2017 Spring April 21 Friday

59 degrees this morning, thunder and lightning, no walk.

Last night the weather said “100% chance of rain’ at 10 p.m.  However, I walked outside and it wasn’t raining!  

Actually the forecast was for heaving rain and flooding yesterday afternoon and last night.  By this morning there was thunder and lightning, but really just a trace of rain.

I’m not complaining, but I am surprised that the forecast was so far off.  I am beginning to wonder if where we currently live is mis-coded somehow in the weather maps.  

However, the current weather map is certainly correct, shows a lot of lighting and that is definitely happening. 

Hopefully I’ll get this done and posted before the electricity goes out or something!  

For some reason, the first part of this week seemed like the week was taking forever.  I kept putting the wrong day down, and on Monday and Tuesday, it felt like it should be Thursday or Friday.  By Wednesday, I finally felt like it was Wednesday.

I’m not sure what causes “time confusion” like that.  However, now that Friday is here, it seems like the week has flown.  

Reading more and more about how “driverless” cars and less driving will affect future cities etc.  Currently reading “Smart Cities” by Anthony Townsend.  

I was surprised to read (perhaps I shouldn’t have been) that the “kook brothers” were spending billions of dollars to fight the development of public transportation in cities including cities nationwide, apparently to discourage development  that would reduce our dependence on oil and gas!  Talk about a company that is living in the past century!  

Anyway, the more I read the more I note that the overall thinking is that we will need fewer and fewer roads (meaning less construction, which of course all of the construction lobby will continue throwing their money at politicians to continue building more roads, needed or not).

They are saying we need more “smarter” roads and streets to encourage better management of traffic  Congestion pricing etc.  for both parking and driving in certain areas.  

It kind of goes along with the “Algorithm” book.  Another subject, the Algorithm mentioned that if you had ten pairs of socks and and tried to “match” the socks by pulling out one sock and then pulling out another sock, it would take “19 pulls” to match them and to match the ten pair (using the same method) would take 120 pulls!  

For some reason, that really surprised me, that such a method was so inefficient.  

He also discussed “merge-sort” mentioned that you could completely “merge sort” a group of items in 29 “merge-sorts” while using the “random” method of sorting would take 300 MILLION “sorts”.  

I may not be explaining it right, I will need to get the book.  He was basically explaining the reason computers were developed and why, even before a “computer” was actually developed, “computing machines” could sort items so much faster, in fact the 1880 census actually took 8 years!

Not sure what all this has to do with traffic and “smart cities”, but I am am searching for the  connection! 

That’s it for now, Friday, April 21, 2017.  

2017 Spring April 20 Thursday

69 degrees this morning Walk 35:12 minutes

Walk this morning was ok, no real chill in the air.  Thought I was walking faster, but my pace was still 17 seconds slower than my objective.  

In a way, analyzing my walking speed and being inaccurate may be the reason that “self evaluation” needs other factors!  Obviously it is hard to judge my speed, other than some objective measurement like my pace.

I expect other behaviors, actions, decisions etc. are the same way.  It is just really difficult to objectively measure yourself.  A lot of factors are involved.

it seems that I should be able to easily measure something as objective as how fast I am walking, but…. obviously a lot of factors come into play.

Probably the same is true about other items, you analysis yourself in an imperfect way.  

As I get older, I read about how your judgement can decline with age etc.  (of course there is also the factor that you are supposed to get wiser with age also!).  I try to watch myself, so far I don’t see any decline in judgement, but it is kind of a difficult judgement, since it your judgement is getting worse, your judgement won’t be good enough to determine if your judgement isn’t good enough!

I believe that is where it is important to have someone around who is honest and will tell you if your actions aren’t good.  Of course, your judgement has to be good enough to know when you are getting good honest advice!

I think that points out the value of encouraging good honest feedback.  

Kind of like the old days when supposedly the “Joker” could tell the King anything, because it was likely the other Kings advisors would not tell him anything he didn’t want to hear!

I assume the Joker had to do it in humorous or off the wall ways so the King wouldn't be upset by the truth.

Believe me, i can see the value in having a “Joker” around.  

