Category: Productivity

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Data Highways and Information Overload

A while back, I posted about how I was using Evernote to manage information in my house and life. Probably a year ago, Evernote decided to change their user terms, and limit how many devices can use their free plans. So essentially, I can use it on my phone, and have to use the web version (which absolutely sucks) on everything else.

A while back, I also posted about how I was moving towards my own self-hosted cloud server, which has been actually working quite well. But as great as it is, ownCloud has a few limitations- namely, the lack of add-on features. Especially ones that work with my phone.

As a result, I’m sort of stuck in limbo with my data. I don’t have any really good solutions yet. I may go back to Evernote, but only if I feel like ownCloud isn’t meeting my needs. More than likely, though, I’ll just keep using ownCloud. I’m not sure the convenience is worth the cost, or risk of data breaches.

But at the end of the day, I’m in control of my data, and I am responsible for what happens to it. I’m not really comfortable with any large company selling my personal information for profit. Not to mention they’re obligated to hand my data over if the government decides they want to look at it.

Really, I don’t like the idea of Big Data to begin with. Sure, the information is easier to find and store. And I don’t have massive stacks of filing cabinets. But you want to know the truth? Once I’m gone, that information means nothing. How much of it do we really need in the first place? Continue reading “Data Highways and Information Overload”

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The Nine Laws: Part Four

If you haven’t read them, start with my review of The Nine Laws, and subsequent part One, part Two, and part Three.

The Fourth Law is Endurance.

The word “endure” comes from the Latin root word “indurare” which means “to harden.” To Endure means to go through something “difficult, painful, or hard.” As opposed, of course, to not going through it, i.e. giving up.

Endurance is what separates good athletes (or warriors) from great ones. Most people have the capability to run, or to lift heavy things. But when you can do it repeatedly, or for extended periods of time, then you have endurance.

There are millions of websites that can show you how to develop physical endurance. It’s not that difficult, actually- the human body is phenomenal at adapting to a repeated exercise. If you progressively push yourself longer and longer, your body will gradually learn and adapt.

What there isn’t much information on, sadly, is Mental Endurance. And the most tragic thing about this is that without Mental Endurance, your physical endurance is practically worthless.

The principle of Mental Endurance can be embodied in the trait of Psychopathy: a complete removal from emotions. It is acceptance: not wishing things were different, but accepting them as they are.

Let’s ponder on this for a moment. Continue reading “The Nine Laws: Part Four”

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Intermittent Fasting

Not too long ago, I was struggling to get back down to my ideal weight. You’ve probably been there: not starving yourself, but still working out, and can’t seem to lose any more fat. And much like we talked about recently, I was already doing portion control to keep my calories within reason.

I wasn’t too sure about it at first. I was already eating pretty healthily, and I felt like if I cut back my calories more, I wouldn’t be getting enough nutrition. I wasn’t working out as much as I’d have liked, but I couldn’t change that, either… so I was looking for something, some way to change my diet to lose weight and stay healthy.Then I stumbled across a phenomenon called Intermittent Fasting. I first heard about it from Danger and Play, but something about it intrigued me. What if you could lose weight just by something simple… by just by changing when you eat??

What is intermittent fasting?

Basically, it’s changing your eating schedule to optimize how your body burns food. This is not a diet, in that it’s not changing what you eat, or how much. (I’m assuming you’re already eating fairly healthy food.) But most people never take into account that our bodies were designed to process food in different ways, based on what our needs are. Continue reading “Intermittent Fasting”

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Becoming The Character: Sun Wukong

Over the last few months, I’ve been sucked into the show RWBY, produced by Rooster Teeth, the same guys who made Red Vs. Blue and Lazer Team. In essence, the show takes place in another world where monstrous Grimm roam the countryside, and evil threatens to rip the world apart.

Besides it being animated, the fight scenes are extremely well done. Most of the fighting was choreographed based on actual martial arts skills, which gives the show a wonderful real-world quality. Several of the martial arts scenes were actually motion-captures of the show’s creator, Monty Oum. There are several excellent heroes and villains in the show, but when I was thinking of candidates for whom to emulate, the first one that came to mind wasn’t one of the main characters, but a supporting character: Sun Wukong.

Sun is a laid-back kind of guy (a large part of why I like him) and is also a faunus, which are part-animal humanoids. He’s a bit of a scoundrel, but we also see him being very devoted to his friends. He fights with at least two distinct martial arts disciplines, and executes several slick parkour and gymnastic moves as well. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he’s got killer abs and nice hair. He’s mischievous, but not rude or mean. He’s confident, smart, and loyal. The area he hails from isn’t big on dressing up, and he’s not overly concerned with impressing people. He’s comfortable with who and what he is. In short, he’s the kind of guy I would want to be. (Some would say we have a lot in common: sadly, abs and nice hair aren’t among those things). Continue reading “Becoming The Character: Sun Wukong”

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Does God Want Us To Be Strong?

There are tons of websites, books, and shows about self-improvement. It’s a billion-dollar business. Everywhere you look, there’s ads for someone offering to help you become a better person.

Is this what God really wants of us?

We know that God can use the weak things of the world to defeat the strong. We know he uses the simple things to confound the world’s wisdom. So where is there room for us to want to become stronger, wiser, and better?

I know it sounds preposterous at first. “Why would God not want us to become stronger?” But there are people who, by their actions, believe exactly that. They have become so weak, that they fear any kind of strength.

David, the second King of Israel, was a strong, fighting man. And yet, we see how God used not David’s strength, but his devotion, to defeat his enemies. Does that mean it was wrong for him to be a strong fighter? Certainly not! It is who God intended David to be. David’s strength was useful in all areas of his life, not just the battlefield. And in the end, he still had to fight battles.

