Good

Well, that was fun. I tried a blog for two months. Dddn't get that many people to look at it. I hope it was good for all y'all. I wanted to do it to help people and also to see if I could automate a blog. Parts are. Well, there we go. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Switching it up

I'm thinking of making a short movie per week, and maybe posting a picture per week (on a different day), doing a podcast episode another, and perhaps a crypto-quote. What do you all think? Please post your comments below. Post your ideas and perhaps I'll use them and give you credit! I'd love to hear from you. That'll encourage me to keep writing.

Old style

I was talking to some friends today, after we had seen an old old house. We talked about the wonderful architecture and the great design and details. My friend mentioned that perhaps someone could make a business constructing houses that look like that old house but have the electrical work and plumbing work and modern features that modern houses have. And so people who like that kind of design could have their architectural cake and eat it too. There's a niche market here and I wonder how long it'll be before someone researches that and capitalizes on it.

Habitica

Habitica Review. Yeah, it makes me more effective. I love the app. The positives are that it motivates me to do more and to be better. It also helps me to have accountability with other people, which also increases my improvement. The cons are that the pets/mounts don't add any benefit (which it'd be fun if they did). Another con is that it's so hard to get gems. Other than that, I would recommend habitica for people that are struggling with their todo list or overcoming/creating certain habits. And one of the strongest pro's in my book is that Habitica outlasted the enthusiasm test (i.e. will I keep doing it after the first couple weeks).

Average

I believe that we are influenced by those we surround ourselves with. We do have moral agency, but we can constrain our ability to a certain way if we surround ourselves with people that are opposite of our desired result. From Jim Rohn: "You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.”

Quotes

I'm going to start posting inspirational quotes for a few days, just so I can have content. Especially since I don't have any readers yet. :). Here's the one from today: "Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions or our values. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the covenants we have made inevitably cast us as combatants in the eternal contest between truth and error. There is no middle ground in that contest.
"The Savior showed the way when His adversaries confronted Him with the woman who had been “taken in adultery, in the very act” (John 8:4). When shamed with their own hypocrisy, the accusers withdrew and left Jesus alone with the woman. He treated her with kindness by declining to condemn her at that time. But He also firmly directed her to “sin no more” (John 8:11). Loving-kindness is required, but a follower of Christ—just like the Master—will be firm in the truth." --Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, May 2014

For whom?

Journaling. How many of us do it? I just assumed it was for my posterity to read and learn from my life. That is one of the purposes. But I have found fulfillment in the journaling process now in a few ways. Journaling helps me process the day's events, successes, and disappointments. This is helpful for my mental health. Journaling also gives my future self a boost. There have been times when I'm feeling down and I've read an entry of a happier time. I relived those memories and the entry helped me to remember that God is good, that life is good, and that I can live day by day in gratitude and joy. So yeah, I'd say journaling is worth it.

Podcast

I'm thinking of starting a podcast based on longer episodes of simiar principles. I'm wondering what you all think of that. I've been doing this writing for a month now and I'm not sure how much you guys are reading this. Are you more podcast people or blog people? Let me know in the comments. Thanks

Fear and Trembling

The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a great piece entitled "Fear and Trembling" which I encourage you to check out. The premise is that Abraham, in reference to his actions in almost offering his son Isaac, makes him a Knight of Faith. The article is fuzzy in my memory, but I remember how much it made me thing and how much I enjoyed it. The work must be deep, because when I reviewed it on the internet (just a summary of it), there are deep thoughts and aspects that I missed. That said, it's worth your consuming it, as it does change your life to think about and take as an example a person who did their best to follow God in all things, no matter how hard it may be.

The Trolls

Have you ever noticed how a person could be kind and considerate in person but a jerk online? This happens especially when the people are posting comments anonymously. It fosters these trolls. That's the term. Troll. A person that posts something negative for its own sake. I haven't met that many on my own blogs or sites, but that's probably because I haven't written/posted much. What do you do with a troll? Tell them to get lost? Block them? Make sure your sites don't allow anonymous posts? Act Christian toward them? I don't know. If you have any non-trollish comments on this, please let me know.

