the 30-day challenge – One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

You may have heard of the “30-day challenge“, where you set aside 30 days to do something every day – which you don’t normally do. Many times people go for cool things they always wanted to do but “never had time to do them”, while other people go for healthy stuff / foods / principles / recipes that they adhere to for 30 days. Some of the most interesting and common ones are,

• 20 minutes of jogging every day;
• read a book in 30 days;
• spend 30 mins every day to learn a language for 30 days, as much as you can;
• no fizzy / carbohydrated drinks for 30 days;
• no sugar for 30 days;
• one picture per day with description for 30 days,
• 30 Day Letter Challenge
• Cut back on FarmVille
• 30,000 words in 30 days – Personal Challenge
• Study for exams
• 30 Day Blog Challenge
• Don’t use electronics every time I revise, for 30 Days
• Contest for Business Forum
• 30 Day Song Challenge
• To Get a Photograph with 20+ DeviantArt Favorites
• 30 Days of Photos
• 30 Day Blog-A-book Challenge
• 30 day NO facebook Challenge
• Run 100km
• 20,000 words in 30 days
• 30 day Juiceing
• No Chocolate for 30 days
• Push up Challenge
• Phone a friend a day for 30 days!
• 30 Day Outdoors Challenge
• Make something everyday for thirty days

and many others. I think it’s up to each one to decide which of these he would go for. So about 3 weeks ago I also started this -

30-day challenge – One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

and somehow I managed to keep it up! Now I’m almost close to the end of “the first round” and I need to find a new topic / a new subject… so I’m fishing around for ideas. If you have any, leave me a comment! Here are some of the meaningful things I did + wrote about every day until now…

• Praying My Problems Away – Glorious Freedom!
• Treasuring the Morning Revival Time with the Lord;
• On Time 4 the LTM + Thorough Cleaning;
• Wearing my, Christians On Campus T-shirt Today;
• Baptizing a Brother into the Triune God;
• Being Supportive Without Being Noticed;
• going shopping with the Lord;
• Get some rest + the Prayer Meeting;
• Playing Football with the Brothers;
• Leaving In Haste from the Carnival in Notting Hill Gate;
• Updating My Phone Contacts;
• Making a 3-months Commitment to Read the NT;
• Redeeming the Time at Lunch;
• Customer Service Done Properly;
• Going Through Psalms 2 thoroughly!
• Gym and Psalms(1) msg 2!
• The Most Important Thing In the Week, the LTM!
• Fellowship and …. Walk! (Saturday, 20 Aug 2011)

…. any suggestions on what challenge should I go for next? I was thinking One Picture per day – one London Tube Station per day This means I’m gonna travel… but I’m open to suggestions…

my Diaspora* invitation is coming soon, and “we’re making a difference”

Yes, everyone is on facebook, and of course I’m on twitter. So when Diaspora* was announced as this amazing project where you own all your data and can share only what you want to share with whomever you want to share, etc – full control over your data – I was also very happy! But then we all had to wait… 3 months… 6 months… 1 year… In the meantime google+ came out and they are continually developing their product, bringing many new features to the table, such as the google circles, the hangouts, the huddle, sharing with the circles you want or persons you want, public sharing, etc. Pretty cool – and it’s here, now!

One of my friends sent me an invitation to Diaspora* so eventually I got an account with them, but the excitement is gone by now… and today, just like many others, I got this email entitled, “Your invitation is coming soon, and we’re making a difference.”

