Research Before Committing

For the past few months, I've been meaning to purchase the latest version of WHM.AutoPilot, the web host billing software I use for Akmai.net. There are lots of bugs in the current version and many of my clients have complained about the problems with the billing system (it doesn't work). I finally put it on my calendar and told myself I would purchase the $180 upgrade and get it installed this week.

I was on the WHM.AutoPilot website with the V3 Owned License in my shopping cart ready to checkout when I realized that I should probably do some research to see what other web host billing software was out there. I wasn't even aware of any other options, but with the size of the web hosting industry I knew there had to be competing products.

I quickly came across a couple of different ones, namely ModernBill, ClientExec, and WHMCS. After spending about half an hour searching Google and reading forum posts, I concluded that ModernBill was definitely the most popular and most recommended. But realizing that I had only known of the existence of these products for thirty minutes, I decided to spend some more time researching.

All of these applications have demo areas where I can try the admin and client areas, so I spent some time playing around with them. I then decided to do in-depth searches for recent forum discussions on these products. The software world changes so quickly.

What did I learn? I learned that ModernBill was recently bought by a bigger company (Parallels) and that the ModernBill software has been very buggy since the release of V5. Wow, and a few minutes ago I was thinking that it was the best option for my money! To add to my shock, almost everyone on the Web Hosting Talk forums seemed to think of WHM.AutoPilot as the "beginners web host billing software".

It's looking like I will probably go with WHMCS for my new billing software, but not before I do more research!

Quick Wireless Security using SSH Tunneling

I'm a little paranoid when it comes to wireless security. Even if I'm on an encrypted wireless network, I won't access any of my bank accounts or login to any website that requires a password without securing my traffic with an additional layer of security using SSH tunneling.

SSH tunneling can also be used to circumvent network-based restrictions in the workplace or on a free public wifi hotspot, giving you the freedom to browse whatever websites you want. If implemented on an OS networking level, you can even use the tunnel for your email and other applications. However the focus of this post is on using SSH tunneling to secure your web traffic.

Here is a quick list of what you'll need:

Firefox or Internet Explorer (this technique also works with Opera and Safari, although I don't cover those here)
Putty (Windows); The terminal (Linux or OS X)
SwitchProxy Tool (nice-to-have Firefox Plugin)
Access to an *nix-based computer. This will probably be the most difficult to obtain and if you're not familiar with Linux or OS X I recommend you ask a friend if they wouldn't mind giving you an account on their Linux computer. You can try to find a free shell that allows port forwarding, but they are rare.

Setting up the SSH Tunnel

Windows

Since Windows doesn't have an SSH client built in, you will need to use the wonderful SSH client application called Putty. After you've downloaded and launched Putty, you should be presented with the main screen. Fill in the Host Name (or IP address) field with that of your Linux computer and be sure to select SSH from the Connection type.

On the left column of options, select Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels. Enter 9000 in the Source port field, select Dynamic from the option at the bottom, and then click Add. Your screen should now look something like this:

Note: If you don't see the Dynamic option in Putty, make sure you have the latest version.

Now go ahead and click the Open button to connect to and login to your Linux computer. Once you have successfully logged in, the tunnel will be open and you can proceed to configure your web browser to use the tunnel.

Linux/OS X

Since you're using a *nix based system, your computer already has everything it needs to setup an SSH tunnel. Simply access the terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app on OS X) and connect to the remote Linux computer as follows:

ssh -l -D 9000

After logging into the remote computer, the dynamic SSH tunnel will be opened and we can continue to configuring the web browser.

Configuring the Web Browser to use the SSH Tunnel

Firefox with SwitchProxy Tool plugin (the method I use)

Download and install the SwitchProxy Tool plugin. After installing the plugin, open its configuration window (Tools -> Add-ons -> SwitchProxy Tool -> Preferences on OS X). This will open the basic configuration window for the plugin. Click Manage Proxies and then Add. Choose Standard for the proxy configuration type and click Next. Fill in the fields as shown below.

After saving the connection, you should be able to use the plugin to easily switch between browsing through the SSH tunnel and browsing without it. I have it configured to show in the Firefox Status Bar, as I find that to be the easiest method of toggling between the two:

Firefox without SwitchProxy Tool

Although SwitchProxy Tool to easily switch my proxy settings, I will also explain how to configure the browser without the plugin.