As I have mentioned before, that is the problem with some of the “surveys” businesses ask you for.  If you answer honestly (very few businesses, or individuals  have “perfect 10” operations), they get upset about it.  

Kind of like the ballpark food.  The other day, the “chicken fingers” were absolutely wonderful and I said so.  Last night they weren’t near as good, but I didn’t complain because I didn’t want to be a complainer. However, if I had been the Chef, I think I would rather have the negative feedback rather than the positive feedback!  (That is an example only!).

Back to self evaluation, that is the real value of the Apple watch feedback, it is strictly based on “pace” and I know it  is accurate and non-judgmental and completely objective. 

It may not make me happy, but I know it is accurate andI need to look at how fast I am walking.  Now, if I could figure out how to walk faster….  Probably will walk faster this summer when I switch to lighter walking clothes.

That’s it for now Thursday, April 20, 2017.

2017 Spring April 19 Wednesday

66 degrees this morning, Walk 35:37 minutes.

Walk was coolish, pace was 17 seconds slower than goal.

Somehow, wrote this post today and lost it.  Really don’t know how that happened, but I decided to somewhat recreate it, but this will be much shorter than usual, since my time is limited and I am rather disgusted that Apple hasn’t some type of action to prevent it.  

Apparently they have some controls or it would happen more often, but it shouldn’t happen at all.  

April 19, it has been 22 years since the Oklahoma City explosion/bombing.  Time really goes fast. 

Part of my previous post was my thoughts on the book “Algorithms in Daily Life” or something like that.  

The book mentioned the extensive testing companies go into getting persons to “click the buy button”, trying  to trick consumers into “clicking the buy button” based on colors, wording etc.  

I mentioned that they may be better providing a better product than trying to be cutesy and trick consumers into buying.  All of the “recommendations” and  other e-mails etc. could be put to better use.

I think the fact that Apple doesn’t haves some controls over what happened to me this morning is a prime example of the failure of modern businesses to consider the consumer needs instead of trying to trick them into buying.

I also mentioned about the monopolistic airlines who have turned into bullies.  One thing I learned was to check on airfares anonymously, or when you go back, the fare will increase  Try it sometime, it isn’t always true but it happens enough it is obvious that is the game they are playing.

Also another interesting story the book mentioned was the founder of Amazon said when he had to make the decision, he thought about if, when he was 80 years old, he would look back and regret the decision not to quit his job and start the company.  Of course, in that perspective, he knew he would regret not trying, even if he failed!

Thinking about it, I realized I had used “will I regret not trying” theory lots of times in my life!

Since morning is “hypertime” for me (it seems to go at least twice as fast!), I will need to close this post.  

I guess you could say I will regret having lost what I wrote before, but I will learn from it!  If I find it, I will post it!

That’s it for now, Wednesday, April 19, 2017. 

2017 Spring April 18 Tuesday

58 degrees this morning, walk 34:37 minutes

58 degrees sounded cool this morning, but without any wind, it was a pleasant walk.  Pace was 6 seconds faster than the goal.  I knew I was consciously walking faster, but had no idea how fast, actually I thought  I was walking a faster pace than that.

i am really looking forward to warmer weather and walking in the morning in lighter clothes etc.  

No coughing this morning at all, which was good.  

The book I am listening to, on “Algorithms  in Real Life” (or something like that) is interesting, if I can remember all of the details.

Discussion  this morning included the optimal time to sell your house.   I really think selling your home is impossible to do so on a rational basis, although it was interesting to listen to the theory.  The theory involved the “expected” selling range, time, etc.  

I think selling your home is so much an emotional impact, and housing prices are so irrational, it is really impossible to try to use some type of algorithm to sell your home.  

Of course, if the housing market is really strong and housing scarce, almost anything you do will work.  If it is a “buyers market”, probably nothing you do will work. 

He did make a good point about plugging in the cost of paying the mortgage each month, etc.,and also noted there are other “costs”, including when you have to move etc.

Another problem the book discussed was the “when to quit” problem.  They discussed when is enough, enough, and the optimal time to stop.  

Of course, all of their algorithms involve making a rational decision and don’t include a lot of emotional, social, political and other factors that are involved in decision making.  

