What are the boundaries of awareness?

More specifically what are the boundaries of your awareness? You may think "That's rather obvious, it is whatever I am aware of."-Which is true. But if you ever considered adjusting those boundaries, playing with them?… Not put drugs, but by asking simple, straightforward questions. To see where your limits are and perhaps expand the horizons.

Take a moment right now to consider where your boundaries are as far as your sense of reality goes. If you are living in an apartment, can you hear the sounds in the hallway? What parts of our daily lives to be habitually blank out. They could be most interesting and informative if we didn't use the autopilot of routines which so many of us have during the weekdays or weekends.

Here's a challenge: Go through today and deliberately find the boundaries to your awareness and if possible push them a little. Just knowing that you have that extra flexibility might open up quite a bit of insight to deal with different things.

People that undertake meditation are familiar with this technique. However if you're just meditating casually it may not have occurred to you just how powerful adjusting your awareness can be. One of the things I've discovered personally is that I am fully in control of every second of the day and can interpret each moment individually. If I don't like something and I cannot change it physically I always can change my relationship psychologically.

The other night at dinner, one of the tenants in my building (I live in an assisted living environment and all the tenants eat together in the dining room) became very angry because someone was singing. This person just could not let go of their anger. I wondered "Why? Didn't they alter their interpretation of the environment. "It dawned on me that they were not "aware" of their own awareness, they were just reacting, presumably to what they considered to be a fixed perception. They could not be unaware of the singing. I found and still find the whole event mind-boggling to some extent. I began to wonder is there a way to teach them about awareness and sensitivity such that they see that both things are flexible and under their control. This may be a project in the making.

Part of the issue might be that society doesn't pay attention in the same way that it used to. With everything being so automatic and relatively quick to obtain. People are getting a little rusty when it comes to looking below the surface. Consider this little article then a polishing up for your awareness. A little bit of exercise, which I hope will brighten your day. Make your world a little bigger and increased your joy level considerably.

Take care Patrick

Where does motivation come from?

 

What are the origins of motivation or the lack thereof?

These are tricky questions to answer, because of course there are so many components, but there are a few central elements.

In its most basic form, motivation is a reaction to our environment. To change from one state to another. If you're hungry you are motivated to change your situation. This type of basic action has with it however some limitations and problems.

1. It tends to be only reactionary. Focusing on the immediate situation and not necessarily good in the long run.
   
   
2. If we don't pay attention to these reactionary impulses they can become habits which may not have our best interest at heart.
   
   
3. By definition therefore, they involve little thinking or awareness. They may get you out of the way of the oncoming truck, but they don't help you deal with why you decided to walk out into the middle-of-the-road in the first place.

What you want is motivation combined with thought. The best way to start exploring that part of the topic is: The next time you are motivated to do anything especially if it's on the spur of the moment, consider what is happening in your environment. By doing that you can understand the drivers of your actions and that will help you avoid impulsive actions and at the same time answer the age-old question of "How do I stay motivated?".

The other aspect to consider about getting the best out of motivation is "Are you trying to get motivated about a activity that you are not interested in?" 

 Many people fall into that little trap especially when their undertaking a physical or mental tasks which they promised to do. It is quite it difficult thing to get excited about something you're not excited about in the first place. So stop hitting yourself over the head. Focus instead, if you are caught in a situation like this, on what it'll feel like to get that finally done. That frequently frees up a lot of mental resources because you are now addressing the situation honestly. Again this will also help you to increase your awareness of what does motivate you.

When I was in my 20s for some unfathomable reason there was a big push in the disability community for everyone to learn computerized accounting. It became almost like a mantra. I remember sitting face-to-face with an Apple II and the green phosphor screen looking at "Lotus 1-2-3" and thinking "yuck!". Fortunately in those relatively early days of computing you had to know a fair bit just to get the thing to run. So I found myself doing the work I had to do but also wondering how the heck does the spreadsheet work?  All of a sudden the spreadsheet became interesting and I was motivated to use it. Not because it was the spreadsheet but because I had inadvertently began my journey down programming. It's kind of mind blowing to think that because of something so dull a major component of my future career took off.

So it really does pay to pay attention to the details of your motivation or lack thereof. Once you do that you will answer the ultimate question of "How do I stay motivated?" better than you could ever imagine. The experience you gain by paying attention to the details of motivation instead of being just reactionary are immense. Often they will give you different avenues to go down. From there who knows what adventures await.

So stay motivated by understanding your motivations and when necessary if they are telling you to do something else pay attention to that. I have found that there is a lot more detail to life and the personality of each of us then we give ourselves credit for. :-)

Take care Patrick

Mind-body relationship: "Who's Driving the Car?"

 

I'm not sure right away where this train of thought is going to go, but it has to do with aging and the changing relationship with the body. It's not body image in this case it's a lot more intimate than that. (Since this is a meandering thought as a try to nail it down in my own head please feel free to correct anything about this article.) Maybe the best way to start is to ask a question of anyone reading this especially if you been around for a few years on good old planet Earth.

Do you find certain parts of your body, perhaps your arms or legs disassociating from your mind a little bit? What used to be completely automatic and you never even thought about the fact that you just raised your arm to reach a can of peaches, is now something that not only you are much more conscious of because let's say got a little bit of arthritis but the connection between your mind and your arm does not feel as secure  or fluid. Especially if whatever you're doing involves a little bit of straining, a little bit of pushing a boundary physically.

Does any of the above sound familiar? It is something of dealing with on a daily basis nowadays and it really has me pondering how to move through the rest of my life. I have lots of physical support in the facility I live in, but I find myself second-guessing whether or not I should undertake certain physical challenges. For example:

For months now I've been considering getting a 3D printer and the logistics of where to put it aside, I find myself asking "Can I safely remove the 3D object off the plate once it is finished?... Can I physically threatened the filament through the printing nozzle?" If you're not familiar with 3D printers they can get rather hot and at this stage there's a lot of physical fiddling that needs to be done.

I guess what it boils down to is: That certainty that I used to have about what I could and could not do is not currently there. It's all rather tentative.

