The Making Of...

Every once in a while, I get distracted watching a video that goes into detail on how something was made. Sometimes it’s a movie. At other times, it may be a piece of art, or maybe a video game.

Today was the former: the making of Frozen 2. Was I a huge fan of the movie itself? No. It had some good parts, but overall I was underwhelmed. However, I very much enjoyed the first part of the behind the scenes video that I watched, and I look forward to finishing out that set of videos when I have a chance.

Haircut by a Robot?

Long day, so not many personal thoughts. Rather, since I ran across this article + video earlier today while on a break, I decided to share it. While I can’t say that I would want a robot anywhere near my head anytime soon… it’s definitely interesting!

https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/video-friday-haircut-robot

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 97/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Congress and Tech

I followed some of the congressional hearings today involving Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. And I must say… I get very worried about the lack of technical understanding by the people that are making the laws. Like, they can’t even keep two different services straight in their head (apparently)!

I didn’t watch enough to have any other immediate feedback, though I’ll probably try to catch up more over the weekend.

Everything Is an Experiment

I realized today that literally everything in life is an experiment. Or rather, I am constantly experimenting with different aspects of my daily life. Whether it’s tweaking my diet to see if I feel more alert, changing up the type of exercise I do, or trying to build new habits, everything is constantly open to experimentation. That even includes things that are, at this point, habit.

Why experiment? Because I’m sure there’s a better way. I don’t for a moment believe that I’ve “arrived” in any aspect of my life. That is part of what keeps me moving forward, a desire to constantly learn, grow, and improve.

Applying Self-Limits

I’ve talked about this before, but one thing I occasionally find tricky is following through plans or limits that I have given myself. For instance, I try to eat both a balanced diet (in my case, keto, but balanced based on that premise), and to also limit the number of calories I eat per day. Why? Because it’s easy for me to idly just sit and eat, or snack on something. And I don’t like the path that leads me down.

Living in Response

Note: I no longer recommend listening to Bill Johnson, as I have strong disagreements with his theology, but I’m leaving this up for historical purposes. (2024-11-03)

“I can’t afford to live in reaction to darkness. If I do, darkness has had a role in setting the agenda for my life. The devil is not worthy of such influence, even in the negative. Jesus lived in response to the Father. I must learn to do the same.” Bill Johnson

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Choose Your VPN Wisely

One of the podcasts I listen to daily brought up a recent news article about several Hong Kong based VPNs that were found to expose private user data, even though they claimed that they didn’t.

Frankly, stories like this don’t surprise me anymore. As the saying goes, if you aren’t paying for the product, then you are the product (in most cases). “Free” is often too good to be true. Choose wisely!