I’ve always been a projects-oriented person. I think in projects, I work in projects. Even standard, periodic work is best treated as a project to keep me engaged in it.
Blog writing used to be a bit of a project, but not so much anymore. But it is still nice to have a white sheet of a paper that’s quite more public than a diary but not public in the “OMG donuts <3 <3 <3” thumbs-up sense of Facebook.
I’ve been thinking some about various projects that might bring me joy and fulfillment in adult life. The mindset around time clearly changes as one passes into different stages of life. I’m convinced that one almost never experiences a true surplus of time whether it is actually present or not. Time consumption is a gas, or at least a liquid, and expands to fill what it can reach.
Referring back to a recent conversation, I might advance the idea that an effective time surplus exists when you can make choices about your time and not have the feeling that you are making a value judgment between options and “sacrificing” one activity for another. I find “sacrifice” to be the operative word at the extreme; “prioritize” would be the neutral term on this spectrum I am constructing here, and I suppose “opt” would perhaps be the far-left side in which scarcity may be even perceptually absent from the picture. “Prioritize” is neutral in the sense that - while your calendar day may be full - you are able to choose which activities fill what I would see as a de facto surplus.
It’s very difficult, in the sense of being mentally stressful, to be in the “sacrifice” space of the spectrum. When articulated plainly, the statements become almost comically selfish: “I am currently cleaning benign goop off of the inside of the garage door in preference to actively participating in the rearing of my children this afternoon. This is something I am doing for me and my house.” Come at me, bro.
Any cost-benefit analysis becomes an exercise in balancing urgency and guilt in (often) emotionally unhealthy ways. The Covey time management quadrants teach us that “urgent and important” almost always wins in terms of prioritization, but the loser is the one dealing with all those emergencies. How does one bring preventative or restorative activities to the fore when nearly everything is important, and a good bit of that is urgent?
The obvious answer is that we implode or explode - depending on our mental and emotional makeup and proclivities - under such stress unless we take time to de-goop the garage door, or take a long soaking bath, or run a marathon, or actually understand Twin Peaks. We stand up and say, “Overriding priority of my life, I am being a jerk by neglecting you now so that I am not a jerk when I am next with you.”
And this works fine, but it still sets a higher bar than we’d probably like to have for what amount to time-wasting activities. Is a football game you don’t care about really a compelling “break” that will restore and feed your soul, bettering yourself and consequently those around you?
This can create a sense of paralysis. Throw a free hour to someone who feels maxed out with meaningful obligations, and they may spend 45 minutes deciding how best to relax.
When looking at elevated, meaningful projects, it becomes clear that, in a high-obligation scenario, much of the less structured time you are often given is essentially the “garbage time” of life. It’s hard to open that new programming project at the end of a long day. It’s hard to stay awake for Twin Peaks, even. Which means it’s going to take some amount of sacrifices and trade-offs of “prime time” to get real, transcendental things done. Which in turn means that a lot of real, transcendental things don’t get done.
And that is fine. But it’s important to keep those things in mind, so that when one is thrown an hour or two, the Rolodex gets spun and something comes to mind. For me, even having things in mind is perhaps as valuable as doing something tangible to achieve them. With this in mind, here are some things I’m thinking about right now, along with the “why” that I see as emotional justification:
Build a software project of any kind that is actively used by at least one complete stranger. Creating something like this that can become part of subsequent projects for others would be deeply meaningful to me.
Create from scratch a source of mostly, if not entirely, passive income. I feel that generating some kind of measurable, sustained value from one’s own efforts, but not requiring ongoing effort beyond the creation, is a powerful affirmation of the capacity for creation. For this reason, I find the magnitude of the income to be almost completely insignificant.
Learn how to play the drums. Perhaps the oddball of the group, I think this would simply be fun and rewarding.
Perform a comprehensive, multidisciplinary renovation on a house using mostly my own work. This would be challenging, and instructive. Also an added benefit from the permanence and tangibility of the work.
Sit on the board of a charitable or service organization. This has a sense of affirmation attached to it, to be invited to do such a thing, and also would be a good challenge in a completely different way.
