I'm getting a strange error alert message whenever I try to visit the login page on Facebook or login from the home page:
"Error establishing an encrypted connection to login.facebook.com. Error Code: -12188."
Anyone know what this is?
Jun 28, 2007
Jun 27, 2007
My Moleskine
So recently I've taken to... starting blocks of text or speech with the word "so" - probably a bad habit; anyways...
So recently I've taken to using a Moleskine notebook again - first casually, just because I needed some way to keep track of bugs, fixes, and to do lists for the mySQL database manager I'm building (TableSettings) and also for the work I'm doing for BASIK, but then I started to read more about it, and there's a lot of stuff online about how to use Moleskines (or really any notebook, but the Moleskine seems to inspire, oddly enough, both organization and creativity) productively, to help organize your life. So here are a couple of my own Moleskine hacks, as they're called.
The first is using an ink or gel pen that you're comfortable with (my pen of choice: the Pilot G-2, a carryover from my debater days. In fact, I once knew a debater who could write on a moving bus with a Pilot G-2 and have it come out like type.). Not much of hack, but it makes writing in the book so much more pleasurable (as if it wasn't already).
The second is to draw a line across the top of the page, about half an inch down, and use that area to "tag" the content on the page - "TableSettings", "New Site Ideas", "Doodles", etc.
Third, I use small boxes that I fill in to mark off to do lists, instead of just drawing a check next to the item - the solid blocks of ink are much easier visually for me than the lines of a checkmark.
Finally, I'm using a system I found somewhere (I lost it, that's why the word "somewhere" isn't a link to it), wherein you have two durable tabs - one marking the next blank page and one marking the last page that you have stuff you need to do on. This way, everything between the tabs needs your attention (kind of like the inbox in the Getting Things Done system) and everything before the tabs is "archived" (a la Gmail). Finally, I have flimsier Post-It tabs of a different color which I use to "star" (also Gmail-esque) items that I might need to refer to later or are interesting - ideas, interesting drawings, and so on.
Oh, and one more thing - when I'm at a computer, I keep my Moleskine open next to me, to my left (because I'm left-handed). This way I can use the mouse and arrow keys with my right hand, and access my notebook with my left hand.
The entire system works pretty well together, but we'll see if I can keep this up. I think the key to organization is possibly to make it fun to be organized and/or to organize, and this may be it for me.
So recently I've taken to using a Moleskine notebook again - first casually, just because I needed some way to keep track of bugs, fixes, and to do lists for the mySQL database manager I'm building (TableSettings) and also for the work I'm doing for BASIK, but then I started to read more about it, and there's a lot of stuff online about how to use Moleskines (or really any notebook, but the Moleskine seems to inspire, oddly enough, both organization and creativity) productively, to help organize your life. So here are a couple of my own Moleskine hacks, as they're called.
The first is using an ink or gel pen that you're comfortable with (my pen of choice: the Pilot G-2, a carryover from my debater days. In fact, I once knew a debater who could write on a moving bus with a Pilot G-2 and have it come out like type.). Not much of hack, but it makes writing in the book so much more pleasurable (as if it wasn't already).
The second is to draw a line across the top of the page, about half an inch down, and use that area to "tag" the content on the page - "TableSettings", "New Site Ideas", "Doodles", etc.
Third, I use small boxes that I fill in to mark off to do lists, instead of just drawing a check next to the item - the solid blocks of ink are much easier visually for me than the lines of a checkmark.
Finally, I'm using a system I found somewhere (I lost it, that's why the word "somewhere" isn't a link to it), wherein you have two durable tabs - one marking the next blank page and one marking the last page that you have stuff you need to do on. This way, everything between the tabs needs your attention (kind of like the inbox in the Getting Things Done system) and everything before the tabs is "archived" (a la Gmail). Finally, I have flimsier Post-It tabs of a different color which I use to "star" (also Gmail-esque) items that I might need to refer to later or are interesting - ideas, interesting drawings, and so on.
Oh, and one more thing - when I'm at a computer, I keep my Moleskine open next to me, to my left (because I'm left-handed). This way I can use the mouse and arrow keys with my right hand, and access my notebook with my left hand.