Open the Firefox Preferences (Firefox -> Preferences on OS X) and click the Advanced icon at the top. In the connection section, click the Settings... button. Choose Manual proxy configuration and fill in the SOCKS Host and Port fields as shown below.

Internet Explorer

From the Internet Explorer menu, choose Tools -> Internet Options. Select the Connections tab and then click the LAN Settings button. Enable the Use proxy server for your LAN option and click Advanced.

In the Servers section, make sure all the fields are empty except for the Socks field. Type localhost in the Socks Proxy address field and 9000 in the Port field. Your screen should look something like this:

Click the OK button all the way back to your browser. You should now be browsing the Internet securely through the SSH tunnel! An easy way to confirm this is to disconnect from the Linux computer by closing Putty and checking if you can still browse the web. Since the browser has been configured to use the tunnel, you won't be able to browse the web if that tunnel is closed.

If you wish to revert back to browsing the web normally, simply uncheck the Use proxy server for your LAN option in LAN Settings.

The Customer Service Salesman

There is a reason why popular brands are popular and a reason why you will eat something that was prepared by a total stranger: trust. There are many ways to create a feeling of trust including being well known, being referred to by someone else who is trusted, or even by simply being able to relate to someone in a way that is mutually understood.

A natural disaster brings total strangers together because those strangers can both appreciate life. They both understand what each other is going through and they realize they are going through it together. Even something as simple as the electricity going out can make an entire neighborhood feel closer and bring neighbors together. Mutual understanding brings people together and helps create a sense of trust, even if that trust simply means you both understand what it's like not being able to watch TV or use the computer.

So what does trust have to do with selling? Everything! If given contradicting advice from a friend we trust and from a total stranger, who would we be most likely to trust? Our brain works by using reason to determine which is the better choice. Obviously, our brain will whichever is more trustworthy.

I've never studied marketing and I've never been a salesman, but I do observe things very closely and pick out patterns rather quickly. Advertisements in magazines, TV and radio commercials, and yes even salesmen, all do the same thing: they try to make you believe that they understand you and that they know what you need and want. All of this is done to indirectly gain trust from your brains and make you feel comfortable giving them your hard earned money.

Understanding the importance of trust behind sales and marketing is key to understanding the importance of customer service within a company. There is no better method of advertising than to be referred by an existing customer. We already saw that a recommendation from a friend trumps any advertisement, so it's easy to see how a referral from a friend is the most important advertising tool for a business.

So, how do you increase the chances that your customer will refer you to those whom they trust (and who, in return, trust their opinion)? You give your existing customers a reason to come back; a reason to recommend your services (or products) over someone else's, regardless of whether your products or services are more expensive. This means you need to treat your existing customers as being more important than new customers. After all, a very satisfied existing customer has the potential for awesome advertising power in that if they refer your product or service to a friend, the chances of that friend becoming a new customer of yours is very, very good.

The problem with most businesses is that they think of sales and customer service as two separate departments, totally unrelated to each other. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, an excellent customer service department has more potential to bring new customers to the business than catalogs than advertisements put together, and all without spending a penny extra.

So, how do I know all this if I have no "marketing" experience? Well, for the past few years I've been running a business that has enormous competition. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people selling the exact same service as me, with fancier looking sites, more advertising, and much better prices. And yet, I have people coming to me for service. They are leaving my competition for one reason: I provide excellent customer service.

One of the biggest reasons I can provide excellent customer service is because I have the skills, the knowledge, and the tools necessary to know what I'm doing and how to get it done. If something goes wrong, I know how to fix it. I don't need to make excuses or lie to my customers in an attempt to give them impression that everything is under control.

I have discovered this same "service-is-money" effect while being a landlord for the past 6 years. Tenants really appreciate a landlord who cares about the property and cares about their wellbeing. Developing a relationship with a good tenant is extremely important. As a landlord, I'm providing a place for someone to live; the least I can do is make the tenant comfortable. Too many landlords think of themselves as kings with tenants as their slaves from whom they need to collect money.

Good customer service makes happy customers. Happy customers mean more money for the business. More money for the business means happier owners and happier owners with more money can pass on those extra profits to their employees, which makes happy employees. Everyone is happy and everyone is making more money.

Customer service is often thought of as a necessary evil; something that is necessary because customers exist. The direction of the company is constantly focused on ways to attract new customers without putting enough value on the advertising power of their existing customers, and the importance of keeping those customers happy. In fact, if a business can sell something without needing to deal with customer service, they consider it the best way to make money.

