Jennerosity

Yay for another 5 Geek Things for Friday post!  I kinda like the short and sweet list format.  So, this week, my 5 geek things are . . .

1. We found a good deal on a ‘home theatre PC’ system for our media room downstairs, and so we bought it.  Outsourcing my desktop would have necessitated getting at least a new video card for it, along with possibly a few other things, so this turned out to be roughly the same cost.  Still looking at using my desktop to replace our aging media PC in our bedroom though.
2. I found a cool app for my iPod Touch called “App Minor” that has helped me to find an app for the Canucks hockey team, word tap¹, and a D&D Online reference app.²
3. Watched some first season Star Trek: The Next Generation with my husband and then had a good discussion with him about why ST > BSG³
4. I thought long and hard about writing a blog post all about how to stay organized for filing basic Canadian income tax returns.
5. My house is now home to 2 more swords.⁴

1. think Boggle, but every letter you use disappears and gets replaced by new ones [↩]
2. can’t remember who collects that cryptmoss and where they are located?  There’s an app for that! [↩]
3. Those symbols stand for ‘Star Trek is better than Battle Star Gallactica’ [↩]
4. To add to our collection of weaponry which also consists of 2 Tai Chi wooden swords, a fencing foil, and a Hakone replica rifle [↩]

but I’m thinking about giving up my desktop computer.  Yes, that’s right, even though I’m a huge tech geek, whose main limits are those of my pocketbook¹ I’m considering getting rid of my desktop computer even though it’s fairly current and still working great.  Now, before you tar and feather me, let me do a little more explaining.

1. I hardly use my desktop anymore.  Ever since my husband and I got our laptops, it’s mostly what we use.  I’d say about 90% of what I do is browser based and while I do like to play with new programs and applications, I hardly have time for it anymore.
2. It isn’t like we don’t have a bunch of computers here already.  I mean, when we host LAN parties we can set up for about 7 people already.  We’re only 2 people, so it isn’t like there’s a big possibility that I’d suddenly need to use a computer and not have one available.
3. We’d actually be re-purposing the computer as a media centre² downstairs that will be built into an old-fashioned radio.  Cool, hunh!  That has to be enough geek points to balance out my loss of points for voluntarily giving up current useful technology.  Right?  Right?

I’ve got to sit down and think about it a bit more.  We’ve got to make sure that my current desktop would be able to handle the programs and such.  We may need to upgrade a component or two just so we can have the right types of ports for the set-up that we want.³  But it’s still going to be much cheaper than purchasing everything new, especially since we’d also have to buy an operating system for any new computer we get.  I also need to sit down and see what programs and things are on my computer now that I’d want to install on my laptop and then copy any important data over or back it up somehow.

I’ll try to remember to update when the decision has been made.  Feel free to put your own 2 cents worth in the comments!

1. because I’d definitely be on the bleeding edge if money were no object [↩]
2. there’s even talk of having our entire collection of Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: TNG, and Star Trek: DSN digitally encoded so we could randomly play any episode we want [↩]
3. Note that when I say ‘we,’ it’s mostly Benevolance who’s doing all the hard work of figuring stuff out and changing things.  My contribution is mostly the big ‘ok’ on the project itself and the donation of my computer.  I will also follow instructions when it comes to actually doing the work to change things around. [↩]

This week I thought I’d put up a little list of the geek things I’ve done and enjoyed.

5. Sitting next to my husband in bed while we each work on our laptops.

4. Using my iPod Touch as both my sleep aid and my alarm clock.

3. Forwarding the latest song releases from Rockband DLC to my husband.

2. Re-tweeting Susan Piver quoting Albert Camus.

1. Using Role Playing Game terminology to describe everyday life.¹

1. Like in this blog post on our travel blog. [↩]

I heard something today that resonated so strongly with me that I just had to share it.  I was listening to episode 241 of the Zencast Podcast and in one part the speaker was discussing that time in between when you’re traveling.  How it’s time when you are no longer where you were, but not yet where you are going to.  It was like a bell was struck inside me.  I think that’s why traveling between places, especially long trips, feels so freeing to me.  I know to some people, waiting in an airport gate, sitting for hours on a plane, or spending time sitting on a train between cities would feel more like a prison, but it’s quite the opposite for me.

I’m released from everything that was, but am not yet everything that will be.  I’m unattached to any place and free.  There is no defined place of being that I exist in, so I can exist only for me.  My soul feels unbound and I can simply spend time existing in a more pure state.  I feel more peaceful, more rested¹, and the world just seems to make a little more sense when it’s hurtling by me, as opposed to when I’m attached to a particular part of it.

