2009

Putting it all in order

Over the past 6 months, hell the past 3 years, there have been a lot of changes in my life. Habits and practices and order and structure were thrown in a blender and dumped all over the floor. For example for many years I had a corner of a desk where I put bills to be paid, if there was anything on that corner I knew I had a bill I needed to keep in mind. If the corner was clean I knew everything was taken care of. Since then I’ve moved 5 times, sold furniture, rearranged, packed up, unpacked and generally moved towards less structure. There are many aspects of the less structured way of life that I love and can’t imagine changing, but there are also parts of it I’m still trying to get a grip on. That perfectly neat stack of bills has since changed into a pile here, a pile there, an envelope in this bag and a post it note on that monitor or even a scrap of paper in some pant pocket that I hope to remember to get out before I washed them. “Cleaning up” has been much more of the “get things out of sight” then “get things in order” variety.

That’s been catching up to me like the feeling of having something left undone but not knowing what to do to finish it. You know the feeling of having a bunch of things on a todo list you haven’t had a chance to write down yet and the fear that by the time you do write it down you will have forgotten some of the key items. That feeling has been manifesting in self in strained memory, misplaced stuff, and a general feeling of “I know something important just slipped my mind.” It’s because my head is swimming trying to keep track of all this stuff. I’ve been feeling like that a lot recently and finally decided I needed to do something about it. That something involves going through every box, every shelf, every stack I have around and either organizing or throwing crap out. I knew I had clutter, but I had no idea how bad.

Keep in mind that I did this to some extent 2 years ago and thought I got rid of anything I didn’t need. I must have been smoking crack. Today I dug into a filing cabinet, a closet and a 2 dressers. I’m no where near finished but one of the dressers is now completely empty and the filling cabinet is more organized than it’s been since I purchased it. Here’s a glimps of some of the things I found, and once I got over the shock that I had been carrying them around and making room in my life to store them, threw them out…

  • Check books from 1997.
  • Probably 1000 or more business cards, some over 10 years old.
  • Conference schedules from events that ended over 5 years ago.
  • Boarding passes for at least 30 different flights.
  • Cassette tapes (often broken) of albums I have on Vinyl, CD, and MP3.
  • Invites to art openings that happened years ago.
  • Birthday cards from people I haven’t talked to or seen since before I turned 30.
  • Boxes for electronics that I no longer even possess.
  • Bus transfers that expired years ago.
  • The list goes on…

Just today I threw out 4 bags full of crap. The amusing thing is even after all of that it doesn’t seem like I have that much less clutter around, but at least with the things I worked on today I know what I have and where is. That is a huge step from my general confusion that I started out with this morning. I’ve got a lot more to go in the next few days but the mental clarity that comes from not having to try and keep track of all this unfinished business is addictive so I’m really looking forward to it.

Follow up about #fixreplies

About a month ago twitter changed the way it displayed replies and not everyone was happy with it, myself included. I wrote a post about my thoughts on the subject, trying to make the case why I thought the move was a bad one, and how I preferred the old way they had been handled.

Since that time I’ve thought about it a lot and I have to say Twitter was right and I was wrong. I still think people should have the option to chose exactly what they want to see, and I know that server strain had a lot to do with the move but replying to people has definitely improved. I didn’t realize how much thought I was putting into who I replied to and what I said because I knew others were watching, but not having to worry about that at all has shown me that it was in fact something that crossed my mind. The new default is simply simpler to have conversations.

One of my concerns was that I’d lose an avenue for finding new people to follow and while I can’t say for sure what I’m missing (since I don’t know about it) I can say that I have still been able to find new and interesting people to follow. The adopted practice of preceding a reply with a period or an “R” to manually broadcast that to all followers is a simple enough work around and allows people to respond and point to people they think others should know about.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that as strongly as I felt about it one way I’ve been convinced that a different approach was in fact better and I’ve changed my mind.

iPhone Tethering in 3 easy steps

iPhone tetheringWith iPhone software version 3.0 Apple has allowed for tethering, unfortunately if you live in the US and have AT&T it’s not working because AT&T hasn’t figured out how to charge you for it yet. Why wait for them to figure it out? Here’s how you can do it on your own:

1. Load up Terminal, and enter this (all on one line)
defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE

2. Download this disk file and mount it.

3. With your iPhone connected to your computer, go to iTunes and option-click “restore” then select the disk image you just mounted and the file on it. If the first time you try this you can’t select it, just try again as some people have needed to do it twice.