What started me on this train of thought was I'm fixing a computer for friend and getting a simple memory stick back into the machine was more than a challenge. I was actually fighting little spasms and there was that disconnect. That feeling of "Who's driving this car?" At one point I almost hit the computer over because his spasms sort of jumped out of nowhere. But that statement isn't exactly accurate..... To give you a bit of background: I have Cerebral Palsy which is a condition in which one's muscles are somewhat tense all the time and motor control can be a little tentative, shall we say. So small spasms are not uncommon but I have found, if I really examine what was going on just before the spasm more often than not there is a psychological component. Perhaps a surprise, or a little bit of fear. Whatever the particular cause having Cerebral Palsy is a little like being a live biofeedback machine. What others may miss from the subconscious people like me get a physical response sometimes. Of course this can become a psychological loop which can feed in on itself. So this can be a bit of a predicament. Although the condition has probably gifted me with great insight and better internal world. I guess that also has to do with one's early upbringing.

So this whole aging and relationship with oneself topic really is weighing on my mind today. By the way I have just discovered that the memory stick in the computer I was repairing for my friend is bad so I have to take the darn thing out again. And then order a new part. So mother nature sounds like she's going to have me revisit this topic again down the road either with this computer or with some other physical situation.

The adventure continues! Stay tuned and take care,
Patrick

Nurturing the Creative Soul

  Truly creative people are indeed a gift to the human race. 

Think of all the beautiful things and unbelievable ideas that have come down through the centuries.

These, artisans and creative thinkers should never be taken for granted however. The people that I've met that fall into this category share a few things in common, which must be acknowledged and paid attention to by the world.

1. Because they go outside of the normal everyday thinking, they are often considered "quirky or eccentric". That's because from a normal perspective they are, and more importantly I think they need to be. It is the very characteristic that helps them to be so creative in the first place. Don't ask them to conform to normal. Rather enjoyed their difference and learn from them.
   
   
2. Their life is likely to be more complicated, as they try to figure out who they are. They may come at things from a very different perspective. This "figuring out" stage may last a long time or perhaps an entire life. Again they are exploring. Give them the room to do that.There may not be as socially acceptable role model for them. They may have to blaze a new trail and create a model for themselves.
   
   

   

   Image generated by Ideogram AI.
   I had to post this 😀. It resulted from simply
   inputting he first paragraph of this article.
   Quite amazing! **  (See end of article note.)

   
   
3. They may not be politically correct (and honestly this is a trait I admire). They may say things directly or point out things that are are uncomfortable. Why?… Because they see things in a different and often broader perspective. They themselves are feeling the pressure of society asking them to be normal. They are willing to rock the boat, both politically and socially.
   
   
4. They may seem abrupt, or outwardly not care about things that the rest of us do. To some extent depending on what you're talking about this may be true but it is also likely that it is just not part of their focus. One of the things that makes a creative soul so great is they are incredibly passionate about what they do and that can mean that anything outside of that realm falls off in relevance quite quickly. For example a friend of mine who is an absolute networking and computer technology genius, but has a very limited range of interests outside of their field. Not because of underexposure but rather because they sincerely don't see the relevance to them. They will deal with other things outside of their realm when they need to but such appearances will be brief and they will hand off whatever the issue is once it is fixed to someone more acquainted with whatever the topic is.
   
   
5. Especially now days, when there is so much going on and so much feedback from everything. Creative souls may need to pull back and spend time alone or doing exclusively what they like to do. Consider this a mandatory recharge cycle, except that it may not happen on a regular basis. When you see this happen to your dear smart friend take it is a signal to pull back a bit and give them some room. Let them know that it's okay for them to do whatever they need to do.
   
   
6. There is a tendency for creative souls to get overextended. That is because they see so much, understand so much, and up helping out everywhere. Or at least can feel like that to them. They can be a prime candidate for burnout, because they really to care about what matters to them. They feel a responsibility to see things through. So they have a habit of not stopping and resting when they should. (I speak from experience.)
    
7. They may change. The very thing that makes them unique may also mean that at some point in their lives they may turn a corner and entirely embraced something new. "Standardization" is not in the vocabulary. Remember, you may love them because they are "out there", but be prepared for that definition to change. If they are a musician for example they may abruptly all of a sudden one day decides to take up pottery and put down music forever as an activity. They frequently are explorers and this is just part of their life.

Now to be clear. -- I am not saying that creative souls should be able to act or do anything absolutely they want. If you see someone who's obviously in trouble or avoiding issues they need to deal with then obviously have a talk with them. But also understand their issues may be complicated and take some time to work out.

Finally, while there are no absolutes or hard guidelines here. The rest of us need to embrace the differences the creative souls portray, because discovery is often the result of being unique. The world will always need this and so will you manage. If you have a quirky creative friend in your life count yourself lucky. Appreciate them now, and don't take them for granted.

Take care Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" displayed midway through this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Today's Challenge, getting the most out of negative things...

 

Today's challenge: Getting the most out of the things you hate to do, but have too do. 

The short answer is: Start Small. by that I mean find something that you only have a minor dislike to doing and then line that up with things you like to do in a list. Don't make the list too long, make sure it's manageable. Then begin going down the list accomplishing whatever the tasks are, but start with the task you dislike to do, and as you move on to the next task see it as a bit of a reward.

I eat my dinner's this way, if there is something on my plate that I'm not thrilled about that is the very thing I start with. This little routine has an automatic built in reward system because you have inherently something to look forward to. Do this enough times and it will become a routine. You may even find yourself looking for the classic "negative task" to put at the beginning of lists just so you can get it done and get your own little award. It sounds simplistic and kind of crazy but this kind of subtle behaviour change really does have a payoff. In short you get the crap out of the way 👍. And of course over time you can build upon the idea to get harder and harder feats accomplished. That's one thing I like about the human brain, there's part of it that is a reward junkie and it doesn't care how it gets it. It doesn't rationalize it just reacts and you can use that little human quirk to your advantage.

If there is a task that is just too negative or too overwhelming take a small, part of it something that you can manage and put it in the list. Regardless of what it is or how small it is when you successfully complete the portion of the task that you'd set out to,do, give yourself a pat on the back.

