Fate's 2011 Resolutions

Yesterday, I told Fin I wrote a couple blog posts. Her immediate response? "So, did you post your Resolutions recap and are planning on posting resolutions for next year?" Me: "...." Well, why not? It's tradition... So, new years resolutions, again:

1. Better manage eating out and bringing lunch to work
Fin and I have a basic "frozen leftovers" system where we freeze main courses for me to grab with my lunches. Still, I find I've slipped on my lunch grabbing for the office. This year, my goal is to get back to eating out only 1x a week, and making that a more planned event.

2. 3 camping trips for 2011 - with 1 in a new location.
This is less a resolution and more of a plan. Next year, I'd like to make 3 camping trips instead of 2. This really depends on both Fin and my schedules, but I think it should be doable.

3. Pay off one more loan.
Making good progress on this. With any luck, this will be nuked from my resolutions list the next couple go-a-rounds.

4. Do more writing / more blog posting.
I've got a few writing projects in my head that I'd like to get accomplished. I'd also like to see myself blogging here more often and about more stuff. I started the year off right on that, let's see if I can keep it up. This years goal is 1 post a month here, and at least half of a book I want to write.

5. Ship something at work or home.
My professional life has seen so many, many canceled projects and products and time sinks over the past few years. I'm hoping to get something out the door either professionally or in my hobby time. By the time this year is out, I'm determined to have SOME software being used by a new customer SOMEWHERE. Damnit.

6. Improve garden and yard care.
For 2011, I'd like to see us have a better looking yard / and continue on making the garden awesome. This year, we did a lot to get the garden started. This next year, I'm hoping to continue that tradition, and help Fin make an even better garden. There's a few things that went wrong last year, and a lot we did right. This year, we should be able to do even better. Better yard care basically means keeping a solid schedule of cutting the grass, triming the bushes, and ensuring the garden doesn't get overgrown.

7. Return to Martial Arts.
With the new job, the work/schedule/money matrix looks a lot better for making this happen. It might have happened last year, except I started in mid-Dec right before the holiday season. With the holiday's past, this should be doable. It's just a matter of getting the motivation now that several obstacles are improved. By December next year, I'd like to have a couple months attendance at a local school. After that, I'll decide if my not returning was do to lack of interest or being overwhelmed otherwise.

8. Unpack office, file 'to file pile', and unpack 1 garage box.
I'm simplifying my unpacking resolution this year to something very specific. There's probably too much crap floating around the house to see everything unpacked, but this should be doable and greatly improve our computer area.

9. Start making molded soap.
At this point, I've made some solid soaps, and an (accidental) batch of liquid soap. With this years Christmas presents, I have some nice soap molds. I hope to make some cool molded soaps. I'm also thinking about maybe introducing color into the soap as well. Right now though, I do like the no added colors and only essential oils for scent though.

10. Complete at least one carpentry / wood working project solo.
I like that I've got family willing to help with a lot of this sorta stuff, but, I'd like to start doing more of this stuff on my own too, now that I'm getting a better feel for how it works.

Fate Gets A New Job

I don't talk much about work here for a couple major reasons. First, I'm not a big fan of writing 'blog-as-therapy' entries. Second, my old employer forbade work-related blogging. Big companies generally try to keep their outward facing image consistent. Individuals muck that up.

Now, I'm sure all 3 of our readers will likely have noticed something of a sharp decline in the amount of entries here. I like writing, and when I started this blog, I had high hopes the experiments Fin and I were doing in our daily lives (trash reduction, used vs. new, composting, soap) would make interesting reading. We continued the experiments but I never really wrote about them. And really, the experiments continued more from Fin's stick-to-it-ness than my efforts. For the past year or so, I've been fighting depression.

In early November, I stayed home sick a few days with the flu. Staying at home, I realized just how crappy "the job" making me feel. Of course, it doesn't help when you've heard so much news about lay-offs and friends having difficulty finding or keeping a job. The thought comes, shouldn't I be happy to just have a job? In my head, there's a whole essay that answers that question. The short version is that in life it's important to be happy with what you have, but also strive to do what you want. But then, where will you go?

"But where will you go?" is a bullshit question for fear based decision making. When asked by yourself or others, it tends to be more of an answer than a question. It's implied that there's not a better solution or way. You're at the top of the world already, any other direction will be a step down. Being successful means finding where you want to be, not asking a bullshit question to not make a move.

