Category: advice

Just Be It. Or what the inclusiveness of marathon running taught me about writing, art and other activities

If you train for a marathon and you run it in a big city, chances are you will be in the same race — not run, but race — as world class runners. You will not win of course, but you will be included. That’s what is great about marathon running: you are as much a marathon runner / racer as someone hoping to be in the Olympics. It is inclusive.

Nike is a company that also supports inclusiveness, not just for running but for athleticism in general. They like to say: “if you have a body, you are an athlete”. It doesn’t get more inclusive than that.

I think such inclusiveness should be seen in the art world. If you create, you are an artist. If you write, you are a writer. If you’re writing poetry, you are a poet. Taking photos: a photographer. Thinking about the meaning of life: a philosopher.

Maybe your art is not going to bring you fame or fortune. Your running might not either. But if you are out there running or cycling or skiing or whatever you do, you are an athlete. The same should be true of writing or painting or photographing: you are an artist. Don’t let others exclude you from the group; don’t let others discourage you and get you to stop doing the thing you want to do. You’re as much a part of it as the people up front. Put on those running shoes, pick up that camera, that pen, that brush, and be the thing you are.

Instacart recipes have a secret ingredient: AI. What cooks should know.

One convenient feature of Instacart is a listing of “Related recipes” it will provide you if you are searching for a product or ingredient. For instance, I was searching for “biscuits” and one of the recipes that appeared to me was no-milk biscuits. Hmmmm, that could be good and simple, I thought. Seemed reasonable too. Then I scrolled down the bottom to the recipe and came across the text: this recipe is powered by the magic of AI.

First off, let me say: AI is not magic. Second, this COULD be a good recipe. Or it could be something where AI hallucinated ingredients or quantities. For this recipe, it is somewhat close to this recipe for dairy free biscuits at allRecipes.com, but it is missing some ingredients and the quantities of some of the ingredients are different. I searched other recipes at other sites, and while it is close to them, it seems…lacking…in comparison.

Simply put: you would be better off getting recipes from either reputable cookbooks or websites where recipes are tested and confirmed. It is convenient to use the recipes in places like Instacart, because you can easily add the ingredients of the recipe to your shopping cart, but the results from the recipes generated by AI could leave you very disappointed. Especially when it comes to baking!

P.S. Not to pick just on Instacart: I suspect we are going to see more and more of this type of AI generated advice on websites. Keep an eye out for it.

If you are using python packages like xmltodict or yaml, here is something to be aware of

If you are using python packages like xmltodict or yaml to write and read your own XML and yaml files, you probably don’t need to know this. But if you are reading someone else’s files, here is something to be aware of.

This week I had to process an XML files in python. No problem, I thought, I’ll use a python package like xmltodict to translate the XML into a dictionary variable. Then I could edit it and print out a new file with the changes. Sounds easy!

Well, first off, it wasn’t too easy: the nesting was horrendous. However, with some help from VS Code, I was able to power through and get the value I want.

Here’s where I got burned. I wanted to change the text in the XML file, so I had a statement like this to read it


mytext = python_dict["graphml"]["graph"]["node"][nodecount]["graph"]["node"][i]["data"]["y:ShapeNode"]["y:NodeLabel"]["#text"]

and then a simple statement like this to change it to lower text:


python_dict["graphml"]["graph"]["node"][nodecount]["graph"]["node"][i]["data"]["y:ShapeNode"]["y:NodeLabel"]["#text"] = mytext.lower()

Very basic.

Now this particular file is an XML file that has a graphml extension, which allows an editor like YED to read it. YED can read the original file, but it turns out xmltodict writes the file in such a way that the YED editor can no longer see the text. I don’t know why.

I spent hours working on it until I finally gave up. I wrote a much dumber program that read through the graphml file a line at a time and changed it the way I wanted to. No fancy packages involved. Dumb but it worked.

This is the second time this year a package has given me problems. In late January I wrote some code to parse yaml files for a client to extract information for them and to produce a report. Again, there is a package to do that: yaml. Which is….good…except when the yaml it is processing it is poorly written. Which this yaml was.

Again, I spent hours linting the yaml and in some cases having to forgo certain files because they were poorly constructed. What should have been easy — read the yaml file, transform it, write a new yaml file — was instead very difficult.

And that’s often the problem with yaml files and XML and JSON files: they are often handcrafted and inconsistent. They MAY be good enough for whatever tool is ingesting them, but not good enough for the packages you want to use to process them.

I think those packages are great if you are making the input files. But if you are processing someone elses, caveat emptor (caveat programmer?).

How often to check your cell phone plan (and other plans too)


We are often reminded to change our smoke detector batteries twice a year by basing it on some calendar event, like the equinox or at the start of certain seasons (e.g. Fall and Spring).

I recommend you do that for your cell phone plans and other plans from service providers you have. Especially with cell phones, you will find that new plans will come out that are better than your current plan, and a call to your provider can save you money and get you better service.

