Another crazy idea

Kiva

In a recent episode of Frontline/World they covered micro-loans in Uganda and showed how much an impact it is having on people there. I found it very interesting. This, for me, is a great way to make donations.

I prefer to give money to organizations where I can see how the funds are being used. So many charities are so large you never really have a good feel for what is happening to your donation.

In this case it is not really a donation in the traditional sense because, if things go well, you will get your funds back. This is especially great because when you get the funds back you can then make another loan and keep things going.

The show covered one particular company doing this, Kiva. I decided to take a chance and made a few loans. They created a page where you can see who received loans from me.

I picked Wilfrido because everyone loves Ice Cream. I picked Milton because he is a farmer and that is where my own family has its roots. I picked two others for various reasons.

I look forward to seeing how the loans are used and feel good knowing that I am helping the entrepreneurial spirit spread throughout the world.

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Text split

I came to some realizations recently. One is that I do not update the blog because I am not sure there is any reason to. I want to write something compelling, or at least something I think sounds compelling. This causes me to second guess everything I might write and in the end I do not post anything.

Another thing I realized is that I am self censoring my writing. I think its because I am so used to writing emails and documentation that I know that you cannot always say what is really in your head.

The problem is that I am doing this with the stories I write. I do it with dialog and with almost everything I write. I find myself not using swear words and being careful about the things I say or have my characters do.

An example of this happened yesterday. I was writing a short story that just came to me out of the blue. It was only a few paragraphs. I thought I would write it down and post it here on the blog seeing it wasn’t a whole story. In one part the main character, after using a machine gun to kill off a mass of people trying to get into his compound, notices that he is visibly aroused. This is what I saw, what my minds eye was putting into words. As I started to write it I suddenly was not comfortable writing that part down, it was in much more graphic terms than I just used.

When I finished writing it down it felt flat and unexciting, much like most of my writing feels to me, and that is when it hit me. I’ve been filtering out anything that I think people might find too disturbing and in doing that it looses something that made it more interesting when I was imaging it.

Now I should add that I am not censoring it for just anyone. I really do not care about the mass of people in the world. Its really the people who know me. Family, co-workers, friends, etc. It is the concern that someone who knows me will read it and think “Wow, he is disturbed, maybe we should send him to HR for a talk.”

I recently heard an interview with Joe Hill, son of Stephen King. He was talking about how he wrote a story with a terrible father figure. He made it clear that he felt his father was a fantastic dad and that the story was not some attempt to exercise demons or that he was speaking from direct experience. I am sure some people might read what he says and think that the things that happen to his characters somehow happened to him, even though he made it clear this is not the case.

I spend so much time worrying about what people will think about the person I am, about the things I do. I have anxiety attacks when I am with groups of strangers. I know without doubt that I suffer from SAD, Social Anxiety Disorder, it is a large part of why I am approaching 40 and am still single and never date. The lack of social activities then feeds my chronic depression. The point is that I always thought that when it came to writing, I was being honest and writing regardless of what I thought others might think of me for what I write. I now realize that is not true, that I am censoring everything that I write that I think might be read by someone who knows me.

If I ever want my stories to stay true to what I am imagining and have a genuine feel I need to stop doing that. The problem is that I am not sure how to suppress the concern that someone will read something I write and then think of me differently than I would like to be viewed.

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Tags

As I mentioned recently I am in the process of attempting to get my life more organized so that I can get more of the things I would like to do done.

I am not looking at this the same way I consider my job or career. I do not want to remove the fun, the excitement, from life by planning too much out. That said I also want to make sure that if I am in a situation where I have things to choose from, or am gathering information, I make sure I optimize that time somewhat.

I started this process by making a list of everything that I want to do. Every item no matter how large or small is on that list. It has stayed somewhat static for the last week. Thats good for now because I am still attempting to process what is on the list.

I started sub-categorizing the list in hopes of making it more organized. For example I have the following items from the list:

• Go back to Glasgow
• Have some curry
• Visit Antwerp
• Visit Tokyo
• Learn some Japanese
• Visit Amsterdam
• Visit Rome
• Visit Paris
• Visit Berlin
• Travel on the Orient Express
• Travel to all 50 states before age 45

So It seemed to me the most logical thing would be to create a Trip/Travel category and then lump all these items into that category. This is the usual way this type of information would be organized. The thing is that system grew out of the age of paper folders and static lists. More and more the concept of tags is becoming popular on the net.