I think the themes of the above are pretty apparent, and I think going through an exercise like this is important because it gets to the root of what can be sitting unfulfilled in daily life.
Having made it through Every Star Trek TV Episode Ever, it seemed logical to try out a newer hard sci fi series. Netflix has been strongly recommending Dark Matter to me, which would have had a lot more credibility had they not also been recommending Grace and Frankie with equal energy. In any case, I eventually bit and have largely enjoyed the trip.
I am only a few episodes into the second season (the latest one currently), and so far I’ve found the show to be an interesting blend of elements from a few other shows. The main characters form a ragtag, improbable group, somewhat like Firefly. The sci fi content is on the hard end of the spectrum, but without the tiresome technobabble of Star Trek Voyager, and really Star Trek as a whole. The “good guys” are explicitly actually “bad guys”, which makes the show relevant in the current antihero era, although plot complications do occasionally challenge one’s conception of badness in general.
The political universe is refreshingly neither utopian (Star Trek) nor disutopian (seemingly everything recent from futuristic media) in nature. Power is invested in multiple competing intergalactic mega-corporations, which probably makes it sound like the basis of a freshman college essay but actually works pretty well. There is no blanket “empire” a la Star Wars that is improbably evil. The formal government appears to be somewhere between a puppet and an explicit consensus installation of the corporations themselves (although Season 2 has invested much more time in this so far than Season 1 did, so my understanding is limited at the moment). The mega-corps are capricious and strongly self-interested, which mostly takes inherent evil out of the equation on their side as well.
With all of this in mind, the moral landscape is also refreshingly not clearly cut like it is in Star Wars, which can feel almost like a fable in its good/bad split. However, this is no Breaking Bad style of rooting for the bad guy, so the show hits a little less heavy and it’s easy enough to have straightforward feelings - good or bad - about the choices made in an episode.
There is an android, admirably acted, who is an interesting counterpoint to Star Trek TNG’s Data. While Data played the striving-to-be-human-by-design Pinocchio angle, this android considers her emergent humanness to be a bug rather than a feature (also an emerging Season 2 plot line). But with very nice continuity with the rest of the show’s thematic character building material, she embraces her “defect” and pursues humanity seemingly out of loyalty and affection for the rest of her crew. Her brokenness plays even stronger since she was designed to be perfect in the scope of her function.
One thing that was clear from the later Star Trek series was that playing an android or otherwise emotionless character is quite difficult. It didn’t help that it was the object-of-desire female character of both Voyager (Jeri Ryan as human-turned-drone-turned-mostly-human Seven of Nine) and Enterprise (Jolene Blalock as Vulcan T’Pol) were given the toughest challenges in this area, as this character in a Star Trek series is mostly playing from behind to start (see also Marina Sirtis as TNG’s Counselor Troy, who gets an undeserved amount of flak in my opinion). The Android in Dark Matter doesn’t explicitly have the “eye candy” role as far as I see it, and her portrayal of the character benefits from a lilting tone that brings dynamism to delivery that is still believable as being synthesized.
I’m a sucker for fresh starts, and I’d have to say I preferred Season 1 over the beginning of Season 2, but Season 1 clearly had the benefit of unwrapping the backstory layer-by-layer, where Season 2 has had to make its own way from the Season 1 finale mostly forward.
This show is a SyFy original, which definitely places it a few rungs down the ladder on a budgetary basis. The special effects never feel so instrumental to the plot that this presents a distraction visually. I do feel that the economy of the writing lacks a bit versus the polished big-ticket stuff, with most of the issues showing up in slow pacing of certain episodes.
Based on where I am right now, I’d say it’s a strong recommendation for someone who has seen enough real sci fi that they know they can tolerate it.