Go through your financial statements and look at all the service fees you are paying. Then pick some times on the calendar and at that time either cancel the service or ask them for better or cheaper service. Over time you’ll save money.

Joan Didion, and why you should write

In the 1970s Joan Didion wrote:

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. – Why I Write (essay originally published in the New York Times Book Review in 1976, here)

I think it is a good reason for all of us to write, regardless of our level of skill. I think I am going to be adopting that more, here and offline. I would hope the same for you, even if it is a matter of making notes in a composition notebook or a scribbler.

Writing as thinking. Not only deep thoughts, or correct thoughts, but thoughts in general.

A great collection of Joan Didion in her own words from the Guardian, here.

How to simply merge PDF files on a Mac for free with no additional software

If you want to merge PDF files on a Mac, you might be tempted to use a tool like www.ilovepdf.com. Worse still, you might try and do it from Adobe’s Acrobat site and end up signing up to pay $200 or more per year for the privilege!

The good news is if you are on a Mac, you don’t need to do any of that.

Instead, open your PDF files using Preview. Make sure your view shows Thumbnails of the pages in each document. Then drag the thumbnail pages of one document into another. Then save the document you added the thumbnails to and you are done.

For example, let’s say you have two PDF files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf. You want all the pages in abc.pdf to be in xyz.pdf. You open them both using Preview, you drag the thumbnails of abc.pdf over to the thumbnail section of xyz.pdf. Then you save xyz.pdf. (You can save abc.pdf as an empty document or quit and have it revert back to how it was.)

If you want to leave abc.pdf and xyz.pdf untouched but merge them into a third document, first copy xyz.pdf and give it a name like abcxyz.pdf. Then open abc and abcxyz.pdf using Preview. Then copy the thumbnails of abc.pdf into abcxyz.pdf and save abcxyz.pdf and quit and do not save abc.pdf. Now you have three files: abc.pdf and xyz.pdf are unchanged and abcxyz.pdf are merged copies of the two of them.

Some thoughts on blog posts vs reels for advice

I spotted this post — Eponis | Sinope (Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to…) — and as usual I thought: I should share this because it contains a few nuggets of good advice and others would find it helpful.

Sadly, though, it reminded me of a reel I have seen in various forms on Instagram. Like many reels, that particular reel was less about passing on good advice and more about gaining attention to the creator of the reel.

That’s the thing I do like about blog posts and I don’t like about reels. You could come across a blog post, get the information you need, and never know or care about the person who made it. When you come across most reels (and I assume tiktoks), you might get information you need, but they seem more about the maker than the advice.

I realize this is a matter of preference and not a matter of right and wrong. I prefer just getting the information, while others prefer knowing the person who is giving the advice. Given how Tiktok and Reels are overtaking user generated content, I am likely on the losing side.

I’ll keep sharing helpful things here: that’s been the purpose of this blog since the late 2000s. I’ll also try to 99%**of the time not make it not about me. 🙂

 

(** did I say 99%? Ok, maybe it’s closer to 90%…😄)

Does your WFH desk / work area need a refresh?


If you are feeling your work from home (WFH) work area needs some new ideas, I think you should check out the following links for inspiration.

For example, this setup was designed to maximize productivity while minimizing your screen time. Also good:  every one of these wfh furniture pieces includes a secret feature to keep your work and life separate. Cool. Cool too are these Panasonic desks: komoru. (More on that panasonic desk, here.)

Need more ideas? Then check out these great  desk setups with minimal designs to increase your work from home productivity.

 

 

 

 

The way to make your Apple Watch more useful is to change your App View

If you want to make your Apple Watch more useful, you want to change your App View. Here’s how.

On your iPhone, find the Watch app icon and click on it. Look for App View and click on it. From here you can change the view to Grid View. (Grid View looks like the watch in the photo above.) Now click on Arrangement.

Once in Arrangement, hold your finger on an icon of something you use often. Drag your finger tip and the icon to the top left. Keep doing that so all the Watch apps you will use the most are on the top rows. Once you have it the way you like it, exit the Watch app.

If you are stuck as to what to put on top, my top apps are:

  1. Stopwatch
  2. Workout
  3. IFTTT
  4. Weather
  5. Text
  6. Phone
  7. Calendar
  8. Heart rate monitor
  9. Activity
  10. Maps

I have a few dozen more Watch apps, but those are the ones I use often.

If you want to see what you can have on your Watch, go back to the Watch app on your phone and scroll down to see what apps are installed on your watch and what ones you can install.

Once you rearrange the Watch apps,  press in the crown on your Watch. You will now see the Watch apps organized the way you want. I bet you start pressing your crown more to access and use the apps you have installed.

The Apple Watch is great. Squeeze more greatness from it by taking advantage of the Watch apps you have.

It’s the weekend. You’ve much to do but you still would like to watch a movie. Got 90 minutes?

Nowadays movies seem to be getting longer….many creeping up to 2.5 hours in length. (Don’t believe me? Check out this.) That’s fine if you have the time to settle into a film, but what if you can’t? What if your weekend is already packed as it is, but you still would like to see something?