So, I sent my resume out to a select few companies that struck my interest. I interviewed, and managed to find something new. I'm not sure how long I'll be in this new spot, or happy there, or any other thing really. For the time being though, I'm happier than I was before. Part of that is finding something that better fits with my desired lifestyle and ideals. I've moved into a "Green Company" that will be helping me continue with the volunteer work I've been doing at local schools.

As advanced as society and tools have become, our lives have also become complicated. Health insurance, transportation, standard of living, job security, etc... etc... It almost seems to me, that as we moved away from the farms into industrialized civilization, that we introduced complexity just to make things in life seem more meaningful. As much as the tools of civilization make our lives easier, I also wonder if they simply enable us to lie to ourselves too.

Fate's 2010 Resolutions Recap

Recap of last years resolutions:
1. Reduce / Eliminate trash at the office
Success. I started bringing in dish towels instead of using paper towels. At the my new job, I'm throwing practically nothing away on a daily basis. :)

2. Go camping / outdoors more often
Mixed. Fin and I spent more time outdoors, but spent less time camping. We did a LOT more outside though, with the garden.

3. Pay off another debt
Success. I got rid of a particularly nasty cash advance that had been around my kneck for a while.

4. Perfect a soap recipe / be able to make commercial quality soap
Success. I won't say 'perfect a soap recipe', but we've been using my soap for the past year, with excellent results. Even the mistake batches have been good. Hoping to do another batch soon.

5. Return to martial arts
Fail. This never really worked from a time / money standpoint, and my old job was getting in the way as well.

6. Post more useful stuff more often
Fail. I've been really distracted for a while.

7. Grow and maintain a garden
SUCCESS. We had a great garden this past year.

8. Release some software / finish a project
Fail. I did make a lot of progress though...

9. Finish unpacking
EPIC FAIL. Yeah.... about those 5 new boxes of packed random crap...

10. Grow in maintenance / carpentry / plumbing / etc... skills
Continuing. I've got a lot to learn still...

Dear Target,

Why is it that everyone must purchase the same mass produced crap for the holidays? I've seen the premade costumes, and it doesn't take much for homemade creations to trounce them. As a society, we should be encouraging creativity instead of bashing it.

After seeing this commercial:

(Youtube Link)

I question if I'll be doing any Holiday shopping at your stores.

In short: shame on you.

Anti-Environmentalism - Grocery Bags

Fin and I are fairly big about taking reusable trash bags to the grocery store whenever we shop. Green grocery bags are interesting to me for a few reasons. As far as "going green" goes, switching to reusable grocery bags is one of the easiest moves to make. More amazing to me is how telling people's reactions about trash and the checkout line can be.

Funny enough, grocery bags put me over the edge from thinking about the "anachronism" concept here, to actually living it. A few years ago, I lived in a small apartment within walking distance to a super market. When I say walking distance, I mean visitors to the complex sometimes used back spots of the market for parking. As uber-bachelor, I kept my kitchen with the required necessities: ketchup, mustard, alcohol, pickles, and random baking stuff years old carted from each move and woefully out of date. Moving next to a store let me stop by, pick-up dinner for the night, and simplify my epic fail meal planning.

This grandiose plan didn't come immediately, but after I got in my car, drove across the parking lot, loaded the car with groceries, and drove back across the same parking lot to unload. I think the thought was: "wow, this is lame-ass lazy for even me." So, I started walking. After making the journey a few times I decided a couple things. First, buying groceries that day, and cooking never frozen meat and (sorta) fresh fish is awesome. Second, plastic groceries bags suck. I noticed the store was selling reusable grocery bags ($0.99) and offering a $0.05 refund for using them. I have a few bags now which have paid for themselves several times over.

The thing that got me though, was my initial reaction to the thought of buying one: "I don't want people to group me with those environmentalists." Then, I just got mad. Somehow, someone had put into my head the idea that purchasing a 99 cent bag would lead me straight into being a Green Peace hippy blowing up SUVs. Isn't it funny how some ideas have a life of their own?

Over the past 2 years I've heard multiple people say, "I like the reusable but don't want to use one with Go Green written on it". That's not as bothersome as when I hear things that amount to "reusable grocery bags are communism". Point is, as reusable bags become more prolific, I hear multiple people saying the exact same things that went through my head when I made the switch.

