Category: deep thoughts

It’s Goblin Time

Back in the day, there used to be Miller Time.

Today, I polished off a major project that was a monkey on my back for months… so, I’m reminded of that old commercial.

So, I went to pick up some beer and look what I found at the corner market:

IMG_3381This seems familiar… hmmm….

IMG_2080

Behold, the Green Goblin!
Behold, the Green Goblin!

Ahh yes, the Goblin. I believe it’s awakening from his slumber in a box in my brother’s garage. It hasn’t rolled since last summer’s adventure, and in two weeks… I’ll be back to get it ready for a Portland to San Francisco ride.

IT SHALL BE GLORIOUS!

(Ok, I’ll admit to having had a couple of those beers. Please disregard the all caps.)

GLORIOUS! HUZZAH!

Best news of the day: coffee the wonder drug

coffee
I am a coffee maniac. While I don’t drink nearly as much as I did in my Portland days (cough cough 8 cups a day cough), I love me some dark roasted, super strong black coffee. We’ve seen all the studies that go back and forth on the benefits of coffee versus the hack science that dares to suggest coffee could be bad for you.*

So, it is with great pleasure that I quote an article about the latest pro (and therefore correct) coffee study:

Other recent studies have linked moderate coffee drinking — the equivalent of three or four 5-ounce cups of coffee a day or a single venti-size Starbucks — with more specific advantages: a reduction in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, basal cell carcinoma (the most common skin cancer), prostate cancer, oral cancer and breast cancer recurrence.

Perhaps most consequential, animal experiments show that caffeine may reshape the biochemical environment inside our brains in ways that could stave off dementia.

All hail coffee for keeping me cancer free, diabetes free and keeping my faculties in later life.

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*I could be accused of confirmation bias here, if I weren’t correct that all pro-coffee studies are good, and all anti-coffee studies are the work of the devil, and those responsible should be punished.

Unsticking being stuck

cabin picsI wish I had all the answers, I really do.

Tonight, I finally listed my cabin for rental on AirBnB (hey, want to rent a super cool luxurious cabin in WV?) after about 9 months of spinning my wheels trying to build a website that I found deeply unsatisfying to build. I was stuck. I was procrastinating. I missed opportunities (probably).

What got me unstuck? Seeing how easy it could be to act. Sometimes an external impetus can be the thing that shines a light on your stuck ways… and then in a big flurry of activity, BAM! You create what you could have done months ago.

Why is that? Not sure… see line 1.

Trolling the trolls

thanks wikimedia
thanks wikimedia

The internets are full of trolls. Trolling has a lot of definitions, but I’ve observed that most trolls exhibit these characteristics:

  • Anonymous commenters
  • Negativity in their comments
  • Generally try to hijack a discussion from one topic to another, sometimes tangentially at best
  • Tend to have a high opinion of their opinion, but get testy when called on it
  • Think of themselves as higher intellectuals than others (especially those with whom they disagree)
  • Never become real members of a community (see anonymity above)
  • Become shocked (shocked!) when they are called out as trolls

I recently had a bit of a run-in with a troll on another blog. I make it a point not to feed the trolls, but this one got under my skin just enough to call out, because the person was anonymous, negative, picked an inhuman time and occasion to troll their trolling, tried to hijack the post with a senseless observation, and cloaked it all in pseudo-intellectual feces. Basically, your perfect troll.

Unfortunately comment streams seem to be full of them – check out your local paper’s comments (and God help you if you live in Syracuse… I swear, that’s the worst of the worst) or any CNN story, or… sadly most places. I used to enjoy the discourse amongst a lot of Internet based communities, but now I find them to be anti-intellectual.

And troll, if you’re reading this… I invite you to actually discuss your point. I really do. Just pick a different forum than a grieving woman. Or write a blog post. Anonymously, of course.

Grind, paused

So, the week-long escape that started as a trip to the Keys, then to Arizona, and then Portland has now morphed into a week in San Francisco. The great news is the weather is looking to be about as good as you can ask for this time of year: sunny and in the low 60s. Looks like a little mini-tour is happening on a rented bike… more to come on that, but it’s looking like a late week trek to somewhere in Marin County.

Kind of a crazy week. Somehow I need to jam all of these things in:
– Bike trip
– Meet up with old DC friends
– Go down to Palo Alto/Mountain View for a hello to my friend’s family and maybe checking out the Google campus
– MacWorld
– Super Bowl party (go Niners… and I apologize if my rooting for them causes the opposite result)
– A lot of SF biking, coffee drinking and the usual with MJ (with whom I’ll be staying)

Meanwhile, in addition to all of the things happening at KW Omniglobal* (January in the fitness industry is crazy, plus new products, website relaunch, e-courses coming, daybooks, a print version of Tranquilologie… et cetera), I’m starting to come into focus on a few business ideas I intend to launch in the spring. Between that and getting the cabin ready for some renters (including the website launch, which became the bane of my existence in the fall) I’ve got a lot of things to keep me busy.

But first… I’m hitting the pause button on the grind.

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*my shorthand for the 4 LLCs and one nonprofit under the Kimberly banner… Not the real name, and certainly not a real umbrella company. Despite that, I want to make KW Omniglobal tee shirts.

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I hate to say it, but iOS 6 Maps sucks (right now)

The ATL in iOS MapsI’m not a hater by nature… I really rebel against the trite negativity, particularly put out by vast stretches of the tech and political press (which I happen to read a lot, despite my professed rebellion). That said…

iOS 6’s Maps app just doesn’t work right now. It kinda sucks here in October 2012.

I didn’t have too many problems in DC or WV (the places I split my time) but on a quick weekend trip to Atlanta, the Maps app showed how being a little off can be really bad. Essentially every single trip I had… Airport to hotel, hotel to wedding reception location, back to hotel, then hotel to breakfast spot the next morning… all of them were off by a little bit. A turn here or there, an address off by a block. It all added up to a big mess when you’re in a place you’re not familiar and you’re banking on the data behind the app to work.

So, let me be a little more refined than shake my fist at the sky and declare suckage… the app is slick. Siri… well, she can direct you. But the underlying data is smelly, stinky, sucky. Google Maps was far from perfect, and was clearly missing turn by turn directions in iOS, but I don’t remember the consistency of misses like I just experienced in the new Maps app.

But… it’ll get better. I can use Waze or any number of other options until the underlying data mess gets fixed.

And by the way… Atlanta? You keep staying weird. We like that:

Eat More People

Update… edited to correct the fact I apparently can’t differentiate between “iPhone5” and “iOS6.”

MJ on a horse

MJ on a horseFrom the archives… this was before we decided wheels were better than legs. Also, I believe our ride guide was thrown from her horse shortly after this shot was taken. Number of times I’ve been on a horse since: zero.