Last week I went to the SF / norcal shuffle gathering. I learned how to c-step and t-step. It was quite fun.

I just got back from spin. I had to force myself to leave work… because there’s always the temptation to stay. I dunno why. So much paperwork for work recently. There’s like 10 pages of forms to fill out cause we got new HR stuff. HR is my least favorite department. Paperwork for the sake of paperwork. Sigh. And Jira. Jira makes me sad. It’s like…creating work for no freaking reason. But whatever. I guess once you reach a certain scale then you need something like jira. Even though it’s gross and makes me wanna puke.

I went to the gym yesterday night and I’m almost back in 90% strength which is good. I think I’m starting to fall back into my good habits and the usual schedule. My weekly schedule is dance/gym/spin/gym/rest/yoga/gym. With lots of reading in between. And video games of course. Even though I’ve been uh… watching a lot of pointless TV in the new year. I think that was just my new year’s splurge and I’m pretty much back on track.

I’ve planned out my april dominican republic trip for my cousin’s wedding. That’s the only trip that I have fully planned. I also bought myself the coolest toy. Treat yoself. I’ll write about that once it arrives and write a review. I feel kinda… spoiled but whatever. Treat yoself.

One of the tech leads is leaving. He’s quite impressive in a sense that I would say that he’s slightly better than me despite that fact that he’s younger by like.. 3 years or so. Other people are so talented. Why can’t I be talented? I wish I were smarter (school rumble reference).

I think Naruto is like… the same level of luck / birth / destiny / nepotism as Yang Guo from Condor Heroes.

First of all… Naruto says that anyone can become hokage through hard work and whatever. But that’s totally not the case… he’s the protagonist of the series and he was born / gifted into uber lucky situations.

First of all. Aside from the fact that he’s the 4th’s son and he has the gift of kyuubi and whatever sage chakra blood that’s in him.

He got Kakashi as his Jounin. Kakashi is like the top tier of Konoha and he even becomes temporary hokage. He basically trained under someone who was the hokage. Then he trains under the legendary Jiraiya. Jiraiya is the teacher of the 4th hokage. He was trained by essentially two of the best/strongest ninjas in Konoha / Za World.

He’s one of 9 people to be a jinchuuri. And he gots the strongest one to boot. Too lazy to write more. Basically Naruto didn’t become hokage through hard work. He was born into prestiege and trained by the best. I think Japan and Asian culture in general have more… bloodlines / nepotism so it’s reflected in the media. I mean.. they have the longest line of royalty / monarch.

I really like wuxia. I think growing up watching wuxia shows on TV was shaping my mind and stuff. I recently watched the 2015 version of Legend of the Condor heroes. I’ve seen the show so many times… from the Louis Koo version to the Liu Yifei version and a few in between.

The thing about reading / watching a story is that everything is so perfectly scripted. Every character you meet through the eyes of the protagonist eventually comes back into the story somehow. Since all the irrelevant characters don’t get mentioned. Everything always happens at the perfect time. Right when the hero is about to meet death… a miracle happens. And you know.. miracles just always happen in the worse of times. And also tragic occurences also happen at the worse of times. Right when it’s about to become a happily ever after setting… boom monkey wrench. Aside from the fact that I really enjoy these shows I guess I’ll just write about some of the bad thought patterns that I think shows like these introduce.

The main character is always born into badassery. In the case of Yang Guo… his father was a prince. His father’s sworn brother is Guo Jing. Guo Jing is like… #1 in the entire series of LOCH. But even before he meets Guo Jing. He meets the poisonous dude. The poisonous dude was top four in the world of the previous generation. The master than his father desperately wanted to study under. So he got training from a top 4 of the world by the age of 10. And then he met Guo Jing who was the #1 of the world. That’s like… unbelievable luck man. Since UFC is the only sport that I follow. That would be equivalent to getting trained by Anderson Silva from ages 5~10 and then having Jon Jones look after your growth or something.

By the age of 10. He’s already met the #1, and a top 5 in the world. Then as he gets abused by the monks and lives a shitty life. Some grandma saves him from the villains and he gets to train in the tomb with a goddess/prodigy. His new master is stronger than everyone at the entire previous stupid thing. And he somehow magically has access to all the sword manuals and inner manuals that would enable him to become a top tier in the world. By the time he’s 15… he’s already witnessed the uber elites.. and gained access to knowledge that would enable him to become uber elite. Of course he isn’t already an uber elite.