I understood the concept of tags but I was not able to find a clear reason why I would care to use them myself. Now I do.

Instead of organizing this list into folders and topics I can just give them tags. For example I could give them all a travel tag and maybe a places to visit tag. Maybe “Have some curry” could get a “things to do in Glasgow” tag. “Learn some Japanese” could get a “things to learn” tag and a “Tokyo trip” tag. With tags you can give items as many tags as you want.

I can share those tags across applications. I have an app called Yojimbo that I use to archive web sites and store various bits of information. I could give the Tokyo tourism website link a “Tokyo trip” tag. If I found the name of a cool store I could tag it with the place to visit. If I get contacts for people I want to visit I could tag them.

Looking at the raw list it would appear chaotic and random but thanks to the ease at which the computer can do the sorting I can quickly create order out of that chaos. So I can, on the fly, generate custom lists depending on the topic. A list of all the places I want to visit, a list of the people who are tagged with a connection there, etc. I think this will really help me get more organized without burning up time trying to make the lists and organize the data right away.

Here is another example. Imagine that you are making a list of home repair items that need to be done:

• Replace the windows
• Paint the living room
• Paint the guest room
• Replace siding on the house
• Paint exterior of house
• Re-arrange bedroom
• Buy computer desk
• Replace galvanized steel plumbing

In this example I could tag all these as home improvements but I could also give them other tags. Like tags for painting, tags for things that are weekend projects, things that are cheap to do, or expensive.

Then if its a weekend and I find I have some free time I can do a sort and ask the computer what projects does it have that can be done in a weekend cheaply. It might pop out re-arranging bedroom or panting the guest room. Or imagine that I receive a really nice bonus from work. I might ask for things that need to be done that cost money and it would say to replace the windows.

For me the thing that makes tags appealing is that I can put information into the computer as soon as I think of it without having to take time to consider where it might fit into any plan. Then using tags and queries against those tags I can organize and manage those tasks.

The next step is to find a good combination of tools to manage the items on my TODO list and also the tags. Yojimbo is a pretty good starting point. I am considering MailTags to help keep mail organized. I can tag my web browser bookmarks with various tools and there are also some tools for tagging the various PDFs and other files I have on my system.

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Gigabit ethernet

Recently it has become a real struggle to get things done. There never seems to be enough time to get anything taken care of. I decided that I have to prioritize my activities so that I make sure I make time for the things that are more important and cut back on the activities that are not.

I sat down and made a list of everything that I want to do. The list is pretty comprehensive but I still end up adding a few things every few days and I do not imagine that I will ever stop adding things but it is nice to have a place to start from.

I may place an abbreviated version of my list on my web site. I am still debating that. There could be some things on the list that I would not want the general public to know. Imagine that I put on the list something like “dig up the one hundred pounds of gold that are buried in the back yard”. If I posted something like that I am sure I would come home to a tore up yard. On the other hand there are very few things in my life that I feel that I would not be willing to share with anyone, but you should be careful on the wild wooly world of the internet.

I initially did the list as a brain dump not using anything in particular to keep it organized. Now it is time to organize things and I am considering my options. I decided to use OmniOutliner from The Omni Group. This is a great software package from a great company. This is another software package that acts to remind me why I continue to be happy with my switch to OS X. It is hard to point to any one thing but all the little things add up to make it clear that, for me, it is the best platform. Of course with Vista coming out and some of the slick new HP Laptops out there the temptation has never been stronger to look over the fence.

After I pull the list into OmniOutliner I plan to add additional details including descriptions and status. Another thing I plan is to add a note as to why I am doing it. Is it something for myself to just say I did it, its it a form of artistic expression, is it something that will gain me notoriety and the respect of others. All those factors will flow into a weighting that will help direct my energies.

Eventually I want to pull the list into a form used by the GTD people but I am not far along in reading “Getting Things Done” to start doing that yet. When I get to that point where I better understand the GTD methods then I can use the Kinkless plugin for OmniOutliner that lets you implement the GTD methodologies.

This weekend was mostly a bust because of on-call support and several pages through the week and early Saturday morning. What people do not understand about the pages is that for me it really wreaks havoc with my sleeping patterns. Patterns that are already out of whack because of the pain medication I take. I end up with what I call a sleep debt. I try to get it back over the weekend but that Saturday morning page messed that up. Plus I had some work to get caught up on so I ended up using part of the weekend for that.

