Dave Tate on human potential.
While Dave is talking at a CrossFit seminar and is talking about human potential in a sports realm, there’s a lot of stuff (mostly in the first half of the video) where Dave’s talk about human potential is applicable to life in general.
…or it’s just the frosting side of me talking.
I just want to go drive somewhere. It doesn’t matter. I just want to drive.
It’s like a kid a Christmas. You get new toys, you want to play with them. 🙂
A short and sweet article about the “dangers” of working from home and how to fix them. (h/t to… I forget *blush*)
Speaking as someone that’s worked from home for 11+ years, I’ve gained some perspective into the matter. I’d like to add my own input to the author’s 5 points:
1. You don’t feel you are working
The author’s point here is how work life and personal life can blend. True that. To an extent, this is a good thing. You can have a greater flexibility in life, within the constraints the job allows you. For instance, I spent many years working with folks in California, 2 hours behind me. I’m a morning person. These two things together didn’t always allow our schedules to mesh because as I’m winding up my day they’d just be digging into theirs. But I didn’t let THEIR constraints control my life. Instead, I just had to make some accommodations, such as accepting that sometimes I’ll have a meeting that’s very late in the day for me. I also made a point to check my work email in the evenings.
But that said, you really do have to work at keeping work work and personal personal. You cannot let your life become one giant smear of workandpersonallifetogether. It takes discipline and learning to draw lines AND sticking to them. Plus, you have to ensure people at work come to respect those lines. As well, the folks at home also have to respect those lines.
Which brings us to…
2. Your family members won’t understand that you are working
This is simple (but not easy). Draw lines and enforce them. Make sure the lines and rules are clear to everyone, and stick to them. For example, if my door is shut, you don’t come in. If you need me, you knock. Do not expect an answer if I’m in a meeting or perhaps deeply ensconced in a debug session. You must respect it, unless it’s an emergency. Yes, kids will have to be punished if they violate the rules. Spouses too.
But that said, remember that part of the joy of working at home with the family around is that you can be around them. I’ve found that if I’m not truly deeply into something, just flow with the interruptions sometimes. Sometimes the kiddo just wants to show you what they did. It takes 30 seconds of my time (which I probably would have wasted on Facebook or something else), kiddo is happy, I am happy, it’s a win. Don’t shun your family. Just work to manage things. And yes, it will take time, failure, revision, and experimentation to find what works for you.
3. You are slacking off, because your boss is not watching
It’s very easy to slack because you’ll be surrounded by all your favorite things. You have to develop the self-discipline to keep working, because if you don’t, you’re out of a job. Bosses will eventually detect your level of productivity.
Take a little time to blow off steam, break up the day, all that stuff. But you still have to produce. In fact, it’s generally better to work to produce more, because really… you will have fewer distractions than being in the office. You can focus better. You won’t have everyone dropping by your cube. You don’t have a commute. You can be more productive.
And oh, get dressed every day. Just because no one has to look at your or smell you, you should still carry on as if people did. It will affect your psyche.
4. You alienate yourself from work community
This is true. You must work to overcome it. The author goes into the office now and again, but my office is thousands of miles away, so that’s not possible. You must make the extra effort to communicate with folks. IM is good, or maybe set up an IRC channel. Have ways to chat with people. Do pick up the phone now and again, because to hear voices is very warming and personalizing. If you can video chat, even better. Don’t be afraid to start the day with some quick pings to people to just say “hi”. You do have to have some sort of social setup with everyone, else well… you will be overlooked, you will be forgotten, and folks just won’t know much about you. Not always good for the long haul.
5. You work too much
Yup. This goes back to #1. You just have to draw lines and stick to them. Be flexible, but be firm. Don’t check work email in your non-work times. Don’t check messages. Work is work and should be put into that box and kept there. If you do not, everything will smear and work will take over your life. You can’t let it.
It isn’t easy to start working at home. It requires commitment and self-discipline. But I think the benefits are huge, both to myself and to whomever I’m working for. It’s a situation that’s worked well for over a decade for me, and I really can’t see any other way to work.
Working at home isn’t possible for every job. If your job can be done from home, consider it. But as well, know yourself. You just may need the constraints and environment “going to the office” puts on you. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better to know yourself, know your limits, and know your capabilities.
Nicholas Bronkall writes about perseverance and persistence.
Just read it. We all need such a reminder now and again.
I understand why they say “don’t take the box home”, but it bugs me.
Let’s back up.
We’ve been doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden for some time now. We love it. In fact, we love it so much we bought a 1-year long subscription; not just because it meant a discount for us, but because it helped them get up-front money to develop their new 146-acre property. We like JBG, we like supporting them. We want to see them grow and succeed.