Dear Friend of Diaspora* -Thanks for your interest in being part of the Diaspora* community. You may not have heard from us in a while, but we’ve been working hard, head-down. We’ve built the first stage of a new social web, one better than what’s out there today: a place where each of us owns our own information, where each person controls his or her own privacy, where no-one is a product, and where we all control our own destinies.We’re sending out alpha invitations now, as quickly as we can. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you will receive it by the end of October.There’s been big news in the social networking world recently, and we can’t help but be pleased with the impact our work has had on two of the biggest developments. We’re proud that Google+ imitated one of our core features, aspects, with their circles. And now Facebook is at last moving in the right direction with user control over privacy, a move spurred not just by Google+, but more fundamentally by you and thousands of other donors, as well as hundreds of thousands of people who’ve lined up to try Diaspora* — that is, by all of us who’ve stood up to say “there has to be a better way.” We’re making a difference already.And aspects is just one of the many ways we’re pioneering the future of the social web.Here’s a quick preview of some of the other ways: We’ll make the social web more fun than it is today. Our distributed design gives you the security of owning your own identity and data. This also gives you the freedom to do what you want online. Our ecosystem provides the commons, the connective tissue for an evolving social web. We’re not gatekeepers, so our ecosystem will always support the latest apps. We’ll tell you a little more about each of these points in the weeks ahead. And we’ll keep working to get your alpha invitation to you just as quickly as we can. Until then, thanks again for your interest in Diaspora*. Sincerely, - Maxwell, Daniel, Ilya, Sarah, Yosem and Peter The Diaspora* team Thursday, September 8th, 2011

C’mon, guys, you need to be more quick in releasing the new products! The web is moving at the lighting speed… if you want to make a difference, don’t try to do this TOO LATE! Facebook is updating really quick(remember the funny groups and pages on facebook? – where are they now?) and so does twitter, google+, and facebook!

wikileaks and the rest of the world, the wikileaks bomb and us

Everyone talks about wikileaks these days, especially as their top spokesman/leader Julian Assange was arrested in the UK. They unveiled / made public several hundreds of thousands of cables and international secret telegrams, papers, letters, emails, etc. Many of these impacted the relations between countries and shook up goverments. USA, of course, wants the website dead, so they “killed it” – their hosting company refused to host it anymore. More than that – paypal, VISA, and MasterCard, among other online payments processing companies, refused to take any payments that would help wikileaks. Strangely enough, it looks like at the moment MasterCard online payment processing has some serious problems – no payments can be taken(at least at the moment) – the hackers that support wikileaks put the website and their online services down.

What’s going on? Who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy? Sweden because they want Julian Assange on a ridiculous charge of rape? USA and the other superpowers because their real intentions and attitudes were revealed in these cables / documents put online? The hackers who kicked wikileaks out of USA? The newspapers and radios and news medias who are pros / cons the wikileaks? The hackers who DDOS attacked MasterCard and other online payments processing companies? The rest of the wikileaks people who continue to publish leaked documents via wikileaks? USA who bans any discussion or mention of wikileaks for people who want to work for them? The newspapers like guardian who analyze the cables and periodically put out some analysis regarding the relations between the countries and the ambassadors / foreign affairs ministers? Wow, talking about the world becoming smaller – via these thousands of leaked documents you can see some state secrets / secret operations that took place in the war…. all of them for free. I have no idea what’s going on… but wikileaks definitely placed a bomb and now, the rest of the world…

when will my iPad replace my diary? When will online replace offline?

The response to the first question is SOON! Though very much into the online stuff and the computer related things, the daily diary with notes, maps, to do lists, address, etc – see the article about “keeping a diary with important things, daily” – is still one of my favourite things to do. Now that I have an iPad with a virtual “limitless battery power”, I’m still asking myself – when will my iPad replace my diary? Here are some of the things/matters an iPad can replace and do even better than any physical paper-based diary can:

• The Calendar app – managing your events, your important meetings, including notes about the meetings(in case you wanna write some notes as you’re in the meeting). Cool: you can have events as “repeat weekly/daily/monthly/every Monday, etc” – something which you have to manually write in your diary;
• Notes and sessions – the CourseNotes app – you want to take notes? Multiple subjects, multiple sessions, with exporting and back-up, etc – I discovered this iPad app, the CourseNotes – a Student’s class companion for the iPad;
• Notes – the Notes application coming with the iPad itself is more than enough for writing notes, managing notes, updating, etc;
• Contacts – from the simple yet comprehensive built-in iPad Contacts app with google contacts sync – to the more complex and more expensive contacts apps, there are many ways of managing / grouping / having your contacts on your iPad + being continually synced with the contacts you have online. And yes, you can add picture to your contacts. Unfortunately, no calls can be made from the iPad(unless you use Skype or other VoIP app), or else it will completely replace the diary AND the mobile phone;
• thoughts and interesting things – whether offline(thoughts on the iPad only) or online(apps that connect you to the internet to blog/tweet/facebook, etc), there are apps for keeping a journal, scribble down your thoughts(whether in a free form drawing mode or keyboard-input thoughts) – on the iPad! Most of the apps allow you to organize your thoughts / to do lists / notes and then sync them with the online realm – see EverNote.
• Financial stuff – unlike the physical diary(where it’s all there for people to see, can’t really “hide it”), on the iPad there are password-protected apps that can check your banking status, make payments online, shop online(see the eBay app), or simply enter your daily spendings / budgets / card payments, etc. – see 5 personal finance apps for the iPad. So much better than “pen and paper”…
• to do and projects – plenty of advanced and colourful to do full screen apps for the iPad, projects management and follow up, etc. Much more developed + at your fingertips than the physical ones…

Besides these there are the games apps, the facebook app, the twitter management apps, the wordpress apps, and many many other entertainment and all kinds of useful / useless or time wasting / time consuming / time managing / interesting apps…. Here is a list of iPad apps recommended by the Apple themselves, a Business Insider review of 99 apps for iPad, a website dedicated to the Best iPad Apps, etc.

Some thumbs-down for the iPad vs the physical diary:

• the iPad is still an expensive gadget – sometimes is dangerous to take it out in public, not just positively(by attracting the attention of everyone, in admiration), but even the more negative(by at least making the others jealous + some even eager to do smth to get it from you);
• it’s all electronic! The feel of the paper, printing, writing manually, adding stickers and notes… – versus the electronic + online apps and notes, which latter ones are “off” if the battery is off…
• the all-inclusiveness of the physical diary vs the different apps on the iPad – flipping the pages / the bookmarks in a physical diary gets you to where you want, while on the iPad(since it’s not a multi-tasking device) you have to switch between apps, and, more importantly, most of the time you have to be connected to the Internet.

now that I have an iPad 3G, I need some cool iPad apps to install and play with

It’s the new trend, right? It’s the Apple iPad Fever! To get something new, like 2 months ago when I got the HTC HD2(and now the iPhone 4, the HTC EVO, the HTC Desire, and the other new cooler phones are here) – this is what “makes the world go around” and insures companies like google, apple, HTC, the mobile phone operators, etc – their income in a regular way.

So yesterday I called Apple in Oxford Street(London) to ask them if they have any 3G iPads, and they actually didn’t(saying: if we don’t have any, then no Apple Store in London would have them), and then I called PC World to find out that some of the more remote PC World stores have the iPad 3G(the one with both Wi-Fi and the 3G connection). The stores in Central London have no more iPads with 3G (that’s how quick city people buy these “candies”). Eventually, after work I went straight away to this remote PC World store in Chingford, NE London, and got my 32GB 3G iPad! YEY! Of course, for the next almost 2 hours until I got back home I couldn’t open it to see what’s inside(not safe to play with a brand new iPad as you travel in London).

So now I need recommendations for cool iPad apps to install and play with! That is, besides:

• the google app – dah! Though I’m on some Apple machine, google is what I love
• iSilo – document reader, very important;
• we rule – recommended by Leo Laporte, quite an addictive game, farmville style;
• wordpress – YEY, I can check my blogs + write blogs on the go! COOL!
• Facebook / skype – not full apps for the iPad, but the iPhone apps work relatively fine(you can zoom in…)
• the piano app – cool app, free, making your own music…

so… I need help – can u recommend me some Cool iPad apps to install & test / play with?

observations and comments on Bones, where science meets life

I’m not too much of a TV watching person, but if my friends recommend some TV shows, I try to see them. Nope, The Office is not my type, though some seem to like it(I’ve got too much real hands-on daily office experience to know all these little shenanigans…). Bones, on the other hand, where