Chinese skill review

Chinese skill. It's a decent app. Here's my unpaid review of the thing. It is very similar to Duolingo, in that it uses pictures and audio to help in learning basic words in mandarin. Also like Duolingo, Chinese Skill starts with words in phrases that are somewhat easy to learn but which I do feel/think I will ever use. These are phrases like "I am a man." or "You are a girl". I figure this information should be pretty obvious, and I think people will look weird at me if I said "I am man" in a conversation with them. I'm looking for words and phrases that I could use in my first conversation, and perhaps Chinese Skill is not meant to prepare me for that. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm too harsh on these language-learning apps because I expect something different of them. There is one definite benefit of these types of apps: the way they teach gets the words into my head and they stick better. Some improvements would be if I could have the Spaced Repetition functionality in there and also the Streak functionality. That would make the app more useful. 

Unplug

There is a time to unplug from our devices and our media sources. There is a time. I took a month and didn't watch youtube; that was hard. I've gone a few days without TV (I used to never watch TV 9 years ago). There's a time when our bodies do "detox" and the media have less power over us (less power to draw us in). I need to do another one. YouTube is drawing me back. There is so much we could do with our time, that YouTube and other media should not be in our lives. Maybe YouTube's slogan should be "watch responsibly".

Children

In my church I recently had the job of teaching the children how to sing children's songs about God. It's been one of the most fulfilling "callings" I've ever had. I've used games and hand-motions to teach some of the words and have enjoyed every moment of learning/teaching the songs. Children have an innocence and excitement that is contagious. I remember after a particularly good game of singing battleship, one of the 6-year-olds piped up with "this is the best day of primary ever!" That made me smile. If you want to find a source of joy, teach a child something good, like how to sing a song about Jesus. If you want to be infected with enthusiasm, go ask a child about what they like to do. That's a exercise worth doing. :)

Willpower

I've heard that will power is exhaustable. Hmm.... Could that be true? Supposedly, there's a finite amount of willpower that a person has in any given day. I'm guessing that exercise, nutrition, and sleep affect it, but is it finite? My experience tells me yes....although, with Habitica, I've learned that with the right incentive, I can get much more done in the evenings that I have historically. So, can willpower be replenished during the day? That's an interesting question.

Closure

I have a lot of friends who see closure in many events of their lives. For instance, I had a friend who broke up with a girl and then wanted closure (meaning, that he wanted to explain to her how she had hurt him). I have another friend who got laid off from a job in a harsh fashion, and he wanted closure (meaning that he wanted to be understood and not misunderstood in what he did or didn't do and how it wasn't deserved that he got laid off). I've wanted closure in apologizing to a person I bothered years ago. I've had another friend remark that we are not entitled to closure in life. It's not required nor necessary to move on. Perhaps we shouldn't seek it. Much of the closure I've heard of involves expressing unexpressed feelings or thoughts. I don't know all the reasons for closure, but I'm going to stop demanding it in my own life; especially having closure as a requirement to forgiveness. Jesus of Nazareth didn't say that we should only forgive someone if we have achieved closure. He said that we should forgive (what is it? 70 times 7?). Period. So forgive. If you get closure, consider yourself blessed, because not all of us do.

Duolingo review

Duolingo. I've been using it for a few months now. It's a good app (website and smartphone app). The best features, in my opinion, are the streak functionality (tracking how many days you have done some language learning) and the spaced repetition functionality (it has you go back and practice old stuff at spaced intervals of time). The things that I wish could be improved are the vocab taught. The first lessons are words like man and woman, boy and girl. Although it may be crazy easy grammar to learn "I am a man", I never see myself saying such a thing to a native speaker, nor have I ever done so in the past. I would love to learn vocab to help with practical speaking. That being said, I don't know if that is the purpose of duolingo. And maybe there is something about language pedagogy that linguists know that Duolingo is implementing. That's just my honest, simple opinion. 

Generous

I was at a family reunion in beautiful Arizona and I noticed an excellent straw hat my aunt was wearing. I commented on the excellence of the hat to her and she took it off her head and handed it to me. She gave it to me. Wow. I wasn't complimenting the hat to get her to give it to me; I was just complimenting it. My aunt followed up the gift with a phrase that has bounced around my memory for years: "never suppress a generous thought". I think this is a great maxim to live by. If we can, we should give. We shouldn't run faster than we have strength, but we should diligently give. And my aunt's legacy lives on as that phrase encourages me to give more. Now I need to decide how to share my gluten-free dairy-free treats, if that is expected in the line of generous duty. Hmmm...

