So Snow Leopard came out on Friday, a few weeks earlier than most people probably expected it. I’ve been using it for a few months, and have to say it’s really solid. It’s got a faster response time to applications, it has some new features that I’ve found really useful, and it’s hard to beat the price of $29. Continue reading
Are you a web designer fluent in the ways of WordPress themes? I am looking for a new theme for my blog, and have grown tired of browsing through hundreds of free ones that either a) dozens of other sites already use or b) aren’t that great. If you are interested in working with me on this project, and probably a few more things I have lined up in the near future. Get in touch with me, either by email or twitter. Continue reading
When people mention World of Warcraft(WOW) to friends, family, co-workers, or whomever, the responses are usually extreme in the direction of love and hate. There are millions of active players right now, I think the most recent number posted was 11 million to be exact. It’s a global game with separate servers in Europe, North America, and Asia to support the massive amount of players that are living in this world around the clock. I originally started playing WOW shortly after it was launched in November 2004. I didn’t really have much of an understanding for the game, but there isn’t a very steep learning curve either. I played on a server with a real life friend, and enjoyed it as any other game. Just something fun to pass the time. I was about to give it up after just a few months because I wasn’t really getting much out of the game and I was usually playing alone anyways. The social aspect of the game was completely avoiding me.
I just happened to mention it to another friend at the time and he was describing what sounded like a completely different game and experience to me. Vast collaboration with 39 other players at the same time, voice chat via a program called “vent”, and incredibly challenging boss encounters. It sounded more like a marketing campaign, but in the next breath he mentioned that he was about to level a new character, along with another friend, and offered for me to join up with them on his server and with his guild. I joined up with him that night and what I consider my real WOW “career” began. Within a few weeks I had a much deeper understanding of the game, was leveling like lightning, and learning more about my class, a Mage at the time. The social aspect of the game was also really hitting me now too Continue reading
If you read my last article, you may think that I am far from living what Tim Ferris describes in The 4-Hour Workweek, and you would be right on some points. I recently began listening to the audiobook, and have a long road ahead of me if I were to implement all of the workplace related changes, but some of his philosophies on life I seem to already be living.
In the first chapter of the book Tim discusses a gold medal winning skier, who also ran a very successful and profitable business. Prior to them winning the gold medal, the skier’s coach told him that he was not practicing enough, and that he needed to drop the business while he focused on skiing. The skier didn’t think so, and besides the business was successful, so he didn’t want to give it up. Rather than choosing one or the other, he chose both. He moved to Australia, practiced with a more flexible team, and then won the gold medal. All the while, still running his business.
So when you look at all that I am doing, I am choosing “both” like the skier. I don’t want to give up work, or anything else at the expense of school, or vice versa. The topic of business school specifically is up for another debate, as I don’t think Tim has a high opinion of MBA programs.
I think that I am a pretty busy person. Everyone’s definition of busy will vary of course. Some people occupy there time with lots of different activities or hobbies, and that is what keeps them busy. Others might only focus on their job or their education and do absolutely nothing else, no hobbies or interests at all, yet they are so immersed in it that they remain busy. Then there are those who aren’t busy at all. They may work and have other interests and hobbies, but at the end of the day they have loads of time to just sit around and watch TV or watch the paint dry. Here is my current list of activities
I hope I’m not forgetting anything too important. I left out some of the parts of day to day life that we all do, whether we consider ourselves busy or not. Eating, showering in the morning, staying in touch with our friends and family, etc, these are things that I would hope pretty much everyone does, but on average it doesn’t determine if someone is busy or not.
From the list above you can see that not all of the activities are a specific task, but they are things that I value. The first three are pretty straight forward. Work, exercising and grad school all are concrete actions that involve going to a specific location and performing a specific action for a specific amount of time. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I actually exercise at home. But it’s still a specific task. Stacy and I did buy bikes recently though, so now some of these can blur together. Time with my wife and exercising can be done at the same time when we go out for bike rides. Time with my dog, can also overlap on occasion, doesn’t involve any specific task or any specific time, but I would say that over the course of a week, it’s important to me that I spend some quality time with both Stuart and Stacy Again, I value this time above other things.
Blogging is something that more recently has gained value to me. I really do thoroughly enjoy writing, and since I don’t get to do so via any other method, here we are. Right now, writing to me serves multiple purposes. It is a means of relaxation, it keeps my skills as a writer sharp, and allows me to articulate what I am interested in to a broader audience. In terms of how it fits into my schedule, it is basically something that I do when I don’t have to do something else that I’ve already mentioned. I can’t write at work, school or while exercising. And its hard to write while riding a bike or while out for a dog walk.
Being a landlord is something that I don’t have much choice in the matter these days. I own two properties, both of which have tenants in them which require my attention from time to time. This is one of those things, that if all goes well, the only time it takes for this is to go to the bank once a month to deposit the checks, but doesn’t that sound too good to be true? In reality, when things do need my attention, it can be a handful since both properties are on the East coast, therefore a time zone three hours earlier than where I am.
Last and certainly not least is investing. As if my brain needs anything else to occupy its time, I am thinking about ways to make money via investing all the time. To make matters worse, I am actively investing for my father as well. Stock ideas, option strategies, corporate and municipal bonds, nothing is out of scope. This is where my brian basically acts like a vacuum, sucking up information to process from every possible medium. I watch CNBC, I read financial web sites and blogs, I read books on the subject. If it involves a way to turn a dollar into something worth more than a dollar, than I am interested in it.
The main reason I point out all of the things on this list that keep me busy, is that a year ago the list would have been shorter but I was still a busy person. I started exercising regularly in February, I started school in June, and while i’ve had this blog for a few years, only within the year have I really been writing regularly for it. It seems that the more you do, the more you can do. The more you fill up your life with activities, the more you can accomplish. This may seem like common sense, but many people make the excuse that they don’t have time for _________. In reality, if they just start doing it, they will find that they have the time.
So what are you doing?
When we went out and got bikes, I found the mapmyride application useful, but after conversing with some co-workers, I think that I will be using RunKeeper going forward. There was some level of fate involved in the decision. MapMyRide requires internet connection for the recording to begin, and the bike shop in Los Altos is in a dead zone, so when we started our ride, I couldn’t record it. I gave Run Keeper a shot, and it started right up.
The advantages don’t stop there though. The runkeeper.com web site is a much nicer presentation of your riding data, with speed and elevation as well as the route presented to you on a google map. There is a free and pay version from the App Store, but I am using the free version right now.