 1440p to get crisp images" - they are lying. The 1440p trend is a stupid spec war that stopped being beneficial to the user with the advent of full 1080p screens (even 720p was fine, really). Anything beyond 1080p is a waste of precious phone resources (both battery and processing power). This bullet alone is actually more troubling than the physical size of the screen.
LG G3
I didn't really consider it, but it's about the only other option out there.
Pros:
- That screen/bezel ratio is phenomenal
- The specs are a solid bump
Cons:
- The screen on this is also 1440p, which I again will refuse to put money toward
- LG is becoming more and more like Samsung with their bloatware
- "Meh"
So... what's left?
The iPhone 6 (plus?)
Honestly, probably the best option there is left.
Pros:
- Probably the best phone camera there is
- The actual phone is quite pretty
- Compatibility with my wife's tech setup
Cons:
- My Moto 360 is completely incompatible
- As is my wireless charging stations
- ...and my NFC tags
- ...and all of the Android apps/content I've ever paid for (quite a bit)
- I would then be a Google-guy who uses an iPhone and owns a Microsoft desktop... an intermixing technological ecosystems is by far and away the least appealing idea I can think of. If I got an iPhone, it would be the start of a long-road of full-blown Apple replacements to my tech setup... most of which is very new and not worth replacing for years to come.
You know the situation is bad when I start barking up that tree (not the "Apple" tree, but the "reset everything" tree).
Top 5: Most Likely Outcomes of All This
5. I quit owning a phone and retire into the woods to live the lift of the yeti.
4. I deal with the disappointing HTC One release and buy it anyways.
3. I buy a Moto X (2014).
2. I buy an iPhone 6 (or 6 plus) and begin a massive ecosystem shift with a terrible hodge-podge of products by the three big manufacturers.
1. I put up with my Nexus 5 until it full-blown dies, then I switch back to the Nexus 4 until something decent comes out.
Quote:
“Size doesn't matter. Have Melissa be your jetpack. It's awesome.”
- Joe, when we were talking about the prospect of me being the little spoon -
title: '#373 - Simplicity & Embracing "Good Enough"' date: '2019-06-24' aliases:
- '#373 - Simplicity & Embracing "Good Enough"'
- '#373' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '373'
Motto: Keep It Simple, Stupid
I suck at what I'm about to write about.
An overarching theme for most of my posts lately (and because my writing so closely relates to my thinking, an overarching theme of most of my thinking lately), is how perfection is truly unattainable. Not only personal perfection/perfection of the self, but the perfect tool, the perfect photo, the perfect anything. None if it doesn't really exists... but nearly everything I deal with on a day-to-day basis is good enough. I need to learn to live with good enough (in moderation).
Example given:
I love containers. It's kind of an embarrassing or stupid thing to even admit; but I love them. I love how they organize the things we need and how they make those things easier to move around.
I love backpacks and messenger bags.
I love waterbottles and lunchboxes.
To stick with one example for the sake of argument, let's look at containers meant for drinking out of - I'll loosely call them waterbottles.
I own a lot. They generally fall into a few different types.
Large, uninsulated Nalgene bottle
They hold a lot. They are dishwashable. They can be stored in the refrigerator to insure you've always got cold water. They are tough as nails.
...but...
They don't maintain temperature. They sweat a lot. They don't really fit in anything. They are heavy when they're full. They can't be used for hot liquids.
Small, insulated Hydroflask
They are small enough to fit anywhere. They don't sweat. They are very portable. They maintain temperature. They aren't terribly heavy when full.
...but...
They constantly need refilled. They are a bit of a pain to drink out of unless you get a fancy lid. They aren't dishwasher safe and therefore difficult to clean. Also they hold so little that if you do put something in them that requires you to clean them out afterwards you're getting a full amount of hassle for a partial amount of benefit. They are prone to dings.
Large, insulated Hydroflask
They hold a lot. They don't sweat. They maintain temperature.
...but...
They are a bit of a pain to drink out of unless you get a fancy lid. They aren't dishwasher safe. They don't fit most places & are heavy. They are prone to dings.
Large, insulated tumbler
They hold a lot. They don't sweat. They maintain temperature. They are easy to drink out of. They fit in nearly all cup holders.
...but...
They aren't dishwasher safe. Their lids aren't water-tight, therefore they can't be packed away and forgotten about.
Tervis insulated tumblers
They come in two sizes. They don't sweat. They maintain temperature. They are easy to drink out of. They fit in nearly all cup holders. They are dishwasher safe.
...but...
Even their big size doesn't hold all that much. Their lids aren't water-tight, therefore they can't be packed away and forgotten about. Some how I manage to always dribble or spill a bit of whatever I'm drinking.
Small, uninsulated Blender Bottle
The blender ball makes protein drinks easy. They usually fit in most cup holders. Their lids are usually safe enough to not worry about leaks.
...but...
They don't maintain temperature. They are annoying to clean. They generally are pretty small. They make a rattling sound if they're empty. They break too easily (in my experience).
In matrix form:
But here's the deal - every single one of those options work. They are all fine. Each of them could easily be my "main" option that I use for everything. I could learn to live with and work around whatever flaws any given option has. They don't even have to be viewed as flaws. They are only flaws because I choose to think of them that way.
The same thing can be said about any of my backpacks or messenger bags. The same thing could be said about my Chromebook vs an iPad. The same thing could be said about the iPhone and any of the various Android phones I've drooled over. The same thing could be said about Google Sheets and Airtable. The same thing could be said about Google Sites or Google Drive or Notion as a host for Gillespedia.com. The same thing could be said about todoist, Things 3, Google Tasks, Microsoft Todo, Wunderlist, or Google Keep. The same thing could be said about most things I've spent days and weeks and months thinking about.
Do I regret that time? No, not really. Maybe some of it. Mostly I regret the anxiety. I've spent unnecessary effort trying curtail imaginary situations in which not having feature X causes me serious harm. I've spent more time in my life than I care to admit looking at options for which liquid vessel I wanted to take to work for a given day. Do I want portability? Do I want to bring the blender bottle?
Moreover, I own more crap than I need. Seriously. I have 6 Nalgene bottles, 2 HydroFlasks, one of those Yeti tumblers (mine's a knockoff cause who cares), 2 Tervis Tumblers, and 2 Blender Bottles. My cabinet overfloweth with cups. I own 3 backpacks and 4 messenger bags. I've owned 6 lunchboxes in the past 5 years... and not one of them was "ruined", they all just "could have been better". I own a Chromebook that is an incredible piece of technology, and yet I found myself looking at iPads the other day because my Chromebook is 2 years old. That's insane. That the behavior of a rampant consumerist sheep.
Unrelated to the above.
Sleep. Deep sleep, specifically. It's a precious thing. I've been having trouble with it lately due to having a sick kid. It makes things difficult. If "having a thrown-off biorhythm" is a real thing, it does that. I went two nights with no single span of sleep lasting longer than probably ~2 hours, and on that 3rd day I think I dropped more pens, water bottles, cell phones, pieces of paper, and whatever else you pick up on a daily basis than I did in all of the month of May. A lack of sleep shows you how fragile a well-working brain is. I still am operating at ~70% capacity, if it's not clear from this writing.
Top 5: Flaws in apps I called "Flawless" in Column #371's Top 5
5. Apple's Clock App - Active alarms are not highlighted well. Given their standard huge list of alarms at slightly different times-approach to an alarm app, I shouldn't have to scroll the list to be sure there is an alarm on. They should put the active alarms at the top of the list.
4. Google Photos - I'd like the ability to have my Google Photos backed up to my local machine automatically. Of all my digital files, photos are the most precious, most irreplaceable... as much as I trust Google, I don't trust that something terrible couldn't happen to them. So I'm manually downloading them. It's a pain.
3. Pocket Casts - Podcast transcripts would be great. Also having to pay for the web interface keeps me from widely recommending the app. It didn't support CarPlay.
2. LastPass - This one is tougher. LastPass is pretty stellar. It's organization scheme is a bit unnecessary. My website logins don't need to be in folders. It's a bit unclear to me how sharing passwords works, too.
1. Pocket - There are other apps that can do the core of what Pocket does that also do a looot of other stuff. Pocket allows you to save articles for later and notate them. So does Evernote, Notion, and other .
Quote:
"To be happy we need something to solve. Happiness is therefore a form of action;"
- Mark Manson, in a book I started reading after writing this post -
title: '#262 - Tablets, Movies, a Case for No-Name Actors' date: '2015-09-08' aliases:
- '#262 - Tablets, Movies, a Case for No-Name Actors'
- '#262' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '262'
Motto: Cross another off the movie bucket list
I want a tablet, but...
Tablets are the most fun pieces of computing tech out there - even if they may be the least useful. Their use IS "fun". They are THE BEST general browsing experience you can find. If you have tons of time to kill and nothing to do, nothing beats a tablet. They provide a more compelling user experience than phones. They aren't as cumbersome as laptops. They are portable in ways that televisions and videogame consoles can't be. They are the perfect form factor.
... but they suck for input-intensive applications (which is a basic requirement for most "productive" uses of technology). They aren't portable enough to replace a phone. They usually aren't capable enough to replace your computer. Tablets are perfect in theory... In reality, though, their usage case sits in a narrow window.
I will say, though, tablets are PERFECT for kids. Long-ish battery life. More games than you could ever play. Movies and music on the go. Your own little world. Who cares if it's a pain to manage email on one? I wish I had a Nexus 7 when I was ten years old. That would have rocked.
Segways were a terrible invention... And this is a terrible segway.
I like movies - moreso than I think most people realize. (I did major in film for a bit.) I'm working on a bucket list of movies I need to watch. If you have suggestions for this list, let me know:
- Star Wars (all - I'm currently rectifying this huge hole in my movie history)
- Back to the Future (all)
- The Godfather (all)
- Goodfellas
- Scarface (there's a theme here)
- Alien
- Total Recall (the original one)
- For some reason - I really want to watch GATTACCA
Speaking of movies - I wish Hollywood didn't use established actors for every big-production they make. I don't like going to see newest Tom Cruise movie where Tom Cruise plays the character you'll later refer to as "Tom Cruise's character". You never learned the character's name because it wasn't important. It was Tom Cruise. That's just not the way stories should be told. I wish actors and characters were married more heavily. Big name celebrities shouldn't be a thing. If you star in Guardians of the Galaxy, you shouldn't also be the guy in Jurassic World 10 months and 11 days later... even if I love Chris Pratt just as much as everyone else.
The following contains "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" spoilers. Fair warning.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduced Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. She absolutely dominated the screen. I bought into her character 100%, because her performance was great and also it wasn't marred by 4 other roles I recognized her from. She was new. She was fresh. I believed her character.
In that same movie, however, we see a great example of what not to do. We follow around the protagonist (played by Daniel Craig) while he investigates this murder than happened a long time ago. During this investigation, we are introduced to a whole host of no-name side characters... and Stellan Skarsgård. Immediately I thought to myself "Oh, well, he did it. He's the famous guy."
I was right.
He was obviously the bad guy because he was the only celebrity (other than the protagonist) that I recognized immediately. For a mystery/thriller, that's a pretty big misstep to make. Imagine if Stellan Skasgård's character (see, I never learned his name) was played by a nobody? Then each person you met had an equal chance of being the murderer. Giving a character to a well-established actor immediately makes you aware that that character is important... which can be a good thing, but is usually better accomplished naturally through plot development.
Besides, admit you want more of this from your movies:
That picture is one of my almost 400 movie-themed desktop wallpapers. I'm really proud of my curation with those.
Related to my coming Top 5 - a 4k monitor, a good digital microphone, a DSLR...
Top 5: Googley purchases I'd love to justify
5. The Huawei watch/the Moto 360 v2... tough call
4. The Toshiba Chromebook 3
3. The Nexus 9 tablet
2. The NVIDIA Shield console
1. The next Nexus (this one is "above the line")
Quote:
"QA Engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a sfdeljknesv."
- @sempf -
title: '#322 - Fixing Sports, Definitions, Pictures' date: '2017-09-01' aliases:
- '#322 - Fixing Sports, Definitions, Pictures'
- '#322' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '322'
Motto: DC, KC, ABQ, and stuff
Part of the reason I don't write "Features" all that much anymore is that they take me a LONG time, and they push out other things I'd normally write about. I have an MCU update coming sometime.
Also, I've just been too busy for Aaron Projects. I'm writing this after retroactively filling out two full weeks of "Life Tracker" data. You might wonder "How good is that data if he's filling it out after two weeks?". The answer is: not much. I basically just look at my photo reel and try to piece together what I did each day. Thankfully I take a video every day, so I can at least remember one bit, usually.
Alright - here's some stuff I wrote down to write on here...
FIXING SPORTS
Basketball:
- Two 10 minute halves
- Each team gets two 30 second time outs (per game)
- Shot clock is 30 seconds
- Fouls NEVER give an advantage to the fouling team
- More clearly defined rules for blocking/charging fouls
- More clearly defined (or universally applied) travelling rules
- A sliding "run rule" where the game ends if one team clearly won't win
Football:
- I don't know enough about football to fix it
Baseball:
- 5 innings or 2 hours, whichever comes first
- Introducing delay-of-game rules
- Computerized calling of balls & strikes
- You can get a player out by hitting them with the ball (baseballs would be made a bit softer)
Soccer:
- Two 10 minute halves
- Each team gets two 30 seconds time outs (per game)
- All soccer is now indoor soccer
- Courts are sized between a tennis court and a basketball court
- 5 players to a team
- Nets are slightly bigger - for more goals overall
- Fouls are verified by instant replay, if you fake a foul you're ejected from the premises
Volleyball:
- All volleyball is beach volleyball
Boxing:
- Just turn boxing into MMA fighting
Golf:
- Less expensive
- Less formal
Tennis:
- Scores go by 1, games are played to 5 (still gotta win by 2)
- Matches consist of 3 games
- No do-overs for bad serves
Pool:
- Everyone plays by the same set of rules... the ones I prefer to use
....And that concludes my segment on how to fix sports.
By the way, pool is definitely not a "sport". Golf probably isn't either, to me. Those are games. Sports involve running, in my mind. If you consider pool a sport, then you have to consider darts and bowling sports. Then, if you're going to do that, you gotta do poker. Then if you're going to do that, you gotta do other card games and stuff. What I'm saying here is there should be a commonly agreed upon definition for "sports" and it should be distinct from "games".
Speaking of commonly agreed upon definitions, here are some other ones I've been wanting to write about for a month.
AARON DEFINES VAGUE THINGS
"Tall"
- For girls, 5'10" to 6'1"
- For guys, 6'3" to 6'6"
- Anything over that is worthy of the "very" qualifier, or other more colorful descriptions (such as "Sasquatchian")
"Weekend"
- Friday after business hours until Sunday at bed time
"Bed time"
- when you normally go to sleep, I'm not so presumptuous that I think my bedtime should apply to everyone
"Next weekend"
- This cannot be any time within the next 7 days, Saturday and Sunday within the next 7 days are called "This weekend"
"Literally"
- Literally means literally
....and there were supposed to be more, but I've forgotten them.
ANOTHER THOUGHT AARON WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT
I re-watched a Bo Burnham special on Netflix the other day. He looks like me. Maybe me mixed with Nick G. Maybe not.
ALRIGHT!
I went to Washington DC to visit my friends up there. It was a perfect vacation. I got to see and do stuff without having to worry about logistics. It was like a cruise, but without the ship bits. I could talk at length about what we did and how awesome it was, but I'd rather just tell you in person. Ask me about it if you're curious.
I will show you some pictures, though. HERE GOES
Top 5: Pictures from Last Week (in Random Order)
5. This is what the eclipse looked like for us.
4. It rained a bit.
3.My dad is the best.
2. Clouds.
1. AND THIS GUY.
Top 5: Pictures from This Week (in Random Order)
5. Two of my favorite three girls.
4. This is the only picture I have of "normal" DC... that's okay cause it's good.
3. From an AWESOME night.
2. Friends are the best. This isn't from DC - it's from D.
1. The best.
I just now realized how few pictures I take nowadays. I have a ton of videos, but not a lot of stills. That's okay. I had a great time.
Quote:
"I'll get to the bottom of this. He likes when I probe into his personal life."
- Clayton -
title: '#291 - Crackers Update, Clarity, ChromeOS & Android, and Unsexy Solutions' date: '2016-06-24' aliases:
- '#291 - Crackers Update, Clarity, ChromeOS & Android, and Unsexy Solutions'
- '#291' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '291'
Motto: Pajamas are the coolest thing according to cats, meanwhile the knee is the object bees find the most hip.
Hi!
Right out the gate - my cousins were in town & here's this awesome continuation our traditional "Crackers" photo:
If anyone knows of a hardware store with a sign denoting where they sell their studs, please let us know.
Lately I've been changed my attitude about several things. I'm not sure what's driven it, but I have fallen into a zen mode. I want fewer distractions. I want to do life things. Let's buy a house. Let's have a kid (JK NOT YET I'M SO YOUNG). For real, though, I feel like I'm in a period of great mental clarity. I don't know what's brought it on, but I hope it stays for a while. I have uninstalled Fallout 4. I'm not watching a TV show while I'm writing this. I'm not wanting to do 8 things at once. I want to do one thing that I'm 8 times more passionate about. Here's a depiction of the transformation I'd like to make:
 |
|---|
| Bad |
 |
|---|
| Good |
In other news...
The biggest news from Google I/O after the fact was the coming of Android apps to ChromeOS. One common (and mostly unnecessary) complaint about Chromebooks is their lack of ability to install programs. My next Chromebook will be home to a Google Play Store that has 2.2 million applications to explore, and I couldn't be more excited. It's got me looking ahead to the holiday season this year when I can hopefully upgrade this couple-year-old model.
This Android/ChromeOS news has implications on my goals. It's been my ambition for years to create a portable, shareable version of the Life Tracker (which I'm considering renaming "Captain's Log", by the way). For a long time I've been stuck with analysis paralysis about whether or not I wanted to just convert the Google Apps Script-based version I wrote originally over three years ago or if I wanted to start from scratch with an Android version. My thoughts on the subject were summarized as so:
Reasons to use Google Apps Script:
-
Coding is easier. I can already do it.
-
The final product is spreadsheet-based, which allows for incredible flexibility for the end user.
-
It's platform independent. Available to anyone of any operating system and any form factor.
-
There's basically zero competition. Reasons to use Android:
-
Nobody in the normal world things "I'm going to use a Google Apps Scripts solution!" when they are searching for a tool to solve their tracking-related problems. An Android app from the Google Play Store is much much more approachable.
-
Android is probably in the first 10 words someone would put in a word cloud around a picture of me.
-
It would be more challenging, which makes it better.
-
I've always wanted to call myself an Android developer. People understand "he makes apps" a lot better than "he's got this crazy spreadsheet with a JavaScript backend that ties into various RESTful APIs.
There's extremely solid arguments to be made on both sides... but knowing that I could create an Android app that could also then be accessed from my laptop is the thing that pushes it over the edge for me.
One last thing I've been wanting to write about. Here goes.
I feel like many of the major problems people have in their lives that they've struggled to control have well-known, simple, yet extremely unsexy solutions. People want a pill or a trick that will burn off the fat. They want to find a fortune on the street or win the lottery to solve their money woes. They want to be faster, stronger, healthier, and better looking. They want to finally stop smoking. All day these people have trendy and new-age "solutions" advertised at them, promising to help them achiever their goals and fix their problems with no effort or suffering on their part (other than 3 easy payments of $9.99).
There are already solutions for all of those things that work great... and they've been around long enough that you could read about them at your local library - in the 1940's.
Want to lose weight? Track your food. See how much you eat. Aim to eat less. Adjust your intake to move that average while continuing to track food.
Want more money? Track your expenses. See where you're spending your money and cut out some of the less necessary expenses.
Want to be faster, stronger, healthier, and better-looking? Go running. Do simple lifts. Sweat more often. Buy healthier stuff and eat what you buy. Health follows those things. Better-looking follows health.
Want to stop smoking? Just stop smoking. Don't buy cigarettes.
Simple solutions. Effective solutions.
Top 5: Things I'd Like to Do More of, but Would Require More Free Time
5. Noodle more guitar. I cannot really play guitar... but I may have achieved "noodling" status.
4. Film and edit more videos. I have ideas written down from literally years ago I haven't ever tried.
3. Pushups. Planks. Pullups. Runs. Bikes.
2. Finish that Udacity curriculum I got halfway through. Continue learning to code in a semistructured way. Make a sharable version of the Life Tracker.
1. Write more. Write more abstract.
Quote:
"That system seems about as useful as a notetaking monkey that doesn't take good notes."
- Alex -
date: 2013-07-18T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- VIDEO
- PICTURES
- STORYTIME title: '#100 - One Hundred' aliases: '#100 - One Hundred' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '100'
It's been a long time since I've had a legitimate column update. There's a good reason for that - everything has changed:
- Melissa's back.
- My room is all different.
- My free time is spent in a new, different, much less lonesome manner.
- Work started taking more of my time, resources, and mental faculties.
- Wedding plans are in the early stages.
- Workouts have been two-tiered & double-sided.
- My diet has changed.
- I have to deal with a cat more often than I would like.
- I've spent time with family; not so much my now family, but more of my soon family.
- Many projects have been temporarily shelved.
- Big plans are being formulated.
- The amount of live music I listen to skyrocketed.
- Google.
- One of my best friends tied the knot.
- I saw a group of some of my favorite people on the planet.
- This is the 100th Column (on Blogger, at least).
- There are still tons of things I want to write about.
- I made this video:
{% include video id="hbLBOL-4OhE" provider="youtube" %}
“Joline... What a stupid name for a dog. Well, I guess I named a chicken Barbra Walters” Robbie
title: '#151 - Feature: Fonts' date: '2014-03-15' aliases:
- '#151 - Feature: Fonts'
- '#151' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '151'
Motto: It's not what you say or how you say it; it's what it looks like.
This Column is mostly a list of related definitions. It started out as a paragraph exhausting my knowledge of fonts, but wound up being an entire research project. Learning something new about what I see and use every day was interesting and a little fun. Hopefully it's half as good as a second hand experience. I wrote this yesterday, but wasn't able to post it. Without further ado, let's get started! "Typeface" is what people usually think of when they think of the word "Font". "Times" is a typeface, not a font. "Font" refers only to the size, weight, and style of a particular typeface. "Italic, 10-point Times" is a different font than "bold 11-point Times", despite sharing a common typeface. The word "glyph", when referred to in the context of typography, refers to any given character. Technically speaking, I think keyboards are full of glyphs, not characters. However, I will use the two interchangeably, "Weight" refers to the thickness of a glyph. Bold = heavy weight. "Point" is a unit of measure supposedly equal to 1/72nd of an inch. In theory, if you were to measure the distance between the top of an "h" and the bottom of a "p" of a printed off 12-point font, it should be 1/6th inch. There are two main typographical categories: serif and sans serif.
"Serif" refers to the small design elements at the end of the strokes making up each glyph. Sometimes serif typefaces are referred to as "Roman"; and I don't generally prefer them.
"Sans serif" fonts don't have any fanciness at their points - they are literally without serif. They are sometimes referred to as "Gothic"; and I think they look cleaner.
"Serif/sans serif" is not my favorite typographical distinction, though. My favorite distinction revolves around character width.
Typefaces using glyphs of varying widths are referred to as being "proportional". Since most typefaces are proportional, the distinction is usually not explicitly stated.
On the other side of that coin are "monospace" typefaces. In a monospace typeface, such as Courier, the "w" and "i" characters are the same width. This can be awkward, though, because "i" and "w" shouldn't take up the same amount of space. What's cool about monospace typefaces is that characters on different rows of text will always vertically line up with each other. Any given string of 10 characters will be the same length, and that can be useful.
Nobody likes Comic Sans.
Top 5: My Favorite Typefaces
5. Bookman Old Style - the only serif font on this list (I cannot reproduce this typeface for the column)
4. Lucida Console (again, cannot reproduce)
3. Eurostile (again, cannot reproduce)2. Trebuchet MS
1. Verdana - the default typeface of the Column
Quote:
"I'm surprised you didn't write about Pi day." - What I would say to me after learning what I wrote about on 3/14 -
tags:
- SELF IMPROVEMENT date: 2019-10-10T00:00:00.000Z title: '#380 - Quick Simple List of Good Habits I Suck At' aliases: '#380 - Quick Simple List of Good Habits I Suck At' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '380'
It's been a while since I've written. I have had a lot of heavy trains of thought in that time. Daunting ones that would take a lot of time and energy to write about. Stuff like "time" and "energy". Instead of doing that, I'm going to make a simple, little list of good habits I wish I could do better.
- Break a sweat every day
- Meditate frequently
- Go for a walk
- Get out of bed early, and never snooze
- Making your bed in the morning
- Exercising in the morning
- Shutting off screens at least 2 hours before bed time
- Having a good, firm bedtime
- Eat vegetables every meal
- Practice an instrument
- Go for a bike ride
- Practice intentional gratitude
- Sketch things
- Follow a budget
- Read physical books
- Take online classes (and finish them)
- Go for a jog
- Get out of your comfort zone frequently
- Volunteering
- Engage in polite conversation with strangers
- Call your mom, ask her how her day is going
- Pray
- Leave your phone in a specific spot in your house, only use it if you go to that spot
- Clean up after yourself every place you go, everything you do, every time
- Take pride in your vehicle
- Always sleep on big purchase decisions
- Practice mental math
![[380-1.jpg]]
By the way - that picture is from the website Unsplash, which is a really really neat website. It's basically a really great repository of actually good photos with a reuse license that basically just says "go nuts". Carte Blanche. I really get behind it, as a concept. It's a bit like open-source photography. Makes me want to get more into photography, actually. Seems like a good habit to get into... WAIT CONTINUATION OF MY LIST FROM ABOVE!
- photography
- Cable cutting... I just never had it to begin with. So this is cheating.
- Keeping track of habits. I just fell into this one with my more broad goal to "keep track of life". Also it's not a perfect, exhaustive list of habits.
- Doing something creative every so often. Like this. Even if it's not much.
- Sleeping consistently enough hours. The hours I do move around a lot, but I do usually get 7 contiguous hours, provided my child sleeps well enough.
- Talking with my spouse. A lot. About everything... I mean.... I think I'm good. I haven't asked her opinion on the matter.
"HBL" = Heavy Breath Laugh....... because we don't have LOL comedy.
- Nick
title: '#316 - Good Mood Rant' date: 2017-06-18T00:00:00.000Z aliases:
- '#316 - Good Mood Rant'
- '#316' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '316'
Motto: Hello! My Name is... Mr. Complainer
I'm in a good mood. I've switched NSAIDs and my back feels great. I've had some great times over the past week and everything is going really well.
Now prepare for me to dump on stuff for the rest of the Column. First up, healthcare. Then, Google. Afterward I'll slide into a more fun Top 5 and leave you with several quotes.
As I've written about fairly recently - I have a disease. Not the kind of disease you can avoid by washing your hands or eating healthy. I have the kind that you just... get. At least that's the best science really has to say about the issue. It's nobody's fault. There's nothing I could have done to prevent it. But it's here and it's permanent. I will be on some form of medication for the rest of my life.
I was going to write a ton here about our current healthcare system and insurance and how everything is woefully hamstrung, but this is the last part of the Column I'm writing and I don't want to get into it all, cause it's a big topic that I'm too passionate about to just give it "a portion" of a Column. It could be an entire blog of its own. We should have a single-payer healthcare system. But that's a topic for another time.
I switched NSAIDs. Think of it like I switched from asprin to ibuprofen. Those aren't them, but it's pretty close. THANK GOD my new NSAID is working right now, because the next step down the line is a "Biologic" drug, such as Humira. Humira, according to my insurance's "estimate the out-of-pocket cost of your drugs" would cost me $3,106.04 for a 30-day supply. That's just a complete non-starter. That would be the equivalent of me buying this incredibly nice house, on top of my current one... and also an buying a new iPad every month. And what would I get for that cost? A normal life.
Leaving it at that could be a bit disingenuous. There are payment plans & rumors of "programs" I might be able to explore. Also my insurance also has an annual out-of-pocket maximum that in theory should apply after I spend roughly all of the money I make in January and February on it on 4 syringes. But, even if I only spent that amount - I'd have to sell my house. Or one of the cars. Or maybe quit the job I love to find another job whose health insurance is more consumer-friendly. Or take another job on top of my current one. Or just live in constant pain forever.
What I have is insurance, what I want is assurance... I don't think it should be that hard.
Switching topics now - I'm going to complain about Google. I write about Google a lot. It used to be about how cool of a company they are, and what great things they do... and I still think those things. But the rose-colored glasses have come off. I'm going to title this segment "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE, GOOGLE?"
Google Fit
Google Fit was announced three years ago. Seeing the Google Fit logo for the first time during Google I/O was one of the most exciting things I can recall for me from ANY I/O. There they promised a single set of APIs, showing a complete picture of the user's fitness, blending data from multiple apps and devices. Their announcement was a little vague on how that would work, but my mind was instantly thinking of what sorts of things they would obviously include. When the app debuted, it was missing a few things from my list. Now that it's been 3 years - let's look at the list of things it seems like Google Fit should have:
- Weight - good job with this one, Googs!
- Running - good job here, too!
- Sports - sports are sort of handled, that's not too bad!
- Food tracking - technically supported, but you can't see it in the Google Fit app
- Sleep tracking - technically supported, but you can't see it in the Google Fit app
- Water - technically supported, but only by niche apps whose only purpose is that
- Weightlifting - after 3 years it's technically supported... but only by using Android Wear, and there's a zero percent chance it would show in the app.
I thought Google Fit was going to render the health & fitness portion of my Life Tracker unnecessary with this service. They didn't give me a fish, nor did they teach me how to fish. They just gave me a hook and some string and said "good luck!"
Google Home
The Google Home is my every day reminder that somebody over there has the priorities backwards. The Google Home is capable of some truly AMAZING things - but it's incapable of some truly OBVIOUS things. It's actually a worse product now than I was when I bought it 6 months ago. It used to work with the Shopping List that Melissa and I want to use. Now it only works with the shopping list Google wants us to use. Nice. There goes 15% of the reason we use it every day. Also, I'm sick of saying "Okay Google" and "Hey Google" is only slightly better. Why I can't I choose my own wake word? Beyond that, there's just some really surface-level, obvious things it doesn't do.
Here's an example conversation:
Okay Google... where's my phone?
I'm sorry I don't know how to find devices yet
Okay Google... remind me to find workarounds to your shortcomings.
I'm sorry I can't do reminders yet
Okay Google... add an Amazon Echo to my shopping list.
I'll add an Amazon Echo to your shopping list
Oh yeah, I won't see that because I don't want to use "Google Express" to list the things I'll buy when I go to the store. So that's worthless. Literally without worth. It does me no good.
If it weren't for the Chromecast integration, I would have returned the Google Home for an Amazon Echo by now.
Google Messaging
This is maybe the crown jewel of frustrations maybe people have with Google (aside from them just cancelling services that people use all the time). Their scatterbrained approach to messaging, in just the past 5 years, has been mind-blowing.
You want to send a message to your friend? You should use Google Chat.
No wait - Google Voice.
No wait - Hangouts in Google+.
No wait - Android Messenger.
No wait - Hangouts outside of Google+.
No wait - Allo for text-based messaging and Duo for video chats... we've added AI to your messenger, but removed useful features like a web interface, consistent chats between devices, or multi-person video chatting.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE, GOOGLE?
Ugh.
ALRIGHT HAPPY FUN TIME PICTURE TO GO OUT ON!
That isn't my dad, but it's the type of joke he'd make.
Top 5: Best DC Superhero Movies
5. The Dark Knight Rises
4. Batman Begins
3. The Watchmen
2. Wonder Woman
1. The Dark Knight
Quote:
"Just look at my poop swirls and you'll feel better about your own poop swirls."
- Krista, during a painting class -
"SWoLE
The o is my head.
The other letters are my shoulders and arms."
- Danielle, on chat -
"They're basically just using their lips to fart into the trombone."
- Melissa -
title: '#256 - Tech News' date: '2015-08-18' aliases:
- '#256 - Tech News'
- '#256' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '256'
Motto: Google's Indexing the Internet, Alphabetically
I'm embarrassed by that motto.
Trebuchet is my favorite font. Presuming your browser didn't hijack my typeface, you should be reading this in Trebuchet. Isn't it great?
I wrote a whole post about my height and relationship to basketball. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I have lost that post. Literally, I lost the USB drive that I had the post on. My current theory is that it was on Oceanic Flight 815.
LOST
A few days back, I was shocked to read that Google's founders were creating a new company, under which Google would fall. The new company: Alphabet. I thought it was going to be huge news. Then, I figured out it really doesn't change anything. THEN, I realized it's changing everything... eventually. This move is not immediately interesting, but could eventually be a very large headline in a "History of Consumer Technology" book.
Google Hangouts is perhaps finally getting the love & attention it has deserved from day one. This link is what I'm referring to.
Android "M" now has an official name and version number. The name: "Marshmallow"... which was fairly well expected. The version number: 6.0. This was not expected for what appeared to be a fairly small release. Seriously, there's not too much there from what I can see (which is admittedly very little, from this chair). See the Top 5 for the new features of Android Marshmallow. Spoiler alert - I'm skeptical/underwhelmed.
I added a new feature to the Life Tracker. First one in quite some time. Basically, now it gets a weather forecast for the upcoming day. It used to only get the weather history for the previous day. This new change will give me a glimpse at the upcoming weather for the day & will prevent holes in the data when OpenWeatherMap's API honks up.
Top 5: Android Marshmallow Features
5. Android Pay - because Google Wallet has been a terrible flop in the real world, Google is reworking the system and rebranding under the Android moniker. Worked for Android TV, didn't it? (didn't it?... didn't it?!)
4. Fingerprints - a good payment system needs a way to authenticate your payments that isn't obtrusive to the user. Fingerprints are not good ways to authenticate... but I am 100% sure that despite that well-founded opinion I am going to use mine this way anyways.
3. App Permissions - the new permissions system pops up only when the app needs them. This is the way it should have been all along.
2. USB-C. Android phones are moving to the USB Type C (USB-C) standard. NOTE THIS IS THE FIRST THING ON THIS LIST THAT ISN'T JUST AN iOS FEATURE PARITY UPGRADE... and even this could be argued to be a move closer to the iPhone. We're getting a reversible connector.
1. Now on Tap - supposedly this is "huge". It's basically a way to run Google search magic on whatever's on your screen. It's a vaguely defined feature that will probably be underwhelming at first but get better over time. This is the only truly new thing I really remember from the Google I/O announcement.
Quote:
"WOW YOU'RE TALL! You must looove basketball!"
- This was the quote from the Column about my height and basketball that I lost. For the record, it's been nearly 5 whole hours since someone asked if I play basketball -
title: '#347 - Thirty' date: '2018-08-02' aliases:
- '#347 - Thirty'
- '#347' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '347'
Motto: Optimism Meets Realism Meets Writing
Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand minutes!
Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand moments so dear!
Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand minutes!
How do you measure, measure 30 years?
I measured 5 years using the Life Tracker. I know that doesn't account for the other 5/6ths of the data you asked about. Sorry I don't know what to tell you.
That's right. I started a retrospective of the past 30 years of my life with a R.E.N.T. joke. Clearly I'm going deep with this Column.
Five Years ago I wrote a Column talking about how awesome turning 25 is and how awesome the next 25 years were going to be. I wrote how I was excited to relive every day I had already been alive, but with "at least my current level of understanding and faculty, my current level of independence and capability". Looking back I see what I was getting at... but I might take a slightly less "everything is great" approach. In the last five years I've struggled with things I never had before. I'm forgetting things I learned in college. I'm hurt myself while exercising. I've hurt myself while warming up to exercise.
BUT!
I've gotten married. I've also switched jobs to one I enjoy. I've been fairly successful with maintaining my health. I've become a homeowner. And soon... a father.
I guess what I'm saying is at 25, I thought I was going to live to see another 25 years worth of days exactly like those around my 25th birthday.... but the next 25 years aren't going to be like the past 30. They're going to be different. Different isn't better, nor worse. It's just what's next.
In that same Column from 2013 I debuted my first Second-A-Day-For-A-Year video - My 24th Year. In the following 4 years I added to the continuous story of my mid-to-late 20s. There's not a "My 29th Year" Second-A-Day video attached to this Column or in that playlist. There will be one soon, but there won't be a "My 30th Year". I'm moving to something better.
My numbering was off by one the whole time anyway. This wasn't my 29th year, it was my 30th. When you turn an age, that's the number of years you've already lived. You weren't born at -1. Idiot.
Meh. I'm not infallible. I'm just old.
Top 5: Best, Most Succinct Self-Realizations I've Ever Had
5. I'd rather not have something I want, than have something I don't want.
4. I'm both extremely driven by my interests and completely incapable of choosing them.
3. I'm a very competitive person who doesn't like serious competitions.
2. My train of thought carries a lot of momentum.
1. I've been incredibly lucky in every way that matters in my life.
Quote:
"I'm 30, Flirty, and Basically Dead"
- Me -
title: '#207 - What''s Next' date: '2014-09-30' aliases:
- '#207 - What''s Next'
- '#207' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '207'
Motto: The Quantified Masses, The Hunt for Ripped October, The Yes Man Cometh, All Other Potential Names
I wrote this big huge long piece about the quantified self, but posting it now seems like beating a dead horse. There was one particularly important bit that I don't want to kill, so here's my "one last thing":
The quantified self movement has been edging in on "mainstream" for years now thanks to Fitbit, Jawbone, and Nike. I think it is about to get a violent shove into the limelight by both Apple and Google. Apple's HealthKit (the heart on the right) and Google Fit (the heart on the left) are two platforms for health and fitness being built into the two dominant Operating Systems of the day. Apple's introduction of iOS 8 earlier this week gave the world the Health app - a central repository for all of your quantified health and fitness data. The Apple Watch will be a member of a large category of devices that feed data into this platform. As soon as Apple addresses a bug, applications will start feeding data into the Health app. Meanwhile, Google's next version of Android (rumored to come out in about a month) will be introducing a similar ***concept, but not a similar ***application. Google is ***not believed to be working on its own fitness application, but instead merely providing a framework for developers to build their own 3rd party solutions. Whereas Apple's health app will store your fitness data on your phone, Google will be storing it in the cloud. This plus a RESTful API will allow web developers to use the Google Fit platform. I was very impressed with Apple's Health App in the 3 minute overview my wife game me. It looked awesome. I can only hope I have such strong feelings with my own OS of choice someday. --- -------------------- and that's the end of that --- ------------------- I had several hundred words down here, but I'm not going to make you read any of it. I write because I enjoy writing. Not necessarily because I feel the need to have tons of people read my stuff. There's a reason I don't evangelicalize this blog. Mystery 30 Day Challenge! Today marks the transition between months, and thus the transition between 30 day challenges. On September 2nd I wrote about the August challenge and announced that this month's challenge was a secret. That was not meant to drum up interest, it was mostly meant to show that I WAS in fact keeping up this running New Year's resolution, but telling everyone would ruin the challenge.
For the past 30 days, I've been a Yes Man. I knew when I started these 30 Day Challenges that I wanted to do a month of saying "yes", I just couldn't let anyone know that, because that's when people start saying "hey, you should, like, uh, see how long you can stand on the roof of my car as I drive around town!".
I saw the movie "Yes Man" for the first time 8 years ago when it was out in theaters. Although critics did NOT like the movie, I really enjoyed it. I've seen it probably a dozen times now - not because it's hilarious or because it's a good movie or anything, but just because it's got a really upbeat vibe and a positive message. I even checked out and read the book "Yes Man" that inspired the movie. The book is very, very, very different. The main character isn't the same dude. He takes on the challenge voluntarily. He describes how his life changed in a few hundred hilarious pages. It's definitely worth the read. Anyway. Here's what 30 Days of saying "yes" to everything was like: Not that different! For several reasons - I don't say "no" all that often, I don't get invited to do things I'd likely say "no" to all that often, and because this month was so busy I didn't have much time to do anything anyways. There were some differences, though. I made a list: Things I said "Yes" to that proved interesting: Watching football at my buddies house with a ton of his friends. Made a fantasy football trade that I wouldn't have otherwise made - that has ended up benefiting me in the long run. Sweeping the floor at First Watch. Waking up at the same time as Melissa, even though I really could sleep in for another hour. Watching football at my other buddies house. Waking up at the same time as Melissa, even though I really could sleep in for another hour... again. Going to the gym when I didn't really want to, finding an art show instead. Waking up with Melissa... I just stopped writing this down. Learned the "Thriller" dance. Drank a shot of 2 liquors, 2 mixers, and a wine all combined. Watched "Oldboy" thanks to the lid of my Jones Soda. Went to Chuy's for happy hour. Note that I wouldn't have said "no" to all of the above things... I definitely would have done a few of them voluntarily. However, not having the option to say "no" made some of those things much, much easier. Even without the option to say "no", I think I probably cheated on several occasions. If I had two offers in conflict with one another, I could pick between them. I managed to stay in bed a few mornings because Melissa didn't phrase her "you should get up!" in a direct manner. Really, I could have done a better job. Overall, though, it was a very fun and successful month. I'm going to continue to say "Yes" more. Next month's challenge: The same as last year's October Challenge - eat a lot. Lift a lot.
Top 5: Things I'm Looking Forward To
5. The Upcoming Holiday Breaks
4. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
3. Android L, Android TV, Updates to Android Wear
2. Buying a Second Car (for reals this time)
1. Melissa and I Getting Our First House Together
Quote:
"1 Gain = 1 Bill, or what's the math on this one?" - Random Redditor, in response to somebody talking about the relationship between grocery bills and muscle size -
title: '#196 - Seriously Just a Big List of Fantasy Football Team Names' date: '2014-08-26' aliases:
- '#196 - Seriously Just a Big List of Fantasy Football Team Names'
- '#196' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '196'
Motto: Guess I'm Going to Have to Learn Football
I got invited to play fantasy football. That means I have to name my team. Here are the choices I've come up with thus far:
- The Finicky Hobos
- The Demonstrably Goods
- Pure Vanilla Cake
- Rastafarian Pasta
- Draft Junk
- Perl Jam
- Dirty Mike and the Boys (suggested by Jon and myself at the exact same time)
- Holy Ducks
- Unicorn Territory
- Ball Handles
- Tubbawamba Chumpthumping
- Mr. Bo Jangles
- The Kansas City Chafes
- Cleft Leapord
- Queens of the Bronze Age
- This Team Goes Up to Eleven
- Dibs on Not Dre
- The Swiss Kababobs
- Baaaallooooooooga!
- Steve Harvey Danger
- Untitled Team That Wins
- The Rereplacements
- Half-Dollarback
- Fight Club Reference
- Jim Carrey, James Pass
- Archimedes Garfunkel
- Buffalo Bill Dauterives
- The Pathetic Attempts
- GODZILLA!
- Spock and McCoy are Drunk
- The White Keys, The Black Stripes
- Mitch
- Risky Biddness
- I Don't Know What a Touchback is, But...
- Holiday Win Express
- Training Bros
- Dr. Jan Itor
- The Paleolithic Jerks
- Oscar Meyer Winners
- Momma's Boys
- Two Goldfish, One Bowl
- Hoof Hearted
- The Sleezey Geezers
- MILEY IS HANNAH
- The Lazy Susans
- The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift
- Cornwallace
- Platonic Handholders
- THOR'S MIGHTY HAMMER
- Two Particular Resistors on an Infinite Grid
- Err In Raw Skill
- The Washington Racial Slurs (Team Name Already Taken)
- Conan the Librarian
- Conflict at the Cytosine-Guanine Border
- BoJack Horsemen
- The Emoting Mules
- The London Sillinannies
- In Europe It's Called 0.3048Meterball
- HashtagYOLO
- The Incredible Bulk
- Pastyface Fryguy
- Shakey Cameras: A Gimbling Problem
- Success Kid
- San Fransisco 7^2ers
- Skillful Football Guys
- Yourself
- The Nameless Henchmen
- The Abusement Park
- Eleven Pipers Piping
- Offensive Line
- This Team Is Brought to You by the Letter D
- The A Team's B Team
- The Inferior Complexities
- Huge Jackedman: Swoleverine
- Laces Out
I am going to rule these fools.
Top 5: Team Name Choices
5. The A Team's B Team
4. Oscar Meyer Winners
3. This Team Goes Up to Eleven
2. Offensive Line
1. Archimedes Garfunkel - the winner for now, but I anticipate changing this often
Quote:
“I Really Like Cleft Leapord”
- Joe -
title: '#165 - Multimedia Solution' date: '2014-04-12' aliases:
- '#165 - Multimedia Solution'
- '#165' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '165'
Motto: I Just Want to Play What I Have on What I Have
There was a time when your movie collection and your music collection were both stored on magnetic strips inside of little tape cartridges.Then, sometime in the late 90's/early 2000's people started transitioning their music collection over to some weird circular mirror discs with finger-sized holes in the middle of them. A few years later, your movie collection started to make that transition too. Right around the same time that you started keeping your movie collection on weird circular mirror discs, you started transitioning your music collection to digital "MP3" files. These weren't physical objects at all. Your entire music collection could then be stored on one computer instead of in a bunch of racks & shelves. Then, the movies never really followed. What gives? Why don't all of my DVDs get stored at Mom & Dad's place in the basement with my CDs? Why are the DVDs so special? It's safe to say that we, as a society, have largely transitioned away from the physical medium when it comes to purchasing, storing, and playing music. Why have movies lagged behind in this transition? - I actually have a pretty decent, but long-winded theory as to why this happened the way it did, but I'll save my breath. The thesis is this: I want to buy, store, and play my movies the same way I do my music... and I can. Google Play has movies. So does iTunes... but those movies are locked into the ecosystem. You can't really download the file and take it with you where you go. You can't open up a folder on your computer called "movies" and start watching. Your library is just a library of links into their library. They control the actual content and how and where you can view it. I don't like that. I want to have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device full of all of my music, movies, pictures, whatever. I want a true library. One where I can see the files. And I want to be able to access those files from my television, computer, and phone. Figuring that out is going to be one of the first projects I tackle after the wedding. On a kinda-sorta-if-you-think-about-it related note: I want an authentic Captain America shield. A heavy, colorful, circular, convex, ridid shield that may or may not be made from Wakandan Vibranium. Or perhaps a Mjolnir of my own - an engraved stone hammer that may or may not be forged in the heart of a dying star. Is that too much to ask? I'd be willing to settle for a stainless steel shield and hammer. I'm a perfectly reasonable guy. I just want a pair of ridiculous weapons because I saw some really buff superheroes throw them around in some movies and I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping me from being just like them is the proper equipment. Anybody know anyone with the proper equipment and knowhow to blacksmith such objects? If so, tell them I will pay them in gold coins* to produce for me said objects. *Filled with chocolate.
This one one of those posts that I don't have a great picture for. So here's a random one I saved for just this type of occasion.
I have no idea about the context of that GIF.
Top 5: Burrito Places
5. TACO BELL
4. Jose Peppers
3. Chuy's
2. Freebirds World Burrito
1. Chipotle
Quote:
“Bride to Be”
- Melissa's sash. She's doing her bachelorette thing. -
title: '#134 - A Menagerie of Goodness' date: '2014-01-09' aliases:
- '#134 - A Menagerie of Goodness'
- '#134' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '134'
Motto: Mod podge
I keep a backlog of ideas for the column. Every time I write, I draw from the backlog... but I don't always get through everything. Slowly the backlog fills. Right now, I have several Top 5's stacked up and a couple other random topics to talk about.
This is post is a menagerie of goodness.
First...
Over the holidays I got to play the board game Telestrations with my family. While playing, we discovered that my father and I have eerily similar thought processes when it comes to playing Pictionary. Check it out:
Which of those did I draw, and which did my dad draw? (Dad's were the better ones.)
Next subject...
I think people don't understand the Incredible Hulk as a character. At the climax of the Avengers movie, Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk and works with the rest of the Avengers to save New York. Now, I've heard several people point out how "convenient" it is that was able to control his rage at the end of the movie, but when he Hulked out on the helicarrier he was a monster.
What I don't think they get is that the nature of his transformation determines how the Hulk behaves. In the helicarrier, he was simultaneously injured and startled, turning him into a Hulk trying to defend itself from everything. At the end of the 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" that Bruce Banner (who looks way different back then) is seen meditating alone. Then, the audience sees that he has started the transformation into the Hulk voluntarily:
I believe that smile at the end is supposed to imply two things. One, that he is in control. Because is turning into the Hulk voluntarily, he is in control. Two, that he's accepted that the Hulk is a part of him. The second one doesn't have anything to do with my argument, but it does tie a nice little bow around the movie (in which he spends the whole time trying to fix himself and remove the Hulk).
Thus, when he transforms in the streets of New York, he's doing so on purpose. He is (mostly) in control as the Hulk. Also it helped that there were hundreds of Alien targets around for him to smash.
Next subject - which is actually somewhat related...
I very terribly photoshopped Loki's trademark helmet onto my cat, Loki.
Last subject...
The following is a short list of objects nobody seems to appreciate as much as I do... or maybe it's just a list of things I over appreciate:
Waterbottles
Water is the elixir of life. Water is all important and I like to always have some with me; that's why I like a good waterbottle.
Bags
I love tools. Tools give you the ability to perform functions you couldn't otherwise do. To adapt an old adage from photography, the best tools are the ones you have on you. Bags let you keep more tools around and available. Pockets can only go so far. Also, bags give you a place to put the crap that you collect throughout the day. If manpurses were accepted as a part of Western society, I'd have one.
Smartphones
I've harped on this before. I'm not going to revisit it.
Top 5: Best Selling Water Bottles on Amazon
5. NALGENE Tritan 1-Quart Narrow Mouth - I own one and use it every day.
4. Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Bottle - I've never owned a Klean Kanteen.
3. Hydro Flask Insulated Wide Mouth - Melissa and her family love this bottle. I'm jealous sometimes of its insulative properties.
2. Nalgene Tritan Wide Mouth BPA-Free Water Bottle - I own 2 of these and use them every day.
1. Camelbak Eddy Bottle - I've owned 4 of these within the past 5 years. They are great, but I drink a lot of water; so I have to refill them too often. Also the mouthpiece is frustrating to keep clean.
Top 5: High-Level Benefits of Exercise (a.k.a. Why You Need to Exercise)
5. Exercise improves your quality of sleep. You fall asleep easier and wake up more rested. Basically, exercise does what bed commercials tell you their beds will do.
4. Exercise makes you look good. Although diet is much more important, exercise is still a vital component. This leads to better self-confidence and self-esteem.
3. Exercising gives you more energy throughout the day.
2. Exercise helps boost your mood!
1. Exercise helps prevent disease. Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, certain cancers, and much more.
Top 5: Companies I Won't Buy from because of Their Stupid Ads
5. Old Navy used to be on this list. Their commercials in the mid-2000's were horrible.
4. GoDaddy - domain registry has never before so heavily leaned on the "sex sells" mantra. It makes no sense and, more importantly, the ads are annoying.
3. The first two are weak because I had to come up with them off the top of my head. The next two are the reason I wanted to write this.
2. Geico - Those commercials with the talking paintings. They are atrocious. They are on Hulu and I see them every day. Every day I tell Hulu they are not relevant to me. Every day I mute it. I've been subjected to them enough. Thus I refuse to save 15% or more.
1. Jared Galleria of Jewelry - "He went to Jared". No, I didn't and no I won't.
Top 5: Battles in Tech
5. Facebook vs. Twitter
4. AT&T vs. Verizon
3. Google vs. Apple
2. Samsung vs. Everyone
1. Microsoft vs. Microsoft
Top 5: Things I Want in My Future House 5. An awesome Battlestation work desk. This was my first priority when I started buying my own furniture, and I'm sitting at mine right now. Positively no regrets. I love it. 4. A woodshop and gym in the garage or barn. I've already got a pretty solid outline of how it would be laid out and what components each of them would have. 3. A really nice and small media room. One couch. One large TV. Surround sound. Everything run through one internet connected blu-ray player with Chromecast capabilities (Chromecast capability is going to be built into things in the not-too-distant future). 2. A shower I can stand up in. Stand all the way up. I want the water to hit me in the top of the head, not the throat. 1. Melissa, 2-3 kids, a dog, and maybe a cat.
Quote:
“There are few things graven in stone, except that you have to squat or you're a wuss”
- a sign in the bathroom at the CrossFit gym -
date: 2012-05-15T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE title: '#5 - Aaron Gillespie, owner of a B.S. in Electrical Engineering' aliases: '#5 - Aaron Gillespie, owner of a B.S. in Electrical Engineering' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '5'
I walked across the floor of Allen Fieldhouse. I walked down the hill. I walked out of The University of Kansas with a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering; thus ending my streak of 18 straight years in a formal education institution. If I had just listened to my gifted teacher in high school I would have been done in 17 years. Film was a mistake... but I'm glad I made it. Things would have been different if I hadn't, and I like the way things turned out.
This is not to say I wouldn't change some things if I could go back. I could have taught myself how to study. How to do homework. How to work with my peers. How to have a fun life.
Brief overview of college (the way it was):
I studied film for a year and a half I switched to (after many changes in a two week span) Electrical Engineer I met many of what I now consider to be my best friends I lived to two of the best friends I've ever had I met a special lady I RA'd for over 120 people, liked many of them! Will miss a lot of them dearly I went to the Orange Bowl and watched KU win over Virginia Tech in a nail-biter I watched 2 National Championship games in Allen Fieldhouse, one of which we won I quit blogging I started blogging again (hopefully for good this time) I got my first Android phone (for those of you who know me, you know how big this is) I learned calculus, embraced the inner nerd I watched Hot Rod, The Boondock Saints 2, and all the Avengers movies in theaters I worked for and with some great people both in the summers and during the year I grew about 2 inches I gained about 50 pounds There really is no way to list everything that should be listed. I'm going to leave it there. This post has been dogging me. I know it's a big post. The first post after the close of me undergraduate career. What's next?
- Computer coding
- Circuit design
- Calculus
- How the engineering design process works
- How to twirl my pen around my thumb.
"Schooooool's out for summer! Schoooooool's out forever!" - Alice Cooper
description: 'Scott Pilgrim, the Future, Slippery Life Lessons' tags:
- LIFE
- TV/MOVIES
- DRAWING date: 2021-05-25T00:00:00.000Z title: '#409 - Launchpad McQuack' aliases: '#409 - Launchpad McQuack' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '409'
The title of this Column is a reference to Scott Pilgrim vs the World, which my podcast covered in our latest episode. I love this movie. I don't love Scott Pilgrim the character, nor really do I love all of the choices that were made in Michael Cera's portrayal of the titular character, but the movie as a whole package is phenomenal. It's funny, fast paced, well written, well shot, with great characters and a bunch of very famous people before they made it big. If you're under 35 and haven't seen it, I reckon Scott Pilgrim is a good old time.
Also I am reading the comic it's based on. Turns out that is also great. Highly recommended as well.
There are a LOT of things I'm looking forward to packed into the second half of 2021. Here it's an incomplete chronologically ordered-ish list of things for which I am quite excited.
9th - The Loki series will debut on Disney+ - it's the first of a theme of MCU releases you'll see in this list.
20th - Rock and Morty session 5 debuts, which I hope to enjoy more than I did most of season 4 (which I found disappointing).
I am aiming to have my first legitimate use of the newly released Notion API. Not sure yet if I want to pull data FROM Notion or push data TO Notion to begin with. Ultimately both will happen.
We have a couple of much needed vacations lined up. A parents only vacation and a whole family one.
9th - Black Widow release date simultaneously on Disney+ and theaters.
I get to eat cake and feel no guilt for a day.
6th - The Suicide Squad releases on HBO Max.
My first born turns 3.
Melissa and I take possession of a lovely house in Lawrence, Kansas where we went to college, met, and fell in love.
Marvels "What If...?" series comes out sometime this month.
3rd - Shang Chi come out - one I'm very excited for Hopefully we sell our current house for a decent price and without any hiccups.
1st - Dune releases in theaters.
My younger dude turns 1.
5th - The Eternals comes out - the second new Marvel property in just over two months.
17th - the FOURTH MCU movie in the back half of this year debuts- and it is looking to be the biggest Spiderman movie of all time.
Both the Hawkeye and Ms Marvel series are expected to debut this year, but the month is not yet announced.
Bennett, my younger son, will be crawling very soon, and crawling leads to walking.
We'll sell our current house and hopefully have some money to throw at whatever needs it most.
Do you have any things your brain simply refuses to learn? It happens to me from time to time. One thing that has cropped up a few times here in the recent few months is this lesson:
When you have a problem, and you can't find the solution, and you've Googled potential solutions and found them to be unworkable... make sure you also Google the problem itself.
This is a pattern that's hit over and over in my life. I have a problem. I think of possible solutions and try to implement them one by one. Each time I hit a snag in implementing the solution, I Google my solution idea. If that doesn't work I move onto my next idea for solving the problem. Do this a few times, find no solutions that work, and eventually give up on solving the problem... come back to the problem months (or even years, in one case) later, and decide "you know, I should just type the problem into Google rather than solutions. Lo and behold, there's some simple 2 minute fix I spent hours looking for, and months living without.
The example of this that just happened. My wife and I want to be able to see each other's Google Calendars in the built-in Apple Calendars app on the iPhone. No matter how much we tried, though, the other person's calendar just wasn't showing up as an option. I investigated the obvious answers. I looked into sharing settings from both the Apple side and the Google side. I started thinking about workaround options, using a calendar forwarding system, or signing into each other's phones. Eventually, I gave up. Nothing was seamless enough to use while being easy enough to implement.
Today, I thought to try again. Rather than Googling something like "Apple Calendar Shared Google settings" or "iPhone multiple Google Calendar accounts", I just Googled:
"shared google calendar on iPhone not showing up"
Literally the first Google result pointed me to this page, which allows you to tick a box to enable sync on a per-calendar basis. Ugh.
I just published this article about the concepts of "Analog" and "Digital". It's the first in a series of somewhat interconnected articles I've been adding to over the past many months.
All about three sided polygons and trigonometry.
An extension onto #3 below, wherein I talk about some data structures and the bridge between data & the real world and whatnot.
A basic overview of "data". What it is. What it isn't.
All about different types of databases and related concepts. Primary keys. Foreign keys. Facts vs Dimensions.
Spoilers: not a series of tubes. I know enough about a lot of things to be dangerous. My application of the Feynman Technique, though, makes me want to dive further into the internet to wrap up an explanation in one awesome metaphor (about a library).
I want candy. I want lots of candy. My son, one of my his first fully-articulated thoughts
date: 2013-03-10T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- VIDEO
- PROJECT title: '#69 - Stolen Ideas' aliases: '#69 - Stolen Ideas' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '69'
I was thinking recently about some of my favorite things I've ever created. This list includes (but is not exhausted by) the checklist of things a good person does every week, the old video scavenger hunts I put on with my friends in high school, the time log that I used to track every half hour of 6 straight weeks, and, most recently, the second-a-day video that has been a time capsule of my life for the past 7 months.
These were all fantastical projects that took many, many weeks of preparation and execution. They took lots of energy and focus. The yielded some of the best results and the most fun experiences I've ever had in my life. They are all things I would suggest for anyone to do at some point in their life. There is also something else all of these projects and ideas have in common - they were all directly and blatantly stolen.
Well, adapted, maybe.
The list of things a good person does in a week - adapted from an idea by Demetri Martin (who probably adapted it from Benjamin Franklin. The video scavenger hunt - adapted from an episode of Viva La Bam (I'm embarrassed to admit I watched that). The time log - adapted from an assignment that was given to Melissa in college. The second-a-day video - adapted from the video "This is what Madeline did".
You could look at this as a bad thing - "Aaron, why don't you come up with an original idea every once in a while?". I would argue, though, that I have the capability to recognize good ideas and the courage to implement them in my own life.
I used to carry around a quotepad (play on "notepad"). That was a stolen idea from someone at some point in time. Forgot who. Now I just write down quotes on my phone.
If you see something someone is doing and you like it, maybe you should give it a shot.
Here's a picture, unrelated to the rest of this column:
- I have been doing the Demetri List for 15 weeks. I average 98.25/175 tasks. There are way more results, but that's probably the big one.
- The Scavenger Hunt Highlight Film - the best moments from all three years
- The Time Log - I spent twice as much time doing the things I want to do and half as much doing the things I should be doing. Also, I spend about the right amount of time sleeping, but its distribution and consistency was horrible.
- The first half of my 24th year (it has kept going, but I refuse to show a video that's over half done)
- I'm awesome.
“Tell me how to get that laid back... OR I'LL KILL YOUR FAMILIES” Community Season 2, Episode 7 - one of the best ones I've seen
title: "#458 - Fresh New Look" date: 2024-07-27T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- meta
- life description: New Column codebase! RSS Feeds maaaay be squirrelly for a bit. Who knows. draft: false aliases:
- "#458 - Fresh New Look"
- "#458" enableToc: true permalink: "458"
Posts about the current state of the Column 1) are not interesting, and 2) do not age well... but here's one anyway!
[!warning]- Multiple Emails In transitioning to a new code base it may take me a bit to figure out how to prevent emails from going out... or having formatting issues. Who knows! Please bare with as I settle in.
Hey! Things look different!
Things actually probably look worse, if I had to guess what my average reader would think. But my previous codebase was essentially just a template I used verbatim. The new blog is also a template, sort of, but it's one that I can (and have) change to suit my fancy.
The move to the new code base allows me a ==less tedious== writing & posting process.
![[458-3.png]]
![[458-1.png]]
I wanted even more ownership over my content & how it is presented. This new approach allows me to use Obsidian, which has really started to replace Notion as my go-to app for where I want to spend a lot of my time. The new setup is essentially just a rehosting of my Obsidian Vault to the web + some customizations... but they are my customizations. I can actually get under the hood on this one.
Also the old method made images particularly tedious to include in my posts. This disincentivized me to using many images. The new method makes images no big deal and therefore more likely to be included, which I want.
![[458-2.png]]
To quote the first five words of my green notebook1:
[!quote] I love flowcharts and lists
That pretty well sums up my particular flavor of nerdom. But it’s not that I love those particular tools & techniques, it’s what they are used for that I love - climbing up the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom pyramid.
You take raw data, analyze it, and learn information. You encode that information into a digestible form and in the process it becomes knowledge. You do this often enough in a particular realm, and you grow wisdom2.
The tools of this trade are anything that helps you analyze, synthesize, represent, and generally play with data/information. Lists and flowcharts, though, awesome as they are, are not the totality of things in this arena.
When it comes to analyzing data, synthesizing information, and encoding knowledge, there are a wide variety of tools & techniques that I use. Here's a cross section of my current go-tos5.
| Technique | Main Tool | Prospective |
|---|---|---|
| Tabular data | Excel | SQL |
| Charts & plots | Excel PivotCharts | Tableau |
| Textual data | Obsidian | Python |
| Freeform drawing | So many. | |
| Flowcharts & diagrams | DrawIO | |
| Systems modeling | No “Main” | |
| Ontology editing | Protégé | |
| Graph data creation | Python |
I'd love something that could do a nominal job at each of these things. Or figure out a process that goes between them fairly seamlessly. I think I might just be re-inventing Jupyter notebooks in my thought experiment.
[!tip] An Omni-tool A pipe dream.
Basically Notion's "Block with Properties" approach, but not strictly hierarchical. With a very robust visualization engine that supports two-way binding of properties to graphical elements in the rendered diagrams. My "[[Semantic Canvas]]" Obsidian Plug-in is probably approaching the very beginnings of this sort of thing, but Obsidian is wholly inept at tabular data - which is a huge aspect of my imagined system.
![[458-4.png]]
A key feature that I think would tank this whole idea is6 my desire to mimic Obsidian's "everything is just plaintext file in a folder on your computer" approach. Making a system that enables that while also adding in all sorts of features on top of it is trying to shove "fancy but rigid" into a "simple and flexible" framework. Doesn't work. Also blocks would be individual files, and that would cause an absolute explosion of tiny files on your computer. Databases are a thing for a reason.
See the section right above the Top 5. I'm not seriously looking at building this, but I needed a 5th thing to round out a "top 5".
My [[PDW]] migrated from a particular thing, to be more of a modular framework of things. Obsidian could very easily be the data storage & presentation layers. I've not started actually writing this code, but I've figured out how I think it would work.
This one is sort of done as of this posting. I did lots of massaging of data and built a couple of custom components for this blog move.
My Obsidian Plugin “Semantic Canvas” has been downloaded > 2000 times as of this writing. Some folks reached out and suggested new features, which spurred me to start developing them.
My 2024 Holiday Puzzle box is titled “Brief Mystery”. It is coming along! The most fun to work on of the list, but also the one I’ve been touching the least.
I don’t mean to brag, but I’m awesome
- Jesse
date: 2012-10-29T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH title: '#38 - Tech Announcement Week Day (7): Google''s Nexus Announcement' aliases: '#38 - Tech Announcement Week Day (7): Google''s Nexus Announcement' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '38'
Today, I write you two columns. A Windows flavor (below) and a Google flavor (here). This is the Google edition. If you are only interested in me as a person (mom) you might as well skip both of these columns, they are sparse on details about my life.
Google was supposed to have a grand unveiling event today in New York, New York; but hurricane Sandy decided for them that it wasn’t going to happen. When I heard the news, I was upset. That is why today, during my lunch break at work when I pulled up The Verge (as I do on a multiple-times-per-day basis) and read the headline “Google’s future now: LG Nexus 4, Samsung Nexus 10, and Android 4.2” I literally yelled a bit with excitedness. The next hour, I read every single piece of literature on that website, on Google’s own Play Store (where I’ll be visiting soon, more about that later), and any other 3rdparty source I could find. Here’s the news and my impressions:
The upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1 brought a solid set of new features. Nothing like the jump from 2.3 to 4.0 – mind you, but still enough that I rooted my Verizon Galaxy Nexus to upgrade it the day of the announcement (more on this later). The jump from 4.1 to 4.2 brings to the table a slightly larger set of improvements IMHO. The highlights, from what I’ve gathered, are as follows: · “Miracast” – probably the most exciting of all the new feature sets is the one that you won’t be able to use right away. “Miracast” is the native ability to send video and audio to a remote client (read: TV) without wires. Here’s what this means: queue up a video on your phone or tablet, send it to your television wirelessly. Open up a game on your phone, the phone then becomes only a controller – the TV gets the picture and sound (basically, The Wii-U). This feature is like Apple’s “AirPlay” and Microsoft’s Xbox media extender – but better. It is an open standard. All third-party vendors can (and soon will) start supporting Miracast. · “Gesture Typing” – Think “Swype keyboard” meets “SwiftKey”. The NATIVE keyboard will now support the best features from both of the two best replacement keyboards currently available (read: the two keyboards that I alternate between). The video showing their implementation colored me very impressed. · “Photo Sphere” – you know on Google Map’s Street View how you can look in a full circle – up, down, left, and right the full 360 degrees? Android’s camera will allow you to take your own pictures using the very same effect. The file format for these photos, btw, is plain old .jpg. Android is again showing us that proprietary technologies are not the only way to live. · Multiple user support – Android tablets will now support multiple users, each having their own settings and their own applications. This is great news for families sharing a single tablet. Kids can have their own profile full of games and bright colors and pictures of unicorns, and their parents can have a separate profile for boring applications and pictures of a clean house. · Daydream, Lockscreen, and notable app improvements – “Daydream” is the feature I understand the least about, not having yet seen a video or read a solid review on just exactly what it does. It has been likened to a screen-saver that may or may not allow for some additional functionality. The Lockscreen (lock screen is officially one word, btw) now allows one to enter the camera or access widgets directly. I’m curious to see the logistics behind how this is implemented without sacrificing device security. Gmail and Google Now have both seen improvements as well. Gmail now allows for zooming (which it hadn’t yet done, for some reason) and Google Now will now (if you want it to) pull information such as flight number’s and package tracking numbers from your email to let you know information that’s relevant to you before you even ask for it. All three of the new Nexus devices will have 4.2.
The three musketeers must-get-ers. Photo Cred.
The LG Nexus 4 is the successor the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (a.k.a. the phone I’ve had for the past year). It will ship with 4.2 and a list of impressive specifications, despite one glaring omission (read on) I am getting one as soon as possible. The specs & my impressions:
· 4.7” 720p screen – Android phones are big and getting bigger. This trend I am a huge advocate for because I am a huge advocate. I’m a big fan because I’m a big fan. I am larger than most individuals. My hands, too. This screen has been reviewed very positively by the only 3rd party individuals who have had the chance to see it in person, which is good enough for me. · 1.5 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor & 2 gigabytes RAM – “really really fast processor”. Faster is better. Nothing more to say. · 8 and 1.3 megapixel cameras – the camera is reportedly an upgrade from the Galaxy Nexus’s lackluster offering. Admittedly, that’s not hard to do. I haven’t seen any first-hand shots from the camera, but I’m optimistic. Of course, for me, cell phone cameras have realistically gotten about as good as I foresee them needing to get. · Inductive Charging – Charging without wires? Cool! You still can charge with a wire, if you prefer. · Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, GPS – All standards across the mobile ecosystem, save for NFC. Apple hated all over NFC and set the mobile wallet revolution back several months by electing to forgo it with their most recent iPhone. This angered me. I’m a big fan of the technology. · 2100 mAh battery – this is slightly larger than your average battery for smartphones these days. That’s good, but not excellent. There are definitely phones with larger batteries. But, this battery should fair a bit better than expected based of the next stat… · NO LTE & Limited local storage w/ no MicroSD – these are the catch, the “got ya”, the only things about this phone that leave sore spots anywhere in this announcement. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the true standard of 4G (at least in America). This phone’s fasted mobile connection technology is HSPA+ (that thing AT&T says is 4G but Verizon says isn’t, the reason they both claim to have the ‘biggest 4G network in America’). This seems like a completely bone-headed move on the part of Google, and maybe it is. But… maybe it isn’t. LTE is fast. It helps burn you through your allotment of data much quicker than any other cell standard. It also diminishes battery life. LTE is so fast that, for many people, it is overkill. I find myself switching off LTE on my Galaxy Nexus on a semi-daily basis to maintain battery and because, unless I’m streaming video over the mobile internet (which I rarely ever do), 3G is definitely fast enough for me. Google forwent LTE for 2 reasons: First, to keep the cost down (more on that next). Second, to keep the carriers out of the way. When Android 4.1 was released, I had to wait MONTHS before I saw an official update from Verizon. By removing LTE, Google is taking the power to delay this release away from Verizon or anyone else who seeks it. I would have gladly given up LTE for that update during those 3ish months. The relatively low local storage is a shame. It is worth mentioning, however, that I have 32GB of storage with my Galaxy Nexus and I am currently using less than 3GB thanks to Google’s excellent cloud integration. The lack of expandable storage is a bummer for which I offer no justification or marginalization. · $299 (8GB) or $349 (16BG), unlocked – this phone will sell unlocked for the same price that I paid for a Verizon-subsidized Galaxy Nexus. For those of you who don’t know phones, that means you can make this phone your primary phone for $300 without having to wait for an “eligible upgrade”. This also means that you can buy it with no cell service at all and use it strictly as an overly-fancy Android-flavored iPod-touch-like device. This price is shocking, I don’t understand how it can be so low. Seriously.