In reality, a strong and loyal customer base insures the longevity of a business. For this reason, the majority of a company's attention should be put towards existing customers while only a small percentage is focused on sales and gaining new customers.

Unfortunately, that statement is probably considered blasphemy to many businesses, which results in unhappy customers, stressed owners, stressed employees, and less profit and happiness for everyone.

Take Customer Service seriously. If he were a person, he would be your top salesman.

Back to Bodybuilding

After a long break, I'm back to bodybuilding. In addition to lots of stretching and yoga I'm concentrating on full-body exercises like chin-ups, push-ups, and leg raises. Cardio always seems to die off during the colder winter months, but now that the warm weather is slowly returning I need to pick it up again. I've also started waking up earlier and my goal is to eventually start waking up before sunrise.

Even more difficult than maintaining a good diet and exercise routine is maintaining a good diet and exercise routine for very long periods of time -- I'm talking in years, not months. The past 9 years of my bodybuilding career, although mostly beneficial to my health, have been a roller coaster of workout routines and diets. Dedication, commitment, and sheer will-power made me the fittest I've ever been, but maintaining that physique indefinitely while being in a career that requires me to sit down will be quite the challenge.

My First Foreclosure

Friday evening I called one of the tenants living in my Bowers St property to see when I could stop by to pick up rent. When he answered the phone I asked how things were going and he responded by saying "Not good". When I asked what was wrong he told me that someone came by his apartment earlier that day and gave him a notice telling him that house had been foreclosed on and that he must move out within two weeks. Keep in mind that his wife is due in one week, he has two other kids, and his parents (who are in and out of the hospital) are living with him. Plus he works his ass off to support all of them! It was understandable that he was freaked out.

After explaining to him that the law is on his side and no one can legally make him move out, I called my bank to find out what was going on. They told me they foreclosed on the property on Monday! Five days had passed and I had not received a single call! The same day my realtor received an offer to buy the property. When he called to submit the offer to the bank, they told him it was too late because the property had already been foreclosed on!

So Friday evening I visited all of the tenants on Bowers St and explained to them what had happened. I explained that the letter they were given telling them to move out was meant to scare them into leaving because it would make it easier for the bank to sell the property.

Having been a landlord for the past five years, I've learned a thing or two about tenant rights and the local laws protecting them. Unless the landlord has a really good reason to kick the tenant out, it's very difficult (if not impossible) for the tenant to be legally evicted. Even if the landlord had lots of valid reasons to kick the tenant out (for example if the tenant was doing something illegal in the property), it could still take more than six months before the tenant is forced to leave. That's just the way the laws are around here and it sucks (for the landlord).

The Bowers St property was the second investment property I purchased and probably the one that has caused me the most trouble. At the same time, it was the best property because all the tenants were excellent and paid their rent on time. The units were also the largest of all the properties with three bedrooms in each of the three units.

It's now Monday, exactly one week since it was foreclosed on, and I have yet to hear from the bank. They're probably going to stick me with the $280k that was owed on it, but I will deal with that when the time comes.

On Sunday evening, one of the Bowers St tenants was having trouble with his heating system. He called me. He was aware that I no longer owned the property but he had no one else to call. I felt somewhat obligated to help him out since he had never paid his rent late, he had helped paint the apartment, and was otherwise a great guy. Since I was in the area and didn't need to be anywhere in a hurry, I helped him out.

It definitely felt weird standing in the basement and realizing that I no longer own that house.

Why I tie up my Ladder

I keep a small ladder and a snow shovel in the bed of my pickup truck. I have both of them locked together with a cable lock and secured to the truck. Lots of people have commented about how I must live in a pretty bad neighborhood to need to lock up a simple ladder. My reply has always been, "I've learned my lesson enough times... it's better to be safe than sorry!".

Well last week I was on the highway delivering furniture for Aerva's new office. My truck was packed very full so I had to stuff my ladder between some boxes. While I was on the highway I suddenly heard a loud swishing sound. I looked in my mirror and watched the ladder fly into the air. Luckily it was tied up, so it didn't get very far:

I couldn't help but think how many lives the simple decision to keep my ladder tied up may have saved. It was rush hour on the highway and that ladder could have done some serious damage.

