Category Archives: Log

PAD 2/20/2013 – A Plot Of Earth

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You’re given a plot of land and have the financial resources to do what you please. What’s the plan?

If I’m feeling philanthropic my answer is to build a utopian community for me and my loved ones so that we can share a large space and block out the harsh outside world. Much like the community in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”, a community cut off from the surrounding world and for that, far simpler and more direct way of living.

Then sometimes I’m not feeling all that warm and fuzzy and instead of a community I imagine a home for my immediate family far away and very much off the beaten path. There is a section of Ontario that I’ve seen from Highway 401 that inspires this idea. The road overlooks this heavily wooded bend in a small river and the shore of the river is made up of small stones, like pea-gravel. I imagine carving out some room on this little bend by the river and making a small place for myself.

In either sense, the core remains the same. The heart of any home for a Cancerian is necessarily the kitchen and that is where I would invest the most money. A place to cook and a place for my loved ones to enjoy what I’ve made. Over the years I’ve grown quite fond of cooking and in many ways it’s become an authentic route for me to express how much I care for other people. If I want to cook for you it means something. Something special. It does sting when my offers go rejected, but I’ve learned to not take those slights personally.

PAD 1/16/2013 – Crowing

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“Most of us are excellent at being self-deprecating, and are not so good at the opposite. Tell us your favorite thing about yourself.”

This is easy. Anyone who knows me knows that my treasure is my sense of humor. I’ve also cultivated a sense of the obscure, the trivial, and a huge library of movie quotes which tends to make people do double-takes when I say something they don’t expect, but are accurate. Along with my sense of humor I pride myself on a good vocabulary and the willingness to use it. I don’t play coy, take stabs of innuendo or work much with subtlety. I prefer direct communication, being blunt, and not being shy about what I think when I tell others. Often times I’ll hear people exclaim to me “Oh Andy, tell us how you really feel!” because I’ve said something that is quite obvious but possibly upsetting. I suppose my issue is I hate bandying around the bush. If something bothers you, come out with it. Say it. Put a voice to your feelings and share them. If you just sit on bad feelings they can become physical manifestations and really hurt you. Resentment, anger, irritation – they all can lead to stress, sleeplessness, worry, and if left too long, they can become a real illness.

I can also almost instantly get an intuitive feel for the emotional state of a room. I can tell when people are upset or angry and often times this sixth-sense of mine plays tricks on me. I tend to reflect the prevailing emotional energy dwelling in a space. If I’m with someone who is angry or disappointed then I am angry and disappointed. Often a lot of this comes out unintentionally and if I stop to think about it, the issues evaporate as I stop reflecting the energy that I’m floating around in. I suppose it’s an irreducible vestige of previous issues with codependency. I think over time I’ll get a better handle on it and instead of reflecting it, be able to manipulate it and better manage it.

So, in a way, I’m more complicated and more trouble than most people assume at first glance. Sometimes it draws people to me, sometimes the opposite. I do not let those that don’t appreciate me for who I am bother me. I put those people in the dark and ignore them. They are just as happy being in the dark and ignored than if they were in the light and included.

PAD 1/19/2013 – Learning the Obscure

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“Describe your last attempt to learn something that did not come easily to you.”

Humorously the best option I have to answer this would be learning the Abacus. When I was a kid I learned it but then forgot it as anyone does when you don’t apply what you’ve learned to your regular life. As an adult I got curious and picked up an app and tried to play around with one seeing if I could re-learn it. I struggled a little bit until I realized that I was using it in the wrong direction. I was trying to apply the operators in right-to-left when I should have been doing it left-to-right. It wasn’t difficult, but once I figured it out it clicked and parts of my memory long ago came back along with the rediscovered skill.

The other thing, which I have training software for is to reacquire French as a fluent foreign language. Two years ago Scott gave me an entire Rosetta Stone course in French. I’ve been plugging away at it off and on and I need to put aside some time, make the time, and dive in. That should be a mixed bag as I have a primary majority of english, some german, and a lot of french bouncing around in my head already, so at some point what I can’t remember the Rosetta Stone system will re-teach me, and then the rest will come flooding back on its own.

About the languages, something that I’ve always thought but have no proof one way or the other about is the question of whether or not people think differently when they use different languages. That thinking one way in English is not exactly the same as when you think about something in French, for example. I don’t mean to say that any language is less than any other, English proves that is not correct – when English lacks a way to convey something English speakers just start accumulating new ways to do it. They harvest words from other languages, coin new words, even create new grammars just to get over the hump and explain something in English. But I do think there are subtle differences in between languages that might lend some credence that the way one person thinks in French isn’t the exact same as when that person thinks in English. The best way to answer this curiosity of mine is to finish the Rosetta Stone course and become operationally fluent in French. I look forward to it a lot.

PAD 1/22/2013 – Mastery

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“If you could choose to be a master (or mistress) of any skill in the world, which skill would you pick?”