Along with that, I am watching a copy of “Mad Money” from last night, and Jim Cramer is discussing “when to sell”, which is something like “when to quit”, except in this case you do know if you sold too soon or not.

I finally took the basic premise that if I make a profit, it is good.  

You think there is nothing worse than “selling too soon” and watching a stock you sold keep climbing, until you “sell too late”and watch a stock tank and you are losing money!  

Somewhat described it once as “could have, should have” decisions which describe it well.

Actually Cramer says you can never lose taking a profit, but the best time to sell is when too many analysts start promoting the stock!  

Tax day today.  Actually I mailed my payment in a little early, just to be sure!    If I can arrange to get a refund, frankly I will.  I know you always read about recommendations to adjust so you don’t get a refund, but I think this just isn’t rational for a lot of people.  

Many people use it as a means of “forced savings”, and I don’t see anything wrong with that, what little interest they may lose is more than made up by the fact they have a lump sum refund when they file their tax returns.

Many businesses advise that the tax refunds are like a second Christmas shopping time for them, since people have a large amount of discretionary money to spend!

That’s it for now, Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

2017 Spring April 17n Sunday

67 degrees this morning, walk 35;40 minutes

Relatively warm walk this morning.  A little bit of lightning, but very far away.  Rain is forecast for a little later this morning. 

Pace was 27 seconds slower than my goal, which was mildly disappointing since I thought I was walking faster than that.  Maybe I am dressing too warm.

Didn’t cough at all which you won’t understand how good that felt unless you have had a chronic  cough.  As I noted previously, I don’t know if the cough stopping (for the first time in almost two years) is due to my more careful eating, the medicine I just started or if it is just time for it to stop.  

Listening to “Algorithms for Real Life”  (or close to that) during my morning walk.  A rather interesting listen, at least so far.

He bought up the problem of “how to know when to stop looking and select” in real life.

One problem was if you are looking for a house or apartment.  Assuming you “don’t have a second chance”  (you have to take it or lose it when you see it), the problem becomes how do you know what you want if you haven’t looked? 

I guess the question becomes when do you know you have enough knowledge to make an intelligent decision?

Of course you will never be sure, but Algorithmic thinking is that the answer is 37%.  That is if you decide you will look at 10 houses or apartments, the 4th house is probably the optimal decision (that is, the 4th house you feel is “best so far”.  

Ditto, if you have one month to find a house, 37% of 30, is the time to decide to select the “best so far” house.

They have also applied this to other decisions and the answer is 37% IF you can’t go back and select a house your rejected and you don’t have any other information.  

If you can go back and select a previous house (or whatever) you rejected, the answer is 61%, you select the best house after you have viewed 61% of the houses or 61% of the time allotted for selecting a house.

Of course, this assumes that the house (or whatever) is still available. 

While I am well aware of the problem with knowing the “right” moment to select something, I had never thought of a procedure for deciding “when” to take action, even if you don’t know it if is the right decision.  I guess it is the “scared something better will come along” syndrome.  If you make a decision, it may be too soon, if you keep waiting for something better, you never make a decision”.  

I never thought of quantifying the decision.  It may or may not make sense versus just  using your “gut choice”, so to speak.  Anyway, it promises to be an interesting book to listen too.

Monday, start of another week. Had a good weekend.  Today will be a “field day”, hope the weather isn’t too bad.  

That’s it for now, Monday, April 17, 2017.

2017 Sprig April 15 Sunday

69 degrees this morning, walk 35:30  minutes.  

Walk this morning was good, it relatively still, little wind.  For some reason I thought my pace was a lot faster than it was, it was  27 seconds slower then expectations, which is about as slow as I walk. I really thought I was walking faster, but….

Didn’t hardly cough at all this morning.  The Doctor  started me on some new medicine and I also have taken a more practiced approach (slower) response to eating and the amount I eat at one time.    

Kind of a “chicken or egg” type of way of  deciding what works to resolve the condition.  So far, so good anyway.  

In recognition of it being April 15 yesterday I wrote the checks for the US and state income tax returns.  They actually aren’t due until April 18.  Actually I sent the returns in about a week ago electronically, I just wait until closer to the deadline to send the checks in!