So, why do I keep my ladder tied up? To save lives my friend, to save lives.

New York Notes by Phil Hollenback

I stumbled across this site by Phil Hollenback. After moving from Northern California to New York City, he started keeping notes of the observations he made about the differences between the two places.

My favorite observation has to be this one:

I was walking to work today and saw some workmen shoveling something out of a dump truck into wheelbarrows and wheeling them into a building. Couldn't figure out what it was - the stuff was all shiny black embers. Then I realized - they were delivering coal! I have never, ever seen that before.

Check out the list of notes. Some of them are really hilarious. I live in Boston, not NYC, but there are a lot of observations he made that are relevant to New England in general.

Offers Accepted on Two More Properties

A few weeks ago I accepted an offer on the sale of my first property. The two other properties I own are both facing foreclosure so I told my real estate agent to see if he could get any kind of offer on them.

Within a few days he found a cash buyer who is interested in buying both of the properties, for $100,000 each. Keep in mind that I bought these properties two years ago for $280,000 a piece and put at least $30-40k into them.

The way I see it is any sale is better than a foreclosure. Now I just have to wait to see if the banks will approve the short-sale.

Making Money vs Spending Money

It's so easy to spend money. So easy in fact that I catch myself thinking of new ways to spend money that I don't even have. I won't actually spend it, but I'll plan what I would do if I had the money to spend.

I realized I was doing that today when I was trying to justify spending $60 a month for a wireless Sprint card to use on my laptop. When I realized what I was doing, I asked myself, "If it's so easy to think of new ways to spend money that I don't have, then why don't I think of ways to make money I don't need?"

What is it that makes spending money so easy and "fun" while making money is so difficult and boring? Is it because we associate the action of spending money with a feeling of contentment, while the action of making money is associated with hard work and frustration?

I often find myself wondering what the point of making money is if not to spend it. Perhaps I'm living too much in the moment and not planning for the future -- maybe because I expect to be able to handle whatever the future throws at me.

Then I'll do something that immobilizes me to the point where I cannot run, jump, or do anything physically strenuous. I'll watch a snowboarding commercial and get a glimpse of what it must feel like to be paralyzed for life; to know you'll never be able to do certain things that others take for granted. I realize how important being financially stable with money set aside would help me live a better life. In that moment I make a promise to myself that I will be more grateful for life when I get better, only to later forget that feeling altogether and go back to being arrogantly confident that I'm invincible and that I will live forever.

What an idiot.

Money should not be thought of as an object that allows us to obtain something we don't already have but rather as a resource which grants us certain freedoms and privileges. The more money we owe others (debts), the more they own us (assets). The more they own us, the less freedom we are privileged to.

Most of us maintain the misconception that we must spend money to make money. We believe that we must first sacrifice some of our own money before we can collect and take from others what they have. This just isn't true.

When you work for someone, they give you money because you're giving them something in return that is more valuable to them than the money they're giving you (and when that ceases to be the case, you get fired). Making money isn't about taking. Making money is about giving. The choices you make with your time and the ways in which you choose to give all determine the money you make.

So, how have you given today?

Three Great Information Nuggets

The volume of information available on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. The Internet is a vast jungle waiting not to be discovered but to be explored. I came across three really informative websites created by Christopher Heng: thefreecountry.com, thesitewizard.com, and howtohaven.com.

These sites are not fancy. They don't have any Web 2.0 style to them, but they do have the one thing that's really important for a website: content. I'm not talking about just any content. These sites have great content that is not only up to date, but content that is presented in an easy to read and easy to understand manner. These things are extremely important to the longevity of a website! I call these kind of sites "information nuggets" because they are miniature goldmines; little nuggets of useful information in the sea of both useful and useless information, also known as the Internet.

I try to follow a similar path with this blog. That's why you don't find my site littered with seemingly pointless images; the majority of what's here is text. I've struggled to maintain an organized array of posts on different topics, as this blog has become the only spot I can present things. I'm working on starting several other blogs so that I can focus on specific topics instead of just throwing everything in one spot and hoping someone finds it useful or interesting.