One thing that bugs me about children’s programming, especially girl-oriented programming, is the idea of a “rock star.” On the surface level it’s intended to be an empowerment archetype, where a female lead displays her independence and talent to adoring fans, but it’s almost always portrayed such that the fans are applauding the glamour and star-ness of the performer rather than the performance itself. I know this is basically pop music at-a-glance in many ways, but it is really an unfortunate picture to paint. Most of the time these sorts of things are cutaway dream sequences or at least just little snippet vignettes, and you only hear the last line or two of the song. This typically goes something like “Yeah, we know the music, yeah, and we’re rockin’ it like superstars,” or something to that effect. Then the crowd goes nuts.
With guitar sales falling due to lack of interest in singer/songwriter-type music, or really any type of music that can be created and performed without electronic production, I suppose this is just an affirmation of the larger trend we’re seeing outside of the toddler entertainment industry. There is always a lot of unavoidable survivor bias in music: everyone remembers the Beatles and Led Zep, but all the terrible acts were interleaved among them on the radio fade out of memory. But even with that effect always at work, I think it’s clear that we’re in a phase right now that lacks a sense of artistry around pop music itself.
I occasionally listen to a light dose of dubstep when I work from home, and I definitely feel a sense of care and creativity to the best examples of that electronic work. And the indie scene will always be doing something, but we’re basically in a phase where reasonably large swathes of the population don’t have much regular exposure to more traditional aesthetics of music through the pop channels. We are losing something when that happens, at the least because it’s very difficult to imagine capturing a lot of the art and fun of this music in your bedroom with a guitar or piano.
Much like the Turkish military (when competent) has rushed in to press the reset button on the government when things get out of hand, I imagine there will be some kind of punk/hipster/grunge implosion to bring this back, just like what happened during the Hair Era in the 80s. Not in a conservative sense of standing athwart history yelling “stop,” but more in a sense of pruning back the cruft and ensuring music comes through.
I feel like I’ve captured a Rush song in a blog post. You can fill in the drum solo.
I set up this nice blogging system when I refreshed my server, and I haven’t posted anything since it was brand new. I’m not really sure what’s going on.
Mostly it’s being pretty busy, and a lot of my thoughts these days aren’t really blog-able for one reason or another.
I also find that tech thinking consumes less of my time these days. I think the areas that usually capture my interest are more stable and don’t demand as much time as they used to.
I’ll keep exploring it, because I truly believe that blogging is good for the soul and should continue.
I have created a novel way to create blog posts in my new system by sending e-mail to a special address on my server. I’m not completely done, but it’s far enough along that I can actually use it.
It’s always cool to be able to create things that are actually immediately useful.
I was just thinking back to what my original blockers were from considering the iOS ecosystem, since at this point any reservations feel so far away to me.
iTunes was a big one, at least some time ago. I didn’t want to have to sync with iTunes. Well, my 6S has never synced with iTunes and never will. Not necessary. What changed? I merge-uploaded all my MP3s into Google Play Music All Access and manage everything using its own pinned downloads. I use iCloud backups with no concern.
I didn’t want much to do with iCloud (aside from the backups). What changed? I turned off most iCloud stuff and use Dropbox to sync photos, completely avoiding the photo stream and all that other stuff.
I didn’t want to give up my Android apps. Not so much purchases, as my paid app collection was negligible enough to re-buy without much compunction. Mostly just concern that I would have to disturb cross-platform workflows. What changed? All my Android apps, including Chrome in its bastardized but effective form, are available in iOS. I also think that the liberalization of iOS to various third-party stuff (including Chrome) was operative in keeping any related frustration at bay.
I didn’t want to give up control. This is a place where I have had to compromise, but so much less than in the past. I used to run a pretty customized Android setup. I was even running CyanogenMod for some time on the old Galaxy S. What happened here was a convergence between iOS, stock Android, and my own preferences. I started running my Android phone in a much simpler way, which then aligned better with the iOS mandates. I did give up my Google Keep screen on my Android home screen, which I would say has had a noticeable impact on my awareness of my long-term to-do list (skimming past my Keep tiles was a key way to avoid forgetting home improvement tasks over the weekend, for example). This is manageable, and honestly using Keep how I’m using it is suboptimal anyway. I just haven’t found the best next option yet.
What did I get in return?
Touch ID: Massive increase in confidence using the phone to its full potential. Some apps are now using it to authenticate with online services.