The other thing I am learning at 63 years old is don't burn yourself out. When you find your physical or mental limit, acknowledge it and take a break and by break.  I don't mean five minutes I mean something substantial. For example I normally work until 4:30 or 5 PM. Well, by 3 o'clock today I was getting pretty low on the battery level and by 4 o'clock I was done. A few years ago I would've pushed on through, but today I thought "No". I touch base with my boss and they said "No problem, we will see you in the morning." Just hearing that was an instantaneous relief. Then I realize that part of my exhaustion was me not giving myself permission. When my boss uttered those words I physiologically got the hint and relaxed. The next time I feel tired, I will speak up. There is no point in going beyond the limit when there is nothing to be gained by it. My work can be fairly technical and it really only does work out when my brain is fully alive.

So realize where you're pushing yourself too hard and give yourself that break. This is the only life you have as far as we know. Regardless of your beliefs the only thing you know for sure is, we only have the "now" to work with. Maybe there is an afterlife but that's down the road.

This by the way has nothing to do with pushing your own boundaries, enlarging your world, that is something you should always endeavour to do. Challenge and a little bit of difficulty in life is critical    when carried on in a balanced way. The key word here is balanced.

I will write more tomorrow at some point, and I plan to write much longer in-depth articles on the weekends as time permits. (See I'm listening to my own article by not overextending my brain.)

Stay tuned for more tomorrow. At this point I have no idea what I'm going to write. So both you and I will find out essentially at the same time.

Take care Patrick

There simply must be a better way to set up smart devices.

Photo by Jernej Furman on Flickr
Creative Commons CC BY 2.0  license

Like everybody else who even touches technology I have many accounts with a fair number of companies just so that all my smart devices work. I get worried though, most of the time, when I investigate the following two things:

1. Terms of service and privacy. Why the heck would a smart power plug need access to so much in my device? Some of this is really concerning because it becomes apparent that there doing something with all that data and for me this is a dealbreaker. When a product requires so much material that is unrelated to its operation a red flag really goes up
   
   
2.  Incredibly poorly written apps and overall design. I was just helping a friend and the majority of the apps interface is bright white with small bright green lettering. It doesn't even look aesthetically good, mainly because you can barely see anything.

Taken together if the company hits on the above two points, I run away had full speed because in my book it also means that the likelihood of them being around in five years is dubious. Making the very nice power bar into a "dumb" power bar with the added complication of the fact that it still transmits its Wi-Fi signal.

Pardon me but I just had the vent.

 All my friend wants to do is have a timer to turn off and on the charging on their backup electric chair. With critical equipment you don't want to leave it on charge all the time because some batteries will deteriorate even if it's a small amount of continuous charge and by the same token you don't want to leave them unplugged for too long either. Ideally you want your chair to be ready to go when you need it. 

But set ups like this are just ridiculous. And as I said I am not impressed with the app itself. It just looks janky. It will work but I expect better from companies.

Take care Patrick

Why do people tend to desire the "old days"?

I have the oddest urge to find an old school electric typewriter and just write. (I'm not masochistic enough to desire a true manual typewriter😀)

This urge just popped out of nowhere, I'm actually getting ready for work/volunteering. We will see where this blog entry of mine goes… In the next day. You will be seeing the complete entry as I'm currently writing this as a draft. But this is how I often come up with ideas. I write down a quick note. Using whatever means it's necessary.

… It's the next day and this is the first time I've had a moment to return to this article…

One of the reasons I think the reasons we look back to the old days is that it is something understandable, we knew how it fits into the fabric of our lives back then and we knew what it meant. This is an understandable reaction to the modern day when everything is kind of scattered about. I don't know about you, but I deal with a lot of interruptions and minor detours throughout my day. Sometimes I feel like the information centre for my building especially when it comes to fixing things. But even the average person has kind of the scattered lifestyle it seems unless there one of the very lucky this profession or discipline allows them to cloister themselves away… The luxury of that thought has me momentarily jealous.

Anyway in modern society we have become accustomed to taking on too much and as a result too much is expected of us overall. How many of you have at the experience of someone being furious that you didn't answer their email right away. So the simplest solution is to either pare down the number of for lack of a better word "connections" you are currently hooked up to or if that is not an option segmenting them into certain days whenever possible. A friend of mine has a very good rule: "They do not do any work on Saturday at all. They won't even talk about it." This simple and direct change makes them ingenious in my book. Because it sets not only a boundary but it sets up an anticipation that on Saturday this person is just not available and that in turn sets an example.

So what do you think is that something you could apply in your life? Even to a small degree? You might start something if you do, and that something might turn out to be awfully good for everyone. Again it's making things simpler, just like we thought the old days were. Which I kind of doubt if we were actually back there in time.

Take care Patrick

To Perceive, Unseen Personal Challenges

 

I am not so sure the old saying "Walk a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes", meaning to (if taken literally) for a short time live with someone else's life to gain their perspective is such a good idea. For the reason that I think the human race overall has underestimated just how uniquely personal and different each person's life is. Personally I don't think reality itself is uniform across people. There are just too many ways for the brain to wire and I think that's where the above statement falls very short.

What would you do if you could for a while take up residence in someone else's mind. Would their reality be shocking to you? Would you no longer be your self, but rather a product of the new mind...

This idea, underpins the philosophy that we should not assume anything when we meet someone new, but rather be as open as possible. In doing so we may find boundaries and limits within ourselves which we had previously not knowing needed addressing.… It is yet another opportunity to learn.

This whole train of thought came about when I was talking to a friend downstairs who deals with the great amount of physical pain every day. It is part of their condition and even though they are on very strong medication it is evident this is something they face alone and something that is very unique to them and their experience. But we can in contemplating their situation find boundaries within ourselves and to grow beyond them when necessary.

I suspect billions of people have those "Unseen personal challenges". It is time for humanity to start recognizing that as well as the individual. Be thankful for what you have right now.

Learning never stops and it frequently appears as an opportunity when you least expect it.

Take care Patrick

Keys to a better life: inner awareness.

Inner awareness, of one's self is so important; it cannot be overstated. First comes self-awareness, then if one pays attention, they will focus on not only the outside world but also what is going on within their own psychology or psyche. They will ask questions like "Why do I feel anxious?" And ponder what is going on to produce the feeling. They are listening to the inner dialogue of their own mind and body. This is inner awareness.

It takes time however to develop this aspect of one's life. To come to terms with the person and motivations you really are and have may not be the ones you initially assumed. Yet this is very true and becomes most obvious when a person is conflicted about something in their life.