Moving to a New Office

In case you're wondering where I've been, I have been busy helping move Aerva to a new office. The new place is awesome -- it's a huge improvement over our current office, which feels like a closet after spending a few minutes in the new place. Since I'm the only person with a truck, I helped transport all the new furniture from IKEA. We went to IKEA on Sunday but the new office wasn't going to be finished until Tuesday afternoon, so we needed a place to temporarily store all the boxes of furniture. Since I have lots of extra space, I offered to be the storage room:

Speaking of IKEA, wow. I had no idea they carried such high quality stuff. This past weekend was my first time going there and I was amazed at not only how big it was, but also by how much traffic it created (we went on the weekend). Apparently it's like that every weekend because a store employee remarked, "You guys are brave coming here on the weekend!".

Earlier this week I helped my neighbor and her niece bring a very heavy washing machine and dryer into the third floor of her apartment. My neighbor has metal plates in her back from surgery and her niece was 5'1 and maybe 120LBS -- basically I did the majority of the work while they watched and asked if I needed help.

At some point that evening I pulled something in my lower back. It didn't hurt so much right away, but it got a lot worse the next day. It got so bad that I wasn't able to walk without pain. This was probably the worst week to hurt my back, since I needed to move loads of furniture to the new office. But, I threw on some icyhot patches, took two Aleve, and toughed it out.

Sprint EX720 EV-DO ExpressCard for my MacBook Pro

Several months ago, when I moved to another apartment in the same house, I decided to see if I could use a wireless card and replace my broadband connection altogether (I was getting tired of transferring service and being without Internet for several days). What follows are a few things I learned along the way.

I chose the Sprint EX720 card for a couple of reasons but mainly because it fit in the ExpressCard slot of my new MacBook Pro. Earlier that same year, I tried the Sony Ericsson GC89 GRPS card from T-Mobile and that just plain sucked. The download speeds with the GC89 were horrible and I had all kinds of problems getting the card to work on an older G4 PowerBook (I didn't have my MacBook Pro at that time).

I had read a couple of raving reviews about the EX720 and lots of good stuff about the EV-DO network so I thought the experiment was worth a shot. Since Sprint gave me a 30-day risk-free guarantee, I would only be out the $35 setup fee. The extra features that came with the EX720 were really great, too:

"Sprint offers an external antenna, a carrying case and Broadband Card Adapter (Express to PCMCIA) that are each sold separately as an accessory for this device."

Before installing the card on my MacBook, I did some research and read somewhere that said I needed the "WWAN Support Update 1.0". However, when I tried installing it I got a message that said "This version is not supported". Apparently, my MacBook already had everything I needed because simply inserting the card worked. Almost.

In order to activate the card, a Windows machine is required. Luckily, I had VMWare Fusion installed and I was able to use Windows XP to activate the card. Sometimes the store will do this for you; my boss recently picked one of these up and it came activated.

Speaking of work, David setup my boss's the EV-DO card on one of the Windows machines in the office and shared its wireless connection with the entire office network (using Windows ICS). We're going to be without Internet for a few days while we move to the new office and this wireless card will allow us to continue working. I was absolutely amazed at how well it works. Everyone in the office is able to surf with almost no noticeable difference in speed. Even downloads are fast (I'm talking 1Mbps+ fast!).

Here are the results of some speed tests I ran with the EX720:

100% antenna (inside a coffee shop, away from window):
Download Speed: 1004 kbps (125.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 555 kbps (69.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

25% antenna (in my basement):
Download Speed: 542 kbps (67.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 163 kbps (20.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

As you can see, these are very acceptable speeds for a wireless card that you can bring everywhere (on the train, into any coffee shop, inside office buildings, even in the bathroom or on the sidewalk). The tiny card even has a jack to attach an external antenna in case you happen to be somewhere that needs more reception (maybe an underground bunker).

The main goal of this experiment was to see if I could replace Comcast broadband at home. The card worked great and was definitely a lot better than T-Mobile's card. I've used my Blackberry as a modem to get online and the speed of this wireless card blew the EDGE network away. However there are lots of limitations to replacing my entire wired broadband connection at home.

If I replace my home broadband connection with a wireless card I cannot tunnel into any of the machines at home (assuming I take my wireless card with me when I leave the house). It's also hard to justify the $65 a month (after taxes), especially if I decide to also pay for a landline Internet connection (Comcast or Speakeasy for around $55).

In the end, I returned the EX720 card to Sprint (they honored their risk-free guarantee). I've grown accustom to having a wired broadband connection at home but if I traveled more this card would definitely be the second most important thing next to my laptop.

