the laanba blog

Read This then That

Two interesting articles I read recently.

First this one from Daniel Pink.: How to Make a New Year's non-Resolution

I'll let you read the article because it's short and he explains it way better than I can.  The idea that stuck with me is to remind yourself that the action you do today is what you are going to do everyday.  It is funny that I read it on a day when I had a candy bar and that is one of the examples he gave.  Tonight I was late leaving school and then I had to go to the tailor to pick up my clothing.  I was on the edge of making an excuse about not walking, but then I decided to walk around the shopping center for a little while.  Because I didn't want to make an excuse the next day and the next day and the next day.  It was just a 10 minute stroll, but I'm so glad I did it.

Second is this post from Gizmodo on the new social networking app, Path: The Social Network That Stole Christmas.  It is not short but you should read it anyway.  The problem for me is that I have very few people that I consider true, intimate friends and even fewer of those are social media junkies like I am.  I live vicariously through other people on Twitter and I will always love Twitter for that, but I like the intimacy of Path.  I think it has great potential. 

Instapaper Reading

I'm back!  Panama wrap-up posts coming soon.  

One thing I was determined to do on this trip was to clear out my Instapaper backlog.  Instapaper is a great service that saves articles for reading later.  I have been using it for a long time and have really kicked up my usage when I discovered one click in Tweetbot to send to Instapaper.  But that also meant a huge backlog of articles to read.  I  caught up on the trip and am now down to 2.

So here are some articles that you should take some time to read.  If you don't have time right now, Instapaper them!

Instapaper
http://www.instapaper.com/ 

1. Why are restaurant websites so horrifically bad?
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/08/overdone.html

2. A Sister's Eulogy for Steve Jobs
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html

3. 10 Crazy Science Experiments that Wound Up In Your Kitchen
http://io9.com/5845223/10-crazy-science-experiments-that-wound-up-in-your-kitchen

4. 10 Things Every Creative Person (That's You) Must Learn
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2011/10/ten-things-every-creative-person-must-learn/

5. Bad Science Leads to Bad Policy No Matter Your Beliefs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/bad-science-leads-to-bad-_b_1035626.html

6. Seven Reasons for Returning to Film Photography
http://www.lightstalking.com/returning-to-film-photography

7. DeKloutifying
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/11/14/dekloutifying/

8.  Pizza Is a Vegetable? Congress Defies Logic, Betrays Children
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-wartman/pizza-is-a-vegetable_b_1101433.html

If you read only one please read the last one.  It is important that we know what we are up against in the battle for healthy food. 

Reduction is a Go

I was very serious about reducing the size of my online homes.  I tackled it with ferocity on Friday evening.  I am not one to skim over my social media spaces.  I know that is probably the smart thing to do, but I just can't do it.  I actually want to see, read and interact with the people I have listed as friends and contacts.  Here is the what went down.

Blogs - I started here.  I've been blogging since 2004  and had a large list.  There were 110 feeds in my news reader.  They varied from journal blogs to photoblogs, media blogs, recipes, comics, etc.  One of my strategies was not to have a lot of overlap.  If I am following a person on their blog or Facebook, then I didn't need to follow on Flickr or Twitter.  I needed to decide where I was getting the best, most interesting information.  

I first eliminated the blogs that I would usually skip over when I would open my reader.  I eliminated ones that hadn't been updated in  years.  That was hard because I kept some of those blogs around hoping that the person would come back.  Then I would go down each folder and say yes or no out loud.  If I hesitated it was on the chopping block.  It took me a couple of times down the list before I finally, confidently said yes to everything.  110 to 58.  But those 58 are all things I really love to read so it makes going into my news reader much easier.  

Facebook - Facebook has really positioned itself well.  I didn't realize how truly insidious it has become.  It is the nexus of so many parts of your life and it is VERY hard to eliminate people.  Do you eliminate your co-workers, your family, your friends?  It gets to a point where it is impossible.  I wasn't sure at first how to handle it but I finally settled on a game plan:  hide most everyone except the very few that I wanted to read and to eliminate almost all of the fan pages.    It took several passes as it did with the blogs.  It will probably take me a while to finish this one because people post sporadically on Facebook.  The beauty of this system is that I can still interact with them and see their pages but it cuts down on the content of my news feed.  