That’s it! Now just enable Teathering by turning it on at iPhone/settings/general/network/Internet Tethering and you are good to go. Enjoy!

(via 9to5 thanx tara)

I’m CERTifitied

3634886148_d567760e30Seven weeks ago I began taking Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) classes with a few friends here in Los Angeles. Last night I graduated and got a fancy green helmet and vest and an official certificate with near realistic signatures (photo after the jump) that is almost suitable for framing to prove it. I wrote some thoughts about the class last week but all in all I’m glad I took it. It dragged at points but the info I got out of it was well worth it.

My biggest disappointment is that the class took place in Silver Lake so all of the community building aspects of it didn’t really apply to me since I no longer live in Silver Lake. There doesn’t seem to be an as active group in Venice and the one CERT coordinator I met who is active in my area explained it’s more of a larger area of coverage and less frequent group events. Of course I’m complaining about something I could volunteer to help change but I don’t know if that is a role I really want to take on at this point. Who knows. Anyway, my point is the class was worth it and I’m very glad I took it and I’m looking forward to the next levels and steps on this crazy journey.

Read More

links for 2009-06-16

Ghost Hunting Equipment

I was (un)lucky enough to receive and invite to join some friends on a bit of a different excursion this evening. See there’s this house, it’s abandoned and during some recent renovations some things started happening. Strange things. Unexplained things. The kind of things that go bump in the night and are picked up on EVPs and leave trails of ectoplasm. OK maybe not so much with the ectoplasm but you get the idea – weird things are going on, people are creeped out so we’re going ghost hunting.

Having never been on a real ghost hunt I’m of course doing double duty to make sure I have the right supplies and equipment. Both to experience what is going on, and make sure whatever is going on there doesn’t follow me home. So this is inventory for the evening:

Ghost hunting gear

  • Flashlight(s) – While I don’t want to scare the ghosts away with blinding lights, I also don’t want to trip or walk into walls. These torches should help ensure that even in the darkest night I can see the light. Specifically I’m bringing a Surefire E2D, Surefire L4, Streamlight MicroStream, and a generic LED UV light, a small red light and a laser pointer.
  • Compass(es) – I found this article which claims a basic compass is better at measuring EMF changes than some fairly expensive electronic equipment. That works for me, so I’m bringing two. One attached to a carabiner and a smaller one on a zipper pull.
  • Camera(s) – For recording anything that goes down of course. I’m bringing my Kodak Zi6 HD flip cam for video, my Cannon TX1 for high res stills and back up video if needed, and my iPhone for random low res stills and I’m bringing an ultrapod in case I need to leave a camera set up somewhere. Tara has a PowerShot she’ll probably bring as well. I’ve been brushing up on my ghost photography skills too.
  • Pen + Paper – For notes and observations. I’m opting for a reporter style lined Moleskine and a space pen (in case I need to write something after being slimmed).
  • Water – You know, to wet my whistle. Being the eco-conscious dude that I am I’ll be transporting that liquidy goodness in a SIGG bottle with a carabiner on the lid for easy transport
  • Whistle – Speaking of whistles, I’m bringing one of those too. Not that I think I’ll particularly need it, but if I get lost or separated from the group and scared it might come in handy. Plus I just picked up this super loud Fox40 and want an excuse to show it off.
  • Snacks – We’ll be eating dinner before hand, but I don’t know what kind of energy ghost hunting takes out of you. Plus, the last thing I need is to get shot with a Ghostbusters photon pack because someone mistook my stomach grumbling for some kind of paranormal threat. A Pro-bar or two should do the trick. Also bringing a 5 hour energy shot just in case the ghosts turn out to be boring as all get out.

Not pictured but obviously included are comfortable shoes and a sweatshirt I can put on or take off depending on the temperature and a bag to carry all this in. I’ll be twittering all this as well, so stay tuned later tonight for a role call of my cohorts.