1. even though I don’t sleep on airplane rides [↩]

As things have started stirring in me for action, I’ve almost gotten frustrated at being on vacation because it’s forcing me to be inactive.¹  So, I’ve been doing lots of reflecting and journal writing² to the point where I’m going to have to buy a pen here in Japan because the one I brought is almost completely out of ink³.  But doing things when I get home will require time and I’m already finding my time stretched thin.  So, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve got to try to cut back on my online life.  I’m talking about the time that I’m just consuming what other people put out there and not really doing anything myself.  Sure it’s great for inspiration, but if I spend all my time getting inspired when am I actually going to act on that inspiration? During all this, I’ve had a few moments of clarity and been inspired to once again go through and re-structure some of my geeky online activity.  Namely, reading blogs.  It was partly inspired, ironically enough, by a blog post I read⁴  The post in question was a recent entry on Unclutterer letting their new traffic know about all their services and features and in that post was a link to another post in which they described how they filtered the Unclutterer RSS feed using Yahoo pipes.  ((Wow!  I’m so unaccustomed to Yahoo having anything to offer to the modern web 2.o world that I actually typed ‘Google pipes’ first and then had to go back and edit that.))  Basically they were able to use the free Yahoo pipes service to filter out some of the blog posts that they know some readers don’t really want to see and have created a separate RSS feed with less content.  I’d known about Yahoo pipes for a long time but never really had a venue with which to apply it and play with it a bit since it had only ever been described to me in theory⁵.  With this great example and clear tutorial on how to use it, I now had a a concrete idea that I could play with, and the inspiration I needed to work with it. So, here I am in Japan with a computer, feeling like I need to take action, and realizing that I need to cut back on my online consumption.  Add in a bit of inspiration on what Yahoo pipes can do to a blog’s feed, and you have me spending a couple of hours in our hotel fiddling with filters and feeds.  I also culled a bunch of blogs that I don’t really spend time reading any more.  I’m keeping all the blogs of people I actually know, and I’m going to try to batch process some of my niche blogs on a less frequent basis.  In my normal old routine I would try to get to an ‘RSS zero’ state every day, but I was barely treading water with over a hundred subscriptions to keep up with.  Now I’m going to try to accept that some categories don’t need to be read daily.  Instead, they can be saved for a time when I’m actually going to read and process that information in a more meaningful way.  I’m sure I’ll still make generous use of the ‘mark all as read’ button too.  I’m just hoping that my obsessive compulsive nature doesn’t freak out with all of the unread posts staring me in the face. Do you find that the abundance of information online gets in the way of actually doing things?  Have you found a good balance for yourself?  Got any tips to share?

1. Almost frustrated, but not quite [↩]
2. LOVE all the train rides here.  Time to relax.  Time to think.  Time to write (though mostly just personal journal writing) [↩]
3. I’ll totally suffer through the trip to the Japanese stationery store – LOL [↩]
4. Yes, I’ve been trying to keep up with my google reader while on vacation even though I know I should just be relaxing.  It’s one of the hazards of being a geek and bringing a computer along with us. [↩]
5. I can’t handle theory alone for tech stuff, I need to actually get my hands dirty in a purposeful play setting to learn stuff, which is actually why I started blogging in the first place [↩]

There comes a point when every creative spirit and soul needs to stop pouring out from themselves and immerse themselves in the creativity of others, so that their own well can be re-filled.  My fellow creative types will know all about this.  I think it extends beyond just the creative to all sorts of energy that we pour out of ourselves on a daily basis.

Before we left for Japan¹, I think you could safely say that Benevolance and I were skirting burnout.  I feel a bit like a faker claiming it for myself, since compared to him, my workload is much lighter².  I’m hoping that this three weeks away is long enough to refill our wells so we can return to regular life with renewed vigor.

For myself, I can feel that familiar stirring inside of me.  I’m getting fired up again about different projects and things I want to start doing.  The problem is always that most of our time at home is spent on our jobs instead of our interests, so I am always feeling like there isn’t enough time.  But it’s important to make time for these things at home, so that we let a little trickle in to keep our wells from drying out too quickly again.

One thing I’ve been reminded of on this trip is that exercise refills my well.  Even at home, when I’m exercising I seem to have more energy so that I can use my time more efficiently and effectively.  Sleep is the other big one.  It’s hard, but I must start getting to bed earlier.  Here where we have so much fewer distractions in the evenings, it’s so much easier to start to sleep when the sun goes down.  Sure, in theory, we could watch some tv, though we don’t really understand it.  And we’ve got a computer and a Nintendo DS, but we only feel compelled to use them for so long while we’re on vacation.

