- More blogs
- Better blogs
- Blogging everyday
-
-
I read Steven Pressfield’s War of Art faster than any other book this year. My review isn’t ready yet (next week, maybe?) but I wanted to share this snippet.
Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North—meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.
Pressfield, Steven (2010-10-11). The War Of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle (p. 12). FastPencil PREMIERE. Kindle Edition.
I like this idea that once we acknowledge resistance for what it is, we can use it. There’s no getting rid of the anxiety that comes with great work, great art. But there is such a thing as using it as a tool for our team instead of its own evil desires.
—
-
It’s time to separate the nerds from the super nerds. This genius has designed a LEGO set for Ingress agents.
Ingress LEGO set The LEGO Ideas site will only make a set if it gets 10,000 users interested and then passes a review process. I’m not sure the folks at Niantic will let the licensing of this come to fruition. But it’s a cool design!
—
-
Most of our communication at Automattic is text-based. We use Slack and P2 instead of phone and email. But occasionally it helps teams to conference together and a video call is a great way to do that.
Today it turned out that the following are good things to have nearby when you do a video call:
- A funny hat
- A cat or puppy
- A musical instrument
- A whiteboard made out of materials that aren’t a manufactured whiteboard
- A loud bird parked on the backside of your laptop
Trust me on this. Share with your team.
—
-
I just recently started The Last Colony, the third book in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe. If you didn’t know, I loved the first two books.
Detailing events that take place between The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony, Scalzi also wrote a novella called The Sagan Diary. He enlisted several friends to create an audio version, which is available on his blog:
The Sagan Diary: The Audio Version on John Scalzi’s blog “Whatever”
I listened to it on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The last chapter brought a tear to my eye. I preferred some actresses’ reading over the others, but I thought it was a unique way to present the work.
You probably won’t like it if you haven’t read the first two books, just FYI. But you were going to read them anyway, right? Do it.
—
-
There are a handful of networked devices I require to do my job and be a participant in the modern world. Outside of that, an Adama approach seems prudent.
Except for the computers I need in my life, I want my technology to be as dumb as possible. Once a device is networked, all bets are off.
Does your refrigerator, stove, or automobile really need a networked computer inside of it? Do you really want a dedicated, networked device with a microphone always listening for your commands inside of your home?
via Grappling with the New World – Paul Ciano.
Quite possibly the best reference to Battlestar Galactica I’ve ever seen in real life. The Galactica had many computers for a variety of tasks, but none of them were networked because it left them too susceptible to Cylon attack.
Paul’s got a good head on his shoulders, and I’m proud to work with him.
-
The A.V. Club put out an incredibly well put together sampling of They Might Be Giants songs on Tuesday. If you wanted to listen to all the songs it’d take about an hour, but that’s a lot shorter than the 30 years it took the band to write and publish them all.
Pick #12, “Road Movie to Berlin” is one of those songs I always loved from them. Right up there with “Kiss Me, Son of God.” It’s quirky, but with lyrics that somehow speak a message meant to be heard — and chords I can analyze by ear. Seeing it now struck me with inspiration, and I picked up the guitar for the first time in forever.
I think it’s been over 2 years since anyone heard me play guitar. But music is a powerful force and it tends to stick with you. Sometimes you’ve just gotta play what’s in your head, even if your hands are no longer skilled enough to keep up.
Thanks TMBG, and thanks mom and dad for all those guitar lessons. They keep paying dividends.
If you’re curious, the original song is here:
—
-
When you’re in a role-playing game, sometimes characters have more knowledge or perception of their whereabouts than the other members of their party. A good way for a dungeon master to give this information to the player is by passing notes.
In Titansgrave, we’ve seen this happen a couple times. Most recently in chapter 5, “Staff of Forlorn Hope,” when Kiliel (played by Alison Haislip) can see more about Mr. Voss than the others can. Her reaction nails why this story-telling tactic is awesome.