It usually occurs because they are at odds with who they think they are as opposed to their real motivations and needs. They may see themselves in this modern world as a true professional able to tackle a multitude of things at once and just keep on going. At the same time however the body is screaming "Stop! I need some rest." If this goes on unattended then it is my personal belief that a train wreck of some kind is in the making.

I have stated many times in this blog that I live in assisted living, which means a facility where attendants are available to take care of healthcare needs around-the-clock. I had a lifelong disability and formulae due to aged 63 years old things were just becoming too difficult to do so it made sense for me to move in to a building like this. For others however who were completely able-bodied they have various ailments and physical conditions which demand they get help regularly. For some it is quite severe. Most of them share one thing in common a lack of inner awareness. Their ego drives most of their personality and up until now they have plowed through life I think for the most part with blinders on. Missing the all important messages that their bodies have been saying for a long time. I can't help wondering if they had listened to that message when it first appeared if they would be in much better physical condition. I don't know if there's any evidence for this in the literature but it sure seems intuitively true.

It's Sunday today and so I'm going to listen to that little voice, and take the rest of the day off. Take a break for yourself, the world will live on, and you just might avoid any oncoming train wrecks and at the very least will be able to relax. The world does not want you to fall apart. Listening to those gentle voices.

Take care
Patrick

Tips on Building Websites

 I've been building webpages and doing computer-related work for quite a few years now and in that time I've seen people excitedly jump on the "You Simply Must Have a Webpage." bandwagon. Of those people, the ones that decide to do it themselves, usually end up frustrated within the first month because they do not understand how people use the Internet. The scenario usually goes something like this:

Even if there website hostess provided them with guidelines and templates on design, there is a tendency to override the rules and create a webpage that is laid out much like a book or a magazine and in which the placement of photos in relation to the topic of the text is important. Then they are horrified when a friend shows them their page on a smart phone or tablet because they initially of tried to over format the content, resulting in pictures and text being out of place and generally very difficult to navigate on a smart phone or tablet. So rule number 1:

Do not over format your content. Make sure that your text and photographs make sense no matter where they are. Modern webpages are designed to be very flexible and they will automatically adapt to the device they are displaying on. When creating your page think more about the message you are conveying and less about the precise formatting.

Another pitfall people find themselves in occurs when they are choosing their colour scheme. Colour varies greatly from one screen to another. Your purple on black text might look great on your set up, but be absolutely useless to someone on a tablet.

Although modern systems will automatically download a great variety of fonts which does improve the chances of the webpage text looking the way you want, don't pick something really obscure. There is a reason why most websites stick to well-known fonts like "Arial" and "Times". These are more likely to be accessible to most devices. That is also the reason why if you are actually tinkering with webpage code itself (HTML- HyperText Markup Language ) most of the font and formatting options have been removed and are now exclusively in a language which only deals with formatting. (CSS - Cascading Style Sheets)

The other issue that is common with people designing a webpage for the first time is they don't resize their photos before uploading them to the website. To be clear I'm referring to the actual file size of the photograph or image. Modern cameras can capture a huge amount of detail that is just unnecessary for images displayed on the Internet. Not only that but large file sizes contribute to bandwidth usage on the visitor device. This can also really slow down the loading of the webpage if the device has to scale down an image. Unless you have a particular need for a high resolution photo you should make sure that all your photos and graphics are no more at most in an megabyte. Preferably one third of that. There are many services online that will resize photos for you. Also as was discussed above make sure the photo looks good across a few different devices. Extremely bright or dark photos can be problematic especially if they rely on a lot of shading. 

• A good place to start working with graphics for free is  https://www.canva.com/  Although this site focuses on the actual creation of graphics, as is often the case, the best way to learn is by doing.
• If you would rather download image editing software GIMP (GNU Imaging Manipulation Program) is excellent. Be aware though, the learning curve is quite steep. The program is free and open source.

While we are on the topics of images and photos please take the time to ensure that you have the appropriate copyright clearances. Many images can be freely reused provided that you indicate who the original author was and whether you made any modifications to the image. The Creative Commons is an excellent place to get images in this regard.

Modern websites use a variety of software. While you're keeping the content of your site up-to-date make sure that software is equally up-to-date. Many website hosts provide a "Managed Site" option which simply means they take care of the software side of things allowing you to focus on your material. This is a serious option to consider if you are not technically minded. One of the ways websites get hacked is that the software is not maintained and hackers will ultimately find flaws they can utilize to getting.

Also once your masterpiece of the website is close to finished, for the first time, because there will be and should be revisions, make sure you connected with services like "Google search console". This will not only help get you on the search engine listings, Google will also notify you of any potential problems related to the visibility of the website.

Tools like the the Google Search Console will take some homework on your part if you're not technically inclined and it by no means guarantees that your website is going to be an overnight smash. Getting your website listed in a way that will appear on search engines regularly and effectively is a whole other field in itself known as "Search Engine Optimization" and involves among other things understanding the phrases people use when they search on a particular topic, titling the individual pages and posts of your website in a meaningful way, and that's just the beginning. One thing you can do though is make sure the content of your website is up-to-date and regularly add new content. Think of what keeps drawing you back to your favourite websites. It is probably the new content they put up in a timely manner.

Finally, a website won't automatically generate traffic, rather it is where you want your traffic to end up at. One of the simplest ways to generate traffic is to make your website address part of your signature on all public posts. Then if the content on your website is engaging, over time people will come back.

To summarize:

• Don't be too concerned about the layout of the images and text. The information you are conveying should make sense regardless of the formatting.
• Keep the colour scheme simple. Check the website on a number of different devices.
• Keep your photos and file sizes small. Under no circumstances upload a photo directly from a modern camera.
• If you're using someone else's picture or artwork make sure to check the copyright and give them the required credit.
• Search engines have their own requirements for getting your content listed. This can take some ongoing work on your part.
• Keep the content of your site up-to-date.
• Keep the software which runs your website up-to-date. If you do not know how to do this ask your website host about a "managed site" option.

That's it. Wow, and to think this article started as an afterthought yesterday when I was helping someone straighten out the formatting on their webpage.

• There are several other articles on the blog dealing with various aspects of website creation and upkeep. You can simply click this link to see the most current list of documents, or at any time, use the search box on the site to search for the keyword "website" or just click here to automate the search.
  