As he’s looking for his master he runs into the old leader of the beggar sect. Another top 4 of the previous generation and the master of the legendary Guo Jing. He learns the stick pattern from the beggar. The stick thing is like another elite tier martial arts. Even without the inner power or whatever it enables him to use it to beat strong people. By this point he’s met Poison/Beggar. That’s 2/4 top 4 in the world. And he’s learned from both of them. So what’s next? He meets the 3rd of the 4 of course. He meets Huang Yaoshi and of course… he learns another set of martial arts from him. At this point he’s met 3/4 previous generation gods and learned from all of them.

When he meets Huang Yaoshi… at age 20 he was already at the level of age 30 of the great. It basically shows what a prodigy he is… and in addition to his great talents he was fortunate to learn from literally the 3 best of the world. Blah blah blah… some events later he learns in interals of the dog beating stick. At this point… he’s learned 3 god tier martial arts from 3 god tier instructors in addition to his elite tier martial arts and his amazing talents. If he just practiced any of the 3 sets to perfect he’d be a god already. But instead he fuses all of them into his own blend of martial arts to quickly elevate his game.

Fast forward… who does he meet? Of course… the last of the 4 gods. Zhou Botong. The old man child. At this point he doesn’t learn any martial arts from him. But just by meeting him is quite the rare. I mean… how many people in the world get to meet one of the four gods? And he meets 4/4 gods. Before the age of 25. Yang Guo is on the road to becoming god tier in his 20s. That would be too easy of a hero story of course. So we gotta throw in some trials and tribulations.

He gets fatally poisoned. Ohs noes. His life is gonna end. While poisoned… he gets his arm chopped off. Omg. Injustice. Life is so unfair. But wait… he gets saved by a legendary condor. The condor brings him to the grave of a historical swordsman. The swordsman who changed himself to be named Forever Alone wanting defeat. That’s like… literally his name that’s renowned. He was never ever defeated. In front of the man’s tomb… there are swords that represents the phases in his life of his greatness. In phase 1 he had the perfect sword with perfect skill which made him unbeatable. The next phase is the heavy sword. The heavy sword which weights 80 kilos allowed him to brute force his way through all his enemies. And the last phase is the no sword phase. Twigs and pencils could be used as a sword. No sword became better than the sword and he was unbeatable.

Not only did Yang Guo meet the top 4 of the previous generation. He stumbles upon the legendary guy who was unbeatable. Literally unbeatable. And he indirectly gets to learn the sword art from this guy. Forever Alone has no powerscale but it’s safe to say that he’s better than all of the top 4. With Condor giving him legendary magical food to raise his internal energy and the heavy sword. He trains here until he masters the fundamentals of the heavy sword. He’s almost at the level of the unbeatable dude at age 30 and he’s not even 30 yet. And his poison is of course magically healed since the condor gave him magic uber stat boosting food.

So Yang Guo in addition to his godly talents had top 4 + god guidance + magic. It allowed him to reach top of the world before he was 30. That’s just… crazy man. I guess… if you aren’t born lucky or get crazy luck. You’ll just end up being a scrub. You could learn martial arts and stuff… but the greats always descent by great. It’s a great nepotism in the martial arts world. Well… maybe not but that’s what it looks like from this series. I mean… sure if YG wasn’t as talented as he was he wouldn’t have benefitted or whatever. But I think anyone with the luck that he had to meet the people he did would become badass.

I think the thought that I wanted to dissect was that… you only become top of the world through sheer luck and chance occurences. There’s like a huge survivorship bias and plot armor. In real life… Yang Guo would’ve died so many times. It feels like all stories are the product of an uber lucky multiverse. Where almost everything falls into place. Or where even though there’s horrible shitty events… shit always works out and you come out better. I mean… how many of us have the luck of training with the best in the world. I’d say pretty much none.

tl;dr - all wuxia stories feels like the product of all random chance factors perfectly rolled into one. It’s like survivorship bias with plot armor that enables you to level up to the extreme. Regular joes are always fodder because they don’t get the opportunities

Check out the video here.

Dan Gilbert is a pretty famous psychology professor on the study of happiness. I read his book stumbling on happiness awhile back and really enjoyed it. I think I’ll probably re-read it since I forgot a lot of it but anyways.