Finished the book on “mindfulness” this morning during my walk.  Now I have the anticipation of selecting another book to listen to during my morning walk.  

I realize the importance of which book is selected so I try to take care in the selection.   I will have to live with it for at least the next three years, also if I have a real clunker , I can just  stop listening, but I rarely do!

The book mentioned “positive self talk”.  About 2i0 years I starting using “self talk” and “affirmations” and they actually do work will.  It still works and I still use it.  Other concepts in the book were interesting and I can try them.  

I do really like the idea of being aware of my feelings and using that as feedback.

Our second Spring in this house.  We are staring to think about changes that will help us enjoy the house more!  

We are looking at ways we can provide some protection from the heat in the Summer,  on the back patio so we can enjoy the patio.  Still haven’t  decided what alternative we like the best and we also have to get it though the HOA,.

We appreciate the efforts of the HOA (Homeowners Association).  They have worked hard at keeping up the neighborhood.  

I have noticed  with dismay that many groups (like the backyard chicken groups etc.) are trying to get state legislatures to ban cities from making rules about chickens.  

The Texas Legislature (need I say more) treated the matter as a huge joke, which says a lot about the Texas Legislature (it deserves all of the distain and criticism it gets as the worse state legislature in the nation.  

 It seems a city should have the authority to decide if they allow barnyard animals in the backyard, but it seems the prevailing attitude is to bully everyone else as much as possible and the poor quality of State Legislature officials encourages the bullying behavior.  

A little rain yesterday, but then the weather turned beautiful, hope it keeps on today!

That’s it for now, Sunday, April 16, 2017.

2017 Spring April 15 Saturday

67 degrees this morning, walk 34:34 minutes.

Walk was cool this morning, a cool/humid wind.  Pace was 3 seconds slower than my goal pace.  Didn’t hardly cough at all.

Researching “aspiration” and “GERD” and the effects on coughing.  Basically, I am working on eating much slower (in a “mindful way” so to speak) and hopefully much less, at least at any one time.  

That is what they recommend as a starter, so I will be concentrating on eating as slow as possible and as little at one time as possible.  

There also is a number of foods I need to avoid.  Some I have avoided for years, such as carbonated beverages of any type.  I now avoid at least excessive use or any regular use of low ph foods.  While some are obvious,  some are surprising.

Through it all, I have always enjoyed my coffee, the heck with the consequences!  Actually, my coffee consumption has gone way down, one reason is that I don’t drink coffee (except perhaps for ice coffee) while I drive.  (I tend to spill it on myself!)

In fact, the only hot coffee i ever drink while driving is McDonalds coffee, they seem to make the only cup that I don’t spill on myself.  

We have a Starbucks about 2 miles away, (it was built about 4 months ago or so) and we find ourselves stopping at Starbucks a lot more and even eating some meals there.  

Their food used to be almost uneatable, but it has gotten a lot better for the most part.

What is funny is that we (or at least I) are not just stopping more at “our” Starbucks, but also other Starbucks.  

The “mobile ordering” is certainly nice, we use it quite a bit.  One day, there was a long line, so I just “mobile ordered” and it was ready by the time I walked from the back of the line to the pick-up point!  

I noticed other restaurants are encouraging “mobile ordering” , even if you are eating in the restaurant.  I can see times I might do that, but part of the experience is looking at the menu and ordering from the menu.

The world is truly changing!  I frequently order from Starbucks while sitting at  a stop light.  (I honestly never try it while driving, I do have too much experience at the consequences of bad judgment to try that!)  I usually can order from the parking lot and it is ready by the time I get in.

Easter weekend, among other things, a sign that Spring is really here.  

About ready to end the listening to the book on “mndfulness”.  It has provided some interesting thoughts on being aware of your feelings, surroundings etc.

I went to a “mindfulness” session at a conference and they concentrated on being aware of what you eat.  I have tried to be very conscious of what I am eating, and all of the tastes, texture, etc. of food.  

Frankly, it is difficult to maintain, and can slow your eating a lot.  However, with my research, that (slow eating) is exactly what I need, so I will be eating much slower, and hopefully much less and enjoying it more!

That’s it for today, Saturday, April 15, 2017.