• the geeks/nerds(Temperance Brennan) meet the cool-wannabes (Booth),
• the forensic anthropologists work with the FBI agents,
• the science meets and tries to help the real life experiences,
• the brainy guys with less than 1% touch with reality meet flesh and blood human beings with feelings,
• science tries to and succeeds in putting a face & restoring/remembering the dead bones,
• death is almost trivial, being seen many times in a pragmatic way,
• people are learning to have feelings and unleash their emotions,
• hooking up is as easy as breaking up,
• the “heartless” have deeper emotions and feelings than they show others, one just needs to gently encourage them in this,
• it is hard to have long-lasting partners when you think too much,
• having a life-long partner called “spouse” is an old concept(Bones),
• a cool guy “courts” a scientist by what he is / does, yet she does not even see it,
• there’s a growing dependence on one another as they work closer together,
• love is hard to define, yet it’s present between the 2 main characters,
• if something is logical and cannot be refuted by scientific hard-core evidence only means, people are willing to die for it, or even to join a crazy and abnormal secret society and undermine the FBI/the friends for that(Zak);
• hurt people are everywhere, another case means exposing something/someone who got hurt in the past, including the investigators,
• though no one loves psychology, everyone practices it on a certain scale & eventually gets it,
• two opposite characters work together(Booth and Bones) - they start by kicking one another and end up in depending and caring for one another,
• FBI + forensic science is the “wanna-be-in-this-place” for the geeks, where all the action is,
• the group spirit is being developed, from individuals they are being made as a group working together and caring for one another,
• two scientists, a dreamer/an artist, a super-rich-yet-smart dude, a boss-coroner, and a cocky show-off FBI agent working together to solve crimes.

Uhm… And this is just from 1st season, not mentioning Lance Sweets(the very young psychologist) and Cam(Booth’s ex, now the boss of the squints) I’ll add some other observations as I remember them. I especially appreciate/like the relationship – proper relationship – among Booth and Bones, and I totally dislike the superficial and arrogant attitude of the “more intelligent” people towards life/the others.

I’d like to quit smoking, but I really can’t. Can you all help me please?

Just to set things straight, I am not a smoker, I don’t smoke, and I never did. But unfortunately, living in Europe means that you more than smoke – you passively smoke, you inhale the smoke the others enjoy exhaling….

Everyone knows that smoking is not good, it damages the health of both the people who do smoke and of the ones around them. Yet people in Europe still smoke, even all the more smoke. Even more, the smoking that takes place in Europe(whether Eastern Europe or Western Europe – the same for both) is a “violent” smoking, that shocks all the newcomers from other continents. People simply don’t care where they smoke, who’s around them as they smoke, how old / young are the ones who smoke, and what is the impact of their smoking – they just smoke! In the UK there was a law that was passed out to disallow the smoking in buildings, yet allow it only in designated places – this just moves the cloud of smoke outside, affecting the ones walking by much more! Just imagine what we all go through:

• Walking / being outside – I walk on the street, either going home/to work/visiting people/going shopping, and in front of me there’s this person who smokes and, until I try to catch up and take over, I just breathe in the wonderful cigarette smoke…. – what right does one have to kill me and damage my health in such a way? I think we should have the gutts + the ground/laws to sue the people who smoke in a way that affects us yet without having our permission!
• Travelling / walking – I get out of the train station / tube station / the library / the bank / the gym / the supermarket and what awaits me? A group of people who shamelessly and continuosly smoke, either trying to finish the cigarette and get in, or just staying outside for a smoke…. the wave of smoke “hits you in the face”….
• Public places – Around the pubs/the bars/the restaurants/the public buildings/the tube stations – you either walk a long way around it, or you simply walk through the group of the people that smoke and chat….

