scott

The Return of Writing

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A recurring theme for me in my writing is to talk about my writing. I think the reason the topic comes up is I go through a very visible cycle of writing and not writing. Other than periods of lack of motivation I cannot figure out the pattern. There are different ways that I write. The most public being this blog. I also privatly journal. I use an app called Day One. I have for years. I love it. Besides journalling about things I am finding that I use Day One too log where I have gone and what I have done. It easy since you can geo-tag entries and you can also attach photos to them. It paints a good picture of what I’ve done on a day. Even when I have been less consistent sometimes about actually writing about things I have done.

In the past three or four years I have also taken to writing actions in a paper notebook. The intention is to then complete things and check them off on the day. Anything else goes into my electronic task list. I have read that the tactile act of physically writing helps in memory. As much as I like the idea of physically writing it was something that I would only do every now and again. I would go a few days and then stop for long periods of time. Right around the time of the lockdown I started writing actions out on paper more consistently. I know that I started doing it daily after the lockdown. I did try to do it more frequently even before the lockdown. I remember packing my notebook in my book bag I took to go into the office in March.

Through April, May, and June my physical writing consisted of writing out action lists of things I remembered that I needed to do that may or may not have already been in my electronic to-do list. It was my way of clearing my mind of things I was thinking needed done. sometimes the actions were already in my to do list. As I would think of things I would write them down. If I would complete something I would check it off the list. If I didn’t finish it that day I put it on my Trello board (my electronic task list) to work on later I will mark a T where I would normally check the completed action. If I didn’t do the action and I didn’t put it on a Trello board I would simply mark it with an X. I thought it was simple enough.

I have for years had an aversion to paper. When I finished a day of writing in the notebook I would take a picture of it and save the file as a PDF. That way I have all of my actions/notes stored electronically. I still kept the physical notebooks however if I lost them or decided to part with them I had the PDF’s. Sometime along the way in May or June I started adding things I had done already to my daily list. Just as an FYI so I knew it happened. After I started doing that I realised if I have all these PDFs of what I did it is a good indication of what happened on that day. I started adding those PDFs to my Day One journal. The OCD in me later realised after a few weeks that my Day One journal would start getting very large in size. Each PDF file was about 250 kB. I already bloat my journal with photos of things that happen on the day. I wanted to avoid adding about 2 MB of size to the journal a week. My solution was to take the hand written notes and write them out into my daily Day One Journal entry. At first it felt like a good idea. Again the act of writing or typing is good for memory or so I have read. Inevitably I grew tired of it. That daily process evolved then into me dictating out what I had written into Dragon Anywhere. I would then paste the dictation into Day One. The thing with dictating was that it was very easy to do. What I had written was very simple and short since when writing I was trying to limit what I wrote to as little as possible yet still trigger my memory. It was hard to say so few words about the topic since dictating was so easy. I found myself starting to elaborate more on each line that I have written. After a few days that turned into a Complete Journal entry of what went on for the day all be it in bulleted format instead of paragraphs. It was still pretty complete. Instead of having to sit and write free form things I thought about for a daily recap I now had an agenda for me to discuss if I want to.

At the time I am writing this I have been journalling in that way for about two weeks. This week I found that I slacked off a little and had to go back to several days and go through the process. Luckily I was able to recall enough of what’s going on by what I wrote. It feels like that I could go several days and not lose that much detail. Any more than that and it’s probably not worth it. I am liking the new style of writing because I have the notebook with me everywhere and using it gives me that physical touch I don not get with just a phone. I can see myself ditching the paper notebook and doing the same thing in an electronic format. Yet for now I do like the old school approach.

I have been putting my daily writing into moleskine notebooks. I am on my third Harry Potter special edition notebooks. I can get about three months worth into a full notebook. The first two notebooks spanned over a year each. At the time I was not writing in them daily. The one I am on now I hope to fill completely from now until sometime in the autumn.