Associations

I heard a quote recently from a audio talk called "The Parable of the Marinade" that went something like this: "No matter your initial intention, you will become that which you associate yourself with". I agree to a certain extent with this quote. The "that" could be people, music, art, literature, tv, movies, games, ideas. I believe that we eventually become what we are thinking about all the time. And what we think about, is influenced by who we talk to, what we listen to, what we read, what we watch, and also what we do. It's a hermeneutic circle, perhaps. That's why it's important to feed our noblest/best selves and associate with the good. There is so much out there with which to associate. I love it. And that has impacted my life a lot lately. Try it; if you don't like who you are currently, change your media and friends.

Action

A few days ago I wrote about the power of writing down ideas and thoughts. There's something that is even greater. Execution. Now, I agree with Chris Guillebeau that there are some things that you should quit, or in this context, you shouldn't execute on. For example, if you are running a business and you are always in the black and the same-old same-old is not changing your bottom line, quit that business or that process and make a change. When someone says, "don't quit!", well, that's good advice for good things and worthwhile things. But some things should be quit. On the other hand, I find that many people including myself struggle making things happen because we spend too much time in the planning phase. Chris gave some great advice on that in his book The $100 Startup: action. Action is huge with small businesses and starting a business. We must act. So, on important ideas or thoughts, perhaps it is time we act. We'll be happy we did.

Shower Ideas

It is so common for people to talk about receiving ideas in the shower. I've thought about how this could be. And then I've found one answer. It is in the routine or physical work that our brains and minds work out our issues. And perhaps this is a time that God can speak to us too. Every half-hour at work I take a 5 minute walk around the building. Not only does this help so that my back doesn't get stiff, but it also helps with ideas. Ideas come, and often they are brilliant. Ideas do come in the shower, and while driving home. They also come while I do the dishes or other physical movement that takes very little brainpower. Have a problem you can't solve? Go on a walk. Talk about it with someone. Or go take a shower. :)

IVM

As probably none of you know, I have a strange condition in my shoulder caused by an IVM (Intraosseous vascular malformation). I'm missing part of my clavicle now because of it. It's been interesting learning to function with less strength in my shoulder area. One of the biggest changes I have had to make was daily (or at least Monday thru Saturday) physical therapy. I do stretches and basic weight lifting to strengthen my shoulder. It's so basic and small-weight that any weight lifter would scoff at how much I am lifting. But that's not the point. The point is to keep my muscles at a working level such that I can keep my desk job and do basic day-to-day tasks (showering, brushing teeth, dressing, dishes, etc.). The process of doing stretches every day has also helped me to realize that I can be persistent. That's a huge reward for years of daily action. I consider my shoulder condition as one of the hardest trials of my life but also one of the best. I've learned by experience what we are all capable of. I wouldn't trade that for the world.

Open loops

I have a habit of writing down ideas that come to me. This has been of great benefit to me as I have written down some great ideas for businesses, or remembered that I needed to contact an old friend. Sometimes it's just closing some open loops in my head (as Chris Bailey talks about in his blog A Life of Productivity). I've found that I receive inspiration from God when I am writing down ideas. That's cool. I've been told to go talk to my son about something or apologize to my wife or go and exercise (yes, He had to tell me that I need exercise). Another simple thing that can improve any life.

Languages

Have you ever wanted to learn another language? How about two new languages? How about multiple languages? Well, I'm the latter. I don't want to just know English well. I want to know many other languages. In high school I learned a little French (not enough pronunciation to be understood by a Parisian) and in college at learned Swedish (enough to think in Swedish and get by years later both in southern Sweden and with my non-native friends). I've learned some Spanish and a tiny bit of Chinese. I've been trying to follow Benny Lewis's program and Laoshu's leveling up (Moses McCormick) but I haven't tried my hardest with either. Well, I'll let you know how it goes as it goes.