Take care Patrick

Political Correctness

 Okay today's entry is going to be very short initially because I am under the gun with so many things right now. But I did want to post something....

There is a problem with "political correctness" and its related phrases. That is to say the wording we use in relation to a person or group automatically. Very often I find now days that the phrase used is now more important than the meaning or the intent of the message. That means that the society tends to get sensitized to the words used and ignores the message. That's can't be a good situation.

Indeed, I prefer the exact opposite. I don't care what phrasing or terminology you use in describing myself or someone else. Rather my focus is on your message and intent. 

Clarity of communication is the bottom line. If people and society are going to rely on political correct statements then need to, understand their origins, and  their context. Choose for yourself based on the situation you are in what you would like to do and what message you would like to convey.

The focus of all communication should be to remove ambiguity and inequality. It is very simple to put together a politically correct statement which still trashes the person's dignity if someone is so negatively inclined.

So don't rely on political correctness to do your work or you, and hope it keeps everything comfortable. Rather understand the context and purpose of the statement. Most of all take responsibility for what you say and do. At the end of the day you are the master of your own ship and sometimes political correct statements don't help in defining that truth.

Take care Patrick

Change the world today.

Modified, text added, photo by Marco Verch
under  Creative Commons 2.0 license.

In my world there's nothing better then creating something from scratch. Whether that something physical, like an electric circuit for a project or writing some code that does something, even if it's very simplistic. The way I look at it, they are all tiny contributions to the world and reality. Something that wasn't there before now is. This is a desire to be remembered, it's more like adding content to the great universal library and it doesn't much matter how long it exists. It's just one of those things I find pure joy in.

Sometimes there's a plan involved in the project can get quite long and consuming of resources and time. While others it's the spur of the moment "idea" and I think those are the most fun. Can you imagine if most people acted on just a fraction of the ideas that went through their head every day? For the purpose of this little text let's keep those ideas positive, because there's enough negativity floating around. Let's focus on what we can do. "Change the world today." Now that I think about it it's pretty awesome that each of us is aware enough that we can affect our existence. We can make it better, or we can leave it along, but the idea is we have the option to tinker. I would just speaking with someone and we were going down memory lane and I remembered purchasing for a night course "The CMOS Cookbook" (**If it is still in print, I will provide a link). It was basically a cornucopia of datasheets on various integrated circuits using the CMOS construction technology. Even if you didn't understand what you're looking at it was marvellous to go through. This is the one of the few books I would have to get physically in this case just something about it that makes it more real. It might cost me an arm and a leg relatively but for me it embodies the whole idea of creating.

To the best of your ability if you can you should create something, whatever that something will be as long as it has importance or relevance to you. Because one of the best things about ideas is that one can lead to another, which leads to another, which leads to another etc. Many of the fundamental features of the Internet were created that way, a block at a time. The some of those blocks have now turned into a grand algorithm (s) and here we are at the beginnings of artificial intelligence.

So take a moment…
… What will you create today?

Take care Patrick

** Sorry although there are archival copies of the book available on the Internet I was unable to determine the legal validity of linking to the sources and the latest publisher Synergetics Press,  no longer lists the book on their site.The latest copy I was able to find was the fourth edition.  You can search "WorldCat" to find copies a at your local library. (Click the ISBN number below)

FOURTH EDITION
SECOND PRINTING - 2019
ISBN: 0 672-21398-2

Other used copies of this book are available on Amazon.

Learning in Manageable Chunks

 As I was doing my science course this morning, because it is online I can break it into manageable chunks. Therefore when I feel I have absorbed is much as I can I can take a pause or stop for the day.

This, as I have found out, has some major advantages. One can focus on what they've already absorbed to more fully understand it before moving on. Or if there's a problem it can be identified before getting lost in greater details. (How I wish I know and this in high school when I was drawing electronic schematics when dealing with the directions current flows.) I have already identified a section of the course I will deliberately redo in relation to a binary search algorithm. If I had learned in the more traditional sense where you must progress through the lesson linearly, and usually at a certain rate, to keep up with everyone else, it would be necessary to move on regardless of whether the information was understood. Then it becomes a point of frustration later on when you can't connect the dots and understand the outcome. This is one benefit of self-paced online learning. So I wonder if it was applied to some degree it all aspects of lifelong learning, how many people would discover they are actually "bright", for lack of a better word? That is to say if the teaching method allowed a person to work on the specific parts of confusion until they were comfortable with it. Would they then not achieve more. Basically love to learn. The lesson being that they have their own way of learning and that insight on its own is tremendously beneficial to the person as a whole.

The above text sounds a little convoluted. If I have time in the next few days I may do a short video explaining this. For now however this is just food for thought. 

I truly do believe that the human mind is so good at learning that we do it automatically. Unfortunately this means that we can also "learn" that we are not good at learning and that bias then affects all our other exposure to learning throughout life. By the same token, it also means that you can start learning in many ways at any time.💗

Take care have a great day!
Patrick

Quantity over quality

Important disclaimer: I want to be very clear I am in no way singling out this article or commenting on its specific contents. Rather to illustrate what I see is a possible trend on the Internet.

Oh my goodness! I couldn't believe what was in my recommended reading list this morning. An article on discontinued morning cereals of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Now to be fair I understand why they're doing this, in order for a company to stay visible on the Internet they must put out material frequently and no doubt somebody is getting paid to write that material. But really... Can't we find a better way to use all this technology. I couldn't myself to click on the link. Even if it turned out to be an exquisitely written piece

Now I know my little "articles" fall into this very category, and I have no excuse but also no delusions of becoming a massive porthole. I created this website way back when as a place to put the occasional thought. This year something occurred to me, I began to wonder if I can make this little site actually pay for itself in 12 months just cover one year of domain rental. That's the reason for the increased number of posts you are seeing is I'm just curious what can be done if one is persistent. But at least I try to give my posts some substance of usefulness. And if I do come up against a technical problem that I think is widely applicable and then I'm sure I've got the answer to I will put that up here as well.

Think about it though every single item that goes online takes electrical energy and hardware which must be maintained. Not to mention the fiber-optic's and metals which must be mind and purified to a high level. A huge amount of effort… For articles on deceased cereals?…

For those braver than me I will post the link to the article itself. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to click it. Without further ado here it is:

Here

Take care Patrick

"Iconic" a language for symbols. Something whose time has come

Attribution Forsaken Fotos on Flickr
Creative Commons license 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Have you noticed that computers and related equipment are moving away from text based interfaces in favour of the icon symbology?