In the same time I have been journalling more I have neglected my blog entries. It is not a conscious decision. I just don’t give myself enough time to write. Since writing for me is dictating in an app I need a quiet place alone to do it. M has said several times that she is okay with me dictating with her around. I am self-conscious about doing it so I do not. The routine I have gotten myself into lets me take my written bullet point journal and dictate it into a Day One entry takes about 5 to 15 minutes depending on how much I decide to elaborate on what I wrote out. That makes it relatively easy to do every day as long as I remember.

The blog on the other hand requires me to think of what I want to talk about. Then I dictate it. From there I do proof read and edit the entries. I have to make a lot of manual typing since the dictation is nowhere near perfect. For a private journal entry its perfectly fine. For something to publish on the internet it does need work after dictating. Once done writing and editing an entry I need to label it and find a suitable photograph to go along with the post. Then it is figuring out what I will post next. I know that I sometimes write a lot and then not at all for long periods of time I limit my posts to once a week. The big question that comes up in my mind when writing something such as this post is how long the lead time between when I write something and when I publish it. In some cases that has been months.

As of the Autumn 2020 this is my process. Since I wrote this post in late summer my process has changed a bit. Since marking that update in the Autumn of 2020 I am still loosely following the same pattern. Before that changed I figured I should finally post this entry before it has its own birthday. I am glad that I am keeping with the routine!

Using a From Email Address as Validation is Not a Security Measure

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I have been on a mission as of late to migrate all of my login details for account’s I use email from one domain name I have to another. I decided to stop using the main domain name I have been using for years. One of the main drivers was cost. It’s pretty expensive each year to own it. It is a country specific one and not cheap like a .com. It is also no longer as relevant for me.  I  loved its simplicity. It just didn’t make sense to keep having it long term.  It is paid for through 2021 or something. I have time to confirm I’ve captured every account and moved it.

In the process of doing this I am also closing accounts I don’t need anymore. It’s a great spring cleaning in the autumn. I originally wrote this in the fall of 2019.

When I attempted to change the email address I used with NordVPN I realized they do not have an option to do that in their online portal. I have  come across this issue a bunch of times going through this change process. Eventhough it’s annoying I typically open a case to request a change and its done pretty quickly.

For my own security reasons I use a unique email address for every account that I create online. This allows me to know when my information is being sold or if an email is authentic. It also protects me if one provider is compromised and the account details are sold or published online. There’s lots of times where I recieve a message that looks semi-legitimate. It is only when I look and see it’s going to a completely different email address than I gave them that I know it’s fake.

This setup makes things more secure from fishing or other exploits. The downside is it is not so straight forward to get a message via one of these aliases I setup and reply back easly.  That is because my email provider Protonmail charges for each alias you use.  To get around that I use their catchall feature.  I can have unlimited inbound email addresses. The catch is I can only reply back coming from only 5 of them. Most of the mail I get other than personal mail I don’t really need to reply to. The trade off is worth it for me most of the time.

In this instance with NordVPN I was asked to reply to the support case via email. Ussually in this situation what I typically do is I have an email program that allows me to send outbound mail and I can edit an alias to match the email address I’m using with that vendor. It’s slightly annoying however if I don’t have to do it often it’s not that big of a deal.

There were challenges in validating my account with the NordVPN. That required several emails back and forth. In one instance when I was away from my desk I got lazy and just replied from my generic catchall address. That exposed my default address to the vendor. I wasn’t that concerned about revealing that address to them however it was sloppy for me. What was silly was their reply. After two more rounds of back-and-forth I was told I need to send a response from the original email address since that was the one on file with them.

What seems silly to me is this company was relying on an email “from address” as some sort of security validation? Whenever I do send them mail  I’m literally cutting and pasting the contents to a new message and spoofing the address. Anyone can do that. Yet somehow they feel that if I  recieve their message it isn’t enough. In my case i am spoofing an address of my own so thats not bad.  What is bad is mail spoofing is super easy and this company somehow thinks its a securty function to get mail from a specific address.