Apple Pay: I kept waiting for Wallet or Android Pay to happen, but Apple Pay is here and works darn near every time. I’ve run into a few POS terminals (looking at you, local HEB) that say they have it and don’t, but otherwise (Panera, the Coke machine in my office, others) it just works.
Force Touch: Just kidding, I have virtually no use for this at this point.
iMessage: It’s nice. Just about the same, and I don’t love read receipts, but it’s nice. Will be nice whenever I’m out of the country for some reason.
FaceTime: Didn’t consider this up front, but it’s fantastic. Again, great for travel, too.
First class app citizenship: Even though Android is almost caught up, it will always be catching up until something structural changes that. You get the best options faster on iOS.
These have all been incredible adds for me.
In terms of surprises on the negative side, it’s been all about the alarm clock (still just a persistent minor pain in my neck for my odd use case) and diminished baby monitor functionality (although we’re still using a Nexus 7 as the primary, so no direct impact there).
Size-wise, I would probably align around a 6S-minus if I could. The 5 class is a little too small for my preferences, although a chamfer version (or with a neoprene-type case) would be the best hand feel in the whole mobile world. I can’t quite get my thumb up to the top-left of the 6S with a natural hold, and Reachability takes just enough thought to make it harder than just rearranging the phone in my hand. All in all I can’t complain, since my next Android phone was likely to be within a few tenths of an inch of the 6S anyway.
I finally executed on a little idea I had been kicking around for a while. My work headset has one of those discrete USB headphone-and-microphone adapters, so the headset is just a pair of stereo plugs that plugs into that USB adapter, which then plugs into the computer. I like to listen to music and occasionally podcasts at work, and this has previously required me switching back and forth between headset and earbuds.
What I did here (pictured below) was install a 6’ USB extension cable that allowed me to snake an extended USB cord across the back of my desk starting from my docking station, hiding the little USB fob for the headset behind the desk as well. Then, since the headset ends in just analog plugs and is not hard-wired to the USB, I plugged in a 6-inch audio patch into the headphone side of the plug (the headset mic plug remains direct-plugged into the fob). This 6” jumper then plugs into the “A” port of the A/B switch you see garishly labeled “FLIP2” toward the rear of the picture. The “B” is connected to the retractable stereo cable you see there next to the switch, which then plugs into my phone. The “C” (common in or out) of the switch is then connected to the headset’s headphone plug. This allows me to bypass the USB fob’s audio out from my laptop and override it with phone audio by simply flipping the A/B over to “B”, leaving my headset on the whole time.
I also figured out I can hang the headset off of the thumbtack on that horrifying flowchart, which does wonders for my cable management.
It works well. The only little snag to it is the chance that I join a call and leave the switch on “B”. In this case they would hear me but I wouldn’t hear them. Since we use Microsoft Lync, that’s such a common occurrence it wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.
I just can’t get over how much I miss the Android alarm clock. I say that, but I may also go ahead and get a 6S this Friday. So it’s not holding me up a whole bunch.
My core problem is that I prefer to run my alarm setup in a silly but effective manner for my personal degree and style of sloth. I have a 6:00 AM alarm and a 6:30 AM alarm running all the time, repeating every Monday through Thursday. These ideally have a 10 minute snooze available, but the exact interval value isn’t important.
Within maybe 4-5 hours of going off, Android K and beyond starts showing a notification for “Upcoming Alarm”, which contains an action button to advance-dismiss the alarm directly from the notification block. So if I’m having trouble sleeping or absolutely know I don’t need to get in early and I’m within the window, I generally can just go ahead and “dismiss” the 6 AM alarm overnight and rely solely on the 6:30 AM alarm.
Doing this absolutely does not stop the 6 AM alarm from being “on” in terms of its Monday through Thursday repetition schedule. I never turn these alarms off unless I’m on vacation or something to that effect. I will not accept the risk of turning alarms off day-by-day, because I will forget to turn them back on.