The Nexus 7 is no-longer new, but today, there were announced 2 new variants: 32 gigabyte and the 32 gigabyte+mobile data. I’m not going to do a spec-analysis of the Nexus 7 because I have already done that on a couple occasions. Despite already having the original $200 8 gigabyte variant, I will be getting (a new) one as soon as possible (more on why later). The Nexus 7 is still an unbelievably cheap, unbelievably great tablet. The 16 gigabyte version: $200. The 32 gigabyte version: $250. The 32 gigabyte+mobile connection version: $300 (brief reminder: The lesser-impressively speced iPad Mini is debuting at $330).
The last major announcement of the day was the first full-sized (read: about 10 inches) tablet in Google’s Nexus program. It does away with the Android 3.0-like arrangement of the notifications bar and app drawer; and with that, gone are the days of a phone and a tablet looking any different. The Nexus 10 has a back-facing camera, ultra-super-dooper high resolution screen, and is thinner and lighter than the most recent full-sized iPad. The Nexus 10 has impressive specifications all the way around. I will not be buying one, however, because I’m not crazy and I don’t need 7 inch and10 inch tablets. If I were to buy a 10 inch tablet today, though, it would definitely be this one. I am going to skip out on the detailed specifications for now, because I’ll likely do a head-to-head someday soon that will go down that path and this column is mega-long as-is.
Now, you might ask, “Why are you replacing a LTE phone that’s less than a year old with one that doesn’t support LTE?” which is a valid question. More obviously you might ask “WHY ARE YOU REPLACING YOUR NEXUS 7 WITH A NEXUS 7?!? THAT’S LIKE, THE SAME THING, BRAH.” Let me tell you why:
When you have the hookups, you use them. Back when I worked at a movie theater, I saw movies for $1. I watched a ton of movies that summer. Back when I worked at Blockbuster, I rented a ton of movies. I have a new hookup.
Soon I am going to do my end-all (at least temporarily) review of the technological offerings from Apple, Microsoft, and Google. They will be put head-to-head-to-head as an overall technological ecosystem solution. Mobile, miniature tablet, regular tablet, laptop, and desktop offerings will be directly compared, along with some additional thoughts and other things to consider. This will be the ultimate comparison, and will likely one of the longest columns I’ve ever written (a record previously held by either the California visit or THIS one).
With that, I am off.
- Pre-order
- Product arrival after days of refreshing the "track my package" button
- Activating and signing up for cellular coverage
- The inductive charging station and Miracast accessories to start rolling out
- A happy death
"Google should just pay you to sell Android and Google+ to people" Danielle Fuller said something like this a while back, by the way Google, I'll await your job offer
date: 2012-07-14T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH title: '#18 - XKCD, DRM, other letters' aliases: '#18 - XKCD, DRM, other letters' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '18'
Randall Munroe is the newest addition to my list of heroes. He is a former roboticist for NASA and programmer. More notably, he is the soul creator and writer of the webcomic XKCD. The comic frequently focuses on math, science, engineering, language, and general nerdiness. He puts out three new comics a week, every week, and has done so for almost 7 years. I have been a huge fan since I stumbled across XKCD three years ago. He is brilliant. If I could have any job in the world, I'd pick MythBusting. But if I got stuck writing my own webcomic like him, I'd consider that a solid second place finish. I doodle. I make jokes. They are even funny sometimes. I should give it a shot.
One tiny tiny tiny example of his insight I just stumbled across: back when the original Droid came out, he made THIS comic. It's a criticism of gadget obsession on the surface, but that's not the part that intrigues me. The part that intrigues me is the alt-text, where he comments on the Droid's 265 pixels-per-inch screen density and how important that metric was. He did this during a time when pixel density was not a common selling point in phones. This specification has only been advertised since the debut of the iPhone 4 and its "Retina Display". He realized, before any of the advertisers (and probably many of the engineers) that pixel density is EXTREMELY important for displays that we commonly look at from less than an arm's length away. Seems obvious, but a lot of people missed it (kind of like how, right after the original iPhone came out, companies tried making competing phones with smallerdisplays. Seriously, there were quite a few. Seemed obvious to me at the time that that was a dumb plan).
If anyone was looking to get my a present for any sort of anniversary of my being born sometime soon, I might suggest starting here.
Anyways, beyond XKCD...
I have done some thinking about digital rights management (DRM) and technological patents lately. First off, tech patents are completely out of hand. The fact that apple got the sale of my phone temporarily banned because my phone had a same basic functionality is entirely ridiculous. Patents, in my very non-professional opinion, are there to keep people from stealing your hard work and hours upon hours of tinkering to make something function by swooping in at the last moment and copying the final design. They are NOT for preventing someone from doing their OWN hard work and tinkering to create something similar. What is going on in the tech industry right now is insane. It would be like if Bayer said, "okay, we patented a pain reliever in a pill; so we own that. It's our thing now" and then every other company who makes any sort of pain relievers has to pay them. It's stupid.
Moving on to DRM and the way things SHOULD be done (this isn't specifically about DRM I suppose, but it is related):
In a better world, media content would bought by the story - not by the item. If you bought a physical book off Amazon.com you would also have instant access to the Kindle digital version of that same book. If you bought a DVD or Blu-Ray movie, you'd have instant access to a version of that movie in the cloud. Unfortunately the standard is, "if you want it like that, you gotta pay for that version of it". Even the "DVD with Digital Copy" thing they tried doing (still are doing?) is usually bogged down to one service or a limited number of devices. When the zombie Apocalypse happens and I'm one of the only people left to reclaim the earth, I will see to it this system gets implemented. Then all will be right.
Closing notes: The new Spiderman movie was better than the first Spiderman movie (if not for the main actor alone)... and I am well on my way to accomplishing some of my fitness goals. Huzzah!
-
Movie Seating - #173
-
Post Office Showdown - #337
-
Cat Proximity - #231
-
Commitment - #310
-
Purity - #435
"Now and then I announce 'I know you're listening' to empty rooms. If I'm wrong, no one knows. And if I'm right, maybe I just freaked the hell out of some secret organization." Randall Munroe, in this XKCD
description: It's that time again. tags:
- TECH date: 2023-01-29T00:00:00.000Z title: '#429 - Tech Ecosystems Early 2023' aliases: '#429 - Tech Ecosystems Early 2023' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '429'
Welcome back one of my favorite recurring topics!
Technology is integrated almost every aspect of everything we do in our everyday lives. It's everywhere around us, physically attached to us1. Technology is supposed to make our lives better and easier. Sometimes it succeeds at that, sometimes it’s completely overwhelming.
A recurring topic I have covered over the past ten years on here is the technology ecosystems of the day. I find it fascinating how these behemoth companies grow and evolve over time. What they decide to put energy towards and what they decide to avoid.
Here’s my thoughts on where we are at in 2023.
Image Credit
It’s amazing to me that Facebook is where it is today on the world’s stage. This huge thing that billions of people are using, but also in the most trouble of fully imploding of anything I’m writing about today. If you told me 10 years ago that Facebook would have just shy of 3 billion people on it, and that it was struggling to maintain relevance… I would not have believed you.
Facebook isn’t even the most relevant thing at Facebook Meta, it seems. Even if you, like me, are not be a “monthly active user” of Facebook, chances are good you regularly interact with something they own - Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and/or Oculus.
Facebook wants to be there when you are hanging out with your friends.
Amazon is synonymous with buying things on the internet. I have had 4 orders from Amazon over the last 4 weeks. Meanwhile the last time I bought something online that wasn't from Amazon was… I don't even remember. Amazon made a name for themselves being “the worlds most customer-focused company” and it paid off. Their “Prime” membership is, for many (most?) sort of like paying taxes. It’s become just a part of living.
Amazon is more than just shopping, though. They’ve got the obvious side hustles: Alexa and Prime Video. What’s more, they’ve got their servers running a surprisingly large proportion of the internet. When Amazon Web Services go down, there’s a pretty solid chance it will seem like everything around you just stops working. See this pretty entertaining article. The reason for that is that they were among the first to realize they could take the hassle out of managing web servers and databases, and decided to make that easy.
Amazon wants to handle all the tedious logistics of your business, so you don't have to.
Apple is winning, both on the global scale and on a personal level. They are the largest company in the world, and they won me over after a number of annoyances perpetrated by Google. I just got my first Mac computer (more on that later) and it’s already awesome.
With the very successful transition to utilizing Apple-designed & Apple-fabricated chips in their laptops & desktops, they are just absolutely dunking on the competition. Apple is what every other company on this list wants to be: wildly successful across multiple markets and loved by its users.
Apple wants you to have the best, and to pay them for it.
The prodigal son. The first company I was consciously aware of for making technology stuff. Microsoft made its money on licensing its operating system, then ensured that its operating system was the de facto standard operating system by churning out the absolute king of office application suites. I think it’s not exaggerating to say that Microsoft Excel is in no small part responsible for the overall success of Microsoft.
They very nearly lost everything they were capable of losing during the Steve Balmer era. If you don’t know what that is, think about it as the “Windows Phone, Windows 8, Zune” era. When they replaced Balmer with their current CEO, things suddenly started looking up. Excel was now available on the Mac and in the cloud. They were happy to go where their customers were, rather than forcing them onto a new platform. This ensures their survival.
Microsoft wants to be the lynchpin of your business.
Google is nearly synonymous with “the internet”, and they don't seem positioned to lose that status at any point in the near future. It was my favorite company for the better part of the past 15 years. They had such an incredible mission, and an incredible business model. They gave everyone super human abilities, essentially for free. You suddenly have easy and ready access to the answer to any general-knowledge question. You’re never lost again. You have the ability to collaborate on a document in real time.
Google is also, however, so incredibly afflicted with whatever the business equivalent is to ADHD. They get excited about an idea. They say “HEY EVERYONE! GOOGLE PLUS!” then give up on it. “HEY EVERYONE! GAMING IN THE CLOOOOUUUUUD!” then decide Stadia isn’t worth maintaining. Other things they never actually gave up on, but haven’t put any effort into - like their Google Health platform that’s roughly 3% as good as Apple Health.
Google wants to give you everything it can, for free.
These non-scientific radar charts illustrate my subject view of how involved each company is trying to make its money.
Making this chart was the primary reason I wanted to write this Column, actually. It’s completely made up and somewhat arbitrary, but represents how it seems to me each company is spending its energy in hopes to move their bottom line.
There are some fascinating combinations here - like, for example, Microsoft. They are heavily invested in running your business on-premise software, they want to run your business’s cloud, AND they want to be the gaming console you use to pwn noobs. Facebook has always been depended on advertising, but is moving into the consumer hardware and gaming spaces with the “Quest” VR headsets. Amazon wants to make a killing being the backbone of every transaction you make online, but also they’re cool giving you some side-hustle-ish benefits like Prime Video. Apple wants to sell everything you want to buy to run your technology on. Google has no idea what it wants.
Here it is in table form:
Note: I left some blanks where technically I shouldn’t have, like Amazon’s “Prime Gaming”, because… well… it’s not competitive.
Why is there no real competitor to YouTube? How weird is it that Apple’s announcement videos are hosted on YouTube? Facebook hosts short form videos, but there isn’t really a general “browse”, or the ability to perform general searches for things like “how to change the oil on a 2011 Ford Escape”.
IAAS is “Infrastructure as a Service”. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft all will happily let you build web applications and host them in their datacenters. Apple hosts the App Store and enables developers to create and publish apps utilizing consumer devices… but it sure seems like Facebook should offer developers some form of paid product. Maybe they do and I’m just ignorant.
I got an M2 Mac Mini. This is my first Apple-made traditional computer; and it completes my full transition to the Apple Ecosystem2. It’s brand new. This is literally one of the very first things I’m doing with the machine, so my perspective on it will evolve over time.
Its incredible how different everything feels on the Mac. Also how the Mac does NOT feel like “the simple computer”. MacOS exposes so much more in-depth stuff than Windows 10 does. I wanted a context menu option to open a folder in my code editor. To do that, I created a script in the Automator app and added it manually.
I have all the necessary equipment, I just haven't wrapped my brain around using the applications to make art.
Proper video games, that is. I've never played with Unity, Unreal, or whatever else there is.
This is interesting, but holy cow it's intimidating to get started. Seems like the kind of thing you could spend 3 weeks on to make something that looks like it was made by a 5 year old in an hour.
I've never been good at painting. My drawing skills are amateurish (and sometimes not even that good), and I've never even been aware of an opportunity to make a sculpture.
This takes talents I simply don't have.
It's Charmeleon you imbeciles! Dalton
date: 2012-12-04T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE
- TECH title: '#49 - Full of Nerd' aliases: '#49 - Full of Nerd' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '49'
The other day I hopped on the elevator at my apartment/condo complex and something statistically unlikely happened. Two more gentlemen followed me in, both of which were going to my floor, neither of which was accompanied by the other. First off, I would estimate that I ride the elevator by myself 80% of the time, with 1 other person 10%, with 2 other people 5%, with more than 2 for the remaining 5%. So, already, we are sitting at a one-out-of-twenty circumstance. No big deal. I won’t get into the fact that all of us were guys (12.5% chance of that; or possibly 25% depending upon definitions). I was going to the 5th floor of a 16 floor building. The bottom 2 floors don’t have housing. The top floor only has one or two high-rollers on it, so I’ll count them out. Assuming an even distribution of residents within the building, the chance of the first passenger following me living on my floor is 1/13, or ~7.7%. The chance of the second passenger going to the same floor is the same. To combine multiple independent instances of a statistical trail, you multiply them. So, it was a 1/13/13 (0.6% chance) occurrence. Multiply that by the original 5% estimate for the number of fellow passengers and you wind up with a 0.03% likelihood of said event. That’s 1 out of 3330 elevator rides. If I rode the elevator 6 times per day (a decent estimate), this would happen once every year and a half. You might say, “why write about something like that?” Well, people with personal blogs nearly always write about their birthdays, and those happen more often than my elevator scenario. So. Why not? It’s still not quite as weird as the time I got on the bus at KU with 24 females and 3 males. Using a binomial coefficient, that happens once out of 45886 bus rides. That was ZANY. Today I grew 3 additional chest hairs (chest hairs, if you didn’t know, are my standard unit of manliness). I cooked bacon for the first time. It brings me great shame to admit that I made it through life for 24.34 years without cooking bacon… but I can now proudly claim that streak has been struck down. This is another weird column. This one is nerdier, though. Speaking of nerdy and bacon – here’s a relevant XKCD:
XKCD: Stove Ownership
I worked out this morning. So, I don’t consider that graph exactly accurate in my case. Today I watched 45 minutes of Ron Swanson monologues. He’s a character in the TV show “Parks and Recreation”, if you didn’t know, and he’s awesome. I’m a bit late to the “I love Ron Swanson” game, but I’m here now and I do. The next thing I want to talk about to round-out this nerd column: Videogames. Since my recent videogame acquisitions (PlayStation 3 & Android console emulators), I have had a recent resurgence of appreciation for them. My girlfriend is going to be gone for ~6 months here pretty soon. So, it’s time for videogames.
Google (or at least a small sub-division of it) has made its first foray into the world of gaming with a really interesting game called "Ingress." The word "Ingress" is defined as "a place or means of access, an entrance." Given my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the game and the situation surrounding the game, this works on at LEAST three different levels. I'm definitely all for words or phrases or symbols that work on multiple levels... it's one of my "things". Beyond the brilliant name, it is a brilliant and new concept for a game. It takes videogames from something you do alone in your room to something you team up with strangers to do in the real physical world. The more I learn about it, the more it intrigues me. For those who are interested: The Ingress Introduction Video. It also has a nifty symbol and some really interesting user-made artwork, surrounding said symbol(s) and the two factions in the game... like so:
(this image is lost to time)
The overall symbol and the symbols of the two factions... As symbolic metaphors, I prefer eyes to keys, personally. Lastly, looking at a few different “Top {whatever number} videogames of all time!” lists, I have put together the following Top 5(s).
- Bioshock – PlayStation
- Earthbound – Super Nintendo
- Portal 1 - PC
- Drake’s Uncharted (the whole series) - PlayStation
- Chrono Trigger – Super Nintendo
- Hitman: Absolution (I liked it)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (call of duty 4)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Portal 2
The quote today is pulled from a backlog of my favorite friend quotes of all time that I have saved on my computer.
"Let's go look at donuts" Jon, after he realized he was part of three guys standing around smelling different shampoo's in Dillions
title: '#285 - Batman Vs Superman Vs the Trailers' date: '2016-04-03' aliases:
- '#285 - Batman Vs Superman Vs the Trailers'
- '#285' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '285'
Motto: :-(
21 hours ago I walked into a theater to watch one of the most anticipated movies... ever. The levels of hype varied from source to source - but all were looking forward to seeing it.
I was going to write a big long review of Batman V Superman, but honestly, there are so many reviews all over the internet that I couldn't possibly contribute anything new to the conversation. Instead, I'm mostly going to focus on the trailers, then have a Top 5 disappointing things & Top 5 not disappointing things.
The following video will contain all the spoilers for Batman vs. Superman:
That's the 2nd trailer Warner Bros released for Batman V Supes. It's essentially a 3 minute version of the entire movie, presented basically in the order in which it happened, missing only small amounts of action one, arguably two plot points.
While we are talking about trailers getting people excited at the expense of them enjoying the movie later on...
Here's the 3rd trailer they released:
This trailer is slightly less spoiler-ey, but commits the second-worst cardinal sin a trailer can commit: it shows the climax of the movie. In this case, it shows Batman's awesome fight sequence. When I saw this trailer I thought "oh sweet! Batman is going to kick butt the whole movie!" Little did I know that the first 20 seconds of this trailer are basically just all of the cool parts of the only sequence Batman has like this... and it's at the very end of the movie.
Trailers should give you a feel for the tone of the movie, and optionally tease the plot. They should leave you wondering "gee, what happens in the rest of this movie!" Basically, they serve the same purpose as the first act of a story... so they should be composed primarily of the first act of a movie. What they should absolutely not do is show you not only the climax, but ALL of the COOLEST parts of the climax. They shouldn't say "okay, so this happens, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens, then the movie is over. If you enjoyed this trailer, there's a longer version at your local cinema!"
The trailers for Batman V Superman really did the movie a disservice. I don't think it would be a "good" movie for anyone who hadn't seen the trailers, but not seeing them certainly would have helped.
That's just my opinion.
Regarding the #3 disappointing thing in the upcoming Top 5 - here's the picture to go out on:
Side note - you may notice the quotes in my posts are higher in quality now. That's side benefit #73 of my new job. Funny people saying funny things.
Top 5: Not Disappointing Things about Batman V Superman
5. This movie addressed the chief complaints of Man of Steel head on
4. The fight sequences were pretty cool, on the whole
3. There were some very great visuals
2. The opening scene, following Bruce Wayne during the events at the climax of Man of Steel, was fantastic
1. Like everyone else, I think that Ben Affleck was a great Bruce Wayne & Batman... and Henry Cavill could be a great Superman, given some better writing
Top 5: Disappointing Things about Batman V Superman (ACTUAL SPOILERS AHEAD)
5. Batman V Superman was 2 1/2 hours long, the Batman versus Superman fight scene was 2 1/2 minutes long. Batman's fight scene was great, but I'd already seen it.
4. Lex Luthor was interesting, but not really Lex Luther. No other characterization of Lex Luthor I've ever seen has he acted so... crazy. He was a very Joker-y Lex Luthor. That's not his character.
3. The movie feels like a setup for the Justice League moreso than a movie. The introduction of the other Justice League superheroes was awkwardly presented, and really really weirdly placed in the movie. Marvel's "after the credits teaser" is great, DC should have done that.
2. Batman and Superman both kill people. That's a huge deal to some people.
1. They crammed a TON of otherwise great storylines together, presenting terrible, half-baked versions of each. Given that this movie is supposed to be setup for a long-running DC canon, they have to play in the world that this movie lives in. They can no longer use Doomsday. They can't do a proper "death of Superman" storyline. They can't give us a Batman V Superman fight with more meaning & substance. They have to deal with a crazy Lex Luthor. They killed off Superman's best friend without even mentioning his name. This one movie kinda sucking has implications that will last for years (or until they reboot the franchise again).
Quote:
"Did you notice the pronounced sternum on that horse? I was the alpha horse."
- Travis -
date: 2013-09-11T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- META title: '#114 - Test Redesign & The Future of the Column' aliases: '#114 - Test Redesign & The Future of the Column' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '114'
I got tired of white text on a black background. What you see now is what I'm going to go with for the time being. It's not perfect. It's not what I had envisioned; but what I had envisioned is either not possible in Blogger or possible but really really difficult to pull off.
All the old posts I've ever written are on the left. I have a link to my YouTube channel up above. This change is only somewhat halfway done. I wanted to take the blog and make it a little more multi-faceted. Give a page for drawings. A page for poetry and prose.
I don't actually know what "prose" constitutes. I wouldn't know what prose was if I read it. I wouldn't stop and say "oh, this must be prose". It's one of those words you use that you only know via its context.
Just Googled the definition of "prose". Turns out I've been writing prose all along... so I guess it wouldn't get it's own page.
All in all, I'm interested in expanding the scope of this blog into something that's more "website" like than "blog" like. The problem is that's not what Blogger is good for; and I like Blogger.
Maybe I'll get a Squarespace domain. It's $8/month. I don't know if I can justify that cost in my head... yet.
I am now using AIO Wireless as my wireless service provider. AIO is a new provider, a subsidiary of AT&T with a unique focus on simplicity. There are no contracts. There are no overages. There are no fees. So far, I'm liking the service and I'm very optimistic about my continued experience with them.
The picture to go out on - a photosphere from possible wedding venue number sixtytwelvehundred:
EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE - this image was lost to time.
- Google Play Music All Access - $10/month
- Audible Audiobooks - $15/month --- this is where I draw the line, it's my next potential subscription
- Amazon Prime - $6.58/month ($79/year)
- Netflix - $8/month (streaming)
- Google Drive - $5/month (100 GB)
“Is this an ad for Android?” some Redditor said this when I posted my second-a-day video a month ago
description: 'A recap of Apple''s 2020 WWDC, plus other stuff (like usual)' tags:
- THOUGHTS
- NERDCRED
- NONGOOGLETECH
- 30DAYS date: 2020-06-28T00:00:00.000Z title: '#394 - iOS is Android' aliases:
- '#394 - iOS is Android' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '394'
Apple's annual software developer's conference happened recently. Historically I'd be a little excited about their conference, but, since I switched teams roughly two years ago, this event has become very exciting. This year it did not disappoint - especially as someone who came from Android not too long ago, and would consider getting a Mac to replace my 6 year old desktop whenever it finally explodes.
Most of the headline features of the forthcoming iOS 14 are straight out of the Android playbook.
- We're getting home screen widgets.
- We're getting the ability to hide apps we don't use.
- We're getting the ability to set a default mail client and browser.
Honestly, these were the only meaningful differences between the standard, day-to-day operations between running Android and iOS.
Android die-hards will argue with me that the lack of the "back" button is a meaningful difference, but I don't miss it. Every case in which "back" was actually useful on Android you will find one on iOS - usually as a button in the top-left corner. The "back" button on Android existed as a crutch to try to "get out of" screens your phone got into that you weren't really sure what else to do with. Sometimes pressing it would help, sometimes it would do nothing - which leads to a bad user experience. The other use for the "back" button was as a means to take out your frustration when the phone got slow and laggy - and that's just not a thing that happens on iPhones. Again, this is coming from an Android enthusiast.
![[394-1.png]]
I'm extremely excited by the return-to-widgets. Hopefully this greater focus and emphasis on widgets will spur a more "first class" approach to widgets by developers. They have been a second-class citizen of the iOS ecosystem, and they never graduated past that on Android. Apple have the chance to correct some of the bad behaviors that crept into Android widgets (constant refreshing drains battery, and the refresh process usually was a visual distraction). I am 100% committed to figuring out a way to have a widget displaying my Data Journal events.
The Siri Shortcuts (a.k.a. just "Shortcuts") app is getting new and expanded capabilities. Additional actions and, more importantly, additional automation triggers are going to revolutionize the ability to use your phone as a self-tracking, goal-killing modern human.
The biggest announcement of the day was Apple's commitment to transitioning to their own silicon for MacOS. The iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch have been using Apple-built chips for years now. This is in large part why those devices get so much performance out of such a small package for such a long time. Apple tunes the hardware to meet the needs of the software - and it builds the software to intentionally exploit the capacities of the hardware. This means that future MacBooks will have literal all-day batteries - and much better performance. Also - the common architecture will lead to a better, more consistent ecosystem of apps.
- I still use Gmail. iCloud email is likely never going to supplant my Google email that's 10+ years old.
- I still use Google calendar. It works fine for my calendary needs. Although the lack of integration into Shortcuts is annoying... it does integrate with IFTTT.
- I use Todoist for tasks. The Reminders app seems pretty legit... but I need easy access to my tasks from a Chrome window.
- I use Notion for notes. Notion is incredible. Apple Notes isn't anywhere close to what Notion does.
- I primarily use Chrome for browsing, but honestly Safari doesn't bother me any more.
- I use a Nintendo Switch for gaming. The App Store has a lot of great games, I'm sure - but I like Smash Bros.
- I use Windows for my most heavy-duty computing needs, which is basically just video editing and heavy multitasking.
Honestly, the thing that's stopping me from going "all in on apple" is primarily the fact that I have no access to anything Apple for 40 hours a week.
Let's set the record straight: Breakfast is the least important meal of the day. You can easily skip it without causing yourself major problems. As a matter of fact, the "standard" breakfast foods are usually high in carbs and low in nutritional value. They may give you a temporary boost of energy, but will leave you with less energy than if you'd just eaten nothing at all. "Intermittent fasting" is essentially just1 a fancy name skipping breakfast, by the way. I'm not saying I skip breakfasts and I'm not saying that you should. I'm saying it's not important - it just has a good publicist.
My 30 Day Challenge this month was to institute Time Blocking. Supposedly, it's one of the best, most useful productivity techniques that exist, according to a lot of sources I've read. The basic idea is that you block out a slot of time on your calendar to work on a given task. You do nothing other than work on that task during this time. You also are meant to have the task finished by the end of the block. This means that you're not distracted, you're working deeply, and you're not able to let a task that should be done in 60 minutes take all day because you're being a perfectionist.
It turns out I suck at it. I have not really had a single successful time block. I haven't figured out how to make it work. I just... I still get distracted. Or I don't start on time because I'm in the middle of something. Or the circumstance of the day supplant my ability to focus elsewhere. I want to try that again.
- The Organized Mind - Daniel Levitin
- The Body - Bill Bryson
- The Practical Guide to Business Process Reengineering Using IDEF0 - Clarence Feldmann
- Homo Deus - Yoval Noah Harari
- (reading now) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
The pork smells like old people farts and death.
Melissa
Seems expensive and of minimal additional utility except ultrapreparedness... I'm in.
Joe
Jon put your butt back on, I have questions.
Josh
I will die believing the most important technologic advance in history is being able to order food from my phone.
Josh
title: '#145 - Feature: Minimalist Thought Experiment' date: '2014-03-03' aliases:
- '#145 - Feature: Minimalist Thought Experiment'
- '#145' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '145'
Motto: This Line Doesn't Really Need to Be Here.
I was going to preface this post with an explanation of "thought experiments", but why reexplain the wheel?
From Wikipedia:
A thought experiment or Gedankenexperiment (from German considers some hypothesis, theory,[1] or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences. Given the structure of the experiment, it may or may not be possible to actually perform it, and, in the case that it is possible for it to be performed, there need be no intention of any kind to actually perform the experiment in question. The common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question.
Before I get into the content of my experiment - I want to give you a bit of background:
I recently moved. Everytime you move, no matter how much stuff you have, you will inevitably think "why do I need all this crap?!?".
That question fits in line with a ton of themes from my life (see the quotes for a brief list) that combine to form a much more fundamental question:
"What are the bare essentials that you would actually have to have to live a comfortable, happy life."
Answering that question is my experiment. Note that the question is not "what are the bare essentials to live. This isn't a survival scenario-type question. What do you need to live out your version of a happy life? Here's a brief version of my answer:
| A quick diagram I made, not representative of the list, but something to look at. |
- 1 small studio-type house, about the size of a railroad car
- 1 motor vehicle, parked in your house with everything else
- 1 toilet
- Toilet paper & plunger
- 1 shower
- Body and 2-in-1 hair soaps
- 2 bath towels (I don't like using damp bath towels)
- 1 sink
- Hand soap & towel
- Dish soap & brush
- 1 oven/stove, one or two burners would be enough
- 1 refrigerator
- 2 Nalgene bottles (so you can always have one in the fridge)
- 1 couch, on which you can sit and sleep
- 1 desk, on which you can work and eat
- 1 ottoman, to use for leg propping, sitting, and storage
- 1 small and 1 large version of the following:
- Bowls, plates, glasses, Tupperware
- 1 large pan, pot, and baking tin
- 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 knife
- 1 bicycle
- 1 messenger bag
- 2 pairs of pants
- 3 pairs of shorts
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 7 shirts
- 1 pair of boots
- 1 pair of running shoes
- 1 medium-to-high end laptop
- 1 external monitor, which doubles as your television
- 1 smartphone
- 1 multitool
- 1 box of GoPro-related stuff
- 1 box of medical supplies & toiletries
- 1 tool box
- 1 box of camping equipment (I like camping more than I let on)
- Ongoing gas, electric, water, internet, and smartphone connections
That is a slightly condensed version of the full list (which goes down into exact medical supplies and toiletries, tool box components, camping box components). It contains several things nobody really needs, but I'm confident it isn't missing anything I couldn't live without.
So, what are the things you need to live the kind of life you want? Why do you have anything else?
Top 5: Obvious Things I Could Leave Off My List
5. One of the Nalgene bottles or bath towels
4. The bicycle or motor vehicle, depending upon where I'd live
3. The GoPro stuff. Nobody needs a GoPro. But I really like making videos and I really like my GoPro.
2. The External Monitor.
1. Really, everything but the camping stuff. I could get by with that for a while.
Quotes:
“Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need.”
- Tyler Durden, from Chuck Palahniuk's book 'Fight Club' -
“Aaron, I really admire how much you appreciate useful tools.”
- Josh, from a couple years back -
“It's about what things people perceive are so important that they feel the need to carry them daily”
- r/EDC, the subreddit I used to read more than any others -
“I'd rather want something I don't have than have something that I don't want.”
- My mantra/epiphany from a couple months back -
title: '#367 - Short Book Review: Broken Angels' date: '2019-04-06' aliases:
- '#367 - Short Book Review: Broken Angels'
- '#367' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '367'
Motto: You can probably just stop reading.
This post is not for anyone. I wanted to write it, though. TL;DR - I read two books, one was good, one was not. Also - you should look to see if your local library has an app that you can get audiobooks from. Ours uses an app called Axis 360, and since I've discovered that my reading has skyrocketed. It's really really great.
I recently read Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan, the sequel to his first novel Altered Carbon. This Column is a review of that book... spoiler free-ish until the bold warning line. The Top 5 and quote are spoiler-free.
I came to it by way of watching the Netflix series Altered Carbon. It opened my eyes to strong scifi, which I didn't know I liked. I've always been a fan of superhero stuff, which in a way is science fiction; but I've never been more than a casual fan of Star Wars, and I find Star Trek pretty unapproachable on the whole.
Altered Carbon introduces a couple of pieces of new technology, and then sets the story in a world that deals with their implications. Those pieces of tech mostly boil down to the ability to digitize human consciousness & put into a little storage chip. This chip can be implanted into an unoccupied body, and suddenly the person on the chip now is alive again with a new body. This is the main concept of this world. There are a few other developments, such as human-like Androids, cybernetic enhancements, and a mode of faster-than-light travel capable of sending small payloads incredible distances by slipping into some dimension we can't perceive. Also there's mention that aliens exist and have surpassed our technology millennia ago, but for the most part aren't around anymore from what we can tell. That bit doesn't get much traction, though. Again, the main concept is the ability to pull the mind/consciousness/soul out of the body and the ability to make copies of it.
Both Altered Carbon and Broken Angels follow the life of Takeshi Kovacs, a former member of an elite Navy SEAL/Green Beret-like fighting force called "Envoys". Takeshi's Envoy life is only a pretext to these novels. Neither of them take place during span of time.
Altered Carbon is a story where Takeshi Kovacs is brought back to life in a new body on a planet he'd never been to before (Earth), to solve a murder mystery of an extremely powerful 400+ year old man. The man who hired him was the man who was murdered. He was brought back to life via a remote backup of his consciousness & clone of his body. The story is about Takeshi figuring out who killed the man. It's entertaining. It's interesting. The show and the book are similar enough to say if you've experienced one there's not much reason to experience the other. I enjoyed them both and I'm glad I watched and read them, respectively.
Given the fact they are making a second season of the show I liked, I figured it might be fun to read the second novel in the trilogy before the show came out before I watched The Falcon take over for Rick Flag.
Broken Angels takes place 30 years after Altered Carbon, but that doesn't really matter. Takeshi Kovacs is in a new body, but that doesn't really matter. Without getting into spoilers (yet) the story takes place during a war being fought with great corporate influence on a remote planet. Takeshi is told about a great archaeological discovery, and enlists to go help recover the discovery in the name of one of these corporations. That's the basic story.
I would go so far as to say that's almost the whole story, though.
Nothing happens in this book. Not really, at least.
The things that DO happen seem dull and unimportant. There are scenes in the book that seem like they were put there just to tick a box saying "yep we have that now", but have no implications to the overall plot.
It's weird because I like the setting so much. I like the style. I like the main character. I like the world they're in. I like the little details here and there... I just don't think it was a good story.
It was like if a bad script was given to a good screenwriter. Stepping back from the pages to look at the overarching narrative... it's just boring. I got 3/4ths the way through the book before I realized what I was reading just WAS the book, and not a setup for the book yet-to-come. I can't say much more without getting into spoilers, which I do briefly want to talk about.
I hate to say I can't recommend Broken Angels to anyone. Reading reviews online, I'm not in the majority... but I do agree with the one other person I know in real life who read the book. It's just... not great. See the Top 5 for some GOOD things about it.
SPOILERS FOR BROKEN ANGELS BELOW THIS LINE
Alight. So specifically, here's THE entire book, boiled down into a ~3 minute read.
Takeshi Kovacs is fighting as a mercenary on a planet he has no ties to in a war he doesn't really care about. Some guy he once knew tells him about an archaeological discovery of a Martian portal that leads into deep space, where there's a Martian spaceship, full of Martian tech. Takeshi goes AWOL from the war, rescues an archaeologist who opened the portal before, and teams up with a dude from one of the corporations so he can hire a band of (now dead) soldiers to help him go dig up the site. At this point we're about a quarter into the book.
They go to the site. The archaeologist spends the second and third quarters of the book trying to open a portal while everyone else just sort of waits around. SOME things happen, but none of them are really of any consequence.
A nuclear weapon goes off in a nearby city... but we don't have any connection to that city and the bomb's effects are mostly just a slow radiation poisoning of everyone.
A grey mass of nanotech weaponry is discovered... but it's mostly inert.
Some dead bodies are discovered... but who cares because an A-bomb just went off so of course there are dead people around.
This half of the book sandwiched in between the first and final quarters is incredibly boring and slow.
The last quarter of the book they open the portal and go through it. They then do a chapter's worth of exploration around the Martian ship, which was cool. The ship has a sort of self-defense mechanism that makes people want to kill themselves, Bird Box-style. Takeshi knocks most people out before they kill themselves. The merry band is rescued by Takeshi's old war troupe... but they decide they want to torture to death one of Takeshi's new friends. For some reason Takeshi decides this isn't cool and decides to kill literally 100+ military elite soldiers in span of about 3 underwhelming pages.
That seems like the end of the book. But then there's a chapter at the end that is reminiscent of the "HERE'S WHAT WAS GOING ON THE WHOLE TIME!" chapter in Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban... but the loose ends it ties up were all so uninteresting I forgot they even happened. Basically we find out the archaeologist realized killed everyone in her first expedition to the site after she realized the Martian ship was a war ship and the weapons tech on it would be used to create new superweapons. Takeshi realizes it right at the end, and decides "meh who cares." I couldn't agree more. That's the book.
There are almost no new concepts introduced in this book. The only ones I can think of are the portal to outerspace... but they already have faster-than-light travel for small things. So that doesn't seem significant. Also the nanotech weaponry... but it doesn't do anything in the book aside from being vaguely threatening.
Very underwhelming.
Top 5: Things I DID appreciate about Broken Angels
5. The book is very different from its predecessor. We aren't getting a Dan Brown same-novel-every-time-but-with-different-details situation.
4. I still like the world-building.
3. I still like Takeshi as a character.
2. ...
1. ... :-(
Quote:
"We want to be healthy, but we like doughnuts more."
- Former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, in his book "Deep Thinking", which I'm reading now -
title: '#227 - Feature: A La Carte Television' date: '2015-01-09' aliases:
- '#227 - Feature: A La Carte Television'
- '#227' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '227'
Motto: Liberty and Monarchy, that's my Free King Motto
Because I sorta work in the industry, I feel the need to say the following contains information sourced only from public news and my opinions garnered from public news. My job does not afford me overwhelming insight on the future of consumer-facing television landscape. This will all be wild speculation using made up numbers to illustrate a point I would like you, the reader, to consider your stance on. The economics of television work out like this:
Millions of customers subscribe to a basic cable package that gives them 100 channels for $50/month. Let's say that consumer XYZ watches somewhere around 10 of those channels in any given month. So, that she is wasting 85-90% of the money she's paying, right?
Couldn't she just choose to pay for only the channels she watches and save ~$45/month?
Ms. XYZ is saving $45! Huzzah!
Wrong. Wrong for the simple fact that channels are not equally "valuable". You can't just say "well, I pay $50 for 100 channels, so that's 50 cents a channel. I only want to pay $5.00 for these 10 channels I actually watch". You can't say that for a couple of reasons - 1) that's not how TV plans are offered (as of right now), and 2) that's not how TV plans WOULD work if they WERE offered that way - not all channels would cost the same.
What you'd end up with is a pricing structure based off per-channel demand. Channels like ESPN that receive MASSIVE viewership could afford to charge way above and beyond their 50 cents. You'd end up paying something closer to $15-$20/month, just for the ESPN network, if not more. They can afford to do that because there's millions and millions of people that would gladly pay that amount to get their 24/7 sports fix. Less popular channels couldn't get away with that, so you'd see Fox News for $10/month, Comedy Central for $5/month, and Discovery come out for $2.50/month. The pricing structure would range from ~$20/month down to around $0.10/month for some of the lesser-watched channels, like Cspan. So, let's look at consumer XYZ's cable bill:
Ms. XYZ is still saving $5! Huzzah!
Only, that's not true either. Let's take a closer look at a pretend world where the TV model is "pay for only what you want to watch & watch everything you pay for". Channels like Cspan can afford to run off 10 cents per subscriber because of the vast number of subscribers that are forced (for lack of a better term) to pay for them. If we were to break out stations individually, and Cspan was no longer getting subsidized by the millions and millions of 10 cent contributions by people who don't actually watch it - it would have to charge those people who DO elect to pay significantly more to keep itself afloat. Let's say that only 1 out of every 100 people decide they like Cspan enough to pay for it. Well, in order to keep income the same, your price just went from $0.10/month to $10/month. Cspan just became a specialty. If you really want it, you gotta pay for it. The number of consumers is the supply-side of this equation.
So let's revisit example consumer XYZ. She still only watches 10 channels/month, but now it's 9 "normal" channels and 1 "specialty" channel:
Ms. XYZ is now LOSING $5/month. If you were to actually pay for all 100 channels, your bill would be astronomical, in the neighborhood of $400/month.
So. There's one side of the argument. You're paying for the 10 channels you watch and getting the other 90 essentially for free. It's the side of the argument that the cable providers are making, and it's actually a pretty valid... if you assume that people would continue watching every channel they currently watch if they were forced to pay for them individually.
Here's the flip side of that argument:
You're no longer paying for the 10 channels you watch, and getting 90 channels for free. You're paying for every single channel. Mrs. XYZ watches the History channel, but only really one show on History. She decides that one show alone isn't worth $2.50/month for her. She is no longer a History subscriber. The same goes for TBS, Discovery, USA, TNT, and she usually goes out to watch sports anyway, so she no longer pays for ESPN.
Here's XYZ's lineup now:
Mrs. XYZ is now saving $22.50/month, but she has now 5 or 6 less shows that she's no longer watching. She's missing out! Woe is her, right? Is that right, though?
Television can be a great thing. There's nothing quite like kicking back at the end of a long day and turning on cartoons on Fox. But television can also be a terrible thing. 100's and 1000's of channels enables habits of over-consumption. There's literally always something on. It's a contributing factor to a culture that lives a sedentary lifestyle, doesn't read, doesn't do much of anything beyond passively consume bland entertainment.
If we were given a more traditional supply & demand style television system, TV would consumption become much more intention. Competition would cut out the crap. Television would lose some of their specialty channels. Some of them would just go away, some of them would find other means to deliver their content. Some people would be out of a job. There would be less things on TV that we'd watch "just because they are on". The television industry as a whole might take a slight hit, but that hit would purely be a reflection of a more efficient economic model. Most importantly, at a macroscopic level, I believe we would all live slightly better lives. That's my opinion. I could be wrong. I'm not an economist. I'm not a sociologist (I about wrote "socialist" here on accident). I just a dude who thinks about things sometimes.
Top 5: Side Benefits of the A La Carte Model 5. All those stations with only one good show would go under, but the demand for that one good show could potentially bring it into one of the stations you DO watch. All the sudden, that one good show that everyone likes on the network nobody watches could replace that one show that nobody likes on the network everyone watches. 4. Due to the above, what WAS on television would take a fairly dramatic upswing in quality. 3. The lack of "I only watch it because it's on"-type shows would cause people to watch less TV overall. I think few people would argue that the average American watching less TV would be a bad thing. 2. Paying for individual channels would likely open up additional options. TV on the internet would become much more commonplace. 1. You pay for what you get, you get what you pay for. The economic system works at its most fundamental level. That's just satisfying on some deep level.
Quote:
“I Find Television Very Educating. Every Time Somebody Turns on the Set, I Go into the Other Room and Read a Book" - Groucho Marx -
title: '#336 - Memes & Pictures and Previews' date: '2018-04-07' aliases:
- '#336 - Memes & Pictures and Previews'
- '#336' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '336'
Motto: Shooter McGavin was in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
I haven't written much lately cause I've been busy.
I rewatched Thor: Ragnarok. I think it needs bumped up even higher in my MCU ranking. Previously it was at the top of my "Upper" tier - it's been reranked to middle of the "Elite" tier, passing Spiderman: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy. Thor's response to all this:
Next post will certainly be a retrospective of the Life Tracker - as my 5 Year Anniversary of tracking happens in two weeks. I have a preview of that post right here:
The post after that will be me screaming for an entire post about how good Avengers: Infinity War was. I have a preview of that post right here:
A post in the not too distant future will be me like this:
A post after that one will be more like this:
I guess what I'm saying in this post is that most of what I have to say I'm not ready to say yet.
Top 5: Things That Make Me Hip
5. I bought these fancy lad shoes
4. I bought these fancy lad socks
3. I am reading an honest-to-goodness comic book
2. I went to a Local Coffee shop in the well known hip town of Lawrence
1. I Watched Old Timey Cartoons at that Local Coffee Shop
Quote:
"KRISTA YOU CAN'T TOUCH ANOTHER MAN'S PERPLEXUS"
- Dalton -
"If you're eating Ruffles and not using dip you might as well be eating Lays, dude. You're wasting the added structural integrity of the ruffle"
- Chuck -
title: '#276 - THINGS ARE STILL GOOD' date: '2015-12-19' aliases:
- '#276 - THINGS ARE STILL GOOD'
- '#276' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '276'
Motto: BUM BUM BUM, BUM BUMBUM, BUM BUMBUM, BWAM BWAM BWAM BWAM BWAMBWAM, BWAM BUH BWAM. DUHHHH DUH DUH DUH DUH DA DUHDUHDUH
To set the scene: I'm watching a Star Wars with my wife while I write this. You might say "Aaron! Don't write a Column while you're watching Star Wars! Pay attention!" But I assure you, I'm only writing this during the prequel trilogy.
Things have been very different since my recent career switch. I'm happy to say that things are better in just about every way. I am glad to go to work on Monday. I'm happy to be at work. I find myself enjoying doing the work. I like the people. I like the routine I've developed. I'm very optimistic for the long term path my recent change has put me on.
Samuel L Jackson is awesome in everything. He puts the "win" in "Mace WINdu".
Also, Jar Jar Binks truly is annoying. I know it's completely unnecessary to say at this point... but this is my first time really getting to see how terrible he is first hand.
I've gotten the chance to see a lot more of my friends lately. I'm a big fan of seeing friends. Here shortly will be Christmas vacation - where I will get to see more friends and family. I couldn't be more excited about it.
I was sick for a while. Then I got better. Melissa got sick for a while. Now she's better.
My "Aaron things" are slightly more difficult to keep up with, given my new situation. I'm more mentally engaged at work. I've been doing a great job utilizing my time. I have less time to dedicate to writing, Life Tracking, and doing 30 Day Challenges... but it's a compromise I'm more than happy to make. Things are going well.
Alright. I'm going to go back to watching full-time. I got tons of pictures to share. Check out below!
Top 10: Things in My Phone's Gallery
10. This is the view I've had on my way out the door to work lately:
9. I turned 10,000 days old! We celebrated!
8. The best time since last time:
7. I felt terrible during not only the taking of this photo - but this whole day:
6. My dad showing Alex how balloons work:
5. Melissa got Loki & Thor a couple of festive costumes (that they hate):
4. It's so nice having a camera that can take photos in low light (and Spectre was okay):
3. My niece Kate is adorable:
2. Last night's fire pit fire in slow-motion:
1. The final play from the Chief's game:
Quote:
"Did ya hear about this thing now? Huge movie coming out - huuuge movie. It's called 'Star Wars: the Four Jamaicans'."
- Second-Hand News Correspondent Anthony Crispino from Saturday Night Live -
title: '#171 - The Greatest Week of My Life' date: '2014-05-26' aliases:
- '#171 - The Greatest Week of My Life'
- '#171' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '171'
Motto: Whoa.
Just to set the scene properly for your read through this post, this is a picture from this exact moment:
Today is Thursday, May 8th, 2014. I’m on a ship somewhere between Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico. There’s some sort of vaguely mariachi and tropical band playing somewhere behind me. I am sitting on a deck chair overlooking the Atlantic (or the sea of whatever). Next to me is my wife of 5 days, reading the book “Wicked”. On my other side is an old lady in a sun hat reading something on a Kindle and her overachiever husband reading “The Art of War”. I haven’t been on the internet for 4 days. That’s a record, so far as I know, since the first time I've had internet access (or, at the very least, since the first time I've had a smartphone). I am writing a post on the only laptop I've seen this whole trip - my Chromebook (who ever said you can’t do anything on a Chromebook without internet access was mistaken). I am happy, worn out, a little more sweaty than I’d prefer, maybe, and just a bit sunburnt… but I’m not complaining. I wouldn't change a single thing about the past 6 days if you gave me the chance.
--- everything below this line was written after the honeymoon -----
Here's a brief rundown of the honeymoon:
Sunday May 4th
After a full two hours of sleep, Melissa and I take a shuttle to the airport. As per usual, we are in the terminal way way early. Neither of us are terribly tired despite the lack of sleep and the exhausting day the day before. I think our bodies were operating in emergency mode. We boarded our first flight at 7am, then hopped from KC to ATL, then from ATL to Ft. Lauderdale before boarding the ship at 6pm. Traveling sucks. After 11 hours spent being herded like cattle, jammed into one-size-fits-all airplane seats, and being held up for a couple of hours in the seaport while trying to board the ship, we were pooped. Your body can only run on adrenaline for so long.
The ship was immediately overwhelming to the senses. It was like an upscale shopping mall in its interior cavity. Lights everywhere. Stores. People everywhere. Everything was super nice. I was really impressed in particular with the lighting. The ship just seemed to glow. Beyond that though, all the little details were astounding. Nothing was done out of pure utilitarianism. Everything had a little panache.
We went up to our room, it was great. The ceiling was just tall enough that I didn't feel claustrophobic. The room had a porthole to the interior of the boat. We overlooked central park. The room was big enough to spend a decent amount of time in without going crazy, but not big enough to really let you hole up without cabin fever.
After we saw the interior of the boat and our room, we went for an aimless walk about the upper decks, just to see what we could find. The upper decks did not disappoint. They were just as lavish as the interior halls of the ship. The first few days of the ship were all in part spent exploring the ship. It was awesome.
The last thing we did was check out the main dining hall. I've been to some fairly fancy places in my day; this was right up there on the list of the fanciest places I've ever eaten. The best part was this: everything on the menu was already paid for - you could have anything you wanted. You could have seconds of anything else you wanted. We had a full 3-course meal almost every day we were on board. Oh, and the food was awesome.
Monday May 5th
We start off the second day at the less fancy, buffet style dining hall. Our second day was spent at sea on our way to our first excursion. We had only two plans for the day.
Plan #1: Make plans. We sat down on the Solarium deck bar (one of 42 bars on the ship) with a list of excursions and picked out things we were interested in. I think Melissa had me drink some extra bar beverages, because I signed up for a couple of things the next day that were very uncharacteristic of me. We'll address this again shortly.
After we made plans, we relaxed on the boat to really unwind some of the stresses from the heavy travel day the day before. We laid on the top deck. Hopped in one of the jacuzzis overlooking the ocean.
The last thing we did on the second day (that I can remember, at least - it's been a few weeks) was catch the on board showing of "Chicago". I'd never seen Chicago. I'd never seen a musical put on by professionals. I'd never seen a show on a boat. I can now say I've done all of the above; and I approve. The show was great. The singing and dancing were amazing. There was a live band and about a dozen cast members (all of which looked like they spent a large amount of time in the ships fitness center).
Tuesday May 6th: Labadee, Haiti
Our third day was spent in port at Labadee, Haiti. The panorama above can get seriously huge if you click on it - you should click on it. I took it from the boat before we left to start our day full of excursions. We went on 3 different excursions in Labadee. Compare this to the one excursion each we made over the other two stops and you realize how full this day was with excitement... but first we had to spend some time on the beach.
The beach, for me, barely registers in my memory because of what happened next. You see those 5 ziplines over Melissa's head?
The longest zipline over water in the world. You reach speeds of ~40mph as you descend 500 feet over the course of the 2600 foot zipline. I told Melissa there was a solid chance I'd pee the whole way down. I'm proud to say that didn't happen. Melissa and I both wore GoPros on our heads. Mine was taking timelapse photos, hers was taking video. That video (along with all the other videos from the trip) I will release to the world when it's ready.
So, after the zipline is done there's surely nothing else Aaron would do that seems out of the ordinary, right? Wrong. Let's hop on the rollercoaster that goes down the same mountain you just ziplined off of. Yes, let's just do that. Sounds like a blast.
(it actually was)
Melissa's huge thank you to me for living outside of my comfort zone was to finish off our time in Haiti with the excursion aimed most at little kids - the inflatable aquatic park. I don't care that it was aimed at children, it was a blast. We jumped and climbed and swam and just had a great time for an hour. After we got out, we headed back to the boat for our first post-excursion nap. That wasn't the last thing we did that day, though.
We went to the ship's casino. Melissa had never been to a casino before. I'd only been to one with my parents. We came in, quickly lost $40. Then left. Melissa had one last thing she wanted to squeeze out of the day.
We went to the salsa dance club on the ship. After Melissa realized just how inept I was at dancing salsa (which relies heavily on complex rhythms), we walked across the boat, by the Starbucks, to the trivia/karaoke bar.
Billy Joel, as sung by Melissa Gillespie.
Wednesday May 7th: Falmouth, Jamaica
After the intense day in Haiti, we woke up already docked in Falmouth, Jamaica. We were groggy and exhausted, but a quick breakfast and some seriously large coffees helped straighten that out. Our excursion in Jamaica started early, so we had to go fast. I took that GoPro toss shot just before we got on the bus to start our trip to Montego Bay.
The bus ride ended up being a little over an hour of Melissa and I learning to appreciate just how well off we have it in America. There's a shot of Usain Bolt's high school in the album that I linked to at the beginning of this post. I'd show that but I'm trying not to repeat many shots.
We rode a catamaran out into Montego Bay to a snorkeling site. We met a really nice couple and bonded over GoPro stuff. You can see his GoPro attached to the railing in the Autoawesomed GIF above.
The snorkeling was awesome. It was almost as good as the snorkeling trip Melissa and I took in Thailand (that trip was what convinced me a GoPro camera was worth the money, I still regret not having one on that day). I had a very surreal moment in the water. It was perfect. One of the few moments in life that you can really call "perfect". The picture from above was not that moment.
This picture is part of a large set of pictures that I very much liked that immediately followed the snorkeling. I wanted to include it to represent all of its sister pictures.
We took a quick tour of the Jamaican marine life before going back to the boat. There's a picture in the album I linked to above of me touching a jellyfish. So, check that out, too.
We finished the day off on the ice. I didn't fall! Neither did she! That means we win!
Thursday May 8th
Thursday was spent at sea. Honestly I don't remember much about Thursday. We were exhausted from the adventures of our previous two days. We lounged on the decks a lot on this day.
We also took part in a battle of the sexes competition (which the guys totally won (and cheated at). It was fun!
This picture was taken from a huge set of photos we took to make a timelapse of the sunset. We sat on this deck for an hour and a half to two hours. I got angry when tons of people showed up to take pictures of the sunset, but the video still turned out pretty cool. You can watch that video right here.
Oh and there was a disco party afterwards.
Friday May 9th: Cozumel, Mexico
Friday we docked at Cozumel, Mexico for our excursion and some authentic Mexican food. We went on a tour of the Mayan ruins as lead by our awesome and very charismatic tour guide Cesar.
The ruins were cool. Slightly smaller than I expected, but the tour guide more than made up for it with his passion and humor. The Melissa version of this photo is better. It's in that album I've mentioned a few times (I want you to see the album is what I'm getting at).
After our tour of the ruins we stopped off at this awesome photo spot. Everyone on the bus piled out to take photos. Our photos were probably the best ones though.
Upon our return to the seaport, we had authentic Mexican food and beverages. The food was alright... but I'd still take Chuy's any day of the week. The beverages were good, though! El Sol! Jose Cuervo! Some swimming and relaxing on the fake beach. When we got back to the boat we were pretty much down for the count.
Saturday May 10th
Our last full day on the ship was spent at sea. It started off with room service breakfast in bed (at no extra charge - seriously, cruises rock). This is a terrible picture, but it's the best we have.
For our last day, we decided to take advantage of some of the ship's amenities that we hadn't yet done. We watched a show at the aqua theater where we got to hear some Q&A with the Captain.
Melissa did the ship's zipline...
...and the ship's rock wall.
Then we both got the chance to wipe out while surfing on the Flow Rider. There's some pretty hilarious videos from this experience. You'll see those in some later post.
After one huge massive nap, we finished off the trip with another walk around the boat. Taking it all in for one last time.
Sunday May 11th
All good things must come to an end.
This was a very good thing.
Top 5: Most Recent Perfect Moments from My Life
10. Senior year at KU, with Melissa, I take all my residents to go watch “The Avengers”. Nerding out with a crowd as it lived up to 4+ years of anticipation. 9. Amy’s wedding, Sally and Jon dancing. 8. In Thailand, Melissa’s professor’s husband, Lindsey, immediately understanding what I was doing when I told him I “needed Melissa alone for 10 minutes after lunch.” 7. In Thailand, the next 10 minutes. 6. My 25th Birthday party. The first time all my friends from every walk of life gathered in one place. 5. The bachelor party, Ben explaining how you can mix a lime with a Corona without spraying it everywhere, immediate followed by him spraying Laura in the face. 4. The wedding ceremony, Melissa reciting her vows. 3. The party bus, Melissa by my side, all my friends from different walks of life singing the same dumb pop song and dancing. Directly across from us - Jon dancing. 2. The wedding reception - the final song, Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” (which I will contend is everybody’s favorite song). Everyone dancing, while I bounced around with a GoPro on my chest. Part of the circle - Jon Dancing 1. Snorkeling off the coast of Montego Bay, Jamaica - on our way back to the boat to wrap it up was a school of 50+ fish all swimming within arm’s reach, their movement filled my plane of vision. There’s probably a few other moments from the honeymoon that could/should be on this list - but this one was particularly cool.
Quote:
“I hate you two”
- the comedian on the cruise that was looking to make fun of people in the crowd. After asking where we met, where we were from, what we did, she just said we were too cute to make fun of and she hated us. -
date: 2013-10-02T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- PROJECT
- PICTURES title: '#120 - The October Project' aliases: '#120 - The October Project' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '120'
It's October. That means a few things - Halloween is coming, it's getting colder, and my second second-a-day video is already 16% done.
I was writing in my Moleskine during lunch on Tuesday (the 1st), when I realized I wanted to try something big for October. A post came up the other day on r/fitness about what really really tall weightlifters can and cannot do well. I learned a few things from reading that (for example, 6'2" is considered really really tall for some people). From that post, I moved on to articles aimed at weightlifting for the "vertically gifted". I decided that, with my diet, I hadn't ever given my body much of a chance.
Here's what I wrote -
So that's my plan. The October Project: get Large.
...and because I'm Life Tracking, I'll be able to see objectively how well I adhered to the guidelines.
Day 0: 223 lbs
Day 1 -
- Calories - 3013
- Fats - 85
- Carbs - 454
- Protein - 183
Day 2 -
- Calories - 4088
- Fats - 147
- Carbs - 494
- Protein - 230
That brings us through today. Still haven't eaten out. Still haven't had caffeine. That's pretty cool.
There's a Google Engineer by the name of Matt Cutts who gave an excellent TED talk that I saw a long time ago. It's 3:27 long. If you have that kind of time, I suggest you watch this:
The TL;DW of it is this: Try something you've always wanted to try for 30 days. That's long enough to evaluate how you like it, long enough establish habit, but short enough to be doable. When I stumbled across this video I considered trying it, but decided to forego in lieu of a different project: the first iteration of the Demetri List (the list of 35 things a good person does every week (which was later adapted to the list of 25 things I aim to do every day in the Life Tracker).
The October Project is me testing out the "try something new for 30 days" waters.
In other news, I was correct about GoPro announcing a new model, making my camera officially "old". It took less than a day before I decided to start throwing it around:
EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: this image is gone. :-(
- Workout every weekday.
- Eat 4000 calories every day.
- High carb breakfasts, high protein and nutrient lunch & dinner.
- Drink 2 gallons of milk a week.
- Drink no highly caffeinated beverages.
“You should dress up as a bigger version of yourself. [for Halloween]” Josh
title: '#242 - Feature: The Life Tracker' date: '2015-05-17' tags:
- FEATURE
- PROJECT
- PDW aliases:
- '#242 - Feature: The Life Tracker'
- '#242' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '242'
Motto: This Column May Set a Record for the Greatest Number of "I" Uses. Not proud.
This Column is going to take a deep dive "Inside Baseball". Moreso than most of my other posts, I'm writing this for my own gratification. I'm going to write about the Life Tracker, it's history, and where I see it going in the future.
After you move out of your parent's house and go to college it can be difficult to find a well-balanced life. Eventually, the school itself will provide a structure around which you can build a path to success (or failure, you're call). After college, there's work... for whatever reason, my life in the working world didn't lend itself to structure as well as my life in college. All the sudden I was 100% responsible for what I ate, what I did with my time, and what I spent this newfound income on.
While that challenge is a great privilege, it was still a stressful time when I really REALLY realized what it meant. I felt like I had to keep track of these disparate things that happened in my life or else I'd wake up some day in a heap of trouble to find that something had really gotten away from me.
I told my soon-to-be-fiance that I was interested in some sort of elaborate notetaking system. After listening to me talk about my needs, she suggested I look at Google Forms. So I did.
Google Forms are essentially just surveys you can create, distribute, and use to gather data. Responses to Google Forms are put in an accompanying Google Spreadsheet. So I created a form I could bookmark and use whenever I found myself in a situation where I needed to track some action I did (eating, spending money, exercising, etc). That all got dumped onto a single Google "Sheet". It worked, the data was there, but it wasn't very pretty.
Enter JavaScript.
I had built some Macros in Microsoft Excel that did much fancier things than just "move data", so I figured there had to be some easy way to create something I could use to pull out the data from this one core dump sheet into separate, dedicated sheets. Turns out Google uses JavaScript and not the Visual Basic I was used to, so it took a couple of weeks to figure out what I was doing. The same day I finally figured out how to programatically place a value into a cell I had my first working prototype of what would over the course of the next month become...
Life Tracker 1.0
The first major version of the Life Tracker let me track money (every dollar), food (every item), exercise (every rep), and "Demetri Goals". Each of these four major facets had their own, dedicated sheet. I didn't use any 3rd party resources for anything. If I ate a hamburger, I pulled up my Google Form. If I did a workout, I pulled up my Google Form. If I spent money, I pulled up my Google Form. Each night before I went to bed, I pulled up my Google Form.
I ran the Life Tracker that way with 75% success for a long time. I eventually gave up on tracking money. I had a hard time keeping up with that for some reason. Diet, exercise, and "Demetri", I did manage to track. After a year, I decided I wanted to put together my data and see what type of correlations I could find hidden in the data. I was interested in some questions that you couldn't answer looking at any one sheet.
Did I eat more on days when I exercised?
Was I more productive on days when I exercised?
Did I eat more on days when I went to see friends?
Turns out, this was difficult. Took me a month to pull the data part and put it back together in a way that made sense. I eventually answered those questions (slightly, slightly, and yes were those answers, by the way) and decided that I wanted to keep on doing what I was doing, but I wanted to do it smarter.
I got zero value out of keeping the diet, exercise, money, and Demetri information on separate sheets. Also, I realized I didn't actually care about individual reps, individual food items, or individual purchases. I just cared HOW I lifted, HOW I ate, and HOW MUCH I spent. Also, I got very tired of entering data several times a day. I wanted to keep a journal of events about what kinds of things I spent my days, weeks, and months doing.
Life Tracker 2.0
The second (and current) major version of the Life Tracker did away with individual sheets. Analytics were built directly into this new "supersheet" (as it was referred to in the code). Now I could see immediately what my macronutrient ratio was in percents for the previous day. I also did away with homegrown data entry for money, diet, and exercise. I rely on Android Apps to do those things now. At the end of the day I just have to summarize my total calories, fats, carbs, and protein intakes each day. I still use Google Spreadsheets to do data entry, but now I'm only doing it once a day. It takes less than 4 minutes to fill out the form, then I'm done. I added in a journal for me to summarize my day in a few sentences.
More recently, after I got my Moto 360, I added in sleep metrics. How much did I get? When did I start? I wanted to know if sleep duration would have any measurable impact on my performance in my "goals list" (formerly known as "Demetri list"). Also, I added a qualitative "how are you feeling" metric and a pedometer readout. Did my mood improve on days when I slept more/walked more?
That's where I've been, and where I am today... but where am I going?
"Life Tracker 3.0" a.k.a. "Project Insight" a.k.a. "A Quantum of Selfus" a.k.a. "LittleBigData"
The next refresh is about to get underway. Like the transition from 1.0 to 2.0, I will utilize the my knowledge and experience to improve the efficacy of the system, while diminishing the effort necessary to keep it running. Here are my goals:
Less reliance on Google
I love Google, and there will still be a large part of it in the new system, but I'd like to cut reliance upon their systems for data storage (and possibly analytics). I'd like to be able to host my system on my own server.
Automatic data entry
Each night I pull up 5 apps: Chrome, LifeSum, Google Fit, Withings, and Sleep as Android. Chrome I pull up to do the data input, the other 4 I use to just pull the most recent data. The thing is, that shouldn't have to happen. I should be able to pull data for all four of these apps and have it put into the Life Tracker automatically. This could probably also be done for Mint financial tracking. I've seen some really positive signs for all of the above being possible.
Not just me
I'd like to build something that is adaptable and easy to use. Ideally, it could be something that I could just hand over to Joe Schmoe off the street and he'd be able to use it to track the stuff he wants in his life. If I de-centralize it (off Google's servers) then Joe Schmoe could use it 100% on his own machine if he were so inclined. #privacyconcernsresolved
Also on the "not just me" front, I plan on pulling in external information where it makes sense. My first idea for this would be tracking the weather. It could be interesting to see how rain affects my productivity, for example.
Support for incomplete data sets
I missed doing my daily survey this Thursday. Because Ia missed a day, I have to scrap the whole week. This means the bike ride I went on today won't show up if I'm looking for biking trends. I lost my trek up the Manitou Incline a couple weeks back because I didn't want to track food during a vacation. I can't just leave food blank, because it will skew everything. I am going to build in support for a "on days for which you have data"-type filtering.
Refined tracking points
There's a few things I'm going to change within the data. "How are you feeling" needs to be more clearly defined and needs to allow for truly neutral responses. Exercises shouldn't be limited to one-a-day and shouldn't be limited to the pre-defined types I used. I'll likely move to a tag-based exercise system. I did heavy, lower, cardio, and worked out outside. Also, I'd like to be able to tag days with events. I napped today. I also ate out for dinner.
Also on this front, metatracking. When did I enter the data for each day? Given that I will open up the possibility for non-complete data sets, how complete is my entry log for a given week?
Those are my goals. They come and go. I've been thinking about them for a few months now. I can't wait to get started.
Top 5: Charts I Just Made from the Life Tracker
5. My exercise goes through a rise/fall pattern every week.
4. I eat on an every-other-day cycle on average.
3. This is a spoiler for #1 - but it also shows how that month of Paleo affected my macros.
2. Sleep by day of week. I like this one because it just shows that the data reflects things that are obvious.
1. Year over year, I'm eating better. This is awesome.
Quote:
“You could call it 'the obsessively tracking every little part of your life system'!”
- Joe, or Jon, or Josh, I can't remember which, after I asked for a new name for the Life Tracker. Thanks for that, btw. -
title: '#302 - The Bones of a Column' date: '2016-11-29' aliases:
- '#302 - The Bones of a Column'
- '#302' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '302'
Motto: Hey Google, tell me about my day
I'm just going to post this as is - everything in italics is how my Posts start, before I fill them out with words.
Google Home. It's really really cool and shows a lot of potential. My wife was originally pretty skeptical, but she's come around on it quickly.
Black Mirror is a crazy, messed up, wonderful show. The Entire History of you is a perfect example episode - take a conceptual future, which is conceivably possible within my lifetime (and, realistically, I think very close to the direction we're heading) and show how or why we need to be responsible with it - because technology enables us to do so many great things while giving us a long enough rope to tie into a noose. Also how it explores the themes of constantly dwelling in the past or otherwise not being in the moment. About how you can sit and stew on something for forever, rather than dealing with it moving on with your life. Talk about the Google Home listening to each episode, too.
Life is good.
Facts vs. Truth & the editorialization of fact-based reporting by those with agendas. Talk about Ken Bone and how he's not perfect, but how he is not deserving of the skewering he got immediately following his surge of popularity. This isn't at all my only opinions on the subject, but it's a decent representation that's not tied politics (which I will always stay away from on this blog).
That's what the Column looks like before I flesh it out. Oh and here's a photo:
The word was "Crackers".
Top 10: Favorite TV Comedies
10. Family Guy
9. King of the Hill
8. The Colbert Report - this one would be much closer to #1 if it were still running
7. Saturday Night Live
6. Arrested Development
5. Futurama
4. Parks and Rec
3. Scrubs
2. Community
1. The Office - this is partially only at #1 because my wife would be mad if it weren't
Quote:
"Smith Machine. So it doesn't count as real."
- Michael -
"I am where I am today mostly because of my position on leaves."
- Chuck -
title: '#218 - $1500' date: '2014-11-09' aliases:
- '#218 - $1500'
- '#218' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '213'
Motto: Consumerism at its Finest
Whoa! Dude! There's $1500 laying on the ground over here! I'm going to use this in the totally the most responsible way possible. What could I get?* A Mostly Complete Home Gym:$500 - Power Rack$385 - Olympic Plates (bar & clamps included) $300 - Adjustable Dumbbells$150 - Adjustable Bench$96 - Mats ($24 per set x 4 sets)
$69 - Mirror... why are mirrors so hard to find online? An Apple Setup:$1499 - 13" 256 GB Macbook Pro
A Different Apple Setup:
$1499 - 21.5" iMac
Another Different Apple Setup:$649 - Unlocked iPhone 6$499 - iPad Air (or iPad Mini with more storage)
$349 - Apple Watch
I could keep going with combinations. The Mac Mini is also $499 - you could use it in place of the iPad Air.
A Google Setup from this Generation:
$650 - Nexus 6
$499 - Nexus 9
$249 - Moto 360
$99 - Nexus Player
A Google Setup from the Last Generation:$380 - Toshiba Chromebook (this is actually brand new)
$350 - Nexus 5$250 - Moto 360$230 - Nexus 7$156 - An External Monitor$50 - 2 Chromecasts$35 - External Speakers$30 - External Keyboard & Mouse
$17 - A long HDMI cable for some reason
$2 - a Redbull
Notice HOW MUCH MORE you can get if you don't buy a ridiculous 2560x1440 6" display?
A Way Less Robust Google Setup:$1500 - Google Glass, a single pair $0 - Shame & idiocy A Fairly Extreme Every Day Carry Bag & Contents:$555 - Handgun$380 - Toshiba Chromebook
$140 - Crazy Nice Earbuds (I needed to kill lots of cash) $129 - Really Good Messenger Bag$78 - Hipster Sunglasses
$35 - A low-profile holster $27 - Leatherman$27 - Very large Flash Drive
$25 - External charger
$24 - Insulated water bottle
$21 - Flashlight$15 - Really Good Notebook
$10 - Spare cables, various $34 - Sharpies, Pens, Pencils, Gum, Altoids, Matches, a Poncho, a little First Aid Kit, whatever you want.
Note all of these things are just example products & could easily be switched with anything else. Also note that most of those Amazon listings on my account say "you purchased this item on (whatever date)..."