If that’s your problem, then Lifehacker has the solution here: the best movies under 90 minutes. The list has everything: classic movies, kids movies, films that are fairly recent….you name it. Even better, it tells you where you can see it.

Highly recommended for your next sit down in front of the big screen at home.

Things to Pack When Heading to the Emergency Room

Here’s a really good list: 11 Things to Pack When Heading to the Emergency Room.

A few thoughts/additions:

  • take your smartphone. Much of this information can be found there. Indeed, you can put much of this information in a central, easy to find place on your phone, so when you are at the hospital and at admittance, you can easily share it with the hospital. Plus you may use your phone to order Ubers, pay for things, update work, etc.
  • take a smartphone charger. Your smartphone is your contact to the outside world. It’s also a reliever of boredom while you wait for treatment. You don’t want it to die on you while you are in a waiting room.
  • take your wallet. Things not on your smartphone are there.
  • take some snacks (e.g. granola bars) and water if you can. You may want to have some sustenance to keep you going if you are waiting for awhile. Don’t assume your trip will be brief or you can find food there.
  • take something to listen to sounds on your phone. It can help you stay calm and relaxed when you are waiting.
  • write down the timeline of events that made you decide to come to the ER. Do this either on your phone or on paper. It will help you when you have to repeat things and you and you are too tired or ill to tell them.

Dead week, week 52, Janus week, the last week of the old before the first week of the new

How to think about week 52, the last week of the old year before the first week of the new year? It’s a good question I’ve been considering since I read this post by Austin Kleon over on his substack: How I’m spending Dead Week. He states:

For years, I have dreaded the weird no man’s land between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Because I set my own hours around here, I never know what I should be doing. Should I be working? Should I rest? Should I do both? I was delighted when Meg sent me Helena Fitzgerald’s piece, “All Hail Dead Week, the Best Week of the Year.” Finally, a term I can use. “Dead Week!”  Fitzgerald says instead of dreading Dead Week, she looks forward to it all year long. She frames Dead Week as a “nothing time” in which nobody really expects that much of you and nothing you do matters that much.

Ha! That’s one way to look at it! I think it especially good if your year has had you burning the candle at both ends….use that week to let the candle burn out! Rest and recuperate, I say. Read some books. Take some baths! Grabs some naps. Let things slide.

I also think of the week as Janus week. As wikipedia explains:

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus  is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius).

That’s how I like to use the week. There’s lots to look back upon and consider during that time. Indeed, it’s hard not to, as media of all kinds publish their Bests of 2023 lists on every topic you can think of. And while it is fine to contemplate the year that past — and I recommend you do —  it’s also a good time to think about what you will do in the new year. So do that too. Like Janus, look backwards and forwards simulataneously.

So while it is a dead week for some, for others like myself it is a transition week where the old goes out and the new comes in and I prepare myself accordingly. Does this mean I am discouraging you from hot baths, trashy TV and Christmas leftovers? Not at all. I think there is room for both in this, the last week of the year.

Enjoy week 52, however you go about it. Your earned some rest, and then some.

How to take the stress out of entertaining over the Christmas holidays

Christmas time is a busy time and a stressful time. If you are having people over for dinner during this holiday season, you can reduce your own stress by taking some tips from House & Garden and serve what they have to offer, here: The easiest dinner party you’ll ever host: seven cold plates to serve this Christmas.

Make those dishes: the food will still be great, and you will have a much more enjoyable time hosting.

Good luck!

Canadian Christmas gift ideas you can use now (or even the rest of the year)

For Canadians who still have some Christmas shopping to do, this list of made in Canada Christmas gift ideas from Chatelaine could be just the thing to help with those left on the gift list.

And hey, unlike the beautiful panettone from Viva pictured above, many of them would make good birthday gifts too. So even if you have all your holiday shopping done, give it a look.

Cleaning is part of a cycle. Complete the cycle (though cycles are never done)

I have come across the idea of completing the cycle when it comes to cleaning and it has made a difference in how I perceive cleaning.

I hate cleaning, but a contributor to that was I didn’t complete the cycle. If I was making a meal, I’d start the cycle by getting out the ingredients, then cook them, then eat them. The end of that cycle is putting the ingredients away and doing the dishes. But I didn’t commit to that, which meant the dishes would pile up. The same was true of other activities: I would stop at the satisfying part of activity (e.g. eating).

Once I committed to completing the cycle, things improved. I recognized that doing any activity meant I had to clean up at the end. Cleaning wasn’t a separate activity: it was part of the overall cycle of the activity.

I thought of this again when I read this piece in VOX on the vicious cycle of never-ending laundry. In it they are so close to getting it. It’s true, laundry is a cycle. They seem to think of it as something you can complete. You can never complete doing laundry, any more than you can complete cleaning your bathroom or complete eating. They are all cycles. The best you can do is complete a cycle of whatever you are doing.