If you are going to insist on a security measure why are they not having a secure ticket portal that my login to their service gets me into?  Or a built in chat system within their app amoung other things that are more secure than email.

I found this whole experience dealing with this VPN provider to be very frustrating. I am only writting about it because of the hypocritical things they said.  Do not tell me you are a security company and then rely on a “reply to” as a validation you are speaking to the right person.  Another thing they did was they wanted me to send old credit card details in cleartext email.  Yes the card was 2 years old however still dont say you are a security company and ask for PII in a clear text email.

The situations been sorted. I have updated my email address eventually. I’ve been using NordVPN provider for years. This extremely poor experience has left me looking for a new provider when this one runs out. It’s partly due to just the bad communication back and forth. And part of it is the hypocrisy of claiming that they are a security company and doing some of the most unsecure methods to communicate.

UPDATE: Just as I started to write this post in late 2019 it came out that NordVPN had two seperate public incidents where they were compromised. That along with this story got me to move providers 4 months before my contract term ended with NordVPN.

Enhanced Working From Home Now With Snacks

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On day one of our Social Distancing (last Thursday) M made popcorn for the girls on their first day of home schooling. I got to get some too. Before social distancing made working from home WFH a common thing for everyone I never got treats. The staying inside most of the time isn’t great but the treats are at least a nice touch. Thanks M!

My 17th Blog-aversary

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If my blog was a person it would be able to drive. I cannot believe I have been keeping this Blog since March 2003. It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time. There were plenty of times I didn’t write much for months. There were other times where i was posting several times a week. I am happy with my queue of ideas and 1-2 posts a week. As it was in 2003 this site and writting has been a great relaxing outlet…

Notable posts, my first post ever. Then my first post I actually wrote anything meaningful.

Another notable detail that is only semi-geeky to talk about today is as of today I have well over 2,500 posts.

It’s Not You Fitbit, it’s Google, So I Guess it is You

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When I last wrote about my Apple Watch Series 3 I thought I solved the challenge around using the smart watch versus a regular watch. The solution was to use both. Since then I’ve continued to use the Apple Watch as just a data device on my right wrist. I wear the regular one on the other. Surprisingly not many people even notice I am doing it. After a while I got used to it and it second nature now.

When the Apple Watch Series 4 came out the upgrade didn’t seem compelling enough for me to upgrade. I was tempted with the bigger screen but not enouhg to buy a new one for that reason alone. When the series 5 came out I was intrigued. The always on face was the single biggest issue I had previously with Apple Watches. Now that I can look at it and the time is always visible without having to lift it to my wrist and wait for it to light up. The always on plus the bigger screen on the smaller model was enough to make a compelling case for an upgrade. I treated myself to the 40 mm version.

When I bought my Series 5, the plan was to sell my Series 3 on eBay. I always try to make some of my purchase price back. One of my friends at work suggested using the Series III as a sleep tracker. I have been using my Fitbit for that. Until then I was happy with that solution. Then right around the time I was thinking about the new watch Google announced they were buying Fitbit. That immediately got me wanting to find a replacement for my Fitbit. I want to minimize as much Google exposure as possible. The thought of them having my health data was not cool.

The Fitbit sale development got me wanting to try my friends suggestion about using the watch as a sleep tracker. My issue was I did not want to use the same watch I used during the day, then all night. I was afraid I would forget to charge it right before bed and again in the morning. I would need to do both in order to get a full day and night sleep out of it.

I hesistated to waste potential extra money by not selling the Series III. That was until I tried to trade it in. The research I did said if I was lucky I would get hundred pounds out of it. If I wanted the dedicated sleep tracker I probably have to spend around that amount of money anyway. I wasnt sure of a good Fitbit alternative either. I opted to keep the Apple Watch Series 3 and see if it would work as a sleep watch.