The entire system works pretty well together, but we'll see if I can keep this up. I think the key to organization is possibly to make it fun to be organized and/or to organize, and this may be it for me.
Jun 20, 2007
The Dilemma
So it turns out the one of the songs on my "No Words" playlist has words. I guess I never actually listened to the song all the way through before creating the playlist of which (the intro of) this song was an instrumental (pun intended) part.
So now do I take the song off the playlist? Or do I change the playlist's name to "Almost No Words" or something similar?
Leave a comment and let me know (also suggest a name for the playlist if it's the latter). A cookie to the smartest answer (and I'm talking a small file residing impishly on your computer recording your browser session).
So now do I take the song off the playlist? Or do I change the playlist's name to "Almost No Words" or something similar?
Leave a comment and let me know (also suggest a name for the playlist if it's the latter). A cookie to the smartest answer (and I'm talking a small file residing impishly on your computer recording your browser session).
Mar 12, 2007
On Routine
Routine can be, well, monotonous, but it can also be very comforting. Today was the first day back at school after spring break, and I quickly settled into my normal Monday-morning progression.
Wake up, leave the quad, go to the cafe and order my usual mocha with an extra shot of espresso. Today I tried an Odwalla bar (which I've never had before), but that, too, is part of the routine - I typically switch around what I eat.
While routine can be nice, it also brings forward, sometimes painfully, the repetitiveness of everyday life. This routine happens nearly every Monday, but also Wednesdays and Fridays, for weeks and weeks, only broken by events like spring break or a cancelled class (or oversleeping, for that matter). Is that bad? Not necessarily, but in the end, you really have to find something that changes to keep you going. Doing the same things for days and days on end tends not to have a purpose unless you're reaching some finish line, or achieving some goal. End of the semester? Perhaps. Graduating from college? Maybe.
But I like to find smaller things, more specific and detailed aspects of my life that I can progress in. Today I'm going to take notes on my laptop in Sociology (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, right after Computer Science), and I'm going to make them detailed and easy to study from. Today I'm going to finish my computer model in 3D Modeling (Mondays and Wednesdays).
Sometimes it feels like life is made up of the same patterns, over and over and over and over again. But when you look closer, or perhaps when you take a step back and take in the big picture, things change over time, and that's what routine is for - it helps us digest and accommodate the change in a way that improves our lives.
Wake up, leave the quad, go to the cafe and order my usual mocha with an extra shot of espresso. Today I tried an Odwalla bar (which I've never had before), but that, too, is part of the routine - I typically switch around what I eat.
While routine can be nice, it also brings forward, sometimes painfully, the repetitiveness of everyday life. This routine happens nearly every Monday, but also Wednesdays and Fridays, for weeks and weeks, only broken by events like spring break or a cancelled class (or oversleeping, for that matter). Is that bad? Not necessarily, but in the end, you really have to find something that changes to keep you going. Doing the same things for days and days on end tends not to have a purpose unless you're reaching some finish line, or achieving some goal. End of the semester? Perhaps. Graduating from college? Maybe.
But I like to find smaller things, more specific and detailed aspects of my life that I can progress in. Today I'm going to take notes on my laptop in Sociology (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, right after Computer Science), and I'm going to make them detailed and easy to study from. Today I'm going to finish my computer model in 3D Modeling (Mondays and Wednesdays).
Sometimes it feels like life is made up of the same patterns, over and over and over and over again. But when you look closer, or perhaps when you take a step back and take in the big picture, things change over time, and that's what routine is for - it helps us digest and accommodate the change in a way that improves our lives.
Feb 12, 2007
On Footnotes
While reading the book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman recently, I remembered something that has bothered me for quite some time. This is, I wish they would make the little numbers that refer to footnotes just a bit bigger. I always read the page, and then arrive at the end of it, ready to move and then - wait...there's more! But where was it supposed to go? What was this supposed to annotate, add to, or support? Then inevitably comes the long hunt back through every word of the page, looking for the microscopic number to the right of, and a little above, what is often some arbitrary word. By the time I've found it, it's ruined, because I have, of course, already perused the footnote in order to glean some information about what word the corresponding number is attending to, or at least in what section of the page it is hiding.
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