A Motorcycle:
$1500 - From Craigslist, so it comes with creepy feelings for free!
A GoPro Drone:
$829 - The Drone (with Gimbal)
$400 - A GoPro 3+ Black or 4 Silver
$209 - This Case, just to be official
$62 - An SD Card & Other GoPro Accessories
Captain America Cosplay:
$660 - Captain America Suit (The Avengers)
$480 - Metal Shield (WHY CAN'T I FIND A GOOD ONE FOR CHEAPER?)
$360 - Captain America Suit (The Winter Soldier)
14 Year Old's Dream:$449 - A PlayStation 4, with the game "Destiny"$300 - FIFA '15, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Madden '15, Watch Dogs, The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid 5$720 - Red Bull (432 8.4 Ounce Cans of Sugarfree)
I'm not going to link these next few, because they'll change too much and I'm tired of it.
A Really Good Vacation:$500 - Four night cruise in the Bahamas (in 4 months) $500 - Second ticket $150 - Bus tickets to the port and back for two $350 - Money for on-board entertainment A Good, Solo Vacation:$1150 - Flight to Italy and back (in 4 months) $350 - To stay in Italy as long as possible A BAD Vacation:$1500 - Flight to Italy and back (in 2 1/2 months) $0 - Being homeless and alone in Italy for a week *These lists were made using some of the most obvious Google searches I could think of. They are not idealized or comprehensive. They are definitely not the cheapest or best possible options for each thing. I generally picked the top reviewed item from whatever site, but that's hardly a replacement for actual research. Another note, I promise you most of these links will go dead within a few months - some will be dead by this time next week. So, at that point you'll just have to trust me.
Top 5: Other Things I Didn't Want to Research
5. A Full-Blown Suit
4. A maid, for... some amount of time
3. 1500 McDoubles
2. A Serious Hiker's/Camper's Kit
1. A couple college classes
Quote:
“$1500”
- Most of my Google searches include this lately -
title: '#182 - 30 Day Challenges are Not Dead' date: '2014-07-09' aliases:
- '#182 - 30 Day Challenges are Not Dead'
- '#182' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '182'
Motto: Matt Cutts
I've been lazy with the 30 Day Challenges lately. I'll admit that. But I have not given up on them entirely. They've definitely been in the back of my mind. With this post I'd like to start taking them more seriously again. Let's do a recap of how things are going so far: January
**The goal:**Eat a Paleo diet & do CrossFit
**How it went:**Way better than you'd expect.
What I learned:
I was too focused on "weightlifting" and not enough on actual fitness. Weightlifting is a huge part of fitness, but it's not everything - and I had forgot that.
Also realized how much better I felt while eating paleo. I wasn't ever sickly feeling. Never gaseous. Never bloated. No "bathroom issues".
Both of these experiences have had long-lasting effects. February
**The goal:**Read 5 books
**How it went:**I read 3 books. I picked a dumb month to do a quantity-based goal - February is short. Also I switched goals about 6 days in, which made it even shorter. Either way, I read 3 more books than I would have otherwise.
What I learned:
I should probably read from time-to-time, but I still don't prefer long-form reading as a leisure activity. I may pepper a book into my routine every now and again, but I'm definitely not going to be a habitual reader - which is a shame. March
**The goal:**Write every day
**How it went:**I wrote just about every day. It wasn't so much of a challenge, though. I write most days anyway. I put out a ton of Columns this month.
What I learned:
I realized just how outside-of-the-box you start to get when you force yourself to write every day. That type of writing is fun, honestly. April
**The goal:**Run 50 miles
**How it went:**Poorly. I ran 15 miles, almost all of which happened in the first week and a half.
What I learned:
Running much over a mile really flares up my back. Not good. May
**The goal:**Enjoy yourself
**How it went:**Really really well. I got married and went on my honeymoon. Resounding success, all around.
What I learned:
I didn't learn anything strictly because of this goal (although I learned a ton that month). This month was intentionally a cop-out. June
**The goal:**Use a GoPro every day
**How it went:**I used GoPros most days, but not every day.
What I learned:
Although I wanted to take better advantage of these awesome cameras I have, it's much harder to get a candid shot with a dedicated camera than it is with a cell phone camera... and I like candid shots.
--
That brings us up to this month. I had planned on doing a "double down on fitness"-type goal, but instead I went with something a little more brain-related than body related...
--
July
**The goal:**Drop Windows, adopt Linux
Goal 2 - use Duolingo every day to learn some Spanish
**How it's going:**The original idea was to dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu, then use only Ubuntu for the month. After which time I could decide between Linux and Windows for good... but I accidentally managed to factory reset my Windows machine. So that's not how it is going down. Luckily, I'm very much liking the new Linux-based system and wouldn't go back anyway.
The Spanish part is going well. I actually enjoy it. Melissa seems to be enjoying it more. She's done twice as much as I have.
What I hope to learn:
How to use Linux and how to speak some Spanish. Also, that I enjoy both things.
--
What about the future? I've got it all planned out...
--
August
**The goal:**No Reddit. (Also, Facebook, Google+, other such time-zappers. See what things I might do to fill out my free time without the usual distractions.)
What I hope to learn:
Better things to do with my free time.
September
**The goal:**Work out 5 days a week... before work. Doing some pre-defined exercise routine (like 5/3/1, Strong Lifts, PHAT, etc)
Part 2: Eat a macros-conscious diet
Part 3: In bed by 10
What I hope to learn:
Which parts of this routine are sustainable. How I feel living such a health-conscious life. This one is arguably more difficult than the Paleo + CrossFit one was.
October
**The goal:**Is a secret
What I hope to learn:
Is also secret.
November
**The goal:**Spend no money (outside of bills and the groceries)
What I hope to learn:
How much I can save, what things I can get away with not spending money on, and how not eating out affects things.
December
**The goal:**Learn to music.
What I hope to learn:
To music.
-- Those are subject to change. I might combine some easy goals, change order, or just change things completely. I just wanted to get something on the books. You have to know what your goals are if you want to accomplish them. That's one of the cornerstones of management.
And I should know, after all, I'm a manager..,,,,,,,,,,,,
Top 5: Most Difficult 30 Day Challeneges (What I'm Expecting)
5. Run 50 Miles (failed miserably)
4. No Reddit
3. Spend no money
2. Workout before work + macro-conscious diet + bed by 10
1. Paleo + CrossFit
Quote:
“I take great pride in my laser tag skills”
- Melissa -
title: '#353 - Lyrics to No Song + Hollow Knight' date: '2018-10-08' aliases:
- '#353 - Lyrics to No Song + Hollow Knight'
- '#353' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '353'
Motto: This is Shooting-From-The-Hip Poetry at Its Nothingest
Before we start - expectations be framed.
Each bits of this is self-contained.
I've written a book.
The main character was a clock.
I gave him a tic;
so th-this is how he would talk.
Pet peeves with which everyone agrees:
Slow drivers. Slow walkers.
Loud eaters. Loud talkers.
Pet peeve that's just for me:
Using the flash at 100+ feet.
Learn how pictures work, idiot.
The price tag of the new iPhone is XS-ive.
Yes I'm aware it's pronounced "Ten Ess" and not "Ex Ess"... but I'm just not good at making tennis jokes, love.
Not all of these are going to rhyme.
I cannot do that all of the time.
They also might not fit in meter.
Because I forget to check.
Do things the right way & have a nice start to your day.
Aaron's assertion, annoying as always:
Be better by being bounded by burden.
Cut corners cause cascading consequences.
Don't dilly-dally. Do due diligence. Delayed duties drive detoured days.
Easy.
Far from fun, fetching funds for foregone food.
Ugh this is tedious.
Basically - better living through doing things the way they should be done. If you do stuff right the first time you don't have nearly as much trouble in the long run. I think that's basic dad-advice, but it's just now sinking in how important it is now that I'm a dad. Crap I forgot to rhyme-RHYMING WORDS! MIMING BIRDS! CLIMBING HERDS! TIMING TURDS!
Enough of this.
*** non-lyrical review of a videogame I played below ***
Last week I knew I was going to have time to kill. I looked on the Nintendo eStore for cheap offline games for the Switch. I picked up a game I'd never really heard of called "Hollow Knight". It was $15. Low risk.
Since that time, I've played a ludicrous amount of this game. It's incredible. Probably up among my favorite games I've ever played. I really like basically every aspect of this game. Its play style. Its art style. Its atmosphere. Its aesthetic. Its difficulty. Its price. Its length. Never before in a game have I ever wanted to see what's around the next corner for so long. I've never played a game that's so experience-driven. It's downright beautiful in parts.
I beat the game - and immediately decided to go back in and try to see what was in the areas I still hadn't explored. I finished the game at 76% complete... after 35 1/2 hours. Put that in perspective, I paid less than a penny a minute to have consistent entertainment and enjoy a great story that was at least on-par with most movies/books/other games I've ever experienced... and I've went back in for more. Another 8 hours in - finished it at 100%. Holy cow.
Top 5: Real Reasons Monsters Exist
5. Ghosts - somebody's thing fell of a table for no real reason & they decided their recently deceased relative who hated that particular thing did it. Also it's a vaguely threatening way to tell people to respect the dead. Careful there's ghosts around here.
4. Werewolves - Parents didn't want their children playing around in the woods at night. Careful there's werewolves out there that will eat you.
3. Zombies - Bury the dead & generally don't go around them because it's unsanitary. Careful there's zombies out there that will eat you.
2. Sirens - Boating captains and senior sailors told the younger and more homesick crewmates that their desire to go to shore and find beautiful women was actually just some magical force intending on sinking the ship on the rocks.
1. Vampires - Be careful who you invite into your house. Also parents didn't want their daughters to go be swayed by young attractive men. Careful there's vampires out there that will kill you and suck your blood.
Quote:
"You're Addicted"
- My Wife... and Mother-in-Law (who, admittedly, were both right) about me and Hollow Knight -
title: '#343 - The Parable of the Rowing Machine' date: '2018-07-08' aliases:
- '#343 - The Parable of the Rowing Machine'
- '#343' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '343'
Motto: Everybody Needs a Hobby
I have put a lot of the three major resources into crafting a home gym. I'm proud of it and it's one my favorite things about my house... but it doesn't have any way to do cardio. Your standard fix to this is "buy a treadmill off Craigslist". My issue is, I've got crap joints and treadmills historically cause me problems after a couple of minutes. Also treadmills are large and generally not something I've ever been excited about. In my experience, rowing for a couple minutes is a better warm up than jogging, and a rowing machine tends to hold its value. Because rowing machines hold their value, any one that's used and worth buying is incredibly expensive. That link isn't to a specific example, it's just a search of Rowing Machines in the KC area. I assume at any given point in the future you'll be able to click it and see I'm right.
So, they're expensive, but they're also simple. A rowing machine is basically a seat with wheels & rope that offers some resistance when you pull it, then retracts back to let you pull it again. How hard could it be to make that? Why are they so expensive?
Thus, for the past 8 months I've wanted to and tried (with varying levels of success) to build a rowing machine. My workouts have been missing a cardio component, not warming up properly has caused me to hurt myself on two separate occasions. I've got an engineering degree. I'm a problem solver. This is a solvable problem.
Thus begins the Parable of the Rowing Machine.
In my Life Tracker I first wrote that I "made rough plans for a rowing machine" on December 10th of last year.
 |
|---|
| From my Google Photos - 12/10/2017 |
That was 8 months ago. It's been mentioned 18 times since then.
In order to get out of the hypothetical realm, I bought a bike from Goodwill. It was later that I found out that children's bicycles function differently than adult bicycles. Turns out when you pedal a kid's bike backwards it functions as a brake. Net result, when the rope started to retract, it just seized up entirely.
So. I bought a second bike from a second Goodwill.
Once I had to settle for a bigger bike wheel, I gave up on submersing the bike wheel into water. Given that water wasn't a possibility, I went with a friction-based dampener.
 |
|---|
| Hastily drawn on my Chromebook |
A couple days later, I had Rowing Machine Mark 1 up and functional.
 |
|---|
| The gym as it was then. Notice the bike wheel at the top-right of the picture. |
 |
|---|
| Rope for dampening. |
 |
|---|
| Foot straps. Old Chuck Taylors. Boom. |
 |
|---|
| Rowing Machine. Revision 0. |
That worked okay.
Until it broke.
Turns out ropes like that aren't meant to be used for friction. Also it turns out that the best name in Rowing Machines "Concept 2" uses an air-based dampening system. Air is fluid. Water's a fluid. Fluid dynamics work. Basically I needed to turn my bike wheel into a bike wheel fan.
 |
|---|
| Bike wheel fan. |
I wanted to put that fan to use to blow air on me. I wanted a self-contained unit. I wanted something that looked cooler.
 |
|---|
| Looks good, yes? |
That turned into this.
It was at that time that I found out that I broke my bike wheel. So there came a need for bike #3.
Turned out, though, that the bike wheel being parallel with the ground cause the chain to slip off the teeth of the freewheel. Also - the bungee cord-based rope retraction system was limiting the stroke length of the row. So - I abandoned the self-contained, bungee-cord-based system. Built it back into the wall. Fan wheels. Weights for retraction. AAAAAAAAAAAAAND
 |
|---|
| Rowing Machine. Revision 1. |
It technically works.
 |
|---|
| Not shown - the worlds loudest squeaks. |
That leaves the gym looking like this:
So. All told...
3 Bikes. $60
4 Pulleys. $22
2 Bungies Cords. $12
1 Rope. $8
4 I Bolts. $6
2 J Bolts. $3
1 Sheet Aluminium. $11
2 Boxes Screws. $8
All my spare wood.
A valuable corner in the gym.
Probably at least 36 hours of work.
$130 + opportunity cost of that spare wood + the space in the gym that used to be a free corner.
I'm probably going to tear it apart.
Top 5: Morals of this Story
5. If I think of it, I can actually build it.
4. If I can think of it and build it, it won't necessarily work like I want it to.
3. DIY doesn't necessarily mean cheap.
2. Before spending a lot of resources on a project, ensure you've got a place for it.
1. Maybe just buy a pre-built thing.
Quote:
"I wanted to cry and burn it all down."
- me, at one point -
title: '#192 - Feature: Dominion' date: '2014-08-11' aliases:
- '#192 - Feature: Dominion'
- '#192' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '192'
This post is not for everyone. The first part is for everyone who's at all interested in this game I've been playing a ton for the past 10 months, but I wouldn't suggest reading past the line of hashtags if you don't already know Dominion. After that line I'm going to write in detail a review of Dominion and each expansion. What is Dominion? Dominion is a "deck building game" card game. It's probably more fairly called "THE deck building game", though, it really defined the genre. Deck building games (like Dominion) are similar to "collectible card games" (like Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon) - with a few key differences: 1. You don't have to buy your own, private deck in real life by purchasing randomized expansion packs. 2. Everyone plays from the same set of cards, so there is no chance that a person you are playing can do something that you couldn't also do in that same game. 3. If your friend owns Dominion, then you don't have to. As long as Dominion is in the room anyone can play it just the same. Dominion itself was created by a guy named Donald X. Vaccarino. It was inspired by "Magic: the Gathering" (which I admit doesn't necessarily bode well for the game)... but it's less nerdy. I think. I've never really played Magic. Whatever, keep reading.
Dominion is for 2 to 4 players (you can play with 5 or 6 if you really want, but it's less fun). There are ~17 stacks of cards in front of you. ~3 of these stacks are Treasure cards, ~3 of these are Victory cards, 1 stack is full of Curse cards, and 10 are kingdom cards. Most kingdom cards are usually Action cards, but are sometimes Victory or Treasure. Collectively, these cards are called the "Supply". All cards have an associated cost, which varies from card to card. Each player has their own deck, which they build by buying cards from the Supply. The object of the game is to have the most victory points when the game is over. You accomplish this by building a deck that lets you gain victory cards (which give you victory points) more effectively than your opponent.
That's a barebones description of Dominion.
The beauty of the game, however, comes from the following:
> Victory cards give you no benefit until the end of the game, while Action and treasure cards give you no points when the game is over. The challenge of the game is finding the most effective balance of both.
> Each game of Dominion is set up using 10 Kingdom cards out of a set of a couple hundred. That means that you can play 22 quadrillion different games... and each one might have its own "best strategy". There is no "one strategy to rule them all".
How you go about building your deck to best take advantage of the 10 Kingdom cards that you happen to be playing with is your choice. That's where the strategy comes in. That's the beauty of the game.
What is a simple game of Dominion actually like?
You sit across from your opponent. You analyze the Kingdom cards that you're playing with and decide on a strategy. You build out your deck by buying Action and Treasure cards from the Supply. As you go, you may realize your strategy sucks and change course. You may notice something your opponent is doing that's working really well and try to figure out ways to stop her, or incorporate her strategy into your game.
Dominion is awesome. I made the mistake just now of looking at the Wikipedia article for Dominion, which describes how to play it better than I was going to. Now I don't have the motivation.
hastags used to be called "pound signs" #history
Base
The Base set doesn't necessarily qualify to be on a list of "expansions", but it's no different than them. It is full of simple cards that show off the game's core mechanics. The Base cards have no real theme beyond "simplicity". Games using only the Base cards are fun, but don't quite have the pizzazz that comes when adding in the expansions. Having said that, the Base game is full of very important cards and should be everyone's first purchase.
Because this is the first one, I'm going to take a moment and describe what I'm trying to do here. I'm going to give an overview of each set, then give my opinion on it, then break out each set's highlights and low points. I'm not listing the best and worst cards, but instead the most/least interesting or fun to play with. Everything in these reviews are my opinion. Also, before I go too far here... even the WORST Dominion expansion would make for a pretty fun game. These range from awesome to just good.
Highlights:
> Chapel - the master trashing card. The ability to remove cards from your deck changes the landscape of the game dramatically.
> Gardens - the first Victory kingdom card. Opens up the possibility to win a game without buying a single high-cost card.
> Throne Room - play an action twice. Sweet.
> Witch - the first, most obvious attack people learn.
Low points:
> Chancellor - this card is not worth its cost in most all situations.
> Adventurer - the sole action card costing 6 in the Base set. The usage case for this card is limited. Too limited to justify its purchase in most situations.
> Feast - nobody uses this card.
Intrigue
The first expansion, Intrigue, is the only expansion that came out with the necessary Treasure and Victory cards to play a game. It's lightly focused on "making choices", with several cards that have the players choose between different possible actions. If you're buying your first Dominion game I'd suggest the Base game over Intrigue. It's not my favorite expansion. I didn't realize how little I liked this expansion until I tried to pull together this next part.
Highlights:
> Bridge - an easy way to buy lots more. Can work really, really well - or could do you nothing better than a plus 2 coins. Fun to play.
> Conspirator - when you manage to get a Conspirator chain up and running, it's awesome.
Low points:
> Saboteur - it's too mean of an attack. You turn up your opponent's Province late in the game and Duchy pile is run out - that's a great way to lose a friend.
> Nobles - buying Nobles lets you turn cards over and over and over. It also happens to give you Victory points along the way. The all Nobles strategy is really good, which makes me not like it. It's self-synergistic, simple, and stupid.
> Minion - speaking of self-synergies, if you can manage to fill your deck with many Minions, you're sitting pretty... a little too pretty. Each hand you're playing several Minions, attacking your opponents, reaping money, AND letting you draw past your Victory cards.
> Wishing Well - another card that's just not usually good enough to warrant buying. It's a waste of a Kingdom card slot.
Seaside
The Seaside expansion introduces duration cards, whose actions last until your next turn. Although it's a very highly reviewed expansion, I'm not as sold on it. It's still fairly new to my collection
Highlights:
> Bazaar - I like this card. Don't know why.
> Lighthouse - a way to stop attacks before they start. One that's better than the other one. One that's worth buying.
> Island - when you learn what this card does, you immediately love it. Although I've had some troubles making it work in the past. It's still a highlight.
> Embargo - can make things interesting. The only card that I can think of that gives the user the ability to dissuade his opponents to go after obvious strategies, forcing a tough choice.
Low points:
> Tactician - the Tactician card essentially lets you throw away your current turn to have a doubly good turn next time. This is a good thing because, in Dominion, one great thing is better than two good things. The problem is this: Tacticians card insists upon itself. It's hard to justify doing anything other than play Tacticians, and, to make matters worse, it is awkward to work tweaks.
> Merchant Ship - it's overpriced. Not worth buying unless there just so happens to be a $5 card in the Kingdom.
Alchemy
Very few people will argue with my opinion that Alchemy is the worst expansion of Dominion. It introduced a new Treasure type, "Potions", and it has a heavy focus on a hand with tons of Action cards. The problem is that Potions are very inflexible and that makes games involving Alchemy cards very inflexible. There are ALSO several cards that are extremely annoying to play with, making you shuffle, or count, or making your friend hate you. More on that in a second.
Highlights:
> Apprentice - one of two cards that don't require potions to buy. So it's got that going for it. It's also got a very unique ability to draw a massive amount of cards AND it was given that ability in a not annoyingly good & obvious to use way.
> Vineyard - I like victory cards that afford you new ways to win. This one just so happens to make the Potion card a little less worthless in late game.
Low points:
This could go on for a while.
> Possession - you essentially steal your opponents next turn. You even use her cards. This card could easily be renamed "lose your friends". If somebody buys a Possession, maybe just quit.
> Philosopher's Stone - this is a treasure card that makes you count ALL the cards in your deck each time you play it! What a great idea! When somebody buys this, they will take an extra minute and a half every time they play it. Annoying.
> Golem - this card can be awesome. It can, in some edge cases, really suck. But in most cases, what it does is make you flip through your deck ridiculously fast and shuffle over and over again. Annoying.
Honestly, I could put almost every card that requires a "Potion" to buy. I don't like the Potion mechanic, and I'm not alone.
Prosperity
The set that was released immediately following what most people call the worst expansion just so happens to be the one that most people call the best expansion. I might just agree with them. Prosperity introduces high octane cards, including new, higher value Treasure and Victory cards. Lastly, it introduces Victory tokens.
Highlights:
> Colony cards and Platinum. Melissa wants to use these every time. It adds options to how to win. Do you go for the bigger Colony win? Or do you end it quickly with the Province ending?
> King's Court - pick an action, play it three times. I used to not like this card because it creates swingy games... but it also creates some of the craziest situations in Dominion. King's Court, King's Court, Bridge, Bridge, Bridge. If you manage to have that hand, you suddenly find yourself with 10 buys, 9 coins (at least) and everything costs 9 coins less. You could in empty the Province pile yourself, in one turn.
> Monument/Bishop - Victory tokens are a good thing.
> Forge - remove the cruft from your hand AND get yourself good cards in the process. I really like Forge.
> Peddler - the action card that costs $8 - no $6 - no $4... it's interesting.
> Bank - make those coppers useful again!
> City - another card I've loved since the first time I saw it... without any good explanation as to why.
> Counterfeit, Loan, Hoard, Quarry, Contraband - treasure cards that do stuff are cool.
Low points:
> Mountebank - this attack is a little too good, at least for the price. I'd have no problem with Mountebank if it cost $6 instead of $5. There's a reason it's the top-ranked $5 card in this list since it was first released. It's too good.
Cornucopia
The Cornucopia expansion was the first expansion I got. So I'm admittedly biased. It is the expansion most people would point to as the second weakest expansion (after Alchemy), however I think it's actually a solid contender for being my favorite. It encourages you to differentiate your deck. It gives you benefit not just to buy the same card over and over again. I don't like strategies that revolve around buying up all of one card and spamming it every turn. Cornucopia rewards the style of play that I think is the most fun. I love Cornucopia. Also I like to pretend that the girl on the front is Melissa.
Highlights:
> Menagerie - if you have a sufficiently differentiated deck, you will be rewarded. This is (perhaps inexplicably) my favorite card.
> Young Witch - a cheaper Curser. Adding an 11th pile to the Kingdom. Adding more options. Also - it's perfectly named, given what it does.
> Hunting Party - another card I've liked since the first time I saw it.
> Tournament - winning a Tournament is like finding one last Christmas present under the tree that you didn't know was there.
Low points:
> Jester - this card is fine in 1 on 1 games. If you get 2 or 3 players, though, it becomes too good. I will nix it out of any game with more than 2 players.
Hinterlands
Hinterlands introduces cards that do something when you gain them. Hinterlands doesn't really stand out in any meaningful way. It's not a bad expansion... it's just not really memorable. Get it, but don't rush.
Highlights:
> Trader - when you gain a card, you may instead gain a Silver as a reaction. I like reaction cards who have a little more open-ended usage case. This is a defense against Cursers, or maybe a way to utilize extra buys without extra money (buy $0 Coppers, turn them into $3 Silvers). > Tunnel - another reaction card giving out money. If you discard a Tunnel, you gain a Gold. I've tried going all-in on this strategy before and whiffing big time. Still a fun card, though.
Low points:
> Jack of All Trades - many people love this card. It does just about a bit of everything. It's interesting... but maybe a little too good. You can apparently just buy two of these, no other actions, and win fairly often.
> Duchess, Oasis, Nomad Camp, Mandarin, Farmland - these cards are all just... blah. They are okay, but I've never fallen in love with any of them. I've played hundreds of games of Dominion. Probably a couple dozen with each of these cards, yet I can barely remember what they do. They don't stick out in any way.
Dark Ages
Dark Ages is the largest expansion to Dominion. It introduced 35 new Kingdom cards (as compared to 25, or even 13, with the other expansions). The theme for Dark Ages is, in short, the Trash. Cards that Trash things (even themselves). Cards that can look through the Trash. That sort of thing. Also, Dark Ages introduced Ruins (a "less bad" attack type), Spoils (single-use Gold cards, basically), Shelters (a set of cards that you start the game with that are even less helpful than the Estates they replace), and action cards that aren't in the Supply, which must be gained through playing ***other actions. Dark Ages introduces lots of complexity. Many/most of the cards have a ton of text on them and take a couple of games to really wrap your head around. Highlights: > Cultist - Cultist is a Witch that gives out Ruins instead of Curses. The beauty of Cultist comes when you buy several of them - they chain off each other and allow you to draw massive hands, even after the Ruins pile runs out. Cultist is fun. > Feodum - a Victory card that gives points based off the number of Silvers in your deck. I love alternate paths to victory. > Count - pick one bad thing to happen to you, then one good thing to happen to you. It's a unique and, I think, inspired card. Low points: > Procession - pick an action from your hand, play it twice, then trash it and gain an Action card costing 1 more than it. I've never seen anyone use this effectively. It's in mint condition because nobody every buys it. > Mystic - plus an action, two coins, and the top card of your deck - if you can successfully name it. Weird combination of things. Rarely lives up to its cost. It's a non-terminal (provides additional actions) money-giver, so it's always a little useful, but it's just not that much better than a regular old Silver.
Guilds
Guilds is a small expansion, like Alchemy and Cornucopia. Unlike Alchemy and Cornucopia, Guilds was never intended to be part of a larger expansion. Guilds introduces two new mechanics: Overpay and Coin Tokens. Overpay is an extension of the 'on-gain' ability from Hinterlands. Coin Tokens are such a basic idea, it's weird to think they didn't get added in until the 8th expansion. You taken a token that can be used up for a coin at any time. Guilds is the newest expansion (coming out after I learned about Dominion, actually) and it's the newest and last addition to my set. I'm still learning Guilds, but I really like it a lot. Highlights: > Baker - simple. Plus one card, one action, and one coin token. Also it starts everyone in the game off with a coin token at the beginning of the game, changing the opening buys (and thus the entire game strategy) dramatically. It's simple, yet intriguing. It's great. > Adviser - draw three cards, your opponent gets to pick one for you to discard, plus one action. I don't buy this card usually, but I like it thematically. Low points: > Masterpiece - it's essentially a Copper that costs what a Silver costs, but for each $1 you overpay, you get another Silver. Sounded super interesting at first until I realized, you could just BUY a Silver for the same price. So it's not worth it unless you're overpaying by at least 2, but by that point you are usually wanting to buy better cards anyway. It's got its uses, but they are edge case. > Herald - most of the time this card just replaces itself. In some cases, playing it could actually hurt you significantly. Doesn't seem worth the cost.
Promo Cards
There are 5 promo cards, Envoy, Black Market, Walled Village, Stash, and Governor. I don't own any of the promo cards for the sheer fact that they are hard to come by. You can only buy them from strange places and their stock is usually limited. The promo cards are what you would call "Exotic". They offer unique mechanics that you don't see anywhere else in the game. I'm have no plans to own any of these cards, and that's okay. I'm not going to do a highlights/low points because I don't own them and because they aren't really part of a set. Each one is their own individual thing.
The Top 5 for this Column is a list of the 9 expansions, ordered by their rating on Amazon. You'll notice that even the worst-rated expansion is still above a 4 out of 5 stars. Amazon users seem to penalize heavily the sets with few cards and promote Dark Ages for its extraordinary number of cards. Those are my observations. As for my opinion, I'd rate the expansions thusly: 1. Prosperity (best) 2. Guilds 3. Cornucopia 4. Base 5. Dark Ages 6. Intrigue 7. Seaside 8. Hinterlands this is a break in the list, I put it here because there should be more space between numbers 8 and 9. 9. Alchemy (worst) I like Dominion. I like Dominion so much that I wrote this big long huge post about Dominion. I like Dominion so much that I wrote out a pseudocode framework as to how I would go about building my own Dominion game for my own use. I like Dominion so much that it makes at least 6 appearances in my Second-a-Day video from last year. The irony of it all is that, despite spending hours and hours more time playing and thinking about Dominion, my wife still beats me half the time.
Unfair.
9. Alchemy - 4.1 - 50 votes
8. Cornucopia - 4.5 - 56 votes
7. Guilds - 4.7 - 53 votes
6. Hinterlands - 4.8 - 90 votes
5. Seaside - 4.8 - 152 votes
4. Intrigue - 4.8 - 226 votes
3. Dominion - 4.8 - 754 votes
2. Dark Ages - 4.9 - 89 votes
1. Prosperity - 4.9 - 154 votes
“are you guys playing that Dungeons and Dragons game again?”
- my sister, who is supportive of everything I do -
title: '#203 - Moto 360' date: '2014-09-13' aliases:
- '#203 - Moto 360'
- '#203' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '203'
Motto: Infall Klocka
Two weeks ago I wrote about how excited I was for September. We are not quite halfway through the month, and it's already been one of my favorite on record. There have been so many landmarks, milestones, good things, and good days. As of noon yesterday, I've been an early adopter of the Moto 360 smartwatch. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's this:
The Moto 360 runs an Operating System designed by Google called "Android Wear". At its core, Android Wear is meant to be an extension of your phone, not a replacement of it. The user experience is built around quick, lightweight interactions with the device. If you are using Android Wear correctly, you shouldn't be gawking at your own wrist for 20 minutes at a time. That's not something we want. That's not a compelling user experience. That's not what will drive smartwatches to the masses. The watch keeps your interactions with it short and sweet by delivering only a very specific and confined set of functionalities... and delivering them well. The watch is really only built to do 3 things: 1) Show you the current time 2) Provide simple health metrics 3) Show you notifications 3.1) Show you Google Now cards 3.2) Let you perform immediate actions on either of the above You'll notice I kind of cheated on that list. I'm sorry. What is it like to actually use? I've only got about 24 hours of experience with it, I've not used it anywhere but around the house. But even in that context I found it useful. I was on the couch with my wife, my phone was off somewhere charging when I heard a text come in. Normally, this would make me think "what are the odds that whatever that text was would be important enough to leave my comfortable spot, disturbing my-most-likely-asleep wife? That notification gets sent straight to my wrist now. If it's a message I need to respond to, I can just speak that response into my wrist.
Like a secret agent. ----- written the next day -----
Okay, so I've had the watch for 2 days now. The battery life issue I read about so many times hasn't really been a problem. I put it on around 12 hours ago, have yet to take it off, charge it, turn it off, or otherwise help elongate its battery life, and it's sitting at 40% battery. Basically the same story yesterday.
Here was my awesome Moto 360 story of the day:
Melissa and I went to the Renaissance Fair today. We were eating breakfast when I Googled the fair to look up location and ticket details. When we got in the car, I went to pull up the fair again to start navigation - but I realized Google Now was already showing me how far away the fair was. I swiped up to view the card in full, then over once to see the route, then over again to press the "navigate" button. My phone then popped on and began navigating. My watch would show me the next turn, and buzz when it was time.
It was awesome. This thing is awesome.
IKEA opened less than 2 miles from Melissa and I's place. We were there on opening night, made a loop around the place. It's basically just as cool as I remembered. On the way out I got two hotdogs and a cinnamon bun for a grand total of $2.00. They were astounding.
Here's a picture from that - I took something close to a billion:
This is the last thing I have to show for today:
I told you September was going to be awesome.
Top 5: Observations from the Renaissance Fair
5. Melissa can be hypnotized, some.
4. Renaissance Fairs are display an awful lot of junk and bits.
3. Renaissance Fairs are a good place for creepy dudes to blend in
2. Despite both of the above, the atmosphere is very fun. There's tons to do and its a great time.
1. Sometimes I wish I were still a kid. I remember the Renaissance Fair being so amazing when I was younger. It was fun today, but I was not able to suspend disbelief... at all.
Quote:
“Okay now you're going to look weird. You just look at your watch and laugh. 'Hahaha it's five something!'”
- Melissa -
title: '#312 - Undifferentiated Spondyloarthropathy' date: '2017-04-26' aliases:
- '#312 - Undifferentiated Spondyloarthropathy'
- '#312' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '312'
Motto: No shirt. No shoes. No thanks.
Columns will go on as long as they have to.
This Column was supposed to be a "fun" one, cause I feel like the last one I wrote was a bit of a drag to read. WELL GUESS WHAT! It's not going to be. I'm going to open up a vent and blow out all sorts of pressure (insert fart joke here) that's been building in me for the past 7 years about my incurable autoimmune disease.
If you'd like to skip the upcoming dreck and refuse, you can skip ahead to the Top 5 which I do hope you'll find delightful.
I'm going to write about what it's like to have a
progressive,
incurable,
painful,
disabling,
autoimmune disease.
I'll be using works like "pain" and "general suckiness". So calibrate yourself. You've been warned. I might insert jokey jokes for the purposes of sanity here and there - but there's really a ton pent up processing I have that I'd like to vomit all over this Column.
Pain.
Shortly after I turned 21 my back started hurting.
Or maybe it was my butt.
Or maybe my hip.
I wasn't sure. What I was sure about, though, was something was wrong. After a week of limping, where the pain got worse -not better- I saw a doctor. The doctor said:
You fell.
You pulled a muscle playing basketball.
You slipped a disc.
You ruptured your whatever.
Then my eye turned red. Like... RED. At first they thought it was pink eye. Just some random other condition, unrelated to my back. After pink eye medication didn't fix anything, Mama called the doctor and the doctor said "no more monkeys jumping on the bed... oh and you might have Ankylosing Spondylitis, so maybe you should Google that when you get home."
So I gave it a Googs.
Ankylosing Spondylitis:
Constant, prolonged pain and stiffness, usually worse in the mornings and at night.
Check.
Pain usually starts centered about the sacroiliac joint (where the hips meet the spine).
Check.
Sometimes associated with eye inflammation causing severe redness and pain.
Check
Usually onsets in the teens or early twenties.
Check.
Affects men more often than women.
I'm a man.
Ah crap.
A rheumatologist would later give me the diagnosis of "undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy", which is incredibly hard to say and harder to spell than "ankylosing spondylitis". Undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy basically means "yeah you might have Ankylosing Spondyljunk, or you might just have any of a host of other things that are in that family... but regardless you have some form of arthritis and you're screwed, dude."
I lived a very painful month in which I couldn't walk without a limp. I couldn't sleep at night because each position hurt in new and terrible ways. I couldn't look at someone without thinking "they are wondering why your eye is red and you've got a limp." And it was capped off with me hearing the sentence "you can still probably live a relatively full and normal life" and "if we don't treat this aggressively, you may lose the eye" from a couple of specialist doctors at the age of 21.
That was eye-opening.
During all this time, my then-girlfriend stayed right by my side. In the immediate aftermath she didn't go running away. I'll never stop appreciating my wife for that.
I am thankful every day that I responded well to anti-inflammatory medication. In the 7 years since - I HAVE lived a relatively full and normal life. I've been able to go out and do things, get exercise, make my body even stronger than it was before this whole thing started (which isn't really saying much). I've taken better care of myself than I would have otherwise. I even became almost entirely asymptomatic from June to December 2016... but the nature of these kinds of things is that pain comes and goes, and flare ups can happen any time.
The past 4 months I have been dealing with the biggest flare up I've ever had. The pain is the worst it's been since the first onset 7 years ago.
Do you know what it's like for your first thought each morning to be "this is going to suck"?
I open my eyes every morning and dread moving. The first movement of the day is one of the most painful. Getting out of bed is a process that involves sort of hoisting myself up with an arm while trying to keep my back straight. I slowly ease onto my feet and feel the grating of bones in the joints of my back and hips. I am made of gravel. The only way to make it better is to purposefully invite more pain as I work the joints until they've warmed up. This involves air squats. Various yoga positions. At 5something in the morning next to my bed.
Putting on pants every morning is terrible. The little hunch that is required to reach my hands and feet together while I'm standing makes me wince. I hold my breath. Then putting on shoes is dessert I get to look forward to. I think I'll take seconds.
Getting in my car is making the choice of EITHER taking the pain of contorting my stupendously long body as I support my weight and bend through the whole spine while I carefully sit OR the pain of the jarring impact when I throw my stiff body into the seat to minimize bending.
I constantly feel like my back needs to pop, but it won't. Even in the immediate aftermath of an "overall" back cracking - I feel like that one spot that really needed didn't get there. It's like successfully cracking all of your knuckles except for the one that was bothering you in the first place. It's like the itch you can't scratch. This wasn't a problem six months ago. I have had needed a pop for 6 months, and my wife, the chiropractor, and even my sister-in-law haven't been able to make it happen.
In the meantime, I have had to set out in sports, push through pain and regret it later.
I have told my wife I can't do things she wants to do because they hurt too much.
I have had to bail on social activities.
I have had make accommodations for myself at work. I pushed for a sit-stand desk. I take fake trips to the bathroom or the water cooler just to move some. I find empty conference rooms so I can do stretches. Today I had to leave work early to fight our wonderful medical system.
Tomorrow I'm going to miss playing beach volleyball with my team, which makes me sad.
I'm not looking forward to living up to the commitment I made to play golf next Tuesday.
Being in chronic pain is having a constant reminder that your body is limited. You are limited. The time you have here on earth is limited... and that limited time is further limited to that time in which you are physically and mentally capable of doing things. Having a busted up body breaks the spirit.
People don't want to hear about it, so I don't want to tell them. One of the single biggest and most important topics in my life I can't really bring up. If I did bring it up, I would be constantly bringing it up - because the pain is a constant reminder. If people do hear I have back problems, their first assumption is the wrong one. He's tall. Tall people have bad leverage working against them and their backs suffer from it. I hear advice from people who are trying to be nice and help out someone, but they are helping me solve a different problem that I don't have... or maybe just the problem I don't have yet.
I try to sleep in positions that don't push my head forward; because I fear one day that will be the only position I'll have left.
Most of all, I'm just tired. If you start to Google the phrase "undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy", one of the suggested autocomplete is "fatigue". I'm getting my usual 7 1/2 hours of sleep so far in 2017. I know this because I measure this... but I never feel really "awake". My focus lacks. My brain wanders. My eyes droop. I'm constantly considering the merits of napping. I've taken more naps in the past 4 months than I recorded in the previous 2 years before that. I fantasize about sleep. I make plans to get to bed earlier and earlier. Even now I'm debating whether this Column is worth finishing tonight. It's exhausting to be in pain all the time. You are constantly fighting just to be normal. With the fighting comes fatigue. With fatigue comes lethargy. Lethargy presents symptoms that look an awful lot on the surface like plain old depression. I am Jack's complete lack of inspiration and motivation to do anything.
That feeling is made worse by the complete failure of things I have tired to do to help myself that haven't done any real good. This month my 30 Day Challenge was dedicated to getting #BACKtoHealth. I read about my back and things I can do to support it. I have gone to two separate doctors and made appointments with a third for their next availability. I have fought a new pharmacy to get a refill on a prescription I haven't ever filled with them. I was supposed to be getting back into exercise as soon as I felt physically capable... but I haven't felt that way. I have felt worse, actually.
I played golf for the first time in 5 or 6 years... and somehow it caused my chest, shoulder, and mid-back to be as painful as the low back. I couldn't catch my breath for days, because breathing deeply was stabbing my chest. Suddenly my routine of hoisting myself from a laying to sitting position meant feeling my ribs flex and shift as they found a new position they liked. Sharp pains under my left shoulder blade jab me when I try to mobilize my low back or my neck. I am constantly holding my entire torso in a tense, flexed position. I feel like the town drunk who's wearing a barrel for clothes. I've gotta keep my shoulders tight to hold the barrel up and I can't bend one bit. A game that 80 year olds play to keep fit wrecked me for over a week. I'm only now starting to feel a bit better.
All in all. I'm still grateful. Bad times make the good times sweeter. I have enjoyed a long stretch of asymptomatic eyes. With regard to the back - I know that there's probably a light at the end of this particular tunnel... but I also know that after I reach that light, I'll find myself in another tunnel before long. The best I can hope for is long stretches of track that are tunnel-free. I have thought "any day now I'll feel good again" for the past 5 months... and know I will feel good again.
Any day now.
End sob story.
Now for something completely different.
Top 20: $500(ish) Purchases I'd Love to Make if I had Money
20. a non-broken computer for Melissa (part 1)
19. a non-broken computer for Melissa (part 2... see how I'm cheating my own system here?)
18. the latest GoPro
17. a wardrobe that fits better
16. gym mirrors & bumper plates
15. a table saw
14. a Nintendo Switch
13. a graphics card made in the past 3 years
12. a recliner
11. security cameras
10. a piano
9. deck furniture
8. a pergola for the patio
7. a new mattress
6. a bedframe with a headboard
5. a Chromebook Plus
4. a dresser
3. a sectional (part 1)
2. a sectional (part 2)
1. a home theater projector
Quote:
"Watch out. That goose is going to kick someone."
- Chuck, my new favorite quote generator -
title: '#252 - Short One with a Video and Some Other Stuff' date: '2015-07-29' aliases:
- '#252 - Short One with a Video and Some Other Stuff'
- '#252' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '252'
Motto: Healthy Living, No Gimmicks
GoPro makes one heck of a promotional video. Their newest "GoPro HERO4 Session" camera is tiny, but ultimately not compelling given the sacrifices it comes with. I'd say that's a shame, but thankfully I'm glad I don't want one.
I like what I've been able to do with mine. There's no wrong way to use a GoPro:
That was Tony, my dad, and I. We were shootsin'. Killing time, mostly, until I a new niece!
This Saturday (August 1st) is my 27th birthday. I've come to accept that I'm old. SO OLD.
I'm still doing 30 Day Challenges. July was to "Rewrite the Life Tracker". It was a complete success. I'm writing about August's challenge now because I don't want to muddy up my next update with 30 Day Challenge stuff. My next post will include my 3rd Second-A-Day video - "My 26th Year".
August will be a busy month. Each day I will:
- Run a mile
- 100 pushups
- 15 pullups
- Drink only water & coffee
- Eat in, eat up
- Bed at 10
- Wake at 6
- ...and my stretch goal: Stretching (for 15 minutes)
Summarizing all these things - August is going to be a "Month of Healthy Living Habits". They say the key to long-term success is to make little changes over time. I'm tired of that so I'm going to use the shotgun approach.
I told you this was going to be short. Here's the picture to go out on:
Melissa is back out of town for work again. So this picture is for me.
Top 5: Things I Own, by Usage Time
5. Car
4. Television
3. Phone
2. Bed
1. Clothes
Quote:
"Let's make a club for people who own Nalgenes, Timbuk2 bags, Streamlight pen lights, Leathermans, Glocks, and G Shock watches."
- The first thing ever written in my year-old-and-still-going Hangout with Joe, Josh, and Jon -
title: '#130 - Feature: The Marvel Cinematic Universe' date: '2013-11-25' aliases:
- '#130 - Feature: The Marvel Cinematic Universe'
- '#130' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '130'
Motto: What a Marvelous Accomplishment
Preface:
Before I get started I'd like to let you know that I'm writing this in a coffee shop. The following video reflects my current situation:
Okay, now that's done. Either strap yourselves in or bail out now. This column is going to be spectacularly nerdy and long. I'm writing exclusively about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Please note that while this is not the first time I've written about this subject, today's post will be more specifically focused on the MCU.
A Brief History of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
The MCU is a series of movies (and a television show) produced by Marvel and distributed by Paramount that exist in the same shared universe, each telling their own story while contributing to a greater, overarching narrative. Specifically, this:
Those are all the current and confirmed future MCU movies. I didn't include the television show "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in that graphic because it doesn't really fit at one discrete point within the timeline (and because it's a TV show).
A quick word of warning: my writing will assume you've already seen everything to date and will include spoilers for those who haven't.
Why is This such a Big Deal?
Comic books have a long history of using a shared universe, a continual continuity The people, locations, and plotlines from one story connect to the other stories... it's so obvious, but for some reason nobody has successfully done that on-screen. At least not until 2008, thanks to Marvel and Kevin Feige.
I listened to a great interview with Kevin Feige (warning: that interview contains strong language) the other day. I was nervous going into it, nervous that he would be weird, antisocial, or otherwise unlikable. I was pleasantly surprised. He was as entertaining as he was knowledgeable.
Phase 3 Movie Predictions:
Here's a different, less sophisticated graphic that reaches out a little further:
This timeline starts May, 2008. The speculative threshold is in July 2015. At the time of this post, we are sitting at a spot right between Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There have been roughly two movies a year, every year (2010 and 2012 are exceptions with one movie each). Phase one consisted of six movies. Phase two will have five. Phase three is years away, but will likely be ~6 movies long. This means we are about halfway through.
In order of decreasing likelihood, here are my predictions for movies we are likely to see in phase 3:
1. Ant Man - This one is the only officially announced movie in Phase 3. It will introduce us to Henry Pym. It will likely be the funniest of all MCU; and I have no idea what the story will be.
2. A Doctor Strange movie, detailing the origins of the Sorcerer Supreme.
3. A Mark Ruffalo Hulk Movie. I have no idea what the story will be. There are tons of Hulk storylines.
4. A 3rd Captain America movie, with a strong focus on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s other members as well. This may pull in characters from the TV show, but it also may not.
5. A Black Panther movie is also heavily rumored. Who knows.
6. And there's the chance of a Thor 3.
I look forward to coming back to these predictions in 2 years to see how I did.
I think it would be a wise move for them to pack in as many movies as possible into phase 3 before the Avengers 3. There very well may be a phase 4, but I have a feeling that viewership may drop some. Viewers will be completely full-up with the awesomeness that was the Avengers 3. The story will be huge and it will be hard to follow. More on that later.
Critical Reception and My Reception:
Here is the MCU as rated by Rotten Tomatoes (which is the only review venue I usually care about):
1. Iron Man (93%)
2. The Avengers (92%)
3. Iron Man 3 (79%)
T-3. Captain America (79%)
5. Thor (77%)
6. Iron Man 2 (73%)
7. The Incredible Hulk (67%)
8. Thor: The Dark World (66%)
Here's how I would order them:
1. The Avengers
2. Iron Man
3. Thor: The Dark World
4. Iron Man 3
5. Captain America
6. Thor
7. The Incredible Hulk
8. Iron Man 2
Keep in mind, the movie that I liked the least (Iron Man 2), I still very much liked. I don't do percentages, but if I did they would only go down as low as maybe 80%.
I have no idea why Thor 2 was so poorly received... I thought it was great.
What's the deal with the TV show?
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up where the Avengers left off. The show follows agent Coulson and a small team of up-and-coming S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they deal the fallout of the alien invasion of New York and a world where superheroes exist.
The TV show opened really strong. It was the most-watched premier in something like 5 years, and the actual show was pretty good. If you could look past the cheesiness, it was good. The next 3 or 4 episodes were, to be nice, pretty bad. The characters were one-dimensional. The stories were self-contained - they didn't seem to really further any sort of greater narrative. Viewership dropped.
It's slowly getting better and I sincerely hope it continues to. I really want the TV show to work out. In order to do that, they are going to need to start driving towards a larger plot. They need to develop an enemy that lasts for more than one episode. They need to work on character interaction and fill out their backstory. Most importantly, they need to show that there is a master plan and they aren't just wandering aimlessly with each story.
I have faith. I'll stick with it at least until the end of the season. I'm sure they are going somewhere with this... Maybe.
Some subtle things I've noticed and come to appreciate:
Here is where the spoilers from Thor: The Dark World lay - during my second watch in theaters, I noticed a couple different subtle things that contribute silently to the shared universe.
Firstly, the Dark Elves from Thor have displays that very closely resemble those invented by Tony Stark and used in Iron Man:
This probably is not lazy writing. This is not a lack of imagination. This is a hint that our technology is approaching the "magic" that exists in the other realms. As Thor said in the original Thor movie, "your ancestors called in magic, but you call it science."
The next thing I noticed - in Thor: The Dark World when the Aether takes over Jane Foster her eyes go completely black for a moment. Later, the aether is shown to have an affect on her mind/behavior. Where else did we see this exact same thing?
That's a still from "The Avengers". When Hawkeye is having his mind entered (and subsequently controlled) by Loki's scepter his eyes briefly go black - just like Jane Foster in the new Thor. Having this exact same effect helps show the audience that these stories are related, the mind-control effects are related, and the Tesseract and Aether are related.
Speaking of the Aether and the Tesseract being related...
The Infinity Gems and the Avengers 3:
Here's what everything boils down to - all of the movies in Phase 1 were buildup to the "Marvel's The Avengers" that happened in 2012. In the last movie to come out before The Avengers, Captain America introduced the Tesseract. The Tesseract was mistakenly believed to be the Cosmic Cube (a big, important thing in Marvel comics) by nearly every nerdfan in existence. It was hinted at in The Avengers that the Tesseract was not actually the Cosmic Cube, but was something else entirely.
After that point (since the beginning of phase 2) Marvel has been playing the long game. Thor: The Dark World was not a setup for "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" - it was setup for the third Avengers movie - and it all has to do with the Infinity Stones.
If you read nothing else in this column, read this next paragraph.
The Avenger's 3 will be the culmination of all of the MCU movies up to that point. It will be modeled after a six-issue comic book series called "The Infinity Gauntlet" in which the Avengers gather to fight Thanos who wants to use the collective power of the Infinity Stones to kill literally everyone and everything.
The Infinity Stones (or, as they were originally called, "the Infinity Gems") are six immensely powerful objects in the Marvel Universe. Without going into their lengthy backstory and Marvel's mythology too much, each infinity stone grants its owner completely control over one aspect of the Marvel multiverse. Anyone who possesses all six infinity stones is granted omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and God-like power.
Here's a quick TL;DR breakdown of the Infinity Stones:
The Mind Stone allows the user to read the minds or dreams of other beings.The Power Stone allows the user to access all the energy in existence.
The Reality Stone allows the user to fulfill wishes.
The Space Stone allows the user to warp space.
The Soul Stone allows the user to alter or control every soul in the universe.
The Time Stone allows for time-travel.
Each of those sentences does not not fully explain the powers and capabilities of each stone, but it should give you a pretty good idea.
As confirmed by Kevin Feige, the Tesseract (from Captain America and the Avengers) is the Space Stone. The Aether is referred to in Thor: TDW as an Infinity Stone - but which Stone it is never is explicitly stated. People are guessing it's the Power Stone due to its color and the nature of what Malekith was going to do with it.
In the Avengers 3, Thanos will collect all six Infinity Stones, inlay them in a gauntlet (glove, basically) and use them to basically mess up everything and everyone.
Beyond Phase 3:
Marvel has decades and decades of stories and hundreds and hundreds of characters to pull from. They are open to continuing beyond Phase 3. Part of me hopes they do, and another part hopes they don't. They have already made history. The Avengers trilogy will make history over again. Beyond that there will be some major obstacles they'll have to overcome. The actors playing their characters are getting older. They can't play their parts indefinitely. They do have a shelf life. So, do you recast? Do you reboot? Do you write it into the story? Does Tony Stark pass on the Iron Man suit to some successor who is the star of future Iron Man movies?
Also, they will possibly "jump the shark" with this whole Infinity Gauntlet thing. Trying to keep on going after that will be even harder than keeping on after the original "The Avengers". This is why I'm most hopeful they do Avengers 1 through 3 and then call it done.
Then again, I've always been the kind of person who'd rather want something he doesn't have than have something he doesn't want.
Editorial Note on My Previous Writings:
I re-read Column #82, the original Feature Column on superheroes I wrote way back in April several times while I wrote this one. I wanted to share a few notes/corrections from that post.
1. I wrote a ton. I did that again with this post, but hopefully dividing it into sections and add colorful pictures made it a bit easier?
2. The picture that I posted in that column is no longer displaying. That's because I didn't re-host it on this blog, I just pulled it directly from the source. Because it's gone now, I've taken steps to prevent this from happening again in future posts. I did this a lot in the past now that I'm looking back... it's a shame.
Postface:
I don't do features very often because they tend to take several days to write. In the case of this feature, it took me 8 days to write. I started it way back when it would have been a normal, timely update, but I couldn't finish it. To make matters worse, I once lost about 1/2 of the post on a bad save 3/4ths the way through the project.
Top 5: Things I'm Hoping for in the Second Half of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
5. That all the actors, writers, producers, and directors live long enough to finish out the rest of the project.
4. That nobody else pulls a Norton and forces themselves out of the project.
3. The introduction of new characters doesn't dilute the presence of those we already have and love. New characters can and should be introduced - but they need to be done in the right way. I don't claim to know how that's done; but I do know it's possible.
2. That the TV show "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." ends by finishing the story they want to tell, instead of by cancellation. Keeping this in mind, I hope that it has no more than 3 seasons. The first 6 episodes haven't been overly compelling.
1. They stop making movies before the run out of stories that make sense together, characters that fit well, actors, or inspiration. As soon as any one of those go, the others will surely follow.
Quote:
“I'm like Aaron-level excited for 'Thor'”
- Melissa, while we were on the way to watch the premier of Thor: The Dark World -
title: '#161 - Writing Wrapup' date: '2014-04-03' aliases:
- '#161 - Writing Wrapup'
- '#161' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '161'
Motto: Give it a Break Already
My Feature on constrained writing was the last post of a very busy month for the Column. To me it felt kind of like I went out with a bang. It was difficult to write, but full of fanciness. It was the feather in the cap of my "write every day in March" challenge. I write a lot, so March's challenge wasn't too challenging. I did that on purpose, though. I started my new job this month and have since been under an usual amount of stress. Add to that the wedding planning and it's pretty obvious I needed a light month (albeit most of the heavy planning is being done by Melissa - my efforts go toward supporting her efforts). Writing every day was easy enough. I'd write about how it was, the process, and my thoughts and feelings on the challenge - but I've written enough over the past 30 days. I'll just say that it didn't feel difficult. I wrote every day but one or two when I was preoccupied. I posted 16 Columns. That's slightly over one every other day. It only felt excessive insofaras I gave you guys too much to read. That's the only takeaway I got from this month. I guess you only get out of a project what you put into it. My next challenge will be more difficult. Before I wrap this up, there's two other things I want to say: I had a half day over this past weekend to do with what I pleased. I decided to use it to migrate the Life Tracker from the old Google Spreadsheets over to the new Spreadsheets. I figured it would be a huge todo, but I was able to create a template version of the Tracker, import all my old data, make a couple of aethetic changes, and use a newly introduced function to replace the old, slow custom-built function I made. The whole thing took less than 3 hours; and I expected it to be days worth of work. Now the Life Trackers is faster, more reliable, and just a bit prettier. I'm proud of it. I just watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I have so many things to say, but don't want to spoilerize everyone this early. I'll just say this: It was phenomenal and I loved it.
**30 Day Challenge Breakdown:**January: Paleo Diet -> Lost ~5-10 lbs & learned a ton February: 5 Books -> 3 books March: 30 days of writing -> 28 days of writing, 16 Columns April: ... My usual workout consists of a half mile warmup, 30-45 minutes of lifting, sometimes a bit of HIIT if I'm feeling zealous, then a cooldown. If I were to do only cardio, my workout would be to run MAYBE 2 miles. That's not good enough. SO...
I, Aaron Gillespie, will run 50 miles in April.
...and I'm off to start running!
Top 5: Pros/Cons about Writing Every Day
5. Con: You are on your own little world more often. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, I'm already in my own little world enough as it is. It's a bad thing.
4. Pro: It keeps your mind sharp and forces you to process things.
3. Con: It takes time that you could spend lifting weights and cooking food.
2. Pro: Forcing yourself to write when you don't necessarily have something interesting in mind going in can make you lead you to some interesting places you wouldn't have otherwise gone.
1. Con: Sometimes you don't make it to those interesting places and you are boring.
Quote:
“There's no 'i' in 'denial'”
- Some comedian that I can't recall and thus won't get credit for his joke -
title: '#266 - Simple Writing About My Big Week & Phone' date: '2015-09-29' aliases:
- '#266 - Simple Writing About My Big Week & Phone'
- '#266' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '266'
Motto: Simply Perfect
I am writing whole piece this using only the ten hundred most often used words. I am doing this because a guy whose work I enjoy did this, which you can see by pressing these words. I am using this thing he made to check my work.
This week is a big week for me. A company I really like put out their newest phones. A different company I really like is BOTH coming out with more of their television show AND their movie to buy that you could not get until now. An short movie maker made a short movie about the movie I am excited to buy. Touch here to see that. Last, a different movie is coming out that my wife and I both want to watch. We read the book from which this movie came last month. It was very good so we expect the movie to also be very good. I am excited for these things, and other things coming soon.
I ordered the larger phone. It comes in six weeks. It has many things I am excited for:
- The camera that has larger light gathering spots so more light comes in for your photos.
- A camera that is faster than before and it takes bigger photos (because it has more light spots).
- The phone should live for longer between powering times.
- The larger screen that can light up some parts while not lighting up other parts if it wants to.
- The new running system that does new and cool things.
- Much like my wife's phone:
- The outside of it is made of metal and not plastic.
- It looks at your finger to know who you are.
- The flash has two colors to make pictures look better.
- It's bigger than my old one.
- It can make slow movies.
- It can make big movies.
- It has more space to save stuff.
- There are two speakers, and they are on the front of the phone.
- There is a new power line that works both ways and works faster.
- It looks like this:
That black bar on the back is strange, but I will get used to it. I am already used to it. I now like the black bar.
Writing like this is actually really fun. I wouldn't want to do it all the time, but it really makes you think about what you are saying. I have a problem where sometimes I say things or ask questions that don't really get the information that I want to get. If I want to know whether or not I should take a plate from the table for someone I ask "do you want more food?", when instead I should ask "do you want me to take that plate?".
Just now, I used a thing I learned a short time ago to figure out what words I can say by looking in a special way at this page. I can see all the words at once. Most people wouldn't know how to do what I just did. That made me feel cool for a second.
I very much enjoyed writing this.
Top 5: Good Doers, in Order of My Liking for Them
5. Hard metal man
4. A God from another world
3. Small eight leg thing man
2. Big strong green guy
1. Red, white, and blue leader guy
Quote:
"You said 'wet farts'."
- Krista. Side note: You have to give me a pass on the words "farts" and "Krista". They do not fit in line with this way of writing. -
title: '#326 - Not a Good One' date: '2017-10-10' tags: null aliases:
- '#326 - Not a Good One'
- '#326' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '326'
Motto: Some Handsome Hand
I don't like this post. You should skip it. I'm not saying this to intrigue you into reading further. This Column was supposed to be about something. Then it turned into me writing about me writing, which I'm exacerbating by talking about it right now.
SKIP IT.
SKIP IT.
BOP IT.
TWIST IT.
SKIP IT.
SKIP IT.
SNAKE PIT.
SKIP IT.
SKIP IT.
I really liked my previous post. It's in my top 5. It actually is.
Thanks to the way I started this Column, I just read through dozens of my old posts. Sometimes I make myself laugh. Other times I make myself cringe. I wonder if and when I'll stop writing like I know better than people. Maybe that's the nature of writing your current opinions on the things you're currently thinking about.
I didn't continue writing after that. Here I am a few days later, I went back even further into the archive Column. All the way back to #150. It's a little disheartening seeing stuff I wrote about 3 years ago that I have since forgotten about. Goals that died. Well-stated opinions or personal mottos that I've since forgotten about. Well summarized topics that I later revisited, demonstrating what seems like a regression in aptitude or attitude. Literal instances of things I've already done that I have very recently thought, "it would be a fun thought experiment to do (this thing)". I found a Top 15 Life Pro Tips... I've been writing a "Life Pro Tips" Google Keep note so I could write a Column about it.
Bro you already did that.
Bro you should move on.
Bro, don't call yourself bro.
It's not all bad, though. I have written some things that weren't total crap. This is total crap. OH GOD THIS IS TOTAL CRAP.
HI!
Blade Runner: 2049 was a thoroughly entertaining movie. It continued entertaining me hours after I left the theater. Makes you think. Thinking is a good thing.
My 30 Day Challenge for last month was supposed to be "monotasking", but really it turned into nothing. This month the Challenge is "no passive entertainment", but really it's turned into "monotasking". God I write about 30 Day Challenges too much. I write about goals and projects too much. I have two whole posts that are basically just "here are the projects I'd like to do someday". They're basically copies of one another. Worse yet, every second post includes some form of "HEY HERE'S A THING I'VE DECIDED I AM DOING. LOOK AT ME!"
My corporate social sports sand volleyball team got first place in our division. So that's cool. There was a Star Wars trailer that looked good?
Good God. Next one will be better I hope.
Actual video of me writing this:
Top 5: Good Columns (This List is Terrible)
5. Flightplan is Terrible
4. Undifferentiated Spondyloarthropathy
3. Cheating on this list, all 3 of my "Brief Selections" Columns
2. Loops
1. The Buzz Heard Around the World
Quote:
"I have writer's block. And I had high expectations."
- Me -
title: '#237 - Social Networks, Fitness' date: '2015-04-09' aliases:
- '#237 - Social Networks, Fitness'
- '#237' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '237'
Motto: You Don't Exercise because You Have Energy, You Exercise because it GIVES You Energy
Today's post is about two mostly unrelated things: Social Networking and Fitness. Social Networking: To me, social networking for the longest time meant "Facebook". Since that time a whole crop of things deeming themselves "social networks" have come and gone; and I tried out many of them. Twitter. Path. Tumblr. Google Buzz. Foursquare. LinkedIn. Instagram. Pinterest. Vine. Diaspora. Google+. They have all had their highlights, and their low points. The one thing they all have in common is that they aimed to become a place where you could go and see "what's happening" with your friends. You could hear their opinion on some current event(Twitter), see a picture of their coffee (Instagram), and see what projects they claim to be working on (Pinterest). Enter Google Hangouts. Hangouts is not posed to its users as a "social network". It's the chat service that was born alongside (or as a part of) Google+. Hangouts, for the most part, exists in its own silo. This chat service has become my "social network". It is where I go to see what my friends are doing. I've been in a group hangout with the majority of the groomsmen from my wedding for well over a year now. As a result, we talk all the time. Similarly I have a group hangout with my in-laws and one for the group of friends who live close by. With Hangouts, communication is convenient, picture sharing is easy, and the platform doesn't gum up the works with tons of useless features. It's basically everything I've ever wanted out of a "social network". You don't go there to mindlessly wander around, hoping to find something interesting your friends did or said. Content on Hangouts is 100% relevant to you. Facebook is still terrible, by the way. Fitness: I was originally going to make this a feature post about fitness, but such a post would really REALLY require a lot of work. Also, I'm still not nearly qualified to write anything approaching "authoritative" about the subject. Everything I'm above to say is my opinion based off things I've read/experienced over the past five or so years. I spout broscience at best. With that disclaimer disclaimed, I now begin. "Exercise is a required part of a full & happy life." If I had to give general life advice to someone, that would be one of the first bullet points I hit. Shortly thereafter I'd probably work in the motto from this post. Fitness is a very broad concept. I think fitness can be broken down into 5 mutually orthogonal dimensions: 1. Strength 2. Endurance 3. Coordination 4. Flexibility 5. Power To be truly "fit", one should aim to seek to maximize each of those 5 facets of fitness. Specializing in any one or two of those areas is fine, but doing so at the expense of neglecting others is not. At any given gym, I'd say the "healthiest" person in the room is not the strongest, or the most flexible, or the person that's been on the treadmill for 2 hours... but instead the guy who's half as good as each of those people in their respective specialties. Not as strong as the strongest, but more flexible with better endurance. Not as flexible as the yogii, but able to move heavy objects and traverse long distances quickly. You get the picture. Speaking of pictures, I've been developing a greater appreciation of data visualization techniques. Here's what I'll call the "Fitness Pie":
Sidenote - That's not a pie chart. Pie charts are useful when you're showing several data points that sum to 100%. These data points are independent of one another. It's essentially a radial bar chart. I don't know if this type of chart has a standard name. - End sidenote If I were to rank myself on the 5 dimensions of fitness, I'd probably go Coordination > Flexibility > Power > Strength > Endurance. I'm fairly coordinated & flexible (minus my hips). I'm more "powerful" than outright "strong". The difference here is that strength = force and power = the ability to apply force quickly. Being able to throw a baseball far is not a matter of strength so much as it is a matter of power. Lastly I follow up with endurance, which for me peaks out around "jog a mile and a half". For me, endurance is the least enjoyable dimension to improve (and it doesn't help that running bothers my back). What does your Fitness Pie look like? The last thing I want to talk about is the answer to the question "why exercise?" The standard answer to this question talks about how consistent exercise reduces your risk of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, and so on and so forth. Then usually they'll toss in the benefits regular exercise gives to your mental health, athletic performance, and usually add in a tidbit about attractiveness. Those things are all true, but they don't really answer the question for me on a day-to-day basis. Why exercise? I work all day by sitting in a padded chair, moving a mouse, and typing on a keyboard. When I get home, many of my hobbies involve sitting in a padded chair, moving a mouse, and typing on a keyboard (as a matter of fact, I'm doing that right now). While I'll be the first person to tell you just how awesome those things are - there's an itch that they just don't scratch. Something visceral. Something primal. Something you can't quite put your finger on. You may not even know it's there until it's gone. Like the humming of the refrigerator or the air conditioner, you don't really notice it - but when it's gone you realize instantly what you were missing. I scratch that itch by deadlifting.
Completely unrelated - here's a Battlefield video for March:
Top 5: Most Important Aspects of Fitness 10. Consistency 9. Vanity 8. Goal-setting 7. Enjoyment 6. Consistency 5. Variety 4. Rest 3. Diet 2. Knowledge 1. Consistency
Quote:
“Cool down - shirtless flexing in front of a mirror - 5 minutes" - Jon's workout notes -
tags:
- PROJECT
- 30DAYS
- SELF IMPROVEMENT date: 2019-08-28T00:00:00.000Z title: '#377 - 30 Day Challenges' aliases: '#377 - 30 Day Challenges' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '377'
In late 2013 I watched a TED Talk that changed my life. Attributing a life change to a TED Talk feels somewhat embarrassing in 2019, but it happened to me. The video (in the header of this post) is Matt Cutts' talk on incorporating 30 Day Challenges into your life. It's short and provides context for everything I'm about to talk about - so I recommend watching it before proceeding.
- Digital Minimalism
- Active Time Tracking
- Embrace Boredom
- Aaron Information Management
- Whole30
- Stop Snoozing Weekdays
- Heal the Fingers
- No Zero
- Scheduled Life
- Learn to be a Dad
- Explore New Places
- No Passive Entertainment
- Monotasking
- Blue Apron
- AM Workouts
- Bullet Journal
- Bucket List Movies
- BACK to Health
- Complete Android Beginner Nanodegree
- Costco Food Challenge
- Sketching Faces
- Stop Nailbiting
- Establish Honeywell Workflow
- No Screens after 10PM
- Sweat 5 Days/week
- Study Every Day
- "Healthy Life" (eat, run, stretch, lift)
- Life Tracker Rewrite
- Don't Eat Out
- No Phone During Conversations
- Before Work Exercise Routine
- Move to New Apartment
- No TV, No Videogames
- Workout Workflow Redux
- Living on a Budget
- The Incredible Bulk
- Yes Man
- No Reddit/Social Media
- Drop Windows, Pick Up Linux
- Use GoPro Every Day
- Enjoy Wedding and Honeymoon
- Run 50 Miles
- Write Every Day
- Read 5 Books
- Paleo + Crossfit
- The Swollening
That list is in descending chronological order. "The Swollening" (which was called "The October Project" at the time) took place in October 2013, about 6 months after the TED Talk was published. If you were obsessive or weird mathematical savant, you might have already figured out that there have been 72 months between then and now, and my list up there only goes to 46. That means that 25 of those months I did not run a 30 Day Challenge. Of those 24 months, 2 times I just failed so miserably at achieving my goal that I didn't even feel it was worth writing down (e.g. "eat a Paleo diet" but then I ate pizza for dinner on day 1), the other 22 months came in chunks, where my system of 30 Day Challenges was put on hold to do some other, related thing. I held the "No Zero" challenge for 10 months straight, before accepting it as a Standard Operating Procedure & moving on with new Challenges. For all of 2016 I did a complicated, multi-faceted New Year's Resolution, rather than 12 individual 30 Day Challenges. As I'll get to later, I don't recommend that sort of all-at-once approach. My point here is just that I've been doing this stuff for a while.
I have thought of myself as an amateur writer, amateur self-tracker, and amateur in the world of N=1 experiments, but that's changed. By no means am I a professional any of those things... but I have given myself permission to feel qualified to talk about them with interested parties. I'll have to keep that little self-realization in mind if I ever meet an interested party. Anyway, back to it.
Most of my 46 challenges lump into a few main categories:
- Exercise - e.g. Run 50 Miles, Try CrossFit
- Diet - e.g. Don't Eat Out, Paleo, Whole30, The Incredible Bulk, Blue Apron
- Productivity - e.g. Bullet Journal, Active Time Tracking, Write Every Day, Study Every Day, Digital Minimalism, and others
That list isn't exhaustive.
Some of my favorite challenges don't fall into any of those categories. For example: "Yes Man" in which I said yes to every opportunity presented to me for a month. Or the "Only new places" challenge, in which I did not go to any restaurant, gas station, grocery store, or other business - unless it was my first time in that place.
The Blue Apron Challenge was great not because it's the best food service in the world and we continue to use it to this day. It's not and we don't. It was great because it was an awesome learning experience. We learned that we had the capacity to cook fancy things using our own kitchen. We learned new cooking techniques. We learned how to incorporate vegetables into meals and that doing so was actually a good addition.
