Thursday, October 13. 2005
reducing life suckage
I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.- Arthur Dent
- Health - To say that I have been neglecting my health would be an understatement. I have not been doing any physical exercise - except pushing my chair to get away from my desk. I have gained a lot of weight and have grown wider.
- Volunteer work - This part is balance I guess. I contribute to the PHPCommuntiy and quite a few mailing lists. I have also joined as a developer for addons.mozilla.org website and I am still trying to get my head around the code. The part lacking here is that I do not write enough technical articles.
- Book reading - Currently my reading list has been limited to technical books/webzines/blogs only. I should read at least 2 books each month (self development, literature, fantasy, non-fiction)
- Hacking - Not enough hacking, have not written something which does something utterly cool. One idea floating in my head is to write a "knowledge digger" - a script which when give a word or a starting url, will find the list of key terms on it, will run through wikipedia and del.icio.us and look for urls that give more idea about the terms.
- Fun - The less said about this, the better it will be.
Bangalore sucks - there is absolutely nothing to do here. Most
of my good friends are in Delhi and to make the matters worse, the LUG
meeting (at least the one I attended) was as fun as a funeral
. - Health - Lose 20Kgs over next 3 months
- Volunteer area - Put 3 hours weekly in writing articles (to produce 2 articles monthly) and put in 1.5 hours of work daily in the u.m.o website code
- Book reading - Read for at least an hour daily. This will not include the time I spent in reading blogs
- Hacking - Think of one cool hack every month and implement it. I think that hacking does require any flash of insight, but simply hard thought. Spend 4 hours every weekend on this.
- Fun - Spend half hour each day in solving puzzles
Quite a lot of this problem can be solved if I get up early, get to the office early, put in 8 hours of work and be back home early. Below is the ideal outcome in each part of my life
I also have to find a way to measure how effective I am at following these measures. Each month will have 3 tables - for my daily, weekly and monthly goals. Anytime I reach my goal, I will put a dot in the column. But I have still not worked out the format for recording them. I will have time to do it this evening.
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1. Health. If you're getting worried about your health, it makes me seriously worry about your health!
2. I would say its fairly balanced. Don't worry about that.
3. Ask Sonika for help on that department
4. Hacking is not a pleasure that's attainable quickly, rather being appealing as a 1 night stand its more like a marriage i.e. gives pleasure in small dosages and that too in intervals of undetermined time.
5. If spending half hour each day solving puzzles is your idea of fun, man I m happy I get to play games on my PC. I feel fun and brain cells should have no relationship whatsoever.
Well that's my 2 cents.
2. I would say its fairly balanced. Don't worry about that.
3. Ask Sonika for help on that department
4. Hacking is not a pleasure that's attainable quickly, rather being appealing as a 1 night stand its more like a marriage i.e. gives pleasure in small dosages and that too in intervals of undetermined time.
5. If spending half hour each day solving puzzles is your idea of fun, man I m happy I get to play games on my PC. I feel fun and brain cells should have no relationship whatsoever.
Well that's my 2 cents.
Chad, about my health. I am trying to do a preemptive strike 
. I have gained weight, but I am trying to lose it. Meaning, I am cutting on my pizza intake and putting in more fruits. owever, unless I can work some physical activity into my routine, I doubt it will do me any good.
I will ask sonika for some book suggestions, though I doubt our tastes match. I prefer fantasy and sci-fi books. Currently, I am reading Philip K, Dick and Terry Prachett - both the authors are higly enjoyable
. I have gained weight, but I am trying to lose it. Meaning, I am cutting on my pizza intake and putting in more fruits. owever, unless I can work some physical activity into my routine, I doubt it will do me any good.I will ask sonika for some book suggestions, though I doubt our tastes match. I prefer fantasy and sci-fi books. Currently, I am reading Philip K, Dick and Terry Prachett - both the authors are higly enjoyable
Relax! You can do all these things - but no one says they all have to be done in 1 day. There are 30 days in a month - You are allowed a few mental health days to do as you please.
1 and 5) These can be done together - but it means you actually have to walk away from your computer. Go dancing, for a walk, out hiking, biking, bull fighting, whatever. Just do it outside in that bright light (can't remember it's name right now).