I think that this ted talk is just… really important. I keep thinking getting x will make me happy / happier. And after getting x… I always feel pretty much the same. It’s kinda… disappointing. Like… I chased achievement and my dreams. And I’m pretty much living my dream from like the past. In the past I dreamed what I am now… and yet I’m still the same level of happiness as before. Well… I’m definitely happier but I think it’s more from other things than from the actual achievements that I’ve obtained.

The other thing to note is that choice actually makes you… sadder. Or… less content. Maybe that’s why single people aren’t as happy as married people. Cause married people don’t really have a choice and single people have so many choices. Also… synthetic happiness is a very interesting concept. It’s true that you can make yourself feel happy. And it’s true that you do feel happy despite failure. But I dunno… it’s still a paradox. Even after watching the ted talk and the data. I mean… even though the data says lottery winners are the same happiness one year later than handicap people. And I believe the data to be true. It’s just hard to believe that it would be the case… like I would choose to win the lottery over losing my legs any day of the week.

I do agree that happiness is all about your thinking though. You can think your way into happiness or sadness. People in the same situation can think that life is amazing or life sucks. I know that sometimes I have swings where I just focus on the negatives and everything is horrible. Then I just try and be more thankful and think about all the goodness in my life and I’m happy again. I guess it’s all about that mindset and what you think after all.

I just got back from spin class and cooked dinner. So far in 2016… I’ve missed 3/3 weekday workouts. Kinda disappointed… but it’s my own fault. Plus… I know that I’ll eventually get back on track so I’m not too worried.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I keep prioritizing work over stuff I’d rather do. Even when there’s no work pressure for me to do that. No one forces me to think about / work a lot except me. Yet… I still work more to the point that it’s causing me to miss workouts. I guess it’s all excuses. I mean… I’m the only one that can decide what to do. Like how I decided to go to spin today by leaving work early. I just gotta decide to not overwork myself so I don’t get too tired to go to the gym.

This monday’s dance practice was so much fun. We had a guest instructor teach us house dance. I’m not a master jacker. Lol. The jack. It’s such a funny name for a dance move. And the reverse jack is too jokes. I was trying not to laugh learning it… but couldn’t help but smile.

I’ve been watching detective vs detective. I also finally got the hard copy of the sports psychology book so I’ll be reading that this weekend. I’m looking forward to just going back to the weekly schedule of a book a week. Contact lenses are the best. I just recently started wearing contact lenses more. And it feels so amazing to see the world so clearly all the time. Like… no need to clean the glasses… and you can like look at angles beyond the frame. I think I’ll probably get laser eye surgery at some point in the future.

I went out for dinner + dancing with the ultimate alliance group yesterday. It was so much fun. I’m thankful that I get to be a part of a dance group of super cool people.

I think that as I’ve gotten older I’ve diversified my friends group…I’m thankful for that. Well… even though I saw that I think all my friends are still college educated and don’t believe in creationalism. It’s weird that apparently in America half the population don’t believe in evolution. But I guess that’s a topic for another post.

I’m so thankful for the invention of contact lenses. I think I’m gonna get laser eye surguery at some point in time. It’s just so amazing that… I can see clearly without glasses.

I’m thankful that I live in a city. There’s just so much a take for granted. Walking around chinatown/sf/union square. I’m living in the place that people pay to travel to and take pictures of the streets and stuff. I just walk by the buildings and the streets everyday like it’s nothing.

I’m thankful that I’ve met wonderful mentors in my career. It’s kinda crazy how good I’ve become in terms of technical / software competency. I guess that’s what happens when I start applying myself and focusing on deliberate practice. At the same time… I guess it’s time for me to give back soon. The mentee becomes the mentor huh?

I missed my tuesday workout. It was forecasted to rain.. so I didn’t go. Then I stayed up until 4am… and it didn’t rain. Regret.

I went to spin today. It started raining like crazy mid walk there. I ran and survived. On the way back I just gave up and embraced the rain. I was fully soaked when I got back home. But I went to spin class so life is good.

I recently finished Kanzaki Naoki. I’ll probably write a jdrama review. It’s quite interesting… the most annoying thing for me was the substory / side arc. Cause that character was lame.

I think I have kinda an inverse new years resolution. You know how people always have new years resolutions and then they never stick to it? I always slack off in the first two weeks of the year before I get serious. Dunno why. I mean. It’s weird… every year in January you see the gym crowd up and tons of new people sign up. But by February / March it’s back to the usual where there’s not that many people. Then again… maybe I’m like other people. Except it’s not fitness that I fail at but my side projects or whatever.