Flickr - This was my biggest surprise.  I did not anticipate how hard it would be.  I periodically clean out my Twitter and Flickr contacts anyway but I really wanted to pare it down and leave myself some room to add some new contacts with a different point of view than I have seen lately.  I started trying to eliminate people, but I was all over the place and the way I was doing it didn't make any sense.  It felt random with no plan and the more I did it the more frustrated I became because I was messing it up.  Then I just decided to eliminate everyone and I actually sort of managed that.  I eliminated everybody but 11.  Those 11 are obviously people that I will never be able to eliminate, ever.  So I thought I was done.  Basically start at zero and rebuild my contact list from there with some new and fresh perspectives.  But as I tried to move on to Twitter I literally was panicking on the inside.  I just couldn't walk away from some of those accounts.  I added back many of them and I'm now up to 26. My only concern is that this seems like a good number to really keep up with and simultaneously get me off the computer, but I really do want to add a few new accounts with some new points of view.  Not quite sure how to do it without finding myself back at a number which will cause me to skim accounts again.  Flickr was SO much harder than I thought it would be.  I wish I could start at zero, but I obviously am not ready to do that.  Maybe one day.  

Twitter - On the other hand I thought paring Twitter down would be harder that it was, but it was pretty easy.  For the Assignment Houston account I had already radically changed it a few months ago making it more useable.  I used the yes/no method from my blog and eliminated some more and now that account will be much more personal and therefore used much more.  As for my Photine account the biggest shift was with company accounts.  I used to have a bunch of lists in all kinds of different categories covering Houston arts, restaurants, events, etc. plus a bunch more that I was actually following.  Now I have one Houston list that has the accounts I really want to be able to check on and I took them off my follow list.  

I feel good about the work I did.  I feel like I will really be able to interact with the people that I am following which is important to me AND I feel like it will be easier to walk away from the computer without feeling like I have unfinished business which was the whole point of this exercise to begin with.

Size Reduction

Last night I had dinner with two work colleagues as we hashed out details for an event next weekend.  When I got home I was tired and while I fiddled around on the internet, I didn't really do anything productive i.e. catch up with my social media spaces.  This morning I woke up and spent my morning working on school work so that classes would run smoothly.  I quickly got dressed and only had minimal time to check my email, Facebook, etc.

On my way to work I started thinking about this problem.  I write how I want a beautiful life and one component is definitely socializing and interacting with others, but when I do something that takes me away from my computer then I see my RSS feeds pile up and lots of content come across Facebook or Flickr or Twitter that I can't keep up with.  Many people would say that you aren't supposed to see everything that people post in those spaces, but that is not my personality.  I hate the feeling of "work" piling up but I also hate the feeling of missing out.  

The solution is clear.  Cut WAY back on all of it.  Not the spaces I use but the content I pull in.  Cut the blog reader to a bare minimum.  Cut the Flickr contacts way back.  Toss or hide more people on Facebook.  Unfollow on Twitter.  I already periodically go through and cut these things but I'm wondering if I could do a serious, and I mean serious, paring down.  I think if I keep a list of things as they are now I can always restore it if I'm unhappy.  And speaking of unhappy, people take it very personally when you unfollow, unfriend, etc.  There are some people that will decide that I'm a difficult person  or get upset because I changed my contact information (have totally been there and done that and am still annoyed about it).  Unfortunately I still care what other people think.

I found this blog post tonight and found it interesting.  It isn't exactly the same thing, but it definitely resonated with me.  What do I want my life to be like when I look back ten years from now.  Do I want to remember fondly all those nights spent on the computer catching up with everyone's blogs?  No.  But where to cut a list that is already pretty small.  We will see.

Reading Material

Instapaper is a service that I use to save links to articles that I want to read when I have more time.  I use it a lot for the things I see that come across my Twitter stream.  I am going to periodically post links here to interesting things I find.   The first post or two is going to have a lot because I haven't cleaned out my links in forever.  Of course if you don't have time to read them right now you can always Instapaper them!