This challenge was so nice I did it twice. It takes discipline to follow through on, but when you start the day with the discipline to get out of bed and into the gym, everything else that day is just a bit easier. Also, it feels incredible to have accomplished something worthwhile by 7:30AM. Plus it's the best way to ensure you actually work out 5 days a week. If you wait until after work to sneak in a workout, exercise will get preempted by life.
This challenge came about after re-reading the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace. For a month I took away my ability to choose whether or not I wanted to do something - I just did it. Relieving myself of the ability to choose not to do something weirdly made me much more content to do things like "hey can you do the dishes?" It wasn't "sigh, yes." I just started doing them. It made me truly realize that what you're doing is less important than your attitude about what you're doing. They key to this challenge, though, is not to let people know you're doing it.
This wasn't the first challenge, but it was the first one that I decided to go all-in on. We joined a CrossFit gym for a month, and ate a (modified) Paleo diet. I learned a LOT during this month. For one thing, I realized how effective CrossFit is at wearing me out. Also that I felt better when I ate less garbage. These habits didn't truly stick, though.
I hestitate to mention this, because it's so similar to the above - but Whole30 really introduced a long-term change in our diet. If you don't know what Whole30 is, just think of it as a (quite strict) more-strict-than-paleo-but-paleo-like diet. I lost 15 pounds in a month, and haven't really gained any of that weight back. We don't keep bread in the house any more. We don't keep cereals. We don't keep chips or other snacks.
This is my most recent challenge - and came with some habit changes that I think are likely to stick. I really enjoyed this challenge.
I turned my phone to Do Not Disturb for the whole month. It rang if someone in my contacts called me, and alarms worked as normal - but other than that it was silent. No notifications for texts. None for "Scam Likely" callers. I've subsequently just turned off notifications for every app that isn't my phone or my Ring Video Doorbell. Also - I uninstalled Reddit, and only went there twice during the month. Once because I wanted to hear what Reddit was saying about Marvel losing Spider-man, and once because I was bored and too tired to be productive. The great thing is, I didn't miss it. Rather than defaulting to low-quality information binges, I just spent that time working on personal projects. I got much more done... and that's a much more rewarding and satisfying use of time than browsing /r/all.
Then, while working these personal projects, I would get way more done due to the lack of distraction. There's a reason this website looks different today than it did 30 days ago.
This is what intentionality feels like. It feels good.
Turns out I'm addicted to screens. I didn't really figure out in advance what I was going to do instead. Then I found myself just sitting around. Then I thought of stuff I could be working on, but required my phone or computer. On day 2 or 3 I said screw it.
This challenge was never defined. I was the quintessential loser who wanted to "turn it all around for the New Years!" but had zero follow-through on deciding what that meant. I wanted to swallow the world with this one, and wound up doing nothing at all.
Turns out running extended periods caused my lower back to flare up. After day 3, I was in near constant back pain. I thought doing the "barefoot"-style running (running on your toes) would help prevent that. It didn't. That's what I learned from that.
If you're interested in trying something like this for yourself, and I highly recommend it to everyone, here are some pro-tips.
- Don't be overly ambitious. This means you should aim to change one thing - and only change it to an extent that its reasonable to accomplish without sacrificing other things in your life.
- Don't be vague. What specific behavior are you going to do. When are you going to do it. How are you going to do it. How will you know when you've done it.
- If your goal is to remove a habit, try replacing it with something instead. This isn't specific to 30 Day Challenges, but given that so many 30 Day Challenges involve habit change, it's something to keep in mind.
- Do stuff you're interested in. If you're thinking about doing something, don't Google "Good 30 Day Challenge Ideas". I'm guilty of having done that when I felt uninspired, and guess what - I failed every time. If you're truly out of ideas, see the Top 5 below.
30 Day Challenges are a habit I'm really glad I've adopted. They're a great way to learn about yourself, the world, and life in general. They mark the passage of time. They make you grow as a person. If you're doing them, though, maybe don't talk about it all the time. I took to just writing to strangers on the internet about them rather than boring my friends about them.
- Start the day by drinking a full glass of ice water. Notice how much it wakes you up. Notice how forcing yourself to prepare enough the night before to have the glass by your bed ready for the morning makes for a nice little routine.
- Say "Yes" to every opportunity that comes up. Notice how what you do changes. Notice how how you feel about what you do changes.
- Put your phone on Do Not Disturb. Notice how much easier it is to ignore it. Notice how many more periods of uninterrupted quality time you get thinking, working, or with friends or family
- Track your time, or food, or money, whichever thing you think you could be managing better. You don't have to change anything about it. Just write down what you're doing with it. Analyze when you're finished. That which gets measured, gets managed.
- Just do whatever you're passionate about. If you want it, you're much more likely to stick with it.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a narrow field.
- Niels Bohr
He had a self help podcast on speaker, and a mouthful of gummies so big he couldn't close his mouth. I wonder if he's just weird or losing his s%%%.
- Josh
title: '#155 - I Thought it was Funny' date: '2014-03-20' aliases:
- '#155 - I Thought it was Funny'
- '#155' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '155'
Motto: It's All Good (Except for the Bad Stuff)
When I was in middle school I was in a band. I played the bass guitar with 3 of my great friends. I don't actually remember the name of the group, but I do remember that I was going to suggest the name of our first album be "It's All Good" subtitled, "Except for the Bad Stuff". That was Middle School Aaron's humor. It's idiotic and surface-level and 25 year old Aaron still thinks it's pretty funny. I guess you only mature in the areas you have to. I have always had a unique brand of humor. I'm not saying that like it's a good thing or something I'm praticularly proud of - it's just fact. The things I think are funny don't always align with the humor of the population at large. Or, if it is something other people "get", it may hit me harder... or not at all. I take jokes and run them into the ground. I push them past the line that separates "funny" from "too far". I make Melissa pretty mad. Why? Why go there? Why go from a state where everybody else is laughing to a state where nobody else is laughing? I think it's because that's when I laugh the hardest; and I'm just that selfish. I apologize for my selfishness, but I will never apologize for dad humor. I will never stop making the obvious joke. I will never stop pushing the joke ad obsurdium. I will never stop laughing at my own jokes. And lastly, I will never stop saying "Hi Tired! Nice to meet you! Gee you sure look a lot like my fiance, Melissa! Say, what kind of a name is 'Tired', anyway?". Here's the picture to go out on:
.JPG)Top 5: Jokes I Heard in High School that Only I Laughed At
5. "Whenever you get down, you drink a Coke. Then you think 'wow, I still feel terrible, but I got a good taste in my mouth.'" 4. "I don't do English homework. That's why they call it 'English'." 3. "I know that stomach feeling - I'm going to have to take a dump later." 2. "Let's go look at donuts." 1. "Fine. I'll drive... but if I crash and kill everyone I don't wnat to hear any complaining about 'Ooo, you killed me'."
Quote:
“You might see a boob and then the school would explode”
- Josh, in high school. He's also responsible for a quote from the Top 5. Guess which one for points. -
tags:
- STORYTIME
- SELF IMPROVEMENT
- PROJECT date: 2019-12-31T00:00:00.000Z title: '#384 - 2020 is the Future' aliases: '#384 - 2020 is the Future' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '384'
Doesn't it seem like 2020 has always been "the future!". Technically as of this writing that's still true... but almost assuredly for you reading this it is not true. What's the future like, guys? Are you flying around in your jetpacks? Has the singularity happened yet I can't wait for the world of tomorrow!
I wanted to write a huge, sprawling review of the past decade & a fully-imagined picture of the next decade; but this isn’t that. This post is not primarily about the past. It's about the future. But to give context to that future, let's briefly look at the past.
![[384-1.jpg]]
Since the ball dropped on December 31st 2009...
- Melissa and I were dating & working on-campus at KU.
- I started to get interested in personal development and did a time-tracking project.
- My back started hurting in earnest and I learned I'm not invincible.
- I started doing my "Demetri List" - named after Demetri Martin, whose standup I stole the concept from
- I started writing again (in this blog).
- Melissa and I graduated with our respective degrees.
- I got my first big boy job.
- I lived by myself for a year.
- I panicked about wasting a lot of time with nothing to show for it, and started what would eventually become "The Life Tracker".
- We got engaged.
- We got married.
- We moved in together. Got a couple of cats. Upgraded apartments a few times.
![[384-2.jpg]]
The second half of the decade saw both changes and stability...
- I did some continuing-education courses for fun online and learned more coding.
- I rewrote the Life Tracker from scratch, a code base which I've lived on for nearly 5 years now.
- I upgraded my career situation.
- We bought a house and learned what it means to be homeowners.
- We got pregnant and had an awesome baby, who's quickly grown into an awesome toddler.
- We started taking health more seriously.
- We learned to cook.
- We built and started actually using a pretty great home gym.
- I started taking my continuing-education and personal development hobbies more seriously
Continuing my education and working on personal development stuff is the area of my life where I see the greatest potential to hit this target:
![[384-3.png]]
A professor once told our class that hitting that target, finding something at the intersection of those three things, was key to having a satisfying and enjoyable life. I wrote that down. I still think it's a pretty great piece of advice. Once you think you're there you can't rest on your laurels... nor should you want to. It is for that reason that I have more content below this line.
About 2 years ago was when my original post-college-5-year-plan was supposed to end. I am happy to say everything played out pretty according to plan. I don't have a graduate degree, and it took me roughly 6 years to get to the spot I wanted to be in 5 years... but aside from those two quibbles - I'm where I want to be. Now where am I going? Where do I want to be? More importantly, who do I want to be?
Those are my questions now.
When thinking long-term, it's best to think first about who you want to be, not what you will have accomplished. Go from who you want to be to what does that person do? What do they have? What have they done to get to where they are? Then work your way backwards to medium-term goals. What will you need to do by when? You can then work your way further back to the short term goals, habits, and systems that are necessary to accomplish those medium-term goals. This maps your short-term behaviors to the long-term reasons why. It ensures you're spending your time and energy in ways that move you toward who you want to be.
I don't want to share my entire future outlook in this Column; but I do feel comfortable sharing an example from it:
In 5 years I want to be a music-capable individual. I'd like to be able to create new music utilizing some level of competence on an instrument. This means that in a year's time I should probably have a good idea of what instrument I want to play. I should have ownership over that instrument. Musicians consistently practice their instruments. If I want to be a musician, I need to practice consistently.
![[384-4.jpg]]
Given that we're at the transition period between decades, it feels appropriate to think even more long-term than the standard "five year plan". I've spent a decent amount of time thinking about the next decade. What do I want life to look like in 2030? How old will my family be? What milestones will happen between now and then? What do I need to start thinking about now?
The plan is not to set the next 10 years in stone. The plan is to think about them. Make a rough timeline, based off where I want to be in 2030, what my relationships look like, and what I will have accomplished by then... then adjust the plan as I go along.
Because that plan is subject to change, I don't feel comfortable posting it to the general internet... but I cannot recommend this practice highly enough.
I recently had one of those awesome total-brain moments of clarity. It was a purely theoretical (and beautiful) amalgamation of all the "me" things I've been doing for the past several years into one massive idea. I pictured of a system of processes, tools, and hobbies that come together to form a cohesive whole. Combining getting things done with habit change, with principle-based goal-setting, with quantified self concepts, with app development and writing. Put simply, I visualized a systematized method of self-actualization. Structured, yet flexible. Robust, yet only as intensive as you want. It's very much in the center of that Venn Diagram from above.
Honestly it's too big to talk about here. For a sneak preview of the framework, read this entire post. I'm pretty jazzed about the idea. I hope much about it will follow on this blog.
Before we go, though...
In 2019 I...
- Finished 69 movies (17 in theaters), 28 books (and gave up on 6), and 2 videogames.
- Watched at least one television show on at least 90 days.
- Logged 129 workouts - which is up 30% over last year, but still below the target of 3/week (156/year).
- Tracked calories less frequently than any previous year, at 165 days fully tracked (compared to 213 days tracked on average from other years) Those days that I did log showed a marked decrease in calorie consumption, at 2475 (compared to 2785 calories/day on average from other years). My carb ratio is down, bringing the other two macros up. In turn with all the above, my weight has dropped by ~8 pounds after being steady for the past 6 years.
- Wrote 26 Columns, including this one. One every 2 weeks.
- Saw family 55 times and friends 127 times.
- Complete 24 Gillespedia articles
- Have ZERO 3 day streaks without exercise
- To learn to play ~10 things on a guitar
- Transition the Google Spreadsheets based "Life Tracker" into the (likely AWS-based) Data Journal component of my new, as of yet unnamed system
- Some family fun goals we're finalizing
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. - Stephen Covey
date: 2013-08-11T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- VIDEO
- DRAWINGS
- POETRY
- NERDCRED
- PICTURES title: '#104 - Creating Multimedia/XKCD Volume 0' aliases: '#104 - Creating Multimedia/XKCD Volume 0' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '104'
This column is an exploration of all the different forms of multimedia I can create; it's also an experiment to do so in such a way that I tell all the stories I wanted to tell in this post. Everything in this post is completely original content created by yours truly (if you couldn't already tell by the terrible production value).
First off, I want to start with the podcast I made for this column:
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F104202631" width="100%"></iframe>I got Randall Munroe's book "XKCD Volume 0" for my birthday. It looks like this:
In this book, there is a selection of the first 600 comics. Rather unexpectedly (for those people that don't read the description of the book, namely, people like me) there are doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.
Randall Munroe is clever, smart, and, worst of all, educated. With these puzzles, I feel as though I have been issued a challenge. You could say, the book blasted me in the face with a surprise challenge (as illustrated below).
In the margins are mostly codes. Cryptic strings of text that don't have any context or explanation. Actual example:
10TAE/KE
201BSWIY
0DE6STN8
CO25.RAP
What does THAT mean? I haven't figured it out yet.
Here are my ground rules:
- I can't simply Google "What's the answer to _____"
- Other than that, I can use any method I know or feel like.
The first code/puzzle I figured out was easy, but still very rewarding. I learned Braille (at least temporarily learned it). Here's what I ended up with after all was said and done:
I stumbled across the NP-Complete problem from XKCD 287. The problem is well-stated in the comic, but essentially asks to find a combination of menu items that add up to a unique total cost:
Menu items are $2.15, $2.75, $3.35, $3.55, $4.20, and $5.80. The combined total is $15.05.
Figure out it.
Go.
I took a night to think about it. Then over a lunch break I wrote the following code (most of you can just skip this):
I found the solution and made a general framework for finding solutions of any similar Knapsack Problem. I wrote the code over lunch. This is what I looked like over lunch:
By the way, $2.15x7 is $15.05. There's another solution, but you can figure that out for yourself.
Coding/algorithm practice is more than just a good mental exercise, it's fun. That's what makes me excited for this - here's me being excited about the book:
It even inspired me to write this:
Some people look at cars, other folks watch TV. Some listen to rock stars, I read XKCD.
I do read XKCD. Every week, three times a week. Since I got the book, I read it even more. In fact, here's a pretty good way to summarize my day:
{% include video id="0RRfYNixPWA" provider="youtube" %}
Yup.
Here's a picture I took an then over-edited like a 11 year old who just found photoshop on his parent's computer:
At some point, I may figure out what all of the codes mean. I've pictured that moment, and it looks like this:
Soon.
- Pen & Paper
- Google Scripts
- Noteflight and Soundcloud
- Photoshop (CS6)
- Movie Studio Platinum (12)
“I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at” Randall Munroe, in the alt text for XKCD 874
title: '#295 - I''M AN ADUUUULT' date: '2016-08-29' aliases:
- '#295 - I''M AN ADUUUULT'
- '#295' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '295'
Motto: WELCOME TO MY NATION OF ARTICULATION
I'm an adult, dude.
I'm sitting at the table in my kitchen, the one that used to be my only table. I own a table. I own a kitchen. My number of refrigerators went from zero to two in a single day. I own a lawn mower. I paid money to buy a thing whose soul purpose is to perform a task I used to despise doing (and, in all likelihood, will continue to despise). I have a second table right over there. There's four chairs at it, that I also own. I bought all these things because I need to use them from time to time.
More than just possessions, though - I'm an adult because I have opinions about insurance companies & taxes. I have a wife an a retirement account. I'm closer to 30 than 20, closer to 50 than 5. I'm an adult because "he's too young to have known any better" is not a viable excuse for anything anymore. "I value my time" has replaced "I don't wanna" as an excuse for not doing boring things. I worry about people and things that aren't myself and my things. I'm an adult because I the prospect of having a kid no longer sounds like "the worst thing that could happen".
I'm an adult because I know how to solve problems & I'm confident in my ability to do so. I recognize limitations and don't think I shouldn't need help. I'm an adult because I can use double-negatives without fear of losing points on the assignment. I care more about what I think of me than what random people on the street think of me. I listen to talk radio more than the Top 40. Young people reference things I don't know about. I'm an adult because I have legitimate right to complain about "well we didn't have laptops in school back when I was your age!". I have a 40 hour/week job that I don't mind working at for 55 if it gets the job done. I like HGTV. Going to Home Depot and Lowes doesn't bore me out of my mind anymore. I think about school districts. I feel feelings that other people are feeling, even though the thing that happened to them didn't happen to me - so why should I feel anything at all? That never used to happen.
I'm an adult because I can disagree with someone wholeheartedly, but still respect their opinions and choices. I love spreadsheets. I made a modification to the desk that I own using tools I bought and it all went pretty well. I don't have a bedtime, but I give myself one anyways... which is why I've got to wrap this up.
This is me:
Top 5: Counter Arguments to this Whole Post
5. I just made a reference to The Lonely Island.
4. I really want the next Nintendo when it comes out.
3. I just wrote probably near 100 sentences that all start with "I", or have an "I" implied at their beginnings.
2. I squeal like a toddler when the Marvel logo shows up at the beginning of a movie. Well, a movie of a certain canon.
1. I ate this post while wearing jammies & eating Kraft Mac & Cheese for dinner. Not as a side, Kraft Mac & Cheese was the entire dinner.
Quote:
"They taste better because they're shaped like dinosaurs."
- Nick -
date: 2013-01-30T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- META
- DRAWINGS title: '#59 - Blog Update about a Blog Update' aliases: '#59 - Blog Update about a Blog Update' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '59'
It's already a half hour past when I told myself I'd be going to sleep. I am not tired. That could be because I've been running ragged all day and I'm having a hard time turning my brain of hyperdrive, or it could be because I didn't eat proper dinner until 10pm. It's probably both.
I worked out this morning. Looked at myself in the mirror after I got done. I almost saw a muscle, I swear.
I have taken the past half hour to go through my last 20ish posts and give them proper labels. Labels function like tags. If I think a column is particularly picture-heavy, I can put the "PICTURES" label on it. At that point, it will show up alongside all the other picture-heavy columns. This will be potentially useful for later on. The labels I have designated for use (these could change, but probably won't much) are as follows:
- THOUGHTS - for things that I just thought, that aren't really grounded in any sort of reality
- STORYTIME - for stories
- OUTLINE - for outlines, bulleted lists, or otherwise intentionally structured posts (like this!)
- RESEARCH - if I'm researching something, this may not get used much
- PICTURES - if there is 3 or more pictures associated with the post
- DRAWINGS - if one of those pictures happens to be a drawing (I don't believe this has happened until this post)
- VIDEO - if the post contains a video (note: some of my old posts link to a version of my second-a-day video that no longer exists... so... yeah)
- AUDIO - if I post spoken word, music, or whatever other audio clip I might post - this is one of the many areas of media production and creativity I am looking into
- POETRY - another area of media production and creativity I'm looking into
- JOKES - for thoughts that are simply jokes, from my own brain
- NERDCRED - nerdy post contect
- GOOGLE - Google-related content
- NONGOOGLETECH - for all other tech that isn't directly about Google
- META - columns that reference the column
- Possibly more to come if I start writing consistently about some other topic for example - "REVIEWS" or "MOVIES" or "MONKEYSDRESSEDASHUMANS"
The substance of the conversation happening in the hallway outside my door right now does not warrant how loud the conversation is. Some girl somewhere is mad at some other girl, apparently.
In the name of brevity, I'm afraid we must part ways. If I don't go to bed I'm going to regret it - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.
.jpg)
I have a small stockpile of drawings I did when I was in High School. This is one.
- The Body
- The Quote
- The Picture
- The Motto
- The Top 5
“Hali's girlfriend/co-worker came over and ate my LAST FOUR CORNDOGS. She's terrible and I don't like her anymore”Josh Weltha
title: '#439 - Feature: The Cloud' description: 'To Cloud, or Not to Cloud, that is the Question' tags:
- TECH
- PROJECT
- FEATURE
- TOOLS draft: false date: 2023-07-17T00:00:00.000Z aliases:
- '#439 - Feature: The Cloud'
- '#439' enableToc: true permalink: '439'
The past three posts were all written somewhat simultaneously. I assumed you’d enjoy 3 long posts more than one giant one.
Here's a topic I've continually waffled on: is it better to live in the cloud or on local machines? There are, of course, pros and cons with any sort of decision. Every so often I like to reweigh decisions I’ve made. Now is one of those times.
The “cloud” isn't a cloud. It's not even that complicated in theory, so the fact the name “the cloud” caught on is a bit strange to me. Your data in “the cloud” is actually just in a computer (or several) that is somewhere else in the world. I've been in these building before. They are often nondescript building hiding in plain sight amongst other businesses. Inside of them there are a series of aisles like you'd see at a grocery store, except all of the shelves are filled with rack-mounted computers.
![[439-1.jpg]]
The app you're using knows where your data is. When your app makes a request for that picture you took yesterday, it goes through a series of computers that do lookups and authentication/authorization steps, finds the closest computer that has the file, then returns that file in response to your request.
Boom the cloud.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate of any digital resource you depend on will drop to zero. I dumped a lot of energy and effort into Google Tasks, only to have that killed. I advocated for Google+, only to have that shuttered. Suddenly I started looking at my website, which was hosted in Blogger, and decided I shouldn’t hold my breath. While it is easy (and justified) to single out Google here - they are by no means the only potential issue here. Reddit, a key backbone of information gathering for me, has made some wildly questionable decisions recently. When their site effectively went dark, I realized how locked-in to that mode of operating I was. One of my tried-and-true workflows ceased to produce results for reasons I had no control over.
I love Notion. Around 4 years ago I started transitioning more and more of my daily life into a system with Notion as the backbone. It’s a stellar app that takes a great concept, the “block”, and builds on it extensively with all sorts of features that maintain its core conceptual integrity. It feels like every design decision was made with such love and care… and yet there’s nothing in the terms of service1 that says “WE GUARANTEE TO STILL BE AROUND TOMORROW”.
Since the cloud is just “some else’s computer”, how much of your life are you trusting to this faceless group of people? Your photos, once they leave your phone and go to the cloud, are not yours any more. If they were suddenly deleted, or you were locked from your account, that’s pretty much it. They are just gone.
And yet, a huge portion of modern tech lives in “the cloud”. Think about how “useful” your phone feels when it doesn’t have service.
So why?
Well, basically that’s just the way the industry is moving. There are a litany of reasons, mostly boring ones - but it boils down to “the cloud” easier on consumers and easier on developers. There’s nothing simpler than taking a photo on your phone, then looking at it on Google Photos 2 minutes later on your laptop. You’re not installing a chat app on your machine, you’re going to Facebook. You’re not renting DVDs anymore. You’re clicking a button. There's nothing simpler for a developer to write some little app and have it hosted on AWS, Firebase, or Azure (just to name a few).
Local is just what it sounds like: using the computer in front of you. Using the machine in your hand. Your phones’s built-in calculator doesn't call back to Apple HQ or Google to ask what 2+2 is. That's done on-device. Your computer can do a ton of things, and yet more and more we are delegating those tasks to someone else's.
![[439-2.jpg]]
There is an interesting dichotomy afoot when it comes to the two most talked about tech companies - Google and Apple have completely opposing business incentives and company ethos.
It serves Google's interests to move as many people as fully to the cloud as possible; and they can make an ethical argument that by doing so they've very successfully lowered the barrier-to-entry to all sorts of capabilities and features. You no longer have to but $1000 machine and a multi-hundred dollar license to install Microsoft Office, you just need a cheap-as-dirt Chromebook and access to docs.google.com. Google's business model incentivizes them to make it as easy and desireable as possible to put as much of your life in the cloud as possible.
It serves Apple's interests to move as many people as fully to using their on-device operations as possible; and they can make an ethical argument that by doing so they've advocated for your privacy. They've kept your data yours. They are offering the best-in-class products and don't need to bog down your experience with advertisements... they just need you to replace your aging hardware with a fresh new iWhatever every couple of years. Apple's business model incentivizes them to make it as easy and desireable as possible to put as much of your life in your physical Apple devices as possible.
Local compute offers a number of advantages.
- It works without an internet connection
- Privacy - nobody needs to know how many Darkwing Duck revival scripts I've been writing2 but me
- It can be faster, no matter how quick your internet connection is, there are certain situations where reading from your local disk will provide better performance
- Durability - so long as I have a copy of my file on my machine and on another trusted local device, it’s probably going anywhere
There are many reasons why “the cloud” is better a better paradigm. This is an incomplete list.
- I have accidentally killed my own files before. I've never once had Google just “lose” One of my files. If I dropped my Chromebook out a moving car window, no big deal!
- The cloud becomes your single source of truth. When you have a federated file system and each device is equally entitled to be “the source of truth”, you run into sync issues. This opens up multiple new failure points. Sync issues become much more frequent if each device you own claims equal right to having “the correct version” of a thing.
- Honestly, setting up my Alexa-enabled devices has been easier and worked more consistently than setting up my HomeKit devices.
There are certain things that I no longer want to be dependent on “the cloud” for survival:
- My personal memories - photos, videos, life-tracking data
- My body of permanent notes
There are another category of things I no longer want going to “the cloud” at all:
- My smart home stuff, like all of it.
I’m going to take some proactive steps to be less dependent on invisible machines in hot rooms scattered throughout the globe.
- DONE:
- Migrating my website off Blogger to something that lives on my hard drive & is pushed to the cloud (some several years back)
- Procuring a Network-Attached Storage device, for an added degree of freedom in redundancy handling
- Migrating my personal body of Permanent Notes from Notion to a local, dedicated, markdown-based personal knowledge management application
- IN PROCESS:
- Developing a local-first version of my “Personal Data Warehouse”
- Developing a platform-agnostic framework for my Columns, and probably moving this website to a new framework
- SOON:
- Creating quarterly local backups of my Google Photos
- EVENTUALLY/MAYBE:
- Move away from cloud-first smart home products
I pulled the trigger on moving my notes off Notion to the best alternative, Obsidian.
![[439-3.jpg]]
I used a bulk export of my “Notes” database from Notion to Markdown & CSV. This is great and honestly gets you 90% of the way there, but does come with some caveats/annoyances. Every file includes the 16-character UUID that uniquely identified the block, for example. I used this script to handle some immediate, obvious cleanup activities; but that script doesn’t handle some specific things I needed for my use. Thankfully I have a superpower and wrote 180 lines of JavaScript of my own to do things like move data from the Frontmatter to the body of the notes, handle some remaining cleanup, and enforce some formatting.
Notion is a Swiss Army knife, a multi-tool. It’s a damn good one - probably the best - but like all multi-tools, each of their individual functions just aren’t quite as good as a tool designed specially for the job. Obsidian’s bread and butter is exactly my use case. Square peg, square hole. Here are some nice features:
- Note aliases - I have lived with some weird English in Notion when I’m using a Note’s title in a sentence where it doesn’t really fit. Now I don't have to decide if the note should be the acronym or the full phrase - it can be both.
- Code-friendly - I am able to write code to iterate through my notes & do things to them.
- Unlinked-mentions - Obsidian can recognize if a note is mentioned in another note, but not linked to it
- Graph View - everyone who builds a network of notes loves seeing it.
- Excalidraw - that white boarding app I said I’d love to use, well it’s very nicely integrated in.
My next post won’t be about tech stuff. Promise (cause I’ve already written a lot of it).
Honestly lots of great things are only local or only in the Cloud. There is not a local version of Notion. I know. I’ve checked. Also there’s not a cloud-based video editor that’s as easy to use as what’s on this computer.
Cause they will. Unless you’re using end-to-end encryption, which is implemented by them and something you’re just going to have to trust that they did a good job of.
Of all the cloud services I can think of, there are only few that I’d wager will be around in a not-too-dissimilar-form in 10 years. If you care about it deeply, your best bet is probably to have both local and cloud-based copies of the thing. That’s what I do for most of my stuff.
If you only have a phone, it's pretty easy to just let your photos live in your phone5 and always have them in the device you're using. If you've got a gross number of devices like me, dropping a task on one device and picking it up on another becomes more and more common. This tends to favor cloud-based workflows, as much as Apple would love for iCloud's file syncronization to be magically seamless, it's just not.
Everything is a subscription now. I understand the need for an enduring revenue stream. I write code for goodness sake… but some tools are just so basic that they realistically could be considered “done”. Finito. Charge once and never update your app again.
BLAZING FAST. ULTRA SECURE. CRAZY SIMPLE. Every cloud service provider
title: "#468 - AIM 3.0" date: 2025-01-10 tags:
- TOOLS description: draft: false permalink: "468" enableToc: true
This is not a "rebuild of my system". It is a codification of how my productivity/information management system has evolved naturally since [[401|Column 401 - AIM Revisited]].1
![[468-1.png]]
That's the gist. But if you want more detail - here goes:
The tool change was not intentional. It just sort of happened. One day I realized "oh, I just don't use Notion any more."
Notion is excellent. I can't say enough good things about it. Notion is a better tool for most people, I'd wager.
Notion's databases are its killer feature. They are incredible, and no other tool has anything that really approaches what Notion's they allow you to do. They alone make Notion much easier to build systems than in Obsidian. In Notion, all of your content is always there. You don't have to worry about which device you're using and keeping things in sync like you do in Obsidian. Notion has a polished and consistent design language, great multi-user support, and so many cool tricks up its sleeve - with more coming all the time. I think for a huge majority of users, Notion is the better choice.
[!tip] Notion is better - unless you happen to "click" with Obsidian.
Despite everything I just said, despite the interface being clunky, despite not having databases, despite having to glob on all sorts of 3rd party tools to fill in its cracks, Obsidian is easily my favorite tool. Obsidian "clicks" with me in a way no other tool has. When I use Obsidian, I feel like the tool just goes away. I feel like it's me working with the content directly. The tool I'm using takes up no part of my mental load. Obsidian makes flow happen in a way that Notion never quite did. Once you get over a certain hump, Obsidian becomes the fastest tool in your arsenal. You never have to take your hands off the keyboard to do anything. If you want Obsidian to do a thing, there's typically a way to make it do that thing.
I started using Obsidian for more and more things, until one day I just realized I no longer used Notion for anything. I doesn't feel like "I made the switch". It feels like "the switch" just happened.
2024 was a year in which my personal system(s) fluctuated wildly. Since 2025 is [[467#2025 Theme Let it Be|The Year of Letting it Be]],2 I'm hoping what I present here doesn't change much in the next 12 months. In order to keep everything as lean as possible, I took a very use-case-focused approach. This is what resulted from me starting with "what does the system need to do?" rather than "what tools should be in it?"
These five use cases are what drives the system. I need:
- A quick and easy inbox to capture ideas and tasks
- Something to surface tasks and events when they are due
- A place to put notes and tasks about things I am doing or would like to do
- A structure supporting a weekly review
- A structure for capturing quantified-self data for tracking, trending, & goal-setting
![[468-2.png]]
This toolset approaches perfect tool territory for me. Every tool that's there fills a vital role. The "system" doesn't do everything. It does enough. See the [[#Quote]].
![[468-3.png]]
I have Apple devices on me essentially 24/7. At any point I can say "Hey Siri Remind Me..." and then say whatever. I can share links or text to Reminders. Boom. Inbox. Easy.
[!quote] Hey Siri Remind Me to make a demo of these five things
Every so often (& always during my [[#Structure for Weekly Review|weekly review]]) I deal with everything in the Reminders "Inbox" list.5
I use my phone's calendar for events and have a list in Reminders called "Scheduled" for anything with a hard due date or a location-based reminders set.
[!quote] Hey Siri New Event for Thursday 9am titled go to store for work potluck
I use the standard built-in calendar widget on my phone homescreen. This keeps upcoming events & reminders front-of-mind.
![[468-9.jpeg]]
Here is where the standard iOS/Mac productivity suite just doesn't quite cut the mustard.
[!quote] Hey Siri New Project... set up playdate
A Project is just a thing you want to do that takes multiple steps. You can also think of projects as "Objectives" you want to accomplish. I like to have a place to keep a list of the things I am working toward (e.g. - "Revert Tracker", below). In GTD vernacular this is my Project List.
For me, each project is a markdown file in a folder (using Obsidian). The project list is the folder itself.
Each of the project files is a place to keep tasks and project notes. This collocates the objective with all the relevant tasks and info I need to accomplish it. I don't have tasks/notes strewn about multiple places. I can see everything related to the project at once.
Each project note is kept in a folder in accordance with its lifecycle state.
- Active - things I'm doing now
- Prospective - things I will (perhaps) do at some point
- Hold - things I have a reminder set to work on at a specific point
- Archive - things I've done
I use a very simple template for projects.
# Result
# Scope
# Workspace[!question] What goes in each section?
- Result: I include a "results" section because of how many times I revisit a completed project's materials only to ask "okay, what actually came out of this? Where did I put it?" When I complete a project, I make quick note of what the outcome was or where it is.
- Scope: Any clarification beyond the project's title for what it is, often a checklist.
- Workspace: Full of whatever content is helpful. It's literally the space where the work happens.
Here's an example of a completed project file:
![[468-10.png]]
If my tasks are stored inside the notes for each project, how do I get an overview of all the tasks I could be doing? To get this list of Next Actions I utilize Obsidian's tagging feature. I don't want every single checkbox I make to show up, only those tagged with #next.
For example:
- [ ] Edit podcast #nextI use this in combination with Obsidian's awesome Dataview plugin to create a centralized list of all the outstanding #next actions. The dataview code for this:
Task
Where contains(tags, "#next")
Where status = " "
Group by file.link
Yielding a list of "Next Action" tasks grouped by the Project they're in:
![[468-12.png]]
I use a pinned tab on my "Home" page as a sidebar in Obsidian. This is a landing spot for quick links,6 next actions, and my active project list.
![[468-13.png]]
The weekly review is the lynchpin of my productivity system. I've used calendar events & recurring tasks before, but I like the ability to have a spot to accumulate thoughts/tasks/whatever throughout the week that I want to review. This lead me to an Obsidian-based weekly review.
Tip
You can use Obsidian's built-in "Daily Notes" plugin as a weekly notes by changing "Date format" to GGGG-[W]ww:
![[468-8.png]]
My weekly review note template is very minimal.
# Goals
%set some goals for the week%
- [ ]
- [ ]
# Weekly Review
- [ ] Inbox Zero
- [ ] Preview calendar ahead
- [ ] Review Projects List
- [ ] Create next week's weekly page
# Notes
%place to put things throughout the week for weekly review%Hopefully showing the template there is enough for you to figure out how my process there works.
See [[Data Journal]]. TL;DR - A Google Sheets workbook with a few sheets for things and Siri Shortcuts that make capturing data easy.
[!quote] Hey Siri Track Workout...
I look at my Data Journal spreadsheet every night to input a summary of the day. This keeps me honest and aware of trends like the fact I haven't worked out in 7 days.
I no longer have a formal system for managing goals. Having something separate just isn't all that necessary. I've got my annual year in review Column wherein I establish longer-term goals (like KPIs on the Data Journal data), and beyond that all my goals are bound to a project.
That concludes it7.
Shortcuts is awesome and doesn't get the credit it deserves. It can superpower Obsidian, too!
Do a search on your vault with your voice or Spotlight.
![[468-4.png]]
Have more than one vault in Obsidian? Use a Siri Shortcut "Open URL" action to open the vault you want, and add the shortcut to your home screen to get to them in one tap. These three purple icons each open one of my 3 Obsidian vaults.
![[468-5.jpeg]]
You can use the same trick as above to add an icon to open directly to specific notes within a Vault. You could have an icon to take you to your project list note, or a general home page, or both! My "Journal" icon takes me to a 🏡 Home page in the vault.
If you have an "Inbox" note, or (like shown below) you use a Daily Note, you can easily append new lines (or tasks) to it using a shortcut. This takes advantage of the fact that notes are just text files. You're technically not touching Obsidian at all, just appending to a file upon which it operates.
Tip
Use the "Append to Text File" action rather than Obsidian's URI + "Open URL" method. The Open URL method requires the phone to be unlocked, whereas the append to text file can run while the phone is locked.
![[468-6.png]]
You can also use shortcuts to create an entirely new note. This example includes 3 "Ask for Text" prompts to fill out my project template, then saves it as a Markdown file in my "Projects/Prospective" folder.
![[468-7.png]]
More is Unnecessary. Less is Impossible. - Sonke Ahrens
tags:
- meta title: '#1 - Why do this thing again?' date: 2012-03-16T00:00:00.000Z description: 'The beginning of the Column, again.' draft: false aliases:
- epoch permalink: '1'
Hello there.
I decided to roll back to a previous habit in my life - this thing I did during high school to help pass the time and get my thoughts out of my head. I wrote them down on the internet (web) on some sort of a log (log). Basically, I am a hipster blogger. I blogged before blogging was cool. Before “microblogging” (twitter), before Facebook permeated everything about everybody’s online lives. I wanted something to get thoughts out of my head so I could move on with my day. This is why I had a column in high school. I posted stuff I thought about and a respectable number of people (read:2) would sometimes read it.
I got into college about five years ago and quickly found out I wasn’t bored enough to write much anymore. Most of my time was spent trying to understand calculus and physics or hanging out with my roommate/girlfriend. The importance of sitting down to write a formalized list of my thoughts and what’s been happening diminished with increasing levels of “whoa, I have other stuff to do!”
However, with changing times, life circumstances, technology, and social trends it seems possible again to go back to my old ways.
Tumblr Blogger + Android Phone ubiquity + smaller scope blogging + finally learning how to manage time = ability to start writing some again.
So, I decided to restart this thing I used to do… Slightly modified, of course.
I can’t tell you a lot about what this is going to ‘be’ or ‘do’, but I can tell you that it’s going to evolve into something and accomplish something. Even if that something is nothing.
Logical contradictions included free of charge.
Q) So, why now?
Because I can. Because I realized that Tumblr is perfect for what I had in mind.
Q) What’s different now from before?
I’m older.
Q) Why do this thing again?
Because I felt like it. I can’t explain why. Get off my back.
date: 2012-07-24T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- PICTURES
- LIFE
- TECH title: '#19 - Nexus 7 & Nebraska' aliases: '#19 - Nexus 7 & Nebraska' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '19'
Motto: Corn is Always Interesting
Two big things since my last update:
- My Nexus 7 arrived, straight from Google
- I went to Kearney, Nebraska to visit my sister and her still-new husband
I got my second Android tablet and second Nexus device, the Nexus 7. For those of you who don't know, it is a 7-inch Android tablet that has all top-of-the-line specifications and doesn't break the bank. The thing cost $200, and runs faster both my phone and my old Asus Transformer 10-inch Android tablet. I sold the Transformer (not because it was bad, it was actually quite good... I just didn't use it as much as I would a 7-inch tablet) and I don't think I'm going to regret it.
The 7-inch form factor fits in to my system so much nicer than the full 10-inch tablet did. It feels more personal. It feels more like an extension of my being (I've regarded my phone in this manner for some time now) than did the Transformer.
The root and general hackery of my new tablet starts on the morrow. It's going to be a nice little Tuesday. Also tomorrow - Lunch with my mother and oldest sister followed by The Dark Knight Rises and general man-time with Jon and possibly Josh.
I just installed Splashtop streamer, an app that lets you access your entire computer from your android device, essentially turning my $200 Nexus 7 into an ultraportable gateway to my Windows 7 computer. This is the most blown away I've been with technology since I first powered on my OG Droid almost three years ago. It was well worth the $7.99 I paid for it. Here's what I'm talking about:
(editor's note from 2020: this vieo was lost to time)
- Side note: That video was taken on my phone, edited on my computer (via my Nexus 7 using Splashtop, just cause I could), then uploaded to Youtube (unlisted) just for this post. I just made a video for the column. I doubt this will be the only time this happens. Future videos I hope to make more entertaining?
I visited my younger older sister and new brother-in-law in Nebraska this weekend. I'm ashamed to say that this is the first time I've done so... she's lived there for a while now. Going was a "Yes Man" moment for me. Something I wouldn't normally do because normally I'd prefer to be boring; and I'm very glad I went. The "Yes Man" thing is still showing positive repercussions. This is a contrary to the "YOLO" movement, which has done nothing for the youth of today other than create more of them. That was a joke about "YOLO" leading to unwanted pregnancies. It was poorly constructed.
Anyway - Nebraska was good times. I, among other things, played disc golf and went bowling with James and Amy. I don't want to talk about who won either of those games. Don't ask. I got to experience "Cruise Night", which is a day in which hundreds of old and fancy cars flood the town of Kearney, NE and everyone shows their appreciation by drinking in public. The three of us didn't participate in the drinking, but we definitely drove around and saw what there was to see. I saw a parade in fast-forward, then had to watch the whole thing at normal speed. The most important thing that happened while I was down there: I got to talk and spend some time with Amy and James.
I listened to "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahniuk (the author of Fight Club) during my drive. I determined two things; the first is that road trips are made infinitely better by listening to audiobooks. The second thing I determined was that Chuck Palahniuk's writings are entirely entertaining, if not entirely wacko. Where he comes up with this stuff is beyond comprehension.
- Side note: I listened to the audiobook on my tablet through my car's speakers. One of its first great uses.
My mind is right. On a related and opposite note: It's almost 3 in the morning. I'm calling this one.
-
The disc golf course was very woodsey. This was taken on a walk between holes.
-
I really wanted to buy this Thor helment.
-
The winner of the night on bowling after her 8 or 9th strike.
-
The Country's Best Yogurt was really good. All other yogurts must be sampled before I can verify their claim. Also note James is huge.
-
I did buy these sunglasses. They were not an impulse buy, I have been looking to supersede the ones hanging on my shirt for quite some time now. Amy didn't buy the hat.
"You have to know if you have standard or metric crickets, though" Josh Weltha, after he told me about a method to determine temperature based of the frequency at which crickets chirp
"It's funny when you yell out 'cheeseburger' to the skinny girls" My sister to her husband
description: Expanding on 2023’s main theme tags:
- LIFE
- PROJECT
- 30DAYCHALLENGE date: 2023-01-22T00:00:00.000Z title: '#428 - More Wood, Fewer Arrows' aliases: '#428 - More Wood, Fewer Arrows' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '428'
This Column is an expansion on Column #427. I'll save some fun topics for the Miscellany section below, if you'd prefer to skip to that.
“Put more wood behind fewer arrows”, is advice I’ve seen originally attributed to Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. It is my primary theme for 2023; but I could have chosen:
- You can do anything, but not everything
- If everything is a priority then nothing is
The all of which boil down to focus more on what’s most important to you and let everything else slide. What commitments (be they hobbies, objects to maintain, or events to attend) “spark joy” for you? Are you maximizing those, or putting them in conflict with other, less important things?
Several themes from all the books I've read and distilled down to my various lead to this realization:
👉 I was doing too much. See the Top 20 for proof.
If you only do a few things, it's easier to do them well, maintain a high level of success, and not encounter unnecessary stress. If you only have a few things, it's easier to keep them in good condition and running order. After a very basic threshold is met, each additional thing you do or own brings with it a diminishing return to your happiness and quality of life. Each new calendar event or physical obligation brings with it 100% of its overhead, but only some fraction of its intended value.8
To make room in my life, some things are falling by the wayside.
- I am taking a break from doing 30 Day Challenges. They weren’t receiving the focus they needed to be successful, which made them useless.
- I will no longer be posting a Creation of the Week. I’ll transition into a more relaxed “Creations of the Whenever” approach. If I make something I like and want to share, it will pop up there.
- I am going to stop using my own NPM module “wrapper-lib” in my projects, thereby not feeling obligated to maintain it1.
- I don’t plan on writing any new Gillespedia articles for the foreseeable future.
- My podcast is now defunct. No new episodes will be produced. Dunno if I will remain podcast-less. I did enjoyed that.
- I’m going to pare down my tracking a bit in the Personal Data Warehouse.
A Caption on this Tree, just to see how that gets handled.
So why cull those things? To have more time to do these.
- Taking care of my body & mind - getting proper rest & exercise
- Being a good father & husband
- Keeping up with my personal productivity system (personal task & project management)
- Maintaining Streaks in the Streaks app, which is meant to help me do all of the above
- Finishing the house projects that have all stalled out
- Continuing to learn proper web development & other coding stuff
The Column, my Notes, and my work on making puzzles is just about right.
Dang that was a good looking movie. Here are my other thoughts about it:
With my recently rejuvenated back, I'm back into lifting. There are hundreds or thousands of different workout routines. I've tried several, but keep going back to the same basic format. It looks like this:
A day with:
- Squats → Bench Press → Pull Up
And a day with:
- Deadlift → Bent over Rows → Overhead Press
The sets & reps scheme every day looks like:
- large number of sets of low reps
- medium number of sets of medium number of reps
- small number of sets of a large number of reps
- accessory lifts
And I rotate all exercises through all the sets & reps ranges on six successive days.
If that was confusing - it looks like this:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 min warm up | 4 min warm up | 4 min warm up | 4 min warm up | 4 min warm up | 4 min warm up |
| Squat - 5x5 | Deadlift - 5x5 | Bench - 5x5 | Row Variant - 5x5 | Pull-up 5xAMRAP | Overhead Press - 5x5 |
| Bench - 4x7 | Row Variant - 4x7 | Assisted Pull-up - 4x7 | Overhead Press - 4x7 | Squat - 4x7 | Deadlift - 4-7 |
| Assisted Pull-up - 2x15 | Overhead Press - 2x15 | Squat - 2x15 | Deadlift - 2x15 | Bench - 2x15 | Row Variant- 2x15 |
| Curl variant | Tricep exercise | Shoulder exercise | Curl variant | Tricep exercise | Shoulder exercise |
| Curl variant | Tricep exercise | Shoulder exercise | Curl variant | Tricep exercise | Shoulder exercise |
I rotate through those days. Try to work out 3x per week. Each workout takes about 45 minutes. And I like it. Am I strong? No not at all.
This is a cool website. As a dude that makes puzzles and knows web development stuff to some extent. This in-browser encryption/decryption tool is dope.
Check it out. I used the encryption key “password1” for this:
##### Encrypted: decrypt with http://www.fourmilab.ch/javascrypt/
ZZZZZ UVSTH MAQDL EUPQL GRFSA KBPRX JCJFF NFLHG ECOGU GFNQT DBOTE
REQCV GNNNG LPECA OFLLP EGLLQ WJJXS QVHSU PNBXJ DQVWM WDMPO JNDVF
DPDDW BTTUE WQNGB HPOJP POKZZ YYYYY
##### End encrypted message
Any uncontrolled language's2 grammar, syntax, and words all change constantly in response to the needs and creativity of its speakers. English, like the vast majority of languages, is subject to these little evolutions. And yet…
There isn't a clean way to say “puzzles, but not like jigsaw puzzles necessarily - but escape-room style puzzles… but not specifically Escape Rooms. Any sort of puzzles where part of the puzzle is figuring out what the puzzle is… or that a puzzle even exists. Essentially tricky things in all forms”.
Why isn't there a word for that? Why must I choose between being ambiguous or having to awkwardly say “puzzles, but not like jigsaw puzzles necessarily… I mean they are fine too but you know… other puzzles too.“
Solving problems and coming up with novel ideas seem like central skills to people who consume and create puzzles. Let's think of a new word. Or agree as a population that the word “puzzles” in absence of a preceding “jigsaw” does not mean jigsaw puzzles.
20. Maintaining my finances
Paying bills, tracking spending, categorizing transactions
19. Exercising my Personal Productivity System
Keeping a project list, goals, inbox zero, and weekly reviews. See Column 385.
18. Maintaining Streaks in the Streaks app
Streaks is simply a habit tracker. It's a good way to keep yourself honest when routines can't happen.
17. Creating a Podcast
Doing the homework, scheduling, recording, often editing & posting.
16. Maintaining the list of Tools I'm actively using
I just updated that, by the way.
15. Posting a “Creation of the Week”
This is being demoted to 'the Creation Catalog', which will only be updated when I feel like highlighting something I've made anyway.
14. Writing Gillespedia articles from time to time
This is being demoted to the archive of this site. I may revive it at some point.
13. Holding 30 Day Challenges
These are good if you’re doing literally nothing else. Put all your energy into doing whatever random thing you want for 30 days. This is being shuttered for now.
12. My “Wrapper-Lib” coding project/NPM Module
I’m aware that nobody reading this knows what this is. It's a coding library I made. I'm going to not do it anymore and use other libraries.
11. Creating the 10th iteration of “The Life Tracker”, dubbed “the PDW”
This is still happening.
10. Actively using the PDW to track a litany of things
I'm going to knock off a few of the things I don't care to track any more.
9. Get in to Win - my puzzle making project
The prototype puzzle is done. The first “real” puzzle is a major goal of mine for 2023.
8. The Column itself
This thing! Nothing's changing here.
7. Reading and keeping my body of
These are cool and I hope to do this for my whole life. I do not look forward to the day where I decide Notion isn’t stable enough for me to depend on.
6. Maintaining a home/actively updating it
I guess I'll keep doing this.
5. All the stuff that goes into my job
I have a job, too.
4. Managing an autoimmune disease
Thankfully this isn’t much of an issue right now.
3. Maintaining my health, outside of #4
Tied with #1 and #2
2. Being a good husband
Tied with #1 and #3
1. Being a good dad
Tied with #2 and #3
Less, but better. the central message of Greg McKeown’s “Essentialism”
date: 2012-12-02T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE title: '#48 - is a Weird Post.' aliases: '#48 - is a Weird Post.' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '48'
Working out: What happened? I have been throttling my workouts on a bi-weekly basis. Every other week I work out the amount that I aspire to... the remaining weeks I work out as much as the average* American does: None at all.
*this is average by mode, which is not my preferred averaging method.
Something I forgot to mention in my last post: I ordered the Nexus 4. Shipping is expected within the next 2 to 3 weeks, so hopefully I will get that before Christmas time.
Day 3 without Facebook or (copious amounts of) Reddit: I woke up this morning gasping for air. The cold sweat left its mark on the pillow where my face indention usually resides. I realized shortly after waking that it wasn't actually air that I was missing, it was stupid internet sites. Knowing sleep was no longer an option, I forced myself into the shower. I fought less than usual for a desirable temperature before taking in the water's warm then cold then hot then freezing then warm embrace. I hung my head in it. Looked down at the drain next to my foot and tried to imagine all the water swirling itself away were the minutes I had wasted, sitting, staring at a glowing rectangle. Somewhere, off in the distance, a dog barked.
I don't write much.
I updated my second-a-day video through December. So, watch that if you feel like it.
I'm going to leave this extra short and sweet. I'll also leave it a visual representation of my current progress in my fitness goals:
Top 5: Bands with the highest total playcount on my Windows Media Player (note: this is not actually my preferred method of listening to music, so this is a worthless and flawed metric) 5. The Strokes 4. The Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Soundtrack (not a band, but it fits here) 3. The Black Keys 2. Ben Folds
- Modest Mouse
"So, we won science?" Steven Colbert, after his guest said we found the last missing piece of particle physics we were looking for
date: 2013-09-15T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH title: '#115 - An Internet Video & Picture' aliases: '#115 - An Internet Video & Picture' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '115'
I don't have much to say today.
If you enjoy things that are funny, you should watch this video:
EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE - this video is gone now. :-(
I was the top post on Reddit's "r/tall" sub a few days back. I posted this picture:
That picture has been viewed over 25 thousand times, according to the hosting service.
I've been taking a break from Life Tracking lately. I'm not sure where the motivation went, but it's certainly gone somewhere. I do have 14 full weeks tracked, but I've been supposedly doing this since 21 weeks ago.
My original goal was to do it for a year... or half a year at least. That's going to take a while when I keep taking weeks off.
I've turned Melissa into a fellow Dominion player. She beat be today... two times... out of two games.
In order to keep with what I normally write about, I should probably just say this: Apple iPhone 5S. Samsung Smartwatch. GoPro action camera. Fitness. Fitness. Android. Fitness.
Oh, and I should mention that I have received several bits of fantastic news lately that has made my week awesome. None of those things are really my business to write about, though. Just use your imagination.
- "When will my package arrive?"
- "Show me my pictures from (insert location here)." [works if you have geotagging enabled on your camera]
- "When is my next doctor's appointment?"
- "What is (insert contact name here)'s home address?" [works if you have that information stored for that contact]
- "How long will it take me to drive Taco Bell?
“You think you're hilarious” a fair and valid observation made by several close friends... who all suck
title: '#284 - General Life Update' date: '2016-03-24' aliases:
- '#284 - General Life Update'
- '#284' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '284'
Motto: lightly flavored carbonated water ≠ soda
HI!
I don't write as much any more. That's just the way things are, and the way they will likely continue to be. It's my official/unofficial policy not to talk about wishing I wrote more. I don't wish that. I write exactly as much as I wish I wrote. See the Top 5 for reasons Columns have dropped down to once every few weeks.
Side benefit of less frequent posts: my quotes are of a higher quality.
Have you heard of the Amazon Echo? It's a discrete little cylinder, slightly bigger than an energy drink can, but smaller than a two liter bottle. It's a consumer electronic device without a screen. How novel! People who have them love them, apparently. The various tech-related podcasts I listen to talk about it every week. I met a dude who owned one. He reflected the common sentiment. Why isn't there an Apple version? Why isn't there a Google cylinder?
I'm watching KU's Sweet 16 game. We are about to win over Maryland. By the time I post again, the tournament will likely be over. I hope we win.
Batman V Superman is officially out. I could be watching that right now instead of writing this, but I don't care enough to try to fight opening-night crowds. Maybe tomorrow. Early reviews seem to point to a common set of highlights and lowlights. Common review score: "meh/10". It looks like Civil War basically has to just show up to play to be better.
I'm good. I'm still pumped about the routine. I'm genuinely enjoying my 9-5 every weekday. I come home to a beautiful woman whom I adore. I have a pair of cats that do stupid stuff and make me laugh. Marvel movies are on the horizon & the second season of Daredevil delivered. My back isn't really bothering me, despite taking almost no anti-inflammatories. I'm getting a bit stronger each time I go to the gym. My work basketball team is doing really well. I'm arguably playing better than ever before. I'm eating better and sleeping better. Really I've been riding a streak of generally good days for quite a while. Like everyone, I'll let a bad day in - but they they can't keep me down.
My goal for this post was to say a bunch of good things and make you, the reader, simultaneously bored and disdainful.
Naw. Not really. I don't say how good things are because that's typically boring to hear, but it needs to be said from time to time. I appreciate this life I've got.
Looking through my recent photos, there's not much to post that isn't already on my Instagrams. So I decided to dig into my "For the Column" folder to find an image representative of this Column. I couldn't decide between these two:
Which one should have won?
Top 5: Reasons I'm Writing Fewer Columns
5. I've seen friends more. It's fun & good.
4. Hitman 2016 came out. It's fun & good.
3. I'm too busy making up excuses.
2. Any given day I only have maybe an couple hour outside of work, working out/playing a social after work sports league game, cooking, cleaning, and sleeping. That's less fun & good, but it's as good as it realistically could be.
1. I find work more intellectually stimulating. It's fun & good.
Quotes:
"How did you know I fart when I get nervous?"
- Jon -
"Wanna be fitness, but don't wanna do fitness."
- BroScienceLife -
"After so many years playing basketball, you get to a point where you're just telling at yourself constantly."
- Chuck, who I believe will continue show up down here more and more -
description: A deep dive on the evolution and related learnings from my biggest Project. tags:
- PROJECT
- DRAWINGS
- NERDCRED
- THOUGHTS
- FEATURE
- PDW date: 2020-07-15T00:00:00.000Z title: '#395 - Data Journal Project History' aliases: '#395 - Data Journal Project History' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '395'
This Column is more squarely aimed at Aaron Gillespie as the target audience than most. Proceed with caution. We're going to cover the past, the present, and the future of "The Data Journal" - or if it's more fun to think about it this way, the past, present, and future of Aaron's mental breakdown.
A book I read 3 chapters of before giving up on told me to "start with why". So, why track dozens (eventually, over 100) data points in your every day life? What's the point? Why go through the effort of writing things down, analyzing data, learning to code, and keeping it up with it all?
Fear, mostly.
Fear and boredom.
I started "The Life Tracker" as it was then known a little over a year after I left college. I realized I was in a rut of going to work, coming home, wasting the night away, eating whatever, going to sleep whenever, then starting the cycle all over again. The way I was living I would have trudged through life, slowly forgetting things I once knew, as I got fatter and less engaged, and failed to acquire any amount of equity... and it was all on me to stop it. I was afraid of slowly becoming somebody I'd regret without realizing it.
Also, I wasn't really doing much else. Playing around in Excel seemed slightly more productive than playing around on a PS3.
The solution - write it all down. I didn't really know exactly what I needed, but as my high school science teacher once said:
"If you aren't measuring it, you aren't going to learn about it." John Torrence said something like this
So. I wrote it down. Rather than bore you to death with paragraphs of details that nobody in their right mind should read - here's some hand-drawn history for that VISUAL FLAIR!
Reason for new version: no need to carry around (and sometimes lose) a piece of paper and a pen.
Reason for new version: I got tired of typing in my daily food summaries, sleep details, and other things.
Reason for new version: I got tired of tracking the same 25 Daily Goals after 5 years. Was ready for what's next. Also I figured out how to use a free weather API.
Reason for new version: A couple more data points I thought might be nice.
Reason for new version: A redefinition/refinement of the new data points.
Reason for new version: Accommodating the switch from Android to iOS & getting into tracking at a finer granularity than "day".
Reason for new version: I realized I wasn't fat & that writing down what I ate wasn't really the reason why. I honed in more on self-actualization, rather than just self-sustainment.
Reason for new version: A house divided against itself cannot stand. Tracking at both the daily and "realtime" level was causing data conflicts that I believed I could resolve by way of refactor.
This, though, doesn't tell the whole story. Version 9 has not worked yet. Today, I got to the point where I expected to fully "transition" from V8 to the new normal... and it just fully went sideways.
Here's where I'd like to help the maybe one person if I'm lucky that will ever read this and benefit from it.
When the Data Journal worked well, it was set up such that one row = one day. This is the easiest, most natural way to do a quantified self/habit tracking/whatever you want to call it project. Each row corresponds to a given time period. The "Daily" sheet rolled up to "Weekly" and "Monthly" sheets. All of those rolled up to "Yearly" sheets. The columns defined the measures I took. Data types were implicitly covered by cell number formatting. The formulas defined how those measures rolled up.
Each morning a script I wrote would run and create space for new data. Each night, I input a Google Form which filled out that space with answers to questions I asked myself & data from the data services I learned to use.
In a graphic:
As soon as you remove the foundational principle upon which everything else was built, it all becomes much more difficult to manage. In other words: one row ≠ one day is an order of magnitude more cumbersome. Treating each row as an individual data point is not how spreadsheets are meant to operate. This contributes two compounding problems:
- The data set that formulas have to look through for relevant data increases by dozen(s) of rows a day.
- There are suddenly thousands more formulas to calculate, and they ALL are forced to recalculate each time data is changed.
Or, in a graphic:
There are 4 paths forward I can see:
Choosing the path is where I sit today. I may do one. I may do them all, eventually. The question is back to "why". Why do I want to continue tracking things? Is it merely to continue having a journal of references? Is it because I care about correlations and metrics? Is it to force me to think about my life? Or is it for fun? or because I want to build a product?
Who knows. If you know what I want, please write in. Email me here..
- Not planning for failure is the same thing as planning to fail. The first couple years of the tracking my system was completely intolerant of anything other than perfect data completeness for an entire week. When I inevitably lost data for a single day, the whole week had to go. Now I've got data gaps that are much wider and more noticeable than just missing food for a single day. Don't write yourself into a corner with what data you choose to track. Don't expect to know today all the data points that you'll care about in 5 years. Leave your system room to grow, shrink, or refocus as time goes by.
- Tracking something is sometimes all the reason you need to make it successful. I achieved many things simply because I didn't want to record a failure for a run of successive days.
- Tracking either needs to be easy - or important enough to be difficult. Every data point I didn't fully automate that wasn't absolutely essential eventually got nixed.
- Subjective scales from 1 to 5 are less useful than ones from 1 to 10. Neither of them are as useful as objective measures that tell the same story. "How do you feel, physically" is less useful than "what medicines did you have to take". The gold standard to aim for is a subjective qualification on top of an objective fact. "I ate Taco Bell today, and that's poor food" is better than "I ate poorly".
- Tracking things is a great way to spot trends and correlations, for sure - but its real value comes from forcing you to think about your life. Are the things you do day-to-day aligned with your values and long-term ambitions? Track according to what's important to you. How can you measure your goals? How can you measure how well you're tending to the areas of responsibility in your life?
- Another, more obvious, but less appreciated benefit of tracking things in your life is that it serves as an incredible set of reference materials for questions like "when did we buy the house?", "when was my last doctor's appointment?", "how long have I had this cough?", "when was the last time I saw my parents?"
- Anything piece of data that isn't closely bound to time, shouldn't go into a time-indexed tracking system. I tried, for a bit, to use the Data Journal to hold everything. Turns out that some notes are better organized by subject than by "when" they happened to get written down.
- Being good at spreadsheets can take you places. My 4 year, multi-thousand dollar degree has helped me less in my day-to-day life than have the couple of weeks I've collectively spent learning how to use static references, why VLOOKUP is usually not the best option, and learning how to string together functions to do basically whatever I want.
- Spreadsheet manipulation is an awesome place to learn basic scripting. It's easy. It's self-contained. It's obvious how some simple coding can do incredibly powerful things.
- I learned how to speak, write, and think in JavaScript + HTML + CSS. Also how to learn how to make APIs and new environments work. If I stick with something long enough, I usually figure out how to make it work. Or I find something else that does the job.
That's mildly important but let's get back to the gum dilemma.
Joe
title: '#144 - 30 Days, 3 Books, Google Storage' date: '2014-03-02' aliases:
- '#144 - 30 Days, 3 Books, Google Storage'
- '#144' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '144'
Motto: Reading is for Nerds
Yesterday marked more than just the first day of a new month, it marked the end of my second 30 Day Challenge. Here's a brief recap:
February started off as the month I wasn't going to use anything with a screen after 9pm. That quickly changed. February became the month I was going to read 5 books. I made this change after a little less than a week. So, take a week off out of what's already the shortest month of the year, then give yourself the only goal you've thought of so far that actually becomes easier the longer you do it.
Genius.
I didn't read 5 books. I read less than 3.
Inferno by Dan Brown.
What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis.
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
I read those. I didn't even finish "What Would Google Do?" because I had trouble applying its message to my life.
I failed.
Doesn't mean I'm giving up. Failure is just one of the possible results of a challenge. Now, to move on to the next one. For more on that, check out the last paragraph of the body of this post.
First, I have
I am no longer a Google Fiber customer. This one change begets several other changes. See the Top 5 for those changes.
I realized yesterday that Google lets you back up everything people would commonly care to back up on their computers... for free. The vast majority of storage space in your average personal computer will be taken up by three things:
1. Photos
2. Music
3. Videos
With Google's cloud, you can store (and use) all of these for free:
1. Photos - Google+ can automatically back up every photo you take on your phone. Similarly, Google's Picasa can automatically sync any photos from folder(s) you choose. If you choose to have them resized (to a maximum resolution of 2048x2048) they will not take up any of your Google Drive storage. As with everything else in this list, these photos are kept private until you choose to share them.
2. Music - Google Music lets you upload up to 20,000 songs from your computer into the cloud. From there, you can listen to them on (practically) any internet connected device.
3. Videos - Google+'s automatic photo backup also works for video - but hey, even if you didn't want to do that, you can always upload your home videos privately to YouTube.
Whatever's left can be dumped in your 15 GB of free Google Drive storage.
The Next Challenge!
For the month of March, I will write every day. Either a column, or just something in my Moleskine, I'm going to write something every day. This one isn't much of a stretch, but that's by design. There's a lot going on this month. More on that in tomorrow's column. Yeah. I said that.
Top 5: Things that have Changed Since I'm No Longer a Google Fiber Subscriber
5. I'm no longer the owner of a terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage. I'll either have to purchase storage to keep my 48 GB or figure out a different way to get Drive storage.
4. I figured out a different way to get Google Drive storage! It's coming in the mail on Wednesday. It's the Toshiba Chromebook. Comes with 100 GB Drive space for two years.
3. I no longer pay for any form of television. My TV will come through the air, like I did when I was growing up.
2. Actually, my TV will come through the internet. I subscribed to Hulu+ (in addition to my ongoing Netflix subscription). So I guess I'm paying for some form of television. The Chromecast is being put to fantastic use.
1. Due to awesome work hookups, I'm paying much, much less than I did previously.
Quote:
“Good Morning!”
- My favorite two words... other than "pizza's here" -
title: '#366 - Feature: Google Takeout' date: '2019-03-31' aliases:
- '#366 - Feature: Google Takeout'
- '#366' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '366'
Motto: Google is God
There's a Google product you should know about; it's called Google Takeout. It is not a food service, so don't get excited. Don't make the same joke that literally 5 people I've told about this have made.
Google Takeout is a service that allows you to take out your data from Google - in theory so that you could go to some other service and keep your data. In reality, it's probably best just for seeing an aggregate list of everything they have of yours and about you. I requested an archive of everything they had associated with my account, leaving out Google Drive (because I have 500GB+ in the cloud & don't need them to send me my own files back to me). Then I spent a week's worth of free time going through it all & taking 5 full pages of notes about what I found. This post is primarily the contents of those notes. Now, before we get into that.
I am pro-Google. I use or have used almost every one of their publicly-offered services Google is astounding. I was a Google Plus die-hard well beyond anyone reasonably should have been. I'm writing this from a desk with a little "Google" neon lamp on it... on a Google-developed browser... using Blogger. I think Google is a great and wonderful company that makes the world a better place. Google Takeout even re-instills my faith that the company is still living to their erstwhile motto: "Don't be evil". A company that goes through this much effort to enable you to not only see what they know about you, but also help you to take your business elsewhere... I think that's pretty great.
All that said...
Google is terrifying.
I know better than the average person off the street what Google probably had on me. I'm technically minded. I'm an engineer. I write code for work and for fun. I have a Life Tracker, for God's sake... and yet I was still shocked and awed by the immensity of it all.
262 gigabytes
148,172 files
4,552 folders
Granted, a large proportion of those numbers (230, 111974, & 3903, respectively) fall to my Google Photos export. Take out Google Photos and the dataset is still 31.6GB, 36,196 files, in 647 folders.
In there, are many things you'd expect to find:
- all my photos from Google Photos
- 54,035 photos & 57,939 metadata files
- including my photos and photos from others I've added to my collection
- Metadata including geographic coordinates, photo views, and any comments associated with them
- all my notes from Google Keep
- 855 notes & 279 attached media files
- all my emails from Gmail
- one 2.5GB lumped text file
- weirdly not sorted in any order I can figure out
- all my chats from Hangouts
- one 328MB, 10,277,395 line .json file
- weirdly, chat is also in the Gmail file... same chats in both, different format
- this includes both sides of the conversation, images are also included in separate files - but only the ones I sent, not the ones I received
- all the details for my contacts
- one 60KB .vcf file & associated photos
- all my purchases made through Google Express
- including what I bought, for how much, where it was delivered, how I paid
- every exercise session I ever logged with Google Fit
- including what I did, when I did it, where I did it, and how far I traveled during
- my entire search history
- split out by product (Search, developers, drive, analytics, apps, cloud, news, images, inbox, videos, maps, play store, and more)
- the content of every Blogger post I've ever made
- this sentence will be in there after I hit "Publish"
- my browser history*
- one 10MB .json file
- my location history, which I'll expand on in a bit
- I knew something had to power the Google Timeline
*For some reason my browser history is incomplete. It only goes back to 2/11/2018, containing 26,334 URLs & timestamps
All of those things I knew I'd find. The photos, notes, emails, chats, and contacts are all clearly needed in order for those services to function. The search history, browser history, and physical location history I also knew to expect, although their direct application is slightly less obvious.
But that's not everything that was in there.
Things I found, but was not expecting:
- 11,500 audio recordings of me, all starting with "Okay Google..."
- That's 15 hours, 52 minutes, and 41 seconds' worth of 5 seconds clip.
- In these recording you hear me, but also anything else that was going on in the background.
- Also there's an HTML file with a transcript of what it heard in each of these recordings, and a latitude/longitude for each.
- An HTML file showing every time I opened an app on my Android phone, sometimes also showing what I did in the app.
- There's only 76 thousand records in that file - which can't possibly be everything I did on my old phone. I'm not sure what was & wasn't included.
- A log of every time I ever:
- played a song on Google Play Music (including title & timestamp)
- played a movie on Google Play Movies (including title & timestamp)
- read a book on Google Play Books (including title & timestamp)
- played a game on Google Play Games (including title & timestamp)
- looked at an app on the Google Play Store (including title & timestamp)
- installed an app from the Play Store (including what device, title & timestamp)
- uninstalled an app (including what device, title & timestamp)
- A log of everything I bought NOT through Google Express, provided I received an emailed receipt of the translation.
- Including what I bought, from who, for how much, and where it was delivered
- Mostly this is a list of Amazon and Dominos pizza orders
- Google wasn't involved in the transactions, these logs must come from the smart email parsing
- Google Fit health metrics, broken out into 15 minute chunks, for every day.
- those columns are distance traveled, average heart rate, max heart rate, min heart rate, latitude, longitude
- notice most of them are blank... and the step count seems oddly repetitive - I don't believe those numbers
- weirdly these fitness files only go from 9/18/2014 to 11/13/2014, despite me continuing to use Google Fit to this day
- Google Voice voicemails from other folks
- this was probably shouldn't have surprised me, but it was weird hearing a random voicemail message from my dad playing when I opened an obscurely-titled .mp3 file
- Location history - I included this in the "I knew they had it" section, but really it needed to go down here, and go last. The location history log doesn't just include location history.
- timestamp + longitude + latitude, pretty straightforward
- also, an accuracy indicator, pretty good inclusion
- also altitude, sure
- also velocity of travel? heading?