At times, when I'm at the grocery line, I get reactions verging on offence when I give the cashier a reusable bag. Reusable bags long ago lost their novelty for me. Now, they're just part of my life. I keep them in my trunk, and try to remember to bring them when I go in the store. Most cashier's treat them as routine. And then, there are the special that do things like bag items into plastic sacks and then place those in the bag...

Cloth bags are convenience for me, not environmentalism. I don't go through grocery stores and snear at people not using them. I'm really beyond even thinking they're a big deal.

Still, they illustrate a larger issue, one that I'm trying to wrap my head around and plan to explore here. Of the two of us, Fin is more of an environmentalist. I simply enjoy exploring ideas and value free thinking. I understand the drive and desires of the environmentalist. I understand the not being an environmentalist. What I find concerning is the growing population of otherwise normal people actively anti-environmentalist.

Please be a video from April 1st

365 Days Of Trash: Potato or Tomato?



I lack words.

iPad - Revolutionary? Or Evolutionary?

No, it isn't a marketing graphic for the Apple iPad. It is the cover of a 1992 manual for the GO Pen Computer. Lately, there's been a lot of media hype over how Apple is changing the face of computing as we know it. The cover article in Time Magazine (Inside Steve's Pad) kinda took me over the edge. Et tu, Time? Not that I'm all that surprised, Time is definitely staffed by "unabashed Apple fans".

Really, I like the idea of Tablet computers, E-Readers, and so on. I wouldn't mind owning a Kindle, though I don't like the idea of not "owning" my books and the fact that the technology allows Amazon to remotely delete items I purchased . I refuse to purchase books like that. The idea of ownership of things is important to me. As much of a "liberal" as I may be, property is something that I greatly value. Which is why I don't plan on purchasing an iPad. I also won't begrudge those that do, after all, it looks like a very well done device. Still, Apple tightly controls what I can and can't do with it. That however, is not the point of this post.

The point is about those in the media insisting this device will "change computers". Apple is great at marketing their originality, but when it comes down to it, the reality is far different. Let's take a stroll down history.

1987 - NestorWriter handwriting system is introduced for IBM Compatible computers, it features a tablet and hand writing recognition software

1989 - GridPad tablet computer is the first ever Tablet computer to be released.


1992 - The GO tablet computer was released (pictured above), later followed by the GO based AT&T EO 440.

In the '93 and '94 time frame, there was a lot of interest in tablet based computing. Even Microsoft got on the scene with releases of Pen extensions for Windows. Fast forward to about 8 years ago, when Microsoft again attempted to bring back Tablet computing. Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, wrote a rather significant essay on tablet computing as Microsoft made the push for the concept. (For reference, VisiCalc is one of the single historic and revolutionary apps in computing history.)

When these tablet computers came out, I remember having some rather extensive discussions about utilizing them for various teaching and academic purposes. Working at a community college, multiple people felt these could be extremely useful tools for presentations, paperwork reduction, etc... The word "revolutionary" was used then too. I wasn't as impressed as a then complete Micro$oft hater (as I'd spell it), and Free Software advocate. (Or, as I'd say now, a college student not yet jaded to the business place.)

Revolutionary annoyed me then too. Mostly because I'd had a lot of fun with the Apple Newton a few years before that.

(Photo Credit)

At the time, my thought was OMG Ev1l Micro$oft steals idea from Apple l33t engineers.

After working in the industry for a bit, talking to people beyond the shaded ivory towers of academia, and feeling a few hard knocks, I was a lot more receptive when tablet computers began making a new appearance.

Slightly before the Kindle was released, I visited a bookstore for my standard movie + fiction books run, and discovered an E-reader on display. Working in the industry on consumer devices, I get to see and hear a lot of opinions about technology from a creator's perspective. I knew seeing that device, there were more in the wind.

At certain points, evolution hits a tipping point were people can look at something and say "wow, that's it". Apple wasn't the first to launch a "tablet device". But, more importantly, the oncoming numerous Tablet devices we'll be seeing aren't cloning or ripping off Apple's invention. Like Apple, they're standing on the shoulders of a great many devices and ideas from the past.

All this to make a couple points. The iPad isn't going to bankrupt Amazon or kill the Nook. It's not going to change the way everyone uses computers overnight. What will it do? Move a cool technology that's finally ready for prime time into a more mainstream audience.

And that is why the iPad is awesome.