Streak

There are a few systems I am using which involve an active streak. For example in both Duolingo and Habitica, they track how many consecutive days that I have done something. I've found that to keep up my motivation, I need to set a minimum value to complete that will count it as continuing my streak. In Duolingo, this mean that I just have to complete one lesson a day (which usually takes about 5 minutes) even though in reality, I could often do more than one lesson. But one lesson it is to count it as my streak being furthered. It's the same with Habitica and my dailies in that program. I have a minimum that must happen to me to check it off and count it toward my streak. It may not be much, but on some days, it's all that's going to happen. :)

Listening to Spoken Media

I've been listening to scripture and podcasts daily. With 8 chapters a day, I can get thru the Bible in a year. I also listen to podcasts like The Tom Woods Show, The Brion McClanahan Show, Coversations (from the Mormon Channel), and Perspectives (also from the Mormon Channel). A few others I sample from from time to time, like the Lew Rockwell Show, Entrepreneur on Fire, Freedom Fast Lane, and others. These are easy to listen to at work or in the car and it feels like I have during that time many friends who are teaching me new stuff. It's good to marinate oneself with good media (more on that later).

Some Calendar

A spin-off idea from the overbudgeting system I wrote about a few days ago (which, if you've tried it, I'd love to hear your experiences) is the getting-ahead calendar. The idea is that you put your tasks on the calendar on every other Saturday. Then you start getting the tasks done ahead of time. I haven't implemented this one fully yet, but I plan on doing so and seeing its fruits.

Seek them out

Feeling lonely or lost in the world? Feeling like you are disconnected from everyone? Here's an idea....contact your relatives and go learn about your ancestors. You'll find both stories of courage and shame, goodness and weakness, happiness and hardship. It's a great experience reading journal entries from your ancestors and their relatives and thinking about what life must have been like back in the day. If you want a silly rendition of what life must have been like, :), you should put Four Yorkshire Men in a search engine and get ready for a laugh. But seriously, it gives one roots when one thinks on the ones who came before.

Overbudgeting

There is a great principle of productivity that I like to call overbudgeting your time. The benefit is that you get everything you budgeted done and a little more. Here's how it works: you write down the beginning time of your budget (800 which means 8 am) and write down the task or acitivity that is happening then; then write down the ending time, after adding triple the time to it (i.e. so if your activity is 5 minutes long, write 15 minutes); write this out for all of your activities; profit; do your best to finish the tasks/activities before the ending time in your budget; decide whether you want to use your new-found extra time to do another small task/activity or start the next one early. The wonderful thing about this system is you get done what is on your list and a little bit more. It's fulfilling. *Note: this works best for smaller and shorter tasks/activities. The bigger or more complex the task, the harder it will be to estimate it in the first place and enlarge the time budgeted in the second. Happy budgeting!

Start small

Sometimes I have not started a project or new habit because I didn't have the wherewithal at that time to automate and do it at the level I wanted. This condition has caused that I have not started some habits or projects. I realize now, that for some things, we should just start. Start small and begin to see the benefits. When you have it running, think about embellishing it (if desired) or automating it. It's like the debate I had with a roommate once on whether it was better to do something for the wrong reason or not do it at all. My roommate suggested that he wouldn't do something unless he was doing it for the right reason. I contested that one should do the right thing, even for the right reason, and move toward doing it for the right reason. I feel vindicated; now let me think if I have an actual examples to share of my approach being better. :)

Missionaries

There are many people in other places serving or teaching other people about religion. They are often called missionaries. While the work they do is worthwhile and rewarding, it is also hard and takes a lot of emotional and physical energy. We may respect these people for their service and their endurance, but do we show our appreciation? I know that when I was a missionary, any letters from my family and friends were gold. I loved to hear about their lives and hear uplifting messages. I also loved pictures. So write a missionary today. You and they will be glad you did.

Serve

While thinking my post two days ago, I believe that we need to daily fight or peel off the natural man or our selfish selves. One way we can do this is by daily service. I've both experienced and heard from others that service can be inconvenient. I've thought a lot about what could help me to serve more. Do I need to leave earlier for activities so that stopping by the side of the road and helping someone is not inconvenient? Or perhaps as we serve daily, the feelings of inconvenience would not get in the way of our doing the service. I'm not sure, but it bears testing.

Inmates

I've taken the opportunity to write to inmates. It's a interesting practice to write a letter to an incarcerated person. What do you say? What do you write about? I asked one ex-con about what they would be interesting in hearing in a letter and he mentioned something quite interesting: the day to day. I thought, why would that be interesting? But as he continued, I understood that the little details of someone's life has a refreshing effect on those regularly confined to a small space. And so I took up my pen (or keyboard in this case) and wrote about the mundane. I wasn't sure if the incarcerated would write back. He did! And his kind response has encouraged me to write again. The practice has also helped me appreciate my day to day life, as "boring" as it may be.