Avoiding Temptations

This is a short post that I will probably revisit later. The topic? Avoiding temptations in life. Why today? Because I once again failed, and need the reminder…

I have learned, over the course of many years, that especially at certain points in the day I have very little willpower to avoid temptations. This could be something as simple as avoiding overeating desserts (which I like), to limiting my exposure to social media, to reducing the amount of time I spend watching movies/TV shows/YouTube. To actually achieve my goal in whatever area that is, I often have to completely remove the temptation from my life, or put such severe limitations on it that I cannot easily slip up when I’m tired after work, and I no longer have the willpower to easily keep myself away from whatever the temptation is.

Raspberry Pi 4

I got my first Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) today, and took a short amount of time to begin migrating my Home Assistant setup to it. Thoughts so far:

• I like the increased RAM
• I’m a huge fan of the case I bought, which is black metal (like a computer case), and includes a small fan

I have yet to really tax the machine, so I haven’t seen how hot it gets, nor have I seen its full capabilities. I’m hoping to finish the migration from my Raspberry Pi 3 either tomorrow or next weekend, at which point I’ll re-purpose the RPi 3 for another home project.

Finish Work Week: Check

Well, I’ve officially finished my first full week back at work after 2 months of working from home. Overall, not bad. It will take some getting used to again, but I quickly found myself settling into old methods and habits.

Things that I still need to improve:

• Re-enforce strict wake time. I was still struggling to be happy about getting up exactly at 4a.
• Tighten up morning schedule so I arrive at work at my intended time. Throughout the week this slipped from 15m later than I wanted to 30m. My ideal is 7a.
• Reduce television time post-work. I’ve caught myself watching more than one episode of something in the evening, which offsets the rest of my evening plans, or causes things to get missed.
• Re-enforce strict phone-down and bedtime. I did pretty good on this overall, but I need to get back to turning off electronics at least 1 hr before bed, and then ensuring I am in bed by my set time for optimum sleep.

Do any of my readers really need to know all of that? No, not really. But it’s good for me to think through this on paper (or the e-equivalent of paper, my blog). And it’s a good way to pressure myself into actually doing it!

Things That Work: Zowie FK1

Inspired by Things that work! by Cliff Brake.

As someone who spends a very large amount of time in front of a computer, over the years I have built up a list of a number of preferences. Today’s post is about the Zowie FK1+, which is my default mouse choice.

I first learned of the FK1+ (and other similar models from Zowie) in 2015 when I took my current position at work. I was looking for a mouse that was comfortable, worked with all operating systems, and gave me the option of different DPI settings in the mouse itself, instead of having to use software. Somehow, during the research, I ran across the FK1+, and I haven’t looked back. It is now in use both at work and at home.

Too Many Topics

Day 40!

Once again, as I sat down to write this evening, I was struggling with what I wanted to write about. I have a host of topics that I have opinions on, and I wouldn’t mind writing about. Anything from the case for owning physical books, movies, etc, to technical discussions on tools I use, to software, hardware, book, and other reviews. But I’m struggling to focus on any one to write about, especially after a day at work.

Back to the Office

Today marks the beginning of working from the office primarily again for me, instead of at home. I’ll still be working from home some, especially if/when I need to concentrate hard. But I expect that over the coming weeks the amount of time I spend at home will continue to decrease.

Somethings felt relatively natural in the office. Others, however, will take some getting used to. I was very much used to my normal routine at home, and lack of talking throughout the day… transitioning back to frequent conversations will be, shall we say, interesting.

Sibling Summit: Episode 8: Introverts in a Post-Quarantine World

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

How do you determine when it’s time to quit a hobby? Do you think of large purchases in terms of cost-per-month? What does life look like for introverts in a post-quarantine world? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

• Hannah: No-Carb Bread from Aldi
• Justin: Alienating the Audience, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Revival’s In The Air

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast