Recently I’ve come across an idea that I’d like to implement, but it will take a lot of time and it has some built-in deadlines. You know what that means? More polyphasic sleep! I’m thinking of trying it again to give myself some extra free time. The difference now will be that rather than trying to find things to fill the extra hours, I’ve already got about 20 pages of notes full of stuff to keep me busy for a long time. I’ll post later if I decide to follow through.
Building A House From The Ground Up Part 3
Well, I got my wish and the roof wasn’t on the house when I got home, so I got some pictures of the house in progress. If the pictures aren’t as good, it’s because I took them with my camera phone instead of my big, fat Nikon D50, but I shrink down those pics for the web anyway.
And from the back:
More pictures as the house progresses!
Building A House From The Ground Up Part 2
I went by and took some more pictures of the house today before I go on vacation. They’re still on the first floor but they finished the back and framed the garage. When we get back next week, hopefully it won’t be totally finished so I can get more pictures of the work in progress.
More construction in front.
The garage and my thumb. D’oh!
Building A House From The Ground Up
My wife and I bought a house in January. More specifically, we bought the rights to buy a house that will someday be built. We’ve looked at our lonely foundation in the four months since then:
We’ve watched our neighbors houses get framed in a week or so, while (somewhat) patiently waiting our turn. But something exciting happened on Sunday – they dropped off the lumber in front of our house:
Once the lumber lands, the game is on and you have to be persistent to see it in action. I went back yesterday and the first floor was already framed:
I’ll go by one more time today, but I’m going out of town tomorrow and will be back on Sunday. When I post the next set of pictures, the entire house will probably be framed. But we still have to wait three months until closing. Alas. I’m looking forward to the demise of apartment life.
Your Code is Suboptimal
One of the many blogs I read is written by Eric Sink, principal in the developer tool company SourceGear. He’s a very entertaining writer and his experience as software developer, entrepreneur, Illinoisan, and small-town non-coastal developer, make for a variety of entertaining topics. One of the things that makes SourceGear stand out is the innovative advertising they have done. They did an ad campaign in 2003 for their source control product, Vault, that looked like it was promoting a movie, complete with posters and a video trailer. So I was definitely excited when Eric announced a new, comic-book themed ad campaign, complete with Evil Mastermind t-shirts!Unfortunately, he was giving them out at the SDWest trade show, which I wasn’t going to. Bummer! But Eric and his desire for product promotion wouldn’t die that easily, and he said he’d give away free t-shirts in exchange for publicity and SEO optimization. The deal is: you get a shirt, you post a picture of you wearing it on your blog or flickr, and link back to him. Your attire is a little finer, his product is a little better known, and everyone’s happy. Capiche?
As an adolescent comic book veteran, current developer, and (possible) future customer, I’m happy to say that I cashed in on Eric’s offer. I got my shirt, got out my camera and tripod, and tried to recreate the effect of the t-shirt. To do it perfectly would have taken at least three lights (pink spotlight behind right hand, red backlight behind torso, and a white light in the top front right to create the reflections (not to mention a robot costume (and another photographer instead of a timer (wow, this is a lot of nested parenthesis – looks like Lisp!))) Is this enough? Oh wait, need one more – should have written this in eMacs), but I think mine is acceptable. At least it’s worth the price I paid for it. So without further ado, behold, the Evil Mastermind!!!
The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
Book Review – The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor–and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Harford
Quick Review:Hidden Order meets Freakonomics.A fast-paced set of everyday problems and sensible economic solutions that are explained and repeated in a way that teaches economic principles with novelty instead of pain.
Polyphasic Sleep Experiment Death of Polyphasic Sleep
When I originally decided to do polyphasic sleep, it was because there were too many things I wanted to do and not enough time to do them. Polyphasic sleep was something I could add to my life that would accommodate everything and make room for more. But I ran into something else that conflicted with it and can\’t coexist. No, smart aleck, it\’s not being tired, because that wasn\’t the problem everyone made it out to be. No, I have to give up polyphasic sleep because I\’ve started exercising. I started swimming a couple days ago on Saturday, and again this morning. For the record, I\’m not in good shape, I\’m very overweight, and not an athlete by any means, so this was a big physical challenge for me. I had good workouts both days but recovery took too much out of me to stay awake, even on the best nap schedule.
It was a hard decision, but I decided that my health is more important than my hobbies. I\’m going to continue swimming and doing other exercises, and hopefully when I\’m in better shape (not perfect, but able to workout without being put out of commission for an entire day), I can go back to polyphasic sleep. My goal to restart is about three months from now, after we\’ve moved into our new house. That\’s going to be a big enough disruption to my routine that I wouldn\’t want to deal with while trying to adjust to polyphasic sleep. Of all the advantages Steve Pavlina had over me, this is one I can actually do something about, much easier than changing jobs or working for myself. So for now, polyphasic sleep is on hiatus while I work on improving my conditioning.
The Google Story by David Vise
Book Review – The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time, by David A. Vise
Quick Review: A quick read, a whirlwind tour of the brains and business behind a company that has changed my world and the world around it while I watched. It has an exceptionally positive tone, but that\’s the nature of writing about a company that hasn\’t ever lost a big battle.
Polyphasic Sleep Experiment REBOOT
I can certainly see why Steve Pavlina set aside so much time to dedicate to adjusting to polyphasic sleep, and how his job and life flexibility helped him so much. I was going to try and start full fledged polyphasic sleep Monday, but my mother-in-law got sick and needed to go to the doctor, and it was a stressful couple of days and I didn\’t get to space out my naps. Then because of the day I missed at work, I had to work extra hours, which threw off my schedule even more. I decided to try and preserve my ability to nap even if I couldn\’t afford to go through the adjustment, so I kept taking most of my naps (two on the train, one during lunch, and one at around 9:30pm) and then slept from 1am to 6:30am and got ready for work. I\’ve done this for the last few days and its working ok. I get a few extra hours of sleep and hopefully I\’ll be able to make the adjustment this weekend to full blown polyphasic sleep. I\’m going to try it tonight so I can go swim laps at the YMCA at 5am tomorrow. I\’m going to try taking the 1am nap on the couch, so it\’ll be easier to get up instead of just turning off the alarm for a few more hours 🙂.
Mathematics and Humor by John Paulos
Book Review – Mathematics and Humor, by John Paulos
Quick Review: If you\’re really into philosophy or math, read this book. If not, go for one of the author\’s other books.