- also whether I was walking, in a car, on a bike, or staying still
- ...also that there were 23,869,774 lines in that .json file, corresponding to 2,853,229 data points, going back to 6/29/2012
- 6/29/2012 was 2465 days before I pulled these data
- 2853229 data points / 2465 days = 1147.5 data points / day... aka one every 74 seconds (on average) for the past 6 1/2 years.
I didn't sign up for some sort of "special access" pass for Google to look into my life... no more so than most of you, that is. If you have a gmail account. If you use any Google Apps and services (which, you do) they have a similar aggregation available for you. I think it's worth taking a look into. They really don't make it hard.
Do I have a problem with them having this much data on me? Well, not really. They provide a great benefit to me in my life, but also the world. They provide services free of charge, in exchange for information about us so they can show relevant advertisements. To me, that's a very worthwhile trade. I wouldn't be nearly as happy or comfortable in my everyday life if Google didn't exist. Neither would you.
Also - Google is hardly the only tech company that has a treasure trove of data about each of us, yet (so far as I know) they are the only one that's willing to share what they have with you this easily. I'm sure Facebook and Amazon have an immense amount of information about each of us, but they don't give me the same utility that Google does. I pay Amazon for the privileged of using their Prime benefits. Facebook is a great social networking platform for those who want to use it that way... to me it provide negative utility - but that's a different story.
So that's Google Takeout. Thus ends my week of obsession with it. Time to move on to other things.
Quick edit: for a quicker look at things - check out https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
I'll include this on this post, because I was interested. The data Google sent back to me was sent already broken out into folders by product. Each product may have a different file type from any other product. Prevalent file types were .mp3 for audio, regular .jpg or .png for pictures, calendar and contact files were their standard filetypees, .JSON for most datasets, .CSV was next most popular dataset type, followed by .XML, then niche filetypes (eg. ".MBOX", ".GOO", ".TCX"). Keep notes were kept in an HTML file that looked exactly like the note on the app. Photos were organized in folders by album title, if photos weren't in albums then albums were auto-generated using the date of the day they were taken. My 111,974 files were split into 3,903 folders.
Top 5: Services I Recommend YOU Getting an Archive Of
5. Photos - if you don't actually have your photos on your computer, you're one account loss away from losing all those memories.
4. Hangouts - if you used it, it's nice to have a searchable copy of your conversation history for posterity. Also you can do neat analytics if you're not scared of light coding work. I've sent 352,311 messages on Hangouts.
3. My Activity > Voice & Audio - just to hear what they have collected
2. My Activity > Android - just to see what they have collected
1. Location History - this is just good data... and there's a ton of it. You should know that this dataset exists.
Quote:
"That's creepy"
- Melissa, after hearing a recording of me telling Google to do something that she remembered from a few days ago -
title: '#226 - Build It Yourself' date: '2015-01-07' aliases:
- '#226 - Build It Yourself'
- '#226' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '226'
Motto: Coincidental Minds Think Alike
If it's been a week since my last update, you can bet one of a few things is probably happening:
- I'm really busy at work or at home
- I'm on some sort of sabbatical
- I have several half-Columns written
- I'm obsessively thinking about something else
In this case, both 3 and 4 are true. I've written half Columns about the following topics:
- 2014 in Pictures
- Microsoft's Great Streak of Terrible Design Decisions
- A Post I Had Titled "#Deep"
- Steroids in Competition
- A Post about My Desire for a "Refresh"
This post is a variant of the "Refresh" post.
There's been something on my mind for the past couple of weeks. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on, I couldn't explain. Refresh. Renew. Something should change. I didn't know what. I wasn't "unhappy" by any means, I just felt (careful, here comes a new-agey made up word) under-actualized. I felt like I was growing as a person, and was long overdue for a fresh molt. That's a gross metaphor, but it's appropriate. The shedding an outer layer metaphor works particularly well because my first thought was "I should throw out my wardrobe and buy all new clothes".
That's now where I ended up. I am going to do that, to some extent, but it's not where I ended up.
Before I get to where I ended up, I need to tell a short story.
Melissa went on a cruise with her sister over New Years. This left me with a solid block of time - time that I spent seeing multiple friends, family, and accomplishing quite a bit. When Melissa got back, she was tired, happy, and crazy tan. She sat down with me to look at the contents of the GoPro she took with her. We plugged it into my Linux laptop and proceeded to watch ~20 minutes of the most frustrating video experience imaginable. My computer couldn't keep up. The 60 frames/second video was running at something closer to 6 frames/second on average. Sometimes it was 60, sometimes it was 0, sometimes it jumped massive sections. There was no audio. There wasn't really video. It was good for what we wanted to do - I got to see images of Honduras and Belize, but I didn't get a video experience.
So I've decided to refresh my computer.
That lead to a nearly week-long identity crisis. No joke there was a period of about a day where I thought the most likely of all outcomes was me buying a Mac, and eventually going full-blown Apple when my phone dies (side note - my phone seems like it's on the verge of hardware failure). I considered building a Linux box. Finally, I decided on building a computer and then doing something I promised myself I would never do again...
Putting Windows on it.
It gets worse, I won't just be putting Windows on it - but Windows 8.1.
This is happening. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I do somewhat look forward to my transition back to Windows. Linux is awesome, but cumbersome... especially if your Linux machine isn't the computer you spend most of your time on. I'm going back to Windows for the "it just works"-ed-ness, among other reasons (see the Top 5).
I'm excited to build a computer. I've never built one before, and that's just sad.
The completely unrelated picture to go out on - here's Molle in people clothes:
Top 5: Things I Will be able to Do with the Coming Computer that I Can't Do Now
5. Play games. Playstations, Xboxes, who needs em.
4. Edit video with confidence again. I've made Lightworks work, but I've never been as comfortable with it as I was Sony's editor.
3. WATCH high bitrate video.
2. Keep Google Drive in sync with my computer.
1. Let someone else use my computer without having to explain, "okay, so here's where the internet is. If you need to do anything else, come get me and I'll help."
Quote:
“OOO Yeah! Let's get you new clothes!”
- Melissa, being a little too excited about the prospect of seeing some of my shirts go -
title: '#337 - Apple iCosystem' date: '2018-04-14' aliases:
- '#337 - Apple iCosystem'
- '#337' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '337'
Motto: girl scout cookies are a treat, boy scout popcorn is an obligation
First, because I never do, here's a short poem:
Running through the forest.
Dodging trees like a wild beast.
Light on foot.
That's where he pooped his pants.
That took me 10+ minutes to write.
In my last post I said my next post was going to be a retrospective of 5 years tracking my life. This is not that. I didn't expect to want to write again so quickly.
Recently I've been thinking through the real-world logistics of switching to Apple products. My entire adult life I've thought it will happen at some point. I'll wake up one day and throw my Android phone out the window of my new hot red convertible car (implying that it was part of some midlife crisis or something).
It started with a thought exercise with where I tried to map out all of the use cases commonly covered by consumer electronics, rate (from 0 to 5) how well a bunch of different types of electronics enabled you to meet those uses, then try to find some optimal minified subset which adequately covered all the bases I care about.
There's that.
The "find an optimal subset" goal didn't really pan out. Instead, I had a couple more interesting takeaways:
1. Apple is the only company which sells products that covering basically every category.
2. If I could only own ONE piece of technology, I'd pick an iPad.
That iPad thought opened my mind a bit. I started noticing and appreciating how well my wife's technology compliments the things she does. She's does thing with her computer that are really cool - things I have no real means to do on my own with my stuff.
So then I started thinking - I have an old Android phone. I haven't felt like anything in the past 2 years has been worth upgrading to. I am finding Android development surprisingly tedious. I wonder if iOS development is easier? Most mobile development sites say iOS apps come together quicker and easier. I wouldn't develop on iOS if my daily driver was an Android phone.
What if my next phone was the iPhone Xs (or whatever they decide to call it)?
What if, after my desktop PC craps out, I started using my wife's iMac?
What if my next laptop computer was an iPad with a keyboard case?
Let's not get too crazy.
The biggest points of paint would be creating an Apple ID, changing out chargers, redownloading and installing apps, paying for a few that need paying for, and... probably worst of all, redoing the Life Trackers automated fitness imports to whatever.
All that said - I stand firm in my belief that most people don't need anything beyond a Chromebook. If you aren't big into music production, complex photo editing, video production, or computer games... there's no real reason to have a Windows/Macintosh machine.
Top 5: Vowel Swapped Words That I Can Think Of
5. Lat, Let, Lit, Lot
4. Net, Nit, Not, Nut
3. Ban, Ben, Bin, Bun
2. Pap, Pep, Pip, Pop, Pup
1. Bat, Bet, Bit, Bot, But
Surely there's one of those that works with every vowel, including "y".
Quote:
"I thought, 'If Rocky can do it, I can do it'."
- John -
title: '#277 - Year = Year + 1' date: '2016-01-04' aliases:
- '#277 - Year = Year + 1'
- '#277' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '277'
Motto: 2015 was cool.
This Column is going to be written over the course of a few days. There's too much going on for me write now. I'm at the Hill house. Avatar is playing on the TV. I forgot that Avatar is actually pretty good. I've been learning how to play 7 Wonders. It's one of the many board games I learned how to play over my holiday vacation (see more about that in the Top 5).
Notice I said "my holiday vacation"? That's because my new job actually gives people a vacation at the end of the year rather than saying "you want time to see your family? Use your vacation days, darnit!" I make it a policy not to write about my job on here (for several reasons), but I really like it, so sometimes it's hard not to gush.
My favorite fitness-related website has gone through a fairly major re-write. I wrote about Simple Science Fitness two and a half years ago, it's still worth reading today. I contacted the author with a question/clarification and he wrote me back within the day answering said question. That's the 3rd time we've interacted directly. I really admire the work he's done.
The title of this post is a programming joke. I wish it were "Year++", but sadly I've been stuck writing code in Visual Basic for Applications. It's a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad language. What's cool is that I'm actually experienced enough in writing code to have an opinion about coding languages.
Okay - here's the bulk about what I wanted to write about:
It's 2016!
That change doesn't really mean much. It means people look back at their lives over the past year and think about how they want to improve over the next year. It's cliched, but it's what you do. I did that, and this is what I've decided to do.
No more 30 Day Challenges. They were my New Year's Resolution two years ago. I was very good about doing them in 2014. In 2015, I failed more often than not. So, rather than doing 1 challenge a month for a year, in 2016 I am going to be doing 12 challenges the whole year. Specifically, I aim to accomplish these twelve things by year's end:
- Weigh 240 lbs
- Bench 240 lbs
- Squat 315 lbs
- Deadlift 345 lbs
- Incorporate 3 mile runs into my regular workout routine
- Improve my average macro ratio over previous years
- Average an 80% success rate for Life Tracking
- Slowly build savings by spending less
- Travel out of the contiguous 48 states
- Read 12 books
- Trend towards a phone screen-on-time of 1 hour per day
- No booze*. No soda. No energy drinks.
*okay, booze once a month
Take a look at what I've done over the past 24 months:
| Establish great workflow at my new job | Good. |
|---|---|
| No screens after 10PM | Poor after 5 days |
| Sweat 5 Days a Week | Pore. |
| Study Every Day | Fair - good then bad |
| Healthy Life (Sleep, Eat, Run, Stretch) | Poor - overambitious |
| Life Tracker Rewrite | Great |
| Don't Eat Out (Unless with Friends) | Fair - good then bad |
| No Phone During Conversations | Fair - good then bad |
| Work Out Before Work Routine | Fair - good then bad |
| Moving to Avignon | Great |
| No TV, No Videogames* | Fair - good then bad |
| Faileo | None - just forgot |
| Work Workflow Redux | Good |
| Budgeted Life | Good - but felt like I cheated |
| The Incredible Bulk | Good |
| Yes Man | Great - but wasn't much different |
| No Reddit or Other Social Sites | Good - but didn't like it. |
| Drop Windows, Adopt Linux, Duolingo | Good |
| GoPro Every Day | Good |
| Enjoy Your Wedding & Honeymoon | Great |
| Run 50 Miles | Poor - back problems |
| Write Every Day | Good |
| Read 5 Books | Fair - reading is hard. |
| Paleo + Crossfit | Great |
That's a copy/paste from the Life Tracker - which is still awesome, by the way. The top of the table was December 2015 - the bottom, January 2014. Next year all of my months will have all 12 of my new goals to work toward.
Now, for the picture(s) to go out on - a smattering of things from my recent photos list!
This is the stack of boardgames we played over the holiday. It does not include Ticket to Ride: Europe, Qwirkle, and the regular playing cards.
This is 4/6ths of the best darn bar trivia team ever to live. We are unbeatable*.
*note we got 2nd place.
On the right: 10 minutes of crafting. On the left: 10 hours of crafting. Both of which were awesome gifts from Melissa.
Krista, meanwhile, gave us this GoPro drone. It's registered with the FAA in accordance with new laws.
Melissa and I* posing for Christmas.
*that's not actually Steve Rogers in there, that's me.
Top 5: New Board Games, in Order of Box Size
5. Jaipur
4. The Resistance
3. Bohnanza - technically this is Tyler's game... but I'm 100% sure we're going to get it
2. Pandemic: The Cure
1. 7 Wonders
Quote:
"I win anyway because I'm holding a sandwich."
- Eli -
title: '#170 - The Greatest Day of My Life' date: '2014-05-24' aliases:
- '#170 - The Greatest Day of My Life'
- '#170' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '170'
Motto: Have You Ever Had a Perfect Day?
I had a perfect day. It happened about 3 weeks ago.
Melissa and I were married on Saturday the 3rd of May in Lawrence, KS. It was an outdoor ceremony just up the hill from Potter Lake on the University of Kansas. The weather cooperated with the ceremony. It was mostly sunny, in the low 80’s, and not terribly windy. All the best people I've ever met were in attendance. The best person I've ever met was standing right next to me, and that’s what mattered most. The whole ceremony was over in ~24 minutes. It went off (almost) without a hitch. There was one minor incident with a paper lantern that took some coaxing to get lit and flying… but that incident led to what has become an early favorite ceremony photo:
The party bus took longer than we anticipated, the driver didn't exactly take the most direct route available, but that didn't bother me. The hour we spent on that bus was one of the best hours of my life. I had the pleasure and honor of being on both of my sister’s party buses, and they were great each in their own way, but our bus was the most “us” it could have possibly been. The perfect combination of crazy and tame.
The reception was amazing.
They say "the best revenge is a life well lived", could the same be said of the best thank you? Is the best thank you appreciating the work that someone has done for you, taking advantage of that work to have the best time of your life? I hope so. I hope just knowing that I had the best day of my life is the best thank you anyone could ever get. If that's not the case, though, let me just say this:
Thank you to everyone.
The whole day went by so fast. It's a blur - just like I was warned. Luckily, I have some photos from the wedding (and the day before) to help jog my memory.
I could keep writing about this, and some day I might pick up where I'm leaving off, but I need to post this. I've got my honeymoon post 2/3rds finished and the post following that completely finished and this one had to come out before them.
I'm working on a video from the day. That will come sometime in the future.
Top 5: Photos (so far) from May 3rd, 2014
5. Overall ceremony shot
4. We have pictures of everyone dancing down the aisle - this one was just the best picture
3. The Maid of Honor - a natural comedian
2. The lantern worked!
1. The first dance
Quote:
“We do.”
- Melissa and I -
title: '#121 - Future Projects' date: '2013-10-06' aliases:
- '#121 - Future Projects'
- '#121' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '121'
Motto: Otto Octavius was in a skydiving accident. Sadly, he's now an octoplegic.
Before I start talking about these things, I'd just like to say that I have not given up the ambition to complete any of the projects I'm talking about in today's Column.
I always have kept a running list of ideas for fun things to do with my down time. Projects for me are what TV is to others. If I don't know how to fill out an evening, you'd probably have a decent-to-good chance of finding me working on any of the things listed in this column.
With out further ado, trials, and/or tribulations, I present to you the list of projects not-yet-done:
Videos
Rather than talk about each video individually, here's a list of potential synopses:
- "Red-Green Colorblind" - where the person just can't see red or green objects
- "Life Before the Internet" - series of videos falsely remembering life 20 years ago
- "First Ever Photobomb Video" - this one will be a single shot, <10 seconds long
- ... I actually thought I had several more, but this is all I'm seeing
Movie Poster Project
Someday I will begin actively making fake movie posters with my friends. The posters would be for generic movies, not direct copies of any pre-existing movie posters. That is to say, we'd put together one for a movie about a duo of spies whose comic misadventures entertain while they still somehow manage to save the day. The focus on production value would be what made the project both funny and worthwhile. I have a list of posters to do, but haven't really started work on any of them.
Learning to Play Music
You could say I've already kind of started this project - but I haven't dedicated nearly the effort into it that I'd like. I want a way to capture and mix my audio. I know myself, and that's how I learn. When that happens, I think you'll see more music-related content on the Column.
Life Reference
The Life Reference is a single highly-encrypted folder that I will use to consolidate all of those pieces of information you are supposed to keep safe. Banking, insurance, health, and other such things will be aggregated and protected. I'm about half done with this project, but I haven't really done any work on it for a couple months.
Android Development
I am going to teach myself Android development. I already know how to code a few different languages and have bookmarked several different resources for learning Android development. What I'm waiting for is the Android Studio development suite to come out of testing and into production. After that happens, I have several ideas that I'll toss around before settling down to make something for real. I'm not looking to blow anyone's mind with anything, but it would be cool to have an app installed on my phone that I coded that is actually useful for something (note: a long time ago I made an app that basically just showed a picture of a duck).
Don't Panic! - The Engineering Binder
 |
|---|
| (if you click on this image you should be able to read the text) |
The Engineering binder is a comprehensive review of everything I learned in my engineering classes in college. This is (arguably) the most ambitious project I've ever started. It began in June, 2011; but I haven't really worked on it since I graduated a year ago. I did get 58 very nicely formatted pages down and I still do plan on picking it back up someday. I don't like the idea of having only a diploma to show what I learned in college - I'd rather have what I learned in college show what I learned in college.
Update on the October Project so far -
Avg. Calories: 4045
Avg. Protein: 207
Missed Workouts: 0
Top 5: Projects I am Actively Working On (why I'm not doing any of the above projects right now)
5. The October Project (a.k.a. the largening, a.k.a. the hugifying, a.k.a. some other equally embarrassing for my fiance to read title)
4. The 25th Year (the second second-a-day video)
3. The Life Tracker (which I'm still constantly improving on)
2. The Column (which I'm working on at this exact moment)
1. This timelapse video of the view out the window I just made:
Quote:
“An idle mind is the Devil's playground”
- an English Proverb -
title: '#253 - The Video Everyone''s Waiting For' date: '2015-08-02' aliases:
- '#253 - The Video Everyone''s Waiting For'
- '#253' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '243'
Motto: Get really excited.
Here it comes.
You excited?
I turned 27 yesterday. That marks my 27th* year on this earth, and my 3rd year's Second-A-Day video.
Unfortunately, I'd rather watch it in its completion for the first time with my wife... and she's in New York. So there that's not actually going to happen. The video I'm showing instead is my 4th Battlefield Highlights video.
HA!
I will have a watch party for the actual "My 26th Year" video with a small group of friends soon.
My birthday (and the day after) was full of awesome. Jon came up. We did a lot of awesome stuff.
- We swam in the pool.
- We played some pool (different kind of pool from the one we swam in).
- We both set PRs on the Deadlift - each of which put us past a new centry mark.
- We played Top Golf with Nick.
- Played Paintball with Nick.
- Won Breakout KC with Krista, Simmons (my friend from work) and the Fullers.
I'm going to keep this short and sweet. See the Top 5 for photographic evidence of the aforementioned happenstances.
Jon convinced me to give Instagram another try. So this is from my Instagram:
*I recognize the fact that at the time between your 27th & 28th birthday is actually your 28th year... but that is confusing and I've already been using the naming convention.
Top 5: Pictures from the Past Couple of Days
5. Jon Preparing to Lose:
4. Proof that I Deadlifted 315 lbs - and smiled while doing it:
3. Paintball Shot - Pun Intended & Delivered:
2. Top Golf Jonboy Gif:
1. Breakout KC Dream Team:
Quote:
"Where's my phone? Ah. Aquí! - oop, Allí! "
- Jon, who dropped his phone and immediately played it off with a great delivery -
title: '#303 - Checking in on the 2016 Resolutions' date: '2016-12-11' aliases:
- '#303 - Checking in on the 2016 Resolutions'
- '#303' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '303'
Motto: the word "Pizzazz" has never been played in a game of Scrabble
2016 was an interesting year. That's usually a codeword for "bad", and in this case... it's not. I'm very in-tune with how my life is and how's been... and for ME, things are going pretty well. I'm happy. Healthy. Strong. In a good spot in my relationship. In good with friends and family (although there's always room for improvement on those last areas).
Even thought the year isn't over, I'm going to go ahead and do my wrap-up of the "Year of 12 Resolutions", which is what I did instead of 12 individual 30-Day Challenges.
- Weigh 240 lbs
- Bench 240 lbs
- Squat 315 lbs
- Deadlift 345 lbs
- Incorporate 3 mile runs into my regular workout routine
- Improve my average macro ratio over previous years
- Average an 80% success rate for Life Tracking
- Slowly build savings by spending less
- Travel out of the contiguous 48 states
- Read 12 books
- Trend towards a phone screen-on-time of 1 hour per day
- No booze*. No soda. No energy drinks. Let's see how I did.
Weigh 240
I started the year off pretty light. Average of the first 5 measurements I took in 2016 is 223.7 lbs. The average of the last 5 measurements in 2016 (thus far) is 232.3 lbs. That means I made it about halfway to my goal. But I'm still not fat. So that's good. Believe it or not that's the least "bro" photo I could find for this. Every other one of the several dozen were too embarrassing.
Bench 240
I started the year with the bench max of somewhere around 195 lbs. This wasn't my "all-time max". I had previously benched 220 back in 2014. Just 20 minutes ago I went to my HOMEGYM IN THE BASEMENT and set a new PR with 235 lbs. That's not QUITE to my 240 goal - but I guess I DO have a couple more weeks to get in one more attempt for the full 240.
Squat 315
I started the year without maxing out on my squats... estimates from the weight/reps I was working out with puts my max likely around 245 lbs. Almost two months ago I set a new PR in the squat department of 315 lbs. I actually "squat" 345 - problem was upon review of the video - I didn't get anywhere near parallel. I could probably do 315 legit. I'll give it a shot before January 1st.
Deadlift 345
I also didnt' do anything resembling a deadlift max early in 2016. Estimates put it around 280 lbs back then. On many occasions since then I have managed to get 315 lbs. I haven't successfully done a deadlift of more than that. I DID just try and fail for the 345 goal I had set for myself. Couldn't get it off the ground. Which is weird given that I sorta squat that much (even though I give myself zero credit).
Incorporate 3 Miles Runs Into My Workout
Yep. Haven't done that yet. Technically I could just run 3 miles one time right before the new year and claim success... assuming I can run 3 miles. I DID start going on bike rides, for what that's worth. I'm still not great at cardio. I DID do a couple 5Ks, though.
Improve macro ratios
Nailed it. Carbs down, protein and fats up. That's the trajectory I was going for. Also I managed to achieve my "average 3000 calories" goal that I added halfway through the year. Christmas time might screw this up for me, though. We'll see.
Average 80% success in the Life Tracker
Nailed it... so far. I have to not screw this up over the holidays, which is a hard time to keep track of foods and stuff. My average lag time between midnight and "tracking" has gone down by almost 10 hours. This is inside baseball, I am aware.
Build up savings
I bought a house. There's no such thing as "savings" any more. Okay that's not true, strictly speaking. The intent of this goal for the year was to enable me to buy a house sometime in 2017. Things worked out better for us to go ahead and jump on the homeowner train. So, I guess I haven't really meet the requirements of this goal to the letter... but I met its design intent?
Travel out of the contiguous 48 states
This picture is from Melissa and my cruise/2 year anniversary vacation. Nailed it.
Read 12 Books
I read... uhh... 3 books? That's probably 2 more than usual. UTTER FAILURE. I suppose I could read 9 books in the next 21 days. That's totally do-able.
Trend screen time towards 1 hour/day
Pokemon Go really didn't help with this. Technically I have reduced my average daily screen time by about 20 minutes... but it's still north of 3 HOURS a day. That's embarrassing. Side note - the phone in the picture up there is my original Droid. Back in the day, that was considered a "big" phone. It looks like a toy.
No Booze*, no soda, no energy drinks
This goal was set up with the idea that I would allow myself one day of drinking per month. That quickly became "one day of drinking each variety of banned drinks, which don't need to be consolidated to a single day". I honestly did a good job of that for several months. Then summer hit and the whole thing crashed and burned. I have a Red Bull sitting next to this laptop. There's probably a Nutcracker Ale in the forecast for tonight. I gave it a shot.
Top 5: Surprising Results for the Year
5. I came pretty close to getting most of my lifting goals. I considered them "aggressive" back when I established them. I didn't expect to come as close as I have.
4. Melissa and I bought a house!
3. I accomplished all those lifting goals IN that house!
2. I did manage to average 3000 calories/day... but didn't really gain any appreciable weight. My actual average weight over the course of this year has been identical to that of 2015.
1. I did genuinely make it like 4 or 5 months on the no booze, no soda thing.
Quote:
"You might enjoy knowing that tipsy Aaron sang 'Let it Go' out the window on the way home."
- Melissa -
"Step 1: Order pizza
Step 2: Obtain pizza
Step 3: Eat pizza
Step 4: Regret steps 1-3"
- Danielle -
title: '#183 - Lonesome George' date: '2014-07-14' aliases:
- '#183 - Lonesome George'
- '#183' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '183'
Motto: The Tyrannosaurus Wrecks His Car
Despite the title of this post, this Column will not be about a massive, old tortoise.
My brother & father-in-law are in Philmont for what I've come to learn is basically the culmination of Boy Scouting. My boss told me that he went there when he was a kid and it is responsible for some of his fondest memories. That's awesome. I am in this spot right between super jealous and not in least bit jealous of them. Philmont is fun, but demanding fun.
My wife is gone with my mother-in-law and her siblings to Colorado. They are also doing outdoorsey-type stuff. Melissa said she climbed Red Rock Canyon with a GoPro strapped to her chest earlier today. Typical Melissa, doing things I'm way too much of a wuss to do.
Here's what all that boils down to - I'm alone for the next few days.
Well, except for Thor 2, Loki, and the birds that decided to make a nest in our plant:
While I'm alone, I've decided to take on a number of personal challenges. Starting several of my medium-term goals. See the Top 5. It's a large portion of why I wanted to post this. After a self-evaluation, I realized I'm more long-winded than I shoudl be. As a writing exercise, I did this next bit. An overview of my understanding of fitness, in 100 words: **Being fit is worth the effort. Fitness necessitates both a quality diet and consistent exercise. A quality diet prefers natural, nutrient dense foods (meats and vegetables) over processed, calorie dense foods (donuts). Cook your own meals. Don'�t drink soda. Track your diet. A couple of cheat meals per week is probably okay. Exercise at least three times weekly. You should lift weights, elevate your heart rate, and maintain flexibility. Use free weights, not machines. Do squats, deadlifts, bench, pullups, rows, presses, run, and yoga at a minimum. Doing these things will give you a healthier, happier, and longer life. Kthanksbye.**The last thing I want to talk about is something I've talked about a long time ago (Columns 21 & 22 - my "goal physique". First, it was Daniel Cudmore, whom I saw in the movie "X-Men". Then, it was Matt Grevers, whom I saw in the Olympics. Now, I'd say I'm aiming more for Serge Ibaka, whom I saw on ESPN Magazine's "Body issue".
.jpg)I made that using GIMP on my new Ubuntu system. It's definitely nothing fancy, but it's the first tangible piece of media I've created... and it's a bunch of shirtless dudes. Maybe I need to reconsider my priorities. Top 5: Things I'll be Working on this Week5. Set up some system automation for importing content into my media server. 4. Try to understand Android Studio. I tried this for a few hours last night... it's a whole new experience. 3. Workout. Really hard. 2. Gun stuff. More on this at a later date. 1. Learning Lightworks video editor & rebuilding "My 25th Year". I've got less than three weeks until my birthday. I want the video ready to show on August 1st. Even if I was an expert with Lightworks, it would take me a full 6 to 8 hours to put the video together from scratch. I tried setting the first 3 clips up for 2 hours over the weekend. Lightworks functions in a completely different manner than my old editors.
Quote:
“How do you plan on changing your skin color?”
- Jon, when I told him Serge Ibaka is my new goal -
title: >- #212 - New Car, Superhero Movie Release History Analysis, Review of the Weekend, and the Longest Column Title Ever date: '2014-10-17' aliases:
-
#212 - New Car, Superhero Movie Release History Analysis, Review of the Weekend, and the Longest Column Title Ever - '#212' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '212'
Motto: Let's Get the Naming Scheme Right
On Saturday Melissa and I had one of those crazy productive days. The kind of day that you only have once every 2 months. The kind where you sit back at the end of the day and think "man, if I just did this once a week - I'd be so ahead of everything in life". On Saturday we: Drove around the area we'd like to live next year looking at neighborhoods and houses in our potential price range. Went to car dealerships to look at SUVs - we've had "buy a car" on the whiteboard for a couple of months now. Found an SUV we both really liked. Bought it. More on this later. Returned some improperly sized frames to IKEA. Looked around there for a bit. Sunday was pretty darn good too. On Sunday we: Went to an open house, to get an idea of what we'd like for a future home. Checked out a couple of other houses around the neighborhood. Played our last sand volleyball game of the year. Our team only had 3, but we still managed to win. Watched the movie Gone Girl. Thanks to that movie for helping us sleep that night. I filmed our last volleyball game. Here's how it ended: The play in that video does not accurately reflect the entire game... but it was awesome (for me). So - we bought an SUV. For the past year, Melissa and I have been sharing a vehicle. We've known for a while we were interested in getting a second vehicle, one with different physical properties than the small hybrid we already had. With that, we elected to get an SUV. It's bigger. It can haul stuff. It has many uses that the hybrid can't begin to accomplish. Without further ado, allow me to introduce the MK II:
That picture is more about the tree than the car, I admit. It's still cool.
That is the MK II. I am retroactively renaming the Sonata from "Mark 4" to "MK I". Instead of keeping track of the number of cars I've driven, I'll keep track of the number of cars I've bought. Also, when writing the name I'll use "MK" instead of "Mark". The MK II is nice. It's fancy schmancey. It's got all sorts of bells and whistles. Here's a pictorial review of the vehicles I've driven:
In order - the Weezer Wagon, The Man Car, My Mom's Car, the MK I, and the MK II.
Here's the current Gillespie fleet:
Now - the last thing. I found out next year will only have 3 major superhero movies - The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Compare that to eight scheduled for 2016, that's not a lot. It made me wonder what the past 15ish years have looked like in terms of major superhero movie releases. So I went to Wikipedia's List of American Superhero Movies and copied their list over to Excel. I pulled out several movies that I fundamentally disagree with (I'm sorry - "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" are not superheros), entered their release dates, then wrote a tiny macro:
Sub EasyMac()
Dim i As Integer Dim j As Integer Dim count As Integer Dim weekNum As Double Dim startNum As Double Dim endNum As Double For i = 1 To 800 j = 0 count = 0 weekNum = Cell(i, 1) For j = 1 To 60 startNum = Sheets(1).Cells(j, 2) endNum = Sheets(1).Cells(j, 3) If weekNum > starnum And weekNum < endNum Then count = count + 1 End If Next j Cell(i, 2) = count Next i
End Sub
I used that to build data a usable format. The result was this chart:
The X-axis is date, split into weeks. The Y-axis is the estimated number of different superhero movies you could go watch in major theaters for each week. In making this chart, I assumed that all movies had a 10 week run, which is the best "average length in theaters" I could find.
I added a trendline to the data. The formula for the linear fit line is (9e-5)*x-2.6037. That formula represents the average number of superhero movies in theaters over time, starting from January 1st, 1900. It is very slowly increasing. Extrapolating from the past 15 years, I can estimate that there was no such thing as superhero movies before 3/18/1974. That's when the average number out crosses zero. The average number of superhero movies in theaters crossed over one on 8/18/2009. Ever since then, there has been an average of more than one superhero movie in theaters. In January, 2040 the average will raise to 2 movies. In 400 years, you'll need to go to a multiplex with over 14 screens if you want to find something that's not a superhero movie.
Of course, all of that is ridiculous extrapolation - but who doesn't enjoy that?
Top 5: Android Lollipop Features I'm Excited About 5. The reworked notifications/quick settings area. Android's oldest advantage over iOS was its notifications panel. It's getting a fresh look and better functionality. 4. Smarter lock/unlock features. No need for a pin/passcode if it's connected to my watch. 3. Project Volta - apparently adding a significant amount of battery life via smarter software. 2. Material Design. It's so beautiful. 1. Google Fit. I hope it's the Life Tracker for the masses.
Quote:
“Congratulations... I guess?”
- Joe, after I told the guys I made a chart of superhero movies -
title: '#352 - Make Stuff' date: '2018-09-26' aliases:
- '#352 - Make Stuff'
- '#352' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '352'
Motto: Hamburgers are Fun on a Bun
File this Column under "Aaron tells other people what they should be doing", which I realize is too common of a theme.
You know what's fun? You know what's rewarding? Honing a skill. Creating something new. Doing a craft. Working on something just because you want to. It's a lot more fun than enjoying someone else's work. It's a lot more lasting fun than enjoying someone else's work.
Creating things brings a sort of whole-brain engagement that only happens with the absolute best of storytelling. I wrote this Life Tracker thing to keep track of all sorts of different aspects of my life so I might be able to read through the data what makes me most happy... what I found out was that what made me most happy was actually BUILDING the thing. Doing the data work. I was more than just coding - I was creating. I was generating a thing that had never existed before and the possibilities were endless. That's really exciting. More exciting than figuring out who killed the person in the first act and how the CSI team solved the case.
I hate those shows.
I loved the show "Making It". It was a short, brisk series that was hosted by two people that seemed like genuine friends. They had a simple message - things made by hand are more meaningful than things that aren't. It was a genuine blast watching the creators in that show take a simple idea & some supplies and turn them into works of art - very different works of art.
Anyway, I'm not advocating changing everything wholesale in life. I think that my most pervasive real-world motto is "keep everything in moderation." Another person might have a different way of phrasing that... I'll give you a hint about the person - he's very crappily drawn right below this text.
Top 5: Favorite Stuff I've Made
5. This Thanos drawing - my best digital work work for now
4. This drawing - not my best pencil & paper drawing, but my favorite
3. This shield - made from a sled
2. This desk modification - I also added a drawer to the other side.
1. The Life Tracker is pretty cool. So is The Column. The Second-A-Day Videos are neat. You know, the stuff I've been doing consistently for years.
Quote:
"You cannot be prissy and eat tater tots at the same time."
- Stacey B -
title: '#342 - Time, Energy, Money (mostly time)' date: '2018-06-19' aliases:
- '#342 - Time, Energy, Money (mostly time)'
- '#342' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '342'
Motto: It Makes a Fool of Us All
Life seems to me like a series of choices about what to do with your resources. Mostly those resources fall into energy, time, and money.
It used to be that I'd sit down to write most Columns not knowing what I wanted to write about. The net result would be whatever came to my mind between the time I sat down and the time I stood up. Nowadays I know essentially exactly what I want to say before I ever approach my computer. I write more Columns in my head than I ever get to put online - I just "don't have the time" to do it.
I have been saying for years that the "having no time" excuse is mostly bologna that old people say to make up for not using their time wisely. While I still think that's true to some extent, my tune has changed.
Actually. After doing an exercise to fill out this paragraph with, it looks a lot like this is still the case and I've just been woefully misusing my time. Maybe I should do another time study like I did for ten weeks back in 2012.
Yeah I've been doing this "let's make spreadsheets about life" sort of thing for a long time.
I haven't made time in the past few months to play videogames with any regularity. The E3 Expo was last week, and it made me realize I hadn't played any videogames in over a month. Historically I've considered myself a video game guy. I listen to podcasts about them. I've played them my whole life, as a social experience or a solo one. Is that going away? I don't know. I doubt it.
I have played about 6 games of Fortnite now. It's alright. Really good for being free, yet they're making money arm over fist somehow. How about that. Also I looked pretty heavily at Super Smash Bros Ultimate on the Switch in time for Christmas, and the upcoming Hitman 2 (Hitman 2... 2?).
Economics is the study of limited resources. In a weird way I'm into economics.
This was rambly and unfocused JUST LIKE I LIKE IT. Been tacking on additional sentences and paragraphs for a few days. I need to rewrite about time, energy, and money in a more focused way sometime. Especially on the energy part. Energy is something I think a LOT about and don't talk about as much.
Last thing I'll touch on before I go - I've been doing a "No Zero" thing this year. That's been somewhat successful.
I've been doing a detox thing for the past two months that's been probably equally successful.
And I have trimmed the Life Tracker down to something I'll be using more long-term (cause 5 years wasn't long-term).
Maybe I should have written about all those things instead.
Top 5: Columns I've Written, but Only in My Head
5. Getting older. A followup to the "Aaron just turned 25" post from nearly 5 years ago. A less optimistic one.
4. An extensive review of Timbuk2's Never Check Expandable Backpack and why I'm interested in backpacks all.
3. An update on the stuff I use to do stuff, day-to-day, with a focus on the tech gadgetry and services I use. I wrote 3 years ago a Top 5 about wanting a perfect Google laptop, I got that hypothetical laptop a year ago. It still blows me away each time I use it.
2. A story, a comic, or a cartoon telling the story of a young couple walking away from their village into the forest in search of what's next.
1. Melissa and I are going to have a baby boy. Even attempting to address this fact, to write about it to give it any sort of justice sounds impossibly daunting. It could be an entire blog of its own. I'm going to be a dad... pretty soon, too.
Quote:
"What it lacks in taste, it makes up in cheap."
- Chuck -
title: '#202 - Apple''s iPhone 6 and Watch Announcements' date: '2014-09-11' aliases:
- '#202 - Apple''s iPhone 6 and Watch Announcements'
- '#202' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '202'
Motto: Apple iWatch Air S C Plus
Apple's iPhone 6/iWatch announcement happened yesterday. Here's a 10 point overview: 1. There are two new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 plus. 2. The iPhone 6 is 4.7", the 6 plus is 5.5". 3. Apple is FINALLY trying to replace the wallet with "Apple Pay". 4. Apple Pay uses NFC, something the iPhone has been lacking for years. 5. Apple announced the Apple Watch... it's not the "iWatch". 6. Apple Watch uses a rounded square form factor, with a squared screen. 7. The watch uses several input interfaces - a button, a dial/button, and a dual-mode touch screen. 8. The watch will also come in two sizes. 9. The watch will have tons of straps to choose from - a surprising amount of focus was spent on the straps. 10. The watch will sell for $349 (or more) and won't be available until 2015. Here are my thoughts, I'll keep this short: The iPhone 6 I think 4.7" is really a sweet spot in terms of screen size. I bet this is the better selling model. This is probably the most enticed I've ever felt by an iPhone. The iPhone 6 Plus It's amazing to me that Apple is putting out of Phablet. This phoen is being positioned as the "superior" model. It's got one or two small improvements over the smaller version and it sells for $100 more at all levels. The Apple Watch This thing is... well... it's interesting. A device that small requires its own interface - on all levels. Apple took that challenge and really went in a different direction than anyone expected. It's got a touch screen. Sweet. It's got a touch screen that can also differentiate between a touch and a press. Oh, okay. Like the Blackberry Torch? That's cool I guess. It's got a wheel on it like a standard watch. Oh, that makes sense. It's also got this ***other button that has a special, single purpose. The touch screen plus any ONE of those secondary interfaces I would have believed... but all three? That's interesting. The ***software User Interface is also interesting, but I'll get into that more later (Top 5). Apple Pay The iPhone has integrated near-field communication FINALLY. If this push doesn't make NFC-based Mobile Phone payments more mainstream, then nothing will. I absolutely cannot wait for the day when I can leave my wallet at home. I won't be using Apple Pay, but I'll be using the infrastructure and experience that Apple Pay will help usher in. Thank you, Apple. Better late than never. The new screen sizes and resolutions will make life more difficult for developers, but it's a necessary problem. That's the price they pay for a not-very-forward-thinking model. I'm glad to see they finally decided to go to a standard 1080p resolution (on the 5.5 inch one). That's my summary. My shorter summary on everything Apple announced is this: Overall I was not overwhelmed, nor was I underwhelmed... I was just "whelmed". I just realized that basically all of Apple's product lineup comes in two sizes now. There's a smaller and larger version of the Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Macbook, and iMac. Huh. My Moto 360 came in the mail today. I'd write more about it, but it's lateish and I wrote the vast majority of this post yesterday.
Top 5: Surprisingly Fundamental Questions about the Apple Watch that have Yet to be Answered 5. When you raise your wrist and the watch screen turns on, does it show the clock face, the App Grid, or something else? 4. Can the button (not the dial) on the side of the watch be used for anything other than calling up your contacts list? If they made a dedicated hardware button to perform a single software function... that's a very surprising design decision. 3. How much of an Apple user's interaction with his devices is supposed to be done with the watch? I mean, what are they aiming for? 2. How exactly are those apps arranged on that grid? I heard them say you can customize it, but how? Also, it's like a strange star pattern... what's up with that? 1. How long is the battery ***actually going to last?
Quote:
“Why can't they just make that, but an Apple version!?”
- My coworker, who was the first person other than me to see my new Moto 360 and was let down by the announcement of the Apple Watch -
title: '#193 - He''s Coding' date: '2014-08-15' aliases:
- '#193 - He''s Coding'
- '#193' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '193'
Motto: Clean your weight, deary
This post isn't a feature. It's mostly a story. It's a nerdy story about triumph. But first... I've made no secret of the fact that I'm an XKCD fan. I recently re-stumbled across one of my old favorite comics. Back in the day, I thought this was funny because it is true. Now, I think it's just awful because it's true.
I'm an idiot 80% of the time I'm at home now. Thanks Thor and Loki. Story time. I have a on-again-off-again history with writing code. import english.words; I majored in Computer Science in college for a few months before switching to Electrical Engineering. In 2008 I got a "B" in my first coding class, but the complexity of my 2nd coding class caused me to panic, drop the course, and switch majors. That was the only course I ever dropped. If I had stuck with it I would have seen that, according to my friends who DID stick with it, "that was the hardest class I ever had to take". Apparently that was what my dad called a "weed out" class. The assignment that killed me was "write a program that solves Sudoku puzzles". They had us do this before teaching us how to effectively use a debugger. Instead of doing that, I switched majors. I stopped writing code. for(int i; i < 2; i++){ years = years + 1; } May, 2010, I had a summer job interning for the first time. I made friends with a few guys who knew VBA (Visual Basic for Applications, another coding language). Thanks to them, I saw how useful coding could be and learned Visual Basic. I figured out how to use a debugger. I learned that writing code didn't have to be a "it either all works or it all doesn't" type of experience. I decided I had to exercise my coding demons, and I wrote a program in Microsoft Excel that solves Sudoku puzzles. Over the next 2 months I wrote it. It worked. It can solve any puzzle you give it. It's better at Sudoku than I am. There was a huge celebration (in my head). The next summer, I wrote a maze solver (with caveats) in Excel and one or two other little things. int j = 0; while(j < 2){ years += 1; //again j++; } April, 2013, as I prepare to fly to Thailand to propose to my now wife, I had an idea for a project: a Google Spreadsheet that would keep track of all the things in my life that I was letting get out of hand. To do it, though, I would need to learn how to code for Google Spreadsheets. Over the next month or so, I learned Javascript. I built out a program that I've used for the past year to keep track of my life, adding to it along the way (just updated a part of it last night, actually). This is (so far) the only coding I've ever done that's done anything whose use goes beyond novelty status. int x = 0; int newYear = 0; do{ newYear = years+1; years = newYear;} while(years < 2014); This year I decided to do the thing that's so obvious, such an easy logical jump, such a stupidly simply next thing to do that half a dozen or more people have told me "you should do this". You love Google. You love Android in particular. You have some experience writing code. Why don't you write an app, dummy? I enrolled in the Android Application Development class by Google on Udacity. I'm not taking it for credit, or anything, just to learn. The first thing I learned is that I am TERRIBLE at (class and) object-oriented programming. I have been writing in Javascript for a year, I figured the jump to Java would be easy. It's a whole different beast. I did all my work on the Life Tracker working within a single class. I had no idea what "extends" meant. I had no real understanding of the notion of "private" and "public" methods and variables. What's a constructor? Where is the code actually running??? Sadly, I was unable to complete the Android Application Development class. They expected ~2 years of Java background and I went in with 1 year of Java_script_. So I enrolled in a 4 month "Intro to Java" course. Here's the thing, though. It's got 9 lessons and it's supposed to take 4 months... but I'm already on lesson 6 and it's been less than a week. I'm flying through the course. It's 90% review for me, but review in a new language. Is it worthwhile? Absolutely. I'm confident that I'll be able to pick up where I left off in the Android course and run with the football. That's my story. That's the Column.
Top 5: My Favorite Lifts
5. Sumo deadlifts - like deadlifts, but better for tall people. 4. Bench press - required answer for everyone. 3. Pullups 2. Tricep extensions - admitted guilty pleasure. 1. Clean & Press - they say squats are the king of all exercises, and it's true. But I prefer the clean and press. No other exercise I've found works the whole body as effectively. Also, Cleans are fun, squats are not fun. That's all there is to it.
Quote:
“Fortune favors the bold and the daring. Doritos taught me that.”
- Josh -
title: '#313 - A Great Time' date: '2017-05-07' aliases:
- '#313 - A Great Time'
- '#313' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '313'
Motto: Balance in the Force
This post will serve as the "yong" to the previous post's "ying".
First I'll start by saying I'm back on prescription anti-inflammatories and honestly and truly back to feeling normal. Do you have any idea how good it feels to feel "normal"? It feels damn amazing. I think I'll take the stairs. I think I'll clean the house. I think I'll tackle that project. I think I'm going to go lift weights.
#BACKtoHealth was a last-minute success. My 30 Day Challenge for May will be for me to watch 10 movies from my "Movie Bucket List".
Wednesday was the three year anniversary of the day on which I married Melissa. It was the three year anniversary of the best day of my life. It was the 1096th day in my streak of good days (on the whole). It was the 36th straight month in which I was able to fill out "married" on hospital forms, rather than having to choose the single option and tell the hospital staff "it's complicated!". It marked the denotation of the 3rd complete trip around the sun Melissa and I have made as a legally wed couple. It was the 9,500,000th second I've lived without regretting a second.
We chose to celebrate the occasion with literally the fanciest meal I've ever had. We continued celebrations by spending more time together... which has lasted from then until now. Melissa's going into the summer, so I get a feeling we'll be able to continue celebrations for a good long while.
As it so happens, each year at around the same time as Melissa and I celebrate our anniversary, Marvel put out a blockbuster movie. This year's edition was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Man it was fantastic. GotGV2 dethrones the first one (or, possibly, "Ant Man") as the funniest entry into the MCU... and it did so without sacrificing quality, story, or heart. It was another huge win for Marvel, and another time I was not let down after having my expectations built up for a long time. If you haven't seen it yet - go see it. Everyone in the world should like this movie. It's just good fun.
Speaking of good fun - I played pool against some new folks the other day. It was a social event with people I had never really spent any amount of time with that I instigated. That's never happened before. It was a good time. We got to know each other just a bit while we played. Generally it worked out pretty alright! Also I got to ask about how pool leagues work and learn some stuff I'd never be able to teach myself on the table in my parents' basement.
The last thing I'm going to write about in this post that is 100% "this is what I've done recently" is the Royals game I went to on Friday. Or maybe I should say the Royals game I didn't go to on Friday.
Melissa and I went to a social work gathering at Kaufmann Stadium. We started the evening off with some tailgating, presumably to be followed by us using our tickets to sit in a chair and watch some baseball surrounded by my coworkers. What transpired instead, though, was us deciding "we're having a great time and don't really care to see opening pitch". "We're having a great time and don't really need to see any of the first inning". "We're having a great time and don't really need to see any of the first 4 innings". "Oh hey they're playing fireworks, I guess the game is over and we never went in to watch".
I gotta say, I couldn't be happier about it. I got to spend a very quality evening with a group of people that I have the good fortune to work with. A work group so great that I'd rather hang out with them in a parking lot than go watch baseball. Or, to say more, I'd rather hang out with them in a parking lot than hang out by myself at my house. It was a night full of laughter, dancing to almost no music, and healthy tailgate gaming competition. We all won.
I've had a phenomenal week. There's more to come - Melissa and I have a friend lunch to go to in a few hours. Then a full Sunday's worth of whatever you do when your house is already clean and you've got some spare time on your hands.
LIFE IS GOOD.
The picture to go out on - the American pass time, from my Instagram:
Top 15: Ranking My Favorite MCU Movies (circa 5/6/2017)
15. Thor: The Dark World
14. Iron Man 2
13. The Incredible Hulk
12. Iron Man 3
11. Doctor Strange
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
9. Thor
8. Ant Man
7. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
6. Iron Man
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
4. The Avengers
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
1. Captain America: Civil War
Quote:
"I thought you were supposed to say 'ying yong', because for some reason 'yang' was racist?"
- anonymous -
"Those Cargo Shorts Died a Hero"
- Chuck -
title: '#131 - Save the Date Video' date: '2013-12-16' aliases:
- '#131 - Save the Date Video'
- '#131' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '131'
Motto: In Two Weeks, Someone Will Make a New Year's Resolution Joke with the Punchline "1920x1080"
I wrote one post in the past month. If you asked why that is, I honestly wouldn't know what to tell you. I moved the Column down my priority list.
What I DID do instead?
Made this, for one:
That video took forever to put together. Worth it.
I've done several other things:
Saw family.
Saw friends.
Shopped for Christmas stuff.
Watched a couple of movies.
Started rewatching a couple of old TV favorites.
Played Battlefield.
Worked.
Worked out, like 3 times.
I kept busy.
I might go back to updating this every once in a while I suppose.
Top 5: Words I Usually Mispronounce
5. Turn (Churn)
4. Horror (use your imagination)
3. Anything that starts with a "G" or a "K", apparently.
2. Sure (Shore)
1. Poop (apparently I say this word funny somehow)
Quote:
“It's not your fault you're from Lebo”
- Melissa, when I asked her for help thinking of words I mispronounce -
title: '#160 - Feature: Constrained Writing' date: '2014-03-31' aliases:
- '#160 - Feature: Constrained Writing'
- '#160' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '160'
'Tis in a Motto: Ottoman I Sit
Writing with constraints is a fun and difficult task. It will push you to go to spots to which you would not normally go. Crafting thoughts around a constraint is hard - I just said that. But as a smart man has said - if a thing isn't hard to do, is it worth doing? Having us both said our own things - it's also worth stating that not all difficult things warrant doing. You don't do your cooking with no lights on, do you? Baking in pitch black is not good for anything. It's difficult, but has no obvious point, no justification. Why do it? For art? Up until this point, this column has had a constraint. It's an illustration of a lipogram. That will now End. From Wikipedia: "Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.[1]" I usually don't consider something to be "poetry" unless it conforms to some sort of constraint; be that rhyme, meter, or something else. If you can work some sort of constraint into your writing without sounding at all unnatural, it's a beautiful thing. It's art.
Writing with constraints is a mental exercise. Like other exercises, it makes you stronger. It also lets you really appreciate the creations others have made. Demetri Martin once wrote a 224 word palindrome. Randall Munroe published a comic explaining the parts of the Saturn V rocket using only the 1000 words people use most often (he said 10 hundred words, because "thousand" isn't one of the 1000 most often used words). Demetri Martin also wrote a poem by rearranging the all the words on a bottle of Rolling Rock beer. That "Buffalo buffalo buffalo" thing is the most constrained writing I've ever seen. - Palindromes - I've written a few palindromes in my day. The motto is a palindrome. This paragraph contains none, so don't waste your time looking for them. I generally don't enjoy writing palindromes, because you usually have to settle for something that's awkward to read or something that makes little sense. It's hard to sneak a palindrome in to regular conversation. Fun fact: The word "palindrome" is ridiculously hard to build a palindrome around. People on the internet couldn't do it. Nor Aaron. - Alliterations - Starting every word with the same letter sucks. It's hard to do and even harder to read. Again, you can't usually sneak an alliteration into everyday-type speaking. Alliterations are always annoying. Aaron's alliterations are arguably amicable... also aggravating, agitating, and alarmingly addictive. - Rhymes - Rhyme (usually combined with meter) is your standard poetic constraint. Nearly everyone has written a "roses are red, violets are blue" monstrosity at some point. I don't prefer simple rhymes. I like rhymes that happen across multiple syllables across multiple words, perhaps even across the sentence. Rhyming is a cinch. Stopping is unnecessary. Timing in a pinch. Dropping unless you carry. Didn't make sense, but it rhymed across syllables, across words, and across the sentences. Good enough. - Meter - Meter refers to the number of syllables in a given line. This is a more effective way of measuring the "length" of a sentence, when compared to counting the number of words. Syllables are more basic than words. You can count on them.
A famous illustration of meter: Haikus
Haikus are poems that are only built with a specific meter, 5-7-5. Haikus can be fun, but they don't always make sense. Refrigerator. - Anagrams - Dan Brown featured anagrams heavily in "the Da Vinci Code". A long, vivid sentence can be hard, and I'm a wiry, deaf author.
I like doing anagrams, but usually only if they are a couple words long. If you get too many letters it's hard to keep track of things. That's a detriment to the writer and the reader, in my experience. "Aaron Gillespie" says "Original, please". - Pilish - Now I have a crazy challenge. Pi digits guide the words' duration. Difficult keeping direction. But if you organize your vision, it should come out.
Pilish is a good constraint for me in particular because I have Pi memorized out to 27 digits because high school wasn't sufficiently challenging.
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884 - Acrostics - Acrostics Are Really Obscurely Named. It's Simple, Conceptually - Only Opening Letters.
Acrostics are when first letter of each word/sentence/paragraph forms a word or sentence. I did this a few columns back. I wrote an initialism using the word "initialism".
- End -
The picture to go out on - a shamelessly nerdy excerpt from my Moleskine:
Top 5: Constrained Writing Projects I've Done
5. This Column has contained several. Collectively they warrant inclusion on this list. 4. A nonsensical poem written using English words which makes sense when you move around the spaces. Simple, bad example: "Willy O, U, Significant?" becomes "Will you sign if I can't?" 3. A short story written only using song titles. Simple example: "Hello. Hello, I love you. Hello goodbye." 2. I broke my right arm in 2001 & had to wear a cast for a couple months. During that time, every time I wrote anything it was done in a highly constrained manner. Technically accurate is the best kind of accurate.1. The short story I wrote using homophones, homonyms, & antonyms. If you're interested in reading it, just keep swimming.
Don't be an Oxymoron:
“I drove to a park the other day. There I met a new old man and had this conversation. It started when I told him life seemed deathly hard - it's simply too difficult.
He said 'You should think a little bigger. You aren't failing to succeed, you are working to success through failure. It's alright to be all wrong; because once you're failures pass, you'll find what's left is what's right.'
What he was saying sounded awfully good.
'Let me tell you a true story - originally, I copied others. I had been a minority for the majority of my life. Next, I became stuck in the same quest to be different. It was pretty ugly. My attempts were really fake; and it seemed like everyone hated me. I was even at odds with myself'
He paused to watch some kids play - he only stopped to continue.
'Now then, the past is a present. The new days, they're here. You're forgetting to remember your victories. You need to remember to forget your defeats. They are old news - stop going there. Consider yourself fortunately unfortunate. You've had to push yourself to pull through. Don't accept a decline in your life. Keep changing! You can't fill a tall glass in short order. With effort, things will come a bit easier. Once you get afoot, you will get ahead. Your failures will increasingly decrease; and as things will come to pass, you'll have found you never really lost."
As he started to finish, I thought about us. We sat there together, alone with our conversation. I looked dumbly at the wise old man.
What he said seemed quite possibly impossible. I mean, he was nice; but I was certainly uncertain about what he was saying.
I clearly misunderstood.
Good grief."
- I wrote that -
title: '#267 - Writing Stuff, 30 Day Challenge Stuff, 2008' date: '2015-10-05' aliases:
- '#267 - Writing Stuff, 30 Day Challenge Stuff, 2008'
- '#267' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '267'
Motto: I'm the Guy in the Suit
This post was written more for me than usual. Proceed with caution and/or boredom.
Most of my writing lately has funneled into the MCU Feature. I didn't make that a link, because what's on this site doesn't reflect the current state of the Feature. I don't like Blogger's text editor for advanced formatting. I want my Features to be formatted nicely, sort of a showcase of "I could be doing this every time". So I'm writing the Feature elsewhere, and will hopefully figure out a way to display it on this site that maintains my formatting.
Hopefully.
It's October. Traditionally, October has been my bulk month, but I am taking bulk off this year for a couple of reasons:
- I don't have access to a gym with a proper squat rack or bench press. Bulking without lifting heavy is just called "getting fat". So I'm not doing that.
- I am in two basketball leagues, playing at least two games a week. It's come to my attention that I could use some cardio love. Bulking runs counter to that end.
The 30 Day Challenge for this month will instead be "break a sweat 5 days a week". That should be nice and easy without being too nice and easy. I very badly need to get back on top of my health game. So this covers that.
In my writing of the MCU Feature, I've been rewatching the series. I still pull out new things from these movies... not saying they are super deep or anything - I'm just saying that almost every movie usually has a few things you can't pick up without repeated viewings. I've fully changed my opinion about a few details from these movies because I've picked up new things this time around.
I babysit my niece and nephew. Kids are getting less scary... but that brings them from "the scariest thing I can think of" levels to "less scary than 'The Ring', but still way up there" levels.
Proof I have the best friends:
Top 5: Things that Happened in 2008
5. Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" comes out. It blows away everyone's expectations, but doesn't earn the top-scoring "superhero movie" spot on this list.
4. I switched majors from Film Studies to (journalism, then computer science, then computer engineering, then...) Electrical Engineering
3. HTC came out with the "HTC Dream", the first ever Android device
2. Marvel came out with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, marking the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
1. The University of Kansas won the Orange Bowl (football) and the National Championship (men's basketball)
Quote:
"It's National Coffee Day. We gotta go take some artsy pictures and Instagram them."
- Melissa -
title: '#327 - You Lack Discipline' date: '2017-10-27' aliases:
- '#327 - You Lack Discipline'
- '#327' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '327'
Motto: Discipline Beats Motivation
Lately I have had trouble doing new Aaron things.
The ideas haven't gone. It's the follow through. I sought to remedy this situation by nixing passive entertainment from my life in October. That worked until it didn't. I set goals, do a great job with them at first, but after a bit I'm back to baseline Aaron. The goal is present, but the change in behavior is not.
Comfort is the problem.
Control is the answer.
Captain America.
...or maybe that's just what I think.
I wonder if it I could play a Clair De Lune on the piano in a month?
I wonder what it would be like to stop drinking caffeine & alcohol entirely?
I wonder what it's like to eat an IIFYM diet?
I wonder if I could make my own shirt from a sheet of fabric?
I wonder if I could design and construct my own pergola?
I wonder what I should do to continue my education?
I wonder if I could have an Android app in the Play Store before the end of the year?
I wonder what it would be like if I used lotion on one half of my body every day for a few months, would it be noticeably different from the other after I stop?
These thoughts have felt like strictly hypothetical impossibilities. "Ah man I wish I could just do this" when there's literally no reason I couldn't other than it would mean I'd have to change behavior. I'd have to follow through. I'm throwing the ball at the rim right now.
I used to have so much less to do, and I feel like I got more done. It's most likely that's the benefit afforded to you by the distance between the present and the past.
Or maybe I've been too hard on myself.
I've had basically the same set of goals for the longest time... and maybe the problem lately is that I've achieved most of them. Or I've achieved them to a level that I'm not willing to surpass. I could murder myself in the gym and get to my goal strength... but that wouldn't be worth it. As someone with an MBA would say: The ROI isn't there, opportunity costs are high. Invest elsewhere.
Maybe it's time to change my goals. Think bigger. Think different. Or maybe just think less. Maybe I should just live a non-goal-oriented life for a while.
Nah, doubt that.
The things that are right and true when you're thinking with your best, most well-rested brain are also right and true on the days where you're not. I feel like that's important to know... but I thought of it when I was grooving on a caffeine buzz, so it won't be true when I'm bummed out or sleepy or hungry.
I'll just have to keep seeing the glass half full - also split in half vertically:
Top 5: Underrated Comedy Movies
5. MacGruber
4. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (probably the least "comedy" on this list, still very funny)
3. Yes Man (which I've written about previously
2. Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
1. Hot Rod
With regard to the coming quote - let's say the piece of text in question was this:
Take the bread out of the cabinet. Return cabinet to standard closed position. Place the bread on an approved surface.
Quote:
"Okay, let's go back and read that instruction carefully... 'blahblahblahplace the bread-"
- Jason, who was interrupted by me laugh-yelling -
title: '#236 - Chromebit, Bruno Melissa, April 30 Day Challenge, and some Dominion' date: '2015-04-02' aliases:
- '#236 - Chromebit, Bruno Melissa, April 30 Day Challenge, and some Dominion'
- '#236' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '236'
Motto: Step 1 - wake up
Have you ever been in a mood for an extended period of time? I'm talking like days here. I have been lately.
Melissa is walking around dressed up like Bruno Mars right now.
Google announced the "Chromebit" earlier this week. It's basically an HDMI dongle that turns whatever TV you want into a Chrome OS computer. The device itself looks like this:
The tech blogs are not covering this in much detail. When they do talk about it, they generally talk about Google flooding the market with "devices for your TV". It is confusing, though. Should my TV have a Chromecast, an Android TV box, or a Chromebit plugged in to it?
Regardless of that question, I think this thing is just a really cool idea. Hulu Plus on Chromecast was giving me some trouble the other day, so I plugged my Chromebook into my TV and set it out of sight. At that point what I had was essentially what this thing will be... and it was pretty cool!
That's just my $0.02.
Speaking of Chrome - the new Chromebook Pixel looks so darn good. I wish I could justify spending $1000 on a new laptop. I'm really looking forward to the proliferation of the new USB Type-C standard as found on the new Chromebook Pixel and Apple Macbook.
Melissa is doing something for school involving a dance to "Uptown Funk". That's why she's dressed up like Bruno Mars. She's been dancing to the song on repeat since I started writing this. All to entertain her kids at school. She would be a good teacher. She's awesome to live with.
I mean, how can you not love that?
Alright, so last month's 30 Day Challenge wasn't formally defined at any point. I decided that last month's move was pretty challenging, so I'm retroactively calling March the month of the Move Challenge.
April's 30 Day Challenge:
Work out before work. Take lunch to work.
I spent a semester at college working out first thing in the morning before an 8AM class. That single change begat several other noticeable changes... moreso probably than any of the 30 Day Challenges I've taken on during the past year change. Discipline is a good thing.
This morning I walked to the gym at our new place to exercise. During my 4 minute on-foot commute I walked by a garage door that was open. Inside it were 3 hardcore looking dudes doing squats in a power rack next to a Harley Davidson. I've never felt so immediately and instantly uncool by comparison.
Speaking of uncool - I tagged this post with the tag "nerdcred". If I haven't already justified that tag, let me clear up any doubt right now:
Dominion is getting its 9th expansion. This expansion was never supposed to happen (but always posited as "a possibility"), thus my storage solution is no longer going to work. Regardless of whether or not it was expected, I'm excited for its rapidly approaching release. The first time I ever played the game I was hooked. I thought the possibilities for building interesting mechanics within the framework of the game were endless. After 8 very different expansions, it turned out I was about right. Each introduced some new concept or idea into the game... and almost all of them worked really well. I hadn't thought much about the game in the past couple of months, largely because I felt as though the space within the game available to explore was beginning to show its limitations. The 9th and soon-to-be released expansion seems to include not one new concept, but several. It's looking like a great addition that will add months of replayability to the already ridiculously replayable game.
Top 5: Things I'm Looking Forward to in the Next Month or So
5. 4/6 - The Dominion promo cards I ordered come in
4. 4/10 - "Daredevil" on Netflix
3. 4/18 - Dominion: Adventures
2. 5/1 - The Avengers: Age of Ultron
1. 5/3 - Melissa and my 1-year anniversary, the only non-nerdy thing on this list
Quote:
“It's hard to dance like a man.”
- Bruno Melissa -
tags:
- META
- NERDCRED date: 2019-08-18T00:00:00.000Z title: '#376 - New Column!' aliases: '#376 - New Column!' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '376'
I said I was interested in changing up The Column. This is me doing that. For future reference, this is the first post I'm writing after my move from Blogger to a GitHub Pages-hosted Jekyll-based personal blog using a barely-modified minimal mistakes theme.
The new & improved Column is mostly for my own benefit. I'm excited to be able to write posts using markdown, which has been my flavor of the month for the past two or three months running. If you don't know what it is, don't worry about it. Mostly it makes quite excited to write more.
The format of all future posts may look more like this and less like posts #2 thru #375. Internal links to previous posts will (probably) stop working - and the formatting from those old posts may or may not look like garbage, I'm not too worried about it. I plan on keeping my Top 5 and Quotes sections, so not much is changing. At least not on that front. You're going to probably start seeing a lot more structure in each given post, though. Section headings are a big reason I like Markdown & will be more prevalent. Also more prevalent: typos! At least if I write using my laptop.
Soon I'll figure out how to do internal links to section headers & include a table of contents with each Column.
I've been doing a lot of stuff lately. In addition to the long-running "Life Tracker" and "30 Day Challenge" projects, I've decided recently to:
- Move the Column of Blogger (done as of today!)
- Revamp (and rename) the Life Tracker
- This one alone could be enough to take up all of my time for a few months, I'm aiming much higher
- Learn how to do my new*(ish)* role at work
- Learn Python
- I actually used Python the other day to accomplish something relating to this Blog - it was super gratifying
- Start to make additions to the house - we've lived here for a few years and haven't really improved it in any meaningful way
- Writing articles for my knowledge center "Gillespedia", which is a much worse-looking website than this (frankly they just exist in my Notion right now)
- Recording Podcasts with my buddies Richard & Guy 1
- Change up my workout routine (done a while back, but I've committed to continually changing it every 8 weeks, so now that's an on-going thing)
- Reduce, reuse, recycle - I've got more interest in taking up habits to minimize my impact on the environment
- I'll write more about this eventually, it's another one of those unsexy solutions situations I wrote about in Post #291
I don't know what I'd do if I weren't doing stuff like this. Probably just get fat or something.
- I feel cooler
- I get more control over how this looks (although right now it's very much not something I've got a handle on)
- I have a local repository of my posts on my computer
- I can write using Markdown, in a text editor, & do version control via GitHub, all of which makes me feel cool
- I get to practice using all of the above, so I could (in theory) apply those skills to other projects.
There will actually be better benefits once I figure out all my newfound powers. Like footnotes1.
You and Markdown, man. Ugh.
- Nick
COWABUNGA!
- The Cookie Monster, who's quickly become my favorite philosopher
title: '#154 - Advantages & Android Wear' date: '2014-03-18' aliases:
- '#154 - Advantages & Android Wear'
- '#154' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '154'
Motto: The Point of this Post is to Make You Hate Me
It was St. Patrick's day yesterday, and I think that's the one day of the year we all like to gather and give thanks. I recognize that I have a ton to be thankful for, seriously. The following is a non-exhaustive list of advantages with which I've been blessed:
- I grew up in a household with both my parents. The whole upbringing turned out to be a sneaky way to teach me how to be part of a successful and happy relationship.
- I was the youngest kid in the family... by several years. I learned how to schmooze people, but I also learned how to be independent. Also, my two older sisters absorbed most of the parental worries. I totally had it easy.
- I am a white male. This shouldn't be an advantage in today's society, but it's part of the way people approach me and has surely affected the opportunities I've had.
- I'm between 6'8" and 6'9" and possess at least a small amount of natural athleticism.
- I have this face:
- I graduated college with a degree in a highly marketable, very well respected field.
- I have a fantastic set of friends. They are the best people in the world and that's why I'm friends with them. I'm lucky I found a way to make them stuck with me.
- I'm engaged to the most beautiful, wonderful, and impressive person I've ever met.
- Lastly: I live in a world with Google and Marvel movies.
Google just blew the lid off the wearable technospace. That word I just made up shouldn't distract you from just how important Google's announcement was today.
Android Wear is soon going to be a thing... and it looks fantastic.
Top 5: Disadvantages I also Have
5. I own a cat, but no dogs
4. Despite several attempts to learn, I have near zero swimming ability
3. The inability to choose what things I find extremely interesting
2. I have some sort of autoimmune disease that may or may not affect me for the rest of my life
1. I also have this face:
Quote:
“I think women's basketball deserves more credit”
- Josh gave me this quote when I asked him for a quote -
tags:
- SELF IMPROVEMENT
- PROJECT
- FEATURE date: 2020-01-12T00:00:00.000Z title: '#385 - System Architecture' aliases: '#385 - System Architecture' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '385'
It took me 6.8 years to think of two words.
I grown to hate the name "Life Tracker". It's an embarrassing entry in the nomenclature of "Aaron Projects". It was the first, most obvious thing I could think to use. The name is what it attempted to do. It's not that I'm not a creative person. It's that I'm scared of committing to seemingly arbitrary labels for things. Remember when I was going to start calling the Column "WVZ7X7"? Yeah, I forgot too. It was only when I put The Life Tracker in the context of a greater System that I realized what role it was fulfilling, and subsequently what name it should be given:
Data Journal
That's what it is - a structured journal with emphasis on data gathering & consolidation. When I read "The Bullet Journal Method" by Ryder Carrol I kept thinking, "man this guy's system seems to fulfill the same basic goals I had with my whole Life Tracking thing". To quote a professor I once had: "Things are only obvious when they're obvious." - Don't remember which.
Now I have a new naming dilemma.
As I hinted about in my previous post, about a month ago I had one of those awesome moments where you connect together multiple ideas from what used to be independent domains.
![[385-2.png]]
I connected the things I've been doing for forever with the things I've been doing for only a long time, with the books I've been reading recently, with the direction I want to shift my focus. They've all coalesced into one big thing.
Here's is a rough-cut process map of what I'm talking about:
![[385-1.png]]
There are a few main components (green blocks), and a few main processes (blue blocks) that connect them. The processes may change, as may the components, but I think what's there represents most of what I've been thinking about over the past month.
The rest of this post is breaking down that diagram. Skip to the end if you're uninterested.
