This is me every time I have to call a phone number with my iPhone:

1. Press the “Home” button
2. Realize that was unnecessary because the “Phone App” is one of the four apps that shows up regardless of what screen I’m on.
3. Open the “Phone App”
4. Take a second to realize which screen I’m looking at (generally “Recents” or something).
5. Take another second to realize that I need to find the number pad and do so.

From there on, I’m cool, but it’s such a clunky interaction that I am 90% sure is my problem, not the iPhone’s. Perhaps I should make myself start calling people more often before my telephone muscles atrophy altogether…

Pls reply me back

Happy New Year…

I’m sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it’s  just because of the situation of things right now, i’m stuck in London, I came down here on vacation, i was robbed, worse  of it is that bags, cash and cards and my cell phone was stolen at GUN  POINT, it’s such a crazy experience for me, i need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is i still have my passport but don’t have enough money to get my flight ticket back home, please i need you to loan me some money, will refund you as  soon as i’m back home, i promise.

Thank you
Rand Winton

Hmmm. No. That’s not real at all.

I replied to it and the hijackers further prompted me to provide help. So they are actively using her account. Great.

After texting her (she’s been bombarded by all her contacts checking whether she’s OK or letting her know she’s been hacked) I tried to login. Of course her password didn’t work. I tried the password retrieval mechanism and it said it was sending the change request email to an address that looks like ******@y****.**.uk — also not my mother.

So, I have reported the problem to Google and am waiting for their response.

It looks like these people also deleted an announcement I posted to Mom’s Facebook wall, too, so I assume they are in there also.

Sometimes the internet is such a jerk!

Update: She has managed to wrangle her Gmail out of the clutches of the baddies. Her Facebook account is currently locked down, but she’s barely concerned about that.

Goals are much easier to actually accomplish if you break it into steps. I haven’t done the Googling, but I assume tapering with the help of patches or nicotine gum is a much more successful method of smoking cessation than cold turkey. Fitness improvements are almost by definition something to work toward one step at a time — you can’t just go from the couch to running a marathon, you need to run around the block first.

This all came about from me lying in bed thinking about some things I’d like to accomplish this year and trying to come up with ways to keep track of my paths toward them. A lot of this is based on my use of the Physics Diet web site for tracking my weight. Even when I’m not succeeding, I love having the data in front of me. I can forgive myself a big red spike if I then come back with some green afterward.

I want something like that for other goals, so I started bending my brain around it a little. Physics Diet depends on daily weight and body fat measurements, and each day your “goal” (in most cases, at least) is to weigh less than you did the day before. How do you break other types of goals into similarly measurable “micro-goals”.

I think the main crux is how you formulate your goal.

Suppose I want to be able to run ten kilometers this year. The first step is to get out and run – period. That means running once in this next week is an improvement from the previous state of not running at all. Then if I get to the point where I am running consistently three days a week, I need to change my metric to something like distance covered or even time if my distance covered is the same as before. Obviously, this just got a lot more complex than a weight chart…

At least there are still obvious metrics, though – in the example above you have frequency, distance, and time. All of which you can easily measure and compare. You might even be able to make a pretty chart/graph to show progress/regression. Even without the chart I could track progress in each of the metrics and use that data to motivate myself toward my originally stated goal of running 10k within my time frame.

Here’s another one: I want to learn to play my Fluke ukulele. How the heck do I “chunkify” something like that? Well, I could rephrase the goal to something more like “I want to practice the ukulele every day.” That give me the frequency metric again. I could also perhaps measure a duration metric, too. Those will definitely be helpful to me at the start, but after a while two hours of plinking tunelessly will become a disappointment, and it’s a big jump from counting how often I practice to counting something like songs I’ve learned to play….

Perhaps this illustrates a lack of knowledge — I might not actually understand what it takes to reach my goal.

Maybe that’s OK, though. Maybe tracking data on these small metrics is just a way to get me off the ground for some goals, while with others – like running or other fitness goals – it could be a long-lasting habit.

Besides, there are other things to track. Perhaps some goals are better broken into a sequential checklist of milestones — when you can check something off, you have made progress. This sort of goal wouldn’t really have backwards progress, I suppose, aside from stalling out on time.

What do you think? Is this likely to be a useful tack for achieving goals? Am I just using the idea of tracking data as a procrastination tool? (Thanks to my experience with Physics Diet, I’m quite certain this isn’t the case. Tracking measurements takes very little effort and thinking out your goals is never a bad thing.)

And of course faster is better, right Chief? That straight line between points A and B must also be the optimal route. How could it not be?

Well, I have come to the point in my life where I am developing an appreciation for the winding road. In my mind, actually firing up the stove trumps bringing up the Pizza Hut iPhone app to get a pie and some wings (although there are still close calls on that front, to be honest). If a 50 year old hunk of metal gets the job done as well as the modern conglomeration of plastics and who-knows-what, this guy is probably going to go for the antique. I can – and will – go on…

Build Something

A great example of what I’m talking about is home repair and/or home improvement. These days most folks run the numbers and decide their time is worth more than the cost of hiring a guy to come do the job for them.

