You’re on your game.

Other days, your game’s on you.

I have a list which seems to grow longer every day. It doesn’t actually grow all that that much longer, truthfully. But the longer I wait to complete anything on it, the more daunting that list becomes. The list, once a way to help remember everything I need to get done, suddenly reminds me how much I’ve let slip between then and now.

In my head, it’s easy to visualize its completion. When it comes to actually working it, it’s much more daunting. Do I start at the end and work my way back? Do I start at the beginning and work my way forward?

And in that subtle pull, no progress is made, and the daunting feeling deepens. Maybe, if I move an inch, I can move another inch, and still another inch, until I’ve moved a foot.

Maybe the key is incremental progress, instead of the one big leap I seem to be holding myself to. No other choice but to start.

For the past week, I’ve been intently focused on getting more sleep. I’m starting to establish a better routine, and one week in, I’m noticing some of the positive changes you’d expect. I have been energy, wake feeling more refreshed, and am feeling like I’m able to accomplish more in less time.

This evening, I stumbled upon this article from the NIH, which included this important tidbit upon quick perusal:

In general, people are getting less sleep than they need due to longer work hours and the availability of round-the-clock entertainment and other activities.

Many people feel they can "catch up" on missed sleep during the weekend but, depending on how sleep-deprived they are, sleeping longer on the weekends may not be adequate.

That’s been my life, in a nutshell, probably as far back as high school and college.

What I’ve realized over the last week is that, when well rested, I can more quickly accomplish many of the things I’ve been staying up late with the express purpose of trying to get done.

Sometimes you’re friends with people who help you see not just different views of the world, but new ways to appreciate the world you see.

One such friend of mine is my friend Jana, and she makes delightful vlogs. She’s back with her 50th vlog, a trip to the Folk Alliance, and it sure made me smile.

Reza Farazmand on being yourself.

I’m often in “night owl mode”, staying up late working on various things, or lost in thought or on projects. Then I have to get up early and work the next day. I’ve noticed lately that, even when I’m doing other things well (eating right, trying to exercise), sleep seems to always be the missing key.

This week, I’ve been working on changing that, aiming for at least 7 hours sleep per night (instead of 5-6) and closer to 8 if I can. It’s taken some adjusting, but after just 4 nights, I already notice a difference in my energy, my ability to think more clearly, and respond in a more measured way to the world.

I feel better for it, and hope to turn this into a proper habit.

I love the Olympics. It isn’t without problems, of course, and NBC’s coverage remains, despite the lack of headlines this time around, filled with a seemingly constant barrage of commercials.

I also feel like there’s an inordinate amount of time spent on covering figure skating. While I appreciate the event, it gets monotonous and I feel like other sports get far less attention, at least here in the US.

That said, I did happen to catch the gold-medal-winning skate by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu. Not only was it a delightful skate, he was showered with hundreds of Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals as soon as he finished. I had no idea it was coming, and it was delightful to watch.

It turns out ice skating has something of a tradition of donating stuffed animals that are thrown on the ice following a performance, which actually is pretty great. And in the case of Yuzuru Hanyu, seeing the look on his face for such a successful performance, contrasted with hundreds of Winnie the Pooh stuffies showering him in the background (of course, there’s a reason for Winnie the Pooh), made for one of my favorite moments from the Olympics this year.

Today, I read an article about an amateur astronomer in Argentina who captured the formation of a supernova on camera.

I have lately been finding myself staring at the sky, which has long been a favorite way to pause and reflect. Living in the city where I do, I unfortunately have far more light pollution than I would prefer.

One goal for the year: finding ways to escape the city, even for short times, so I can stare at the sky in wonder.

Watching the Olympics, contemplating the concept of socially constructed bodies, and fiddling around in Paper by Fiftythree

An evening doodle with Procreate.

In the thick of the world, and the work I’m building up to this year, there’s a tendency to want to hustle all the time. But I like DHH’s advice there, to take some time out, rest, and enjoy life.

Being mostly self-employed, it’s a tricky feat, since I want to make sure I’m able to make ends meet, while also still doing the best work and providing the best care and services I can.

Today, I took time with family, cooking for the week ahead, watching some Olympics, and generally resting. I’m behind on some work I need to get done, but the rest day felt right and I plan to schedule some time during the week to play catch-up.

Six weeks ago today, I taught my last Zumba class. Part of my plan was to work on reclaiming my weekends, getting more rest, and having more availability for on-call work, should the need arise. So far, I have worked on three of the six weekends, which is more than I expected, though likely that should even out soon enough.

Part of my goal was to be able to be open for other goals I’ve been pursuing. One goal was to work toward teaching workshops, and this week I learned that one of my latest proposals was accepted for a conference. I’m excited to bring it to life, and to keep studying, learning, and improving on these fronts.

I said it then and I’ll say it now: onward and upward!

Om Malik, noting some conclusions about the latest news that facebook acknowledging the role of fake profiles and groups supporting Donald Trump:

1. Facebook had underestimated the extent of the problem.
2. The bot creators got smarter and kept beating Facebook’s checks and balances.
3. Facebook willingly ignored the fake and duplicate accounts because it allowed them to show growth and to the Wall Street.