This is literally a plan for the next 5 years, by year. It's a list of tangible, measurable, and time-based goals. The plan can be as specific or nonspecific as you like. I like to keep next year pretty well-defined (10 to 15 specific goals) and have future years be a little more vague (1 to 5 broad goals). As you accomplish goals, check them off. When putting together your plan, keep in mind your context will change over time. Ask yourself "how old will I be this year?" "How old will my loved ones be?" "are there any milestones anyone will be hitting?". Keep it on a piece of paper, or in a notes application. It doesn't matter. Choose to share it with someone, or keep it to yourself. Keep it handy, but there's no need to look at it every day.
This is a description of the person you want to be in 5 years. A LOT can change in 5 years, so keep it ambitious. There's no reason you can't wholly change your situation, so keep it optimistic. I prefer to keep mine in a list. In the year 20__, I will (be)/(have)/(live)/(do)...
This is a big topic. I could write a ton about this and not be done yet. To keep this post manageable, I'll just say the Data Manifest is where you intersect the things you want to do and be with the means by which you track them. It is a list of things to measure, what they are, why you're measuring them, how/when/where they are measured. If you're not the person doing the measuring, then you get "who". A quick example:
Sleep Duration
- What: how long my main sleep was each night
- Why: I believe adequate and consistent sleep is vital to overall health and happiness
- When: after waking up
- Where: in my sleep app
- How: automatically captured by my sleep app
- (Who: me)
My Data Manifest is currently 60 items long. I suspect most people would want fewer tracking points, but I believe everybody could benefit from having at least a few entries.
If the Data Manifest is the recipe, the Data Journal is meal. It is the combined set of points tracked according to the Data Manifest. It is populated consistently and constantly, via manual and automated means. It tracks your habits and whatever measures you want it to. It acts as a journal, full of timestamped reflections about life. It can also be home to any other sort of event logging task you might find handy. Data Journaling is another big topic that I could write a ton about. Automation of said journal alone could be a whole book.
This is a written list of the habits I am practicing in order to achieve my long-term goals and bring me closer to who I want to be. These will be housed in the Data Manifest, but are important enough to be called out here.
This is a written list of month-long challenges you have taken or plan to take as part of your system. Keeping them nearby your identity statement and your 5 year plan can be helpful in developing these goals. Keeping them in one place and writing down a review of them is helpful for keeping track of what has or has not worked for you.
There literally is a book written about this - "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Suffice to say, a Getting Things Done System is comprised primarily of an inbox, a task manager and calendar, and weekly review (upon which I'm building later).
The process starts with a 5 Year Plan. This plan gets reviewed & renewed each December, and after any major life-changing events (or, you know, whenever you want). It is more than a 5 year plan, though. It's a goal identity. It's a forcing an answer to the question "why?" in the long, medium, and short-term.
- Who you want to be in 5 years?
- Why do you want to be that person? (identity statement)
- What has that person accomplished? By when? (5 Year Plan)
- Where do I need to be in one year to be where I want in 5 Years?
- What does that person do in order to be who they are, and accomplish those things? (Habits List and Monthly Challenge List).
- What can I start doing today to get me there? What habits should I adopt?
- Of the list of things I can start doing, how can I track them?
- Are there any metrics or measures I can use to track my progress toward my goal identity? (Data Manifest and Data Journal)
Throughout the day you'll encounter triggering events (as defined in your Data Manifest). These events will cause measures to be taken & either recorded in your Data Journal directly, or recorded elsewhere, to be moved to your Data Journal at a later date. A goal here is to automate as many of these inputs as possible. You'd be surprised what you can accomplish with a small amount of ingenuity. You'd be more surprised what's already being done for you. Best practices for batch export of data from some alternate repositories could again be the subject of another, long discussion. Others have covered this topic well.
At the end of each day, record in your journal a couple of sentences about the day. What happened? How did you feel? What were you thinking about or working on? Then fill in any daily metrics/measures that weren't already captured. Lastly, quickly look at tomorrow's tasks & appointments, take those in concert with current realities and come up with a short list of 1 to 3 priorities for tomorrow.
At the end of each week (I prefer Friday), do a comprehensive review of your Getting Things Done system. Clear your inboxes. Check in with every active Project you've got going. Check in with all upcoming tasks and appointments. Do this standard set of actions as instructed by David Allen. On top of that, check in with any weekly measures you've deemed necessary. Catch up any missing data points that you can. Look at your Monthly Challenge. How is it going? Are you on track? If not, can you get back on track?
At the end of each month, check in with your habits list. Have you been keeping up with them? Do you need to continue tracking them? Reflect on the monthly challenge you've just finished. How did it work? What lessons have you taken away from it? What challenge do you want to do next month? Review your measures and metrics for the month. Record measures that have a monthly scope (e.g. budgets).
Basically just reflecting on what you've accomplished this year towards what you had planned. Thinking about the year overall. Looking at the measures and metrics in aggregate. Looking at previous years, if you have those data. The annual review is followed immediately by the next 5 Year Planning Process.
I want to write way more about all of the sections above. Then I want to write about how the systems could be reduced if you decide not to do the whole comprehensive list of processes and components. If this is the "high" level of keeping yourself accountable and on-track, there are natural "medium" and "low" level points that still offer a huge ROI that I think would be palatable to a larger audience.
Obviously I don't have space to do that writing today. Honestly I'm on the fence about putting future writings about this specific topic on the Column at all. I doubt you readers, who come here looking for brief insights about Aaron and his musing aren't interested in multiple longform pieces about this one specific thing. If you're interested, let me know.
- Goal mapping
- Options for GTD system components
- Data analysis & visualization
- Principles and selecting trackable habits for them
- A litany of options in the space of automated data capture
That is extensive
- Josh, the first person I showed the process map
title: '#294 - My 27th Year' date: '2016-08-07' aliases:
- '#294 - My 27th Year'
- '#294' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '294'
Motto: Jason Unbourne
I haven't written in a while because I haven't had internet in a while. Melissa and I are moving to a full-blown house in less than a week*. Rather than pay for a half-month of internet, I elected to go ahead and cancel our home service. MELISSA and (sorta) I have been packing up our entire place, so the free time has been reduced somewhat. Packing and consolidating and repacking and reconsolidating. Plus working, maintaining a decent-ish workout routine, a social life, and a happy/healthy relationship... the Column has taken a backseat.
*assuming all goes as planned.
Pokemon Go exploded. It's huge in a way I would not have believed one month ago. I've got mixed feeling about it and its popularity - but that hasn't stopped us from "Pokemoning" for hours on end many times over the past two weeks. I'm level 18 as of this writing. I hope to be level 19 by the time I finish this post (assuming any pokemon show up at all at Whole Foods). Thanks to this game, I've visited Loose Park, gone to the Plaza twice, been to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art... but I've been mostly staring at my phone during that time. Right now I'm mostly for it. Melissa and I are having fun together, and that's what matters to me most. I'll have more fun when I find a Charizard.
"Jason Bourne" came out. Spoilers: it was hugely disappointing. I revere the first 3 movies as my top 3 favorite movies in the action genre. This one was devastatingly disappointing. I'm more hard on it than most of the critics I've read. I thought it was mostly a pile of garbage. I rewatched the original trilogy in anticipation of the new one. They hold up - so I know it's not just "my tastes have changed"... it's that "Jason Bourne" didn't have NEARLY enough actual Jason Bourne. There was too much bullcrap "tech" stuff jammed in. Too much side character focus. Too much side plot. WAY TOO MUCH shakeycam. Overall I give the film a "WHY" out of ten.
Thursday Melissa and I will become homeowners. That puts us one dog and 2.4 children away from "The American Dream". I'm all for it. I can't wait to have a place to settle down, build up some equity, and begin the next phase of my life with my wife whose the love of my life. We've been doing a pretty good for the past four years (which you'll have the chance to glimpse into soon), but I get a feeling that by staying put we're about to start really going places. We love the place, and have some ideas that hopefully will make us love it even more. I'm sure I'll have pictures on here soon.
Jason Bourne, Pokemon Go, I've got one other piece of trending thing Aaron opinions to share - it's about the Prisma app. I'd heard about it in weeks past in many of the various tech-related podcasts I listen to on my commute, but I hadn't bothered getting around to try it until earlier today.
Holy crap.
It's cool, dude. I don't need to tell you, though, I can just show you:
Now - without further dudes... here's the last 4 years of my life, summarized in ~35 minutes:
My 24th Year:
My 25th Year:
My 26th Year:
My 27th Year:
Only 359 days until my next one. Come that day I bet I'll probably use that as my Top 5.
Top 5: Pros of Owning a House (I assume)
5. SO MUCH MORE ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!
4. Seriously, so much more room. Room for a kid. Room for guests. Room for a gym. Room for an office. Room for a second bathroom. Room for a 3rd. Room to park your cars.
3. Freedom to do what you want. "I think I'd like to draw a big smiley face on this wall." "I think I'd like to play the djembe even though it's 2am." "I think I'd like to change how this looks."
2. Not throwing money away on a monthly basis. Plus, the amount you get in return for the increased cost is really pretty amazing. I can't believe how little our monthly payments are going up compared to the amount we get back from it.
1. Having a place that is really and truly yours.
Top 5: Cons of Owning a House (I assume)
5. "Well it turns out I need to move to Cleveland... should I go through the hassle of selling my house or just slam every finger I own in every door I own instead?"
4. Big ticket expenses that could hit at any time.
3. No more "maintenance guys" to call when something breaks.
2. There's only TWO Pokestops within walking distance. What is this, the Dark Ages?
1. Mowing the lawn. I don't care if it's not a "manly" thing to say, mowing the lawn sucks.
Quote:
"I was just hearing a fair amount of mouth and nose sounds."
- Danielle -
"You should be smug at a minimum."
- Chuck -
"Also I dare anyone to listen to 'X Gon Give It to Ya' and not get jacked."
- Joe -
date: 2013-08-12T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH
- LIFE title: '#105 - Nothing in Particular' aliases: '#105 - Nothing in Particular' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '105'
The motto is both a reoccurring theme from Fight Club and a reference to the fact that I am starting this column without hoping to fulfill or achieve some grand purpose. I am writing to write, and that's alright.
List of things I'm not doing in this update:
- Specially made media
- Unveiling of massive projects
- Lists of words or any other sort of feature
- Addressing some sort of massive backlog
I recently read an article titled "[The Smartphone is Dead](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-smartphone-is-dead-2013-8". It's essentially one guy pointing out that phones have plateaued. No recently new phone has really been much better than what was already out there. 1080p screens are an unnecessary bump from the 720p standard from last year. 8 cores perform only marginally better than 4, which only perform marginally better than 2. My Nexus 4 came out 10 months ago, and it hasn't yet been definitively dethroned as a top-tier device*. A couple years back, 10 months would have been an eternity. A new phone back then was obsolete within 2 months... now the performance differences across devices has become mostly negligible. Every review for every phone says "it's very smooth, almost no hiccoughs at all." The argument the article was making was that "all devices are pretty much the same, and it's silly for them to try and differentiate themselves with useless gimmicks". I agree.
So, what's next then? The Smartwatch? Google Glass? Who knows.
I live in a truly fantastic era.
- I would concede that the Google Play Edition of the HTC One is better than my phone, but it's really pretty close.
I do want the New Nexus 7, by the way.
I've been reading on/using different code breaking and coding techniques. I've learned more about Enigma, AES, simple substitution (such as ROT13), and "[The Dancing Men](https://www.os3.nl/_media/2009-2010/students/axel_puppe/ssn/dancemen.jpg". People are smarter than me. Some people. Maybe it's because they are really dedicated. Maybe it's because I waste my time on the internet looking at funny pictures.
But, come on, how can you turn down finding things like this:
I guess I'm doomed.
The last thing I want to write about right now has to do with the quote at the end of the column. I listen to This Week in Tech weekly. It's one of a few podcasts I make sure to catch every week. Ever since the whole "The NSA is collecting everyone's information in alarming rates" thing, they have been concerned about privacy. That's where the quote comes from, and it is a sentiment I have voiced in the past and it was great hearing somebody else say the same thing.
Maybe I should have plans for my posts from now on. This was not my best.
OH OH ONE OTHER THING! Starting THIS WEDNESDAY, I'm going to try to write updates on a more scheduled, intentional basis. I'm thinking every Wednesday and Sunday.
- This Week in Tech
- This Week in Google
- ...
- ...
- This American Life
“Ultimately someone's going to have all your information. I'm almost happier that it's with one person, rather than scatter shot across a zillion different startups with varying levels of security. I tend to trust Google more than, you know, 'start up X'. So if Google continues to innovate and do interesting things, I'm reasonably comfortable with them having my data.” Tim Stevens, on This Week in Tech
date: 2013-01-28T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- PICTURES
- LIFE title: '#58 - New Broken Computer & Some Pictures' aliases: '#58 - New Broken Computer & Some Pictures' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '58'
I just got my new computer. It is a refurbished ASUS that I got a great deal on. It is sleek looking. It is light. It is also completely and totally useless. The thing started up for the first time alright. I installed Chrome on it. I uninstalled useless frivolities like "ASUS WebStorage". After finishing that, I right clicked on the desktop to change the background and the computer BLUE SCREENED. This brand new computer with a fresh operating system threw up all over me. I thought, "no, there's no way". I restarted the computer - only to find that the HDD is no longer being recognized. It, by the way, is where the operating system is located. So, again, my new computer is nothing other than an expensive paperweight.
Not the right context for this picture, but otherwise it fits perfectly:
Ron Swanson is a man.
ASUS is having me send it in to them (on my dime) to fix the problem. I am irate that I had this problem to begin with. When you "refurbish" something, it shouldn't die permanently within a half hour when I turn it on.
Anyway. I started my New Year’s resolution last Monday. As you may recall, I resolved to live a more structured, consistent life. This involved intentional sleep and rise times, workouts, and dietary and monetary constraints. During this week, a couple of things happened. One, I realized just how hopelessly unstructured I had been living. I found I hard to start cold turkey (can you start something cold turkey?). I frequently stayed up later than expected, slept in, and ate out. I only worked out 3 of the 5 days, and one of those “workouts” was a 10 minute stretching routine before a shower. The other thing that happened: I had the best, most productive week I’ve had since I started keeping score with the Demetri List. I hypothesized that increased structure would show results in the Demetri List and, from what I can tell so far, signs seem to be pointing that way. This week, so far, I’ve held up all of my contractual resolutionatory (made up word) obligations to myself. On a related note: It’s only Monday... and I've stayed up too late already. This week at work I learned a semi-low-level-but-not-entirely-technical view of how cell phones and the network behind them work. It was amazing, confusing, frustrating, enlightening, and, most of all, very humbling. It makes me respect even more the phone companies, the many many people who created these systems, and the many many people who work every day to maintain them. Allow me to summarize everything I learned into one easy-to-digest paragraph: It’s magic. Technically, that’s a whole paragraph. I know because I looked it up. Online (that was my subtle movie quote for this column. I’m still doing those, btw).
I watched KU beat West Virginia at Power and Light in KC. I took this photosphere:
Looks better if you make it bigger Alright. It's past my bed time.
-
These guys
-
The fact that these pictures still exist
-
This guy The albino squirrel 1
-
This chick
-
This GIF
“I just caught a wiff of perfume or cologne, I’m not sure which”Me “I don’t smell anything” Ricki “Yeah, it was a while back. I was trying to determine if it was interesting enough to say out loud”Me “...” Ricki “I think I went the wrong way with that” Me
title: '#438 - Ideal Consumer Tech' description: Revisiting a Favorite Topic date: 2023-07-08T00:00:00.000Z aliases:
- '#438 - Ideal Consumer Tech'
- '#438' draft: false enableToc: true tags:
- LIFE permalink: '438'
This topic, the intersection of philosophy and technology, is probably my favorite and most-covered topic over these past 437 Columns. Technology is like fashion. It’s never “done”. With each new development in technology, there’s reason to think about what rights and wrongs come from it.
My favorite class of consumer electronics is the smart watch. A smart watch adds the most benefit with the fewest drawbacks.
My Apple Watch:
- allows me to message people
- handles short phone calls
- handles timers, alarms, reminders, etc
- tracks and report on my exercise
- allows me to run shortcuts and ask Siri questions
- allows me to find my phone, unlock my computer, and do other ecosystem stuff
- shows me the time
My Apple Watch will NOT:
- allow me to accidentally ruin an evening looking at the internet
It facilitates health and connection. It doesn't demand your attention. You won't see people who are lost in “their watch”.
A new piece of tech I wouldn’t want to live without is some nice, noise-canceling earbuds.
My AirPods:
- Allow to me focus on the task at hand
- Read me books while I mow
- Protect my ears while I mow
- Blunt the harshness of a 2 year old throwing a tantrum (just using them as earplugs, even without anything playing)
- Allow me to take and make hands-free calls
- Allow me to interact with Siri
The AirPod does, though, have a large portion of the blame for making random people less approachable. Little white earbuds are now ubiquitous, making idle chit chat between strangers waiting in line less frequent. They are too good at “shutting out the world”.
Tablets are the most “fun” class of consumer electronics. They are probably the most versatile piece of consumer electronics available.
My iPad:
- Is my favorite way to browse the internet
- When combined with headphones, is much better than a TV for solo movie watching
- Is an infinite piece of paper and an impossibly capable pencil that never runs dry
- Is a CAD device that can also scan in 3D models
- Is capable enough for a hobbyist for editing music, videos, photos, and podcasts
- Is what I’m writing this Column on
- Is more capable of playing games than I give it credit for1
- Is a good way to read books, PDFs, etc
- Allows me to markup PDFs, I can even do crosswords with the Apple Pencil
While it is very easy to lose a night playing around on an iPad, I find that when I'm on it I'm generally doing something more worthwhile or productive… or at least I'm enjoying myself more than comparable time spent on my phone.
The computer still has its role. For as much as I love my iPad, there’s still no great way to write code on an iPad. I’ve looked into it, trust me. Every solution out there doesn’t really work as well as having VS Code and a full internet browser on my computer.
The smart speaker was a not-so-brief flash in the pan, I think. We have a ton and we use them every day - but for reasons I’ll get into in my next Column… I’ve been thinking Alexa isn’t actually “adding” to my life. Having ready access to decent sound, especially sound that can be piped simultaneously to multiple speakers around the house, still feels like living in the future to me.
The TV is the best thing for communal experiences. The only piece of tech that my family and I can really enjoy simultaneously (aside from music from the speakers).
Finally, we have the phone. The phone is really only “the best” as a camera. In every other way the phone is outmoded by something else in the ecosystem. This gets to the point I'm trying to make here…
Screw the phone.
Apple assumes everyone has an iPhone. It's the primary device. It's the de facto “king” of your technology, as ordained by the church of Cupertino. You cannot use an iPad and Apple Watch together without an iPhone to bind them.
![[438-2.jpg]]
In a hypothetical world where I lived a “digital nomad” life, or just adopted brazen minimalism for whatever other purpose, I could see really enjoying a “Apple Watch + AirPods + iPad + Mac” setup2. As previously mentioned, the only thing you'd really be missing is the stellar camera on the iPhone. The simple removal of the little device in your pocket would free you from the tyranny of the ubiquitous access to the addictive little dopamine device. I think life would be better.
- We took a vacation to South Dakota to obtain a new brother-in-law/uncle for my sons. He's good. Vacation was good. Wedding was good. Pretty idyllic situation overall, I'd say.
- We took our Model Y on a road trip for the first time. More thoughts on that in my next Column.
- I just discovered that holding the "option" button on my iPad allows me to easily access weird off-keyboard characters, easy as π.
- My back, neck, and shoulder are still hurting from the work I did fixing our backyard water feature over a month ago. Possibly related: I turn 35 next month. 🙃
- Said water feature is finally functional again, though! ![[438-1.jpg]]
I try not to promise changes to the site, but here’s some I’ve been thinking about.
It didn’t go away. I just hid the link. I have several articles I’d like to write. Arguably this post should have been one.
If I switched from Notion, I'd figure out a way for my notes to live in the Column, as well.
There's one link right now. Ideally this could better support that, and any future podcasts I may formulate.
I am planning to write an “all about it” page. What it is and how it works, both from a laymen's perspective and a technical one.
I’m interested in moving this site from its current tech stack to something else entirely. You’ll know this happened if suddenly one day the site looks totally different.
---
title: Site Tech Stack Change
---
graph LR
subgraph today
direction LR
a(Markdown)
b(GitHub Pages)
c(Jekyll)
end
subgraph future
direction LR
d(Markdown)
e(Cloudflare? Vercel?)
f(Astro? Hugo?)
end
a-.content.->d
b--host-->e
c--"site generator"-->f
Look at those stinky stunks! My 2 Year Old, who calls skunks "stunks", about some guinea pigs at the local pet supply store
title: "#469 - EDC & One Bag Travel" date: 2025-01-18 tags:
- TOOLS description: draft: false permalink: "469" enableToc: true
It's been a while since I talked about EDC1 directly, and I'm not sure if I've ever directly covered one bag travel. Let's rectify that.
Also - I felt like drawings lots of things in Excalidraw, so get ready for that too.
Remember [[345|Column 345 about the Backpack]]? I love bags. I have too many of them, but I primarily use these.
![[345-1.jpg]]
Already extensively covered in [[345|Column 345]].
![[469-7.jpeg]]
My black Timbuk2 bag is great, but also more than I need for most things. Often I only need to hold my iPad, a water bottle, and a protein bar. Enter the Osprey Daylite Plus. It's awesome. In fact, when you stack it side-by-side with my other backpack, the Timbuk2 does not look good:
| Timbuk2 Never Check Expandable Backpack | Osprey Daylite Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 21 liter to 25 liter | 20 liter |
| Water bottle holder | 1 small one | 2 huge ones |
| Luggage pass thru | No | Yes |
| Reservoir compatible | No | Yes |
| Slip pocket | Technically, yes | Yes & it's better |
| Bag name | Stupid | Less stupid |
| Weight | 2.6 lbs | 1.3 lbs |
| Build quality | Great | Also great |
| Price | $230 | $75 |
The difference between 2.6 pounds and 1.3 pounds is really noticeable when you're walking around with a bag on your back all day. Also the bag takes up so much less space when it's empty. This much less fancy, much less expensive bag has nearly entirely replaced my "nicer" one. This fits in with a recurring theme/principle2 in my life: Less, but Better.
Sometimes you need to bring more stuff. These are my volume options. I like the one with wheels when I'm going on plane trips and the soft-sided one for when I'm going on car trips. They're both capable of holding around ~40 liters. They get the clothes, often segmented into packing cubes.
I find lots of write-ups like these focus heavily on the clothes themselves. I'm a weirdly-sized individual and don't think that my clothes recommendations would really apply to anyone under 6'4".5 I don't have a "standard" set of travel clothes. They're always picked and packed uniquely for whatever the trip needs.
I used to be the kind of organized person who wanted a 1000 little pockets for each of the 1000 little things. Now I'm much more a fan of the "bag in a bag" approach. Something my wife has advocated forever.
![[469-6.jpeg]]
I don't carry anything that doesn't comfortably fit in my pockets. Thus, my actual EDC is:
- An aging iPhone
- An aging Apple Watch
- A thin no-name wallet
- AirPods Pro
- Occasionally: multitool or pocket knife
My water bottle isn't on me 24/7 like the above, but it's pretty darn close. I definitely have a water bottle on me more often than the multitool/pocket knife. It ends up in every bag I have, or just generally sitting nearby. I bring it with me into places like Jimmy Johns, rather than produce the waste of getting a cup for water.
My water bottle of choice is still the 40oz Ice Shaker which I covered in [[440#Water Bottle Analysis 2023|Column 440]].
![[469-6.png]]
The most interesting part of this Column, I'd guess, is my Evergoods Civic Access Pouch. This is the bag that is my "bag in a bag". It goes into whatever backpack I'm using. It goes on my desktop at work and at home. This holds my daily-but-not-quite-EDC stuff. It is lightweight, firm enough to retain its shape but not rigid, and segmented enough to stay organized without forcing the use of its various pockets. Its killer feature, though, is the way that it opens up to a wedge shape, providing stability while displaying its contents for easy access. This functions like a desk drawer that's always at whatever table I'm working from.
![[469-9.jpeg]]
In this case is:
- General self-care things (travel toothbrush, lotion, lip balm, & some painkillers for errant headaches or whatever)
- Post-its (for a Daily Post-It)
- Writing implements (sharpie & pen)
- Protein bar and/or drink mix packets
- This awesome all-in-one travel charger (THANKS ED & MICHELE)
- A very small leatherman (not included on airplane loadouts)
- Empty space enough for other ad hoc uses (e.g. sunglasses)
This organizer is awesome.6
![[469-11.jpeg]]
The humble lunchbox gets not the appreciation it deserves. Our family is very much into the concept of "Meal Prep", and a decent lunchbox & bento boxes enable that habit. My lunchbox is its own ice pack. It lives neatly tucked into the bottom shelf of the freezer door. When I pull it out each morning it's cold and good to go.
![[469-10.jpeg]]
My chargers & cables bag is the result of a bad itch I needed scratched nearly a decade ago. Its contents have evolved some, but still it basically just holds chargers & cables. Everything in this bag lives in it permanently - it is not emptied between trips. It's a grab-and-go "I've got all the chargers & cables we'll need" solution.
- USB-C to USB-C x2 (one long, one short)
- USB-C to lightning7
- USB to lightning7
- Lightning to 3mm headphone adapter7
- Apple watch OG Charger
- Travel Apple Watch USB dongle
- A high-powered multi-USB wall adapter for simultaneous charging overnight
- A small portable power bank
- A pen
- Some Tylenol / ibuprofen
There's no picture here, because I've not found a Dopp Kit9 setup that I like. Some day I'll get a bug in me and need to flex my consumerist muscles to get some "perfect dopp kit setup" that achieves the same job as my charger & cables bag. Until then, this is the weakest area of my packing game. I like to use mouthwash, and despite using travel-sized mouthwashes and travel-sized hair products, it just doesn't quite fit everything I'd want it to. So I end up with another bag that routinely gets forgotten in the bathroom at my in-laws'.
You'll have to imagine the numbers 1 through 5 in this image.
![[469-5.png]]
He said we have to do something creative to get $1, and if we don't Watch watch TV we get $5, so I don't want $5.
- My 6 Year Old
date: 2012-09-04T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- DRAWINGS
- TECH
- LIFE
- PICTURES title: '#29 - The Wait (Irishfest, Tech Factionism) ' aliases: '#29 - The Wait (Irishfest, Tech Factionism) ' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '29'
The motto is my Anglicised form of Erin Go Bragh. Which apparently truly Irish people don't say, or at least don't spell like that anyways.
Here's the way the rest of this column is going to go down: I'm going to briefly recap my recent trip to KC Irishfest, move on into the greater sense of Irishness and take a brief look into my roots, then "the wait", and end off with a random Top 5 about tech factionism, which is a word I made up for this post.
Melissa and I went to the tenth annual Irishfest in Kansas City this weekend. It was our second time attending the festival, the first time where we went there on purpose. During our 7 hours there we saw, amongst other things, Irish bands, dancers, comedians, and a 7 foot tall guy that I walked by in shame. On our way to buy tickets to get in, an old man handed us two tickets for free. My streak of good luck continues.
An interesting note, Melissa and I accidentally recreated a photo we took exactly 2 years ago:
Comparison notes: I got happier. Melissa and I both adopted one-strap bags. The fountains got lighter. The weight of heritage at Irishfest got me thinking about my own. I don't know what exactly it is that makes up my lineage. I know there's some Irish in there. The only thing I really have to go off of at the moment is my name:
Aaron - Hebrew, likely Egyptian. Meaning either "mountain" or "enlightenment". Gillespie - Originally Scottish or Irish, Anglicized to its current form. Meaning "Servant of the bishop".
I guess I serve people that like moving in only diagonal lines.
Interestingly, my idea for the tattoo I was considering (I'm not getting a tattoo, mom and dad, don't worry) showed strong Celtic and Egyptian symbolism before I realized their significance in my name. It was something like the following:
The tattoo idea that ended up just being a wallpaper for my phone for a few months.
I could do a Top 5 things I'm waiting for right now, but I already wrote my Top 5. So, instead, I'm waiting for a 64gb flash drive and official job offer to come in the mail, to move into my own place by myself for the first time, the new Armored Kill Battlefield 3 update to download, and, as always, the newest tech news (Motorola phone with no bezel, the iPhone 5, Windows and Windows Phone 8, and the once rumored fleet of Nexus devices, to name a few). This post was written to pass the time, hence it kind of sucks.
The following Top 5 is my recent thoughts about jumping into any one tech company's pool fully. This means no mixing of the breeds. No iPhone with a Window's computer, etc. Before we do that, I should remind everyone of my allegiance:
(My MySpace-Style Android Allegiance Shot)
Top 5+1: Technological factions to get behind right now, and what that means for you both now and in the future, when your phone and computer are almost entirely inseparable (just IMHO)
Desktop PC you built from scratch running some Linux Distro + Probably WebOS Phone First off, I admire your spirit. Secondly, I feel kind of sorry for you.
Your IMB ThinkPad laptop from work + Whatever new Blackberry. You've already lost and will continue to lose. Even if Blackberry 10 is awesome, you'll probably still lose.
Your <3 years old Macbook Pro + the newest or second newest iPhone + iCloud + optional iPad + Safari It's now ironic that Apple's slogan 15 years ago was "think different", considering now its slogan would be more along the lines of "Join the Hivemind". Going Apple is now so standard that hipsters are doing it ironically. Going Apple means your software and hardware will always be tightly integrated and you'll never have compatibility issues within your own ecosystem... but that nicely formatted Microsoft Word document you just finished might look a bit funny on your professor/boss's Windows unit. Going Apple is a solid choice if you are okay with being like everyone else (which, honestly, isn't a bad thing! There's a reason it's so popular). Oh, and your hardware will always be more expensive than it really should be.
Windows 8 Desktop + Windows Phone 8 + @Outlook.com email address + Optional Surface Tablet + Internet Explorer 9 There was a time when going Microsoft was laughable notion... with the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, this is no longer the case. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft is poised nicely to make a roaring comeback. Your new Windows 8 Phone should (in theory) integrate perfectly with your new Windows 8 Desktop or Laptop... think iPhone/Macbook level integration. Doing so, you'll have some really nice things going for you. However, I just can't shake the feeling that Microsoft is going to overextend some with what it's going for, or they will miss the target wildly in some areas. If they can keep bloatware off systems and provide a truly compelling reason to go Windows, even I would consider it strongly.
Newest or 2nd newest generation Android Phone + @gmail.com email address + Chromebook + Optional Nexus Tablet + Chrome Browser The internet is your noble companion and just about your only option in some aspects. Actually going with a ChromeOS computer as your only option is really a bad idea if you ever want to do anything serious. Gmail and Android, however, will always be the shining beacons of giving the consumers exactly what they need cleanly and without a lot of extra crap. Android is now, and will likely continue to be, the best thing that exists. It's just science.
Facebook on all the browsers at all times + potential "Facebook Phone" Your actions, friends, photos, location, and thoughts are all monitored, cataloged, and indexed. You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? If you elect to go the route of Facebook I don't like you. Also, the "Facebook Phone" will never actually happen.
"I imagine sheep are a lot heavier when they are wet... Water doesn't run off a sheep's back like it does a duck's back. Ducks probably couldn't do it either, run off a wet sheep's back. They'd probably get stuck there. Then what you'd end up with is sheep full of dead ducks." Ardal O'Hanlon, the Irish comedian from Irishfest
title: '#449 - The Notes are Back' description: My Cache of Evergreen Notes has a New Online Home tags:
- LIFE date: 2024-01-22T00:00:00.000Z draft: false aliases:
- '#449 - The Notes are Back'
- '#449' enableToc: true permalink: '449'
This post is mostly a link to this.
~6 months ago I switched by body of evergreen notes from Notion to Obsidian as part of an effort to give these notes the best chance of still being around in 30 years. With that came the loss of the free notes publishing service. While Obsidian is stellar, their subscription for their publishing service is slightly too pricey for my taste at this point in time1. So, I was unable to publish the 256 notes I’ve created since July, 2023.
That’s changed now:
[!tip] My notes.
That’s the master index. The notes aren’t laid out so that they can be read end-to-end2. Instead, they’re this densely interlinked web:
![[449-1.png]]
Each of the circles in that image is a note. The lines between them represent hyperlinks. The color are bound to tags5. So, as an alternative to the link above, see the Top 5 for five somewhat randomly-chosen starting off points.
The Standard Process
Despite how involved this whole thing looks, it's really not all that crazy or difficult.
flowchart TD
A[Read something]
B[Think of something]
C[Hear something]
D(Write it down)
A --> D
B --> D
C --> D
E[Add to Obsidian & link to other notes]
D --periodically--> E
It just involves using an inbox to perform ongoing capture, and periodically cleaning it out. It's nibbling at the elephant, a little bit, consistently, over time.
Note: I don't plan to do this "linking to my notes everywhere" thing in most Columns. Doing it here because it's the point of this post.
5 months ago I wrote about “local vs the cloud” and my intention to become (slightly) less dependent on hardware & services that might pull a Google. I presented my “so what” to illustrate what I was going to do about it. Since that time I also successfully moved my quantified-self system to something that’s modularized and portable. I can run it locally, too.
Yay me.
The following five notes were selected somewhat randomly, but represent a cross-section of my notes.
5. SysML
2. Enough
What’s a “wack”?. My 5 Year Old, in response to being told he had wax in his ears
Seltzer for my homies
Fintel
Gangster Bean Trading
Krista
I'm relatively good at extemporaneous speaking, so let's see how this goes.
Erik
I live my life one egg corn at a time
Nick, who will probably forget he said this
date: 2013-04-16T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- VIDEO
- LIFE
- PICTURES title: '#78 - TL;DR Thailand is Awesome and We''re Engaged' aliases: '#78 - TL;DR Thailand is Awesome and We''re Engaged' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '78'
Motto: "Sa-wat-dee-khrap" not "Sweaty Crap"
The motto is phonetically how you say "Hello" politely as a male speaker in Thai. I usually just said "hi". This column is a recounting of my trip to Thailand and my engagement to +Melissa Hill.
This post will have several pages worth of information, pictures, and one video. To keep the length of this post somewhat manageable, though, I'm going to employ my favorite space-saving technique:.
I flew from Kansas City to Los Angeles, to Tokyo, to Bangkok. I flew Delta. I will probably use them from now on if I have the option. More about Delta will follow in my next column (I already have it planned) I stayed up the night before my initial flight at 6am to try to nip jetlag in the bud. I couldn't sleep on the plane due to being 6'8" to 6'9" and generally giddiness. I had been awake for ~43 hours straight when I reached Japan. I took a sleeping pill when my plane was about to board. My plane was delayed. 3 hours. I fell asleep on a bench. I woke up as my plane was boarding - didn't alert Melissa I did, in fact, wake up. I arrived in Bangkok around 3am (as opposed to the 11:30pm that was supposed to be) Total transit time: Around 36 hours. Somehow I missed Melissa, who was waiting for me at my gate. I couldn't get a password for the WiFi. Melissa thought I was still asleep in Japan. I walked around BKK airport for an hour and fifteen minutes without any means to contact anyone before we ran across each other. We hopped in a Taxi. I was, in a word, zonked.
Melissa's place Really nice, actually. It was like a really good dorm room. She lives in an apartment without a roommate in Salaya, Thailand. Mahidol University The Univeristy at which Melissa works, based out of Salaya, is also really nice. The campus was huge. Hard to compare it to KU, but it seemed to be of the same approximate size. Wikipedia just told me they have 26 thousand students. KU has 29 thousand. Close! Bangkok Bangkok was weirdly exactly like I expected and nothing at all like I expected. There are hundreds of skyscrapers littered throughout the landscape... but they are not all congregated in any one main area. You have vast expanses of small buildings, slums, parks, rivers, and favelas in between the huge, tall buildings. But no matter which way you look, you see sky scrappers in the distance. The heat was bad, but not "the worst thing I've ever experienced" like I was expecting. Melissa said she was intentionally making it seem worse than it really was so I would be prepared. There were monks walking around, but no elephants. I was only half disappointed.
The Grand Palace The Grand Palace is huge. Huge and golden. I've been to several big churches in the United States - but nothing I've ever seen even begins to compare to the Grand Palace. It's... astonishing. There were a seemingly unending amount of shrines, buildings, artwork, and people. The place was extremely dense with tourists. It was really hot and bright. Wat Po Although not as huge as the Grand Palace - still huge. Less vertical. Less dense in general. This included less people - which I loved. Full of art and history and golden and rock statues of monks, little Buddhas, and the largest Buddha in Thailand. 32 feet tall. 141 feet long. (he's laying on his side) There were many other temples we could have/were going to see; but that was the hottest day of the trip. This was exacerbated by the fact that we had to wear long pants to enter some of the temples.
Being American, I enjoyed the malls quite a lot. There are 4 malls that are more or less in a line near the middle of Bangkok in Siam Square. The malls decreased in "niceness" and "hugeness" as you went down the line from East to West. The malls were the best example of just how much influence American culture has in other countries. I was sitting in the food court across from a Subway, Auntie Annes, Hagaan Daz, KFC, and a Burger King. The menus weren't quite the same - but everything was in English. You had to really look to find any Thai. The largest mall, Siam Paragon, is 7 stories tall and houses hundreds of stores. American stores like H&M, The Gap, Forever 21, and probably others that I don't even know about. Other stores of note: Samsung, Sony, Ferarri (with actual cars), Prada, Versache, I realize it was largely targeted at foreigners ("Farang" as they said), but it was still quite surprising.
The natural beauty of the jungles and beaches of Thailand cannot begin to be described in words. I would pit the beaches at the Similan and Surin Marine National Parks against any beach anywhere. Anywhere.
The sand was almost purely white and ultrafine. Individual grains of sand were impossible to see. It was like walking on powder. It was hard to tell where the sand ended and the water began.
The water was clear and full of coral and fish. Snorkeling there was unreal.
I hated snorkeling at first. After my brain realized I wasn't drowning, though, it was awesome. Tandem snorkeling with Melissa is an experience I'll never forget.
Probably the most impressive and great thing about the beaches was just how empty they were. There were hundreds and hundreds of feet of beach and less than 100 people there. You'll notice in the pictures later there are hardly any other people in the background. Try doing that in Florida.
Overall Impressions of the People in Thailand:
The Thais are unanimously nice and courteous. They mind their own business and leave you be.
This wasn't just something I realized as an afterthought - this was something that shocked me every day I was there.
I wish America was halfway near that laid back.
People in Thailand are shorter in general. When we were riding one of the many forms of public transportation we used, Melissa was often (but not always) the second tallest person person or close to being the second tallest person on board. Having said that - they also react hilariously to tall people. They were never rude about it - but I could definitely tell they don't routinely see people who can't stand up on their buses.
Speaking of public transit - it is used by normal people over there. Here (at least where I live) it seems like the bus stop is frequented only by the sketchiest of individual. I would pick bus stops in Thailand over Kansas City 100 days out of 100.
Ladyboys exist.
The trip back was slightly shorter than the trip there. Probably 32 hours. It seemed much shorter, though, because I was travelling with the sun. I left Thailand and arrived in America on the same day, technically. The landing in Japan was rough. Like, "I let out a bit of a yelp and grabbed the seat in front of me with white knuckles" rough. They warned us about high winds ahead of time. They weren't joking. I figured out the seats on the international flights CAN be sleepable if I sat a certain way.
The other thing I wanted to write about is the biggest thing that happened during the whole trip, if not the biggest thing that has ever happened in my life:
I got engaged.
During the middle day of the trip, the 2nd of the three days we spent in the jungles and the beaches, I used the natural beauty of the landscape as the setting for the biggest question you ever get to ask anyone... Will you marry me?
She said yes.
(Check the quote at the end of this column for the actual transcript... I left out the long, stunned silence that occurred first.)
I manged to find a secluded section of the beach with a fantastic view. It was in the corner, near a group of interesting rocks. While she was taking pictures and enjoying the scenery, I was setting up a video camera and getting the ring out from it's hiding spot deep within our bag. The whole thing is on video.
Afterwards, we took several photos. Both on the beach, and later at the Kuraburi resort. This photo was taken were I asked her.
People in Thailand apparently love jump photos. This is for you guys.
Now, I present to you a clip-video from the craziest and best week of my life:
(editor's note from the future: this video lost to time)
Melissa and I are engaged to be wed. We have taken the next step towards the rest of our lives.. and I can't wait.
That's Melissa. She's my fiancé.
I was going to do a Top 15 favorite photos. I was going to just link to an album of 50 photos and do a Top 5 photos. But I think, instead, I'll break the trip down into it's main four parts - each with it's own Photo Top 5.
- A Photosphere that was taken on the way to get a world-famous Thai massage.
- Melissa and the reason she's in Thailand to begin with.
- This gong is about 10 feet away from the previous picture - and yes, I did really hit it.
- We have dozens of pictures from the malls, but I like this one best. It was the Me-est thing we found!
- A bad representation of the Bangkok skyline (I don't really have a good one) behind an attractive couple.
- A great introductory picture. Thank you, Melissa, for suggesting it.
- Me Wai-ing within the walls of the Grand Palace (the palace is mostly behind the camera).
- Pretty self-explanatory.
- These two pictures together paint a single picture of what it was like that day.
- And these two pictures together paint a single picture of just how immature I am.
- This picture was taken within 5 minutes of our first glimpse of the ocean (which is behind the camera).
- Melissa recreating her favorite photo from her first trip to Thailand at a new beach.
- There were only about 25 people on the trip - I think Melissa was the first in the water.
- Mermaid and Mer-man. I totally pulled it off better, by the way.
- One of the first photos we took after the proposal - before the jump shot from before.
- I do not like this photo. Amy said I "had" to post it, though. So I did cause she's tough.
- Arguably my favorite photo that was posed for (I'm terrible at posing).
- Correction: I like this one better.
- I'm glad she likes me.
- A genuine and natural smile from a genuine and natural beauty.
“Of course I'll marry you, yes!” Melissa
description: The Week is Weak tags:
- LIFE
- META date: 2022-03-21T00:00:00.000Z title: '#418 - 10 Years + 168 Hours' aliases: '#418 - 10 Years + 168 Hours' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '418'
It’s been 10 years of Columns.
Yay! 🎉
In college I learned that "economics" is the study of unlimited wants in a world with limited resources. Despite the fact that economics was boring1, the general concept is something I find endlessly fascinating. How can you get what you want out of life with what you have?
The economics of life boil down to how you choose to use your great personal resources: time, money, and energy.
While we may not be able to exert much control over the total volume of these resources, we have some control over their proportions.
| Trade | Trade Forward | Trade Backward |
|---|---|---|
| Time |
Work more hours. Take a 2nd or 3rd job. Fix your own car. Paint your own house. |
Work fewer hours. Try a part-time job. Pay someone to fix your car. Pay someone to paint your house. |
| Money |
Pay someone to help you move. Buy medicine. Buy a better mattress. Get a babysitter. |
Move yourself. Save the money and be sick. Couches can be beds, too. Never pay anyone for child care. |
| Energy |
Stay awake late at night. Wake up super early. Run. Never exercise. |
Go to bed early. Sleep in! Walk. Exercise 60 minutes a day. |
Did you know a week is 10,000 minutes long?1
How the hell do 10,000 minutes go by every week? What happened!? It sounds like so much!
...but then if you take a serious look at the things you have to do and the things you want to do, it becomes clear: the week isn't enough.
In order to be "living right", I'd want to spend:
- 56 hours - sleep 7.5 hours a night, which really means at least 8 hours dedicated to bedtime.
- 45 hours - work 40 hours week, which really means ~45 hours if you’re lucky with commutes and extra hours spent to get what needs done done.
- 11.5 hours - cook & eat your own meals, which I reckon is about 90 minutes day unless you’re doing fast food/convenience food for 2+ meals.
- 7 hours - maintain your relationship with your partner, which we’ll just call an hour a day for focused, direct relationship building. Playing games. Having real conversations. Going on dates.
- 14 hours - make memories with and enjoy your children. Playing toys with them. Teaching them things. Reading with them. Chasing them around yelling like you’re a monster.
- 14 hours - keeping your kids alive. Cleaning them. Making them eat. Taking them to and from places.
- 11.5 hours - maintain the stuff you own. Clean your house. Take your car into the shop. Fix that thing that broke. Update your computer. Do your laundry and dishes.
- 11.5 hours - pursue your own interests (have a hobby).
- 3.5 hours - exercise every other day for an hour.
- 3.5 hours - half an hour a day for bathing, grooming, dressing.
- 2.5 hours - shopping for the things you need to live.
We’ve got 168 hours to work with. I just knocked out 179 of those 168.
That’s not even accounting for things like the >3 hours a day people spend looking at their phones, seeing friends and other family, any of the things that can easily zap entire days (e.g. being sick and trying to fix it), or any sort of above-and-beyond activity (say like writing a Column).
Imagine if you took the time to actually read those End User License Agreements and Terms of Services before clicking ‘agree’.
- 49 hours - sleep 7 hours a night.
- 42.5 hours - work 40 hours. Live closer to your job.
- 7 hours - save a few hours eating stuff that’s bad for you.
- 21 hours - try to make memories with your kids while doing the things they need you to do to keep them alive.
- 2 hours - try to maintain your relationship primarily while doing other things (like cleaning)
- 21 hours - just zoning out. Thinking. Resting. Looking a screen for the purposes of escape or entertainment.
- 10 hours - maintaining the stuff you own, save a couple hours letting some broken things stay broken, letting some chores pile up.
- 7 hours - on that hobby of yours.
- 2.5 hours - only manage to work out 2 1/2 times each week.
- 3.5 hours - let’s just assume you bathe and groom per the plan.
- 2.5 hours - shopping.
168 hours with cut corners at every turn.
The day has 24 hours. Pretending that’s not true leads to failure, or worse - burnout followed by failure.
In an ideal world, you’d expend your resources in proportion with how they come to you naturally. If you make lots of money, you spend lots of money. If you’re naturally blessed with high levels of energy, you take up active hobbies. If you’ve got time, you take up time-intensive hobbies. If you’re out of alignment, see if you can trade one resource for another to get yourself back in alignment.
This is where I struggle. Almost all of my personal interests and hobbies traded time for money.
This blog costs me $12/year to maintain, and that’s just cause I want the fancy URL. But I’ve been writing this post for 2 hours now.
My recent "Wrapper-Lib" coding project cost me $0 but took probably ~25 hours to get to its current state.
More generally I reckon I’ve spent weeks-to-months of hours working on the Personal Data Warehouse concept, and it’s still not really what I want it to be.
The workbenches I’m building in my garage have been probably 40+ hours at this point when I consider the design time, trip to the store for materials, and the few hours I’ve spent actually building them thus far.
Don’t set yourself up for failure. You can only do so many things a day. You also don’t want to just "do nothing". Live on the edge of your capability. The high edge. Not the low one.
I spend an unnecessary amount of time worrying about the ‘optimal’ way to characterize and assess things. The table above was the 4th iteration on presentation of "Trading Resources". I still don’t love it. Frankly I don’t even really like splitting "time" from "energy". I care about the application of energy, which requires time. This more aligns with the philosophy you’d find in something like ‘Your Money or Your Life’. Or, perhaps, go in the other direction and split out mental energy from physical energy. Why not include spiritual energy?
Does it really matter? Probably not.
But where do you draw the line? Some things have to matter. We’re all just doing the best we can with what we’ve got.
My computer is now 7+ years old. This is when I wrote about building it. I think it will be replaced soon. Probably with a Mac Mini or something similar.
I used my iPad Pro to take a 3D scan of the workbench I’m building. I can’t believe this is a thing that I can do.
{% include video id="AFLQPrlMWP4" provider="youtube" %}
I finally got some AirPods Pro. They are cool. I just apologized to my wife for my iPad playing music loudly while she was trying to get some work done. I said "sorry, my AirPods aren’t working".
Turns out my AirPods were working and spatial audio is legit.
Make decisions, then be done with them. Waffling is a cause of unhappiness. It also is unproductive. Use Satisficing. Stick with the plan. Unless something REALLY isn't working, just keep going with it. This is also a core part of the Antifragile Planning Method.. My Notes I should read
title: '#125 - The Mighty and the Mischievous ' date: '2013-10-20' aliases:
- '#125 - The Mighty and the Mischievous '
- '#125' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '125'
Motto: He then let out a mighty, roaring mew
Melissa and I each got a kitten. We named them Thor and Loki and they are awesome. I am going to dedicate this Column to gushing about the kittens. I'm going to get out all of the crazy kitten pictures out of my system. Starting now.
 |
|---|
| Thor and Loki |
 |
|---|
| They Play |
 |
|---|
| They Fall Asleep Reading Reddit |
 |
|---|
| They Stay Ever Vigilant |
 |
|---|
| They Respect and Fear the Hulk |
All pictures taken by Melissa. She wanted credit. I'm giving her credit both for the pictures and for wanting the credit for the pictures.
Continuing with the kitten theme - I made this recording earlier today:
About the cats - they are interesting. I'm going to probably tell some stories about them at some point because they are interesting. They have these complex and unique personalities. They are so interesting.
The following video is a one minute commitment:
Column #125 - The Asgardians - Volume 1 from Aaron Gillespie on Vimeo.
I had to create a Vimeo account and upload that to Vimeo because YouTube muted the audio around which the structure of the video was built.
This seemed to me like the perfect picture to go out on:
Top 5: Poetic Pet Peeves
5. When people refer to "consciousness" as some sort of strange living being that is beyond their control.
4. Using obscure words for the sake of using obscure words.
3. Bad or simple rhymes or rhyme schemes.
2. Any usage of "Living in a world of..."
1. A metaphor or other attempt at deep thought that has to constantly explain itself.
Quote:
“I never pegged you as a cat person”
- Jon, and no, I'm still not a cat person -
title: '#174 - The Walled Garden of Eden' date: '2014-06-06' aliases:
- '#174 - The Walled Garden of Eden'
- '#174' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '174'
Motto: WWDC stands for Wow. What a Developer's Conference
Everything I'm about to say might surprise some people, but it really shouldn't. This column is about Apple's developer's conference that happened a couple days ago and how impressed I am with their announcements. Here is a brief overview of what Apple announced. I'll be presenting it as "feature (prior art)" to illustrate that it's possible to do just that before making my final point that prior art doesn't matter.
The Operating System that runs Mac computers is getting an upgrade by the name of "Yosemite". This update brings a number of changes:
- Updated iconography (like iOS)
- An expanded notifications (like iOS)
- Safari upgrades (like Chrome in many respects)
- Mail markup (like Evernote's "Skitch")
They are also updating iOS to version 8. This update also brings a lot of changes:
- Interactive notifications (Android)
- 3rd party keyboards (Android)
- Extendability between 3rd party applications (Android)
- Messages audio/video chat (Snapchat/WhatsApp)
- Photos App with cloud backup and editing (Google+ Photos)
- Hands Free Siri (Moto X Android)
- Widgets in the notification shade (Android)
- Battery usage by app (Android)
- Wifi calling with carrier OK (Skype, LINE, Talkatone, etc)
- HomeKit (AT&T Digital Life, sorta)
- HealthKit (an extension of Fitbit and other such products)
Most impressively, they updated OS X and iOS to function together in a way that far surpasses anything else on the market. They called in "continuity", I'll call it "the biggest innovation since the iPad". Here's changes common to both Operating Systems:
- Spotlight's role and functionality was expanded upon (spotlight previous & Google Search)
- iCloud Drive (Google Drive (Dropbox)
- Airdrop files between iOS & Macs (various wireless transfer apps that never really work well)
- Make your iPhone into a Wireless Hotspot without leaving your computer (various hotspotting apps that never really work well)
- Send and receive SMS & Phone calls from your computer (Google Voice)
Lastly, they announced a brand new coding language - "Swift". This is a much bigger deal than any of the above if you are a developer. Here is the main point I'm trying to make in this post: Nothing NOTHING Apple did should really be considered "unlike anything we've ever seen". Everything they put together has a clear bit of prior art. But here's the deal, it doesn't matter. They took ideas from Google, Android, Chrome, Google Voice, Snapchat, Dropbox, Evernote, and implemented them in a much more elegant, consumer-friendly manner to their expansive user base. They added even more guns to their already impressive arsenal. More than anything else, Apple has done a really impressive job of pulling together a platform-wide solution for all of your consumer electronics needs. Everything you want to do, you can do on an Apple product while enjoying a consistent design, user-experience, and level of quality. If you were so inclined (and you had the cash) it would be perfectly painless to put together a practical, palatable, playful yet professional, particularly premium, pleasant platform to produce motion pictures, paint portraits, photoshop pictures, play pop pieces, pull up reports, and look at cats on the internet. Apple hit a homerun. They hit a homerun to the tune of this die-hard Android fan seriously thinking. Google I/O (Google's developer conference) is at the end of this month; and they better deliver.
Top 5: Things I Used to Point to as Evidence of Android's Superiority
- Inter-app sharing. Apple has this now. 4. Customizable homescreens. Apple is still a step below Android in this aspect, but it's much much closer to parity. 3. Alternative keyboards. Swiping input is so much easier than tapping input. It's just true. Apple's got it now. 2. Google Now. Apple doesn't really have Google Now. 1. Hardware variance - namely, screen size. I love my 5 inch phone. The iPhone has a 4 inch display. I just couldn't sacrifice that much screen real estate. Maybe the iPhone 6 will give us something bigger.
Quote:
“iOS 8 is the dramatic redesign that iOS 7 promised”
- The Verge, which I used to help me remember all Apple's announcements -
title: '#216 - Writing about 6 Months without Writing ONLY about 6 Months' date: '2014-11-03' aliases:
- '#216 - Writing about 6 Months without Writing ONLY about 6 Months'
- '#216' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '216'
Motto: Putting the "I" in "Happiness"
I'm going to write a bit about a subject I normally avoid writing about (because I think it's awkward to read about) - my wife.
Melissa and I met a little over 5 years ago. Melissa and I got married 6 months ago. We've lived together ever since. It's been a dream. It's been better than I could have hoped for. I knew, intellectually, that living with the love of your life would be a recipe for genuine and continual happiness - but I didn't know what that would actually feel like. It's the highlight of my day when I wake up in the morning, to see her there. It's the highlight of my day when we meet again after work. Making dinner, playing games, spending time together, are all the highlight of my day. When I go to bed each night, she's there - and it's the highlight of my night. You might notice that my day is pretty much covered in highlighter at this point. That's what it's actually like. She's wonderful. She's beautiful. She's talented. She's happy. She's dedicated. She's a genuine pleasure to be around. I love my wife. If the past half year is any indication of what the next 100 half years will be like, I'm so game. I'm a lucky dude, and I know that.
Feel awkward? Too bad.
Melissa is listening to a piano solo version of "Where is My Mind?", which just so happens to be one of my favorite songs. Just wanted to throw that last bit in there for good measure.
Anyway, I said I wasn't going to ONLY write about that, so here's one other thing:
Correction I've been meaning to make: The Nexus 9 does NOT price-match the new iPad Air 2. The Nexus 9 starts at $399, not $499. However, that model only comes with 16 GB of storage. When I think of tablets, I think of games. When I think of games, I think of massive usage of storage space. Also, taking movies onto a plane. You'd probably want the $479 32 GB variant. So, in short, I'm a little more impressed with the Nexus 9 now. I still don't plan on buying one - but I'd certainly consider it if I weren't focusing on saving money.
Top 5: Final Thoughts about My Captain America Halloween Costume 5. I'm really glad Melissa forced me to do it with her costume choice. Captain America is way more memorable than BoJack Horseman. 4. I love having the shield. I'm glad I made one instead of buying one. Having said all that, I want to make it better. 3. I didn't like that my costume consisted of a shield, a mask, some gloves, and then my normal street clothes. The rest of the costume could have been more fledged-out. 2. I'm not committing to myself anything, but I'd like to try this costume again sometime. With more than a shield, gloves, and a mask. I want a full blown suit. 1. Captain America is 6 inches shorter than me, but weighs basically the same. In order for me to accurately portray the character I'd probably need to gain 40 lbs and do so in the right places. That's not happening. I'd settle for half that!
Quote:
“I also like dropping the bar like it's a hot mic.”
- Joe, while we were listing things we like about deadlifts -
title: '#187 - LightWORKS' date: '2014-07-24' aliases:
- '#187 - LightWORKS'
- '#187' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '187'
Motto: IT'S ALIVE!!!
This is a continuation of my previous few Columns. Re: Linux & video editing I've determined a new problem regarding Linux and video editing. The better of my two GoPros uses a filesystem type that Linux is incapable of reading. This filesystem type is hardcoded into the GoPro. There is no correction. The workaround is to use my Chromebook and a large flash drive to copy videos from the GoPro to the flash drive and then copy the videos from the flash drive to my Linux machine. It's annoying, but hardly a show-stopper. Glad that I found yet another use for my Chromebook! Overall, I'm very optimistic regarding Linux and video editing, though. Why you ask? I learned Lightworks... kinda. My analogy comparing Lightworks to a weird foreign language with horrible yet strict grammar rules still rings true - but I learned how to speak the sentence that I need to speak. I can take a clip, cut it down to a specific size, insert it into the timeline, and put a title in the corner. Keeping to the analogy, that's the only sentence I know how to say... but I'm getting pretty good at it. The workflow is actually faster than it was on my old editor thanks to some intelligent systeming on the part of Lightworks. After I figured out how to "speak my sentence" in Lightworks, I was able to cut together August 2013 from the new Second-a-day video in a surprisingly short amount of time.
So I'm feeling super optimistic all the sudden. It's not perfect, there are still nagging issues (framerate problems on individual clips), but I think I have workarounds for all of my problems. Re: Fitness Baseline I'm really excited about this idea. Last night I ran three miles. It was slow, I had to walk some, but but I don't care. I completed the full three. I never stopped. I'm not sure I've ever actually run 3 miles before. Here's the rest of the plan: I will measure all metrics over the course of a single week. This will keep things consistent and help keep the samples discrete. By the end of this week I will have data to complete this list - 1 mile time: 3 mile time: 29 minutes, 40 seconds Plank time: Pushup rep number: 34 Pullup rep number: 10 Press weight: 130 Bench weight: Squat weight: 250 Deadlift weight: Yoga... feeling: Okay, not great. Need to work on hip flexibility and balance. Body weight: 224.4 I wish I had something on that list to measure explosiveness or agility. Those things are hard to measure, though. Maybe I'll think of something. Look for a completed fitness baseline sometime this weekend or early next week.
Maybe I should add a "fitness" tag. I don't think tags get used much. Probably because they aren't very useful. Honestly, this whole blog thing could use some TLC. Re: the rest of life Things are really great.
Like, really great.
Melissa and I are behind on doing some final wedding stuff. We DO have video from the ceremony. We DO have professional photos from the day. We have some sharing to do. In due time.
Top 5: Most Played Artists on My Google Play Music
5. We were Promised Jetpacks
4. The Black Keys
3. The Shins
2. The Strokes
1. Modest Mouse
Quote:
“Also, I s**t at the gym if it's leg day. For safety reasons.”
- Jon -
title: '#356 - Feature: Personal History of Phones & the iPhone' date: '2018-11-11' aliases:
- '#356 - Feature: Personal History of Phones & the iPhone'
- '#356' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '356'
Motto: BAAAAAAH
 |
|---|
| This graphic took longer to make than it was worth - the dates are (obviously) approximations |
Some history (if you don't care about history and just want to read about Aaron & the iPhone, skip down to after the next photo in this post):
My very first phone I got sometime around my junior year of high school. It was a flip phone with a VGA camera (in today's terminology, that's 0.3 megapixels). I thought it was so cool. If you took someone's photo with it, you could usually tell who it was! It had ringtones to pick from, you could call your friends on it, or you could text them using the T9 buttons (but who texts?). My first week with the phone it flew out the window of a moving vehicle onto a gravel road. It survived. Having this piece of technology of my very own was EXTREMELY exciting. I started reading about phones and other pieces of consumer technology using my parent's computer on Mozilla Firefox.
After a year and a half, my parents got me my first smartphone - the Motorola Moto Q. It had a huge 320x240 display and a 1.3 megapixel camera. You could technically install 3rd party software on it, but it was pretty much impossible to do so.
Another year and a half went by. I was about to enter my second year of college when I got my first (and only) Blackberry 8330. The blackberry was different. The screen was bigger (2.5 inches!). The rollerball was a revolution in user inputs. The keyboard was great. I don't want to brag but I did get to the point where I could text blindly under my desk in class without the need to proofread. There were 3rd party applications. I remember I even got one or two, but I don't remember what they were or why you'd want them. At the time, the Blackberry was king of the crop (with the possible exception of the Palm Treo, which I never owned).
Next was the big one... the biggest jump from one phone to the next. It didn't happen between the dumb flip phone and the "smart' Moto Q, it happened between my Blackberry and my first Android phone - the Motorola Droid. This was, and maybe still is, my favorite phone I've ever had. It was incredible. It took photos that looked like photos. Its 5MP camera had a flash! It had an internet browser that looked kinda like the actual internet. It had GOOGLE MAPS and GPS! It had a proper headphone jack (RIP). It had a HUGE (3.7") touch screen, AND a slide-out keyboard so I wouldn't have to rely on any finicky on-screen keyboards. People weren't sure how those would play out yet at the time. I distinctly remember when my PlayStation 3 was still new, yet my cousins and I took turns playing with their new phones more than the PlayStation. They were just unlike anything anyone had ever seen before (other than the iPhone, but who could afford an iPhone - they were like $600! for a phone!). This represented a jump in phone technology that I think hasn't really been replicated since, and may never be. Suddenly a phone went from being just a phone to being a phone, a GPS, a camera, a gameboy, a flashlight, and a Google machine.
My 3rd year in college I got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It had an even bigger, even sharper screen, that was curved somewhat for no reason. It was slightly faster, but otherwise it wasn't much of an upgrade. The hardware was kind of crap, though, even at the time. It felt like you were about to break it constantly. Samsung forced some crapware onto it and permanently gave me a grudge against Samsung.
At Google I/O 2012 Google announced their cheap-but-good LG Nexus 4! I bought it as soon as stock was available. It had a nifty pattern on the back. It had wireless charging (THE FUTURE!). It's camera still sucked by modern standards, but was approaching okay? It was a well-built phone, but was quickly overshadowed by its successor.
The LG Nexus 5 was incredible. It felt like a true step up in a way that the previous two didn't. It had a massive 5 inch screen. It had a no-joke HD (1920x1080) screen. It had an 8MP camera, with (I think?) optical image stabilization. It was fast enough to play some real games. This phone was a legend. It is tied with the next one on this list as my 2nd favorite phone (for the time) I ever owned.
The year after the Nexus 5, Google came out with the Nexus 6... which I didn't buy. It was a full 6-inch screen. It was also 1440p, which was unheard of at the time. I thought it was overkill, and the hardware looked suspect. I just couldn't convince myself to pull the trigger. The Huawei Nexus 6p that came out the next year, however, put me RIGHT back on course. It had everything. It had a bigger screen than my Nexus 5, but wasn't ludicrously wide and awkward like the Nexus 6. It has USB-C (which I still love). It had stereo front-facing speakers. It had a fingerprint reader. It had Google's first "as good as the iPhone" camera, that still holds up to this day. It had a metal body, which unfortunately meant wireless charging wasn't a thing, but this thing screamed premium... which is good because I didn't see any good reasons to pick up any of Google's next three years worth of phones. The Pixel phones seemed fine, but not overwhelmingly good, and they did away with the cheap pricing. After 3 years with the Nexus 6P, it was starting to hang up, drag in-between tasks, and die after a couple of hours away from a charger. After 1131 days with the Nexus 6P, I decided it was time to upgrade... but there just wasn't any Android phones on the market looked interesting...
Ever since I saw the all-screen iPhone X in person, I've not been interested in anything with bezels. Several of my friends have that phone, and it got glowing reviews across the board. I saw pictures from its camera that looked genuinely great. Combine that with the apparent aging of my Nexus 6P... and it finally happened. Last Sunday I went Apple. I got an iPhone XS.
I've had it for 6 days now and I'm still getting used to it. It's not interesting to stress things about it that are usually true of all any phones, so I'll do that quickly here: it's crazy fast, its battery is so good, its camera is better than any other phone camera I've ever seen, it feels like the future.
I can't go back to bezels. The phone is physically smaller than my old one, but its screen isn't. The notch is not something I notice, nor has it ever been. It reminds me of the "flat tire" on my old Moto 360 watch. It just goes away after looking at the screen for more than 3 seconds.
Apple's "Health" app is so, so much better than the Google Fit app. This was honestly the thing that made me most excited about switching, and I'm not disappointed. The Health app actually gives users a reason to open it, which in turn actually gives developers incentive to use it. Google Fit had integration with food tracking apps, but seeing caloric intake anywhere was basically impossible. I could write an entire Column about my disappointment with Google Fit if I thought anyone in the world other than me would find it interesting. The Health app is great & makes me wish I had an Apple Watch.
Speaking of Health - it is neat that all my historical nutritional data & fitness data pulled over from when I used MyFitnessPal and Strong on Android into the Health app. I didn't start from zero, which made me very happy. Related, but the Life Tracker doesn't work with the Health app in the same way it works with Google Fit. Not yet, at least.
Face ID is a delight. It's basically like not having security on your phone at all. It doesn't feel like you're ever intentionally unlocking it - it just becomes unlocked on its own. The fingerprint was always a very dedicated gesture. I was aware of every time I used it on my old device. It's a known trope that you have to trade security for convenience or convenience for security... but this is the least intrusive security measure I've ever experienced.
The camera is great. The VIDEO camera in particular creates videos that look phenomenal. Every video shot on my Android phones pales in comparison. There was a software stabilization on Android videos that caused the resulting footage to look "jello-y". That hasn't happened on the iPhone yet. Portrait mode and Memojis and the like are neat, for whatever they're worth.
Speaking of pictures - the process of taking a photo & sending it to someone is so, so much faster on iOS than it ever was on Android. I'm not saying that Android's process was complicated, it just always took forever to load the sharing menu. The first time I wanted to send a photo of something I was looking at to someone with my new phone I was blown away by how quickly I accomplished doing it.
Having Garage Band and iMovie on your phone is pretty neat. I haven't done anything with them, but the one thing I like most about Apple is their focus on giving customers a way to be creative. You can make music or edit videos on your iPhone. Even when you take a screenshot you get the option to annotate it, right there. Little things like that are nice!
Going back to wireless charging is nice - although it seems like my wireless charging pad is somewhat spotty. I'll set it down & hear it start to charge, but come back an hour later to find it not charging for whatever reason. It's like it slides off the sweet spot, but nothing moved.
Apps on iOS look better than apps on Android. They look better and the function better. Every single app I've installed on my iPhone that I used to use on my Android devices has been better on the iPhone. LastPass in particular is incredible to use on iOS 12. It made logging into my various applications almost fun. Mint looks better. MyFitnessPal looks better.
My car integrates better with the iPhone. The little readout on the display says what's playing. Also it's nice that every accessory in the world is designed specifically for this phone. That's nice.
Oh, and the phone's compass points north. It's funny how little things like that make a difference. On every Android phone I ever owned functioned like Jack Sparrow's compass.
But not everything is better with an iPhone.
I'm not thrilled to be using lightning cables. For the past year, my phone, laptop, GoPro, Nintendo Switch, and wireless headphones (thanks to an adapter I permanently stuck on there) all could be charged by the same cable. Now if I'm travelling, I need to think about which cable(s) to bring. Plus our cats are addicted to Apple cables specifically and have killed several.
Some apps I bought on Android are way, WAY more expensive on iOS. I bought a weightlifting app called "Strong" on Android for $5. On iOS, Strong is a subscription-based application that's $5 each month. Or you can just buy it for life for $99. That sucks. Same goes with the #1 sleep analysis apps on each platform. "Sleep as Android" was cheap. The iOS "Sleep Analysis" app is not.
Notifications aren't as easy to manage in iOS. It's weird you have to pull the notification shade ALL the way down before you see if anything is in there. On Android notifications are bottom-aligned as you start to pull down the shade, so you see them immediately. Also the lack of little notification icons at the top of the screen. I often times swipe down my notification shade on my iPhone and am surprised to see there's stuff in there. I've completely missed notifications until after they stopped being relevant. That said, the settings for per-app customization of notifications is a lot more clear on iOS than Android.
I do wish I could have a widget on the homescreen with a Google Keep app. Having it off to the side isn't bad, though. Speaking of Google Keep, I find myself shying back to using mostly Google apps. Apple Maps isn't as good as Google Maps (from experience before this), so the fact that the Apple Calendar app links to Apple Maps exclusively means that I won't be using the Apple Calendar app.
The gesture-based UI took a bit of getting used to, but I'm there now. The lack of a "back" button hasn't been an issue. Only one time in my week with iOS have I went "wait, how do I get back to where I just was?". The iPhone will sometimes use the top-left corner to go back. In fact, sometimes you can see the name of what you're going to go back to on it.
The lack of a headphone jack is a bummer. Especially since the aforementioned cats immediately ate the lightning headphones.
The two gripes I just mentioned would have equally applied to Google's new Pixel phones, by the way. They also use gesture-based UIs and lack headphone jacks.
More thoughts will come.
Top 5: Surprising Things I Learned about the iPhone
5. Apps that exist on both Android and iOS don't necessarily look or behave the exact same.
4. Apple Health can pull in medical records from some places. I can see my prescriptions and stuff as recorded in the past.
3. The LastPass integration is crazy good. I already mentioned that, but it was surprising and awesome.
2. Apple now lets you uninstall a LOT of the stuff they pre-install. This wasn't always the case.
1. The "Measure" app is a thing... and it's crazy. You can take pretty good approximate measurements of stuff in the physical world using your phone's camera.
Quote:
"Does it have a button that calls NASA on that thing?"
- dad, about my Motorola Droid -
title: '#247 - I''m Annoying' date: '2015-06-27' aliases:
- '#247 - I''m Annoying'
- '#247' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '247'
Motto: I've got a long way to go
I re-wrote the HTML template for the Column from scratch. In theory, that should load this post a tiny amount faster. In actuality, it just means that I've learned the concepts of HTML and not just how to copy & paste it.
Of course, when I paste things into this editor box Blogger just decides to make treat every little thing as its own containerized piece of HTML. So my work was for nothing. Stupid Blogger. I'm looking forward to my coming move off Blogger to an actual website.
Melissa is in Pasadena, CA. I've learned (and re-leared) a TON of (mostly annoying) things about myself while she's been gone:
- When I cook meals for myself, they usually consist of one course.
- Yesterday's Breakfast: Cereal.
- Yesterday's Lunch: One pound of sausage and 4 eggs wrapped in a couple tortillas.
- Yesterday's Dinner: a pound of baked chicken breast seasoned with Mrs. Dash.
- Reminder: Buy more Mrs. Dash Chicken Seasoning.
