Everyday Systems

The same Jack Black who sang "Back in Black" at the last New Year's party I can remember seeing on TV? (Ok, I don't remember what year it was. That's bad.)

To quote the Dodge commercial, "It's anything but cute."

Not very convincing, is it?

Daisy, an 8 year old can be a blessing, I guess. A three year old and a thirteen year old can make you wonder if it was worth it. I'm not saying this because I've ever had kids, I'm saying this because I remember what I was like, and what my brother was like. I'm 19, so the memory's still fresh :twi...

Blisters heal, though, and you can pad the thing... My guess is, my arms would be hating me. "Uh, boss? We quit. Ten seconds notice... We'll be detaching... now." Plop. Plop. The pain! Actually, it wouldn't be so bad. Four years of high school and one year of college means my backpack IS an upper bo...

I've been mostly on-track since I last checked in, but obviously any attempt I've made at a procrastination system is not working... By "Mostly" I mean, one possible second at lunch, one day. The problem is, I can't remember what day it was, so I think I'll cheat and count it. And, counting these up...

I don't like track walking for almost exactly the same resaons. I like dogs, I like traffic (urban ranger mentality), and an uneven surface and uncertain distance means it's never boring.

But whatever gets you walking...

Actually, it reminds me mostly of this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakka

I haven't been checking in, or keeping a log of everything I've been eating, but it's usually been cereal for breakfast, something quick (frozen) for lunch, and something I actually cook for dinner. So, that means: No-S day 2: Success No-S day 3: Success No-S day 4: Success No-S day 5: S-day No-S da...

Meh, I like tuna helper. The trick is to put vegetables and cheese in it.

I will, but not today. I have to design a database for these anyway. Reinhard will understand why -- the same reason my resume is the way it is...

No-S day 1: Success. Cereal for breakfast, a frozen burger for lunch, and homemade millet burgers for dinner. Yay for learning to cook.

Thanks, Jan.

Yes, I'm getting plenty. No, I don't feel bad about the ginger ale. I almost wouldn't count it, but I was already on thin ice with the cookies at my parents' presentation. The rest of the day was perfect, and today is turning out ok...

No-S day 9: S-day.

No-S day 10: Faliure. Went to someone's house to help them with a computer issue, they offered a Ginger Ale, and I didn't even think. I'm counting it as a Sweet.

Rest of the day is still on track, so I'll start counting again tomorrow...

Hehe, not really necessary. Final Fantasy games always seem to be pretty G-rated, and yet manage to create just about every emotion you can imagine. That said, it's much easier to just drop a word for shock value than it is to create true shock -- let your audience come to terms with a world you've ...

By "too good to be true" I mean, I strongly suspect that it'd also be losing as much or more weight than I'd lose by eating nothing at all. But then, I'm not sure where I heard that... Anyway, I don't mind. I'm patient about this. I'm much less patient about other things -- don't buy notebooks from ...

Well, my father prepared it and put it on one of the biggest plates we have. That said, I usually eat more, but that was enough. I was raised Jewish, and we used to fast one day a year, on Yom Kippur. The rest of my family still does. But at any rate, sometimes being hungry between meals is almost a...

Walking the track itself doesn't count as Urban Rangering. I just can't imagine Strider walking up and down a road, only to end up back at the same pub. If you must walk and have nowhere in particular to go, make sure you walk somewhere interesting. There's a walking/bike path that goes all along th...

Is it a G rated site? I guess that's sanest, but I don't remember any kind of disclaimer/warning/agreement...

Weigh yourself as often as you like, just make sure you: 1) Measure yourself at the same time every day, probably in the morning when you wake up. Your weight varies a LOT over a day -- go ahead and try measuring 5 or 6 times a day, you might be surprised! 2) Plot it on a graph. Keeping in mind how ...

Seems they're adblocked on mine. I must be missing out...

Hmm, my mother would scare people by serving something called "Pasta with Mudsauce". The thing is, it doesn't look particularly good, looks worse when you know it's called "Mudsauce", and is delicious once you actually eat it...

But I doubt I'm brave enough to eat skinless weiners...

No-S day 5: Success. Cereal for breakfast, as usual. Some sort of frozen vegetable burger for lunch, made into a sandwich: lettuce, tomato, and mustard. Looked very small on my plate. Dinner was another mexican pizza. No-S day 6: S-day, because my parents were doing a presentation, and there is a pa...

No-S day 4: Success. Cereal for breakfast, as I said before. Lunch was ramen with vegetables and tofu. My mother is teaching me to feed myself for about a dollar a day, which is awesome. Dinner was a mexican pizza: refried black beans on a tortilla, topped with spinich, cheese, and turkey bacon. Tur...

So far, it's remarkably easy for me (all two days of it), but it's not necessarily pleasant. Oh, I enjoy my food, but I have to watch my brother eat up all the ice cream in the house, and since I'm just starting, I do get very hungry between meals. If you want to understand why it works, go back and...

No-S may help fix your mindset that way, which is a good thing. One other obvious place to apply such a mindset would be shovelglove, but there are so many things in life which require slow progress, near-religious dedication, but are ultimately worth the patience. Of course, I'm only four days into...

I suppose I should provide the history of my name, then. When I was maybe 10 or 12, I was trying to pirate games from sites such as Warez.com. I have no idea what it's like now, but the one thing I remembered (other than the porn ads) was the slogan: "The Ultimate Sanity in Anarchy". So, I often hav...

No-S day 3: Success. Only had lunch and dinner. Lunch was the pizza I wrote about yesterday, dinner was a delicious Thai dish I cooked with my mother. Each of these meals fit on a single plate, or in a single bowl, and with each of them I was pushing the limits of a single serving. I think I've trai...

No-S day 2: S-day When I can't remember exactly what I had to eat, something's wrong. It's not that I have a short memory, it's that there was so much of it... For Day 3, I woke up late and missed breakfast, and I'm eating pizza for lunch. Not great, but it fits on a single plate, I know I won't be ...

It's not so much rough and untested, it's difficult to verballize. Here's why I think the computer can work: I, at least, am glued to it most of the day, so I can't ignore it. A post-it note on the fridge just isn't going to do much, unless it's about No-S. A post-it on the computer will only work o...

No-S day 1: S-day Filled with snacks, pudding, and other horrors. I've done nothing useful today, and starting on a Friday seems like an excuse to get two S-days in a row right at the beginning. However, I think I'll treat S as Sin days, meaning I can be completely unashamed of that. And yes, I'm te...

Point by point, as best I can: 1) But, I need to reason myself into it every day in order to build the automatic habit. How to work around this? Here's a thought -- leverage the habits I already have. For instance, I've been checking my email far too often lately, and I can easily set a cron job to ...

This will be my daily checkin of any system I can create this way. I'll add one at a time, to preserve my own sanity. I am starting it now, on a failure day, to ensure that I actually start. I have a talent for procrastination. No-S day 1: Failure. Had a bowl of cold cereal for lunch, then Snacked o...

I wonder... When I think of something sweet that doesn't have sugar, I don't think of scary chemical substitutes. I think of honey and fruit. Possibly together -- honey in a fruit salad.

So yes, I can easily imagine life without cane sugar or its substitutes.

No, it's not so much that routine is boring, but that I can't stick to one. You're right that I should be focusing on more positive things, but the fact is, I'm not doing my best. 80% would be great, I'm lucky to be 20% as effective as I could be, overall. Writing long posts is typical for me, unles...

I couldn't find anywhere else to put this, because it really relates to all systems. This is a confession of my own laziness and failures, and speculation about how to solve these problems. First, the simpler generalizations: I don't often finish things. I have an idea in my head for a program I wan...