Blended Living

Its very quiet right now as I type this.  I can hear the keys tapping, and the distant sounds from my neighbors… and I don’t usually hear anything except when its late and dark like now.  I can hear my daughters snoring slightly from their room – and its very peaceful to me.  One of them has a slight cold coming on, or they are allergic to something.

There is one more day of school for them, then the holidays.  Their energy levels and excitement are starting to rise, as they anticipate the joys of the year end- in spiritual as well as physical terms.  They wonder what presents they will get, and they think on some level about how they have changed throughout the year, or rather how the world seems to have changed to them.  They anticipate the family and friends they will spend time with.

Its easy to be jaded as the years pass, to not get swept away in the excitement, or at least vicariously.  That is a shame to not allow ourselves the fine moments that we can experience each and every day.  To be present, to be mindful such that these daily gifts aren’t lost.

I’d much rather find it in me to perform a random act of kindness than to curse my enemies, or think poorly of another.  I’d rather work to find the beauty in each moment – as hard as that may be while on line at the bank, or store, or crowded into a train or bus.  Our thoughts and actions are such things that carry on and get duplicated.  Like the saying how we treat our children is how they will treat society.  How we treat each moment is how we will see how empty or full our lives are… and so on to the next person.   It can be contagious – for the better or worse.

Its quiet now.  But otherwise I couldn’t hear my little ones breathing and experience the simple joy that brings to me.

Blended Living, personal joy, kindness, mindfulness, quiet

• Market looks like it may be building a base to make a move up
• but tomorrow may show us if SP500 has a floor at 900
• dollar made a turn and moved 10 cents quickly (vs Eur)
• Oil has dropped under 40 despite OPEC cutting back production
• I think Oil in the 30’s is a great opportunity for a buy and hold for a few months
• sell when it makes 50-100%, might take a few months to about a year and a half
• still think the market bottom will be sometime in the spring or summer
• unless there is some major sea change event
• like another war, major attack, or aliens landing
• states are being crunched in the middle  between
• federal policies that are shrinking funds and
• rising unemployment rates
• which could hit 10%
• the MTA raising rides 23% is a huge slap in the face of NYers
• Madoff news is dominating attention
• its the witch hunt and will be the poster child of this downturn
• like Enron was
• want to play with phpBB to launch a way to record predictions
• and other market news and ideas
• new HD channels appeared on my cable box
• but many of the content is still SD
• that’s annoying
• I’m becoming an HD snob
• but blue ray is still too expensive.
• and they have to fix that long load time thing
• 42+ inch 1080p LCD and blue ray player with DVD recorder for under a grand
• that’s my price point.  maybe 2009?

Predictions, Rants, SoC gadgets, market, Predictions, SoC

Gmail recently added a tasklist in their labs section.  Its a rudimentary attempt and is pretty good for a first try.  Its nice to have this every time you open your email.  With some time maybe they will integrate it better with the other tools available, like calendar, etc.

Remember the Milk, or RTM for short, is another free website to load all your tasklists.  It has a strong following, and if you use firefox there is a nice plugin to better integrate it with Gmail and Gcal. They also have a Pro version for $25 a year with a sync program for iPhones, Blackberries and Windows Mobile phones.

I’m fairly new to using an online tasklist consistently, as I have been using a combination of paper and PDA for this function, but realizing recently that I’m about 95% of the time within arms length of WiFi, I thought I’d try an upgrade. I like what I see with the combination/integration of RTM, Gmail and Gcal.  There are numerous keyboard shortcuts and some nifty features.  I’ll see how I feel after a month or so.  It should be easy to GTD-ify also.

I almost pulled the trigger on that Radio Shack deal for the Acer Aspire One netbook and ATT mobile broadband, but the $60 a month for 5GB data is just too limiting.  This however might be a sign of the future, subsidized tiny laptops, or netbooks with data plans.  Give me a more realistic data plan and I’ll be there to buy it.

Blended Living, Useful sites, free sites, frugal fun frugal, RTM, tasklists, to do

Seeing that the news is replete with horrible economic news I thought to add some ideas for frugal fun.  Low or no cost activities to keep your mind sharp and off all of those layoffs and news of recessions.

I learned to play chess at around 5 and its been a game I return to now and then.  One day I’d like to get past my all time level (which is probably around the 16-1700 rating) and one exercise is to do chess problems.  There are thousands to choose from and they are categorized from Novice  through to Difficult and even Fiendish.

Chess problems

If you are new to the game here is a site that takes you from the very beginning: How to setup the board, what the pieces are, to how they move, to basic strategies and openings.

Have fun!

free sites, frugal fun chess, frugal fun, sharp mind

• If I watched every TV show (that I liked at one time) that’s 14-16 hours of shows a week
• the DVR saves me about 4-5 hours for those shows (if I watched them all)
• found google trends
• the top 100 search terms updated about hourly
• or you can enter a term and it graphs its relative popularity over the last few years
• try soup, Olympics, money and elections
• when baseball season comes around that’s more watching hours
• the average household watches something like 60+ hours per week
• that is astounding to me
• but it also explains alot
• most of the google trends search terms made sense except for
• fibonacci sequence
• which was later explained when I watched Fringe on the DVR
• The proposed Metrocard fees are getting me pissed off
• Is there no rail, bus, plane line that operates well and on a profit?
• last night many search terms were from House
• on ebay they can actually see fewer bids when American Idol is on
• it was a mystery at first
• if I walked or ran instead of watching tv, thats about 45 to 100 miles per week
• or about 1 to 3 pounds in calories
• that’s every week!
• America needs to walk 1 hour for every 2-3 hours watched.
• imagine.