But either way… looking back at 2015… it was amazing. And I’m sure that 2016 will be even better. So while I’m taking it easy the first two weeks and not really going to the gym and working / reading books. I know that my good habits are there and the foundation is strong. My year will be good.. even if it’s off to a bad start.

Doing laundry is still the hardest thing of the week for me. I’m down to my 2nd last pair of clean underwear. That’s a first… I would’ve already done laundry today but then the rain. Sigh. It’s predicted to rain tomorrow and friday as well. So… if I shower tomorrow night.. Friday will be my last day of clean underwear. O.O”

I’ve always wanted to write a post on Hisoka vs Netero since HxH is one of my favorite animes. Ever since the hunter arc when Hisoka was like god tier… and even at the battle tower arc you never see Hisoka break a sweat. Everyone he meets is less than 100 which means he’s essentially unbeatable.

In my opinion Netero would just stomp / crush the shit outta Hisoka. Because Hisoka cannot possibly move faster than the ant king and thus he’ll have to tank the shots. And there’s no way he has the durability of the king either. I don’t think zero would even be necessary to stomp him. But in the worse case I’m pretty sure zero is unblockable / definitely overkill.

tl;dr - Netero would roflstomp Hisoka no sweat

Wow. The xkcd here is just so perfect.

Man. I feel so old. I started watching Hanzawa Naoki and uh… Aya Ueto is playing a married waifu. Wow. Damn. It’s like… actresses that use to play flight attendants are now playing waifu… it means they got older and I also got hella older. I’m attracted to waifu actresses now. O.O

I went to the gym today in the rain… which was good I feel kinda badass. I missed the first yoga of the year… but I’m gonna let it go.. because my sleeping was honestly messed up. The drama is so dramatic. I guess that’s the whole point of drama and tv shows. To show us the unrealistic scenario of the one in a gazillion. While I’m sure the stuff happens… it probably doesn’t happen exactly this way. It’s like… the rare parallel universe where the stars align and everything mixes into a great drama.

I started watching the drama because it was highly rated and it was on my watch list. And I recently read a blog post on the Japanese salaryman by Patrick McKenzie aka Patio11. Japanese culture is so… interesting I guess. On one hand you undoubtedly have the crazy customs and stuff… on the other hand they somehow manage to make shit work despite the craziness and churn out amazing anime/drama/electronics. It’s weird.

Tomorrow is the first day of kpop dance class. It’ll be nice to be just in the class and not doing a workshop. Regular class is so much more fun.

Wow. Flashback of a scene in the same episode. That drives me nuts. Blargh. Flashback twice of a scene in the same episode. Also drives me nuts.

Wow. 2015 went by so fast. Yet so slow. I remember just looking forward to the next event or whatever. Then the next event would arrive and then time would become a blur. And then waiting. I’ve been reading some of my old diary entries… and wow. I can’t believe the difference between January/June/August/October/Now. Like.. even two months ago. It feels like so crazy long ago. Almost like I was a different person. I think for my annual retrospective I’ll just write about my stats and the key questions that I stole from some other blog or read somewhere.

Emotional - I think I’m getting much better with dealing with my emotions. Things that would previously make me anxious or nervous is now a normal event. I’ve been practicing just being thankful for things that I have and other things and I think that made me much happier. I had so many irrational fears but I convinced myself to face them. And when I faced them… reality was much easier than what I imagined. Looking back… 2015 was quite the roller coaster of emotion. I think that I’ve gotten better at just being aware of my emotions and catching myself before I spiral into negative emotions. I’m gonna rate myself 8/10. Compared to last year though… I’m probably a 10/10.

Physical - I’m not in the best shape of my life. That’s unfortunate… I kinda went into maintenance mode for physical shape. I did hit a new personal record for deadlift this year and I’m at my current best. Plus I’ve been going to spin class and yoga quite regularly. I know that my flexibility is much improved since I can almost sit japanese style. Physical 7/10. Hmmm. Compared to last year… I don’t think I improved or gotten worse.

Relationships - I met some really amazing people this year. Got closer to friends. And became the person to organize and plan events. I think I still neglect relationships in favor of spending more time working on stuff and reading. I guess because I really enjoy a block of uninterrupted time to do whatever I want. Gonna give myself a 7/10. Compared to last year though I’m probably at 10/10 so that’s good.