The truth of the matter is fixing or building things around the house is super intimidating and sometimes actually difficult. These points are especially true if you have never had any training or experience with this kind of work. That said, however, the resources are out there for you to quickly gain the knowledge you need to give it a go. Go learn how to do the thing you need to do and give it a try.

Remember, even if you really fuck it up, you can hire that guy on Service Magic to fix it, but odds are you’ll do fine and you’ll have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

Make Your Own Food

This past year, the thing I’ve done that has excited me the most is our raised bed garden. Even though it didn’t get finished until very late in the summer, we grew our own food in our own back yard. Talk about satisfaction!

Even if you don’t want to grow food, though, it’s worth putting in the effort to cook your own meals as much as you can. People who say they “can’t cook to save my life” are both lazy and lying. Cooking is one o the the most easily acquired skills there is in this world. Your food will be better than most things you’d go out to buy and there’s a high probability that it will even be better for you.

That Straight Razor Thing

The three of you who read this thing have already heard a lot about my obsession with straight razors. At this point I shave almost exclusively with a straight razor. Sometimes that means I only shave once a week, though, which doesn’t do me any favors. At that point my technique suffers and I am more likely to cut myself. I might actually have a very faint, but permanent scar on my face now… For real.

I still love it, though.

Shaving takes a long time with the straight razor. First, I strop my razor and prep my lather brush; then I hop in the shower for a long, hot one; once I’m dried off, I make some lather and start shaving — I usually do at least three passes at around 10 minutes each. The whole process takes 45 minutes or so, and I enjoy every single one of them. I play music I enjoy and just spend quality time with myself. More people should find something that allows them to have that kind of time with themselves.

Boozing

Learning about and mixing classic cocktails, and even trying to concoct my own new recipes, give me a lot of joy, as some of you may have noticed. There’s not much more to say about that, really. It’s just another hobby that requires a bit more effort than the average Joe puts into it.

Your Way?

Now, let’s be truthful, I’m not the King of the Hard Way by any stretch of the imagination. By no means do I always shun the efficient or the easy. Even the things I’ve listed above aren’t exactly earth shattering, but it’s an attitude I’ve been pondering lately.

So, how about you? Tell me about something you do the “hard way”. What is an activity that give you more satisfaction when you do it by hand rather than with some kind of “modern convenience”? I’ll bet some of you are doing way more interesting things than I am.

I despise that question. My mental answer to queries of that ilk is usually something along the lines of “Not in a room like this answering questions like that!”

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why managers feel like they have to ask those questions. They feel a responsibility to motivate the people who report to them to do quality work — a task that must be akin to herding cats. I certainly wouldn’t want the job of keeping people like me motivated and focused!

Here’s my true answer to that old trope of one-on-ones across the globe:

I want to have a fulfilling job doing challenging work with a group of people whose company I enjoy.

And guess what? That’s what I have right now. If my career is in a similar place as it is today in five years’ time, that will be flat out awesome.

What got me started on this rant is chapter 46 of Chad Fowler‘s excellent book The Passionate Programmer – Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development. That chapter is titled “Path with no Destination” and posits that a career is not merely a means to achieving a goal or set of goals, but actually is the goal:

So, instead of constantly asking “Are we there yet? Are we There yet?” realize that the only healthy answer is “yes.” It’s how you traverse the path that’s important — not the destination.

This is something I’ve felt for ages, but all of my own attempts to articulate it have come off as apathy (at times it probably was apathy, to be honest). The thing is, when I say “right here” when I get asked the five year question, I don’t mean working at the same desk, doing the same tasks for the same people. No, I mean getting paid to do work that keeps me as engaged as my work currently does with people who are way more awesome than I am.

What I’m saying is I’m in a really great spot right now and I’d like to be in an equally great spot in five, ten, or twenty years from now.

There’s underlying context to that: I’ve actually worked pretty hard to get where I am. The thing is, if I want my future to be as superlative as my current situation, I will probably have to work even harder in the days to come. The slope doesn’t ease off, really. It keeps rising. I need to learn new things from new people and do more and read more and see more. I need to be motivated to improve. That motivation comes primarily from myself, but it never hurts to have effective leadership from others. (Keyword there is “effective“.)

So yeah, I have a “five year plan”. It’s the same plan I’ve had for the past five years, and the five before that.

It’s a good plan. I may not have 100% execution on it, but I’m pretty clear about what it is.

Maybe you should try a plan like mine, too.

Forget everything I said about Merlin Mann’s signal/noise ratio.

After reading this, I hereby issue a full retraction and would like to tell you all that kung fu grippe is my favoritest blog in the world right now.