Offer Accepted on the Sale of my First Property

In 2003 I bought my first property, a two-family house in the Centerville area of Lowell, for $213,000. Within six months I put about $75,000 into the property and another $50,000 over the next few years (not to mention endless amounts of my own sweat and time).

This week I accepted an offer to sell the property for $180,000. It just doesn't seem right, but I know it's the best thing to do. All three of my rental properties are listed on the market right now for much less than I owe and yet this is the first offer I have received in over 8 months. There are more than 300 houses for sale in Lowell right now. There are houses on the market for $175,000 that only two years ago would have sold for over $300,000! Just one year after purchasing my own first property, it was reappraised for double what I paid for it.

It will be quite some time before I know whether or not the bank will approve the short sale and even if they do approve it, they will almost definitely leave me with the balance: $170,000. My other two properties are in the same situation and I'm not alone.

I have read dozens and dozens of articles in the newspaper about other homeowners who took adjustable rate mortgages so they could have lower monthly payments. They never intended on keeping the mortgage past the two year fixed term but instead planned to refinance the property after its value increased. When the values made a dramatic run in the other direction, owners were stuck with owing more than the value of the house. This meant they couldn't sell and they couldn't refinance.

I wish I had the cash to buy properties right now because within 5 years all these houses will probably be selling for upwards of $400,000. Real estate value always increases over time. Thats the thing about real estate: it's real. But with all investment comes real risk. Regardless of what happens to me financially over the next year, you can be sure I will be taking the lessons I've learned and applying them in the future.

Struggling to Maintain a Vegan Diet

Ever since I started working out regularly, I have been trying to eat more protein while maintaining a vegan diet. I've tried making soy, hemp, and rice protein shakes, eating more tempeh and tofu, and even eating more beans (though I must admit that the time required to cook beans and grains definitely prevents me from eating them as regularly as I would like). I don't know if I have a protein sensitivity or if I'm just not combining foods properly, but every time I increase my protein intake my body seems to reject it and digestion becomes very difficult.

I have thought about how much easier things would be if I could have EAS Myoplex shakes, cottage cheese, yogurt, non-fat chocolate milk, and other foods that I learned how to use to help with keeping protein high and carbohydrates low. Now that I have been maintaining a vegan diet, I feel like I'm starting back at square one; I feel like I don't know anything about diet and fitness because everything changes when you remove all dairy from your diet.

Earlier today I was actually contemplating switching back to a lacto-vegetarian diet, but then I remembered the promise I made to myself several months ago:

I was born a Vegetarian, but I will die a Vegan.

So to push these dangerous thoughts out of my head, that has become my new mantra. If maintaining a vegan diet means I need to spend more time preparing food and learning how to cook complete meals, then so be it. I was thinking, I should probably tattoo the word VEGAN on my body somewhere so I can simply look at it whenever I'm doubting my commitment to a vegan lifestyle.

Loituma Clock

I was clicking through a bunch of flash loops on a site that I found on Raf's tumblr blog. Some of them were pretty funny and a lot of them have really cool songs. Now I know this is really old (2006) but one in particular has been stuck in my head all day:

Edit 2020-12-08: Since Flash has essentially gone extinct, I've updated the link on the graphic above to a ten-hour YouTube loop of the original, because who can't get enough of this?

Apparently the music comes from the traditional Finnish folk song "Ievan Polkka" -- a part of the song that has absolutely no meaning at all (yes, the part in the flash is all gibberish!). Click on the picture above to see the actual flash I'm talking about.

There are a bunch of variations of Loituma Clock, including a real clock, a longer 5 minute techno version, and even a Darth Vader version! If you're interested in the Flash SWF file, you can find it here.

This site is the closest I can find to an "official" site for the Loituma Clock itself, while the Loituma Girl (taken from episode two of the Bleach anime series) has her own Wikipedia page. And of course this post wouldn't be complete without a link to the video of the real authors singing the original song.

Updated Basement Project Post

I've added an additional page to the basement project post. It contains some pictures of the partially finished kitchen area.

The basement project post continues to be the most popular post on my blog and accounts for over 50% of all the traffic to my blog every month (around 900 unique hits every month just to that post).

It goes to show how the placement of your site in Google search results can really drive continuous traffic to your site.

Managing Trust and Expectation

I've learned to trust only myself and to expect only one thing from everything else: failure. The one thing we can all count on is our own demise. We will all die. Nothing you see and no one you know will last forever. I don't place faith in fallible things, including and especially other humans. Doing so would be not only a huge waste of time, but comparable to playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun... and taking the first turn.

