Another great tool for visualizing time-based information.
Practice your personal Kaizen - Lifehacker
Kaizen = improvement. I really enjoyed this article. It does a great job of summing up the heart of my work philosophy. I don’t always follow it perfectly, sometimes I fail and try to just keep going to get the job off of my plate. But, I think this is the best overall method for handling improvement over time.
Field & Stream - Photo Gallery - Seven Ways To Light a Fire Without a Match
Nothing major here. Just a great list of tips for starting a fire without matches. I already know most of these, but a few of them are new to me.
Windows Events - Got Mail Replacements - Free File Download
Lots of audio clips to replace the “You’ve got mail” sounds on your computer.
TVU networks corporation | Downloads
Another software designed to bring free TV to the desktop. Windows only.
Beyond the Beyond
“It is not necessary to change; survival is not mandatory.” the late W. Edwards Deming
Not certain this will take you straight to the Streamgarden, but just click on the link. Great idea for increasing natural oxygenation in living and work spaces without using up valuable floor space. I immediately started wondering how I could put this in both my home and office. Wonder what kind of vine plant would work for this? It would have to resist polination and couldn’t require a lot of sun.
Download of the Day: PicLens (Mac) - Lifehacker
This is a great idea. I don’t use Safari often, but this is a great idea for simplifying the viewing of image lists.
Okay, it is 4:50 on my phone display. 10 minutes to the weekend, and a fine weekend it looks to be. But, let’s check in on this crazy get-off-my-butt idea I had.
We’ll start with the aches. I have a few. I would estimate I swapped around 20 hours of sitting for the same number standing. It is to be expected as bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles are suddenly wondering if the brain is short-circuiting. The week started with the feet, back and hips aching and is ending with sore shoulders (especially the right shoulder) and ankles and a few sharp pains on the inside of my knees. But, I also have to think about the four hours of advanced sword drills (for those who don’t know, I seem to enjoy having people punch, kick and swing objects at me in my free time but I hide it under the guise of martial arts and pretend its functional) this week and that will certainly have caused some of this. Next week will include less practice time, so it might be a better indicator of how this works overall.
For my energy, it continues to move up. I really like it. My poor office neighbor has had to listen as I broke into song along with whatever song comes up on my iPod. I’m trying to keep it to a minimum, but I have a big amplifier mouth. But I think it shows how energizing it is. Standing certain returns much more energy than it takes. I’m forming the opinion humans really were meant to stand rather than sit. It makes too much evolutionary sense.
Productivity: Ah, here is the crucial metric. Was I less/equally/more productive during a week of standing? Well, I think more and less. Some long-term focus items suffered. Standing for a long time, focused on one item wasn’t easy. But, I think that will improve in time. Short-term focus items were much easier. Bouncing from one to the next was like a dance. Instead of constantly bending from the waist to reach everything, I moved across the room. It really added something to the day. Made going to work more enjoyable and the day seemed shorter.
Impact on others: Well, including my aforementioned forays into softshoe and humming, I picked up a propensity for both singing and air-guitar. I’m not enirely certain which of those is more embarrasing. I do believe it is a good sign of both freedom of movement and excess energy, which are both positive.
Stay tuned next Friday for week 2.