Seeing that I was tired and did not have a lot of time I looked through the list to see if there were some things I could start and complete within a little time over Saturday and Sunday. I decided to take on upgrading my house network to Gigabit ethernet. This is a wired technology not wireless. Right now there is no wireless technology that comes close.

Most wireless networks run somewhere between 10 and 60 Mbps (Megabits per second). Some might go faster with special equipment but often you will not get the promised speed anyway. I have a wireless network in my house but I also wired the rooms with Ethernet. I did this because most Ethernet is 100 Mbps and stays at that speed pretty well even with cheap network equipment. It is also much more private than a wireless network although the current wireless technology is pretty secure.

This weekend I took the next step up which is to 1 Gbps or 1000 Mbps. The wiring was already up to spec all I needed was some Gigabit switches to complete the network. I picked up some inexpensive DLink switches from CompUSA on Saturday afternoon and replaced my existing switches with the Gigabit switches.

For most people this change would make little or no difference. Your average internet connection is between 56Kbps (kilobits per second) up to, if your lucky, 15 Mbps. This means that even a wireless network runs faster than most internet connections. I made this change because I have a file server I setup with 1.3 Terabytes of storage and I wanted to reduce how long it takes to get data to and from the server.

My hope was that if the network connection is fast enough then I can start using mounted drives across all the computers in my house and have the same files everywhere. Everything worked without any issues and I have to say I am really surprised by the speed difference.

I do not have any formal network speed test equipment to test the transfer rates. Most tools that are out there are for testing speeds across the internet, not inside a home network. What I did do is send some very large files and watched as it took under a minute to move a file that was just over 1 gig in size. It is hard to describe how fast this really is. It is amazing to watch huge files jump across the network. If feels almost as fast as if I was copying to an external hard drive.

Now I can take Gigabit ethernet off my list of things to do and I can explore what other options having a high speed home network give me. I have enough space to store every CD and DVD I own on the server. Then I could have on demand access to any song or movie from any TV or computer in my home.

The only thing really stopping me from doing that is need. I do not have people here all the time wanting to watch movies or liven to music. It is a lot of work to ultimately have something that would not get that much use.

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New Years

I did some last minute shopping for Champagne today. I should have done it sooner but the weekend was busier than I expected.

I usually go for the same thing every year, an inexpensive domestic sparkling wine called Ballatore.

Nothing too special, but it has, in my opinion, a friendly flavor and it is cheap to buy. Being a Spumante almost anyone will like the flavor. It is almost like 7up with alcohol in it. I am sure that there are some who would read that and cringe but I believe that when you are dealing with folks that have not had the opportunity to develop a taste in something then it is better to have something that is most pleasing to the most people.

Seeing that my celebration this year is much smaller, its just myself, I don’t really need too much champagne around. I figured I would instead just treat myself to something a little nicer. Last year I did the same thing and discovered I really love Blanc De Blancs.

So today I went out in search of a Nicolas Feuillatte Blanc De Blancs. I read somewhere that it was a pretty good champagne and wanted to give it a try. At my first stop they did not have any but suggested I try a domestic that they said was on par with anything I would find from France.

I was not sure I would have any luck finding what I was looking for and I could not pass up an opportunity for something that came so highly recommended so I went ahead and bought the Schramsberg. I am by no means a connoisseur but I know from drinking different types of beer that there can be a huge difference in flavor and quality between fermented beverages. As you drink more and more you start to develop a more refined taste. You look for things that you might not have looked for in other things.

Next year I might do some research to find out more about how champagne is made and what the differences are between the types. For now I am satisfied to depend on the recommendations of others.

I decided to give one shop one more chance. I stopped there earlier in the week and they did not have what I was looking for but today I was in luck. I love the look of the label and I cannot wait to pop it open at midnight.

Enjoy the New Year hopefully it will turn out to be a good one for all of us.

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Bits of stories

This topic is to hold bits of pieces of stories that will probably never make it to anything more than the little slices that pop into my head.

I have so many stories already in my journal and overcoming my dyslexia is daunting. I figured I should give a few of these a chance at life so I will post bits, flashes, elements of stories here and see what happens to them. Anything in this catigory will have stories marked as the category. The title of the posts is bound to be something that has nothing to do with anything.