I maintain a very pessimistic outlook on the world and its future, while at the same time being very optimistic about myself and my future. I have the capability of controlling myself and my future, but what kind of control do I have over the world and its future? How could anyone say they have control over the choices of billions of people?

The helpful side of me wants to educate and warn others of how they are being herded like cattle by those with the power to control the things we put our trust in: the media, money, our jobs, our health, and the machines that make everything run. But why? What's the point? I can help others and I can even try to help the whole world, but what good is my help to them if I haven't taken care of myself? I'm not talking about being selfish. Selfishness is the act of being concerned with your own interests and the advantage excluding others gives you, not the act of helping yourself so you're more capable of helping others.

Human beings are very imperfect and fallible creatures. That's why nearly every human being strives for perfection in one way or another. Constantly reminding myself that no single person has ever been, nor will ever be perfect is a very eye-opening experience. When I have zero expectation for myself, for others, or for the world, I begin to realize that the only thing that really matters is who I am in this moment and how prepared I am for the next.

Time will continue moving forward. This moment will not. Don't expect it to.

ZDAY; should I host an event?

I've been contemplating hosting an event. Thats right, you heard me, hosting an event. If that doesn't sound like something I'd do, that's because it isn't.

One of the few movies that I feel has changed my life, in terms of how I view the world, is Zeitgeist. (If you haven't watched it already, I strongly urge you to do so at your earliest convenience.) The creators of Zeitgeist are doing something called ZDAY, in which they are asking people to voluntarily organize a screening of the movie, either publicly or privately, to further education the world about the mask that has been accepted as truth. The event will take place worldwide on Saturday, March 15th, 2008.

According to the current event list, the closest public screening is a couple hours south of here in South Hadley, MA (close to Springfield). There are no public events around the Boston or Lowell area and none at all in New Hampshire.

Despite the fact that I'm a very quiet, keep-to-myself kinda guy, I felt as though I suddenly had a calling; as though maybe it was my responsibility to break out of my shell and educate some people about the facade that is our government and all religion. The idea is still very new in my head but it feels as though I've been thinking about it for years.

Who knows, maybe this quiet, fitness minded computer geek will become a great leader for a new generation of truth seekers.

My own version of the $1 Image Stabilizer

I've seen the $14 Steadycam "The Poor Mans Steadicam" in the past and always thought it would be a cool project to tackle whenever I have some free time (aka never). Even though I own more tools than I'm able to name (when you take care of your own rental properties you need a wide array of tools!), the large number of tools and parts required for the "Poor Mans Steadicam" always turned me off.

Then I saw this cool $1 Image Stabilizer video from MetaCafe:

$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - The best free videos are right here

Sure enough, I found an immediate need for an image stabilizer when I took pictures of the box for my new MacBook Pro power supply. I had some rope in my closet and I remembered the tripod adapter which screws into the bottom of my camera already had a little hole that I could loop the rope through. It took two minutes of my time to tie the rope around the tripod adapter. I then stood on the excess rope and pulled up to steady the camera:

It worked great! Here is the first picture I took without the stabilizer and here is the second picture taken with the stabilizer. You can clearly see the difference!

My co-worker, Raf, spontaneously came up with the idea of using a giant rubber band instead of string or rope. Just as he was laughing it off as a silly idea, I told him I actually have giant rubber bands that I use for fitness. As I was writing this post, I decided to try out his idea:

It also worked well, however the because the rubber band needs to loop around the camera, it was uncomfortable and also difficult to access the camera controls. Besides, not only would I not want to carry around a giant rubber band, I also wouldn't want the camera to slip out of my hands and go crashing to the ground just as I lifted it to take a picture!

I love the way pictures come out when taken with natural light (no flash). However, when the camera detects low light it slows the shutter speed down so it can absorb enough light to make a clear picture. Even the slightest movement during this slow shutter speed will cause the picture to come out blurry. It's quite amazing how such a simple image stabilizer fixes that problem!

Truck Window Broken; iPod Nano Stolen

The only thing they stole was my new $200 iPod Nano. By habit, I always put it underneath something when I leave the car, but apparently it was still somewhat visible. They used a big piece of tar to break the window, which can be seen in this picture.

So much for thinking I live in a safe neighborhood. 😕