Time - I’ve been reviewing my diary entries and it’s kinda crazy. The early 2015 me is so much different from summer me, who was different from September/October me. I’ve changed so much in 2015. It’s kinda crazy. I haven’t been working on that many side projects because work just takes a chunk of my mental power. But the good news is that I’ve been reading lots of books in 2015.

What did I gain this year?

I made some new friends and became the person that reaches out and plans stuff. I pushed my comfort zone to do things that previously made me nervous. I performed in a dance which at first was really scary but now it’s not that bad. I read so many amazing books.

What did I lose this year?

I got physically weaker again. I stopped some of my good habits such as keeping track of daily spending, meditation and other habits.

What are some of the highlights?

I think I’m starting to buy more into the you can think your way into reality. I think that no matter what… you get what you keep thinking of. So if all you think of is negativity and the worse case scenario… it kinda pulls you down and messes you up. Even if the worse case scenario doesn’t come true… you kinda lowered the result by thinking negatively. I’ve been trying to just think more positively. The other thing is that… almost everything that I planned/wanted for 2015 actually happened. It didn’t happen exactly the way that I wanted or envisioned it. But the end result is what I was dreaming / thinking of. It’s scary. Then again… looking back I think my life is like… all my dreams coming true. Moving to Silicon Valley and living by myself. I feel that I’ve grown so much and that there’s really nothing that I can’t handle.

What went great?

I got so much better from a technical perspective. I remmeber looking back at my diary entries from earlier this year. I would have borderline worship to some of my coworkers. Like they were so good. And then I built something that they couldn’t / didn’t build because they had to leave for vacation. I think I’m nearing the tier that I previously almost worshipped. 2014 I tried out ultimate frisbee and 2015 I got into dance. Just to push my comfort zone. I think the theme of 2015 is pushing my comfort zone. I think… probably soon that I’ll need to do a huge leap of faith… and I guess I’m just preparing myself for that. My thinking is also so much better. The CBT psychology book made me realize the blind spots and limiting beliefs that I had. I just learned this in December… so it’s kinda crazy. Already it’s changing the way I act / think about things.

What sucked?

I keep hitting a physical plateau simply because I’m not working out / sleeping / eating properly. I can’t get stronger if I don’t treat my body well.

What do I wish was different?

I wish I was better. One thought is that… I wish that I tried harder. But.. looking back I know that I tried 100% in that given moment. But at the same time… I always think that I could’ve done more. I mean… I know that I could’ve done more in various situations. Like working at the gym and not pushing myself. But just going to the gym is major and good. It’s hard to explain. It’s always possible to do more… I think I just need to let it go. So I guess… I don’t wish anything was different. 2015 was a amazing year for me.

Wow. It’s officially the end of 2015. What a year. I’ll be writing an annual review post to look at my year and stuff. But for now here’s the weekly update.

I went to the gym yesterday. I still… can’t seem to get stronger. I think it’s my lack of sleep and diet. Plus I haven’t been going consistently enough. Oh well. So my fitbit charge HR has proven my theories. My heart rate just randomly spikes to 190. For about a minute or 2. It’s happened twice this week. It’s kinda crazy. I’m not sure if I wanna see a doctor because I’m pretty sure the doctor can’t really do anything. Despite this… I ran a marathon… and my heart rate during spin class is always below 130. So my cardio is fine. I dunno what and why my heart rate spikes to 190. It seems to have no cause. One time it happened just after I got back from lunch after a walk home. Dunno. Whatever. I guess as long as it’s rare and short it’s fine.

There was a free wings promo today and I got myself some wings. Wings are so tasty. It’s probably bad for my health… but still so tasty. I also went to spin. It was quite the challenge. I took at nap from 6~7 and got to spin late. I still went though because… I know I won’t be getting any exercise for the next 3 days. Working from home today was pretty sweet. Woke up, wrote some code… got called to fix a p0 and figured it out. Life is good.

I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona today. Wow. It’s like travelling back in time. Penelope Cruz is so hot. I think the movie reminds me of the lying to yourself thought. I started reading this book on pushing yourself to the edge… and there was a chapter on limiting beliefs. I think I still have some limiting beliefs in certain areas in my life. Limiting beliefs is like lying to yourself only worse. Since you think it’s the truth and don’t bother challenging it. In a way.. it’s worse than lying to yourself because when you lie to yourself you know that you’re lying. A limiting belief is like… a total blind spot. Pretty interesting book… and I guess it reminded me all about meta-cognition and meta-learning. Learning how to learn and looking at how you look at things. Deep yo.