Think of laundry as part of a bigger cycle of caring for your clothes, which is an extension of caring for yourself. There are any number of things you do to care of yourself during the week, from getting good sleep to exercising to…well, washing drying and putting away your clothes. Laundry is all part of that cycle you do every day and week to take care of yourself. It’s part of completing that cycle. Don’t think of it as a separate activity. (Unless you actually love doing laundry. :))

Completing the cycle: a smarter way to clean up and stay clean.

P.S. For more on the “Complete the Cycle” Cleaning Method, read this.

I also thought that this piece in the New York Times has some good advice on  how to clean was good.

Finally, if it is all too much, the Washington Post has an article on how to fake clean your house. Hey, whatever works.

If you are having a difficult time, you need to listen to Michael Caine

If you are struggling with difficulties in life, then you need to listen to what Michael Caine has to say on this. He recalls once when he was acting on stage…

“I opened the door, and I said to the producer who was sitting out in the stalls, ‘Well look, I can’t get in. There’s a chair in my way.’

He said, ‘Well, use the difficulty.’

So I said, ‘What do you mean, use the difficulty?’

He said, ‘Well, if it’s a drama, pick it up and smash it. If it’s a comedy, fall over it.’

This was a line for me for life: Always use the difficulty.”

I think that is great. He followed up by saying, if possible avoid the difficulty! 🙂

You can hear him talk about it, and more,  here.

Remember: USE the difficulty.

It may be time to ditch Evernote. I went with Joplin and it’s been great

Now that Evernote is all but killing their free plan, you may be considering moving. That was me awhile ago. I loved Evernote, but the restrictions and bloated features made me want to move.

I wasn’t sure what to move to, so I did some research. These two links were especially helpful:

I nixed migrating Evernote to OneNote because I use the latter mostly for work notes. And while I use and love SimpleNote, I like it only for specific purposes. I considered Obsidian, but it seemed more than what I wanted.

In the end I went with Joplin for a few reasons:

  1. Joplin made it easy to move my Evernote material into it.
  2. Joplin can run on my Mac, iPhone and iPad for free.
  3. With Joplin my notes are stored on Dropbox, which I like.
  4. Joplin seemed closest in features to Evernote for me.
  5. With Joplin I can use Markdown if I want.

I haven’t had any problems with Joplin since I moved to it many weeks ago. I kept Evernote on my Phone in case of problems, but I have not used it in ages. After I post this, I think it will be time to delete the app from all my platforms.

I was a big fan of Evernote. It was great. But Joplin is great too, and once you start using it, you won’t turn back.

P.S. Don’t just take my word on it. Read those links, too. You might find you want to go with one of those other tools. I use OneNote and SimpleNote all the time and I highly recommend those, too.

If you are going for an eye exam in Ontario, ask some questions before you go


If you are going for an eye exam in Ontario, ask the staff some questions before you go. Otherwise you might get surprised by charges you were not expecting.

As the Toronto Star reported, the Ford government has cut back on OHIP-covered eye services for some seniors. Specifically….

 Free annual eye exams paid for through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan will no longer be available to all seniors…Only those with “eligible medical conditions affecting their eyes such as macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetes” will get a yearly checkup. “Seniors without an eligible medical condition will receive one exam every 18 months,” the government said…As well, seniors will be limited to just two minor followup assessments with an optometrist every year. Currently, there’s no limit on such minor assessments. OHIP coverage of eye exams for people of all ages with cataracts will continue.

Additional charges are not limited to seniors. I was surprised at my last visit: I knew I was going to be charged for the visit, but I did not know that the optometrist was going to do additional tests that drove the cost of the visit to over 300. I am lucky to be covered for that: some Ontarians who have stretched finances might find that hard to deal with.

It’s not just limited to Ontarians, either: provinces like Manitoba and Nova Scotia only insure eye exams every 24 months for all seniors.

The next time you go, ask what it will cost.

(This might be mind boggling to any Americans reading this, I know.)

On bullshit jobs and how to overcome them

Do you feel like your job is socially useless? If so, you may have a bullshit job. As this piece shows, many people feel they work in pointless, meaningless jobs.  Just look at the graph above, taken from the article. People in all sorts of occupations feel like their job is a waste of time. People in office jobs especially so.

What I would like to focus on is the jobs at the bottom of that chart. Many of those jobs center around helping others, be it trainers, librarians, healthcare practitioners, and social service workers. There are also jobs where people make things, be it in construction or engineering and architecture. When you are making something like a building or a road, you know you are doing something useful. Likewise, you know what you are doing is useful if you are helping to educate someone or helping them get healthier. I suspect that is why people in those professions they don’t find their jobs useless.

If you have a job that you feel is useless, see if there are aspects of it that are helpful to someone. Or try and find activities where you make something that others can take and do something with. Or do both. It might feel like you currently don’t do any such things, but if you track what you do in a week or a month, you may find you were doing those things and you just weren’t aware of it.

You can also try and insert more of those activities into your job. Share the things you know with your coworkers. Mentor new people on the job. Create material that others can use to make their own job easier, even if it’s simply a spreadsheet or a Powerpoint template. Look for ways to be useful to others on your job. You may find yourself enjoying your job more in the process of being useful.