- I can waste a HUGE amount of time "half doing" two or three things, while actually accomplishing nothing. Usually, while this is going on I've got the sense that I'm forgetting something the whole time... only to realize at the end that I haven't been forgetting anything. or, rather, I forgot that there was nothing to remember.
- I am good at keeping the place organized, but not good at keeping it clean. The apartment right now is a neatly organized cluster of dirty surfaces.
- I have, in fact, seen all the episodes of American Dad and Futurama on Netflix, despite not remembering when I watched them.
- Having a cat on my lap is excuse enough to hold my pee for 20+ minutes.
- I spend too much time in front of screens. I will probably write more on this in another Column soon.
- When I work out, I will stay at the gym for a LONG time if there's no reason to go home. This one is actually a good thing.
- If I only eat when I'm hungry, I don't eat very much at all. My natural state is one of perpetual weight loss.
- This one has nothing to do with Melissa being gone, it's just something I've realized since I took the GRE and written some stuff for work. I am and have for a long time been having a real problem with brevity that I could really stand to make some marked improvements on. Often I will find myself saying tons of unnecessary words just to say the couple of words that I actually wanted to say. For example, let me rewrite everything I just accomplished saying:
- I could be more concise.
- Taa-daa!
- I could be more concise.
- I am not good at being social. I am not saying I am bad in social situations... I'm saying I'm bad at putting myself in them. Despite living only minutes from several, I have made zero attempt to see friends since Melissa left.
- I sleep at a 45 degree angle across my bed.
- If left to my own devices, I let my mood guide my actions instead of the other way around.
That's about it for now. I hope this was entertaining.
Top 5: Things I Accomplished in the Last Week
5. Caught up on my 3rd Second-a-Day video
4. Started the re-factoring of the 3rd version of the Life Tracker - was supposed to get way more accomplished here than I did.
3. Got the place really dirty... then clean again.
2. Slept a lot.
1. Enjoyed a lot of Netflix, YouTube, and Podcasts.
Quote:
"You guys know who I like? Johnny Bravo."
- Josh -
title: '#307 - MCU Lows, CostCo Challenge' date: '2017-02-24' aliases:
- '#307 - MCU Lows, CostCo Challenge'
- '#307' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '307'
Motto: Dr. Jan Itor
Follow through... follow through is the topic I want to talk about for this Column.
Actually let's talk about something else.
It goes without saying at this point that I'm a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movies are entertaining across the board, with some really great standout characters, moments, scenes, and laughs. The television shows have been entertaining on the whole, with some shining examples of great writing. The Netflix shows have been great. Most impressive of all, the organization of the whole lot has been nothing short of phenomenal.
But.
It's not perfect. There are a few things I wish were different. I wrote some stuff that used to be right here, but you'll see it later in the Top 5.
February is almost up, which means I'm nearing the end of my CostCo 30 Day Challenge. The basic idea was that I was going to only eat food I got from CostCo. What I hoped to accomplish from this was 4 fold:
- Force myself to meal prep in bulk
- Force myself to stop eating out
- Force myself to get creative with at-home cooking
- See how much money I would save
Even though we're still 4 days from the end of the month, I'm pretty sure I know the takeaways...
The Bad:
- I made a couple of purchases I regretted, but had to live with for a while because they were BULK purchases
- I didn't meal prep in bulk much more than I would have anyways
- I didn't even wholly restrict my grocery shopping to CostCo
The Good:
- I DID do a good job of not eating out (as much)
The Meh:
- I can't really tell how much, if any, money doing this saved me
The data from February contain too many confounding variables. Even after doing my best to strip out some of the noise and account for things that obviously should be accounted for (e.g. the $360 CostCo trip in late January that carried well into February), it looks like I saved less than $100, if anything at all. I expected much more dramatic results.
I guess you live and you learn. That's the point of these things, right?
30 Day Challenges are essentially just me listing out things I want to do better at and trying them one at a time. Draw more. Eat out less. Exercise more often and with more variety. Use technology less. Go new places and try new things. They are cliched goals, but just because they are "basic" doesn't mean they are less worthwhile. Pumpkin Spice lattes are good. So what.
MARCH'S 30 DAY CHALLENGE: something related to exercise. My body has been trying to bring me down for the past 3 months. I'll get it nailed down before March 1st.
Photo to go out on - maybe be the best selfie I've ever taken.
Top 5: Low Points of the MCU
5. Black Widow & Bruce Banner's love plot - this really came out of left field. I don't hate it, persay. It had been set up for a while that Black Widow and Hawkeye might be a thing, but I like what the did with Hawkeye's farm & family life even better than going forward with that. I don't even hate that Black Widow and Bruce Banner could be a thing... it was just done really suddenly. It felt like we jumped into the middle of a relationship without seeing it set up. Also, I liked having a female character who wasn't anyone's love interest. That's gone now.
4. Iron Man 3 & the Mandarin - most people will say the Mandarin should have been the actual Mandarin. Ben Kingsley was wasted on Trevor Slattory and a story involving the real Mandarin would have been better. I didn't actually hate this twist. I put it the list here because I know this is a popular opinion.
3. Iron Man 3 Ending - MY opinion this time... Pepper Potts should have died. She fell to a fiery death near the end of the movie. Five minutes later, there's a scene obviously tacked onto what should have been the ending of the movie that completely ruins it. Tony's satisfying defeat of the villain is negated entirely by him surviving what should definitely have killed him, spouting off a way-too-on-the-nose bit of dialog, Pepper miraculously surviving what should definitely have killed her, then killing the bad guy by kicking some random explosive thing that happened to be on the ground and shooting it with a Iron Man's repulsor. This is out of character, for one. It undercuts all consequence of the story and any lessons Tony learned in the story. It robs us of any long-lasting weight... and we haven't even seen Pepper since this anyways! She should have stayed dead.
2. Agent Carter Season 2 - basically the whole thing. They turned strong Peggy Carter into a little girl with a crush on two boys. The big bad had a murky at best motivation. The season finale was centered around a plan in which they lured the supposed super genius Madam Masque out to walk in front of a huge, trailer-sized gun in the middle of the street, hoping she'll just walk in front of it. Worst yes, that's exactly what happens. Then there's a season-ending cliffhanger that will never be resolved because the series was not renewed. Agent Carter should have been ONE season - and that season should have just been an expansion of the pre-existing Agent Carter one-shot... which is not canon now? Ugh.
1. Marvel's villain problem - Iron Monger, the Abomination, Whiplash, Red Skull, Killian Aldrich, Malekith, Alexander Pierce, Ronan the Accuser, the Yellowjacket, and the no-name villain from Doctor Strange (Kaecilius) what do they have in common? They were all underdeveloped, given poor motivations, and killed off/sent away & unlikely to return. Their motivations range from "went crazy just cause" to "want to destroy the universe just case". At best they are just "I don't like you because I'm Hydra", which I guess works. Loki and The Winter Soldier have really been the only two villains worth remembering - I literally forgot to write Ultron in the list up there, and you didn't even notice. HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT! Ultron is such a great character!
Quote:
"I come up with new and innovating ways to get other people to do work for me."
- Chuck -
description: Thoughts on Life Tracking after 7 Years tags:
- THOUGHTS
- NERDCRED
- PROJECT
- FEATURE
- PDW date: 2020-04-25T00:00:00.000Z title: '#391 - Seven Years Tracked' aliases: '#391 - Seven Years Tracked' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '391'
April 22nd, 2013 was seven years ago. It was the first day I committed to using a point-tracking system to better manage my life. It was based on an idea I stole from a Demetri Martin stand up special. In that special Demetri talked about how he used his points system for 26 weeks. It was my goal at the time to do it for 5, or maybe 10 weeks. That seemed like a daunting commitment.
I just finished week number three hundred sixty five1.
My tracking system has grown and changed alongside me. I went from a guy living by himself with a girlfriend who was very far away to being married to said girl, going through a series of apartments, getting some cats, switching careers, buying a couple cars, buy our first house together, and becoming parents2.
It was originally managed via pieces of paper I carried around, and a once-weekly Excel data entry task. Then I moved to Google Sheets. Then I moved to Google Forms. More recently, I moved to a custom web app I built. I used to care very much about the points system. Slowly, its value as a free-flowing journal overcame its value as a rigid framework of points-tracking. Now I’m thinking of going back to a variation on the point system idea.
It taught me how to use spreadsheets. It gave me a reason to get good at them. Once I got a little good, I wanted to get really good. It gave me a reason to learn how to write code. It gave me a place to experiment with how code and spreadsheets can interact, then how they could interact better. Later I found out just how far being good at spreadsheets and coding can take your career.
I’m not saying the Data Journal is to thank for my successes. I can never know what lay on the paths not taken. What I am saying is that I’m glad it’s been a consistent part of my life for the past seven years because of its part in putting me specifically on this path. For that, I’m incredibly grateful.
This was the original points system. A heavy majority of these 25 daily goals lasted, unchanged, for 5 years.
![[391-1.png]]
I’ve written about history of the Data Journal many times over. I won’t write much more about it
I’ve learned an incredible amount thanks to this project - not only about myself (which was the intended goal), and not only about spreadsheets & coding (the next most obvious reward), but also about how to organize information and orchestrate life through time.
For years I thought this sort of personal information system had to be self-contained. Its value was limited by what I could spiderweb into its rows and columns. Weirdly, the actual spreadsheet portion of the whole thing has grown less and less important. For example - I have spent, collectively, probably 20+ hours messing around with how to better integrate my personal finance app 'Mint' into the spreadsheet, alongside everything else. I thought it needed to be integrated, or it wouldn’t have any value. I wouldn’t be able to review its data. It may as well not even exist.
Sometime within the last year it dawned on me. It doesn’t really matter that all your data be centralized into one place. It doesn’t have to be in a single spreadsheet for you to access it, engage with it, and utilize it on a frequent basis. I can just go look in Mint. Really, it’s okay. The same could be said for the apps I use to manage all sorts of other things (e.g. diet, exercise, time & habit trackers). The only real benefits of integration is the ability to search one repository for a litany of different things and the ability find correlations. In my experience, though, I’d rather search Mint for transactional data, or MyFitnessPal if I need to know what I ate (which doesn't happen). I didn’t find anything useful in the correlation study that wasn’t already obvious (and believe me, I tried).
What matters more than integration is engagement. I was heavily engaged in one specific silo of information. That was why it was so appealing to make the silo wider. But there is no reason you can’t engage with data where they already live. With that dawning realization, the importance of my Data Journal shifted from being the one place to house everything, to being the one place to house specifically those things that aren’t well-covered elsewhere.
The Data Journal is now a component of a larger, more useful system with a lower barrier to entry. The schema of the database dictated what got measured and managed. The columns functioned as a script for periodic reviews. If I couldn't force something into the schema, I couldn't track it and it wasn't reviewed. An example of one such problem child was my calendar. There are ways to pull your calendar into a spreadsheet, but it really doesn't belong there.
![[391-2.png]]
By breaking out the schema and the script, suddenly I'm capable of managing and organizing a much broader scope... and doing so with less effort (or at least less overhead).
The schema used to be defined by the layout of columns in a spreadsheet. The schema is now defined in my Data Manifest. See this post for more.
The script used be “look at what’s in your summary sheet” for each week, month, and year. Now the script is defined in a note, linked to by a recurring task in my task manager. It can grow, shrink, and evolve as needed through time. More importantly, it isn’t limited to what’s in a spreadsheet.
The big question I‘m pondering now is how I want to develop, grow, and share these ideas. I’m interested in developing an app, but every component of the system is already well-covered by apps. The whole concept of a distributed productivity and tracking system is antithetical to the creation of a “one app for everything” solution. Or maybe there’s some niche or corner that isn’t particularly well-served?
Alternatively, I could write a book? Or make a YouTube series? Or host a Podcast? Or just settle for having the ideas strung out on an obscure blog through a number of posts over time (a.k.a. What I’m doing now).
Time will tell.
- 35 of the first 114 weeks were actually NOT tracked. Before I switched to a nightly input, if I lost the sheet of paper I was using to keep track of my week, it was a lost week. This is a 10% miss rate over the course of 7 years. Since the switch to the nightly input 4.8 years ago, I haven't missed a day.
![[391-3.png]]
- I'm on major version 8 of the Tracker. That's about 1 major change a year. I defined 'major changes' as the addition or subtraction of significant number of (~more than 2) columns.
- I track food slightly over half the time. This has dropped sharply since 2020. I stopped tracking what I ate when I realized that I genuinely don't need to. Over the past twelve months I've gotten thinner, fitter, and ate better than ever before. I'll start tracking food again if I wake up one day and don't have >4 visible abs.
- I've logged 794 workouts in the 2300 days (hey another round number, neat) I successfully tracked. That's 1 workout every 2.9 days on average for 7 years. That's 2.4 workouts/week. I'd like to see that number closer to 3.
- If I could do it all over again, I'd change very little.
So literally just a dumpster fire.
Jon - a new home owner, after describing the process of putting a handle on a drawer
title: '#140 - From 25.0 to 25.5 Video' date: '2014-02-08' aliases:
- '#140 - From 25.0 to 25.5 Video'
- '#140' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '140'
Motto: We're Going Through Changes
One week ago was 2/1/2014, my half birthday. In the week since, some intense snow has given me the opportunity to sit down and put together the first half of the video that will eventually be "My 25th Year".
Because I can't think of a better title, I now present to you - "From 25.0 to 25.5":
So, that's that.
I have two other things to share with you today, though.
After having it on my list of goals for probably half a year, I finally sat down and made a complete Life Reference using a highly portable, open-source encryption method. I no longer will be without the extremely important private personal information. The list contains (among other things) a list of account names and passwords, a list of policy or account numbers, a list of phone numbers for insurance or financial agencies, a list of my most valuable personal possessions, and living, education, medical, and employment histories.
It's pretty boss.
Lastly, my 30 Day Challenge for this month is going to have to change.
As it turns out, "No screens after 9pm" takes a bit more planning and foresight than we originally thought. Melissa and I have broken that rule more often than not over the past 8 days. Now, while that might seem sad and pathetic, it's actually been because of our wild productivity.
In the past 8 days:
1. We made, largely from scratch, our wedding invitations, RSVPs, and all that stuff.
2. We've put together a website (blog) for the wedding.
3. We've collaborated on my Life Reference project.
4. We (well, I) have read 2/3rds of an e-book.
5. I put together the video featured earlier.
It seemed silly to stop working on these really important, huge goals in the name of a smaller, 30 day goal. Rather than give up on doing a 30 day challenge this month, we are going to attempt to read 5 books this month.
I'm 2/3rds the way through Dan Brown's "Inferno" (the 4th book of the series that started with "The Da Vinci Code"). While it's not entirely original, it's still highly entertaining. Next up, a book about happy marriages that our officiant wants us to read. After that: Who knows. All I know is, I've gotta go so I can get some reading done.
The picture to go out on is a random pick from my surprisingly long list of "Pictures to eventually feature in the Column":
Careful, it's cold out there.
Top 5: Words I've Learned Thanks to Books
5. Luddite - a person who fears that a machine will take his job
4. Oculus - a round (or eyelike) opening or design
3. I haven't been keeping track of words very well and just realized I forgot to mention in the column up there that I hurt my shoulder playing basketball. I should be fine, but I'm going to have to take it easy for a while.
2. Avarice - extreme greed for wealth
1. Dilettante - a person who essentially fakes an interest or expertise in a given area
Quote:
“Why is 'no screens after 9' more difficult than 'remove everything you normally eat from your diet'?”
- Me, to her -
title: '#280 - Good Routine ⇾ Good Life' date: '2016-02-07' aliases:
- '#280 - Good Routine ⇾ Good Life'
- '#280' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '280'
Motto: Set Achievable Daily Goals and Achieve Them Daily
I've struggled not to start every Column I've written over the past few months with "everything is really good". I didn't write it because it isn't all that interesting to read, but today's post is mostly about how and why I think things are so good for me lately.
Routine, the thing that i had heard about as the chief complaint of relationships in televised sitcoms, has turned out to be not something I'm afraid of, but instead something I am actively interested in cultivating. It is the primary subject I am going to write about today; so strap in or bail out now.
Routine has several definitions:
- "Commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals"
- "A set of customary or unchanging and often mechanically performed activities or procedures"
- "A regular way of doing things in a particular order"
- "A boring state or situation in which things are always done the same way"
Those are all accurate and fine definitions of routine, but I'd prefer just to say that routine is life. You sleep at night. You eat two or three times a day. You wash and dry your clothes when they are sufficiently dirty. Those are routines and they make sense. If you skipped out on any of of those things on a long enough timeline, you'd find yourself in trouble (either dead or smelly), so you do those things. But those aren't the only routines we have. Each of us have hundreds of things (on a macroscopic and microscopic scale) that we do as routines.
Unlock the car with keyless entry on approach. Engage handle with convenient hand. Look inside car to determine if debris needs shifting or cleaning before you and your current cargo may enter. Place right foot on floorboard and use hand(s) on your preferred surface(s) to stabilize yourself on entry. Sit in seat. Bring other foot inside of the vehicle, ensuring it and all other items are clear from the path of the door. Close the door. Engage ignition mechanism with the right hand.
That's a lot of stuff, yet we all do it every time. We don't think about it; we just do it. But that wasn't always the case. There was a "first time", a time before we established the routine. The routine was arrived at through trial and error. Now that you have a routine, you're a car entering fool. Don't even have to think about it (you stud).
The car entry example is a microscopic routine that everyone has got figured out... but it would be easy to go through life without looking at your bigger routines. That is a potentially dangerous (or, at the very least, inefficient) way of doing things. If you don't stop to consider what you're doing on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, or even year-to-year basis, you will end up in a "how did I get here?" situation.
There's another definition of "routine" that I like:
This is really the crux of argument I'm making. Doing things because that's just what you do, rather than finding a special reason to do everything. If you only go to the gym on special occasions, you won't go to the gym very often. If you aren't intentional with how you're filling out your days, they will be filled with whatever... and whatever just isn't very ambitious.
A good routine covers all the bases, while leaving room for flexibility. It doesn't take up 100% of your day, 7 days a week. It is also not a one-size-fits all type of solution.
I've been in my new job for a couple of months now. I'm fairly settled as far as timing goes. I know when I'll be there, when I won't be; and with this knowledge I've carved out a pretty great (for me) routine.
My Routine (Mon-Fri):
- Morning
- Wake.
- Start coffee.
- Make & eat breakfast (whatever variety is fine).
- Get dressed.
- Pack pre-made lunch into lunch box.
- Finish coffee & make protein drink (water + whey powder).
- Drive to work, listening to a podcast (whichever podcast is cool).
- Drink whole coffee on commute.
- Work
- Drink protein drink.
- Rinse and refill with straight water.
- Drink. Refill. Continue to lunch as needed.
- Lunch: Refill with water, add caffeinated crystal light.
- Eat lunch you brought in, unless there's a better option.
- Rinse and refill with straight water.
- Continue until end of workday.
- After work
- Workout: MWF - lift weights, TuTh - basketball (after basketball season this will be readjusted).
- Drive home, listening to a podcast or talking with someone on the phone using my car's phone integration.
- At home, shower.
- Make dinner - starting with the question "what is the base of this meal going to be?", following up with appropriate followups.
- Eat dinner.
- Clean dinner & put away work stuff + whatever other junk has accumulated.
- Spend the remaining 1-3 hours doing whatever.
- Brush & floss.
- Get in bed.
- Start sleep tracker Android app, close eyes. Dream of electric sheep.
- Repeat.
My Routine (Sat):
-
(This section intentionally blank) My Routine (Sun):
-
Every-other Sunday, beat Ben at pool.
-
Deep clean the place (the depth may vary from week to week)
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Create some form of bulk meal for the first couple of lunches for Melissa and I.
Writing it out like that makes it sound formal, like I've got a checklist that I carry around and check things off as I go - but that's not true. Just like the car entry example before, it's just what happens. It's not rigid. It's not without exception. It's just generally what I try to do. If I manage to do it more often than not, I wind up feeling pretty good about things. It makes me happy now and hopefully will enable happiness in the long term. Happiness is what we're all going for, right?
Some people might read that and think "wow that sounds incredible boring". To those people: Shut up. Go away. Like your life is so interesting.
But really, Saturdays are always different. I try to fill out each night with different stuff. I try to make new meals. I've got vacation hours. If "routine" is a boring concept for you, then I would say you have a boring routine.
This Column doesn't necessarily lend itself to a picture to go out on - but this picture I took of the best made-from-scratch meal I've ever prepared seems to be a good idea. This thing was packed with protein (and flavor!).
Top 5: Additions I'd like to make to the routine, but haven't yet had the discipline for
5. Catch up on my "me" projects (Columns, Second-A-Day Videos, Life Tracking)
4. Have an established time which is dedicated for learning stuff - the stuff rotating on a weekly basis (learning music, coding stuff, etc)
3. Read before bed every night
2. Meal prep Sundays - make all lunches for the entire week
1. Before-work workouts
Quote:
"Three bookmarks. Three books."
- Melissa, whose New Year's resolutions are as ambitious as my own -
date: 2013-09-02T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- META
- PICTURES title: '#111 - WVZ7X7 (and more)' aliases: '#111 - WVZ7X7 (and more)' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '111'
EDITOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE! This whole idea was dumb and didn't stick. Go ahead and skip all this. END THE EDITOR'S NOTE.
The motto is my new thing - my unique identifier in the space of 6 character strings. You can Google "WVZ7X7" and find this page without (much) clutter. For now, I won't make any grandiose changes to the column to accommodate the string. I'm just going to add it in a little text box above my picture at the top-right of the page (or the top of the very bottom of the mobile page).
If you have a hard time remembering "WVZ7X7", it may help to notice how the whole string can be drawn without picking up your pencil - like so:
.png)
I used Microsoft Paint to make that. You could probably tell by its fanciness.
I also made a few other variations of the same thing:
+Greys.png)
(and/or)
Then I started getting fancy with coloration:
+Oranges.png)
(and/or)
Then I graduated from Paint and started getting really fancy:
(and/or)
Anyway, that's not the only thing I wanted to share it today's column. It's not the only thing I've made lately, either. I made an graphic to illustrate a point that I've made to many people over the past several years. I'd explain more, but I think I'd rather just let the graphic do the talking:
The last thing I wanted to mention in today's post was the story a friend of my friend told me. She was at her place of employment, eavesdropping on a conversation between two coworkers about the correct pronunciation of '.gif'. One of the guys referenced "that guy with the peanut butter" when making his argument.
That guy was me, back from over a year ago when I did this:
If that's not 'infamy', then I don't know what is.
- With very conservative driving I was able to maintain this efficiency for 20 minutes.
-
I took this photo. This thing was in front of me.
-
The Avengers
-
Mandatory adorable photo #2
-
Irishfest 2010, 2012, and 2013
“I have a sister who's actually very pretty... and it sucks. It's like, 'AND HERE'S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON!'” Maeve Higgins
title: '#333 - Just Press 3 for a While' date: '2018-02-12' aliases:
- '#333 - Just Press 3 for a While'
- '#333' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '333'
Motto: Don't say cheese, just smile. Life is Good.
This is the kind of stuff I think about.
What is "smart"? What makes somebody smart? Is it just... knowing a lot of things? Is somebody smart just because they do really well in bar trivia? Are you smart because you've read so many books? Is she smart because she's so well-traveled? Is he smart because he's experienced a lot of things?
I don't think "smart" is definable in a global scope. It's sort of like "healthy". It doesn't mean anything, really. Healthy is what you define it to be. If you die of a heart attack at 35, but that was your plan all along - does that make you "unhealthy"? Planning to die at 35 certainly makes you not smart... so what does? Maybe "smartness" is something you just know when you see it, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.
I'm not "smart" because I pulled that sweet Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart reference. I had to Google 'who said that thing about "I know it when I see it"'... but just because I had to Google it - does that take away that I said it? Is smartness just having the ability to produce results?
A smart person would probably know.
A smarter person would probably say "don't think about it".
Along a similar vein - have you ever considered the difference between actually learning something vs just "learning the sequence of words that explains the thing"? I think my college education was very much centered around "learning a sequence of maths that does a thing" and NOT about the real-world applications that would invoke those maths.
I can read about how to accomplish X or Y in Java on Android - but until I apply X or Y to solve a real-world problem, it's somewhat meaningless. Breaking code into functions seemed like a completely meaningless set of steps to take when I could just write that same code directly into the main body of whatever. Today the concept of not containerizing code just seems... brutish and messy.
And now for something completely different.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best videogames I've ever played. I watched my brother-in-law play some of it over the weekend and I was reminded just how delightful the experience was.
And now for something else completely different.
I want to expand upon something I wrote about almost two years ago...
I feel like many of the major problems people have in their lives that they've struggled to control have well-known, simple, yet extremely unsexy solutions.
Weight management, financial management, how to wake up feeling rested, how to stay on top of tasks - these are solved problems. Not implementing the tried-and-true solutions to problems you're having is a matter of lack of discipline. I think that part of the problem is the Hedonic Treadmill and a tendency for each of us to return to the status quo in a more general sense. You do a thing. It makes you happy for a while, until it doesn't. Then you stop doing the thing even though you know it's good for you.
I think that it's hard to change behaviors and attitudes without changing environments. Once you've established a pattern of behavior in a given place, that's just sort of how you are there. I go to my parents house and I'm instantly high school Aaron again.
I'd like to sit down high school Aaron and show him the Top 10 from below... although I don't think it would have much effect. I'm not saying that I have these problems solved, I saying I can describe how one would solve them.
T hat's the difference between learning the sequence of English words that explain a thing versus actually learning the thing.
Alright that's all I had, I've gotta go have a good evening.
Top 10: Simple Solutions to Life's Big Problems
10. If you're having trouble with money, make a budget. There's a billion tools and techniques. They all achieve the same thing. Follow the budget. For more money stuff, see this notecard.
9. Talk to people around you. Talk about your problems. Talk about their problems. Talk about the weather. If you're unhappy, talk to a therapist.
8. Regardless of your religion, at least 6 or 7 of Christianity's 10 Commandments are no-brainers. Do those things. I'm sure there's some super obvious stuff included in other religions that I'm not aware of
7. If you have tasks, write them down someplace you'll see them. If you have an appointment, put it in a calendar. If your tasks need to be done by a certain time, put them in that calendar, too. If you don't have a calendar, your phone is a more than capable of covering this.
6. Have a place for everything, and put everything in its place.
5. If you're drinking something that's not water, have a reason. Drink water almost exclusively.
4. Don't smoke. If you're a smoker and you want to stop. Don't buy cigarettes. I contend that if you're addicted to thing, having the thing is going to prevent you from getting over that addiction. If you're a smoker, why? Seriously why? That's maybe a different topic, but how could you possibly have gotten yourself into that situation? How D.A.R.E. you.
3. Lift weights, do cardio, and stretch. There's a million exercise routines, but the basics cover basically everything. If you are going to become a bodybuilder, physique model, or high-level athlete then you'll know what else you need to do. If you're not those things, then you don't need to do much else.
2. Sleep consistent hours. Don't hit snooze. Avoid screens for an hour before bed, and definitely while in bed.
1. Delete Facebook. Hit the gym. Lawyer up.
Quote:
"What? What is that thing? Is Pepsi sponsoring the Olympics?"
- Eli, when the middle of the Korean flag showed up -
"New team mascot: Paul Walker, RIP"
- Cory, whose brand of humor I appreciate more each day -
title: '#273 - 30 Day Challenges are Challenging' date: '2015-11-02' aliases:
- '#273 - 30 Day Challenges are Challenging'
- '#273' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '273'
Motto: I have half an hour to write this
It's the beginning of the month. That means I'm transitioning between two 30 Day Challenges. Here's where I reflect on my previous month and set a new goal:
Last month's challenge - Sweat 5 Days a Week
Results - Glorious failure... sweat barely over 3 days/week in reality
Reflection - Disappointment with self
This month's goal: No screens after 10PM
I am going to do this. I have only really had 2 "good" months out of the first 10 months of 2015 in terms of successful challenge completion. That's terrible. Here's to turning it around.
Having said that, this month's challenge might be particularly challenging because I GOT THE NEXUS 6P TODAY! It's gorgeous. It's wonderful. My Nexus 5 went from "meh" to "AGGGH GET IT AWAY FROM ME IT'S HIDEOUS" in 5 seconds. The screen quality alone is reason enough to switch. See the Top 5 for more.
Here are some relevant pictures:
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|---|
| Had to use a GoPro to take this picture - does not do the screen difference justice |
 |
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| The first picture I took with it |
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| Same spot, using my older Nexus 5 phone |
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| #Instagrammed |
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|---|
| The burst mode on the camera makes a .GIF automatically |
The Royals won the World Series yesterday. I literally thought I'd never see that happen. It was too dark out to see the all the pigs flying.
I've seen all 4 of my groomsmen from my wedding within the past week after not seeing any of them for several months. I prefer seeing them over not seeing them. I prefer friends over not friends in general, actually. Life lessons.
Alright. 5 minutes to spare. I gotta go play with my new phone for 4 minutes really quickly!
Top 5: Things I Immediately Appreciate about My New Phone
5. The metal build. The weight. They beauty. The Nexus 5 was never an "ugly" phone, but it's hard to deny that the Nexus 6 is a looker. It feels premium. I like it.
4. The fingerprint sensor. Although my phone is hardly ever actually locked on account of me using a smartwatch and Android's nifty "Trusted bluetooth connections" feature... the integration with Lastpass alone is worth the fingerprint being on this list. It's saved me from typing in my 20+ character-long password probably a dozen times today. It's a revelation.
3. The speakers are on the FRONT of the phone... and they are GOOD. It actually will take some getting used to. I'm not used to hearing my notification sound so well. I had a speaker phone call today, it was a night-and-day type difference compared to the Nexus 5 of yore.
2. The screen. Oh my goodness the screen. It's 5.7 inches of gorgeousness. What makes it gorgeous is NOT the 1440p part of the screen, it's the AMOLED screen type (as compared to most phones' LCD screens). It's colors are amazing. It's big, beautiful, bright, and handles contrast way better than LCD ever could.
1. The camera doesn't take 15+ seconds to open up, find a focus, and take a picture. Beyond that, it's pictures don't look like they were taken through a light layer of fog. It's also helps that I get to see the pictures it takes so much better thanks to #2 above.
Quote:
"Guys, it's because I put on my rally pants."
- Jon -
title: '#362 - Things I like. Things I don''t.' date: '2019-02-16' aliases:
- '#362 - Things I like. Things I don''t.'
- '#362' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '362'
Motto: Do You Have Any Apple Fritters?
I read an article (like this one about a psychology study in which the takeaway was: telling somebody you were going to achieve a goal, made you less likely to achieve that goal. I thought "I should stop telling people I'm going to do things before I do them!" Then I promptly pulled open my messaging app and typed a message to my wife saying:
"I think I'm going to stop telling you about things I want to do to better myself befo"...
Then I realized the irony of the message, and pressed 'delete' instead of 'send'.
I say it here because I thought it was funny.
You ever make a table like this?
If you haven't, maybe think about doing it.
Or don't. I expected it to be more enlightening than it was.
I have a Podcast. It's got a website in case you're not interested in Podcast apps... it's nothing fancy. Just a thing we do for fun.
Top 5: Things I Learned About Communication at Work
5. ... I only have 4 points to make. This is me copping out.
4. It is incredibly rare to communicate too much or too clearly.
3. Pay attention to what means of communication works best for given situations. Use those for similar situations. A lot of times a 20 minute chat can be done in a 3 minute phone call... and other times a 3 minute phone call can be done in a 5 second chat.
2. The word "but" is almost never worth saying. "And" works in it's place AND doesn't make it sound like you weren't lying about whatever you said before it.
1. Don't say "just" in an email. Stuff like "I just wanted to say..." makes it sound like you're not worth their time.
Quote:
"Any flat surfaces around, he will stack [stuff] on. It's like the 5th law of thermodynamics."
- Josh -
title: '#222 - Two Two Two' date: '2014-12-14' aliases:
- '#222 - Two Two Two'
- '#222' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '222'
Motto: Optimis Divisible Only by Himself and One
The thirty day challenge I embarked upon for the month of November was simple - live on a budget. I wanted to see if some pre-determeined amount of money was enough to sustain a comfortable life for Melissa and I. We completed that challenge successfully. That, however, was largely because I put off making any larger purchases until THIS month... which hardly seems like it should count. So, "success" I guess? Maybe, more aptly put as "Success*". Because this is really the only venue I keep track of these things, I'm going to do a hyperbrief rundown of each month's challenge & its outcome: January - Paleo & Crossfit - Success February - Read 5 Books - Failure March - Write Every Day - Success April - Run 50 Miles - Failure May - Enjoy Yourself - Success June - A GoPro a Day - Successful July - Adopt Linux, Duolingo - Huge success, partial success August - No Reddit, Buy a Car, Other Stuff - Success, failures September - Yes Man - Success October - The Incredible Bulk - Success November - Live on a Budget - Success I don't like breaking those down into binary "success" and "failure". Almost every month feels like it deserves an adjective like "huge", or "partial".
So, what about December?
Well, I'm not doing anything different in my personal life for December. Instead, I've decided to try out an entirely new workflow at work. Without getting into the boring nitty-gritty details I will be utilizing Outlook, OneNote, and a tag-based system instead of a folder-based system. The one true categorization will be time. Each day and each week will be easily searchable. What happened on any given day will be readily apparent. It seems like timelines could much more useful in the business world than a per-project folder structure.
I've got another Column lined up, ready to submit. I will wait until tomorrow to push it out, though.
I'll end this post with this picture - no context provided.
Top 5: Other Instruments We Were Unable to Teach Our Cats
5. Didgeridoo
4. Pipe Organ
3. Slide Whistle
2. Vuvuzela
1. Accordion
Quote:
"I hope the next time I move I get a real easy phone number, something like two two two two two two two two. I would say 'sweet'. And then people would say, 'Mitch, how do I get a hold of you?' I'd just say 'press two for a while and when I answer, you will know you've pressed two enough.'" - Mitch Hedberg -
title: '#232 - Mostly Updates to Projects' date: '2015-02-22' aliases:
- '#232 - Mostly Updates to Projects'
- '#232' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '232'
Motto: Your Projected Projects Project Your Identity
Writing this in a coffee shop. I'm so hipster*.
*according to Jon, who lived in Seattle and thus knows "hipster".
Melissa and I found a new place, as my last post said. We move in 20 days from now... but you wouldn't guess that was the timeframe by looking at our current place. Melissa packed up 50% of our place already. It's impressive.
I wrote this Column mostly just to write down my Top 5.
My Nexus 5 died. The hardware power button was going bad on me starting around a month ago. 3 days ago it stopped working all together. I pulled the phone apart, unscrewed all the screws, unclipped the electrical connections, pulled out the circuit board, cleaned out the electrical component power button, and put everything back together. Then it booted up and ran fine. It was a cool experience. So it's working now*, but I'll still be in the market for a phone again pretty soon.
*except for the wireless charging and NFC, which I cannot seem to get working.
My Life Tracker thing continues to get cooler. I used this formula in a column of cells:
=SUM(COUNTIFS(Daily!$D:$D,$B3,Daily!Q:Q,">0.5")*IFERROR(AVERAGEIFS(Daily!Q:Q,Daily!$D:$D,$B3,Daily!Q:Q,">0.5"),0),COUNTIFS(Daily!$D:$D,$B3,Daily!Q:Q,"<0.5")*IFERROR(AVERAGEIFS(Daily!Q:Q,Daily!$D:$D,$B3,Daily!Q:Q,"<0.5")+1,0)/COUNTIFS(Daily!$D:$D,$B3)
Here are some new insights I've found from the updates I just made to the "yearly" summaries - compared to 2014, in 2015 I...
- Sleep 12 minutes less on average
- Am 11% more likely to workout on any given day
- Take 192 more steps per day
- Weigh 1 pound less (this calculation can be done as simply as "what I weigh now minus what I weighed then", but this was done in a hilariously complicated way)
- Eat 23 more grams of protein (the equivalent of 1/5 lb chicken breast)
- Am less productive by an average of about 1 goal/day (of the 25 total possible)
Anyway. I'm really happy with the thing. I'm still interested in making it into an app. Turns out that's difficult. I'll give it another go someday soonish.
Completely unrelated picture to go out on - Melissa says "TWO THORS!"
Top 5: Coming "30 Day Challenges"
5. Sleep 8 hours a night. No ifs, ands, or buts. Go to bed early. Wake up 8 hours later.
4. Try the iPhone for a month. I'm not sure I can do this one, but if it's possible it would be fun to try. I'm in the market for a new phone soon anyway. If I can return an iPhone within 30 days of purchase, I'd like to give it a shot for a month.
3. IIFYM diet. I've been wanting to do this one for forever. I might combine it with some sort of workout challenge focusing on overall fitness.
2. Go to only to new places. Don't walk into any business you've ever been to before. Eat at new places. Shop at new stores. I'm thinking about doing this one next month (during the move).
1. Use the amenities every day (at our new place). Looking to do this one in April after we've settled into our new place. The amenities look super nice, but they only do you good if you use them.
Quote:
“Iggy... This is Iggy's castle... Iggy Azalea named herself after this castle”
- Nick, after beating the first castle in Super Mario World -
title: '#372 - Gillespie Summer Vacation 2019' date: '2019-06-16' aliases:
- '#372 - Gillespie Summer Vacation 2019'
- '#372' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '372'
Motto: This is essentially just Facebook
My little family unit just took our first 3-person vacation... and we liked it so much we decided to go for immediate seconds.
We spent 3 days, 4 nights in lovely lovely Las Vegas - in a way super holy cow nice house with a way super holy cow nice family. We saw the Strip, where we ran into a pair of old friends from a cruise. We met up with the Best Man. We hung out by the pool and drank delicious beverages and ate ice cream like we were kids. We were kids, and it was super nice. The kind of nice that makes you realize you’re doing things right in this world.
On what was scheduled to be our last full day of the trip, we decided to change our flight home. Rather than leaving from Vegas, we would leave from San Diego. Then we rented a car to get down there. Driving they the Mojave Desert listening to the score from the movie Rango was super fun.
Turns out it’s cold in San Diego. If you’re packed for 100 degree Vegas, you may not be perfectly suited to go to 69 degree San Diego. That said, it was San Diego. The weather goes from “on the colder side of really nice” to “on the warmer side of really nice.” We had a chilly day on the beach, an awesome day at the worlds best Zoo, and a cathartic “last day of it all” day by the pool in the hotel.
Overall, 9.75/10. Maybe pack and a long sleeve shirt just in case. Oh and don’t actively have fevers for the first 2 full days of your vacation.
I could picture myself living in the southwest at some point in the future. Or not. Who knows? I wrote this whole post on my phone in a plane, so don't judge me.
I wanted to also write my lament about Google Keep and how it represents the nexus between so many things I love, yet I cannot find a way to incorporate it into my life in a satisfactory way. That can be another day. Or never.
Top 5: Pictures from the Trip
5. I took this picture of the Strip from the Presidential Suite in Trump Tower
4. The Mojave - this picture was taken in 106 degree weather that felt like maybe high-80s
3. Griffin got to feel the ocean before he turned 1
2. I love this picture. Griffin hair + sunscreen
1. Happiness in a picture
Note:
I'm blaming my illness for the first few days of the vacation for the fact that I don't have a photo of us with our hosts, the Fullers. They deserve to be in 2.5 of these photos at a minimum. I'm sure they are devastated and this little footnote is the least I can do.
Quote:
"I think it's the 4th Law of Thermodynamics that carseats don't work at 3am before you get in an Uber"
- Our Lyft driver, Roy, as I struggled to get the carseat situated in his Prius -
title: '#263 - Winfield, Work Trip, Site Updates, Marvel Sound Effect Video' date: '2015-09-18' aliases:
- '#263 - Winfield, Work Trip, Site Updates, Marvel Sound Effect Video'
- '#263' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '263'
Motto: Grass.RGB(0,0,255)
I am in the Hill's camper at Walnut Valley Blugrass Festival in Winfield. It's raining pretty hard, so we're stuck indoors. I'm okay with that, the "just hanging out in the camper" has long been one of my favorite parts of Winfield. This is my third (fourth?) trip to Winfield. The first time I came, I came because because Melissa wanted me to. The second time, I came because I wanted to spend more time with the family. This time, I came because I wanted to come to Winfield.
I just got this shirt.
My Chromebook's camera is awful.
In other recent news: I took a work trip to San Antonio. It's a pretty town. The Riverwalk is awesome. I wish Kansas City had anything like it. On this work trip I got to attend an Open Compute Project conference and hear a bit about who they are and what they are doing. It was cool. Also very cool was the office space it was being held in. Rackspace's office building is sweet. I have a ton more I could say I appreciated about the trip, but I like to keep work stuff out of the Column - so I'm going to leave it at that.
I made a video about sound effect continuity across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is that video:
Also, a metatorial note (that's a portmanteau of "meta" and "editorial"):
I added a couple of pages:
Those pages are not "final". They will all be continually updated - as necessary. There are some known changes coming. "Features" will be added - I've got a one already written, and one in the pipeline. The "Projects" page will have a little blurb/background about each project.
Top 5: Worst Fast Food Joints
5. Taco Bell
4. Hardees
3. Wendy's
2. McDonalds
1. Burger King
Quote:
"Not everything should be logical"
- A networking engineer - about the decorations during our Rackspace tour -
title: '#323 - Remembered Stuff I Forgot' date: '2017-09-04' aliases:
- '#323 - Remembered Stuff I Forgot'
- '#323' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '323'
Motto: I Forgot to Remember
Last time I wrote about stuff I had been putting on the back burner for a while. I forgot this stuff.
SCIENCE AND HUMANITY AND STUFF
I wonder if we will ever reach a point where we fully understand how the human body works. Will we ever know what each little synapse in the brain is doing when it fires off. Will that discovery be succeeded by a discovery allowing us to shape the brain after birth to correct defects in the brain and body? Will we learn how to turn off the dopamine hits that are associated with damaging things? Would we be able to reprogram the brain to really and truly enjoy doing stuff that is beneficial to the individual, humanity, and the world? Will we be able to link together in a way that is more meaningful than the means achievable through conversation. Can we abstract consciousness away from the human body? Could we ship that consciousness throughout the universe on miniature space probes? Will we discover a way of living that is objectively the "best", and if so - at what point do we cease being "human"?
This sounds a little bit like the mad shower thoughts of a freshman in philosophy class. #Deep
LIFE TRACKER ENDGAME
I have been doing a more and more sloppy job with filling out the Life Tracker lately. It used to be that I didn't know what was possible with it, and wanted to capture everything I could. Now I've got a good feel for what data I use and what data I don't, yet each night I've obligated myself to filling it all out. I've decided to set a finish line.
5 Years.
I want to finish out my 5th year of tracking stuff. That means going as is for another 6 months, until late April, 2018. After which time I want to transition to a new, long-term, more "journal-like" system of keeping record - retaining the stuff I care about still, but nixing the stuff whose return isn't worth the investment. It will be built in Android - which gives me a deadline for learning how to do anything useful on the platform. Also it will have a better name... I'll figure that out later.
2017 FOR AARON AND MELISSA
December 31st, 2016 I made a list of fun stuff for Melissa and I to do in 2017. Yesterday at Kansas City Irishfest we crossed the 10th goal off the 20 goal list. So that puts us a bit behind schedule. Maybe I'll revisit this in my first post of next year. Maybe I'll forget.
Alright - now I've written about all the stuff.
Remember that thing I said about not taking photos? It's still true. I went to Irishfest yesterday and the only picture I got is standing in the Festival area, but looking out.
Top 5: Things I Still Value Tracking
5. Sleep, food, and exercise tracking (this stuff is automatic already)
4. Goal tracking - but in a less intense, less rigid manner
3. Location tracking - for Android this could easily be built-in
2. The concept of "tags" for each day for various things
1. A couple sentence summary of what I did each day
Quote:
"At first I assumed he was a Mexican, but slowly began to realise that a real Mexican probably wouldn't be wearing a sombrero in a London nightclub. And he'd probably have a real mustache, not a stick-on one. A Mexican with a stick-on mustache would be like a super Mexican, because he'd have two mustaches and that'd be cool, because a super Mexican could probably use his poncho as a cape, and then I realised I was saying all this to the man's face."
- Danny Wallace, in the book "Yes Man", upon which the movie was very loosely based -
date: 2013-07-20T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH
- LIFE
- TV/MOVIES
- PICTURES title: '#101 - Tackling the Backlog' aliases: '#101 - Tackling the Backlog' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '101'
I am alone. My best friend is back home with her family, about to go on vacation. My other friends are busy - at least they are right now. This means that I have some time to dive into the immense backlog of topics I've put en queue to write about on this Blog. Each new topic will be introduced in BOLD, CAPITOL text.
I saw MAN OF STEEL. These LINES stuck out to me:
"I grew up in Kansas, general. I'm about as American as it gets". I recognize how much this line must make people from the coasts scoff, but I feel and have always felt that Kansas does represent good, old-fashioned America (for better or worse). Maybe Google feels that way, too, considering they saw Kansas City as the prototypical American city for their initial Fiber rollout.
"He's coming in through the RSS feeds!" This has got to be one of the most hilarious technologically incorrect lines I've ever EVER heard in a movie. I laughed audibly in the theater during a scene that wasn't meant to be funny... and that's usually a bad thing. RSS, for those of you who don't know, is an old-ish tech that allows you to pull content off a website. Google Reader (until very recently) used RSS to build an aggregate channel of all your favorite sites. RSS has positively nothing to do with television or the greater network of multimedia broadcasting.
"Welcome to the Planet" I liked this line. As it's used in the film, it is referring to the Daily Planet newspaper where Clark Kent works; but it works on the other level. I like things like that. Wordplay.
Apple's iOS 7 LOOKS AN AWFUL LOT LIKE ANDROID JELLY BEAN in certain ways. This issue was covered in detail on most tech-type websites a while back. I'm guessing if you care enough to know why or how that is, you probably have already seen it somewhere. I just want to say how delicious it is to see Apple emulate Google's design.
I've heard that Facebook has implemented some changes that make it more like Google+... but I don't have Facebook anymore. I can't really comment.
Disclaimer: I am very aware of how much Google has historically found inspiration for their products from the iPhone and from Facebook. In fact, here's a relevant XKCD:
I love XKCD
I'm PHASING OUT GOOGLE TASKS IN LIEU OF GOOGLE KEEP. They serve a similar purpose as one another, but Google Keep is actively being developed and Google Tasks is likely one of the next Google products/services to enter the graveyard. Google Keep is better than Google Tasks in every way, save for the ability to add Tasks to your calendar. I assume this functionality will come at some point and I will wonder how I ever got along without it.
That's a common theme with technology and I. Something new comes out that supersedes something else, and I instantly forget what it was like or how I got along when I used the old thing. Google Hangouts did this to Google Talk. Android 4.0 did this to Android 2.3.
As I touched on with Post #100 - MELISSA IS BACK and all the sudden it's like I have a fiance again! I'm really really glad she is home, that I much cannot overstate. It has been and will continue to be an effort to establish a balance of all things. When you live alone and have opposite sleep cycles of your significant other, the routine establishes itself naturally. You talk in the morning and at night. The rest of your day is yours to do with what you please. Now, we actually have to keep each other in mind when lining out plans. I hope to have more time to write and do my other "guy things" soon.
"Guy Thing" - Noun
- Item which is not interesting or well-received by women. "I don't understand videogames - they are such a guy thing"
- Stupid, brutish, activity
I ACCIDENTALLY DERIVED KARNAUGH MAPS WHILE TRYING TO CREATE A BETTER 4-WAY VENN DIAGRAM. Karnaugh Maps, or "K-maps" are a tool you learn early on in electrical/computer engineering. They are used to reduce logical constraints in a system made of multiple binary/Boolean inputs. Long story short, I sat down to create a 4-way Venn Diagram that was better than the one I used in Column #97 (about human attractiveness). For reference:
Non-intuitive, hard to draw by hand, and hard to work with on computers
When I was done, I had created this:
Easy to draw. Easy work work with on computer. More intuitive.
Those of you who have used K-Maps probably already can see that the 4-Way Venn I created is also a K-Map. Those of you who don't may be helped by this diagram of your usual K-Map I pulled from Wikipedia:
A = Cute, B = Hot, C = Beautiful, D = Pretty
Note that I'm not proud I accidentally figured this out while exploring the four variables "Cute", "Hot", "Pretty", and "Beautiful".
I had a weird extended daydream about THE FUTURE OF CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY the other day. I was thinking about Google Glass and the upcoming tidal wave of smartwatches (seriously, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and basically everyone else are rumored to be working on smartwatches). I look forward to the upcoming/already happened advent of "wearable technology". I can't wait to look at my wrist and see something more useful than the time of day. I've looked forward to this upcoming eventuality ever since I first saw Leela's wristlojackimator:
That thing.
There's more, though. I think that we may soon converge our technological tethers to the cloud to a single, true broadcast device. The rest of our tech will borrow this connection. Basically, your phone (or something like it) will connect to the internet. Then your watch, glasses, earpiece, tablet, and/or whatever else will connect to your phone. Our pieces of consumer tech are going to build stronger relationships with one-another.
There was seriously way more to it than that. I was going to write a whole feature post about it... but I forgot most of it already.
This backlog of mine included both the TOP 5 and the QUOTE. Just EFWHYEI. It also included THESE PICTURES:
Geocaching makes me feel like a spy, collecting dead-drops
The F button on this vending machine has no corresponding F row
- Keep your back straight.
- Remember that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have at the moment (I hear this one a lot... still have a hard time with it, though).
- Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.
- You don't exercise because you have motivation; exercise gives you the motivation.
- If you are craving something to eat, but you're not quite sure what it is... it's water.
“I wish we had access to costumes. It'd be cool if we both showed up dressed as fruit, then looked at her like 'WTF?'” Josh
title: '#290 - Post Vacation Life' date: '2016-06-11' aliases:
- '#290 - Post Vacation Life'
- '#290' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '290'
Motto: Meet Dr. Tryhard
Melissa and I took a long vacation. For photos, see Facebook. If you don't know me well enough to see my Facebook, that's too bad. I'll include at least one photo on this Column, because that's what I do.
Google I/O happened while we were on vacation. Typically I watch it then gush on this blog about all the cool stuff. I didn't see it this year, though. I have very little to gush about. It's not so much that it's disappointing, it's more just that we've reached peak smartphone. These things we carry around with us reached the point of diminishing returns years ago. That's not meant to be depressing, it's just me saying that our smartphones have already reached their noob gainz.
There was one thing that I got pretty excited about: Google Home. Ever since the Amazon Echo came out, every podcast I listen to has gushed about it. They spoke highly of what it is and what it does that I looked at them pretty heavily. I ultimately didn't buy one, though, because I didn't want to start trying to buy into another new ecosystem. "If only it were integrated with my Google account." This will scratch that itch. I hope it's affordable.
Bo Burnham has a new comedy special on Netflix. I gave it a watch the other day and immediately cemented him at the top of my "best active comedians" list. Bo's routines are in league of their own. His show makes other comedians seem lazy, taking the easy path. I know that's not true and I know it's just different styles for different people... but I respect his style and the effort he puts in more than any other comedian. Pure talent... having said all that, I want to throw on a content advisory warning for anyone who's not heard his stuff and might care enough about my recommendation to check it out. It's definitely R rated comedy. The best R rated comedy there is, though. It's not lazy, relying on dirty jokes and phrases to get the humor across. It's just good, man.
Speaking of musicians & artists... I really suggest marrying one. It makes life better than it would be otherwise.
One last thing before I leave you with the picture to go out on - I've been doing before-work workouts. You'll read more about them soon, but I wanted to introduce the fact that I am, in fact, doing them (and not just writing about the benefits of hypothetically doing them).
The picture to go out on - my favorite selfie in recent memory:
Top 5: Benefits of Before Work Workouts
5. Start work early, leave work early. That's the benefit of my job.
4. It replaces an unhealthy morning routine I found myself stuck in for the past three months... and introduces a new nighttime routine that I always wanted.
3. Working out more consistently and with more purpose has lead to strides in the weightroom that I've been wanting to make for a year.
2. Working out in the morning introduces the possibility for twoadays. On an unrelated note, it means I'm no longer getting in my car and leaving my post-workout funk behind.
1. Working out before work is a more efficient way to accomplish all the things that I have to do and that want to do. It cuts my thirty minute commute to a twenty minute one. It compresses my hour and fifteen minute workouts into a tight forty-five. Morning showers are no longer a stretched out period of lethargy somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. They become a quick transformation between someone who does work and someone who gets work done. It gets me from my bed to my car in two minutes instead of two hours. Yes, it took me two hours. I told you it was unhealthy.
Quote:
"It's like Breakout KC without the hope."
- Travis -
title: '#150 - Meta Cheese' date: '2014-03-11' aliases:
- '#150 - Meta Cheese'
- '#150' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '150'
Motto: It's Good for You
One hundred fifty. I've written one hundred fifty Columns since the inception of the Blogger-based Column. "#1 - Why do this thing again?" was posted on March 16th, 2012. That was 725 days ago, very nearly two years ago. In the past two years, I've written just over 1 post every 5 days, and I don't regret a thing.
Even high school me approves:
I love writing. I like talking. I have been known to flirt with drawing. I had a passing glance at singing. I forgot dancing's name and have since been awkwardly avoiding situations where dancing and I might have to interact. But I love writing. It's like talking, except you can't get interrupted. The reader has no direct boredom feedback mechanism, so you feel free to go wherever the sentences take you. You have ample time to say what you actually want to say. If you have long enough, you can say it concisely. You have the privileged of takesies-backsies. Writing is therapeutic. Writing is liberating. Writing is fun. I'm glad I do it. I've written one hundred fifty Columns; and I don't feel like stopping any time soon. Interestingly, I don't like writing about writing. I think it's tacky, cliched, or maybe just cheesy. Speaking of therapeutic things, I changed up my workout. My new routine incorporates heavy lifting, High Intensity Interval Training, and general cardio. It's probably the best workout I've ever crafted in terms of overall health benefits. That's largely because I blatantly stole it from my cousin, who has underwent a very impressive and well-earned body transformation over the past 5 months. Writing nurtures the mind. Exercising nurtures the body. What about the spirit? Melissa nurtures the spirit - as do my friends and family. Still, I'd like to find something to feel a little more "free", now that I'm cooped up in an 8x10 cubical 40 hours a week. Current lead candidate: bicycling. Only, there's a problem. I rode my bicycle to work today. It took me 30 minutes to ride a distance that I can easily walk in 20. I spent more time doing en route repairs on the side of the road than I did riding. I planned on getting a better bike after the wedding, but that timeframe might get pushed forward aggressively if I can't fix my problem.
Top 5: GoPro Accessories5. Handlebar Mount - Also good for mounting on railings. 4. Suction Cup Mount - Great for automotive/weather timelapses. 3. The Frame - Good if you want to have usable sound in your video. 2. The head mount - the first person perspective is the single coolest application of a GoPro. 1. The chest mount - like the head mount, only less prone to causing motion sickeness or coming off when you jump into a river.
Quote:
“You going to trade that in for a Hello Kitty bike?”
- random guy from my new office -
tags:
- FEATURE date: 2019-11-17T00:00:00.000Z title: '#381 - Atomic Habits Review' aliases: '#381 - Atomic Habits Review' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '381'
Oh hey. I'm writing. I'm also watching "Frozen" for the first time in forever. Disney Plus is incredible and an absolute no-brainer as a person with a very young child... or as a person with eyes and ears connected to a heart.
Turns out having a new website format adds about ~3% harder to write posts for. I can't do it from my Chromebook, which is a bummer. I don't really blame the format, though. I blame the Chromebook. Which is a bit of a bummer. I don't think that ChromeOS is bad per say. I just wish I had the non-atom processor variant so my Linux access wasn't so stunted.
Somewhat coincidentally, somewhat causally, my previous Column was mostly a list of habits & this Column is a book report for the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. Spoiler: I liked it. I like the cut of his jib. Here's his website. I'm sure his traffic is going to spike now that he's got a link from this blog. I hope he's got a good web Hosting service. From here down, I'm just going to put my notes from this book (those written on Gillespedia, my side project).
Habits have a compounding effect over time - and because of that, small habits done consistently eventually return huge results. They do more than help you achieve your goals, they bring you closer to being the person you want to be. So start by asking yourself "what does the person I want to be do?" Then create a system that enables doing those things. Good habits moves you toward being that person, bad habits away. Don't focus too much on immediate goals, focus instead on exercising the system. Each time you repeat a habit, you cast a vote for your new identity. Find the joy in that instead of waiting for the joy of achieving your goal.
The basic habit loop is cue → craving → response → reward (the reward reinforces the cue). You can manipulate each step in this process to help adopt good habits and break bad ones.
Cue - make habit triggers obvious. Setup your environment to expose good cues often, and hide bad cues. Be very specific with when and how you will perform a habit. Try stacking a habit you aspire to do with one you already do.
Example: Place moisturizer next to the coffee machine. Tell yourself "after each time I press 'brew', I will moisturize my hands".
Craving - make good habits attractive. Use temptation bundling to stack good habits with things you enjoy (ensuring the good habit and the thing you enjoy don't cast conflicting votes toward your new identity). Also you can associate with people who already have the habit you want.
Example: "Only after my weekly review of budgets, will l watch the new episode of my TV show."
Response - make the good habit easy & the bad habit hard. Tailor the environment to add or remove friction where possible. Many good habits can be automated & bad habits prevented via one-time actions. Quantity is often more important than quality. You'd benefit more from never failing to meet a daily goal of "do a 2 minute warmup" than from consistently failing to meet a daily goal "do a one hour workout"... and you'll often find after you do the warmup it's often easy to do the workout.
Example: Unplug the TV after each use and set your journal on the power cable. Commit to writing two sentences before plugging in the TV.
Reward - make it immediately satisfying to perform a good habit by using rewards. Habit trackers can supplement rewards, and be rewards themselves. Make bad habits painful by using a habit contract and an accountability partner.
Example: After finishing my workout, I will make myself a healthy smoothie and put an X on the calendar next to the blender. If I fail to put 3 Xes in any week this month, I have to do the whole family's laundry by myself next month.
Habit trackers are immensely helpful. They are a cue that can serve as a craving and a reward. When using a habit tracker, don't break the chain... and when it breaks, commit to not failing twice in a row.
Experiment with many different habits. Stick with what naturally works for you. Keep pursuing what is on the edge of your capability - not easy but not impossible. After mastering any given habit, after your interests change, or just every so often, reevaluate how your systems. Ask yourself: Have your habits become rote? Can you dive deeper? Should you to refine or upgrade the person you want to be?
Alright that's it. I highly recommend this book.
- Range by David Epstein
- The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
The most effective way to change your habits for the long term is to focus on who you want to be, not what you want to achieve.
- James Clear... this may not be a direct quote. I don't remember if this was stated verbatim. It's also from my notes. I liked it.
title: '#317 - Internal Dialog, but Written Down' date: '2017-06-25' aliases:
- '#317 - Internal Dialog, but Written Down'
- '#317' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '317'
Motto: After Writing All of This I Realized Most of it is Embarrassing
Hello internet. I'm writing this in my basement on the couch, waiting for Shadow of the Colossus to download on my PlayStation. I've heard it's a classic, so I'm going to give it a shot.
While it was downloading, I watched Caddyshack. I'd heard it's a classic, so I gave it a shot.
It's extremely nice out right now. So I should go outside and take advantage. It would probably be good for my mental health. Instead I watched a movie, then lifted weights, and now intended on playing a game (once it downloads and I'm done with this) until my wife gets home from her summer gig. We might grill out then. Who knows. Lately all I've really wanted to do outdoors is play golf, but golf is expensive. Playing it by yourself doesn't seem like it would be as fun, and playing it with other people requires coordination & forethought. I am fundamentally lazy. So those things don't happen. Maybe a bike ride. Maybe not.
If it's not clear by now, I'm just writing whatever I'm thinking. I've decided for this Column to just let my mind go wherever, and write down what the little Aaron voice inside my head is saying. He's usually filtered and whittled down so that he doesn't fill space with words like "whittled" that he immediately regrets. Now I'm referring to my internal monologue as a different person than myself. I wonder if that's normal.
Anyway I didn't come here to write about what I'm writing like. I had some ideas.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I threw all of my Google stuff out the window and bought into Apple's ecosystem. Would I hate it? Would it be just as good? Would I find out that I've been on the wrong side of the fence for years? Would it matter at all, or would I just fall into the exact same life I had before. It's not like my Googleyness defines me. I'm just fairly well placed with what I've got. Sometimes you feel like refreshing things. Lately I've been thinking more and more about how I want this or how I want that. Maybe it's a matter of me not doing what I really want to be doing. Maybe it's a matter of my laptop being 3 years and 3 months old and I'm bored with it. But I'm writing this on it so how bad could it be? Or the PlayStation 3 that's still my only gaming console after more than 6 years. Or the computer that I built a couple years back. Maybe I could upgrade that. Or I could buy a new couch. Or I could just look inward and realize that my lack of satisfaction comes from not being what I want, not not having what I want.
So what do I want to be?
Captain America.
That's always been my answer for that. I don't think it's a bad answer. I've settled for Captain America meets Tony Stark meets some really lame guy who thinks about himself in terms of which Marvel hero he might most be like. Maybe I should think more on this. I know I want to be a good husband. A good friend. A good person. You're supposed to have that defined by the time you reach adulthood, right?
Part of what's difficult about getting older is that you get better and better at raising your base-level happiness & contentment. You become less and less desperate to get out and go do new things, because you've seen a lot of things you like. You've learned to hone in on those things and surround yourself with them to the extent possible in a normal life. It's a gilded cage. But it's golden. and pretty. So why complain? I'm not even being cynical here. It's a genuinely true thought. I'm not saying getting older and having figured out a lot of stuff you like that makes you happy is a bad thing. It's nice. Way nicer than being young and frustrated constantly by having to do crap you hate for the most part. That said, it's easy to picture a man bordering on retirement who's just spun in one small circle (that he really like's spinning in) for the past 30 years. God I'm 30 years away from retirement. Statements like that make you realize maybe you're not so old. I've got time. I'll get there. Or, at least I'll try. There's a nobility in that, right? Just because you're never "there" because your state of mind constantly changes and you evolve and where "there" is constantly changes doesn't mean you shouldn't chase it. You shouldn't go forward, sideways, and backwards - wherever seems the brightest. Just closing up and settling down for what you've got is stagnation. And stagnation is death according to most radical teenagers. If the music's too loud, you're too old. If I can't live my way then I don't want to live at all says the kid who's got no real responsibilities. What an ass. I can live my way and I want to continue evolving what that is.
For the reader - I do this kind of exercise from time to time. But I usually do it with a pen and paper. That slows my thinking down and I can sort through some crap. This typing thing has let me almost keep up with that little voice and has really gone awry. It's hectic. It's eclectic. Get some perceptive and be redirective. None of that made sense. SEE WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT?
This word vomit took about 20 minutes to write. My game is almost done installing now. I'm going to kill some colossi.
The picture to go out on:
Top 5: Aaron Things (for the Past Dozen Years or So)
5. Writing/drawing
4. Playing games with friends
3. Using my body while I've got it
2. Consumer technology
1. Movies - especially MCU movies
Quote:
"What is he, one pound? .... He's five pounds of pure testosterone."
- guy at the dog park -
title: '#257 - Four Great Days' date: '2015-08-24' aliases:
- '#257 - Four Great Days'
- '#257' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '257'
Motto: The Theme is "Worlds"... which Passes as a Theme I Suppose
The past 4 days have been awesome. Here's why, with pictures & captions!
Melissa and I went to Worlds/Oceans of Fun - the local theme park. Traditionally, I don't like theme parks (see the Top 5 for more) but I had a really great night. I even rode this big torturous monstrosity in the picture above.
It wasn't just Melissa and I at the park. We were there for Danielle's birthday - with friends! It was good getting to spend time with folks. That's something I've resolved to do more of lately. This notification on my watch was almost as scary as Steel Hawk.
Melissa makes a great hash. I make okay coffee.
We went and watched my newest niece Kate's baptism. Melissa and Kate hadn't met before. Melissa said hi, Kate didn't say much back. I'll try not to hold that against her.
Afterwards the family went out to get some Mexican food & margaritas. I don't see Aunt Net enough.
Melissa is going back to the KU to get her Masters in Music Therapy. I rode along to hang out and see the old sites. Our first stop was Melissa's favorite Lawrence dining joint.
The Engineering complex is seriously twice the size it was 3 years ago. The dorms are totally different, too. There's two new ones. They look great. They make a really cool courtyard area that I'm extremely jealous of. I didn't know what nostalgia meant until I made this trip. It was mind-blowing.
Oh also I think I found the Hatch from LOST.
After her meeting in Lawrence we had to run back toward Kansas City to go to the Starlight Theater and watch Incubus - whom Melissa introduced me to at KU in those dorms I was nostalgic about. The concert was great.
Jonboy came up to Kansas City today. We three had a celebration of our respective accomplishments: Jon with his new job, Melissa with her first day of Graduate School classes & GTAing, and me with my recent re-org at work.
Melissa ran home to do homework, but Jon and I decided to hang out for a while longer at the Legends. We are both big fans of the Hitman videogame franchise, so we decided to go watch the newest adaptation of that franchise to the big screen: Agent 47. We went into the movie knowing that it was rated at a glorious 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. It deserves that rating... but we still had a really good time. I took this picture, because no part of the movie was worth representing in photos.
Top 5: Reasons I Don't Like Theme Parks
5. They are expensive. "Step right up and pay me $5 to throw a ball at some cans!"
4. They are crowded. Crowds stress me out.
3. Paying money for the explicit purpose of "having fun" puts pressure on you to have fun. It is probably a personal failing, but I have a hard time making the transition between "I'm supposed to be having fun" and actually having fun.
2. Rides are, for the most part, terrifying, horrible torture devices that petrify me while I'm on them and/or leave me feeling like absolute garbage afterwards.
1. I'm a curmudgeon/old man who yells at kids from the chair on his porch.
Quote:
"I need ChapStick. My lips are chapped from scoffing so much at that movie."
- Jon -
title: '#346 - Marvel in Media & Upcoming Dad Transition' date: '2018-07-27' aliases:
- '#346 - Marvel in Media & Upcoming Dad Transition'
- '#346' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '346'
Motto: Do the Thing the Person You Want to be Would Do - and Eventually that will be Who You Are.
Does Anyone Remember When I Used to Write Everything in My Blog in Book-Title-Capitalization-Case? That was annoying.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast is an incredible thing. The dude puts out audiobook-length episodes for free. Better yet, they're actually good & entertaining. I didn't care about history at all going in - and now it's slightly interesting! If you've not checked them out, you should.
I bring up the Hardcore History Podcast because I was listening to his most recent episode and he sort of nonchalantly throws out a reference to the Vision from the Avengers. Shortly after that, he made a reference to Captain America. In another podcast I listen to, This Week in Tech, they were talking about Thanos the other week. It's really neat to be a fan of comic book stuff right now. These characters that I'd only ever slightly heard of back in 2012 when the original "The Avengers" came out are now just casually referenced in completely unrelated media. It makes me happy.
Sometimes I struggle with transitions. It takes me a while to get comfortable in any given new setting or situation. I'm sitting outside on my deck writing this right now - it took me probably 20 minutes to "settle in" and feel like I wasn't just getting used to the temperature, the things around me, and the essence (for lack of better vocabulary on my part) of the location.
So you can imagine how I'm coping with the idea of transitioning from being just a dude to being just a dude with a kid. Does any bigger transition happen in life? Maybe if something terrible happened, that would be a bigger transition; barring that I can't think of anything quite so transformative that happens between the ages of 13 and 60. The big things you'd expect to come with lots of changes were all pretty smooth. I got married. Life goes on. I bought a house. Life goes on. I switched jobs. Life goes on. I'm having a kid... life becomes more?
Each moment that I'm not actively doing one thing, I'm thinking about it. Even sometimes when I'm doing things that should keep me in the moment, my mind wanders. I'm play sand volleyball and thinking about "how would a baby fit into this situation?" between plays. I'm watching a movie in theaters thinking about how we'll handle having an infant, how that will change as the infant becomes a toddler, as the toddler becomes a kid, and the kid becomes a little dude.
Did you ever watch the movie "Mystery Men"? The one with the sort of quirky superheroes, such as the guy who can turn invisible, but only if nobody's looking at him. There was a character in there played by William H. Macy called "The Shoveler". I remember him in the movie saying something to the effect of "I'm the Shoveler. I shovel very well."
Sometimes I feel like I'm "The Spreadsheeter". I spreadsheet very well. I was going to write a bunch more about this but instead I'll just do this.
Top 5: Baby Names Melissa Immediately Shot Down
5. Steve Rogers Gillespie
4. Maxwell Hammer Gillespie
3. Steven Rogers Gillespie
2. Stephen Rogers Gillespie
1. Captain Rogers Gillespie
Quotes:
"Sorry. I think I went kinda Soulja boy there."
- Joe -
"Cory can't even last a whole day with his shirt tucked in."
- Will -
"Imagine that - getting into an accident and losing your Cheetos? It would be like, 'Man I had insurance on that car, but I can't get those Cheetos back'."
- Chuck, to the best of my recollection-
title: '#197 - September and "Less Projects"' date: '2014-08-30' aliases:
- '#197 - September and "Less Projects"'
- '#197' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '197'
Motto: "September" is an anagram of "Mr. Best Pee"
I'm looking forward to September for tons of reasons. September 1st - Labor Day... free vacation. September 2nd - the XKCD: What If? book is coming out. September 2nd - the draft for my first ever season of Fantasy Football happens. September 4th - the Moto 360 and successor to the Moto X is getting announced.
September 9th - IKEA opens less than 2 miles from our place September 9th - the iPhone 6 (and maybe other stuff) is is getting announced. September 9th - Captain America: The Winter Soldier is coming out on Blu-Ray. September 9th - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 is coming out on Blu-Ray. September 19-21st - 43rd Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. September 23rd - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 premiere. September 24th - Modern Family Season 6 premiere. Sometime in September - Android L, Android TV, and the next Nexus tablet & phone?
Sometime in September - The Renaissance Festival All of September - Temperatures will be more tolerable. All of September - the challenge of the MONTH WILL BE DIFFERENT AND I WILL BE ABLE TO WASTE TIME ON MY PHONE MORE EFFECTIVELY AGAIN. I'm looking forward to September.
Now for the other thing.
