You may want to consider contract work, where you can work on projects in multiple industries. If you get bored with a project, you just need to ride it out for a few months until something fresh comes along. Gaps between work are a great time to recharge. Of course, contracting comes with downsides like having to deal with crappy expensive health insurance, assuming you are in the US.
If you're curious about artificial and natural flavors, "The Dorito Effect" is a great read on the topic. What blew me away: "Naturally flavored" is marketed as "healthy" when it is anything but. Natural flavors are just as bad as artificial flavors. You are adding chemicals to food to make them more palatable, but not enhancing nutrition. Those chemical compounds happen to occur in nature, but the process of isolating and extracting them then adding them back to food is just as bad as adding synthesized compounds (artificial flavors). We're so concerned with calories, but this is the real root cause of the obesity epidemic: calories without nutrition.
I wanted to check my phone less, and one thing that helped was setting the screen to grayscale (iOS: Settings > General > Accessibility ). When things are less shiny, you're less inclined to compulsively have a look. Tip from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/480240/adventures-in-...
Terrible. I recently switched to T-Mobile and was pleasantly surprised to find out I'd have free data and text while on vacation in Holland. Wifi is pretty ubiquitous though so hopefully you'll be able to get by.
Speaking of Oregon, I went to find the online application today and was disappointed (but not surprised) to find out it can only be submitted using IE. Tens of millions of dollars spent and I can't even use a modern browser.
Not in my experience. I did exactly that (install SSD in cd drive bay, and use orig hd for a second drive), and when I had a fan issue it was not a problem.
I bought a season 1 of The Walking Dead on iTunes, and found it suboptimal. It kept automatically trying to download the normal version, HD version, and each "behind the scenes" episode for each episode. All I want is the HD version! This was annoying enough to me to go back to just pirating episodes for season 2. If this experience has changed I might reconsider.
"Ask rails developer how to do authentication, and you’re likely going to hear 'devise' or 'authlogic'. These are great solutions for most use cases."
I like that the author thought through what the minimum amount of code needed would be to get the job done for his specific case. However with recent improvements to Rails, Authlogic & Devise are usually overkill even if you are going the standard route. It's easier than you think to roll your own, and you'll end up with a similar amount of code. Here's a good post summing it up: http://www.farbeyondprogramming.com/2011/05/63-rails-user-au...
I think it was David Pogue who wrote something up on this: press "1 * #" in that order, slowly, listening after each press. Depending on the carrier, you'll skip the message eventually.
Just be careful bouldering as a beginner. It's really easy to try something that you don't have the hand strength/tendon strength for yet and tweak something. Some gyms have autobelays which let you climb without a partner, so that might be an option.
In my experience, the quality level of ads has dropped considerably. My last two Craigslist experiences:
I recently tried looking for a used car in the Chicago area. It turns out almost all the postings in the "by owner only" area are actually dealers in disguise. I found this out the hard way after driving an hour to see a car at what turned out to be some kind of sketchball dealership.
Another time, someone posted an ad for a musical instrument. I go to the guys house and he turns out to be some type of dealer/wholesaler. He didn't even have the actual instrument from the ad and was pulling some bait-and-switch crap.
All of this has pretty much soured me on Chicago Craigslist, but I will say that the experience is probably still a bit better in smaller metropolitan areas.
"People want to meet you, but you have to meet them halfway."
Exactly. Reach out to people. Put yourself out there. I'm discovering that the people that are worth getting to know take some effort. I've had lots of "friends" who in hindsight, where just chatty assholes.
Coincidentally, I just finished On Intelligence, and I found it pretty mind-blowing. If you're interested in learning and the brain, read it! You can also read about the HTM algorithm they are working on here: http://www.numenta.com/htm-overview/education.php According to the first paper, there's enough detail there for you to implement the algorithm yourself. Cool!
I had a very similar experience. Video games were not allowed in my house, but my neighborhood friend had 4 different consoles and tons of games. Many an evening was spent playing nintendo; my parents joked about my friend's family adopting me because I was over there constantly. I turned out just fine, and said friend scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs.
If you're going to pick one, I recommend HDStarcraft; his commentaries have the best stuff/fluff ratio IMO. I enjoyed his casts so much I tossed him a couple of bucks.
Also in the Celtic vein: uilleann pipes. Anything played in the key of D with drones sounds fantastic, since it is tuned using just temperament: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW0foorxhDk
I've forgotten where I read this, but read the questions/problems AND attempt to solve them before even reading the chapter. You will learn the material better.
The cultural norm, at least in the US, is to make friends at work. I like my coworkers and teammates, but after spending 8 hours with any group of people, I just want to chill at home. I think sometimes my teammates wonder why I don't always go to team outings; I like to spend the 5 hours I have after work w/ my girlfriend, or hobbies. I think some people just don't have any kind of social life outside of work, so that's where they do their socializing.
Reminds me of the "darknet" in Daniel Suarez's Daemon, a sort of augmented reality. People could be virtually downvoted/upvoted and carried their reputation scores around floating above their heads.
I think you've got the ideal setup there. 5 days a week in the office leads to too many distractions / meetings; but 5 days a week WFH leads to loneliness. I'm currently stuck only allowed to WFH when absolutely necessary. I'd love to sell this to my employer - was this a change that got implemented or was it that way from the start?
Here's what works for me: I used to have a donut/pastry and a 16oz (or larger) coffee in the morning. I'd feel good for an hour or so, but soon would feel jittery and spaced-out. Now, I have an 8-oz cup in the morning with a decent breakfast - but no more throughout the day. I drink my coffee slow, get a little caffeine boost, and feel energized all morning. Moderation.