Sorry to put up such a rambling post, but felt like I should share some of what’s been going through my head.

1. we’re still there by the way, you can read all about it on our travel blog where most of the posts are written by my husband [↩]
2. before we left not only was he working a 6 day work week, but most of his days were 9 hours long, AND he’s working towards his CGA designation [↩]

As I shared before, I’m using a different goal setting method this year for my annual goals.  There are a bunch of goals that I think would be just kind of boring to share, especially since I’m not sharing them in the context of the categories that I created them in.  I’ve already shared some of the bigger goals that I’ve got going on for the year, but there are a couple that didn’t get mentioned, that I thought I should throw in.  I’ve been trying to come up with a good way to categorize them for you, but that would just devolve into a whole bunch of blog posts that are all really short.  So instead I thought I’d just list them all in one final post on my goals.

Travel

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have a travel blog that we update when we go traveling.  And, well, in about a week, we’re going on another three week vacation.  It’s our second time going to Japan and we both can’t wait for the break.  I didn’t include travel as its own goal category just because the trip is happening so early in the year.  Most of the work towards it actually happened in 2009.

Family

With recent events being what they are, my family needs extra time and energy right now.  A substantial portion of my year is going to be dealing with the aftermath of my step-father’s unexpected passing.  It’s going to be a roller-coaster of emotions and I’m trying to think of ways to handle the ups and downs.

Finance

My husband and I go through regular re-evaluations of our financial position and goals.  He doesn’t do the same year end thing that I do though, and we usually end up re-evaluating our financial position in spring, around tax-season.  I think our focus during the coming year might shift slightly away from RRSPs and towards paying down the mortgage on our condo, but it’ll depend on how things go with our income¹

Projects & Collaboration

I have two projects that are in various stages of development right now that I’m also super-excited about and that will take up significant amounts of time and energy.  But, I’m not ready to reveal many details just yet.  One is a collaboration effort with a couple of other creative, intelligent, entrepreneur women who are fabulous.  Seriously, I feel so lucky to be working with them because there’s no way I would have ever thought of tackling something this fun and exciting on my own!  The other is just a little fun project that started brewing somewhere in the back of my mind last year.  It will involve a blog, but not this one.  I may, or may not, share a link to it when/if it happens, I’m still undecided about that.²

So that’s it for my goals for this year.  As we wrap things up before our vacation we are going to have a crazy busy week!  Not sure if I’ll be popping in over here,³ so if you want to keep up on what’s happening, be sure to check in with our travel blog, Sauntering Sunflower!

1. Did I mention that my office is moving?  There are a lot of ‘what if’s’ , but the number of hours I work may go up or down.  Will find out more as summer, and the end of our current lease, approaches. [↩]
2. Sorry about all the teaser info, but you’ll just have to deal with it, or beg me for details in the comments. [↩]
3. though I may at least post a picture of me after I get my hair done on Monday [↩]

My husband and I started a travel blog for our last trip to Japan.  I made a few posts about my New York trip with my sister too.  We’re planning on updating it from the land of rising sun once again, so if you want to follow along, then head over to Sauntering Sunflower.  You can subscribe via RSS and I may get my husband to insert email functionality so people can be emailed updates as they happen.  But, we’ll see what we get around to before we go.  Hopefully there won’t be any long stretches between our updates, since this time we’ll have a netbook with us and won’t be so dependent on internet cafes while we are there.  This will also hopefully mean that we’ll be able to post a few photos along with the blog posts.

Before reading this article, please close your eyes and envision me doing a fitness activity.  It can be running, kick boxing, lifting weights, the exact activity doesn’t really matter.  Got a clear picture in your head?  Good.

Now why did I ask you to do this?  Well, I try to include visuals with my blog, but despite searching through all my uploaded Flickr images, I couldn’t find any of me at any fitness event or doing anything particularly fitness-y.  Which is weird because both Benevolance and I have done all sorts of fitness stuff in the past.  The closest thing I could find to a fitness related picture was one of me posing in a lightish-red hip scarf and my lightish-red shirt¹ that I wore to belly dancing class.  And this is someone who has supposedly done the Vancouver Sun Run 4 times!²

On the bright side of things, this inability to find any pictoral evidence of my fitness abilities has given birth to a new fitness goal – start documenting fitness accomplishments with photos!  Now, part of me resists this because my fitness clothing is not really flattering.  I don’t shop at Lululemon and I don’t usually concern myself with style when I’m doing a workout.  Yes, I’ve even been known to mix peach and red together, which is not a flattering combination.  Plus, there’s the fact that I don’t wear makeup to workout and am quite often covered in sweat.  This is a good thing when you’re concerned with fitness, but doesn’t make me look particularly photogenic.  And then there’s the red-face issue.  I get very bright red in the face when I work out.  I always have, and probably always will.  But, it’s a little shocking to see a person who is normally so pale, go bright red.  It looks a little clown-ish.

