Free Spirit
I’ve been selling/donating books and throwing out old magazines.
I’m saving space and money by going digital.
The Evo has a huge screen but I still have eye strain when reading from it.
My birthday is coming way too soon.
I want/need the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet.
Still sorting out what is being sold, donated or thrown away from our rented storage unit. I think we shaved off about 20% recently and I am not done yet.
I’m hoping that by simplifying my world I can gain more perspective on what matters most to me.
Eliminating the non-essentials is very liberating.
What is something that you can do without and would be willing to give up?
The three of us enjoyed our local YMCA membership and I just cancelled it. As much as we enjoyed the idea of membership, we haven’t made time to use it.
My intention is to go back to the basics of fitness. I can do push-ups, sit-ups, make use of the dirt trails and maybe even…yoga.
Little DVD had a piece of her toy snap off and asked me to repair it recently. Once the part was snapped back into place she exclaimed that I was “just like Tinkerbell!” I assume she meant that I could fix things as well as that little fairy. But that got me thinking that I do tinker and tweak because I do perform a lot of maintenance on my machines. Sometimes too much.
When a new release of the Ubuntu operating system or when an Windows “upgrade”is released I do quite a bit of tinkering. Sure I could just upgrade and overwrite the obsolete files and programs but I always perform a clean install so I can determine what software is more productive and lean. I want a fast, responsive laptop.
Now is the perfect time to assess what software I want, need or to get rid of. Do I really need two image processing software or can I increase my knowledge of the best one and use it exclusively? Can I uninstall the pre-loaded media player for the one of my choice?
The same approach goes with my digital files. If I haven’t touched them in six months, then they are uploaded to my offsite server, zipped up and archived on an external hard drive. It would be even better if I can just go ahead and delete the ones I don’t need at all.
Media files make up a majority of my hard drive space…for now. My music can be purchased online and sync wirelessly to my devices. I need to take advantage of this and regain my 3GB of hard drive space. Photos are a big part of what I do and enjoy so there will always be the personal and client images there. After all this time I still do not have a workflow in place. Inexcusable.
Website content, social media, RSS feeds, bookmarks all go into one folder and distributed as needed.
Maintaining your computer’s health goes a long way to ensure you will have it a long time. There are plenty of utilities and diagnostics to run on a weekly basis.
As your digital needs evolve so will your workflow and maintenance. If you are like me and enjoy the tinkering and tweaking I think you will appreciate the benefits of a finely tuned and organized machine.
Yawning is typically linked to tiredness, but a group of researchers from Princeton and the University of Arizona have found it may simply be a means to regulate brain temperature.
My brain must overheat a lot.
Following the recent changes and hype regarding Facebook, I’ve decided to delete my account.
I’ve focused a lot of my energy back into this website and Google Plus.
So I participated in the Beach Palooza 5k and adventure race on Galveston Island this weekend. Ouch. Every time I think I am fit enough, these events remind me of how much more work I need to do. The sadists who planned the course wouldn’t allow us to run the packed sand on the beach. That’d be too easy. Instead, we ran the coarse sand. This slowed everyone down a touch.
Official time was 37 minutes and I placed 30th in my age group. I averaged 11 minutes per mile. With the obstacles and the slow pokes on them, plus the sand, I’m pleased with the results. More importantly, I ENJOY these things.
I am in the process of minimizing everything. A great purge is happening. The “for sale” and the “toss” piles are getting larger.
I’m doing it again. As the website’s current byline claims: “Never satisfied”, I am reorganizing and streamlining.
Project 1: Adding Daphne’s images to her web gallery which is tied into this website http://chrisdenbow.website/dvd
Project 2: Migrating all of my images off of both Flickr accounts (6 years worth). My Flickr Pro account will expire this month and I am not anxious to renew it after all these years. Lack of innovation and customer support has me looking to my own server. I tried SmugMug but can’t get into it.
Project 3: Uploading a majority of these to a photo gallery attached to my personal photography site
This website was created about the same time MySpace was coming online back in 2000 and I’ve always said this is my main outlet. Sure, I’ve been lured by social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and now Google+, but always managed to find my way back here.
This website is the only place where I own the content. My thoughts, my images, the followers and even the privacy controls.
Yes, my first challenge was to abstain from social media and RSS feed reading for 30 days but it is just not possible at this time. I am postponing this challenge and taking up a new one. Here’s why:
I am actively looking for a career back into the I.T. industry and using today’s tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus and more will help accomplish this. I need to nurture and grow my network, my followers and my circles. In addition to this, I have created a career page for myself.
It is amazing how much information has been accumulated during this time. I have almost 3800 unread articles in the feed box. My Twitter followers has increased without effort. I am being included in quite a bit of circles inside G+ with no follow-up on my part to do the same.
I’ve read new books, cleaned more, watched more Doctor Who, and learned more about MySQL and PhP (see the career page) during this self-imposed hiatus and am grateful.
My next 30 day challenge? Get that position in information technology of course! If I have to interrupt this and make it 15 days as well, I’ll let you know.
I signed up for my first Warrior Dash adventure race and will be participating in it this Sunday. Wish me luck!