SoC, Uncategorized DVR, time, Trends, TV

Despite reaching a mature age and above average knowledge – in the form of books, people and in the ways of how the world works, I sometimes feel like a pup.  It might be the weather, or the lack of sunlight.  It shouldn’t be the lack of social contact, as the holidays provided me a full serving of that.  It could be the weight of many responsibilities heaped together into a dish I can’t quite chew all at once.

Still I feel like I’ve had a relatively good time lately.  Saw a couple movies, went out for meals with friends, had many long walks in parks and new neighborhoods.  Been keeping up with my running regimen – and that hasn’t been a small feat given the windy coldness.  Been blogging enough, keeping up with my coding ideas and learning.  What I haven’t been doing enough of is drawing, morning pages, taking photos, and the weekly remoteness appointments (times where you spend an hour or two alone at something you normally would not do- go to a museum, wander into new stores/ nabes, browse sections of bookstores/libraries you normally wouldn’t.  I like to think of that line from Monty Python’s Flying Circus when I embark on this journey, “And now for something completely different…” ).

Ritually, Sunday nights have always been my “Gap analysis”.  That moment when you focus on what you want and what you have and see how wide that gap is.  This is a term I borrowed from the MBA types, it was hot about a decade ago.  I like it because it describes what I naturally did most of my life.  You see what that gap is and you build a bridge, or think about the ingredients to build that bridge to connect the present with the intended future.  Lately I feel like that beagle pup looks- which could be a good thing- there is a metamorphosis going on, whilst being scary in its uncertainty.

In the last few years, when I developed the habit of an emotional laundry basket, that got me through some rough times.  I try to identify those sticky, stinky smelling, emotional to-do’s and I put them into the hamper.  Then when I have the time and energy I take out some laundry and wash and spin and dry so to speak.  I like it, since it allows me to put it ‘there’ and not worry about it for a while, and then I know to come back to it later.  Its somewhat like the basic tenet of GTD (Getting Things Done),  make reliable lists so that you can free your mind for more creative thought.

Sometimes, I guess the really dirty emotional laundry sinks down to the bottom of the hamper and you just have to make the time to flip it upside-down and take them all out and do some extra work/cleaning. Deep breath in, and set an alarm – emotional time doesn’t work the same.  Wouldn’t want to get stuck in an emotional wash cycle.   During might not be so special but afterwards is nice.  Its like that feeling when you get all the fresh smelling clothes folded and put away.  Then you have that cup of tea.  Exhale.

Blended Living, health, personal, run breath, emotional laundry, Gap analysis, GTD

My daughter remarked to me the other day that time is running so fast for her now.  I realize that since she is now officially a teenager, and that her life is full of High School applications,  Algebra homework, and the end of her Middle School years, I said without thinking, “It just gets faster as you get older.”

I almost regretted telling her that, but its the truth.  For most people those younger days are looked upon with a strong sense of nostalgia and wanting.  Is it the innocence that is lost, or the skill of being in the moment the way a child so naturally does?  We fill our days with more distractions to not feel that wanting.

If being in the moment is a skill brought in with our births, shouldn’t we practice it so that we don’t wake up some night and wonder where all our time has been lost?  In “Time Shifting”, Stephen Rechtshaffen writes about the concept of a time retreat.  A chance to be in the moment, to create time boundaries, to honor the mundane, so that we can create some spontaneous (unscheduled) time, a chance to do what we want in our own little time retreat.

“That’s so selfish!”,  you might say.  I’d rather think of it as enhancing our lives, for ourselves and for the special people in our lives.  If I were to practice meditation, or some form of a time retreat, perhaps my answer would have been different to my daughter.  I would have been a different Dad with a better answer.  If I can blend in some silly self time, some time to take some deep breaths, what wondrous things might I think, and say and do?

Is it possible to take time to make time?  Can I actually step away from the fast paced rhythm, to shift into ‘me time’ and come back refreshed and accomplish more?

[Photo taken in Riverside Park, NYC by John]

Being, Blended Living Blended Living, Time retreat

Digesting all that Holiday food, my thoughts turn to some exercise and I did some research into some ways to keep that ol’ heart of ours healthy.  It seems a lot of what affects the heart are choices about what we do and what we eat.  Others are about how we react to things, the stresses in our lives.

The easiest among what I’ve read just now are drinking more water, getting 30 minutes of exercise daily (like walks, stairs, or running if you prefer), and watching what you eat (eat breakfast, more fruits and veggies, and take a low dose aspirin)

The Men’s health article lists 100 ways, and you can pick among them to get healthier.  Check with your Doctor first.  Which of these can you blend into your daily living?

American Heart Association

Men’s Health Article

Blended Living, health exercise, health, heart

The Flavia (coffee/tea machine) at work has a mint tea but this sounds like its much better.  Supposedly these ingredients are good for your digestion, and during these dark, cold days and plentiful holidays this might be a nice addition.

Tea recipe here

Uncategorized

Just got this in an email from Ian, a poker buddy.  Figured you all might want to know what was that thing you all ate (and might still be eating).

NPR Link

Uncategorized