Don't forget why you love running

The Runners - A short film by Matan Rochlitz & Ivo Gormley

Pounding the tarmac through the seasons, a band of runners are brazenly challenged with intimate questions as they pace their routes. Liberated from responsibilities, their guards drop dramatically, releasing funny and brutally frank confessions, and weaving a powerful narrative behind the anonymous masses.

#TheRunners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F7T1EGSoMQ

Something to strive for

Today, did I make someone else's life better?
Today, did I make my life better?

Some days it will not be possible to achieve both.
Some days the order may be reversed.

Still strive though.

Showing my shared Google Calendars on iOS*

Anita and I have a few shared Google Calendars and for some reason they were no longer showing on my iPhone and iPad.
This 'may' have had something to do with me trying to get rid of some phantom events but that's another story.
All my search results were pointing me at m.google.com/sync however that was a deadend as I have my google accounts set up as google accounts rather than exchange.
This was frustrating me for the last few days until I used a slightly different set of search terms which resulted in https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect !

From here you can bypass the whole exchange thing and directly set the calendars (shared and owned) that will sync to all devices.

Happy day :)

*or any other CALDAV device

Standing up for work

After reading a few articles about the dangers of sitting for long periods of time (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/standing-at-work) I've decided to try standing up for work (for at least 1 week to give my body time to adjust rather than just feeling sore).

Week One
Day One - Used a set of shelves for the half day I was working in the town office. Feeling fairly good at the end, although mild aches. The top of the shelves was a great height for my laptop but with no monitor I found myself with a sore neck by the end of the day.

Work office setup - fairly makeshift

Day Two - My first full day, this time used a different set of drawers (in my home office) and stacking a box on its end with a bunch of heavy books inside (to prevent movement) and putting my monitor on the very top. VERY sore feet at the end of the day and a few twinges in my neck until I got my posture right, but generally feeling a lot better than I was expecting :)

Day Three - Another half day, this time in my home office using the same set up as Day 2. By the end of the day I had very sore feet once again and I'm really looking forward to the soreness going away!

Day Four - Another full day in my home office and by the end I have sore feet and lower back. Very much hoping that tomorrow things start to come right.


Day Five - Another full day in the home office. Started with quite a sore lower back but that has gone away over the course of the day. Also an on/off numb spot behind my left shoulder blade. My feet have only just gotten sore in the last hour so much better then the past few days. This may actually be working.

Weekend - normal activities

Week Two
Day One - another full day in the town office with sore feet by the end of the day. Various people have commented that ALL day on your feet may not be a good thing so starting to consider perhaps splitting my day between sitting and standing.

Day Two - another full day in the home office

Home office - also very makeshift while I trial this

2 weeks after last post above
I now routinely stand all day for work with only minor sore feet at the end of the day :)

Interested in leaving paper behind?

Ever since the iPad started making news I'd been considering whether or not to get a tablet (didn't have to be an iPad). I'd read a bunch of reviews on how cool and productive they were but I just couldn't bring myself to take the leap even though I've been wanting to interact with computing technology ever since I stumbled across Project Oxygen (http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu) back in 2001 I think it was.

Last Christmas my beautiful wife gave me an iPad and my dilemma went away :)

So far it's been great and I'm now heavily using an excellent handwriting and drawing app called NotePlus.

A good friend also introduced me to the concept of Visual Thinking which has tied in perfectly with the drawing capabilities of NotesPlus.

Hooknoo?: What are you packin'?

Hooknoo?: What are you packin'?: "I used to travel a lot for work, but carried very little with me. People would often ask how I got away with carrying so little in my work/..."

I agree with Erik's approach to packing lite - I also do this and even more so recently since I've moved to Evernote + Notes Plus for memory and notetaking. I'm having trouble parting with my paper notebook but haven't used for it 3 trips now so think it's going to have to go. Perhaps just a couple sheets of paper in case my electronics completely die on me....

Evernote - oh how supercool you are

I wholeheartedly agree with my good friend Erik about the super-coolness of the Evernote application. See his post here (http://www.hooknoo.com/2011/01/remember-everything.html).

Recently my wife and I started a grand bathroom renovation project and while it's still in progress I can personally attest to how useful Evernote was throughout the process of comparing products and prices. Soooooo very easy to snap a picture of a possible shower, tag it with 'Renovations' (and the current store name) and add the price and product info for later reference. And then to do the same again in a different store.

Later at home (or out having a chai latte - neither of us drink coffee) it was simple to search and compare prices etc and decide on what we wanted.

Anyway - it's a great product - I've been using the free version up till now but am SERIOUSLY considering paying in order to support an awesome product.