It looks cute, most of the time but as someone who helps people with technology, the move toward graphic symbolism seems to be backfiring. Even myself when looking through the myriad of icons in my video editing package spend an ever-increasing amount of time just trying to find what symbol relates to what function. While I know there are standards of therefore some of the more common functions and indeed it can make it easier to produce software when you don't have to translate the entire interface to another language it can also unless you're very careful make the interface a mess.

I think we are going to end up having to create a visual script, an abridged version of the written word, to represent some of the features coming along. It could be called "Iconic". Something that would actually be taught so that by the time a child or person was faced with a multitude of images they could find their way through the maze. This would go a long way toward simplifying a lot of things will still keeping the information quality of the symbol high.

Or is there something out there like this already? Would emoji's qualifying? Not quite. From my limited experience with them they don't appear to have enough context or infer information in the defined away.

One of the most frustrating experiences now days is when I open up a new manual and it indicates an icon in the text, but doesn't give it a name, and the icon itself is too small to make out in the details.

I think the visual language of "Iconic" is something whose time has come. It would sure save me a lot of grief and time. Who knows it may even eventually replace the written word.

Take care Patrick

The Internet 20 years from now... Just where will we put all that stuff?

IBM Model 7030 Stretch Early Super Computer
Wikimedia Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Much has been debated about where the Internet is going and what it'll be like in the future. There is a larger question: Where does all the necessary storage come from? Society will also have to figure out how to power it all.-I'm afraid your laptop charger just will not do.

Then there's the question of where it's all going to be backed up, or will society ultimately come to the conclusion that there will only be selective archiving and like the human brain Internet will forget a certain percentage. While I love my life, I do not wish to remember everything in exquisite detail. Mind you that would make going through school a snap, provided I understood what I remembered.😀

They always say that society is changing so fast nowadays, but what everyone forgets is that it's always relative to whatever part of history a person is part of. 100 years ago there was only a fraction of the change in a given amount of time compared to today, but it was still faster for them then what their grandparents knew.

Whatever way the Internet continues to evolve I'm okay with it as long as I still have the opportunity to understand the knowledge which will be accessible to me. Because it is the understanding that I personally find so enjoyable. I don't want just a collection of things in my head, I want to know how they relate to each other and other items in my memory. In other words I don't want to be a glorified search engine. But rather a knowledge foundation.

In other words, plug the me in and turn me on, but leave the manual handy. And I mean the detailed one; not be abridged user's guide. I want to understand it all, for me that's one of the big joys in life.

Take care Patrick

Forcing People back to onsite work

 

 This topic has been in the news for at least several months starting when the Canadian government announced (article from the CBC) that workers must return to on-site work starting March 31, 2023 at a rate of 40 to 60% of their total work time.

I find this ridiculous if the job entails something which can be done off site. One of the side effects of the pandemic was it tested just how well some jobs adapted to remote working conditions and the results were quite, dare I say spectacular. For some it meant a reduction in childcare costs as well as less money spent on transportation etc.

Rather than write a lengthy post, I thought it might be more appropriate on this Sunday to do a quick video blog. Feel free to watch and comment if you like.

Take care Patrick

Owning responsibility

Holy cow! I had a phone conversation yesterday with someone who, in a nutshell, absolutely did not want to take responsibility for any of the technical issues they were calling about.

I couldn't even get the model number of their equipment beyond the brand. There was a lot of "You're supposed to know that…". When I looked up the information we did have on file, I saw that there was a previous email from them where they were asking three very vague questions. I instantly thought to myself "Okay, now I can get somewhere with this caller. I can break down each question and ask the things I need to know." The caller's response was "How am I supposed to know that?" (I felt like saying, "You bought the device, surely you know something about it." But I didn't. With these kinds of calls becoming combative in the least just causes things to spiral.) Eventually after what felt like a very long 30 minutes I mailed them some documentation and am praying that on Monday we won't hear back from them. I know that sounds rather callous but really people do have to own their own actions and decisions.

Deflecting responsibility for issues in one's life is a guaranteed way to not grow and is a roadmap to frustration for everyone concerned. The above was just an extreme example. I have worked with several individuals like this over the years and there does seem to be a few attributes they share:

1. Where there should be ownership of responsibility there is anger.
2. This can escalate into aggression and accusation.
3. They are the victim inevitably of whatever the particular situation is and that is the rationale for sidestepping responsibility.
   

It boggles my mind, because these behaviours get them nowhere and indeed cause them a great deal of grief. I'm going to guess that the only thing that keeps them reusing the above tactics are the fact that if they can keep you mashed in the situation long enough. Most people will finally give in and take over and fix everything for them. Or they will just walk away. In either case they get short term victory, but in the long term it's just a spiral downward.

But it appears the human brain was never good at looking into the future. Evolution has geared us toward only solving short-term issues in a very rudimentary way. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether it's good in the long term. It's as though evolution said "If you're alive at the end of the day, that's all that matters. We don't do quality of life."

For people to grow or evolve I think it will be necessary for all of society to recognize that we all have our own ivory towers. Our own perceptions which we tried to force on reality and or people. The above story is just a example of what it is like when these perceptions become extreme. Wherever your reality ends there is always something just beyond. Maybe the best way to deal with this kind of thing is for all individuals to realize that they must always go a little bit outside of their comfort zone regardless of what that zone is so that you are always in an ever-expanding bubble. That I think would go a long way toward growth and achieving goals. And lastly eliminating full calls like this one.

Have a great day Patrick

Is creativity a mindset?

Photo by Milogrodskiy.
Wooden palette with paints and brushes 
At depositphotos.com

 For ages it seems, people of said "Some are born creative, while others are not. " But I think creativity is taught.. A person may be born with certain attributes that make them better at some things than others, or perhaps a better way to put it is, that they are more attuned to certain aspects of their environment. For example a musician is sensitive to sound and melody and if they are lucky enough to recognize it they encourage that aspect of their lives. However, I am sure at the very beginning of their existence the environment created around them encourage them to explore and how to relate things to one another.