Om suggests it’s a combination of all three. I suspect facebook knows just big an issue this is, so feel like they’re using that to hedge and make themselves seem less culpable. To me, it’s likely a combination of 2 and 3, given that facebook has a history of fighting advertising disclosure rules. Which brings a fourth, and just as likely, concluding: facebook willingly ignored the problem because they were profiting from it.

Given all this, and also that given Republican politicians are being paid large sums of money by the NRA to refuse to take action on regulating access to military-grade weapons, it’s clearer than ever that we need get money out of politics.

Virtual private networks are intended to help safeguard your internet use when on public or otherwise unknown or outside connections. Of course, if you’re Facebook and you own a VPN, your idea of “protecting” your users is to collect all the data you possibly can from them. Sarah Perez:

But Facebook didn’t buy Onavo for its security protections.

Instead, Onavo’s VPN allow Facebook to monitor user activity across apps, giving Facebook a big advantage in terms of spotting new trends across the larger mobile ecosystem. For example, Facebook gets an early heads up about apps that are becoming breakout hits; it can tell which are seeing slowing user growth; it sees which apps’ new features appear to be resonating with their users, and much more.

I’m no legal scholar, but not only is Facebook not acting in users’ best interests, this also seems like it should raise some anti-trust red flags. Facebook is taking advantage of a lack of adequate regulation in order to monopolize the market.

As John Gruber astutely points out, this is spyware.

And it’s not lost on me that TechCrunch’s comment system? It’s Facebook, too.

Jason Kottke on the United States of Guns:

Like many of you, I read the news of a single person killing at least 17 people in Parkland, Florida today. While this is an outrageous and horrifying event, it isn’t surprising or shocking in any way in a country where more than 33,000 people die from gun violence each year and guns that can fire dozens of rounds a minute are perfectly legal.

America is a stuck in a Groundhog Day loop of gun violence. We’ll keep waking up, stuck in the same reality of oppression, carnage, and ruined lives until we can figure out how to effect meaningful change.

Jason also has a chronicle of other gun-related posts you can read here.

Of note, this is the 18th school shooting this year alone.

In reference to my post yesterday, I counted how many browser tabs I had open among various devices.

• iMac: 22 tabs
• iPad: 35 tabs
• iPhone: 85 tabs

That’s 142 tabs open. Enough that when I was just looking through to count them, there were multiple tabs on my phone which were duplicates. Clearly, there are recurring themes to things I am researching or trying to learn. I see recipes, workout ideas, education, and research for workshops I’m in the process of developing.

Small wonder why I’ve lately found just myself feeling like I can’t quite keep myself on track and focused.

I wonder if keeping more organized notes with links, dates, and references will be more helpful, and help me feel less scattered.

In addition to the chronic fight for my attention from external sources, I’m just as guilty of having way too many tabs open in my browser, regardless of which device I’m using.

Typically, I think it stems from thinking about something, opening a tab to look into it, or perhaps to remind myself of it later. Only instead of then addressing it, I forget about it, and forget why I even wanted to do so. I notice a change when I have fewer tabs open, or heck, fewer programs open. It’s hard to reclaim your attention when your tools are too good at all running simultaneously.

At least in terms of my browsing habits, LifeHacker suggests I limit myself to no more than nine open tabs. My browser may not be slow, but I sure am.

I am not a sports fan, generally. However, I’m a huge fan of the Olympics. Every two years, I go a little overboard with watching the games. I love the way the games bring out the best in athletes, both in their respective sports and their sense of sportsmanship. There are exceptions, of course, but so far these past few days, I’ve seen much more cheering among competitors and support for one another’s accomplishments.

The only downside to watching the games is that the TV is always on in the background. I usually prefer to have it off, as the sound plus the visual stimuli is exhausting. Timely note here, since I just read about the science of silence (h/t to Patrick Rhone for that article).

To help, I muted the sound and added captions, then spent some time doodling in between the many breaks and commercials. Here’s a little piece I did in Procreate. Nothing fancy, but it was a relaxing way to unwind.

  <img src="https://philly.micro.blog/uploads/2019/50a374cc74.jpg" alt=""/>

It’s interesting to observe the tech world from the outside. When I was recently in Los Angeles for a conference, I saw a bunch of Bird scooters in the Santa Monica area. From their website:

We work closely with cities to help make transportation better & more environmentally friendly. Cities can report any issues to our city relations team & we're happy to quickly address them.

This is actually an idea I rather like. It makes sense to have little scooters to get around, plus scooters are fun to ride. What’s not to like?

Of course, like with other start-ups, Bird seems to have neglected to pursue any real attempts at operating above-board (emphasis mine).

Black, electric-powered scooters suddenly began appearing on the downtown streets, suburban sidewalks and beachside a few months ago in this urban coastal city.

The dockless shared scooters took Santa Monica by surprise, including the mayor, who says he received a LinkedIn message from Bird chief executive Travis VanderZanden, offering to introduce him to the company’s “exciting new mobility strategy for Santa Monica” — after they landed in town.