It’s exciting because it empowers the player. They get the information and they get to choose what to do with it, instead of being subject to the DM’s narration of events.
For the purposes of Titansgrave, it’s doubly effective because each of the players have secrets they’re hiding from the others. Using note-passing during more common instances like Kiliel’s actually makes it more normal when the note-passing is crucial to those secrets. I really hope a note-pass makes or breaks the climax of one of these adventures, because Wil has used them skillfully.
—
-
Since June 16th, I’ve been doing the Couch-to-5k (C25k) running program. I really don’t like running and I’m surprised I’ve kept the habit this long. But I definitely needed to get my physical activity back up and running is free.
Last night was the first task of C25k that I couldn’t complete successfully. It was Week 4, Day 2, where you do the following:
- Warmup walk (5 minutes)
- Jog (3 minutes)
- Walk (90 seconds)
- Jog (5 minutes)
- Walk (2.5 minutes)
- Jog (3 minutes)
- Walk (90 seconds)
- Jog (5 minutes)
- Cooldown walk (5 minutes)
I had done this run successfully on Saturday (Week 4, Day 1.) Though I felt rough during the 5-minute jogs, I knew during that run that I would make through. Last night was completely the opposite. As soon as I started my first 5-minute jog, every muscle felt weak. My knees and feet were aching. I couldn’t even keep my head up or breathe well like I normally do. After the 5-minutes were up, I started walking home and that was it.
The Mental Conversation
When you’re taking that long walk home (it’s a lot faster when you run it…) your mind starts being cruel to yourself. All the reasons why you started running in the first place start coming back to say hi. I’m fat, I’m lazy, I’m unambitious — and that all starts to feel true since you just failed at something you know you’ve done before.
Next come the excuses. It was raining all day and even lightly a bit while running, so it was hard to grip the pavement. I didn’t have much time to let dinner settle so I was low on energy and my stomach felt uneasy. I’m stressed and couldn’t properly think of my form.
The Reality
The excuses don’t actually matter. The reality is that failures and breakdowns happen when you’re training your body for something it’s not ready for yet. If I could run for 30 minutes straight already, then yes, this 8 minutes of running is pretty pathetic. But 3 weeks ago I was proud of myself for running 8 minutes total in 90-second portions.
That’s right, Day 1 of C25k was 3 weeks ago! I’ve even been doing the training with not enough rest. This was supposed to be day 2 of week 4, and the reality is that it’s day 2 of week 3 on the calendar.
Tonight happened because my body was sending a message. I did the right thing by going out there at all, and I did the right thing by walking back. The now is exactly what it should be. The future is up to me.
The Plan
I’ve run every-other-day since starting the c25k, except one break of resting 2 days. I’m going to take another 2 day rest and run again on Friday.
Wednesday and Thursday will have lots of stretching.
When I do run on Friday, it’ll be re-running Week 4, Day 1. If these 3-minute and 5-minute jogs are where my body is at, it’s where my body is at. I’m not gonna rush this along and hit the 8-minute jogs of week 5 before I’m ready for them.
Most importantly, I’m seeing this as a failure of my muscles, not a failure of myself. I’m doing the part of this that I’m supposed to do: get out there, work hard, and learn the lessons I need to learn.
—
-
I’m getting kinda sick of cooking. I mean, don’t get me wrong – Blue Apron tries its hardest to make good food simple, but ever since Amber got pregnant I’ve been the primary cook of breakfast-lunch-and-dinner, not just breakfast and the occasional dinner. As such, I’ve made a list of foods I plan to eat while Amber is on vacation:
- Lunch at Mid City Super Buffet
- An Ollieburger
- Pints at Goodwood Brewing Company
- Pints at Great Flood Brewing Company
- Fried chicken, or maybe wings, from Chicken King
- A box of macaroni and cheese (cooking I can handle)
I’m very much looking forward to destroying my health in this glorious time.
Alex "Gus" Gustafson 