All this exploring takes energy and effort. In order to consider the possibility of being creative one must first get used to challenge, to work at a goal and perhaps improve the goal. Therefore I'm a little concerned about the present day where everyone expects solutions very quickly. Indeed you can see this in documentation for new products. Very small and short statements telling you how to do something, rather than explaining why that particular way is best or going into side avenues.

Manuals for almost any product used to be rather large and with computers even included schematics. Now with many electronics you get nothing. Of course that doesn't stop curious people from digging around. Thank goodness for iFixit :-).

I find myself thinking "Maybe, if we are fortunate enough to have all this Freedom and automation, maybe you should make it a little more challenging". Because I think effort and challenge are at the core of many aspects of growth.

At this stage in my life I'm very glad to have had the challenges and opportunities afforded to me. Sometimes it's good to be different… No, let me rephrase that: "It Is Good to Be Different, If You Have Learned How to Grow from Challenge". That statement still is imperfect but I think you get what I mean.

If you consider yourself different, don't despair, and whatever you do don't try to be normal, I have a feeling normal doesn't really exist, and that is probably a good thing.

Patrick

What is this notion of Power over People?...

This morning while I was talking with someone in my building, about of course one of my favourite topics, technology, it struck me that no matter how the conversation starts with them it always ends with the statement something like this: "Hmmm... I wonder if I could use that to erase someone's computer or trick them into doing it". The statement will vary, but it always has to do with "power" or control over someone or something else and usually to a negative end.

Whereas I tend to approach things from a more curious and positive perspective. I want to know why things work and how they relate the other things. I have no interest in exploiting or manipulating something or someone. This person's outlook on life is pretty bleak but it seems when I really think about it that they almost like it. When you try to sway them toward the "light side of the force" they inevitably do their best to swing back to the dark side. And again it's always to do with manipulating someone or something. I find these two aspects of this individual really puzzling.

In my way of looking at life, life ends up being exactly what you wish to perceive on many levels. You end up being the ultimate designer. Sure, there are things you can't control, but you can control your reaction and perspective of a situation. However even when you point this out to people. They continued to go and some pretty bizarre ways on their current trajectory.

In a very real way I can ask myself the same question, "What holds me on a positive trajectory?"....

Once again, my time is short this morning so I have to leave the question there for now. However if you have any insights on what holds people to certain trajectories or patterns in their life and especially in regards to what they get out of things like the perception of power over someone etc. please leave a comment.

Have a great day and take care. Patrick

The Grand Balancing Act

Photo by Colin Harris  ADE Under the
Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 The assignments for my computer science course took much longer this morning that I planned. Now it's going to be a carefully orchestrated procedure to carry out everything I need to do today, which includes helping somebody set up their home for hands-free use of voice assistance. I talk more about that in my posting on January 7 here. I will be updating that article tomorrow at some point.

Today though I have a contract to get out for a website being moved over to my volunteer organization, continued training a new volunteer this morning as well, the above-mentioned, let's just call it "the hands-free project" for now.

Yes it's going to be an interesting day. Apologies for not posting a more in-depth article today.

Habits and entrenchment

 

Like everything else in life, habits can be a good thing, especially when simplifying one's life. Think of them as automated routines. But sometimes these routines can get stuck and they may have you feeling a little hopeless. We are not talking about anything chemical dependent, that scope of things has already filled libraries, just emotional or physical habits that it become entrenched and that perhaps you would like to change.

As always these are my own perceptions. I am not trained in any way in psychology or healthcare. I have a curious mind however and these are just some of the things that occur to me.

I think as a modern society we are a little too accustomed to finding the "path of least resistance" and therefore we have taken automation, and the biological equivalent, habits too far. Leaving us ill-prepared to deal with adversity. It is my opinion that everyone needs some adversity in their lives on an ongoing basis. To be clear this is the kind of adversity that while it poses a challenge is not totally overwhelming. Difficult yes, but within reasonable bounds. Something that stretches one's boundaries and enlarges their world. It may not be immediately apparent at the time the adversity occurs.Many times in my own personal experience, something that happened a few years ago in some cases has been a benefit when something else happens in the current day. Adversity therefore has the ability to build up or enlarge one's toolbox of answers. Because you can deal with more.

Habits on the other hand if not monitored can go the other way, by reducing the size of the toolbox over time. If you're habit is never to go out in the rain then you may be ill-prepared when you do have to go out in the rain to resolve an emergency. This is an over dramatization but you get the idea.

It is also important to know that whatever adversity you undertake or create deliberately as a challenge must have a resolution you can benefit from when possible. So keep things in perspective and do your best to challenge yourself a little every day. You will be less dependent on habits and there will be less likelihood of things getting entrenched because you will have discovered more about your self.

Take care Patrick

Why so many ads on the site

 "Why am I all of a sudden seeing so many ads on your site Patrick?"

For the next 90 days, since the beginning of January 2023, we are running an experiment in the hopes of finding the right balance between ads (a.k.a. revenue) and the amount of visitors. In short I am trying to strike a balance in the only way to do that is to run an experiment in which a certain number of visitors will see very few or no ads at all and other visitors will see a sliding scale.

There is so much information out there and a lot of it is contradictory regarding advertising benefits. I am also exploring other avenues of bringing you information by using some old technology in new ways. Namely the good old RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) mechanism. All Google products, including the blogger still generate RSS for software that wants to use it. However Windows 10 and 11 don't natively support the protocol anymore which is a shame because it means you have to acquire software to benefit from the feed. That's not hard to do there's lots of software and app still out there. But who wants to download software off the Internet now days? (See the article I posted for more information on that topic.)

Things are continuing to evolve on this site daily, and I'm really looking forward to this week's upcoming adventure (see:Voice assistances and disability)   as I assist someone else with their voice assistant technology.

Take care Patrick

Voice assistances and disability

 

Voice assistance whether it be Google or Amazon: are they sufficiently useful now for the disabled?

------------------------

January 22, 2023 update

------------------------

 The person who was to be the key focal point of this project has gone silent. Now it could be that they are dealing with other more pressing issues. Life as everyone knows can get very complicated awfully quickly.

So for now this project is on the back burner although my curiosity has been aroused, so I will keep investigating as time permits. That way if they do make contact again we will be able to hit the ground running.