Reading code is so much harder than writing code. I think this has been written about previously so I won’t go too much into it. It’s crazy how much brainpower I need to review code. That’s probably why I generally avoid reviewing code from people who are better than me. Or I think are better than me. For new years eve I’ll be working in the morning to midday. The plan is to review the mega PR that my coworker sent me and to fix this small test. No biggie. Get it done. Then play a ton of baldurs gate 2 enhanced edition.

I started playing baldur’s gate 2 enhanced edition. It’s kinda crazy. It’s like. I played the game before… and a lot of it feels like deja vu and nostalgia. Playing the game… made me realize something. I made a monk… and I had to look up the optimal monk build/items and skills etc. I think… until I maximize my monk.. it kinda takes away from the enjoyment of the game. And the way that I approach it is a reflection of my life. I try to maximize my stats in real life. The physical, mental, financial, spritual, relationships etc. Sometimes that takes away my ability to enjoy the present and enjoy the process. It’s something that I’ve become aware of and am addressing.

I also bought a panini press. It was only $30. And I figured that I’d break even after making like 6 sandwiches. I’m pretty excited to have it delivered by amazon tomorrow. Amazon is pretty great.

It’s so easy to lie to yourself. You make an excuse that sounds legit. But it’s not the truth. It’s just something that sounds good. I stumbled upon this thought when I was listening to Lie to Me. I have two versions of Lie to Me. One by Ne-yo and one by George. It’s funny how avoiding reality is so common.

I don’t hang out with that many people because you become similar to those around you. The thing about the average of your 5 best friends is true. But that’s just a lie. I’m just lazy. I could be actively searching for mentors and people that I want to spend time with. And besides… I think everyone has something to contribute to your life. You learn all sorts of cool shit by talking to people. And you hear about crazy stories which broadens your world views. One time I was talking to a lyft driver and he told me how he got to party with a crack head politician who was crazy into prostitutes. Politicians (reddit meme).

I keep thinking that I’ve hit my physical plateau. I won’t get any stronger. I won’t get any leaner. Because I’m old now. Lol. That’s so bullshit. The fact is I haven’t been going to the gym as frequently. I think I’ve only been going 8 times per month. When you should be going probably at least 12~15 times in order to see gains. I keep telling myself that I don’t have time to play video games. Or time to do x. But in reality I waste so much time visiting slickdeals and teamliquid.

I think it’s important to accept reality. Just by knowing the true reason instead of the lie… it’s like the first step to getting better. Kinda like the first step to fixing an addiction is awareness or whatever. Realize you’re lying to yourself and then keep doing whatever you’re doing. I’ve been eating so much junk food. I keep telling myself that it’s because I don’t have time to cook or whatever. But in reality it’s because I like junk food. Cookies and cheesecake and boba is so delicious.

My sleeping is… messed up again. It’s like 4am and I gotta work in 6 hours. I keep saying that I’m not a morning person.. but it’s because I choose to stay up late. And take naps. I took a nap when I got home at 8pm… and then woke up at 11. It’s like a vicious nap cycle that… I’m on. Simply because there are things I want to do more than sleep I guess. I deprioritize sleep… and then complain that I’m not getting enough sleep. When it’s totally my fault. =/

I think that everything is your own fault. Well.. a lot of everything. No point lying to yourself.

There’s so much that I take for granted I feel. I’m thankful that I have friends that I can just reach out to after not really talking for months and having everything be normal. And them being there for me. I’m thankful that I escaped Canada and the horrible internet caps. My friend ran out of bandwidth this month… while here in SF I have unlimited bandwidth and 50M download which is faster than anything that I had previously.

I’m thankful for amazon.com. It’s like… literally one of the bestest things about living in the states. I would buy their stock… but it’s like too expensive for me. I ordered myself an xperia m4 aqua because it was on sale recently. I also got myself a 128gb microsd card for $40. So for about $200 I got a fully decked out waterproof phone. Technology is pretty amazing.

I’m thankful for the fact that there’s 24h fitness. It’s great that I’ve built up the habit to work out. I went to the gym today from 9~10pm right around closing time. I’m still weaker than my peak… but my deadlift is at a personal best. I also got myself a panani machine on amazon for like $30 on a whim. I’m thankful that I now have the growth mindset and I like to experiment and try out new things. I’ve been making grilled cheeses from a pot. Like a stainless steel pasta pot. Just because I don’t own a frying pan. I can’t wait to make sandwiches on my panani machine.