Why Email No Longer Rules
Wall Street Journal

 Time to Show Our Appreciation For Classical Music
The Guardian 

Why Travel Makes You Smarter
The Guardian

 KHOU does a hatchet job on taco trucks
29-95

 Your Brain on Computers
New York Times

 The Home of Everything
Chicago Tribune

 10 Vices that are good for you
CNN

Just say no?
Cabinet of Curiosities

Goodbye, cruel words: English.  It's dead to me.
The Washington Post

First Camera, Then Fork
The New York Times

Sci Fi Fandom

This is genius!  Sheer genius.  I am a Sci Fi fan and grew up as a Star Wars fan.  I will always be a Star Wars fan (original trilogy thank you) despite the downward spiral that my beloved movies have taken with their complete exploitation by George Lucas.  I also love Star Trek especially the Next Generation and I am definitely a Firefly fan.  In fact I got this from Nathan Fillion's Twitter feed and I was just thinking about 20 minutes earlier that I needed to put some Firefly on my iPhone to get me through the upcoming weekend in the country.  This graph is so spot on, it's practically perfect.  As for the other two I've seen Avatar, but I'm not that big a fan and I've never watched Lost, but I know enough about the fandom to see that this is pretty accurate.

Click on the image to get the large size and enjoy!

Mint

I have heard about the financial company Mint almost since the day they launched thanks to my podcast habit of This Week in Tech.  It is a financial service that helps you manage your money.  It is online, pulls in your banking information and has that "new web" clean look and interface.  I knew all this and have heard geeks rave about it for ages, but was just never very interested.  It didn't even really cross my radar when I set out the New Year's Resolution of money management in terms of saving money for travel.

This year money is a big focus for me.  I want to be able to go back to Panama whenever I want.  I don't want to rely on my dad to pay.  And not only Panama, but anywhere.  I want to travel more.  To that end I must pay off my credit card.  I'm not going after it as hard as I could, but I think by next January's tax refund I should have it finished.  Last night as I was skimming SXSW award winners there was Mint and before I knew it I was signing up.  And I already know even though it has been last than 24 hours that this is going to really help me because I can't lie to Mint.  I can't forget to enter my data.  Mint is pulling my data from my bank so everything will be there.  I set up the same budgeting categories in Mint that I had on my iPhone except this time if I go over I will get a text message or an email alerting me.  A virtual finger wag. Awesome.  Money management here I come.    

XKCD Awesomeness

Click through to see bigger. I insist you see today's XKCD.

Gowalla

One of the new social media websites that I'm having a lot of fun with is Gowalla, but of course you know me, I'm using it my own way.  Sites like Gowalla and Foursquare allow users to check in at certain locations.  Ideally you would see where your friends are and/or see what other people are at your location and then you could go and be social with them.  Well that's not me.  I'm shy and big social interactions, especially with strangers scares me, which is ironic considering how many different social applications I use.  Of course I use them my way which has gotten me in trouble more than once with people who think I'm not doing it the right way.  I'm happy to say that I've reached a point in my life (age, wisdom, or fed-up) where I say that's their problem not mine. (Wow, that really makes me sound crotchety. I have a nice side I promise!)

One of the reasons I prefer Gowalla over Foursquare is that I don't need to interact with other people to make it fun (Crotchety!).  Gowalla has a virtual geocaching component that I find interesting.  When you check in at locations you sometimes find items.  The items could have been left there by a  previous Gowalla user or could be a bonus item.  You can swap items or drop items at the location and since this changes with each person's interaction with that location each location will be unique.  The graphics are colorful and fun and I'm always excited to see what new items I can find.

These are the items that I have right now in my pack.  You can have a total of 10.  

Some of these items like the mask and the red silk robe were bonus items that I received for checking in. Other items like the margarita and the pint were left by other users and I picked them up.  The pint came from Laredo!  I find this aspect the most entertaining and it keeps me checking in.

Foursquare has a system where if you have the most check-ins at a location you are the "mayor" of that location.  I'm glad Gowalla doesn't do that.  In fact I feel like Gowalla encourages me to try different places because I get a new stamp for each place that I go. Here are some of the places I checked in on Monday and the stamps that were added to my passport.

I do visit the same locations multiple times (hello Central Market), but thankfully I'm not gaming to be mayor of any one location.  For me, no matter whether I am in a new location or an old favorite, I am looking forward to seeing what items I can find.  Basically I just go about my day as normal and the check ins, stamps and items are a bonus to my regular activities. 

Is this silly?  Completely!  Do I care?  No.  I'm having lots of fun with Gowalla.

Lullaby

Time for me to go to bed at a normal hour.  Work begins again tomorrow.  There are a lot of reasons that I'm dreading the spring semester.  Cross your fingers that it doesn't suck as bad as I fear it will.

To help me to go to sleep, a lullaby.  (It is slow to load, but wait for it because it is worth it!)