Good luck!

 

 

 

On there being two types of freedom

There are two ways to be free:

  1. to be in a higher state of being
  2. to be in a different state of being

The first way of being free requires a continual effort to remain that way. If you do not expend this effort, you will slip back down and no longer be free.

When political people say “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”, they are talking about this type of freedom. It’s also true for people that get into shape, or quit a bad habit, or make improvements in other aspects of their life. Indeed, any type of freedom that has to battle decay and entropy is a type of freedom that needs continual effort.

The second way of being free does not require continual effort. When you graduate from school, quit a job, end a relationship, or move away from someplace, you become free of those things. You have transitioned to a different state of being.

You might argue that some people have to work hard to not go back to that old job, that old relationship, or that old home town. I’d counter that even if one does, they are a different person than when they left and what they return to has changed too Additionally I think most people do not go back. People move on. They move away.

It is easy to get discouraged if you think all forms of freedom require continual effort. Many do, but many do not. Sometimes you just need to push to get to the other side to be free, and once you do, you are free once and for all.

P.S. For more on this, see: It takes a daily effort to be free by Austin Kleon. His piece got me thinking along these lines.

P.S.S. If you think of life as being cyclical, you are likely to see freedom as being something you constantly have to work with. If you see life as linear, you are likely to see it as something you can achieve once and be done.

If you can’t write to your USB drive on your Mac and you want to fix that, read this

If you are reading this, chances are you cannot write to your USB drive on your Mac.

To force a USB drive to be both read and writable, I did the following (note, I had a Kingston drive, so my Mac identified it as KINGSTON and I went with that. If you buy a USB drive that is not from Kingston, you may see something different):

  1. In Finder, go under Applications > Utilities and start Disk Utility
  2. Click on your USB disk on the left (E.g. KINGSTON) and then click on Erase (top right)
  3. You can change the name if you want (I left it at KINGSTON) and make Format: ExFAT
  4. Once you do that, click the Erase button to format the disk
  5. Click on Unmount (top right) to unmount the disk
  6. Open a terminal window (Open Finder. Go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal) Enter the following diskutil list command in the Terminal window and note the results:
    diskutil list
    /dev/disk2 (external, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: FDisk_partition_scheme *62.0 GB disk2
    1: Windows_NTFS KINGSTON 62.0 GB disk2s1

    Note it my case the KINGSTON drive is associated with disk2s1. (you see that on the line “1: Windows_NTFS KINGSTON 62.0 GB disk2s1”. It may be different for you. Regardless, you want the drive name that comes after the 62.0 GB.)
  7. While in the terminal window, make a corresponding directory in the /Volumes area of your machine that has the name of your drive (in my case, KINGSTON)
    sudo mkdir /Volumes/KINGSTON
  8. Also in the terminal window, you can  mount your disk as writable and attach it to the mount point sudo mount -w -t ExFAT /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/KINGSTON

You should now be able to write to your drive as well as read it.

What actually is worth buying at Dollarama? Here’s my two cents.

That’s a good question. I thought about it when I came across this: what’s actually worth buying at Dollarama? Here’s my 2 cents (2 dollars?):

  • Much of the kitchen stuff is acceptable.
  • Cleaning supplies are fine.
  • Gift wrap and such are good.
  • Paper and school supplies are good to very good.
  • Frames are limited but not bad.
  • Candles and such are fine.
  • The tools are so-so. Like the kitchen stuff, it will do in a pinch.
  • Books are rarely good in my opinion.
  • Clothes are not so great.
  • The food is ok. Obviously not a great selection of nutritious food.
  • The computer accessories (e.g. cables) will do.
  • The lighting can be a disaster. I stopped buying it after two bulbs I put in my kid’s rooms blew up.

Other thoughts: some time the items in Dollarama aren’t cheaper, just smaller. That said, it can be cheaper than going to Canadian Tire or IKEA, but ymmv.

Dollaramas are everywhere, it seems. Make the most of them.

You don’t owe anyone anything on social media….

You don’t owe anyone anything on social media.

You can better meet your personal and social responsibilities elsewhere in a manner you think is best. If you think there is something wrong in the world, you can contribute directly either with your time or your money or with whatever resources you see fit. If you need ideas, consider this thing I wrote some time ago.

Social media is a construct of large corporations to capture your free user generated content and feed it into a mechanism that allows them to capture fees (usually ads) from other corporations and organizations. In exchange for that free work, you get an opportunity to read what others are saying gratis, as well as giving others a chance to see and comment on what you are posting, also without cost. That’s it. That’s social media.

If you want to contribute your voice on social media to a cause you feel strongly about, go ahead. I personally believe it doesn’t amount to much, but your mileage might differ. Like I said above, you’d likely be much better off meeting your responsibilities elsewhere.

Social media these days is largely a mess, and it is doubtful it has an overall benefit on the whole. So extract what value you can from it, then leave it alone. You don’t owe anyone anything on social media. Not the people who see your posts, and certainly not the people who run the companies.