When I emerged, my hands still gripping the wheel, I was perplexed but thrilled — happy to be alive, but also to be surrounded by the parties of this case, as well as the train’s lucky passengers. We were all in miraculously hale condition, considering the ordeal we’d just endured. We laughed openly.

But, even in the channel’s cool waters — and newly stricken with the permanent nerve damage that has frozen my face in a ghastly and stupefied stare — I could feel my blood begin to boil. My boat. My beautiful yellow boat. What had he done to her?

Merlin Mann is my goddamned hero.

Happy now?

Case in point:

Now that I’ve had it both ways, I can highly recommend choosing to make things you like with people you think are awesome. By comparison, the private consolations of doing otherwise turn out to be surprisingly modest.

Yes. Yes, indeed.

(I’m still not going to follow the guy on Twitter, though. The last time I tried it was like drinking from a fire hose.)

Pete Seeger: THIS MACHINE SURROUNDS HATE AND FORCES IT TO SURRENDER

Being a pacifist sure is a lot more work…

If I had ever managed to become a musician, I’d like to think my slogan would be something like “THIS MACHINE FUCKS SHIT UP”. Maybe I’ll put that on a t-shirt or something…

• The Green Fooder — We order pastured eggs, grass finished meats, and some other sundries from Mitch and love it all. Seriously. It’s well worth it in our opinion. I just hope he sticks with it.
• Home made lavender simple syrup and the Southend cocktail — I was all about this on Twitter and Facebook, but it’s worth mentioning here. Super good if you switch to Hendrick’s gin, too.
• Speaking of booze (and since I’ve decided my online — if not real life — personality has morphed into a strange combo of Dean Martin and George Carlin: booze & cussing!), you should get a copy of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie 100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them if you are into that sort of thing. The Sazerac formulation therein is a fave.
• Chef’s Planet cruets — Just got these today and they are the best thing I’ve encountered for counter-top cooking oil / vinegar storage.
• You know what I put in one of those? Spanish olive oil. Check it out. Whole Foods actually has some good olive oils under their 365 brand for reasonable prices.
• José Andrés — This guy’s “Made in Spain” show on PBS is what got me to grab some Spanish olive oil and makes me desperate to travel to España. The food looks sooooo jummy!
• Michael Ruhlman’s blog — I picked up three of his books because his blog posts are such high quality. He’s a fun follow on Twitter, too.
• Growing herbs — We have a nice little container garden outside our front door with mint (for cocktails, mostly), Italian parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano and basil. Of course, we also have lavender in the back yard. It’s totally awesome.

And just to go totally off track, I’ll also add one work/geekery item:

• Pair programming — It’s really, really, really good. For many reasons. I’m stoked we get to do it at my work these days. Now if only we could get our heads around proper testing…

The instructions are: “Tag your friends and discover new music!”

1. Name a band or singer that you can’t believe you used to love when you were young:

I was a big Top 40 fan until I went to college, so yeah… How about Milli Vanilli – I dug them for realz.

2. Name a band or singer that you hated when you were younger but now love:

AC/DC – There was one school bus that the driver let the kids in the back play AC/DC on a boombox every morning. I hated that bus then, but now I *love* those songs.

3. Now name one that truly stands the test of time, whether they still make music today or not:

How about a couple that come to mind because they do still make music today and they keep making really good stuff: Van Morrison and Tom Waits.

4. Name a song that you can’t resist tapping your feet or fingers to whenever you hear it:

There have to be a million…. I’ll pick Morphine’s “Honey White” since they’ve been on my mind lately.

5. Name an album where you love listening to every single track:

The main example from recent times has to be Green Day’s “American Idiot”. Holy crap is that album good front to back!

I also actually love Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick”. You should read about it on Wikipedia.

6. Band or singer you are so sick of that you wish you would never have to hear them again:

Madonna for personality reasons. Her music is actually fairly OK most of the time, but she’s obnoxious.

7. Name a band or singer that your significant other/family loves, but you can’t stand:

Probably something obscure from the 80s. Generally she just likes some things (Gwen Stefani) A LOT that I only like a little.

8. Your favorite cover song:

I’m a bit of a cover song freak – I even have an iTunes playlist of covers. Bill Janovitz (from my favorite 90s Boston band, Buffalo Tom) is doing an awesome series of covers on his blog. He does some great ones.

For favorite, though, I’ll say the Arctic Monkeys doing Amy Winehouse’s “You Know That I’m No Good”. That’s just killer.

9. Your favorite song or band, right this second:

I’m still stuck on the Avett Brothers and I just discovered Alice Russell.

10. If you’ve got a Pandora station to share with your friends, paste the URL here (Click on station name, go to “Edit Station Details” and grab the address from the top of the page). Or link to your fave music podcast:

I guess I can point you to my last.fm profile, if you do that sort of thing:

http://www.last.fm/user/JakeSutton

For podcast, Bob Boilen’s “All Songs Considered” podcast is responsible for me finding all kinds of new music:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=37&agg=1