Often I tell myself I should write about this or that. Or “blog” about this or that, as if there’s something special about this or that that is deserving of a public audience. Today, for instance, I was thinking about my recent experience of refinancing a mortgage and thought it might be useful for some Joe Shmoe out there on the interweb, in addition to have something to add to my fancy-pants blog. But why do I need to find something that someone else might be interested in, in order to WRITE? Listening to my lovely wife next to me on her keyboard all click-clackety clickety-clack, blogging up a storm, I suddenly had the urge to stop aimlessly reading Hacker News links and just start writing about something, even if I never actually click that publish button.

So going forward, I’d like to make a commitment to write about my experiences, my family, my career, and my ideas on a regular basis. These words may not have great value for the public at large, but they will help me develop a greater understanding my own mind, and how that mind perceives and deals with reality.

Today’s strike in Oakland will fall well short of the strikes of 1934, which were organized with a longer lead time, which originated in workplace conflicts, and which were led by the kind of disciplined left-wing organizations that no longer exist in any serious way and which are in many ways antithetical to Occupy Wall Street. But the dysfunctionality and moral rot of American capitalism is every bit as apparent today as it was in 1934. With that as a starting point, who knows where today’s strike, and the movement from which it springs, will point us?

via Strike While It’s Hot.

STRIKE!! Against what? We don’t know!! Here is the comment I left multiple times on the post:

Screen shot of my comments

Care to explain the “rot”? I suppose you didn’t because, like the Occupy movement you’re using the current economic downturn to justify your hatred of voluntary exchange and competition, that only unfettered capitalism can provide. The true “rot” of capitalism is the intrusion of state “protection” – bailouts, subsidies (artificial demand) for housing, education, politically favored technologies (Solyndra), regulations that larger companies can easily comply with, which leads to “too big to fail”. Capitalism is all about freedom to succeed and fail. Government intrusion hampers this process.

However, a lot of the anger towards capitalists (not ism) is justified, because they are the ones who ask for that protection, or bribe for it in the form of campaign contributions. Look how much Obama got from Wall St. for his campaign. Both sides are corrupt. But only one side has been paid and has taken an oath to uphold the law and prevent corruption. Therefore, a lot of this anger needs to be redirected.

 

 

So after a few times revisiting the site to check for replies, I noticed that my comment had been removed. So I posted it again. A little while later, gone! Another time… gone! I even created an account like a good little netizen (and because they don’t like “comment trolls”

You need to be logged in to comment.
(If there’s one thing we know about comment trolls, it’s that they’re lazy)

So here was a follow-up comment I left, which was also removed:

It seems like your site is having trouble storing my comments, and at least one other I read on this page yesterday. I’d just like to point this tidbit out from your About Us page under How can you be objective if you’re liberal?

“We try our best to represent conservative ideas fairly, even if we disagree with them, but you’ll also notice our contributors often disagree most fiercely with each other.”

And I’m sure they tried their best to keep my comment on the site! Here’s another fun Q&A:

Why another liberal magazine?
When the Prospect was founded in 1990, conservatism—buoyed by a decade of Republican rule—was ascendent; under Reagan, income inequality ballooned. The founders felt

Did income inequality really “balloon”? Looking at these census numbers: Measures of Individual Earnings Inequality for Full-Time, Year-Round Workers for Both Men and Women: 1967-1998 , the Gini Coefficient under Reagan went from 0.334 to 0.362. True, it grew at a faster rate than than under Clinton or Obama, but “balloon” is a gross exaggeration for a 2.8 increase in 8 years. The rich still got richer under Clinton and Obama.

Submit your question for the CNN Western Republican Presidential Debate – CNN.

Here’s mine:

The licensing process for Yucca Mountain has been halted, putting the entire nuclear industry on hold, shortchanging nuclear power customers who have been paying for waste disposal, and risking American lives to potential terrorist attacks and natural disasters like in Japan.  If elected how do you plan to address reducing the current and future stock piles of nuclear spent fuel?

This chart is total crap. It lumps 90% of the population together in a single group? Why? How many of those people were even alive in 1970?

The fact that the size of that group has grown by 50% and the total income has only decreased by 1% is an amazing feat. But the truth is those percentage groups aren’t the same people over time. In terms of income, we all start off at $0, but it would be absurd to compare a 60 year old to a 6 month old, or just an 18yo, would it not?

You need to compare *people* over time, not incomes: http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/

http://www.apple.com/icloud

https://extensions.apple.com/

I spend about six hours driving to work per week and around 60 hours in front of my computer, at home and at work, usually sitting. Eight years ago, I was treated for some back spasms and my doctor asked me how long my commute was. I told him 45-60 minutes, depending on the flow of the 405 freeway. He told me I should only be sitting a max of 30 minutes at a time. My back recovered quickly thanks to the prescribed medication. Since there wasn’t a great place to pull over off the 405, I blew off the 30 minute rule almost right away, and I completely forgot about it until recently when I started having some back and hip issues.

Being a web developer, I frequently get stuck on problems that can demand 100% of my focus and it’s very easy to lose track of time, and my body; i.e. my health. And as a new father, health and time management are more important than ever. Only if there was a tool or system that could remind me to take breaks and manage my time better… and there is:

The Pomodoro Technique:

1. Choose a task to be accomplished
2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

I came across a Pomodoro timer app last year sometime and tried it briefly. At that time, I wasn’t having any health issues, so I thought it would just be a good way to get me to concentrate on a single task. It must not have been a good method or software app for that matter, because I completely forgot about the method until recently. I don’t recall logging my tasks with the app, so perhaps that was a reason why it failed.

Last week, I started using an open source Pomodoro app called Pomodairo. It works anywhere you have Adobe Air installed, so it’s cross-platform. There are no frills here other than customizable sounds and a statistics window. The lifehacker post that reviewed it sugessted that it add syncing across computers, but I don’t see that as a killer feature. It just works as advertised. And pretty well so far.

Now that I have a legitimate reason to stand up and stretch every so often, I thought 25 minutes on/5 off would be like killing two birds with one stone. Three really, if you consider the fact that a lot of tasks go unrecorded. If it’s not on your calendar or task list, how else are you going to evaluate your weekly productivity and time management skills?

Combining this technique with diet and excerise, you can picture how much one’s health and productivity can improve. Besides curing an ailing back, the time I spend stretching, bitching, and fretting about my health will also be freed up. I’ll be sure to post updates of my progress. Another aspect of “job health” is ergonomics, but that’s for a future post.