 

You should set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on Instagram. And you should use an authenticator app

You might think: no one is going to hack my Instagram account. And you might be right. But here’s the thing: if someone does hack your account, you have next to no chance of getting someone at Instagram to restore it. Rather than make it easy for hackers to take over your account, spam your friends and delete years of photos, you should use 2FA. To do so, read this article: How to Turn on Two-Factor Authentication on Instagram.

While you can use SMS, I recommend using an authenticator app. That article explains how you can do it either way. Authenticator apps are more secure than SMS and are the way to go these days. For more on that, see PCMag.

IBM Cloud tip: use Multifactor authentication (MFA) also called 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) with your account

If you are using IBM Cloud technology, I recommend you consider setting up MFA for your login account. MFA makes your access more secure, and it’s easy to do. To see how easy it is, go here: IBMid – Verifying your identity and configuring MFA. It’s a well laid out description about how to do it.

You can use either a verification app or email to get a verification code. I recommend an app. While email works, it can take several minutes to get the code, while with an app you get a code instantly. As for apps, I use IBM’s verify app, but you can use Google’s and likely Microsoft’s.  They all work fine. Just go to your favorite app store and download one. (Make sure it comes from IBM or Google or Microsoft, not from some developer with a lookalike app.)

 

 

 

 

 

I switched from grocery shopping at Metro (and Loblaws) to Walmart in 2022. In 2023 I am switching to a combination of Walmart and Food Basics. Here’s why.

Last year I did the math and found that I could save around $1500/year if I switched my grocery shopping from Metro / Loblaws to Walmart. I wrote about it here.

This year I have switched from Walmart to Food Basics for some things. So what changed?

First, Walmart’s prices have been rising over the last year, at least in Instacart. The same groceries bought at Walmart in 2022 add up to over $1000 more in 2023. I started noticing the items I have bought went up by 10% or more. Week after week those increases accumulate into that $1000.

Second, Food Basics prices either dropped or were much lower than Walmart’s to begin with and I didn’t notice last year. In almost every category now their prices are lower: beverages, condiments, dairy, snacks, pasta, frozen food, and meat. Only in the deli and produce section can I get better deals at Walmart. It’s close, but not that different.

Third, I think Walmart has changed their pricing policy in Instacart. They now say their prices are higher than in-store prices. Food Basics prices are generally the same as in-store regular retail prices. I think Walmart was that way before.

Walmart has also changed their approach to Instacart in other ways. For many months they have not had any products featured in the Deals section of Instacart. Now they do. Food Basics also has deals.

Because of how Walmart has changed, my shopping via Instacart has changed. Before I would automatically buy my groceries from them. Now I make a list and comparison shop between them and Food Basics. Most of the time Food Basics wins and I buy the bulk of my groceries from them. I still get my deli and produce from Walmart and some specific products Food Basics does not have. And if Walmart has a good deal on something, I will also buy that from them.

At some point I should go back and compare  Loblaws, No Frills, Metro, Food Basics and Walmart to see what has changed, because the grocery business is dynamic and competitive. Who knows: in a year, No Frills could be the leader when it comes to good prices.

For now I am mostly happy shopping at Food Basics and Walmart. In both places the prices are good, and the quality is high. The things I used to buy from Metro at high instore prices in my neighborhood in 2022 are less expensive when I get them via Food Basics on Instacart in 2023, so that’s good. too.

P.S. Here’s my spreadsheet on Google Sheets. You can review my numbers and see if they add up. This is my experience with this. YMMV.

P.S.S. I had to revisit my spreadsheet. At first I had Food Basic saving me $1500 over a year vs Walmart. It’s actually somewhere around $171. Not nothing, but not that much.

 

 

A checklist keeps you grounded and up to date. Do you have one?

If you are like me, you create some form of todo list to structure your work day. But do you also have a checklist?

The first thing I put on my to do list every day is: do my checklist. By doing that, I make sure I don’t forget to do the key things that need to be done every day. This is especially important  when I am overwhelmed with new things. Those few minutes of doing my checklist keeps things on track and prevents work from getting even worse.

The checklist also keeps me grounded. If I am not sure what to do next, I do my checklist. At least I know that is under control and I did the basics.

As for what to put on your checklist, I recommend you put the most important things on top. It often very basic things, like:

  • Review your email and list things to do
  • Review Slack/teams/etc. to see if you have to respond to people
  • etc.

Mostly the actions are: check on X and plan to take action or update Y. 

Don’t forget to put down things that aren’t necessary work things but things that make you more productive. So add things like drink water or take a 5 minute walk or check in on a loved one can help you be at your best every day. Heck if you find yourself missing lunch too often, then add take a lunch break.

So yes, having a todo list is important. But so is a checklist. Get one started. Mine is in an Excel spreadsheet, but use what works best for you.