I’m thankful that I have access to decent healthcare. I recently got my hep a / b vaccines in preparation for my cousin’s april wedding in Dominican Republic. I’m thankful for steam and the steam christmas sales. It hurts my wallet and my backlog is greater than 3 years but still. Steam has advanced linux gaming so much. I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Edition on my linux machine with my friend who is on windows. Linux and Windows cross play. That’s pretty amazing. Via steam. I can’t wait till steam box takes off and more and more games get on linux.

I think… I need to stop thinking of things that I want to do as work. It’s not work because I want to do it. I’m thankful that I didn’t get too sick this year. I remember last year I was sick and it wiped me out for 2 weeks of my holidays. It’s important to not take health for granted. Whenever I’m healthy… I always end up abusing my body because I’m so healthy you know. And then I sleep bad and eat bad. It’s important just to be thankful that I’m in good health.

The Fitbit Charge HR is one of my many christmas presents to myself. I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now and I think it’s quite a good item.

First off, it keeps track of your heart rate. I wish that the heart rate monitoring was more… finely grained. I don’t think it keeps track of your heart rate 24/7. I think I have some random spikes of heart rates… but it doesn’t show up on my graphs. The other thing is that I wanted to use this device to detect if I have an irregular heart rate… but I think it auto averages over the minute… so even if I had an irregular heart rate… all it would do is raise my average at most a few bpm. So I don’t get to see an instantaneous spike on my charts.

The heart rate is accurate to my knowledge. Much more accurate than the treadmills at the gym. I’ve been using it while working out. Turns out… even max sweat during spin class.. my heart rate barely tops 130bpm. When I do weights.. my heart rate hits 110. Which is surprising… and also expected. The thing is.. my resting calm heart rate is surprisingly variant. It can be 60 ~ 90. Like… if I’m stressed out at work… sitting in front of the computer I’ll have a heart rate of 90. That’s kinda crazy.

The other thing about the fitbit is the built in steps tracker. I think the steps is based on the distance. So.. one of my steps gets logged as two steps. I can’t complain. I think the only benefit is that the fitbit encourages good behaviour. Instead of ordering take out… I walk half a mile to eat out in a restaurant. Because I know that the walk to get food is almost 5000 steps. So… the gamification of working out and exercise actually works. It makes me want to walk more.

The battery life is rated for 5 days. The most that I’ve gone without charging it is 3 days and it’s been going strong. It fully charges within about 1 ~ 2 hours. I normally take it off to charge when I shower. And then forget to put it on afterwards until bedtime and it’s always fully charged. I guess one downside of the charge hr is that it’s not waterproof. I wish that this thing was IP67. If it was.. then I wouldn’t have to worry about wearing it when I’m washing the dishes and stuff.

The sleep tracking isn’t that accurate. The charge HR automatically determines when you go to sleep and the quality of your sleep. I’m not sure how it determines if you’re asleep or awake. But it doesn’t seem accurate. I went to bed and laid awake… but the tracker said I slept like a baby which isn’t accurate. And also… the tracker doesn’t add up naps. So say you slept 5 hours during the night. And took a 2 hour nap. It’ll log that you slept 5 hours the whole day. Because you know… only a huge continguous block of sleep counts right? face palm. How hard is it to sum your daily sleep logs into one daily count? Other people have complained and fitbit does nothing.

I think… overall the fitbit charge hr is great. I wish that they let you access the data via an api. I feel that existing apps are lacking. I could probably write a better sleep monitor and heart rate monitor over a weekend. The fitbit software team… oh shit wait. I know the lead android engineer. Maybe I should just complain to Greg. But anyways… maybe it’s not the android team. The product team decided that naps don’t add to your daily sleep total. Which is stupid AF.

tl-dr - The Charge HR is a really good fitness, sleep and heart rate tracker for the price. The software could be betteer thought

So I’m on Linux. I just got a Fiio E10k. And hooked it up. Everything seemed working. Except clementine wouldn’t output audio. VLC / system sound worked fine. After some googling. The correct answer is

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-alsa

And now I have perfect clementine audio over usb to my Sennheiser HD 650. Life is good.

Forgot that you need to change the preferences from within clementine to use audio sink (alsa).