But, I really should get past all of that, and start taking pictures.  Or rather, start getting other people to take pictures of me doing things.  And, by logical extension, this means I’ve got to start getting out and doing fitness things (again).  I’ve devolved into a bit of a couch potato, but my health and fitness is something that is really important to me.  Despite that, I haven’t been able to set any really concrete fitness goals for myself this year.  Last year I had a similar problem and didn’t feel like I progressed much at all.  This year, I’m tossing a few options around in my head, but a lot of the fitness programs out there, don’t last an entire year.  I had started working on my running last year just before switching to the P90X program, but we’ve just discovered that our treadmill may be on its last treads. ³  Probably won’t get around to repairing or replacing it until March when we’re back from Japan.  And though I know I could run outside, I’m a really big wimp and have a lot of reasons why I’d rather not. ⁴ So, in the mean time, I’ve got to figure out what I want to do and here are my thoughts so far:⁵

• Start working on the Lifetime Fitness Ladder⁶
• Complete a 90 day Peak Condition Project⁷
• Complete another 90 day P90X program⁸
• Get rid of soda & pop from my diet (again)
• Prepare more meals at home (including lunches)
• Eat less, but more frequently
• Integrate more yoga
• Begin meditating
• Do some sort of push-up/sit-up/squat/chin-up challenge

So, my dear readers, care to share your fitness goals?  Thoughts?  Advice?  Any and all are welcome in the comments!

1. I really need to add the Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow! shirt to my collection too! [↩]
2. And the last two times I even tried to look for the official event photographers who take pictures to sell to you online after the race, and despite looking for them and trying to ‘look good’ for the camera while I ran, I didn’t have a single clear shot taken of me.  Which is a shame for them too, because I probably would have bought one. [↩]
3. We’ve had it for at least 5 years, if not more.  Benevolance and I have trained for two Sun Run’s using it, and it doesn’t owe us anything of the $1,000 that it cost us at the time. [↩]
4. And let me list them all for you: I know right now that I’d let the cold and rain be an excuse not to work out at all.  Plus, I don’t like running by traffic and having to figure out where I’m going and how far to go and whether I can get back or not, or having to calculate the route ahead of time – It’s just too much work.  And, I know it’ll be harder on my joints than running on a treadmill would be.  Don’t really have any cold weather clothing either, so it would mean investing even more $$ so that I could get an outfit together that would allow me to run and not freeze. [↩]
5. Though my husband just remembered that we do have an amenity room at the condo where we live and they do have a gym that probably has a working treadmill in it that we could see about using – hm [↩]
6. I really like this one because it’s so portable and easy to follow.  Will I get huge results?  Probably not.  Will I feel healthier?  Probably [↩]
7. after getting back from Japan [↩]
8. you know, one where I don’t skip a bunch of workouts at the end, and maybe actually see some results? [↩]

More old books... by guldfisken via Flickr. Image is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence

This year I decided to do a reading challenge.  The challenge is to read a number of books in a few areas of interest to me.  It gets me going in several areas that I think are important for my personal growth and will hopefully get a few books off my ‘to-read’ list at Goodreads.

I’ve decided the four areas that I want to do my reading in, but I haven’t figured out which books in each category I’m going to read.  So, if you are familiar with the genre/category, please feel free to give me recommendations on what to read in the comments.

I like to read a wide variety of stuff with both fiction and non-fiction. For the non-fiction end of things, I’d like to do some reading about Buddhism and Leadership this year.  For the fiction side of things, I’d like to read some Steam Punk fiction and a couple of graphic novels as well. ¹

I’m keeping it small and manageable and will pick 2 books per category to read during the year.  That’s only 8 books, less than 1 per month!²

1. Ok, I know graphic novels aren’t a genre per se, but it’s a form of media that I’m getting increasingly interested in personally and professionally. [↩]
2. Which is good since I will be doing more writing than reading during November. [↩]