I find this to be a problematic post to work on. I don’t think mastery in just one skill is a very good idea. It’s been my experience that when people elect to become a master of a skill that some other skill has to suffer to admit room for the extra material for the one you’ve selected. I think that in a life there is a kind of zero-sum-game going on with skills. I see this quite often, especially at work. I’ve seen many examples of PhD-level educated people unable to conduct themselves with common sense that other people take for granted. I’ve always used the example from when I was going to SUNY Buffalo. I attended a class where the professor, a doctorate professor, could not operate a basic rubber wedge doorstop. So I don’t think that mastery is something that people should necessarily pursue. I am far more fond of stretching yourself to familiarity with other skills and I’m a huge fan of “fake it until you make it”. As I grow older I discover that the only thing that can really buy you any level of familiarity (or mastery perhaps) is just experience and learning. My aversion to pursuing mastery doesn’t mean I am against learning, just the opposite. I think that when people stop pursuing new things, when they stop learning, that’s when we start to die. The death accumulates around us slowly, we know it will eventually claim us, but in cultures where people are very long lived, like Japan, people live for a very long time because they are important and valued and that helps keep someone fresh and running. When you stop running, you’ll be less apt to run and then you’ll slow down – eventually ripe for death to pluck. So, avoiding mastery for exploration is what I think leads to the happiest and longest life you can lead. Try something new, be something new. There is a great quote from Voltaire which illustrates what I’m saying:

If we do not find anything pleasant, at least we will find something new.

PAD 1/27/13 – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

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“Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?”

The best thing would have to be something that had universal appeal and enabled the most good for the most number of people. It would definitely be in the realm of technology and I think the only real option is wireless information technology. It comes in many different flavors like 3G and LTE. There is a joke which actually led me to think about this particular PAD topic and that is, in the early 21st Century we have technology that puts the entirety of human knowledge at our fingertips but we just use it to take pictures of cats.

That first part of the joke is what I think is the valid part for “best thing since sliced bread” – that you could search the breadth and depth of human knowledge anywhere you are anytime you want for anything at all. That could, if we took it seriously, exponentially accelerate our intellectual development. Perhaps the pictures of cats just keep us modest and rationally constrained. Yeah, that’s it.

 

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Drafts Changes Workflow

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The more I use the Drafts app for my iPad and iPhone the more I love it and the more I want to use it. It’s actually changed the workflow for my “Post-a-Day” WordPress blogging as well as my regular blogging in general. What I used to do was copy the Post-a-Day prompt emails over to my WordPress blog and set the post type to Drafts and let them sit there. I’ve never been a huge fan of the editor built-in to WordPress, but copying the emails to Drafts and storing them there, syncing them to Simperium which then synchronizes them across all my devices that have Drafts loaded on them, which is now just my iPhone.

The app itself has so many neat features, being able to store multiple drafts and have them swipe-accessible from the left makes switching files a breeze and then when the post is done and ready to be published I can swipe from the right and select as many services as I want to send my drafts off to. It’s the perfect promontory to launch Day One, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress. Generally speaking, the drafts themselves almost always follow a certain path, first to Day One then to WordPress because then WordPress sends links to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr on my behalf with the publicize feature. But sometimes I write things that don’t go to my blog, in that case I can send to Day One and Facebook. I have configured the apps representation in Facebook to conform to my “Sharing” security group, so even if I tap the Facebook option I don’t have to worry about my private sharing thoughts leaking out where they don’t belong.

The only thing (yes, there is one of these for every user) that I would really love is a Drafts app for Mac OSX. That would let me hack away on Drafts entries on my iMac without having to clear off workplace desktop space to set up my iPad. I think it’ll just be a matter of time before we see those options start to become available. I would pay $15 for an app like that without even batting an eye.

PAD 1/21/2013 – Hindsight is 20/20

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“When you were 16, what did you think your life would look like? Does it look like that? Is that a good thing?”

When I was 16 I didn’t really have any clue what I would be doing for the rest of my life. I wasn’t really thinking about the future at that point. There were more important things, like school and sleeping. Honestly, sleeping. When I was a teenager I found myself really craving a lot of extra sleep, so much so I would pass out after school, wake up for dinner, and pad back to sleep. It wasn’t until years later did we find out that for a lot of kids in that age range, that they really don’t get a lot of the sleep they really need. I was a little science experiment right there.

I knew on some level that what I wanted had more to do with computers as I was running an old-style BBS and was exploring social media even before social media was a term that was coined. The technology back then, when I was 16 wasn’t really all that great – at least not compared to now. Now there are so much better things available to everyone, a lot less bulky and work without surprise failures.

So I guess what I had in mind, what little mind I had, did come true. Was it a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy or was I destined to end up where I am now? These are things that I’ve thought about on and off again for a while. I’ve written before about how I wouldn’t change anything about my past because that would make my current life a lie. I don’t really think time travel will ever be possible, and I’m thankful for it. To go back in time and change something would cheat you out of learning those things that you needed to learn. If you travelled back in time, I bet anything your life would fall apart.