Of course if I find anything of mutely interesting in either hardware or software. There's a high probability that I will post news of the device or application to this blog.

Take care Patrick.

------------------------

Pretty much everything now at least in the technology sector seems to be voice assistant capable at least in some degree. With the new Matter standard being talked about all over the Internet it seems that things are slowly improving. However at the same time a lot of companies are having difficulties because everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. The prime example of this is the smart lights market.  I bought into the LIFX lighting ecosystem verily early on because the hardware and colour accuracy appeared to be the best, even though the product line is expensive, upwards of $50 Canadian for a single smart light. Now it is hard to say with the huge amount of competition whether anyone company will survive.

So if you are looking toward the smart device to help in some way improve your life the first question that comes to my mind is which of the companies are going to be around long enough? It has only been about four years since I bought my first LIFX device and now I have over 25 of them mainly focused on lighting but because they require an Internet connection back to a LIFX server, things could get very dicey if the company collapses. Fortunately lighting is not a critical issue. One can get a light pretty much anywhere now days :-).

Let's say however I used to smart device to open or close a door, or automate a phone call. Or even a program on a computer like initiating a Zoom session or Microsoft Teams for that matter. The Matter Standard is supposed to be able to alleviate some of the issue by making control of the devices local and not dependent on a remote server. But the standard itself is new and although backed by many companies may or may not fly.

So how does a person with a disability proceed in enabling high tech features in their homes?

In the coming days I hope to have a few answers for you, as I personally dig into this issue. Stay tuned.
Patrick

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January 11, 2023 update

------------------------

I was eagerly awaiting meeting this person today in order to dig into their issues and solve or at least get clarification on where they were with technology and smart assistance.

I didn't meet them yet as they only use a single platform for communication and it became clear that before we could proceed that they had to agree to meet with me. Rather than just their representative. I know this sounds a little bizarre. But I also understand the concerns put forward.

So the standby. I have indicated my willingness to work with them and I am very curious as to what solutions I will come up with or what things will be discovered.

Apologies for being a little on the vague side but until we get the ball rolling any more concrete fashion, patients will have to be a virtue that is relied upon.

More in the next day or two.
Patrick

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January 13, 2023 update

------------------------

Sorry folks. Still awaiting a reply from this person as to whether they want to proceed with the project. These kind of delays are not uncommon when you are dealing with many layers of bureaucracy. Personally though the suspense is killing me.

I really want to get into this to see what needs to be done. What kind of limitations and/or parameters were dealing with. If funding is needed how to brainstorm on getting the required resources. I have been on this planet for 63 years and I know where there's a will there's a way. This may sound a little odd, but I truly hope that this situation is not to simple to fix. When I was young I was the kid who would take apart all their Christmas presents. This undoubtedly drove my parents nuts.

Stay tuned. The minute I know something. You will to.
Take care Patrick

A frugal computer is a fast machine.

 

Now days, how-to-guides are positively everywhere covering every conceivable situation device or application. If the original authors of Popular Mechanics and Popular Electronics had only one with the Internet and high-speed communication would bring to the general public. We are now faced with a rather odd situation, there are so many sources the question isn't as much "How do you fix it?" Its more like which person, document or source do you trust. The very last thing that anyone wants to do is just try things randomly. As a matter of fact, I have seen people do this, in my case, it usually has to do with computer software and the story goes something like this:

One day somebody turns on their computer and its a little slow, but only a little bit, so they ignore it and go get the latest free game from who knows where on the Internet. Over the next few days it slows down more and they begin to get frustrated. So they go on to their favourite search engine and they type in something like "cleaner" or "Speed to my computer up". A list of results are displayed and most people don't go farther than 10 items before picking something. The mysterious software downloads and even though the computer might warn them that this could be dangerous they click install. Anyway it doesn't work. So they tried to download something else, and again it doesn't work either. So after two or three attempts and probably a few advertisements they give up turn off their computer and go away for the night.

The next day they are committed to finding a solution to their speed problem so they repeat the same strategy they had yesterday... Day by day the computer gets slower and slower and slower. Then they decide they better call for help and that's when I or one of my colleagues hears about their issue.

Usually they have downloaded free software, taking the listings at face value. "Guaranteed to speed your computer up!" or "Let us optimize your computer to run like new". What happens most often is these free useless programs are just commercials packaged as something useful, and because they are nothing more than advertisements they often configure themselves to start whenever the computer starts up. That is really what slowing the computer down.

In my experience there are relatively few, but well-known utilities and companies that produce tools for "cleaning or optimizing a computer" and most of them work only in very specific ways.

He best way to keep your computer running smoothly is:

• If the machine is more than four years old, in general, don't expect it to be able to run the latest and greatest games or software at full speed.
• Before downloading and trying anything spend some time looking up for reviews and look at a few of them from different sources, not just the ones that appear at the top of the list in Google.
• If a listing in a search engine is marked as an "Ad or Sponsored" ignore it. They are not going to give you an unbiased appraisal.
• Then once you find something that looks trustworthy continue searching for articles that talk about uninstalling the program you are about to try. It is important to know how to remove programs before taking them for a test drive.

If the above points are a little bewildering seek out a trusted friend or colleague who is more familiar with the technology. Do not try to just hit or miss on fixing something especially with a computer or similar device.
 

The biggest and safest thing you can do is ensure that you have a backup of your important documents or photos. Every computer eventually dies and they usually do it all of a sudden.

 

The above points are applicable to a lot of technology be they computers or something related.
Take care Patrick

Which came first?: Disability or the inventor?

If you start looking around the Internet using the above two words as search terms, it becomes very clear that many inventors and other creative minds that have impacted the modern world, were and are disabled. I won't bother putting together a list here because there are literally hundreds of websites which of already done a much better job than I could do in my limited time for writing this entry.

It does make one think though. Are disabilities actually benefits in disguise? Without them with the world be a less creative place? The answers depend massively on the kind of disability we're talking about, as well as, a person's situation.

Still though overall, it is an intriguing question. Is creativity ultimately dependent on, the challenges in one's life. Without challenge, one could surmise there would be no reason to change (presuming of course one was completely happy with your situation).-Man, does that sound dull!

I don't know about the rest the world, but right now I'm feeling awfully damn good about being disabled. Life and reality are full of surprises. As always leave your comments.

Patrick