connections
mentions
events
- 20041230T1000-20041230T1100 Technorati Developer Support IRC chat @ irc.freenode.net#technorati
- 20041230T1800 Scoble Geek Dinner @ Chaat Cafe, San Francisco
- 20041230 XFN Friendly Geek Dinner After-Party @ PhotoMatt's pad, San Francisco
- 20041231T2100-20050101T0200 NYE 2004 @ Sublounge
- 20041231T2359 Technorati Developer's Contest
- 20050228-20050304 W3C Plenary Hyatt Harborside Hotel @ Boston, MA, USA
- 20050519 Star Wars Episode III release
- 20050601-20050603 W3C CSS f2f @ Sophia-Antipolis
books
reviewing
by Carrie Bickner
by Dan Cederholm
People
regulars
news filters
watching
badges
search tantek.com
current projects
recently completed
publications
- XFN Poster co-authored, 20040811
tech-edited, 200407
tech-edited, 200403
sites
- Technorati main site XHTML strict release, 20040915
- Election Watch 2004 v2, 20040830
- Election Watch 2004 v1, 20040726
- Technorati redesign, 20040726
standards
semantics
CSS hacks
Posts
New Years Resolutions
- created
- 20041230T1438
- categories
- personal
- work
- blog
- content
Technorati just launched a 2005 New Year's Resolutions page to aggregate resolutions from the blogosphere. Here are mine:
- Finish more than I start. This is a renewal from last year, due to the fact that I did the opposite this past year, with the exception of XFN 1.1.
- Automate common computer tasks with tools. There's still a lot of things I do on my computer that are either repetitive or take too many steps or both. I used to be really good at optimizing this stuff with code. This year I'll be doing more of that.
- Open source useful tools I've written. I've watched with great admiration the success of open source efforts like WordPress, and many others, and while I've published stuff like Favelets, it's about time for me to figure out how I want to properly open source all that stuff.
- Skate and or bicycle to work at least a few times. Now that I'm regularly taking MUNI to work instead of driving (Yay for transit!), it's time to take it to the next level and use my legs even more, weather permitting.
- Perhaps most importantly, spend more time with the people close to me. This is part of a resolution from two years ago, and it always seems to be a good thing to keep mind.
- Lastly, it's about time I started publishing the various bits of my blog (posts, eventroll, etc.) in their own X(HT)ML microformat feeds (e.g. in XOXO, Atom, various RSS variants, vCard/hCard, iCalendar/hCalendar etc.), so I resolve to to update my homegrown blogging tools to do so.
- Comments
Absence and changes
- created
- 20041230T0405
- categories
- personal
- workl
- web
- content
It's been just over a month and yet it feels like it has been much longer. Many things have happened. On a personal note, mid last month I caught one of the nastier colds I have ever had. Bad enough to make me take my first two sick days from Technorati. As usual, I stopped drinking coffee when I realized I had a cold (coffee always seemed to exacerbate such illnesses for me, perhaps having to with its dehydration effects). The cold lingered long enough that I went for a week without coffee.
At some point (I don't remember exactly when), a switch flipped and I remember thinking, hmm... I wonder what it would feel like to not drink coffee (or any other caffeinated drinks) for a little while longer. Days turned into weeks and it has now been over six weeks. That is by far the longest I've gone without caffeinated beverages for perhaps ten or eleven years. I had forgotten what it felt like, and strangely enough, I started to feel an awareness of my physical self like that of about ten years ago. Other noticeable changes: going to sleep at night became much easier (obvious), getting up in the morning became much easier (interesting).
I started to wake up at 7am completely of my own volition, before any of my alarms would go off. Stranger still, after about four weeks, I somehow regained the ability to stay up late (like now) without the need for caffeine, which I haven't done since college.
More anecdotally observed or at least perceived changes: much much lower frequency of "panicky" feelings and heart-pounding (though some amount of increased exercise has probably helped that too), increased ability to focus, in contrast with decreased tendency to jump at (i.e. be distracted and derailed by) whatever most recent email, phone call, voicemail, IM etc. I may have just received. Perhaps the best way to put it overall is a greatly increased sense of calm, control, and balance.
I haven't decided yet whether to never drink coffee again or to simply allow myself to drink coffee recreationally once in a while. That will take some additional analysis and introspection. For now I'm still marveling at the feeling of getting my self back, and wondering what additional positive changes could be waiting around the corner. And I suppose I'll have to update my LEGOman avatar in the sidebar.
P.S. Yes, it has been a late night. We made some fixes to several improvements in Technorati, specifically the process of blog claiming for members. In addition, upon Derek's excellent suggestion and design, we've prominently featured the American Red Cross on the Technorati home page. I've noticed that folks have observed a few other sites that have prominently featured donations and ways to help cope with the tsunami tragedy.
- Comments