I did a bunch of research on apps for tracking sleep like the Fitbit would. It turns out there were several options. I settled on Sleepmatic. Compared to the Fitbit I’m not sure how accurate it is. Its supposed to be pretty close. From what I can tell it’s good enough for my use. I was worried the bigger watch on my wrist at night wound not be comforatable. I was also worried about turning on the screen or pressing other functions while I slept. Neither in the end was a problem. I disabled the raise to turn on function. I do not recall having any issues with pressing anything by mistake after that.

By the time I wrote this post I had been using the Series III as a sleep tracker for several months. Overall I’m generally pretty happy with the switch. I’m extremely happy that I deleted my Fitbit account as well. As a side benefit I can use the watch regularly as a silent alarm. I was able to do the same thing with Fitbit however it required going onto the app on my phone to adjust anytime I needed to. User experience on that was mixed. For that reason I did not always use it. Making changes on the Apple Watch is trivial. Now I use it all the time.

Overall I’m happy with series 5 for everyday use and my new “sleep” tracker. Lastly I will note that I offered my wife the Series 3 before I used it. She declined. I would have liked that also since if we did that we would have had push to talk option!

W Sisters Short on The Kindergarten Lunch

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Back in the mid 2000’s when my friend Jay and I used to work together we would joke around about going out for “kindergarten lunch”. It was code for going to eat lunch anytime before noon. We did it often enough.

For some reason it always seems like little kids in kindergarten (Reception/ Year One for my British friends) always havr lunchtime scheduled so early. Whenever we thought of an early lunch we would think of that. Almost 15 years later I still use the term constantly.

On the first day we had swim class after Winter break the girls insisted on lunch out after the class was over. ibsuggested McDonalds since i didnt want tobdo shake shack, the other option they line at the mall.

I knew I was getting the full experience when even after spending 15 minutes at the lego storw we still had to wait five minutes for them to start making lunch. Breakfast was still being served. We stood there watching them flip the signs from breakfast to lunch at 10:55 AM. i was proud of myself for not ordering a bacon sandwitch in the advert i was staring at while waiting. it looked really good.

The girls were happy with the final result.

Things I Miss From America

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Before moving I read a lot about people complaining about you cannot get XYZ in London.  Many others noted (I believe correctly) that you will adjust better if you do not get held up by something not being available.  You should flip things around and think of it as an adventure and try new stuff.  That is the attitude I am taking in the 6 months living here so far as of this writing.

When we first moved here and i had go shopping for household stuff i was overwhelmed.  I had no clue about more than half the brands I saw.  I used that as an opportunity to try to save money and went with the brands that were relatively cheap.  For most food and household items that worked fine.  Instead of

Feedback from others was that the two main things people miss out on are certain consumer products and foods. As products go there were a few things here and there that I prefer an American version of. Mainly some clothing brands. I don’t buy that many clothes and what I do by last a while. When I need something I either wait till we’re back in the states or order it online to pay the shipping. When people visit I sometimes send them stuff to. It’s generally been few and far between.

The same goes for some over-the-counter medicines. Most of the stuff we get is local however there are a few things that we simply prefer from the US. Apparently we are nowhere near as picky as many other people we read about. As time moves on we rely on less and less from the states and simply have been adapting to what’s available.

As for food goes there is definitely plenty of things that I like that is not quite the same with what you get in the United Kingdom. For example New York style pizza is pretty unique. A good bagel and locks is possible to get here however not everywhere. The bagals are ok just not the same as New York. Before we moved I was worried that both of those examples would be things I missed dearly. In practice I do not. Don’t get me wrong when we were visiting New York I went for a good slice of pizza. My mom took us to my favorite pizza place growing up. We also made it a point to go to our favorite bagel place when we were in Forest Hills as well. It was just as good as we remember it. We enjoyed both experiences a lot. The experiences in New York are definitely not the same as those in London however we can still get decent pizza and halfway decent bagels and smoke salmon. I don’t even eat bagels as much as I use to. We have different morning rituals now. If we go out I like a good full English breakfast.