For more on the importance of checklists, read these things I’ve written on them:

 

 

How cooking and other things can achieve mindfulness benefits


While mindfulness exercises can bring many benefits, benefits you might want, not everyone is cut out to do them. Even people who like them sometimes struggle with mindfulness exercises.

The good news is that other activities can bring similar benefits. This piece argues you should try cooking if you want the benefits of mindfulness. Now some people hate cooking, but read that piece and see if cooking could help you with the sort of thing mindfulness does.

Besides cooking, some people find cleaning helps them clear their brain. I used to find doing woodwork would do it for me. Maybe exercise is the thing that could replace mindfulness for you. Or yoga. Or bowling. Who knows? It all depends on the individual.

If mindfulness activity is working for you, that’s great. If not, don’t despair. There’s many ways to achieve the same benefits. Find the one best for you.

If you have to buy one chef’s knife…

If you have to buy a chef’s knife, then head on over to the Wirecutter and check out their list of the 4 Best Chef’s Knives of 2023. Here’s their recommendations:

  • Mac Mighty MTH-80 – The best chef’s knife
  • Tojiro DP F-808 – An affordable Japanese knife
  • Wüsthof Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook’s Knife – A classic German knife
  • Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8-Inch Chef’s Knife – Sharp and affordable

If you have to buy only one and money is an issue, then go with the Victorinox. It’s not just the Wirecutter: I’ve seen a number of places that recommend it as the best budget knife, like The Food Network.

It’s easy if you have the money to stock up on kitchen knives. They all have different feels, different steel, and of course different blades. But if your options are limited, go with the Victorinox.

Beware the cost of self help apps


As someone who believes in self help, I have been caught off guard with the cost of self help apps. You can see a listing of some of them at this site, Product Hunt, where they have a list of the 15 best gratitude apps for positive thinking in 2023 and which they go on to describe:

We all need time out to focus on our wellbeing. Gratitude apps are designed to help users focus on their mental health, offering a wealth of features that can help track our thoughts and feelings.

While many of these act like self-care apps in that they offer a private space in which to reflect through journaling or mood check-in features, they can also act like a photobook of memories allowing media to be uploaded or even shared to our nearest and dearest.

Not to mention, some utilize community features so you can access global support, or even just talk to a mental health professional. I tested 11 gratitude apps that focus on all these areas to discover the very best.

While this is all very well, and while many of the apps are free to download and get started, once you get going they could cost you $20, $30, $50 or over $100 a year to continue to use. If you get value from them, it may be worth it. Just be aware of how much they could cost you over months or even years.

Some thoughts on using an accomplishment journal at work

Over at LifeHacker they recommend how to stay motivated at work by using an accomplishment journal. It might sound fancy, but a journal is simply a place for writing down what you accomplish in your work day. The accomplishments don’t have to be major ones: some days just getting a handle on your inbox or dealing with a difficult meeting can be an worth journaling.

Accomplishment journals are not new. Athletes have been using something similar for years. No one is better than athetes at setting goals, planning activities, and logging what they’ve been up to. So take your lead from them and start your own.

This doesn’t have to be solely for work. You can have journals for home improvement projects or personal improvement projects.

By the way, another benefit of an accomplishment journal? It can help you later when you have performance reviews and it can help you when you want to update your resume. Just go to the journal and you have all the material you need to proceed.

Good luck!

On the benefits of diaries, journals and notebooks


We’ve all have or had diaries and journals at some point. Sometimes they’re just a few abandoned pages: other times they are volumes of notes and information. If you are like me, you are in the former group, even though I’d like to be in the latter (no doubt smaller) group.

One person I know who is the group I am not is Austin Kleon. He has written extensively about them, and he creates several of them throughout a year (the photo above is of his collection). If you read him, you see he has a number of reasons to write them: to help him pay attention to his life, to give him something to write about later, and more.

Now if you are someone special like Paul Klee, then maybe someone will put them all online for others to study them (see here). Or if you are living in historic times, like the composers of these thousands of desperate vivid diaries from occupied europe, then historians may gather them and hold them in a special place like the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. (That might happen to anything you write, especially if you kept one during the pandemic. Decades from now people will be curious to know what life was like during lockdowns.)

Regardless of what happens to your diaries, it is beneficial to record your life, as I argued here. The only beneficiary later may only be you, but that’s enough. If anyone else benefits from it, that’s a bonus.

 

Reliability is a key quality in a better life. You need more of it.


Last week I had a really good work day and when it was done, I was satisfied and happy with how it went. The key to everything going well that day hinged on one thing: reliability. During that day:

  • I could rely on myself to get the work done because I had done it before and knew what it took to do it in terms of time and other resources
  • The resources I needed to work with were also reliable: nothing was breaking down or old or flaky. I had time. I could focus on the task at hand.
  • I could also focus because my work environment was also reliable. I had no interruptions. I had no need to make changes to my work area or the area around me. I had the supplies and access I needed.
  • Additionally the people I was working with were reliable. If I needed anything, I could ask them for help and they would provide it.