Wether or not it is a good thing is only partially part of the deal. It is what it is. The biggest thing I think that anyone can do really is to make the best of what they have. If it’s not much, do your best and be happy with that. It’s just another cheat to set some artificial conditions on your happiness because how many people actually get there? It’s far better for you to establish that you are happy now. Instead of pursuing happiness, declare that you have it. It makes chasing it far easier.

Reset Button

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Every once in a great while I will take one 5mg dose of Melatonin right before bedtime. I like to think of it as an occasional little helper that helps me crash hard for sleep. It doesn’t get in the way of dreaming for me and is always feel super refreshed and recharged afterwards. Maybe because I got eight and half solid hours of sleep might have something to do with it. If you have problems getting to sleep and staying asleep, skip Lunesta, Ambien, or Intermezzo and instead try one little pill of Melatonin.

WordPress Jetpack and Post By Email

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Several days ago, when I had all that trouble working with Jetpack for my WordPress.org blog I couldn’t get stats to work. I sent a support ticket to the developer of Jetpack and it turned out that it was a problem with my web host, iPage. Once they fixed the problem on their side, the stats worked again. There was another problem, one that hasn’t worked for a very long time and I gave up hope almost. There is a feature of Jetpack called “Post By Email” and this feature should work, but never has. I once again opened a support ticket with the developer of Jetpack and told them what was wrong.

Late last night I got an email from a WordPress.org Forum [Post](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/jetpack-post-by-email?replies=13#post-3952121) that I’ve been commenting on stating that the issue is solved if you upgrade your installation of PHP to 5.3 on your web host. So I logged into iPage, found the PHP settings, pushed them to 5.3 and then tried again. My test post worked like a charm!

So much so that I am sending this post via email. It should arrive in moments and then I’ll publish it. Hooray! I love a fix. What a great way to start the day!

Friday Flashback – March 8th

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2004 – I got my IRS return back from the Feds, $1700, a part of that went to GenCon. Boy, were those the days. Since GenCon went to Indianapolis, and I don’t travel through Indiana unless driven by a myrddraal, that won’t be happening again. Some funny Andy-abuses-popsong-lyrics humor and the almost daily work issues, which at this point are at the focus where irritation and cliché meet. Moving along…

2006 – The big thing on this day was Project Runway was concluded. The most important bit from this show happened this year, “Where’s Andre?” Yes. Where.

2007 – Owning an American Made Car made the headlines on this day. Getting screwed over by General Motors makes 2013 a laugh-fest. We saved GM, Quist-ler, and Ford. Oh hooray. $1200 for replacement bearings and fourth set of brakes. It’s one of the reasons why I’ll never own another American made piece of shit car again. American auto companies can fail – hah – or not. wry smile The start of my debt was this awful car, one small little golden brick of it at least.

2009 – The beginning of the end for my odd benign cyst that was on my leg for years and years and years. This was when that whole thing started on the path to the end. Now I’m delightfully symmetrical and ever so daintily scarred. In the movies? Watchmen. Those were the days.

2010 – Wireless carriers still mattered. Sprint was good for highways, Verizon was slow but everywhere and AT&T was shit. This also was when AT&T bought Centennial wireless. So, whatever. Little did these carriers know but they were on the path to becoming commodity carriers. Nobody cares about their products or their employees, just their towers. In other news, I was hopeful that La Palma would break off, hit the ocean and several hours later erase New York City with a megatsunami. Alas, my hopes were for naught. New York City still exists. Blah. I started to blog and lauded how I could link dump automatically on Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, social networks as whores, take it bitches. It was at this point I realized that Apple Sales are whores. If you approach them and jingle money at them, they’ll do anything for you, but after the sale? You’re full of Santorum and the beer goggles have worn off. I also wished for Fax Machines to disappear. I didn’t get my wish.

2011 – A bit of Sage love as an email brought me great joy. I still thought Daniel Tosh was pretty neat, before the rape jokes and general wretchedness set in. WMU rolled out the Bronco Transit Mobile GPS and I thought it was neat, then I stopped using the system. I started thinking about how awkward it must be for Christians when Easter isn’t a fixed date but based off a calculation on the moon after the vernal equinox, lulz. Extra special work-fun and I started talking about AES–256 and how smart people look it up and take advantage of it.

2013 – Reality TV and Contest TV kind of suck. I decided to make a change to what I do at home, after dinner and cleanup are done. A very old friend and I shared a special moment, but they have no idea because it was just a dream. My daily tarot card readings pretty much jive with my horoscopes and so, I do my best to not go all “Hulk Angry/Hulk Smash”. I dealt with work issues, did things I’m not proud of, found FBackup which was okay, and generally felt that the day was best forgotten. I laughed heartily at the foibles of folken, they don’t, so I do, and it doesn’t matter. Well, it matters to me, which is why I do it. What is it? Ah, yes. Work stuff… you’ll never be knowing. Trust Issues. Dangly Bits. LOL.