One of my goals for August was to have fewer projects. At the time I didn't know how to put that into a coherent English sentence, but I knew there was something I wanted. Something regarding projects and the word "less". I have come to realize that " less projects" is not what I wanted; what I wanted was "not EVERYTHING is a project." Don't get me wrong, I love projects. They give a sense of completeness, but the need for completeness and perfection can sometimes harm you when "just good" would have sufficed. The best case example I can think of for this came at work last week. I learned a new fact about a system I'm helping to build and my first inclination was "cool, what else is there to learn about this system? What other related facts are there to learn? Who would know these facts? Which platform would be the best choice for my documentation of this system? Where can I fit this documentation into my workflow such that it is accessible when I need to refer to it, but not cluttering up my occupational RAM?" Then I thought, "maybe I should just take this fact for what it is, remember it, then move on." I like projects because they are clean. Everything has a purpose. Nothing ad hoc will remain out in the voids with no proper place. But, man, sometimes you just need to know that the server you are working with is green and move on. (That wasn't the actual fact.)
So. That's what I meant.
Top 5: Meals From My Recent Pictures
5. Steak, Asparagus, Onion, Mushroom, Shells and Cheese, and a Nectarine
4. Skinnybun Hamburgers, Potatoes, and a way-too-much-Caesar Salad
3. Pork Chop, Quinoa, and a way-too-much-Caesar Salad
2. The "Looks Awful, but It's Awfully Delicious" Beef and Stewed Cabbage from SSF
1. PRETZELS!
Quote:
title: '#206 - First Watch Update' date: '2014-09-28' aliases:
- '#206 - First Watch Update'
- '#206' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '206'
Motto: Focus, by Marc Jacobs
I'm writing this post in First Watch. If you don't know what First Watch is, I feel bad for you, and it is a breakfast & lunch restaurant that serves up the manifestation of deliciousness.
My last (extremely long) post covered the year wrap up of the Life Tracker. I have come to additional conclusions since I wrote that post. For example, check out the standard deviation of my calorie intake by day of week:
What does that chart show? Statistically, it's showing the standard deviation of my calorie intake by day of week. What that means is this: I eat most consistently on Tuesdays for some reason. Friday has the widest variety of calorie totals.
I have not been tracking thing for the past week... and it's been crazy. It's not healthy, but I think the best part about working out, or eating healthy, or accomplishing a lot was the moment I got to write down at the end of the day "Aaron did well". I did yoga two days ago... it was great and very much the healthy and right thing to do... but I didn't get to give myself fictional fitness points, and that was sad.
So, basically, I decided to keep on Life Tracking - but with a new Life Tracker. I wanted to incorporate all the knowledge I gained throughout the year last year. Melissa was not in Kansas City this weekend, so I had some time. I sat down with a blank Spreadsheet at 9:30AM yesterday, then, 14 hours later, I created a new Life Tracker. It's different, but similar in spirit. It incorporates new tracking points like my body weight, my sleep patterns, my pedometer readout. It's got more to it - but it's actually much, much simpler than the old one. Instead of inputting things throughout the day, I just do a single summary input at the end of the day.
When I said "14 hours later", what I didn't say was I worked on the project literally that whole time. I ate lunch and dinner from the slow cooker meal I made the day before. I didn't stop, pause, lose focus, or otherwise leave the project for 14 hours straight. If I had a super power, "focus on things that I'm interested in" would probably be it.
Even Thor was impressed.
I just realized that picture has the movie "Thor: The Dark World" and the cat Thor: The Dark World. Happy coincidence!
Speaking of Marvel. I got a new Captain America shirt. I like it.
Steve Rodgers: Super Soldier (with a Timbuk2).
Top 5: Difference Between the New Life Tracker and the Old One
5. It doesn't rely on a homemade diet tracker.
4. It doesn't rely on a homemade workout tracker.
3. It doesn't rely on a homemade budget tracker.
2. It's much more flexible. Data errors should happen much less frequently and correcting them is now as simple as possible.
1. I only have to use it once a day.
Quote:
“I'm the Jill of all trades”
- Some lady at Winfield said this, I thought it was quite funny -
title: '#164 - 30 Day Challenges, Other Goals, and One Year Ago' date: '2014-04-11' aliases:
- '#164 - 30 Day Challenges, Other Goals, and One Year Ago'
- '#164' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '164'
Motto: T Minus 23 Days
I swear I'm taking these 30 Day Challenges seriously. But, once again, I'm going to have to change (or amend, maybe) this month's goal. This month's goal was: "I, Aaron Gillespie, will run 50 miles in the month of April". We have reached the 10th day of April, and I, Aaron Gillespie, have only ran 10 miles. That's not bad, right? But it's not on track to reach 50, and it's brought to my attention a big problem. If I run much over much over a mile, I wind up being in pain for the rest of the evening. The pain goes right through my SI joint. My hip feels exactly like it used to before I got on antiinflamitories. My rheumatologist (joint doctor) said that running is awful and would probably aggravate my autoimmune condition. Turns out she was right. So I'm amending my goal. I, Aaron Gillespie, will run, walk, ellipt, row, swim, and/or bike the combined effective total of 50 miles in April. Biking, rowing, and swimming will have some sort of conversion factor: 2.5 miles on a bike = 1 mile on a treadmill = 0.25 miles in the pool. Something like that. The goal is now a little more subjective, a little less pure than "running 50 miles", but the idea stands. The theme is still there: burn calories and build cardiovascular capacity through aerobic exercise. This is all part of my overall fitness goals: to find the crux between aerobic, anaerobic, and flexibility exercises - while eating a diet full of meats, vegetables, fruits, and, to a lesser extent, dairy products and grains. A healthy body is balanced on all fronts. That's one part of my overall goals for living a quality, fully self-actualized life. I'm continually impressed with my own foresight when it comes to the Life Tracker. I haven't had to change any of my fundamental goals: Diet, Excercise, Money, Mind, Management, Work, and Others. I first wrote about my "solution for keeping track of the chaos of life" in Column #76, 53 weeks ago. My first tracked week started Monday, April 22nd, 2013. That's 50 weeks ago. I've successfully tracked on 35 of those 50 weeks, and I've learned a ton about myself along the way. During the 3 weeks that lapsed between initial conceptualization and the real-world implementation a few different things happened: 1. I learned to write javascript 2. I learned how to interface with Google Docs' backend 3. My code brought to life an inefficient, inelegant system... but a system that worked 4. I flew out of the country for the first time 5. I got engaged I wrote those in order of increasing importance. Importance didn't increase linearly, nor exponentially, perhaps logarithmically? Perhaps logarithm-in-the-exponentially? As of yesterday, Melissa and I have been engaged for 1 year.
As of next next next Saturday, we'll be married.
Top 5: Things I've Learned in a Year (35 weeks) of Life Tracking
5. In terms of things I'm good at: Management > seeing friends > keeping my body healthy > keeping my mind healthy > staying successful at work. Should I be worried about my job? I got good performance reviews last year, and my work numbers have gone up significantly since starting this new job... so in theory I should go from good to really good. 4. I work out only 2.4 times per week. Of those 2.4 times, 0.6 are legs focused, 0.8 are upper body, 0.8 are cardiovascular, and 0.1 is flexibility. I need to stretch more. I need to workout more. My goal is 1 of each type every week. Should be easy. 3. I don't track money consistently enough. Things automatically pulled from my banking account are hard to track. Also it doesn't help that a weekly summary doesn't make much sense as far as money is concerned. Money is the area where the Tracker needs the most help. 2. My macronutrient ratio (by calorie) is basically 35% fats, 45% carbs, and 20% protein. While that's not as bad as it sounds, I could use more protein and less carbs. 1. I eat 2635 calories/day on average. That number varies wildly, but the number of days in the 2500 to 2700 range is more than double that of any other 200 calorie range.
Quote:
“What I was thinking was, we should each write up a breakdown and history, complete with progress pics, and then you can post it to your column. So 7 people can read it.”
- Jon, overestimating how many people read this blog -
title: '#135 - Awesome Weekend + Half a Year Tracked + Other Stuff' date: '2014-01-19' aliases:
- '#135 - Awesome Weekend + Half a Year Tracked + Other Stuff'
- '#135' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '135'
Motto: Good Times
This weekend was a good one. I saw my family. I did things for the wedding. I played videogames with my two best friends. I had all of my paleo cheat meals back-to-back.
My cousins and I took this photo, which is now officially a tradition:
.jpg)This is the whole series:
Pictures circa 2005, 2011, and 2014. Another way to look at that: I was in high school, then college, and now working.
We looked at suits and stuff. We played Battlefield and stuff. We got haircuts and stuff. We talked about life and stuff. It was a grand old time.
Life Tracking - I first came up with the idea just before I went to Thailand. Although that was 8 months ago, I'm celebrating the end of my 6th complete month of Life Tracking. I took a few weeks off every now and then... just to maintain sanity.
Either way, I now have tracked half a year. All the money I've spent, all the food I've eaten, all the exercises I've done, and all the goals of the Demetri List are tallied up, sitting right beside me on my laptop screen. In Demetri Martin's If I... standup special, the one that inspired the first version of what ended up becoming the Life Tracker project, he tracked 26 weeks before quitting. I have finally reached my half-year goal, and it would be justifiable for me to quit... but I like doing it. I'm going to keep going.
Life Tracking is how I know that my paleo diet has me eating 30% fewer calories than average. It's what tells me that spend too much on restaurants and not enough on groceries. It's a diary. It's a tool. It's one of my favorite things I've ever done.
Other stuff - I'm re-re-re-reconsidering my EDC. I've already written about it ad nauseam, so I'll just say this - situations change and I'm adapting. This time, I'm consolidating and lightening the load. I'm sure I'll subject you to more detail in a future post.
Top 5: Weekly Goal Values vs. Average Values in Half a Year of Life Tracking
5. Workouts - Goal: 4. Actual: 2.5.
4. Money Spent on Entertainment - Goal: $20. Actual: $21
3. Demetri Goals Completed (out of 175) - Goal: 100. Actual: 78.
2. Daily Carbohydrate Intake - Goal: 225. Actual: 312.
1. Daily Calorie Intake - Goal: 2750. Actual: 2710.
Quote:
“It's the vernal equinox, I can't do legs today.”
- BroScienceLife -
date: 2012-05-06T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TV/MOVIES
- TECH title: '#4 - Awesomeness' aliases: '#4 - Awesomeness' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '4'
Motto: As Google as it gets
A long time ago, somebody asked me "what was I passionate about". I didn't have a good answer for them then. I think I stuttered something about "movies" or something else that wasn't really an answer. I have a good answer for that now. I'm passionate about Google. Long story short. Google is the best at what it does, and it does a lot of things. Another blogger I conspire with wrote a great post about Google Plus. I agree with everything she said and would like to comment on the record how pretty she is. I could really go on forever about every little thing Google does and why it is awesome... but instead I'll move on to other awesome topics.
I watched THE AVENGERS. You can read any online review you want, but I think you don't need to know anything more than the following - Aaron's review of "The Avengers"
The Avengers It was AWESOME.
That's it. No question about it. It was great and everyone should watch it. (proof
Also in the news of the awesome: One week from today I will be the proud owner of a Bachelor's of Science from the University of Kansas in Electrical Engineering.
So that's cool. More on that at a later date.
Last awesome news: I just manually updated my Nexus to Android 4.0.4. I got tired of waiting for Verizon to start pushing the update out.
- Thor
- X-Men: First Class
- Iron Man
- The Dark Knight
- The Avengers
"My childhood disagrees with you" - Danielle Fuller, after I told her boybands weren't the awesomest thing ever
description: A classic Aaron Column tags:
- LIFE
- TECH date: 2021-05-02T00:00:00.000Z title: '#408 - Ambiguities and Long Term Thinking' aliases: '#408 - Ambiguities and Long Term Thinking' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '408'
It seems to be the norm with my posts lately that I cover two pretty unrelated topics. I'm continuing that trend today.
English sucks.
It is especially apparent to me lately how much English sucks thanks to a coincidence of unrelated events. I'm learning about a very abstract domain while also teaching a 2 year old some of the nuances of our native tongue. For example - "native tongue" means "primary language you learned growing up", not really anything to do with the muscle rolling around in your mouth.
I'll set aside some small topics (like how the letter "c" serves no purpose that couldn't be covered by other letters), and topics I've covered in the past (like how we should have a 1:1 correspondence between letters and phonemes, and today focus on a topic near and dear to my engineering/dumb boy heart:
Clarity.
English has a nasty habit of enabling its speakers to use a lot of words to not actually say anything meaningful. It is difficult to construct a wholly unambiguous sentence. I think that's why lawyers get paid so much. Things like "passive voice", demonstrative pronouns, and the attribution of adjectives to pairs of nouns lend to obvious questions. Looking at a description of a process, it's incredibly frustrating to find things like:
Once the house is under contract, it is inspected. If the inspection finds any big cracks or stains, they may want those fixed.
Okay.... but who's responsibility is it to inspect the house? Who makes the offer? What level of 'inspection' is required for the criteria to be satisfied? Is there a problem if the inspection finds big cracks or big stains? Or is it "big cracks" and (any variety of) stains? Who's the "they"?
"I'll call you next Friday". - okay... But it's Monday. Do you mean 5 or 12 days from now?
"My dad went golfing with his buddy, and his game was below par." - okay... whose game was below par, the dad or the buddy? Also do you mean below par like good for golf or below par like bad.
"I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole". - inspired by Demetri Martin, am I using the pole to touch the thing, or is the pole more so just in my presence?
"I need that tomorrow by 7". - okay... do you mean before work after work?
"I'm hungry". - okay.... Hi Hungry I'm dad.
And this great example per this Quora:
"I saw a man on a hill with a telescope". - okay, did you use a telescope to see a man on a hill? Or did you see a man who was on a hill in possession of a telescope? Or are you on the hill and you saw a man who may or may not have also been on the hill who may have the telescope...unless you used it to see him?
I could fall down a rabbit hole here real quick, so I'll just say this:
There exists a class of language whose primary purpose is the unambiguous description of complex domains. They range in form from human readable to very much not.
I've been using technology for long enough to know that things go away.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for every product you use goes to zero.
No basket you put your digital eggs into is guaranteed to hold them safely. You can either succumb to that as an inevitability and restart from scratch every time a service you use goes away or you get a new computer that doesn't work with your old stuff, or you can think ahead and implement some best practices to minimize your chance of loss, mitigate it when it happens, and generally sleep easier at night not having to worry about years of work and memories randomly becoming inaccessible.
So your store everything on your computer (or your phone, whatever). Your computer can have a hard drive failure, or you could fall prey to ransomware, or you could have what they call at SpaceX a "Rapid Unintentional Disassembly".
Okay cool, so you make periodic backups to an external hard drive. What if your house is broken into and both are taken? Or it burns down?
Okay cool, so you put all your stuff in the cloud. What if (whatever service provider) goes belly-up unexpectedly? What if your account is hacked? What if the company decides for whatever reason your account is fraudulent and shuts it down? These things happen.
Personally, I do all 3 of the above. One of my rotating periodic reviews is to make backups of everything in my "main" folder. That's in the cloud, in an external hard drive (which I keep in a Pelican Case), and on my computer locally.
Fun fact: one day after writing this I also successfully turned an old external hard drive and a Raspberry Pi I wasn't really using into a Network Attached Storage device. Now I've got easier backup access & I can code easier now from the iPad, so that's cool. Sooner or later we'll get a legit NAS.
I think most people nowadays have probably considered the first topic. We've all had a computer go belly up, or a service go the way of the dodo. But, have you ever had a file that you couldn't open anymore because the file itself is the issue? Not all file formats are created equal.
Some formats are OS-specific. Many depend on a particular piece of software (or even hardware). There are a few "safe bets", though. See the Top 5.
For more on this topic, I suggest reading "The Organized Mind" by Daniel Levitin, which has the distinction of being the most-frequently-cited book in my Notes.
Have a preference for file types that store plain text (e.g. ".txt", ".csv"), or zipped plain text files (e.g. ".ods", ".xlsx", ".odf", ".docx"). Or use well-recognized (preferably ISO-backed) standards, such as ".pdf". Again see the Top 5.
This is a bit2 niche. As you mature in your use of technology and capabilities, try building your own standards. These could be as simple as "here's the folder structure I use" or as complicated as "here's a normalized database of everything I ever really care to save or be able to find". A future-proof system is one that's dependent on techniques, not specific tools.
Technique's trump tools because techniques are timeless. A tool is only as good as your knowledge of how to use it, how well it fits your situation, and how long it stays around. A well-honed technique is both enduring and flexible and will serve you well into the future. You have the freedom to consider and adopt your own, personal techniques for anything. If you build a common approach to how you like to store, access, and work with your information - you can become somewhat tool-independent. You build a system, then you find a tool that works within that system, rather than going: tool first, system later.
An over-the-top-but-I'm-actually-doing-it example is "Aaron API'5. That's sort of the culmination of years of life tracking, coding, and generally thinking about what I want to have and how to best create it. I've defined a standard approach to how I will store new pieces of data, how they can be queried, and what components any new additions will have to include. This separates the frontend presentation of the data from the backend storage of the data.
My Knowledge Base is another such situation where I came up with a standard approach and committed to it.
Any new service I'm going to allow myself to become reliant upon as a part of my personal information and productivity system must support takeout. That is to say, it must let you take your data out of their system in a way that can be made useful via automated means. I have already written extensively about Google Takeout. That's a great service Google has, and it sets the bar for every other service.
Before I allowed myself to commit to Notion to the extent I have, I got very familiar with their export options. They are fantastic. I periodically (every month, currently) export all my stuff for safe keeping.
Looking around from list to list, the ".tiff" file consistently shows up. It's not one I've ever used. Thankfully, .png & .jpg are usually also listed. In terms of vector images, SVGs are the way to go.
The pervasiveness of the .mp3 format makes it a good candidate for sticking around. It's also got the backing of two ISO Standards and can be implemented by anyone free of charges. If you need lossless audio, apparently ".flac" is the way to go. I've got no experience with .flac files.
Believe it or not there isn't really any better format than .mp4 for video storage in terms of future-proofing.
While Microsoft Office is fundamentally proprietary, they are by far and away the most popular document formats available for in all varieties of "office" files. The "X" at the end, I recently learned, denotes that the file is .XML-based. Fun fact: you can actually change the MS file extensions from ".xlsx" (or ".docx" or ".pptx") to ".zip", then extract that ("unzip") to see how the files work.
If you have no need to edit a document ever again, there's nothing better than plain old .pdf files. The Portable Document Format (or "pdf") is a wholly self-contained file, not dependent on software, operating system, or any other specific tools to open it... and it's backed by ISO Standard 32000. When you've got an ISO Standard supporting your format, you're pretty solid.
Text files are essentially immortal. This makes .txt (and its variants, e.g. ".csv", ".md") an absolutely ideal place for storing something like an ever-expanding body of interconnected notes. See this incredibly thorough blog written on the topic. See this notetaking application whose entire philosophy is all about this. Anything using Unicode (primarily the UTF-8 encoding) is going to be golden for long past your expected lifespan, whoever's reading this. Like ".pdf", it's got the backing of an ISO standard (ISO 10646)
Daddy can you say 'woo woo'. my son, I needed a quote and decided to just quote whatever the next thing my kid said.
date: 2013-03-10T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH
- JOKES title: '#68 - Social Networks, One Joke and One Bit of News' aliases: '#68 - Social Networks, One Joke and One Bit of News' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '68'
It was just pointed out to me that I should make a column comparing Google+ to Facebook, so when people ask me why Google+ is better than Facebook I can just refer them to this. So I'm doing a very very short version of that right now:
There are three 3 social networks - Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Twitter is full of short, random tweets about anything. When you tweet, we pretty much tweet to the entire world. When you go to Twitter, you'll see 140 character snippets from celebrities, people that don't actually exist, people you've never met, and rarely, people know and care about talking about stuff you know and care about.
Facebook is full. Facebook is full of pictures of the kids of and news about people you kinda sorta used to know. When you post on Facebook, you are sharing not with everyone in the world, just basically everyone you've ever met.
Google+ is less full. What is there, though, is way more directed for you. Who you share things with is an integral part of Google+, so things that get shared with you generally apply to you directly.
Pros - Public tweets are searchable Hashtags allow for post discovery and great filtering and searches Cons - Tweets are limited in scope and content Sharing with select people is downplayed, which leads to lots of noise Personal, directed sharing of things is not easy - there is a lack of structure
Pros - Everyone has it. Your friends from school. Your coworkers. Your camp friends. They can all keep up with you and see what you are doing. Native photo viewer with the ability to comment on things directly - there is a strong structure Cons - Everyone has it. Your mom. Your teacher. Your boss. Your 12 year old cousin. They can all keep up with you and see what you are doing. Facebook gives you the ability to waste infinite amounts of time learning things you don't really need to know about people you don't really need know. It has turned "stalking" into a culturally accepted habit. Facebook makes everything "official". You aren't really "dating" until it's on Facebook. You aren't really someone's "friend" unless you've added each other on Facebook. Every post and every picture carries the burden of being accessible to anyone at anytime. This scrutiny or opportunity for scrutiny later on gives each post you write a relatively equal amount of meaning. This interjects extra meaning into some situations that shouldn't warrant any while simultaneously removing meaning from some that do. Facebook has a very "I'm a 14 year old girl and I need to show off to everyone" mindset. Here's pictures from my vacation to New York - everyone look at these and be jealous about how awesome my life is. Here's pictures of my with my pretty friends. Here's a picture of me doing something fun and exciting with someone you've never met - I just wanted to let you know so you could know how cool and fun and exciting and cool and fun I am.
Pros - Every time you share anything, Google+ makes you actively select who you are sharing it with. This is a simple idea with paradigm-shifting implications. Things you see on Google+ were intentionally shared for you, with you in mind, and thereby usually carry some sort of meaning or importance to you directly. Google+ has all the features of Facebook, with the addition of the perfect level of privacy. Google Hangouts - You know Skype? The thing that lets you video chat over the internet? All you have to do is install Skype, get a username, have the person you want to talk to install Skype and get a username, swap user names, then start the program and start a Skype call. Oh - and you can get more than two people on a call if you want - all you have to do is have everyone pay for the more premium services. Google Hangouts allow up to 10 people to join in on a group video chat (or "hangout") entirely for free - using only your Google account. Hangouts can be started or joined in on from any internet-connected computer, phone, or tablet. I have used Google Hangouts to wake Melissa up in Thailand while I was shopping, group chat with her, her sister, and her parents, and to do a screen share to show someone how to work a program on the computer. This was all free, and will always be free. Google Hangouts alone would be enough of a reason to get on Google+. Integration with Android. It's native and it works better than any other social client/cell phone integration that I've ever come across. Cons - Not everyone uses Google+ yet. ???
When Google+ first came out, critics claimed it was a blatant copy of Facebook. Google+ has, by and large, grown into its own niche and built out its own products and services that less and less resemble Facebook. It's also interesting to note that Facebook's recent redesign looks startlingly similar to how Google+ has looked for the past half year. Not that that's bad, it's just something funny to note.
I want to work for NASA. Then, when I get tripped up by problems in normal life, I will say "I can't do this, it's not rocket science."
That's my joke. Boom.
I scheduled a flight to Thailand. That's happening.
April 5th to the 14th.
I'll probably have an interesting post around April 15th.
Here's a picture:
(editor's note: Just kidding this picture was lost to time)
- South Park - there is brilliance underneath a veil of stupidity and obscenity
- Packs and Recreation
- Community
- The Colbert Report
- Modern Family
“You do realize this photo isn't the same as putting that $40 in my pocket” Nick, about a photo I sent him of the $40 I owe him
title: "#459 - Feature: 75 Hard Days" date: 2024-08-11 tags:
- PICTURES
- LIFE
- FEATURE description: A very swole summer. draft: false permalink: "459" enableToc: true
71 days ago I got a message from Melissa:
[!quote] Ever wanted to try 75 Hard? - Melissa
Within an hour it was decided - we were doing it. We were about a month into summer, and some structure and a good challenge was never better timed. Although we've got a few more days to go before it's "done", I have time to write this now, so here it is.
I overviewed 75 Hard already in [[454]], but for the sake of completeness, here it is again.
75 Hard is a challenge in which you adhere to the following rules every day:
- Work out for 45 minutes x2 per day, one of them being outdoors
- Follow a diet
- Abstain from alcohol
- Drink a gallon of water (plain water, ice optional)
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book (with your eyes, not your ears)
- Take a progress picture every day
The point of all of this is partly about physical fitness, but mostly about mental fitness. It’s about discipline. One day is not so bad, but 75 days in a row is the challenge. It’s a change in lifestyle. One that requires you to live outside your comfort zone daily.
We did not do proper "75 Hard" - partly because it's hard, and partly because we had different goals. I did not "take a progress picture every day"2. I don't see that as important. I did not work out for a full 45 minutes twice every day - I probably did about half the time. The other half I did 40 minutes of strength training, or I did a 30 minute walk. You ever try doing 45 minutes of cardio outside while taking care of a 3 year old and 5 year old? How does that work? I want my children to have a positive opinion of exercise, and forcing them to walk for 45 minutes when it's 90+ degrees outside is not something I think would help with that. We did what we could. Always got in 2 things we called workouts, but they weren't always strenuous5.
So, sure, we did a 75 Hard Asterisk... but it was great. And I think being dogmatic about every single rule to the letter of the law 100% would have made it less enjoyable, which would make me less likely to recommend it or want to continue.
Okay enough preamble, was it good?
Yes.
75 Hard* was excellent. We have enjoyed the heck out of it - despite its hardness. Melissa and I both have given it wildly glowing reviews, agreeing it was one of the best decisions we made. We have spent a ton more time together than we typically would have, as we've decided to do most of our workouts together. We explored all sorts of places and things around us that we've said "someday we'll get to that". We've both gotten literally harder. My midsection has trimmed up noticeably. We've learned we enjoy walks. We read The Bullet Journal Method, a stellar book. We've eaten better. Drank zero alcohol. I feel physically better all the time right now than I have ever before.
We started (and at this point, nearly completed) the "Beachbody" brand's "Dig Deeper" workout with Shaun T (the dude from "Insanity", if you've heard of it). It was a perfectly timed companion piece to 75Hard. It's about 45 minutes every day and put me out of my comfort zone with regard to exercising - but also the program is meant to be easy on the joints, which is exactly what I needed.
But 75 Hard wasn't perfect. It takes a lot of time out of your day to work out twice and read 10 pages. We found that sleep started to suffer. In order to get it all done, we had to push back bedtime pretty frequently.
While 75 Hard was genuinely great, it was also not something I'd want to do indefinitely... and I also don't want to crash out of it. Instead, my off-ramp is something I'm dubbing:
[!tip] Infinite Firm
- Work out every day
- Do intermittent fasting, except for social reasons
- No alcohol on work nights
- Drink a gallon of water, at least 1/2 of which is plain.
- Spend 30+ minutes outside every day.
- Read a book or meditate for 10 minutes
I think one of the biggest changes that 75 Hard has instilled in me is the idea that working out every day is not overkill, but actually a good idea. If you work out every day, you don't have to wrestle with the urge to say "well, I'll just make today a rest day" then get yourself into trouble with pushing your 3 weekly workouts back and back until you're doing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That doesn't work. What does work (for me, a least) is taking away the "not today" excuse. This is also necessary if I'm to achieve my fitness goals of maintaining good overall functionality. If you're only working out 3 to 4 times per week, it's hard to do strength, cardio, and mobility training to any meaningful extent. Working out daily allows for something like 3-4 strength training days per week, 2-3 cardio days per week, and one day spent on flexibility/yoga.
I like intermittent fasting. It works for me... but I have been annoyed on a couple of occasions where I've had to say no to things like birthday cake after 7pm. I think the ~10:30am to ~6:30pm core works for days at home. It keeps me from late night snacking, and it prevents me from doing cheap and easy but terrible for you breakfast foods... but an occasional night out or breakfast before a day with friends isn't going to ruin anything.
Pretty obvious. I have found I haven't really missed drinking much, but there have been a couple of occasions where a drink would have been nice and non-goal killing - but on the whole drinking during the week is not necessary nor good.
This is something that's on 75 Hard just to force people to realize how much water they don't drink. For me it was pretty easy, other than it prevented me from counting protein powder, or preworkout water as water. So I've wound up drinking the gallon AND a couple additional water bottles full. I don't need clear pee to feel healthy. I don't drink soda. That's good enough.
This is taking the place of a 2nd workout, which is done outside. Being outside is good. Humans weren't meant to do what we do every day. Getting outside and walking around was possibly the single best result from all of 75 Hard. It always elevates my mood and my energy levels. It also got me out of the neighborhood and exploring trails nearby. I've found lots of things that were hiding right behind some trees. Geocaching is cool. Also having an additional reason to make lawn work feel "good" is a big win. Now I can mow the grass and cross of both "work out" and "be outside".
I'm not sure what to do with this one. For one, I was actually already doing 10+ pages of non-fiction reading every day before 75 Hard started. That resulted in this series of notes. I think the intended benefit of 75 Hard's "Read 10 Pages of a non-fiction or self-help book every day" is twofold:
- Read material that is good for you to know
- Make time to slow down to engage with something requiring an actual attention span
The first, I think I'm covering by myself. The second, not as much. So, making some time each day to slow down and read something or just sit with my thoughts is probably a good & worthwhile thing to do.
36 is the first1 square triangle number. Meaning, it's the first number you can do this with:
![[459-1.png]]
It's also the sum of the first three cubes:
36 degrees is 1/10th of a circle.
Oh also I’m 36 years old now. So. Cool.
Or not.
We did all this. Also there's a new vanity and all sorts of other work you can't see here. The master bath went from the least favorite to maybe the favorite part of my house. ![[459-4.jpeg]]
There are all sorts of trails around Lawrence, it turns out. We found great places to take a walk. ![[459-5.jpeg]]
Actually not pictured here, but we rode bikes from Lawrence to Clinton Lake on the Loop. First time riding what will hopefully become a staple of my fitness regiment. ![[459-3.jpeg]]
This photo definitely wouldn’t have happened without the need to get exercise outdoors. ![[459-2.jpeg]]
The best example I have. ![[459-6.png]]
I hate to pull patriarchy here, but Dairy Queen is the king of ice cream cakes
- Derek
You know what I sadly have a feeling about? Sharks maybe don't exist anymore.
- My five year old
These guys have a talkative half-life of 100 million years
- Fintel
date: 2012-11-02T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- META
- LIFE
- TECH
- PICTURES title: '#39 - Tech Cool Down' aliases: '#39 - Tech Cool Down' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '39'
I have written a lot about consumer technology lately. This isn't a blog about consumer technology. If you haven't surmised this yet, this isn't a blog about anything at all, really. I just write what I've thought about. To be fair, there is a disproportionate amount of consumer tech running around my thoughts in general. Even right now, as I write this, I have three different reviews for the Nexus 4 open in other tabs. The reviews are generally pretty positive, but contradict each other at places (battery life is bad/good, screen is excellent/just okay). Regardless, I'm getting one as soon as physically possible. I can't wait to make my own photo spheres.
One last thing about Android before I move on: I had one of those mind-blowing moments the other day. Briefly overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of the technology that I was seeing. I plugged my USB adapter into my Nexus 7. On the other end, I plugged a PlayStation 3 controller. I didn't expect anything to happen. The controller lit up. "The tablet is charging it, cool" I thought. I absent-mindedly picked up the controller and pressed a button. The controller worked. The controller, designed by Sony exclusively for its PlayStation, was recognized and correctly interpreted by my $200 tablet. 10 minutes later, I downloaded Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo emulators and played video games on my tablet that I hadn't played in years. It was amazing. Google avoids proprietary technology when it can, from what I can see. Android uses the Micro USB charger and NFC simple data sharing standards. Soon it will use the Miracast and Qi wireless charging standards. Compared to a "lightning connector" - it is so much more nerd-zen. I love it.
I'm going to say something controversial right now: I like Kristen Stewart. I think the character she plays in Twilight is a flat, entirely unlikable character. She is just staying true to the material. She might pull that "exasperated I don't know what's going on but I'm stressed" stuff in every movie she's in, but she's hardly the only person in film to do that. Hugh Grant is charmingly befuddled. Clint Eastwood is too cool to open his eyes. Michael Cera (I don't even have to specify an example, he is the same in everything he does).
Plus I think she's an attractive woman, so that helps.
My sister got married this past weekend. I am officially the only Gillespie child still bearing the family name. Traitors. It's up to me to carry it on. Saying that makes me feel way more like a super hero than any mature adult should feel. I guess I'm just not one of those yet. Either way, I'm going to be married at some point in my life, and that's still a strange and foreign concept to me. The first time I heard someone I've always considered a peer say "My wife", it left a weird impression on me. Am I that old?
My computer is on its last legs. I'm glad I'm making money now.
Pictures relevant to this post:
Photo Sphere taken with the Nexus 4 - found here - you should open that and click into it. Look around.
I think it's the hair... and the eyes... and the face...
(this photo is lost to time) A handy guide to Michael Cera's roles in cinema. Credit here.
- Windows Key+L (at work)
- Ctrl+X
- Ctrl+C
- Ctrl+V
- Alt+Tab
"I heard 'Scream' by User followed by 'torn' by Natalie Imbruglia. It was like a before and after of the same night" Ben Ashworth, politically correct as usual
title: '#338 - Avengers: Infinity War (No spoilers)' date: '2018-04-26' aliases:
- '#338 - Avengers: Infinity War (No spoilers)'
- '#338' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '338'
Motto: Balance to the Universe
I've been unable to write this column for the past 50 hours since I watched Avengers: Infinity War for the first time. My brain has been trying to comprehend how incredible everything about this movie (and by extension, the franchise as a whole) is. In writing this, I hope to be able to move on a bit to what's next.
Marvel's Cinematic Universe is the single most impressive thing that's ever been done in movies. Sure movies like "Citizen Kane" are better movies - but that's not as impressive to me as making 19 blockbuster hits in a row over the course of 10 years. 19 consistently good-at-worst movies that tell a compelling continuous story, while being entertaining on their own. If you ask people what the greatest franchise of all time is - they'll probably say Star Wars, James Bond, J.R.R Tolkien's Middle Earth movies, or Harry Potter... but Marvel so clearly deserves to be at the top of that list. Star Wars is 9 movies over the course of 40 years - only 5-6 of which were good. James Bond was 24 movies over 57 years, about half of which have been good. The Middle Earth Harry Potter was 3 good movies then 1 good movie split out into 3 terrible ones. Harry Potter was pretty good, I suppose.
I'm not going to go on and on about this - but what Marvel has done with this franchise was the most impressive thing I've seen any company do in my lifetime. I am lucky to live in the era that I do. (Although being born in 2000 would have been cool. It would have been more acceptable for me to love these movies as much as I do, I'd be the same age as Spider-Man, and I'd have had a tablet to play with as a kid instead of an OG Gameboy.)
Avengers: Infinity War is not the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's not the capstone that sits atop the arch. That will come in a year with the release of the (as of now) untitled sequel followup to Infinity War. At that point, the universe won't be over... but it won't be what it is now. It will have to hit reset in some form or another. At that time I'll re-evaluate how much I want to retain my fandom going forward. Until that day, a Marvel Movie fan I will remain.
AND AS a Marvel movie fan - Avengers Infinity War was positively astounding. As a person - it was the best movie-going experience of my life - topping an experience I had previously written off as being "untoppable" when I watched The Avengers back in 2012.
Infinity War is a movie that's never been possible before. No other movie has had so much context set up for it... and literally 6+ years of hype built up. All of these disparate elements coming together - having 50+ characters that you already know and care about coming together, developing, meeting each other, working together to a common goal.
This movie showcased 30 characters, paid homage to at least a dozen previous movies, and introduced a new bad guy whose immediately got to be included in every "best bad guys of all time" conversation from this point forward:
Not to mention - Infinity War did all this while being funny, action-packed, emotional, and just downright entertaining. I've never been so thoroughly on the edge of my seat for 2 1/2 hours before. Never before have I seen a movie that felt so important. Only twice before have I ever felt so at awe about something I was watching - and both of those times took place in this same franchise. Never did I think that they'd be able to pull everything off thus far and have it all be so good.
I don't want to talk it up too much. I don't want to talk spoilers. I just wanted to say holy cow what a story thus far.
Now I just hope they don't trip over the finish line.
Top 19: MCU Movies, Ranked
19. Thor: The Dark World
18. Iron Man 3
17. Iron Man 2
16. The Incredible Hulk
15. Doctor Strange
14. Thor
13. Ant Man - I love this movie, and the fact that there's a dozen above it in my mind is astounding
12. Captain America: The First Avengers
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
9. Iron Man
8. Black Panther
7. Guardians of the Galaxy - again, how could this be not in the top 5? BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT ONES
6. The Avengers
5. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. Thor: Ragnarok
2. Captain America: Civil War
1. Avengers: Infinity War
Quote:
"How is it that a movie I've been looking forward to for 10 years wound up being in no way disappointing?"
- Me. walking out of the theater (I said something like this, but less-well worded) -
title: '#278 - One Thousand Days' date: '2016-01-17' aliases:
- '#278 - One Thousand Days'
- '#278' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '278'
Motto: I have two on-going projects over 1,000 days old because I've only ever had two good ideas
This post going to be very short. I just wrote and published a "The Life Tracker Feature" elsewhere on this blog. This post is mostly to point out that is available for read.
Told you this was going to be short. Click that link. Here it is again, just cause.
Here's a picture:
Top 5: Things I SHOULD Have Written About Also
5. Melissa hung up some color-changing IKEA lights behind her monitor. Now her desk is wicked awesome. In a Boston accent, please - Wicked Ahhsum.
4. I love Nalgene bottles, but it turns out I also love Blender Bottles. It could just be that I love waterbottles?
3. 7 Wonders, Splendor, Dominion, Pandemic... I like games. Melissa and my collection is getting respectable.
2. I have two projects that are over 1000 days old at this point... but I also have a staggeringly impressive project graveyard. The massive website re-design (away from Blogger) is fighting to leave that graveyard... but that will have to wait for another day.
1. Melissa and I watched "Marvel Live!" with the Fuller gang & Emily. It was mostly aimed at 10-year-old superhero lovers, which meant I was perfectly in their demographic. It was AWESOME. So many cool stunts. The photo from above was in no way representative of the show... it's just that when people where flying through the air on wires, doing wheelies on motorcycles, and doing all sorts of flips and fight scenes I was TOO CAPTIVATED to take pictures.
Quote:
"My favorite joke was when Captain Marvel just said 'Beastie boys', as if that were a joke."
- Emily -
title: '#369 - Marvel + Tech + Whole30 Data = Standard Column Content' date: '2019-05-04' aliases:
- '#369 - Marvel + Tech + Whole30 Data = Standard Column Content'
- '#369' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '369'
Motto: Slow pitch straight down the center of the plate
I'm not in the business of writing movie reviews on the Column since I started a podcast that covers that topic pretty thoroughly.
That said.
Avengers: Endgame is out. I watched it opening night, then again opening morning. It quashed my long held secret belief that I would die by some tragic means before I got to see how the story ended. That superstition hit me pretty much immediately after learning about Marvel's long-term movie plans.
That was seven years ago. Feels like yesterday. That’s the way memory works, though. You remember things that affected you, while smaller things fall by the wayside. I remember opening night of the Avengers. I remember opening night of just about every one of the 22 Marvel movies that have come out. I’ll remember Avengers: Endgame until the day I die. Even if that death isn’t untimely and tragic.
Am I wrong to think that the accomplishments of Kevin Feige and Marvel are every bit as impressive as anything else humans have done lately? I'm not going to sit here with a straight face and write "The MCU is equally as impressive as the Moon Landing" - but I am going to point out that both were massive collaborative efforts along a similar timeline. They were both successful. They both changed the landscape of their respective fields (science and movies) forever.
Endgame was fantastic, by the way. For more information on that - listen to this podcast we recorded about it.
I just realized I can direct-link to podcasts we've made. I bet I'll do that more in the future. You're welcome.
I love my Samsung Chromebook Plus. I'm officially calling it love now. This is my favorite device I've ever owned... and that's saying a lot. Rather than blather on here, I will use my Top 5 to extol its virtues as a glorious nexus of design and function.
Before I get there, though, How can a $400 laptop function every bit as well as my $1200 desktop? How is it that a device with a limited OS can feel so freeing? Again I'll save the specifics for the upcoming red text.
I recently was bequeathed an Apple Watch by my wife, and it's potentially changed my opinion on iOS and staying in the Apple ecosystem as a whole. Before I got this thing that's strapped to my wrist, I was pretty adamant about my intention to hop back on the Android train at the earliest possible opportunity... but I gotta say, I like this. It feeds into my next major section of this Column quite nicely. I love having the data. I like having the tech closer to me. I miss having a smart watch, and this one is clearly better than the one I used to have. I'm not sure what percentage of the benefits this device has would be equally as good with any of the other platform-independent options that exist out there.
Man this stuff is cool.
So my last post was all about Whole30, but it was almost entirely qualitative. I said I lost 10 pounds, but that was it. Guess what, I HAVE MORE METRICS.
The following comparisons are being drawn between:
- The 30 days I spent on a Whole30 diet
- The 50 days I've done a Paleo diet
- The 1875 days I have recorded on my standard diet (pizza & cheezits)
My standard diet has me consuming roughly 2800 calories each day, with a macro ratio of 43C/33F/23P.
Whole30 dropped by almost a full 1000 calories to 2845, comprised of 24C/49F/28P.
Paleo is much closer to Whole30 than my standard diet, at 1980 calories, 31C/41F/29P.
Weight wouldn't really be a representative bar chart. I lose weight when I'm eating fewer calories, as you'd expect. The sample size doesn't really allow you to compare apples to apples.
Similarly, my likelihood to exercise is probably not a fair graphic to make. I exercised 15 of the 30 Whole30 days. 50%. On Paleo I tend to exercise slightly less often than that, 13.5 out of every 30 days. Compare both of those to the baseline, 10 out of 30 days, and you see the spillover effect of eating with more discipline into added discipline elsewhere in life.
In terms of how my back feels and how I rate general happiness, both go in the order of:
Standard < Whole30 < Paleo
Albeit the total point swing is less than 10% for both metrics, so I don't know if that's all that telling.
There is one very telling metric, though.
I'll caveat that fairly shocking graphic up front and say that Mint (my data source) isn't perfect at categorizing, and sometimes big purchases at stores like Costco will be lumped in with the "grocery" tag. However that's not the case with the 30 Whole30 days I recorded. All the grocery costs were legitimate.
A second, more relevant caveat is that the act of changing a diet is expensive. It's not necessarily that Whole30 is just THAT more expensive than a standard diet, but it's that we incurred a lot of "switching" costs, that would not sustain if we were to eat that way long-term. This is made worse by the relatively small sample size of 30 days. The "already eating this way" effect plays out somewhat by the lower cost of Paleo. We already had supplies to eat Paleo. Both times we've started Paleo, it didn't coincide with a tirade of buying things to support the diet.
I wondered if the higher cost of groceries would be offset by the lower cost of not really eating at restaurants... they weren't. Whole30 is expensive. That benefit-of-the-doubt long-term second caveat I made doesn't even really apply to Whole30, because it is a short-term diet by definition. Those 30 days are going to be expensive. You just have to hope they lead you to a less expensive, more sustainable, healthier-than-before diet.
The other day while researching Apple Watch quantified self apps, I stumbled across a blog that makes this one look like child's play. Mark Koester's "Minding the Borderlands" has been fascinating me for the past many days. He writes about goals, data, quantification of the self, learning, knowledge, notetaking, among many other things. Do those things sound familiar?
Except he puts in effort. Reading his thoughts feels like reading my own thoughts, if I were to actually dedicate the time to reaching their logical conclusions. If you've got any interest at all in any of those things, I really recommend checking it out using the link above.
Top 5: Reasons the Samsung Chromebook Plus is Awesome
5. Even with their limitations, ChromeOS + Android function very well as a laptop OS. If you want to do something that you can't do using ChromeOS, you're probably better off NOT doing it on a laptop anyway. Provided you've got a desktop PC as backup, there's almost no reason to spend more money for a more capable laptop.
4. I love the size of this machine. Not just it's size, but it's aspect ratio. It's almost exactly the size of a spiral bound notebook (see the pictures below), which makes it feel so natural to hold and to write on.
3. Its built-in stylus functions well enough for anything you want to do. They say the best camera is the on you have on you - to me that truism applies doubly for a stylus.
2. The fold-all-the-way-around convertible design is the best form factor for a laptop, especially one with a touch screen. If you flip it past flat, the keyboard stops registering presses - and having the exposed keys has never bothered me. Yet I get constant usage out of this device in all its possible configurations: regular laptop mode, tent mode, face-down-screen-up mode, and in full tablet mode.
1. The screen on this device is the best screen in my house. It's bigger than my phone. It's sharper & more vibrant than my 1440p computer monitor.
Quote:
"I find it’s best to frame this tracking towards either better self-understanding or optimized self-improvement. So, when it comes to goals, tracking data can serve as a feedback mechanism for understanding a specific area like health or productivity or as a gauge to measure your progress towards an objective goal."
- Mark Koester - in this post -
title: '#229 - Why Doesn''t Everybody...' date: '2015-01-25' aliases:
- '#229 - Why Doesn''t Everybody...'
- '#229' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '229'
Motto: The Desolation of Smug
This post is going to come across as snooty, maybe, but I don't care. I asked myself a question earlier today: "What are the things that you do that you're really happy about?" which quickly transitioned into "What are things you do that you think everyone should be doing?" Here are my answers. Establish a System for Passwords I used KeePass for around a year, but have recently switched to LastPass (100% for convenience's sake). Both services work great and there are many others you could choose. I have all my accounts, passwords, and important reference information in one, easy to reference place. Why you should:I've written about this extensively in the past, so I'm not going to rehash everything. We all know our passwords should be "passsword1" and we all know that we should reuse passwords between services. Using GOOD and UNIQUE passwords on EVERY service is flat out impossible without some sort of management system. There are plenty good ones to choose from: KeePass, LastPass, 1Password, a text file stored in an encrypted zip, a pen and a notebook you keep locked in your desk. Find something encrypted & secure. Also - turn on 2-factor authentication where possible. Your Google account is a good start. Your password manager is even better. Side benefits include: seeing a list of all the accounts you have open (which is very handy), the ability to securely store other information along with your passwords - such as account numbers & contact names, the ability to change passwords at will without hassle & memorization. Create a Personal Inventory I've got a list of almost everything I own costing more than $100. It includes pictures, prices, serial numbers, model numbers, dates of purchase, locations of purchase, and usually a couple of other pieces of identifying information. **Why you should:**Disaster recovery. If you came home from vacation to find your house burned to the ground, or was completely ransacked, or destroyed by a flood, or smashed by Cthulhu, could you tell your insurance rep what you owned? If your car goes missing, could you tell the police exactly what your VIN was? Creating a personal inventory takes only a couple to a few hours to begin with, then a minute or two each time you get something new to add to the list. After you've done it, you'll be very glad you have it. Side benefits include: Seeing a list of all the things you own (which is very handy), the ability to recall if an item you bought is still under warranty should it malfunction, a rough estimate for how much money you could have if you were really strapped for cash and had to sell everything you owned. Keep Digital Backups in Multiple Locations I've got all of my photos, music, documents, and completed video projects stored on my main PC, my main external hard drive, and in a cloud storage service. I keep my PC and cloud storage always up to date and my main hard drive synced around once/month. **Why you should:**Disaster recovery & high availability. Back to the Cthulhu scenario: you've lost everything you own. Your computer is gone. What happens to every photo you've ever taken? What happens to every piece of media you've accrued? What happens to that nice personal inventory you made? If you don't have it backed up in some remote location, you're out of luck. What happens if Google or Dropbox or Apple or Microsoft decide you're breaking their terms of service and lock you out of your account permanently? You'd better have a local copy of everything. More likely scenarios include disk drive failure, accidental deletion, and/or some malicious behavior. Side benefits include: Access to all of your files from a remote location, the ability to physically bring all of your files with you on a portable hard drive, and general "sleep better at night"-ed-ness. Home Media Streaming & Curating a Digital Media Library Using my phone, I can send music, pictures, movies, or TV shows stored on my computer to my television. I can have one, centrally stored location for all of my media that I can access from anywhere. If I were out in the boonies with all sorts of time to kill, I can still watch Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or do an exercise video routine. **Why you should:**Mostly, it's just cool. Your media no longer forced to move your media between different silos. There are tons of ways to do this - I use and would recommend Plex. The process is somewhat cumbersome to setup, but requires virtually no maintenance. Like most things in this list, put in the work once and reap the benefits forever. Side benefits include: Media security (not relying on potentially volatile physical media) & impressing people with your cool system. Cook Your Own Food Melissa and I cook the majority of our meals. I've not done the leg work to figure out exactly our ratio, but I'd estimate 75-80% of our meals are homemade. **Why you should:**It will save you money and keep you more healthy. On average, the food you pay someone else to make is more fried, more sugary, more salty, or more stuffed with chemicals you can't pronounce than food you'd cook yourself. Also, the $8 lunch you had probably only had $3 worth of ingredients in it and took ~10 minutes to make. Side benefits include: A connection to the food you eat, a greater appreciation for food, and attractiveness to a mate.
Don't Get Unhealthy Foods at the Grocery Store
I tend to do a pretty good job of "walking the perimeter" of the grocery store. My shopping cart has only a few boxed goods when I leave. It is usually devoid of snacky foods, candies, sodas, and frozen dinners.
Why you should:
You eat what you buy - it's really that simple. You can't expect to live with a healthy diet if you are constantly tempted by the unhealthy food in your pantry. If you keep re-supplying your stash of Nutter Butters (which are delicious, btw) you will never stop eating them.
Side benefits include:
Snacky foods tend to be more expensive than their meat & potatoes counterparts. You'll save money by choosing water over Pepsi, bananas over Doritos. Exercise Frequently While I still don't exercise as much as I want to or should, I do get in more than most people. **Why you should:**When you're healthy, everything is better. When you're physically fit, everything is easier. Exercise prolongs life. Exercise prolongs the kind of life you actually want to live. Exercise increases self-esteem, confidence, and general happiness. If you don't exercise as much as you should, you're only hurting yourself. Side benefits include: A connection to your body, a greater capacity to do physical work should the need arise, and attractiveness to a mate. Find Hobbies that Don't come with Continual Expenses Scenario: I suddenly find myself with a free weekend and nobody around. I can write code, make videos, write Columns, play videogames, cook, and exercise without spending a dollar (not including groceries and the like). Similar scenario: you're hanging out with your friends and you're not all trust fund babies and you need something to do. **Why you should:**If you can't enjoy spending time without spending money then you are in a world of trouble. Find things that are free to do (bodyweight exercises, card games, whatever) or things that come with a modest one-time cost that continually pay off (board games, video games, whatever) and learn to enjoy yourself without draining your bank account. Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Settlers of Catan, video production, photography, pushups, pullups, yoga, drawing, writing, Wikipedia cruising, videogames, cooking, and playing sports are all much better things to do than going out to a bar (IMHO). **Side benefits include:**Enjoying your life. Keeping yourself and your mind active. Bonding with friends. The availability of money for other purposes. Review Financials Every Night Well, almost every night. I will check out my list of recent transactions and ensure I can account for each item on the list. Also I will check my budgets for the month. The budget thing I am looking to lean more heavily on. **Why you should:**If you don't stay on top of finances you will find someday that you've been spending all sorts of your money you didn't realize you were... and maybe it wasn't even you that was spending your money. You have to be consciously aware of where you stand at all times on this regard. I feel like this one doesn't really need justification. Use your bank's online site, or use some sort of tool. I use Mint. While it's not perfect, it's the best tool I've found.
Side benefits include:
Catching fraudulent purchases early. Keeping yourself and your family out of the financial gutter. Know Your Tools and How to Use Them I'm not talking about hammers and saws (unless you own them, then yeah you should know how to use them). I'm talking modern-day tools. I am approaching "power-user" status with my phone & computer. I was once told I have a great appreciation of tools, and I think that still rings true today. **Why you should:**The thing you are reading this on is capable of so many helpful things. If you don't understand how to properly maintain your phone or computer, you are dooming yourself to constant frustrations. "WHY IS THIS SO SLOW?!" Usually there IS an answer to this question. A lack of familiarity with these **Side benefits:**Knowing your tools allows you to better troubleshoot problems, combine clever orchestrations of their usage. I used my phone to create an encrypted drive on my desktop yesterday. It was cool.
I just wrote a listical. I think that means I'm going to make a ton of money now and get shared like crazy on Facebook. That's how the internet works. I'm sorry if this post came across as "holier-than-thou". It's just that I'm so darn holy.
Here's a question I'd like to ask everyone: What do YOU do in your life that you're really glad about & think everyone should do?
Here's the picture to go out on:
Games are fun.
Top 5: Things I Do That I Think NOT Everyone Should Do 5. Trash things heavy-handedly. I can't stand clutter, sometimes to a fault. I don't like not knowing all the cards I hold and what capacity or capabilities those cards give me. This has caused me to, on occasion, throw away things I really should have kept, just for the sake of having less to deal with. 4. Track everything you do. Every exercise. Every bedtime. Every step you take. Everything you eat. A list of 25 goals you try to accomplish every day. I'm glad I do this, but even I recognize it's a bit much. It's definitely not something I'd suggest for everyone. While I would encourage conscientiousness of these things, having the hard data is superfluous for most people. 3. Go months or even years without reading a book. I don't read for fun nearly often enough. My wife has been doing a fantastic job of this lately, too. 2. Have a job that involves sitting in a chair all day. 1. Kiss my wife. I do this, but I don't recommend others do the same.
Quote:
“The suggested playlist was created by us and we stand by it. You will be able to lift more for a longer period of time if you listen to what we’ve suggested.”
- The Four Horsemen Workout introduction, which is hilarious and crass -
description: The Annual Review/Preview. tags:
- LIFE date: 2023-01-04T00:00:00.000Z title: '#427 - 2022 → 2023' aliases: '#427 - 2022 → 2023' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '427'
A nice change of pace from my doomy gloomy Columns as of late.
Lot of pieces of good news happening all around me1. Not the least of which is the holiday season is here.
I recently amped up my defense against my auto-immune disease and it’s made all the difference. Where there was pain, there is now normalcy. The vague, underlying sense of constant fatigue is no more. It crept in so slowly, and was so consistent, I was hardly even aware it was there most days. Now that it’s gone, it’s obvious it was there. Everyone should be so lucky to experience the feeling of the end of long suffering. Getting out of bed and beginning the day without a grim reminder of your mortality and decline into decrepitude is… it’s unlike anything else. There is no comparison.
But, like a dog with a very hard life who's adopted from a shelter by a loving family who treats him right, I am so nervous to grant myself permission to feel like everything is going to be alright. The future is unknown. For now, I’m just loving the ability to move around and exercise again.
In case it gets lost in all the other contexts in this post, the Quote is in reference to this section of the Column.
Life as a parent of 2 young children is a series of loops. A series of the same types of events happen over and over, bookended by sleeps. The length of the loops increases with the age of the children.
When you have a newborn the cycle is happening 6+ times a day. Feed. Soothe. Play. Try to do stuff while they’re asleep.
As the baby ages into toddlerhood, the cycle extends out to 2 a day. Wake. Breakfast. Get ready for the day. Find stuff to play with. Try to sneak in things you want to do (or need to do) when they aren’t actively requiring your full attention. Then a nap happens around mid-day. Upon wake, you get a slightly different flavor of the exact same loop to finish the day.
Parenthood is everything I expected it to be. It’s easily the hardest thing I do, but also the most rewarding. It’s a blessing. It’s a curse. Becoming a parent is the biggest change I’ve experienced in life. I look forward to the future, but also know I’ll miss these days when they’re gone. I can still hold both my boys at the same time, but I reckon this time next year that won’t be possible.
In my 2021 → 2022 I said “2021 ⇒ 2020 All Over Again?” I struggle to say 2022 didn’t feel like more of the same. Things obviously did happen and change. We all got a year older. My elder child started to truly become self-sufficient for some basic things. My younger learned to talk. My wife took a new job here in Lawrence and I took a new role at my job. We borrowed a car for the better part of a year while ours was being built. We became among the first people we know to own a fully-electric vehicle. I spent about half the year in the worst flare up I’ve ever had, which may be the story of the year. The day-to-day, though, felt like more of the same.
This isn’t a bad thing, per se. I’m very much living the life I chose and intentionally crafted with my family. See all of the above.
The only truly “new” thing this year was the creation of https://getinto.win - which isn’t really “new” as much as it is a crystallization of a project that combines nearly all of my hobbies and talents.
I set slightly more moderate goals for 2022 than I had in 2021. The goals I set for myself were less well-defined, fewer in number, and explicitly ‘softer’.
More time listening to music, less to podcasts - I don’t think I made any changes. I’ve got a podcast in my ear literally as I write this. I’m very bad at realizing when I am and am not paying attention to something. In short: 🔴
Re-establish the hardcore use of Streaks on iOS - No analysis needed. I absolutely failed. 🔴
Hone my work systems - This one is hard. While I definitely tried to do this, I very much failed to create a “good” work system. Instead I spent so many cycles starting from scratch saying “this didn’t work”. Nothing ever took hold. 🔴
Build the next-generation Life Tracker and integrate in the old versions’ data - The Personal Data Warehouse exists. It was wholly built anew in 2022. It, however, doesn’t have any of the old versions’ data in it. On the whole: 🟡
| Area | Goal | Result | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eating Out | Less than 2x/week | 🟡 107 | Did better than I expected. |
| Exercise | Exercise more times than eating out | 🟡 86 (cardio x 27, mobility x 9, strength x 50) | Given my back kept me from exercising at all most of the year, this is a pretty good result |
| Notes | 150 new notes | 🟢 266 new notes | Despite feeling like I never touch these, I clearly am. |
| Books | 26 read | 🟡 Started 30, only finished 22. | Need better books. |
| Movies | 26 new movies | 🟢 29 new movies + 6 rewatches | |
| Columns | >6 | 🟢 13 | My goal here is basically “just don’t stop being a writer” |
My overall themes to focus on going into 2023:
- More wood, fewer arrows.
- Use what you have & don’t start from scratch.
- To be venturesome.
I’m going to archive some of the projects I’ve been actively (or intermittently) working on. Specifically, I’ll be putting an indefinite hiatus on doing the Creation of the Week, Gillespedia, 30 Day Challenges, and
Some quantified goal's I'll report back on in ~365 days.
Eating Out - fewer than 125 times
Exercise - greater than 150 times
Notes - another 150 new notes
Books - finish another 18 books
Movies - watch 30 new (to me) movies
I am going to see if I can leverage the “Streaks” app to manage my day-to-day maintenance activities to free my mind for larger and more fun ambitions. Day trips. Pushing the existing ideas & projects further. Not settling for “what's easy”.
My name is Dale. I don't eat whale. Why would you say that I eat whale?
Amazing premise. Amazing man.
I'm a sucker for Marvel, and yet this is the only MCU Movie of the 3 candidates that made this list.
Suspense & Dark Comedy. Go in blind. It's brilliant.
One of my Top 10 Favorite movies of all time.
You don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone. Cinderella (the band, not the Disney princess)
date: 2012-11-30T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- TECH
- LIFE title: '#47 - A Hit Out on Facebook' aliases: '#47 - A Hit Out on Facebook' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '47'
This is my 47th column since its rebirth. I should emphasize again that this is not the 47th column I've ever written - it's likely closer to the 300th (I had a lot of free time in high school). All those columns are gone now - lost to the grandeur of the greater internet. I'm archiving these posts however, so that won't ever happen again. So this is the 47(+/-300)th column. The number 47 has a greater significance in my life. First off, it was my favorite number for a long time (the number 42 surpassed it after I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but that's another story - one I told 5 columns ago). The reason it was my favorite number is because of its relevance to one of my favorite video games series of all time: Hitman. Videogames are for children. Videogames are not for adults with problems to deal with and responsibilities to attend to. But, as I have often said, I'm only as mature as I have to be in any given situation. If I properly manhandled my responsibilities for the day, there isn't much maturity warranted for that night. You can bet there's a chance I'll fire up the old PlayStation. In high school I played through the second, third, and forth Hitman games (the first was PC-only, and is widely viewed as not being the first GOOD one). 6 1/2 years went by until last week, Hitman: Absolution was released. I played through and beat it in a shamefully short amount of time. The only saving grace I have is that I didn't do it entirely alone; I found a way to be sociable during said course. The premise of the games (and movie, don't forget there was a movie) is simple: you are a clone that was made from the DNA of four bad guys. You have no proper name, but were given the moniker "47" because you were the 47th clone in the series. You are a hitman. You get paid to sneak around and kill people. The game takes patience, observational skills, foresight, precision, creativity, and general brain power. It is very serious in tone, but is also host to some tongue-in-cheek humor. My favorite such example is the reoccurance of a rubber ducky throughout the series. The duck even makes an appearance in the movie (when I saw it, I giggled like an idiot). 47 is the reason I had a rubber duckie on display in my room throughout college.
![]](assets/47-1.jpg)
In celebration of column 47
I have been thinking about other things lately, too. Hear me out. I don't like Facebook. I have Facebook; but I don't use Facebook. I have only kept a Facebook because it seemed 'selfish' of me to delete my Facebook. It is, as you know, the place that people I don't get to talk to on a regular basis would check up on me and my life. It is how they would connect with me. The thing is, I DON'T USE Facebook. So, there isn't REALLY a connection there. There are no updates about me and my life. I don't see them or what's new in theirs either. What's worse is that it gives the illusion of a connection. It allows relationships to be held idly. You don't have to put any work into being someone's Facebook friend. You don't have to maintain the friendship at all... they are just there. They are on Facebook. This is BAD. This not the way friendships were meant to be. Social media should AUGMENT social lives, but, for some people, it has almost completely replaced them. Being on Facebook, I get invited to dozens of events on any given month (not to brag). Out of these dozens of events, there's maybe MAYBE 2 that I'm actually interested in. There are a few problems here: People assume that I've seen the invite to "whatever", so they don't tell me about "whatever". Then when I find out and don't go, people say "well it was on Facebook". The second problem is this - even if I WAS on Facebook, I had become sign-blind to events. I saw so many of them, I started only seeing them as "events" instead of seeing what they actually were. The thing would say "You have 4 events" and I would go "Cool, I need to delete these 4 things to make that red number go away". Then I would delete them. Without even looking. If I got, say, ONE or TWO event invites a month, I'd probably have paid more attention... but that's not the case. I was getting friendship spammed. Then I realized, that's what Facebook has become to me. Spam. It's a hollowed-out husk of the fun thing it used to be years ago. It's become an obligation. 80% of the posts on Facebook I don't care about because I'm friends with every person I've ever met and they post everything they've ever done. My 7th grade teacher ate half a sandwich and dropped the other half on the floor! Awesome! It is for those reasons (and many others that I didn't get into to save you all time), that I have decided to delete my Facebook account. It's been hanging on like by a dead, lifeless thread for quite some time now. But I'm done with it. I'm also going to dial waaaay down the amount of my time that I dedicate to Reddit. I have free time now that I don't have homework. I need to find things to do with it that are more conducive to a full life.
- Private investigators (I'm making a joke about Facebook creeping, if that's not obvious)
- Google+ (if you call me hypocritical for thinking Google+ is okay but Facebook isn't, I'll retort with an hour long argument that you may or may not agree with... so let's just... let's not go there).
- Having a blog.
- Phone calls, emails, text messages, various chat protocols.
- Actually going to see and talk with people.
"And yes, if we talk more, we will probably talk more" Joe
date: 2012-07-01T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE
- TOOLS title: '#16 - Crackers & Aging' aliases: '#16 - Crackers & Aging' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '16'
First off, I feel its necessary to give you an idea of what is going on right now: I'm not doing anything.
Now that you're up to speed, I would like to get started. I hung out with my cousins this weekend. We have grown up together, as evidenced by the following (awesome) picture.
For those who don't know, the picture above depicts, from left to right, a future medical doctor, professional engineer, and police officer. It also depicts three very white guys.
I like the show "Holmes Inspection" on HGTV. The fact that I like any show on HGTV means I'm getting older. I think that other signs of my aging would make a wonderful top 5. Look forward to that.
I am switching my EDC tablet from my Transformer to a Nexus 7 tablet. The Nexus 7 is a seven inch tablet, purely Google. It is lighter and smaller than the Transformer. It won't take up as much space in the bag (I love that bag) and won't fatigue the shoulder as much after a long day.
Ted is like a long, live-action Family Guy. That's a good thing. I mean, it worked.
Staying with my parents tends to make me revert to the habits I had when I was in high school. I feel like an entirely different person. It's not necessarily a good thing. I'm lazier. I am less healthy. I need to go back to Lawrence. I have drank 3 Mountain Dews in the past 3 days. That represents sodas number 2, 3, and 4 this year. I don't like that trend.
- I like a show on HGTV
- I like getting up early
- I think "man, I shouldn't eat that" every so often
- I'm looking forward more to the Olympics than the X-games
- I want a place of my own, a dog, and I embrace my coming stability
"Men in Paint Three" Jon Sliter's guess for the "name that movie" thing they do before movies. It was black paint.
date: 2013-04-21T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- PICTURES title: '#80 - Pictures, Pictures, Pictures' aliases: '#80 - Pictures, Pictures, Pictures' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '80'
I am jetlagged. I've been going through a weird cycle of sleeping for 13 or 14 hours, then staying awake for 24 straight without the slightest hint of tiredness. I'm working on correcting that.
During my many periods of unwilling wakefulness I have been perusing photos on my computer. I've decided there are a few fun ones I'd like to share with you, my loyal readers*. I'm going to try to keep the entertainment value high with these.
*Mom.
ONE NOTE BEFORE WE GET STARTED: I'd like to explicitly state that you have the option to click on the pictures to make them bigger. Doing this allows you to quickly look through all the photos in any post - but loses you the ability to see their captions and any surrounding context... which is usually fairly important.
We are going to work our way backward in time.
First off, today I already toured KC some and took some new photospheres. I got a tripod mount for my cell phone, it takes photosphere quality to the next level. See below:
Kansas City - Crown Center
Kansas City - Town Hall
Kansas City - My Place
Next, I took a special tour of Boulevard's brewery yesterday:
From the roof of the Brewery... I don't like that guy
The whole group (everyone knew everyone, or at least everyone knew Nick)
Again, the tripod makes these way better
Two days ago the Fuller's hosted Poker Night (I'm capitalizing that because it's the name of a movie that's coming out soon):
Danielle got a new cat & AJ in in the process of hitting me in the crotch
I think this photo explains itself
Next, here are a couple photos from the trip:
"Huh?"
Me attempting a stereotypical girl-trying-to-look-sexy-without-"trying" pose
Right after this one I got called "terrible at jump photos"
Now we'll move on to photos from earlier this year:
My sister Amy - psyched to get the conductor's hat
Melissa's sister Krista, a little less psyched to get the Yeti hat
This picture also explains itself Stepping back a year - here are some interesting photos from 2012:
One of the Deskies at Templin looked a lot like the model on the front of this magazine
I got an Android snuggie with a pocket that perfectly accommodates my Android tablet
Halloween - Highland Breau
Santa's little helper
This photo is mostly for reference for the coming Top 5's
Melissa and I photobombing a surprise photo of our coworkers I took
I think I'm a big fan of this photo of Melissa
One more step back - 2010:
Melissa and I found an igloo
The fact this thing exists proves the world isn't perfect
This picture explains itself
I love my friends One last step back - these photos come from a desk shift of Melissa's from before we started dating (I joined her at the desk because I liked her... but she didn't know that yet):
They are all like this
We were destined to fall for each other
Looking back at these, there was an awful lot of "head on shoulder"... she totally digged me
We still do this sort of stuff more than any two responsible adults should There are two Top 5's in today's column. For reference, I offer you all of the above photos plus the following three:
Me standing in the one spot on the boat I could actually stand - bag on backward
Melissa in the loft of the bungalow
The both of us; again, for reference
Top 5: Famous People I Kinda Look Like 5. Timothy Olyphant
Admittedly, I've only gotten this one once or twice
- Robert Pattinson
Young Robert Pattinson looks a little like a young Aaron Gillespie
- Bo Burnham
A young Bo Burnham looks a lot like a young Aaron Gillespie
- Jeff Withey
Except shorter
- Although he's not famous, this guy
Minus the wicked hair.
Top 5: Famous People Melissa Kinda Looks Like
- Natalie Portman
Minus the overdone makeup job
- Shania Twain
Melissa in ~20 years.
- Andriana Lima
Yeah, my fiancé looks like a supermodel
- Kristen Stewart
No matter how many times she fights me on this one - I still think she looks like Kristen Stewart
- Olga Kurylenko
Bonus Content - two photos of Melissa and I:
Somewhat sadly this is somewhat accurate
I had to take a screenshot of my copy of this movie to find a frame that halfway worked
“I would say the Pilsner has a high poundability factor” The tour guide from the Boulevard Brewery tour I took today
date: 2012-08-02T00:00:00.000Z tags:
- LIFE
- PICTURES title: '#22 - It''s my party and I''ll cry to get attention.' aliases: '#22 - It''s my party and I''ll cry to get attention.' draft: false enableToc: true permalink: '22'
Yesterday was my birthday. A few friends of mine helped another friend of mine move from Lawrence to Kansas City. The trip up there was hot and windy and stressful. We lost a pillow out of the back of the truck (not entirely my fault), but otherwise had no casualties. The rest of this story will be told in bullet-point fashion:
We relaxed in the air conditioner. We ate Minsky's pizza. We held the first meeting of my secret society that has been held in probably a year. Nobody knows that but me. We threw marshmallows into each other's mouths. We eventually built a slingshot and started using it instead of throwing them. We walked around a really n
Footnotes
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3 weightlifting workouts 2 cardio workouts, 1 mobility workout ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17
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this was, coincidentally, the absolute best part of the whole series ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12
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Why weren't we quarantined with a maid? ↩
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Or, more specifically, other people's summaries of the book. (one (two. Those library apps I've given lots of credit to haven't yet produced a copy of this book. ↩
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Which I expect will change during my pursuit of a Master's Degree ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
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Aside from my lack of technical skill and the years it would take to build this thing that would ultimately end up being a worse version of all apps it is stealing pieces from. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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This is me telling my future self "YOU'RE DONE MAN. THIS WORKS. IT IS CONCLUDED". ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
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Example: You buy a kitchen gadget that makes fried eggs and English muffins at the same time. Cool. But you also own a fancy waffle iron. Now you can only really enjoy using one or the other at a time, but you have to store both of them. You have to bother getting them out of the cabinet and keep them both in working order. If they have accessories or instruction books you have to manage those things too… and you wind up eating cereal more often anyways. ↩
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Dopp Kits are just toiletry bags. I think the name "toiletry" evokes the toilet, so people have taken to calling them Dopp Kits for whatever reason. ↩