A few months ago I commented on an inefficiency in the process. The box is delivered to a drop-off point. We pick it up there. We see everyone bringing cloth bags to take their veggies home. I find this inefficient. From box, to bag, to home storage. If I take the box home, it’s just from box to home storage.
It’s not just number of containers. It takes time to move everything around. So now I’m moving more, and spending more time doing it.
Then there’s the bag. Proper thing is of course to use a cloth reusable bag. But then those get dirty, news stories about them being bacteria breeding grounds. So you now have to wash the bag. That’s going to require more time. Also water, detergent, and that’s just going to create more environmental impact, now isn’t it?
So from my perspective, it makes far more sense to just take the box home.
But by the same token, for this to work, I have to bring the box back. And that I do. I missed one week, but I just brought back 2 boxes the next week. We always bring our boxes back.
Why? They’re expensive! They are thick, sturdy, wax-coated boxes. It’s obvious they are not cheap, it’s obvious they reuse them. I read they use them 10 times or so, and I think I read they cost $2/box. That is expensive and that cost will add up over lots of boxes.
Last week or two, a sticker showed up on the boxes demanding we do not take the boxes home but instead use a bag and follow the above inefficient process. My guess? Lots of people take the boxes, then throw the boxes away. This of course will affect JBG’s bottom line.
They could raise prices, of course. If it’s $2/box, just jack up the cost of every box by $2. But that has a greater impact as well, because the manufacture of all those boxes will have a large environmental impact. Really, reusing the boxes until they can’t be reused is the best option.
So from JBG’s perspective, the best thing THEY can do is tell everyone to not take the boxes home. I understand where they’re coming from. They will have to accept some level of loss, but I reckon the level they’re experiencing is greater than they desire.
That said, I still will take my box home. I will always return it. If I fail for some reason, I’ll reimburse them. Scout’s honor — I’m saying so right here in public and you can hold me to it. The worst I’ll have to endure is the condescending looks I get from other people when I come to pick up my box… but that’s another topic for another time (or you can just go watch the South Park “Smug” episode).
To JBG I say: I hope it’s evident I support you guys. I have voted with my wallet and continue to do so. Know that I am doing what I can to not adversely affect your bottom line, because I know in the end it only comes back to hurt me. I don’t care if the other people picking up their boxes give me condescending looks, because they don’t understand nor obviously care to. I’m trying to do what’s most efficient and right for me, for you, for the environment, however you want to look at it. If there’s something I’m overlooking — and I’m sure I am somewhere — please let me know.
Family iMac has two problems:
1. SuperDrive (DVD drive), you put in a disc, any disc, and it spins up then down, then up then down, lather rinse repeat for a minute, then kicks the disc out. Tried a bunch of low-hanging troubleshooting fruit. Looks like the hardware failed.
2. There’s a spot on the LCD that looks like a wrinkle. It’s certainly not a software issue. When I took it into the Apple Store just now, the guy said he’s seen this before. There’s a power supply right at that point behind the LCD… heat.
The work order? For parts and labor, $615 ($400 of that is the LCD screen).
Cost to me?
$0
But only because I forked over the money for AppleCare when I bought the thing. I don’t recall how much it cost me at the time, but right now AppleCare for an iMac is $169.
I say I came out alright here.
I always get AppleCare. Well, I didn’t used to. Way way way back in the day, Apple’s quality assurance on their hardware was high. If something was going to fail, it’d fail within the base warranty and after that the machine would last until normal moving parts might wear out (e.g. hard drives are always eventually going to fail). But then over the past decade or so, quality has slipped. Many of the Apple hardware products I’ve purchased and worked with have had at least one issue in some regard, and I’ve always been thankful for AppleCare because not only was it covered but the repair was always far more expensive than the AppleCare was.
I generally avoid extended warranties, but never skim on AppleCare. Read into that as you will.
And now… let’s see how well Oldest deals with computer withdrawal while the machine is off being repaired. 🙂
There’s more.
A few days ago I got a call on my mobile. I knew the number was AT&T’s, but I was in the middle of something so I let it go to voice mail. I was in no rush to listen to their message because honestly, I am tired of the whole fiasco and wish to move on. I have other things in life that need to suck up my energy.
Finally listened to it last night.
It was “a message from the office of the President (of AT&T)”. They’re going to issue a $35 adjustment on my account.
Plus this morning I see on Twitter that @ATTCustomerCare tweeted me again to check in on things.
So I’ll say this.
There’s obviously some problems in AT&T’s handling of things. Things are not smooth, there’s communication failure, there’s problems in how their repair system works that, if you think it through, shouldn’t be there and could be handled much better in terms of serving the customer. I shouldn’t have had the poor experience and time-wasting that I went through. I shouldn’t have gotten the constant deluge of mixed and conflicting messages from AT&T representatives. But I did.