I mainly have the two alarms in case I mistakenly dismiss the 6 AM alarm. This is both the weak point of my argument and the key personal rub. I don’t want to accept the risk of a single morning alarm; I am simply not awake enough at first beep to trust that I will do the right thing.
If I get out of bed at 6 AM, or even after a single or double snooze, I can then “dismiss” the 6:30 AM backup alarm. Here’s the rub of the rub: if I am not able to dismiss the 6:30 AM alarm in this case, it will generally go off while I am in the shower, which is unacceptable.
Basically iOS has an odd but effective dismiss/snooze system, but the clever dismiss optionality I had in Android is simply not available. You can feel the Jobs answer is “have one alarm and don’t dismiss it by mistake”, but I have trouble taking that risk. I also can’t abide maintaining my dual system but shutting them off and on as needed.
I’ve been lazy enough since going to the iPhone that I’ve relied on my 6:30 AM alarm every morning so far (which is not altogether abnormal for me). But this is the best-case for iOS running the tandem setup: I dismiss 6 AM at 6 AM, then get up for the 6:30 AM. The first time I get up at 6 AM I will lack the ability to dismiss 6:30 AM and will end up having the alarm go off while I’m in the shower.
Add a third dadgum alarm, no repetition, normally off. 6:45 AM. Label: “Reset Alarms”. No alarm sound or vibration on the alarm. Snoozable. Rule: if you dismiss an alarm early, enable this alarm, which will then remind you after both alarms have “expired” for the day that they need to be enabled again. This occurs via popup without vibration or sound, so no disturbance if in the shower.
About every six months I decide I want to build a RepRap 3D printer using parts printed on my own 3D printer, and as time goes on the landscape gets worse and worse. Several of the key companies selling kits are folding up. The RepRap wiki points to articles written 3-5 years ago and still in an unfinished state.
Basically the MakerBot I would use to print the RepRap, along with several other very good relatively inexpensive manufactured or semi-manufactured options, destroyed the market for oddball printers with smooth rod skeleton frames and exposed electronics. And I suppose that’s a good thing, but also (in a nostalgic-hipster way) kind of a pity.
Then I go to DIY CNC routers and do the ritualistic “wow, where would I put that, and my oh my that’s expensive, and I bet that wouldn’t even work that well” and fold it up until the next six month window.
I also have some cycle, wavelength/period unconfirmed at this point, of thinking about trashing my Efendi blog tool and going to a static site generator using Markdown files or something like that. But the funny thing is that I then start researching web frontends to a static site generator, since my lockdown computer here at work can’t SSH into anything and barks at me with soft blocks if I even dial up dropbox.com in a browser. So I basically need a static site generator fed by a dynamic site manager. Also known as a caching CMS, wakka wakka.
I’ve been thinking about writing/modding/finding a tool that Hoovers markdown files off Dropbox (soft blocks be damned) into a static site generator and onto my web server or GitHub pages or something like that. One of my more creative and ambitious options would be a post-by-email system, which would work great with a static site generator but would be a nightmare to figure out how to edit a post. Reply to the e-mail? That would be cute until it came time to implement it and handle rich text/MIME e-mail formats.
Efendi is devastatingly slow, even at the loads I run (which are basically limit-approaching-zero unless I get crawled by a Russian search engine). A lot of this is the cool feed merging stuff I built in to update from Google Code (defunct!), Picasa Web Albums (ruined by Google Plus!), and Cluster (near-idle!). I never bothered to optimize because (1) that’s not fun, and (2) I don’t need to optimize, but I do wish I could just deal in text files and serve flat template-driven HTML without a dynamic page build on every request.
Interestingly, the other direction I feel pulled with the blog is to get some kind of Twitter connectivity set up so I could do microblog entries on Twitter and cross-publish to the site. This is difficult to do, of course, and that ick feeling that all programmers (and probably most craftsman/artisans) know starts to set in, where the feeling goes from “let’s build this!” to “let’s avoid three months of untangling API hell and unintended consequences and forget about building this!” Plus I really don’t feel like Twitter works well for me to record anything meaningful, so it’s pretty much a red herring in the whole thing.