All the things I mentioned having a different version of them or not having them at all has been relatively easy to adapt to in London. For me there was one thing that I missed that I did not realize how much I missed until I was back in the United States. I realized early on that most places in the United Kingdom did not prepare burgers the way I like them. I think it’s around the fact that they have to cook them a little bit more well done then I like here. I’m not really sure though. I just know that in most cases hamburgers aren’t as juicy and delicious as I am used to in the States. In fact my favorite hamburger in Europe actually was in Copenhagen. I still eat burgers all the time when we are out. It’s my go to food. Although depending on the place Fish & Chips is catching up as a good backup option. I have not been sorely missing a good burger.

When we were in Florida in February to go on our cruise we went to lunch with my in-laws. It wasn’t anything fancy. We just went to Chili’s. The juiciness of the hamburger reminded me how a really good burger should taste. It wasn’t until then I realized I missed that. Shake Shack and Gourmet Burger Kitchen are really good however I just don’t think any of those places got my burger as juicy as the one I had in Florida.

Some people would be upset by this. They may even stop ordering them when they go out. Not me. I’m on a mission to find good burgers in the UK. That means if I go somewhere and it looks good on the menu I’m still going to order it. If it turns out to be so so then I know what to expect. The turns out to be really good although where to go back to. That will hold me over until we’re back in New York and I can go to outback or chilis or any other mediocre chain restaurant that will grill me a juicy burger.

The Origin of My Near Lifetime of Being a Trekkie

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I have a problem. I like Star Wars. I also like Star Trek. If asked which one I like better I am really not sure how to answer. I have actually been asked that question. Depending on the context I have given different answers.  Now I simply say I like lots of sci-fi. Memories of both franchises are some of my earliest memories. To some degree the science-fiction things that I was fascinated with as a kid shaped who I am and what I do today. It’s only appropriate that one of the first “origin stories” about my childhood I write will be about my first memories of Star Trek.

This is a topic I have thought about it for a while before sitting down to blog.  Likely I thought way too much on this.  It was great fun to do it. In reality I do not know what my first true exposure to Star Trek was. All I can speak to is what I remember.

My first memories from any version of Star Trek was Star Trek the Motion Picture. I’m not sure if I saw it in the theater or not. There are other movies from around the same period of time that I do recall going to the theater, so its plausable I could have gone. Either way I do remember watching it.  I was pretty young when it came out.  I was 5 in 1979.  That explains why I did not at the time fully understand the movie at the time. I was also too young to get that it wasn’t really that great of a movie.  The visuals were great though. The story not so much.  For a 5 year old that was enough to get me fascinated.  I recall understanding that everyone was coming back together from something else.  I just didn’t know really what.  I hadn’t watched the Original Series.

I am assuming it was part of the story and mainly the effects that made me like Star Trek The Motion Picture so much. I say that I like it because I have strong memories that I was very excited to see Star Trek II the wrath of Khan. That movie I clearly remember going to see. I remember waiting outside what was a two screen theater near Bloomingdale’s and Fresh Meadows to see it with my dad. There was a pretty big line to go see it. Star Trek II is still one of my favorite movies of all time. What is not to like? It’s got a lot of science fiction, great action sequences, and pretty interesting drama. There’s also some great overacting by William Shatner. If I was a bit interested in Star Trek after the first motion picture by the wrath of Khan I was hooked. 30 plus years later I think it still aged well.

My memories of my first viewing of Star Trek III or IV were less vivid. It was very likely I saw them both in the theatres.  I liked both.  I was very disappointed when they blew up the Enterprise in A Search for Spock.  I thought the 4th one was very fun.  Even if not as interesting as Wrath of Khan.  The fact that the Enterprise came back was huge for me.  Each of those movies built up my liking of the franchise and kept me wanting to experience more.  I do not have specific recollection however it was likely around then I would have seen some of the original series.  Not much of it but a bit.