That said, most every person I’ve dealt with has come across as sincere and willing to help, understanding of my frustration. When I’ve dealt with a person, they’ve wanted to work to solve the problem that they could within their power and authority to do. So there are organizational matters that AT&T will hopefully address, but personnel issues seem to be alright.
Am I going to switch away from AT&T? I’ve had other fish to fry the past few weeks. I’m still not sure about switching because options like VoIP really aren’t any better. However, I’m going to do the math on everything and see what works out. It’ll just have to wait to bubble back up my priority ladder. It’s really a matter of money at this point.
My kids are all old enough to start carrying some things on their person on a regular basis.
I searched around for topics of “every day carry” (EDC) for kids. There’s not a lot out there. So time to brainstorm.
Updated: I’ve received a lot of traffic due to Unc posting this (thanx!). Due to the feedback received, I wanted to update this post from the feedback. Updates will be marked accordingly.
Some criteria.
It can’t be much. Kids forget things. Kids lose things. Plus, kids are small(er). Thus, they cannot haul around as much weight, nor do they have enough pocket real estate. It needs to fit into pockets, because the boys don’t like wearing belts and the girl’s fashion sense either leads to no belts or non-functional-but-decorative belts. Yes yes, change clothing to suit the lifestyle, but let’s first get them more into the lifestyle.
Small. Light. Essential. Quality stuff, but not too expensive to replace because again, kids will forget/lose things. We must accept they are working to build good habits, and in doing so will fail at times. I don’t want the failure to be too costly to recover from.
And note, this is purely stuff to carry on-person. If we started talking about backpacks (e.g. for school), you can start to carry a lot more such as a small first aid kit, a little food, a water purifier, maybe a space blanket. I’m not going there, tho perhaps Daughter could with her purse. Nor is this about full on “bug-out” types of gear. I’m trying to keep this limited to on-person carry: pockets, and perhaps belt. Every day stuff, every day needs. Focused scope.
So with that in mind, here’s what I can think of:
That’s what I came up with.
Of course I know, this is gear discussion. They need to know how to use the gear. How to handle emergency situations. All those good things. Fret not, that’s all here. I am purely interested right now in a “gear for kids” discussion.
What would you add? Remove? Change?
Updated:Â As you can see, a lot of useful stuff was added.
Realize, this is not a definitive list nor Bible on what to do. You have to do what is right for you and your situation. As well, all of these things? That’s a lot. Can your 8 year old really haul around all those things? Can they remember them all? Not lose them all? Maybe, maybe not; every child is different. You have to pick and choose what’s right for YOU and YOUR child and YOUR situation. This list is mainly here to have some information and discussion on the matter.
Ali McWeeney. Lost the lower part of her left leg (above knee) in a boating accident… at 20 years old.
She refused to give up powerlifting and strongman competition.
(h/t RossTraining)
What’s your excuse?
I’ve had a bunch of links backing up in my queue, things I wanted to post about. Just going to clear them all in one fell swoop. It’s a smorgasbord.
“What’s Behind The Shocking Collapse in Violent Crime” (h/t LowTechCombat)
A look at the most recent FBI crime statistics, and how violent crime is actually dropping in the US — despite what the media portrays. One possible reason they overlook is the growth of firearm ownership and concealed carry by law-abiding citizens.
TxDPS – Winter Storm Preparedness (h/t TxDPS)
A few simple checklists of things to help you prepare for winter storms. Be it supplies worth having in your car, to dealing with the aftermath of a storm, to helping the elderly.
“13 things a man should keep in his car” (h/t ArtOfManliness)
Going with the above winter storm lists, here’s 13 more things that are just good to have in your car all year round. I’ll take odds with #3 – MagLite was a great old standby but flashlight technology has evolved. Look at SureFire or Streamlight (or even Fenix); for a car flashlight I would want it to run on CR123A’s, because those batteries can sit around for years and still maintain power. I’d also look for a model that can either be somehow attached to say a hat brim so you can work hands free (need both hands to change a tire) and/or that can be rested on the ground and used like a lantern/candle to again shine light hands-free.
Read the comments for more suggestions. Certainly a lot of what you keep in your car will depends upon your needs, your particular car, where you are in the world, and how and where you’ll be traveling.
“Top 10 Secret Features in Mac OS X Lion” (h/t maczter)
I still haven’t upgraded all my machines to Lion, at this point mostly from inertia. But I have upgraded one primary dev machine and am growing to like it. Still, it has some quirks and issues, and this is a nice list of things to help make it a bit more manageable.
“Laws over BB gun use could affect your child’s Christmas” (h/t NRANews)
While BB guns technically aren’t guns, they certainly can do some damage. You should still treat them like firearms, using them responsibly, adhering to all proper gun safety rules, and using them as a great way to introduce kids to firearms in a safe and responsible manner. The respect and responsibility starts here.
Stuff From Hsoi 