To get us started here is something that bubbled up today:

*The third age of man began with fire. Mankind looked into the burning abyss and this time did not recoil in fear at the sight of their true nature. This time they embraced the fire, bathed in it and emerged renewed, annealed, strong, steel, cold. The enemies of old fell one by one in front of the juggernaut of what man had become.*

*********

Not sure where I would go with that but at least I got it out of my head.

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Fall food

Fall is clearly here in Wisconsin. I cannot help but feel that it is happening all too fast. It is not even Halloween and many of the leaves are already gone from my trees and the weather people are talking about snow.

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Most likely because of Halloween. Halloween is still a majik time for me. I think our culture would do better to celebrate it in a more positive way. Not just focus on free candy but think about the idea of the spirit world, and by spirit I am thinking along the lines of the wician instead of Judaea/Christian concepts. Celebrate ancestors past and think about what the world would be like if for just one day a year all the old spirits of the past could stop by for a visit and a nice snack.

There are many snacks that I associate with Fall, one of them is the carmel apple. These two go together wonderfully making a great combination. I prefer when it is just the two ingredients, instead of adding the nuts to the mix as people usually do. The nuts do offset the stickiness of the carmel though.

I think there is a flaw in the carmel apple though. Too much apple and not enough carmel. Usually you have a lot of apple left once you get through the carmel. The core of the apple is also annoying but usually you toss this out with the stick that gets pushed through the apple.

As much as I love carmel apples I have not eaten one in years. This is mostly because of a mild allergic reaction I have to apples. According to my doctor it is because there is a protein in apples that, to the body, appears the same as pollen. If the apple is cooked then I can eat it fine because the process of cooking the apples alters the protein and I no longer react to it.

My favorite way of preparing apples is to dehydrate them. I love the fact that they still have a apple flavor but are also crunchy. Although I can still react to dehydrated apples the reaction is less than if I eat an apple fresh.

So this brings us to todays idea. This is something that I have thought about for years but I have no idea how it could be done.

The idea is to somehow make carmel apples but use dehydrated apples instead of the usual fresh apples. Maybe if the apple was sliced, dehydrated and then dipped it would work, I am not sure.

Some advantages to this approach are that you could have a closer control over the apple to carmel ratio. Also it should be possible to store and keep this version for longer than it would usually be possible.

It could be that without the moisture of the apple the whole experience will not be as enjoyable. One of these days I will give it a shot and see how it works. If you try it yourself, or know of someone who does this drop me a line I would love to hear about it.

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The Crazy Idea

For me maintaining a blog is difficult because I have trouble finding a topic that I am interested in enough to keep writing in a consistent manner.

I am not interested in writing about what I do every day because I do not find my daily activities to be all that interesting. Sure some days I do things that might be interesting, but not often enough to simply make this blog be a journal of the things that happen in my life. Stuff related to work I tend to keep to myself, you never know when your boss might be reading your blog, and there are a lot of other things that I am not sure I want to share with the world.

I could write about technology or my home improvement projects but those things are not always a consistent source of new posts and many others are already doing a great job of blogging on those topics.

I also strongly feel that, to be good, a blog needs to keep on topic. My sister has that down pretty good. You can always go off and talk about other things or mix other events and ideas into your main topic but staying on topic, in my opinion, is key to having a good blog.

For the last week or so I have thought about different topics that I would find fun to write about and that others might also find interesting. You might ask, why bother with a blog at all. The thing is that I do enjoy writing and writing as often as possible is important to maintaining and improving writing skills and I don’t always want to simply write for myself.

I decided that my new topic is to write about the many ideas that are always popping into my head. I tend to have an overactive imagination and I am always coming up with new ideas and concepts. Sometimes I try to pitch these ideas to others, sometimes I write about them, sometimes I just forget them completely. Sometimes people tell me my ideas are crazy, and then years later someone else ends up developing the same idea.

This blog will be my attempt to get some of my ideas out of my head and out into the world, to archive them so that I have a record of what they were and when I had them. I am not claiming any of these ideas are unique, I am not doing any research to verify that they do not already exist, I am just dumping them here for anyone to see.

Feel free to use anything you read here, I do not expect to be recognized or rewarded for them in any way. Use any of these ideas and I hope that if you do they end up helping you to be successful. If you are successful you could always pay me an obscene amount of money to think up new things all day long for you.

On the other hand I might go a month and completely run out of new ideas and I will be looking for a new topic.

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