The Winter of Consistency

I’m a big follower of CGPGrey, which should be obvious if you compare our style of videos (I’m searching to find what makes my voice different, I promise).

The most recent episode of his podcast Cortex talks about “themes” for the year, which made something click in my head:

I’ve been looking for this and didn’t know that I needed it.

I’m going for a season (vague as it is) rather than a year because a year is a long time to go.

I’m going for the Winter of Consistency.

My problem is I’m far too likely to be lazy or tired or something, causing me to fall behind and feel bad, which starts a feedback loop that causes a lot of damage.

So, I’m taking three ideas that I’ve had in mind and making them concrete. These aren’t just personal things: this is going to have an effect on you if you’re reading this, even if the effects are indirect. It may not show up right away, but it’ll be there eventually.

Where I’m looking for consistency:

1) Health. My main goal is just to get enough steps every day. If I get that, I’ll consider it done. This will have an indirect effect, since hopefully better health will correspond to more energy, which is help I’ll need when I get to #3.
2) Reading. The more I read, the more ideas I have in my head that I can combine in ways to make something worth writing about. I’m trying to do more than just scrolling through Reddit and Twitter. I already get a lot of information from podcasts and audiobooks, but more reading with my eyes rather than ears can be a good thing. The goal is an hour a day, either books or articles pulled out specifically for research purposes.
3) Working. The biggest problem is that I just don’t spend enough time doing focused work. I can have all the ideas in the world, but they’re worthless if I don’t spend time executing on the idea. All I’m looking for is at least an hour a day actively moving a project forward; usually that will be writing, but it can be many different things, so long as I’m closer to completion at the end than I was at the beginning.

So, help me be accountable for this. I’m looking to do this every day - not the end of the world if I miss one, but I’m going to make every reasonable effort to do so. Turning these vague ideas of what I should be doing into habits, hopefully to turn what would otherwise be lazy or useless days into at least something. There may not be an immediate increase in output, but the point is just to get going.

You have to start somewhere.

Why boring tech is good tech: Video and notes

So, some miscellaneous notes:

• Yes, I do conflate "cell phone" and "smartphone" a bit with the Pew research study (http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/) - it's simplifying things a bit, but given that a lot of the functions people were asked about are thought about as smartphone functions in the US (such as payments) and that this is about the general trend, I stand by glossing over some details there. 
• This video actually started as an attempt to review the Dell P2715Q monitor, which is not mentioned at all in the video, or even the idea of a 4k monitor. 
• Other things that used to be prominent in the video that are no longer there: Cisco, Adobe Creative Suite, and my history of owning smartphones. It's amazing how much the story you're trying to tell changes as you work on it. 
• I'm more than aware that the table of phones image is a little out of date - there's only so much you can do with Creative Commons images sometimes
• No, I wasn't going out of my way to use the Baby Steve Jobs picture again, but I can't possibly turn down that opportunity. 
• On a related note, I may find more reason to use the hobby horse - I'm happier with that than I should be, and I'm pretty sure no one else will care. 

Why programming isn't for everyone (especially me): Video and notes

Notes:

• You can tell that I have the script and audio done by the time I start the animation itself - I never would have called animation "Difficult if enjoyable" if I actually was in the middle of the process when I wrote it. 
• I may have made this because I have spent so much of my life trying to explain to people why I'm not a developer - it seems like a natural fit for me, but just does not work at all, but I couldn't really explain why until I started writing this video.
• This took far longer than it needed to. I had basically all the animation done first week of June, but then medical issues put me out of commission for a week, and I spent another several weeks recovering/getting back up to speed. It's just so easy to be lazy, and getting back on the horse is ridiculously difficult for me. 

Let's Play Donkey Kong Country Part 17: Monarchical Demotion

Notes:

• I'm not sure there's anything to add. Said a lot at the end of the video. Not sure what the next game's going to be, or if I know by the time this goes up, then... well, just wait and see. 

Let's Play Donkey Kong Country Part 16: Yet another "Not Again"

Notes:

• Yet again with the armadillos - it was in the second level, first video. Really bad sign. 
• I cut out more deaths and faffing about than I knew what to do with. This video was short because it was just a couple of levels, and there was just a lot of nothing that happened in the course of trying to finish the last level. 

Let's Play Donkey Kong Country Part 15: No Way Out But Through

Notes:

• The issue with the armadillos was in the second level of the game. It's not the most incompetent I was on this playthrough, but it's really bad for so early in the game

Let's Play Donkey Kong Country Part 14: The Unhelpful Tire

Notes:

• To really pull back the curtain, I'm not entirely happy about the way the audio came out here on my commentary. I was experimenting with dynamic processing to create a noise gate to try and see if I could make the audio editing process not take so long, and... while it would do that, it needs some fine tuning to avoid some small issues with the audio here and there (I was a little too aggressive with it, leaving some words awkwardly cut off, and going back and spending yet another 45 minutes fixing it isn't at all appealing).