If you are struggling to have productive days like that, ask yourself: is a lack of reliability contributing to the problem? If so, make it part of your solution to increase the thing you lack ASAP. And it’s not just a matter of being productive: being able to rely on the people and things and events in your life leads to be a better life generally. So dump those people you can’t depend upon. Trash those broken down tools you use. Find a better environment you can be certain of. Reliability and quality go hand and hand. Get more of both in your life. You’ll end up being more reliable for others as a result. The benefits ripple outwards.

Cleaning is a form of care, both for other things and for you

There are many ways to think of cleaning. You can think of it as a chore, a burden, or a responsibility. Most of the ways I think about cleaning are negative.

So I was happy to read and reread this: Cleaning as Self-Care from the site zen habits. It focus on how cleaning can be a form of self-care. By “cleaning, organizing, declutttering” what is around you, you are taking care of your life. Of yourself. The act of cleaning is the act of caring.

The act of caring does not stop with you. What you clean shows what you care for. By washing your favorite clothes, by decluttering your closets, or by organizing your desk, you are showing that you care about those things. Likewise for things you do not clean.

The next time you are cleaning, notice how you feel while cleaning something you love and then notice how you feel when you have to clean something you are indifferent too or dislike. Considering getting rid of the things you have negative feelings towards cleaning. And if you can’t get rid of them, perhaps you can work on changing something so you do care for them and you do have positive feelings about cleaning them.

Cleaning requires effort, and effort can lead to you feeling badly. Changing your perspective on it can result in you feel positive and caring. Give it a try.

Some thoughts on being sufficient

It’s an easy thing to make yourself feel insufficient: simply pick a task that is beyond your reach. It can be a nearly impossible physical task, like running a long distance. Or a mental task, like memorizing a long work of fiction. Or it can be a social task, like having plenty of fans and friends. Regardless, it can be something you can be guaranteed to fall short of achieving in the attempt.

(You might exclaim: who’d do something like that to themselves? But people do something similar to that all the time.)

The hard thing is to make yourself feel sufficient. To look past your failings and limits and judge yourself worthy. It requires knowing yourself. Knowing what is required of you. Knowing that even if you can’t do everything or even many things, you still can do some things, and that those things are enough. Those things are sufficient. Just like you are sufficient.

Art direction! Art inspiration! And other art links

 

Austin Kleon explains how you can find energy in the gap pictured above. I like the idea of using the gap for your benefit.

I’ve been interested in drawing with ink lately, so here’s some good links on how to ink a drawing and how to make pen and ink drawings here. Two good videos on drawing with ink are here:  Draw with ink and Also draw with ink.

This may be  one of the best guides I have ever come across regarding thumbnail sketching from an instructor at RISD.

I’m a big fan of the artist who draws the Metropolitan Diary drawings, so I enjoyed this piece on what the Metropolitan Diary taught its illustrator about New York.

Here’s a clip I saved of  Peter Falk from Wings of Desire when he talks about the and the happiness with the simple things in life, like drawing. Speaking of Falk, here’s a story on his own art work, here.

I’ve always been inspired by Jim Jarmusch’s Collages and wished I did more. So I was happy when I found this piece on collage art ideas. Really good stuff.

I have always found these Scribbled Portraits of Brooding Figures by Adam Riches inspiring. It reminds me of some of the great drawings my brother Ed used to do.

More links: If you want to take up drawing cartoons; if you want to learn how to Draw a Self-Portrait; if you need more advice on how to draw, How to Draw in Six Steps;  here’s a quick beginner’s guide to drawing.

Finally, here’s some good things to consider:

Advice for all you frustrated artists out there (including me)


Sometimes you can get so hung up about making art you don’t make anything at all. This could be due to several reasons. For example, if you are worried about your style, read this. If you are frozen because you wonder if you are you good enough to be an artist, go here. You can also read this: how to boldly pursue your artistic calling even if youre riddled with self doubt. If you wonder if your art is good enough to sell, click this. For an example, see how this artist  sells art on etsy.

If you think you are no good, get over yourself and read:  7 sins of beginner artists what keeps you from being good and 21 days to be a better artist. If you think you have no skill, head over to this: create art without skill and this: you can draw and probably better than i can. If you think you need to go to art school, read: don’t go to art school. If you think you are too old: why it’s never too late to become an artist. If you need some prompts, go here: Some good prompts from Inktober.

If nothing else, make yourself a zine. Here’s advice on making a zine, on how to fold a zine, and how to make a one page zine. Here’s some zine advice and more zine goodness is there.

 

How to find your purpose in life

The folks at Vox have a good guide on how to find your purpose in life. According to them, your purpose…

  • is a long-term calling, act, or way of life that interests you
  • something you have some competence in
  • makes a marginal difference in the world

For some people, their purpose is obvious. Their work is their purpose. Or their role as a parent or sibling gives them purpose. Some gain purpose from acts of kindness. Others get it from creative tasks.

If you want some guidance on discovering your purpose, I recommend this: What do I do with my life? Here’s a non-stressful approach to finding your purpose. – Vox