2) Write articles on stuff that you are hacking on. These do not have to be thesis papers. The higher the audiences knowledge the longer you should take to write it. Quality not Quantity.
3) I hear ya on this one. Reading is my stress reducer. And anything remotely related to work doesn't cut it. I like to read during my lunch time... it's a nice way to relax during work and provides a little bit of escapism.
4) I can't agree with you on this one. For me coding is fun - a puzzle to solve. By forcing myself - I lose the joy and sense of accomplishment. If something comes to mind - I'll do it, but because I want to - not because "I should".
work hard when it is time to work - relax when it is time to relax - and have fun all the rest of the time. Life is balance. Figure out what is most important.
1 and 5) These can be done together - but it means you actually have to walk away from your computer. Go dancing, for a walk, out hiking, biking, bull fighting, whatever. Just do it outside in that bright light (can't remember it's name right now).
2) Write articles on stuff that you are hacking on. These do not have to be thesis papers. The higher the audiences knowledge the longer you should take to write it. Quality not Quantity.
3) I hear ya on this one. Reading is my stress reducer. And anything remotely related to work doesn't cut it. I like to read during my lunch time... it's a nice way to relax during work and provides a little bit of escapism.
4) I can't agree with you on this one. For me coding is fun - a puzzle to solve. By forcing myself - I lose the joy and sense of accomplishment. If something comes to mind - I'll do it, but because I want to - not because "I should".
work hard when it is time to work - relax when it is time to relax - and have fun all the rest of the time. Life is balance. Figure out what is most important.
Actually hacking is something like discipline. I might procrstinate about actually "starting" on it, but once I get into "flow", it is quite enjoyable. And at the end of a hacking run, you have something whcih is cool and interesting - and though not more than 2 people in the world will find it useful... but having it done it is in a reward in itself
hi there,my 2 rupee's follows [pun intended]...
you have the solution to your five listed problem's and have added one more problem to your current list.. managing the problem's not just one problem.
so i guess IMHO,try to attack and solve one problem than create more..
so now for the solution..
how about a silver bullet for all your problem's?? so here goes.. it starts with getting up early in the morning,and starting on doing not just regular excercise, but 'pranayam'. if you have heard of it and not given it a try, you must. if you have a 'i-don-beleive-in-it' attitude,then no regrets. do not read what follows.keep it for other wanderer's...
Though there are many ways of doing it, IMO, you must try the one advocated by swami ramdev,aashtha tv 0500-0700 and 2020-2120 daily.books/vcd available easily.
try them(its callled the 7 pranayam package) and all your problem's will disappear,you'll turn out to be a much stronger/calm/composed person,ready to take on the work/world.. come_what_may!
coz at the end it is the mind that moves.. that needs to be controlled!
that's all,
signing-off...
PS:fear spammer's so not putting contact info.
you have the solution to your five listed problem's and have added one more problem to your current list.. managing the problem's not just one problem.
so i guess IMHO,try to attack and solve one problem than create more..
so now for the solution..
how about a silver bullet for all your problem's?? so here goes.. it starts with getting up early in the morning,and starting on doing not just regular excercise, but 'pranayam'. if you have heard of it and not given it a try, you must. if you have a 'i-don-beleive-in-it' attitude,then no regrets. do not read what follows.keep it for other wanderer's
...Though there are many ways of doing it, IMO, you must try the one advocated by swami ramdev,aashtha tv 0500-0700 and 2020-2120 daily.books/vcd available easily.
try them(its callled the 7 pranayam package) and all your problem's will disappear,you'll turn out to be a much stronger/calm/composed person,ready to take on the work/world.. come_what_may!
coz at the end it is the mind that moves.. that needs to be controlled!
that's all,
signing-off...
PS:fear spammer's so not putting contact info.
Yes I have heard about 'pranayam' but I have not done much research into it. From what I know, it is a method to control your breathing. I will certainly look into this, but as I do not watch too much television, I guess I will have to depend on books for learning it. Thanks for the suggestion.
~
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Everything written by me and placed on this site is in the public domain , except for any express restrictions included in them . Hack them further and enjoy :-)
I just realized that it's been almost 20 days that I've been able to sit down and write about anything!...
Tracked: Oct 23, 08:53