One of the interesting things about training to become stronger is that you have to come to grips with how weak you currently are. You can’t focus on eliminating weakness unless you can spot it. This applies to mental and spiritual weakness as well! And everyone- everyone– has weakness.

Is Weakness Bad? Continue reading “Does God Want Us To Be Strong?”

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Rise And Fall Of Social Media Giants

In the last few weeks, there’s been quite a bit of news going on with the Presidential campaign (which I won’t talk about) and how the media covers it. Specifically, there’s been a LOT of people complaining that social media platforms are censoring honest criticism, and mostly on one side.

This of course is a problem if you live in the United States, where we (supposedly) have protection of free speech under the First Amendment. If you post something that someone doesn’t like- you could be censored, suspended, or in extreme cases, have your account terminated or even be personally attacked, without actually violating the site’s TOS.

With the recent craziness going on at Facebook and Twitter, defenders of free speech have been getting banned from the social media platforms, and are looking for alternatives (and they’re out there). The most recent I’d heard of is Gab.ai, which isn’t even in full production yet, but is already garnering a huge influx of users migrating from Twitter and Facebook because of its staunch “no-censorship” policy. Users are welcome to filter anything they don’t want to see for themselves, but they won’t be able to get other users censored for saying something they don’t like (illegal activity is still addressed, of course).

But from the looks of it, the Social Media giants are slowly showing cracks at the seams. Twitter’s stock is declining steadily after a failed attempt to sell the company, and Facebook’s insistence on becoming “all things to all people” is bordering on anti-trust territory.

You could almost say… they’re ready to croak.

Nevertheless, I am overjoyed there’s someone stepping up to fight for free speech. And with Gab.ai’s user count exploding, I can’t be the only one!

(Two year update: Gab’s “free speech” platform was quickly swarmed by trolls and turned into a complete cesspool, involving legal action, and all sorts of stupidity. So much for that…)

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New Bike: ’82 Peugeot

Anyone familiar with The Rules of cycling knows that the proper number of bikes to have is “N+1” where N is the number you currently have.

My first real 700C road bike was a used 12-speed Peugeot I got back in the early 90’s. When I think of old-school road bikes, that’s the first thing that pops in my head. It’s French, it’s classy, it’s fast… what’s not to like?

And thus I’ve procured an ’82 Peugeot 12-speed. Well, most of one. The picture is from Josh at Simplicity Vintage Cycles, who sold me a different, but identical bike (sans wheels). Mine will look very similar, though with a different crankset, and other different small bits and pieces.

This particular model is an ’82 PH-12 Centennial Edition, which was to commemorate Peugeot’s founding in 1882. Everything on the bike was French, including the “Carbolite” steel tubing and Michelin tires. This bike is interesting not only because of that, but also because it’s aero.. like, really aero for the 80’s. Brake levers, downtube shifters, ovalized tubes, water bottle, and brake calipers were all specifically made to be aerodynamic.

So I guess what I’m going to do is build it up and see just how aero it is, compared to a modern swoopy-tubed bike. This will be my go-to bike for club rides where my heavy, slow Surly would be a liability.

I’m pretty stoked about it, really. Can’t wait to get it on the road!

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Keep Moving Forward

I haven’t really talked about it much this time around, but last week (July 12) was the 5-year mark since I was hit by a car and hospitalized while bike commuting.

It’s been an interesting 5 years, I have to say. The first year was strictly physical and mental recovery. Year 2 was me proving that I had recovered, so I trained and did a 75 mile bike tour. Years 3-4 were mostly me being too busy to do anything bike-related. Year 5 was the year of the Comeback, with me starting to bike commute again, and eventually, getting my son into cycling as well.

It’s been a very good process of therapy. I’m still not commuting as much as I’d like, but my situation is such that it’s not really possible just yet. I am now riding group rides with Andy and building up a new (to me) legitimate road bike. I’ll post a story about that on Friday, it’s pretty exciting to be building bikes again!

I feel like I’m transitioning into a different era. I am juggling lots of responsibilities, and I’m trying to make solid choices. I’m spending a lot of time playing and working with the family. I’m laying aside most of my extracurricular stuff, and focusing on my health and my family: two things which can’t be pushed off till later.

So, that means I’ve spent a lot of time riding my bike on the trainer, or in group rides, instead of commuting. This rubs my sensibilities the wrong way, but I don’t have much choice.

I think this will be my last annual recap of the accident, though. The fact that I didn’t even think about posting about it last week means I’ve officially moved on. From this point forward, my focus will be on where we go from here.

Get out and ride. Doesn’t matter where.

Just ride.

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Untangle Router Thoughts Redux

Sometimes, when you say something and you eventually turn out to be proven wrong (even if it takes 3 years), you have to eat some humble pie.

For the record, the team at Untangle have created an awesome product. I originally didn’t use it/like it because there were no affordable home-based versions, and the free version was lacking in features.

However, I’m pleased to say that with Home version pricing for their full product, Untangle is now a serious contender for DIY budget-minded home techies. Here’s the rundown on mine, which I built for a grand total of about $150, including the computer, NIC, and a 1-year subscription to Untangle NG (Home license).

The basis for this machine is a tired, refurbished Dell Optiplex I picked up on Amazon for $75. It’s not anything spectacular, but for just running a software firewall, it’s perfect. It had 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-express slot, which means you shouldn’t have any trouble finding network cards to put in it. I opted for a Rosewill dual-port network card, and since I had a couple extra PCI Intel Pro/1000’s sitting around, I threw them in there, too. Plus the onboard LAN port gave me five total network ports I could play with. Continue reading “Untangle Router Thoughts Redux”