It actually breaks one’s heart to see moms with little children walking on the street and the mom is smoking….  or pregnant women smoking…. or young people smoking just before going to school…. Believe me: I don’t smoke, yet it seems like also can’t quit smoking! Wherever you are, they are waiting for you(and in England: no matter the weather, they are still there, outside, smoking in your face…) ready to give you some poison… that’s why I say: can you all help me please?

funny and random groups on facebook

You would never believe the names/ideas behind some of these groups on facebook. Even worse – how many people join these groups! You think you know a certain one of your friends, and then you check out his/her profile and you see all these groups listed there…. and you change your mind. Here are some of the funny / strange / interesting random facebook groups I recently discovered….
PS. Advert: Here’s a totally random company fan page on facebook :~)  (which I happen to manage)

• We Will Not Pay To Use Facebook. Need As Many Members Possible To Stop This!
• What Du u Mean Hus Diis ? Yurh Dah One Dat Added Me Kmtt..
• When I realised the word “bed” looks like a bed, my mind was blown.
• I love listening to lies when i know the truth!
• WHY ARE YOU SITTING NEXT TO ME WHEN THERE ARE 100 OTHER SEATS ON THIS BUS??
• I love how we’re friends on Facebook, but we don’t actually talk in person.
• I thought it was cool to talk into the fan when I was a kid.
• Ok, Mom/Dad you got your point across, you can stop talking now.
• COLOUR CO-ORDINATION IS NOT SWAGGA!
• If I Fail My Exams, Its Facebook’s Fault;
• I read the group name, I laugh, I join, I never look at it again.
• “BRB… IM NOT REALLY GOING ANYWHERE, BUT NEITHER IS THIS CONVERSATION”
• Waking up, closing your eyes for a second and waking up 20 mins later !
• Facebook, give us a “dislike” button;
• No, you did not just activate the “dislike” button… jeez;
• PETITION FOR FACEBOOK TO INSTALL A DISLIKE BUTTON Need 3 mill. members! Send a suggestion for a dislike button to Facebook DIRECTLY!
• I Hate The New Facebook;
• DISLIKE BUTTON…NEED 7,000,000 MEMBERS INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW ASAP;
• If your name starts with A, C, D, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, S, T…join!!!
• If U Got An – ‘A’ or ‘E’ In Ur FIRST Name Join !!!
• Let´s try to gather all facebook members in one group! is it possible??

These groups are just some of the many irrational / logical / youth-made groups, some making no sense, many being duplicates…. Some are about social actions, others loving stuff/hating stuff, for a change/against a change, etc… I’m not trying to promote them, just to state them… If I would promote smth, as an experiment, what about this cool yet random fan page?

claim your name before….

Before someone else talks about you, why don’t you “set the tone” by giving google/the others some information about yourself! There are many websites that you can have a profile on, either personal of business websites, and all it requires is a little of your time. Actually, it is more and more that as you are looking for a job/future job, the people that hire you will want to see something about you online. So, why don’t you create a profile on facebook (personal profile, pictures, fan pages, vanity url, friends, etc), twitter(personal profile, text based site, 140characters max, supports pictures, customizable background, followers and following, favourites), linkedin (both professional and personal profile, your professional CV for free, connections with companies and other business people, solid linking, picture, etc), plaxo(free profile, similar to linkedin, write about yourself there), blogging on wordpress/blogspot(get a free blog / free name.wordpress.com or name.blogspot.com, or both, and write about what you’re interested in, good content, pictures, links; submit it to technorati or other blog aggregators, visit other blogs and comment); friendfeed (aggregate all your social networking accounts, create a profile there), google profile (if you have a gmail account, then create a profile on google, with your websites, favourites, hobbies, shared items, etc), and other sites.

Why not invest some time to be properly represented online, especially since it is YOU we’re talking about?

google sidewiki: useful vs more spam

One interesting fact about both the google toolbar and this new function – google sidewiki – is that none of them works with google chrome(which is google’s new browser & OS wanna be). On the other hand, it looks like you can add data(including html data) about anything on the page – portions of text, the whole page, or a site, and this data will actually be visible wherever online this portion of text/article/paragraph is quoted/posted. Nice social aggregator.

Announced as “Help and learn from others as you browse the web” via the google official blog(the api is also released), this tool can be something useful/helpful if used by the right people with the right intentions or can be spammed or it can be stuffed with bad content or other nasty things that your competitors/haters wanna say. The principle is also that the most relevant comments are first, and seemingly there’s more under the hood technology-wise than it appears! Hopefully there will be a way to identify/filter/reject/delete the spam/hater comments that can appear on certain sites…