 It was not until I heard that they were making a sequel to the television show that got me excited.  I recall hearing about it and then being excited for months before it came out. I remember watching the first episodes and was drawn in.  I enjoyed the first season.  I think I am in the minority in saying I imagined myself as Wesley Crusher.  I mean who wouldn’t want to be a kid on a star ship making everyone else look less intelligent! I only found out later that I was apparently in the minority and reading Wil Wheaton’s blog he talked alot about the negitivity people had towards that charicter. To heck with that, I wanted to be a kid on a a starship.

By the 2nd season of Next Generation I watched much of it but not all when it came out each week.  I think with the change of Doctors just didn’t fit well with me.  In that respect I think I was in the majority when Crusher came back in Season 3.  Season 3,4,5 were like the golden age of Star Trek for me.  I watched it as regularly as I could.  If I couldn’t watch it I would record it on VHS.  At one point I had most if not all of the episodes on VHS tape.

I was curious about Deep Space Nine.  I watched the first season and then sporadically after that.  It wasn’t until much later when I saw them all I fully appreciated how awesome it was.

I could keep going on about Deep Space Nine, Voyager, etc.  By the time DS9 came out I was in College.  I was already a fan.  Funny enough there were times when I was younger that I was not as big a fan of the franchise vs Star Wars.  So many years later I am not really sure why.  I have theories but they are not worth exploring here.  It is enough for me to know that the first two movies and Season One of The Next Generation are why I am still a fan today.

Random Finds From America

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Last week we were in Florida before and after a cruise. While at a 7-Eleven outside Orlando Florida I saw a Redbox. My first question was do these really still exist? Then it dawned on me people may still actually use DVD’s. Even though I remember my DVD collection I thought the idea of DVD’s in 2020 to be pretty old school. Then again the term “old school” may be dating me.

To Keep or Cancel Whatsapp

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In my part 1 of My Great Social Media Purge of 2019 i outlined my objectives with assessing my use case of each social media platform I use. Part 2 covered Twitter. Part 3 covered Reddit. Part 4 covers Linkedin. Now part 5 is Whatsapp, or as I call it “the chat app i am forced to use since everyone left AOL IM”.

I thought about WhatsApp when I first started this excersise. It still only comes in fourth on my list. Partly because I was procrastinating. My assesment with WhatsApp is simple. I dont want anyone to know who i talk to. I am not doing anything wrong or illegal. Neither to my knowledge is anyone i am talking to. That is imiterial though. I have a right to privacy and I am excersising that right. Plain and simple.

Not wanting people to know who I talk to and using WhatsApp is challenging. Whatsapp does collect tons of meta data about your messages and calls. They allegidly are not able to read the body of the messages. Just the metadata. The question then becomes do care that WhatsApp has any metadata on me? More specifically the question could be how bad is it that they have metadata that i called my mom? Or my wife? Since lets face it they are the main people i use it for. I also chat or call people internationally with it for work. I can say I dont care about work linkage on WhatsApp however I probably should. I do care about everyone else I chat with on whatsapp. It’s mainly innocuous yet the linkage is still there in collected meta data. Will it likely impact me in my every day life that Facebook has that linkage? Probibly not. The fact they can learn a whole bunch about me because of it is creepy.

Practically speaking I know I will not get my local parents Organization for my kids school to stop using whatsapp. That means I have to live with the metadata collection.with. Or choose not to be in the conversation. I want to be in the conversation and there are too many ad hoc chats with friends and coworkers using Whatsapp that there would be a noticible loss of comunication and colaberation with several circles of people if I delete the app. Likely moreso than any other tool I am using and rewviewing.

To minimize my exposure to Whatsapp I aim to move as much of that conversation over to Signal or Telegram. Preferably Signal. I haven’t been very successful so far. Some work friends use Telegram. I got some family on Signal. The vast majority of people still use Whatsapp. I am going to make much more of an effort on this going forward.

The verdict on Whatsapp (For now) is sadly I will keep it. I will say its keep for as long as I have to, however lets face it that will likely be a while. I blame everyone else I chat with.