“If you’re talking about those scooters that are out there already, there are some legal issues we have to discuss,” Santa Monica Mayor Ted Winterer said he told VanderZanden.

And to reinforce the point, the city filed a criminal complaint of nine counts centered on Bird’s failure to obtain a vendor permit, something the company maintains is applicable to food vendors, not dockless shared electric scooters.

The start-up world has taken facebook’s “move fast and break things” philosophy and run with it. In some ways, it’s a riff on the sometimes great but oft-overused “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission”.

The problem, in this case, is that there’s safety implications (the WP story linked above notes multiple traffic and safety violations, and injuries including traumatic brain injury and broken bones). Without vendor permits, how do you maintain liability? In their zeal for hockey stick growth curves and monetization, start-ups assume (correctly) that following proper protocol will cost money and time. I won’t argue that our current regulatory system is slow and filled with red-tape. But understanding why the red tape is key, and approaching the goal with an interest in safety should never be a bad thing.

I like the idea of having small scooters as means to get around. It seems like a great way complement existing public transit and helping to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. With quality of life, environmental impact, and safety being considered, I don’t see how that could possibly be turned down. It would be well worth the time and effort to make that happen. Working backwards like this is counterproductive.

Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu, writing in a widely shared piece for Gizmodo:

After two months of data collection, I was able to pick up a bunch of insights into the Hill household—what time they wake up, when they turn their lights on and off, when their child wakes up and falls asleep—but the weirdest one for me personally was knowing when Kashmir brushes her teeth. Her Philips Sonicare Connected toothbrush notifies the app when it’s being used, sending a distinctive digital fingerprint to the router. While not necessarily the most sensitive information, it made me imagine the next iteration of insurance incentives: Use a smart toothbrush and get dental insurance at a discount!

The larger pattern that emerged about the smart home was that all of the devices phoned home daily, even if they hadn’t been used, telling the companies that made them, “Hey. I’m still here. I’ve still got power. Have any updates for me?”

The privacy implications here are huge, of course. Even with encryption, patterns can be detected which can gain insight into habits, routines, preferences for activity, and changes or deviations from norms.

It’s interesting that Hill concludes, too, that setting up and trying to navigate “smart” devices is also, for the most part, less efficient than simply flipping a switch manually.

I’m generally a fan of technology, but outside a fancy thermostat, have never found much utility in the idea of anything else considered “smart” technology.

Hill’s thoughts also echo the sentiment of Dr. Drang’s comments about HomeKit from Six Colors’ Apple Report Card in 2017:

“I’m still satisfied with walking over to the switch to turn my lights on and off,” wrote Dr. Drang. “Quite reliable.”

Om Malik, on blogging in the early days:

A long long long time ago when I started blogging, it was for two reasons: I wanted to share what I learned on a daily basis as a reporter — tiny bytes of intelligence — and at the same time, have a place to think out loud about everything from baseball to broadband. Never for a minute did I think my blog was a news publication.

…

Today, we “think out loud” in too many places on the Internet and as a result are creating a diffused online presence. The more I try new services, the more I come to appreciate my Omstead, my thought place!

I remember those days well. I started out as a personal blogger, an introvert who found like-minded folks online. There was no theme or real direction to what I wrote. Whatever I found interesting, or was pondering, was open for writing about.

I remember watching the gradual shift to niche blogs, lifestyle blogs, and the growing swarm of social media. Many of us turned more to social networks for interaction, some became “social media experts” before that was even a thing. Over time, many of us stopped writing (including me) as graduate school and careers began to consume ever more time.

I forgot what it was like to write, to have a place that was mine. I went from having a blog and a Twitter account; to having a blog, a Twitter account, and a Tumblr account; to having a blog, a Twitter account, a Tumblr account, and an Instagram account. I don’t count facebook here, as I had that from its inception when I was in college, but in those days we used it mostly for simple events like our weekly glow-in-the-dark Ultimate Frisbee game.

I’m a creature of habit, and also a chronic over-thinker.

Today, I went to a restaurant craving something familiar, and ended up trying something new.

Thoughts. Will I miss what I craved in the first place? Will this other item that sounds good taste just as good? Will I wish I had settled on the familiar comfort? Will it be a long time before we come back?

I ordered something different.

It was a delightful change of pace.

Note to self. Try new things now and again.

Today, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy into orbit. It’s worth watching the video not just to learn about the rockets, but to hear (and see) the cheering of the teams whose hard work made this possible. Truly groundbreaking achievement, and to see the two side cores land simultaneously is so astounding it’s hard to really comprehend.

Falcon Heavy side cores have landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2. pic.twitter.com/oMBqizqnpI

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 6, 2018

Sometimes I just need to know that other people want to fight for peace, too. Matisyahu reminds me why I love music, and why music is one of my favorite vehicles for peace.

I finished reading All Fall Down today. It was a quick read, shallow and full of cliche. It had a lot of potential, and there were elements that were thoughtful, but it felt forced.

Not recommended.