2017 Spring April 14 Friday

62 degrees this morning, walk 34:57 minutes

Almost didn’t walk this morning, thought was too rainy.  Decided to try it and it actually was a nice walk.  Hardly coughed at all, if at all.

Pace was about 13 seconds slower than my goal.  

Just watching Jim Cramer who mentioned most people are staying home now, except one major demographic that still loves to shop at retail stores-children (and people who feel like children I assume).  

I don’t know if the idea that people are staying at home and ordering food from restaurants is true or not.

Except for maybe pizza, I can’t imaging ordering a prepared meal from a restaurant at full price to eat at home.  Nothing wrong with it, I just can’t imagine myself doing that. If I am paying for a meal, I want the experience!

Apparently a lot of people do it, because restaurants push it.  Of course restaurants love it and I don’t blame them.

Back to shopping on-line, while I like to shop on-line for some things clothing is one thing I want to see before I buy it.  Even with so called “easy returns”, it is difficult to have to return something and clothing and shoes are especially hard to picture on-line.  Actually I am surprised how often I find that Amazon actually is higher than local stores.

Filed our tax returns last night.  I didn’t want to wait until the last minute and have something go wrong.  (I hold off on paying until Tuesday though!)  Well, I”ll probably mail them in Monday just to be sure.  

Filing income tax is kind of a rule stick of the year.  Of course, it used to be that DST started around this period although it is a lot earlier now.  

It is always a relief to get the tax return off, with the hope that I got everything right!  I am always shocked at how much income taxes are.

Of course having to pay for the lying bully’s golf outings and the stays at his rip-off hotels and “resorts” by the government employees who have to go with him (how is that legal?) makes it harder to pay taxes.

Also the “security” expenses of Education Secretary de vice  and the criminal at the EPA are suddenly demanding security at the cost of over a $1,000,000 per month.  

Living high at our expense while they ruthlessly cut programs benefiting the lower and middle class and shoveling our tax money to their buddy’s and rich friends.  I will be happy to see them in jail in the near future, along with the lying bully lunatic. I normally don’t really support jail for nonviolent crimes, but I think they deserve jail time. 

Heavy rain yesterday in the late afternoon, with light rain last night.  Our lawn just got treated yesterday morning, so I am hoping it was a treatment that needed water!  I have to assume they would tell us if there was a problem.

That’s it for now, Friday, April 14, 2017.  

2017 Spring April 13 Thursday

61 degrees this morning. No walk due to schedule today

At least the temperature is higher most mornings now, although there is still the touch of cold in the air.  

Noticed this morning that some computer e-mail (or maybe it was the cable tv itself) wanted to make me “recommendations” on what to watch!

I am just amazed at all the companies, programs etc. that want to give me “recommendations” on what to watch, read, etc!  

As if I didn’t have books, movies, web sites and plenty of “things to do” stacked up enough to let me for a year already!  Why in the world would I want any “recommendations” on books, movies or magazines, etc?

I don’t mean the magazines, computer sites etc. that summarize books, magazines, shows or trips and let you make up your own mind, just the places that think I need to have “recommendations” on what to do!  Kind of arrogant to say the least!  

I ignore them all anyway.

Of course the stores like Amazon are the worst.  For some reason they think I need two printers, etc, once I buy something, I am inundated with ads for the very same thing! 

I wonder what in the world they are thinking, all they are doing is irritating me by wasting my time!  

I have gotten to the point I resent having to delete a junk e-mail, much less have to take the time to “unsubscribe” to something I never wanted to subscribe to in the first place.

The same holds true for the “recommendations” on what to do this weekend etc.  Just tell me what is going on, I don’t need any “recommendations”!  Perhaps it is just poor wording on their part.

Nothing against people, websites etc.  who provide “recommendations” on request, just tired of unsolicited “recommendations” that waste my time.

It seems the older I get, the less time I have.  Of course that is literally true, but it seems like as your choices become more limited by age, health or whatever, you would have more time, but that isn’t true, at least in my case.

I really don’t think if/when I “retire” I will really have any more time.  Technically, I have probably literally extra days of discretionary time compared to when I was a City Manager, but it is almost like I had more time then. 

Now, I have a job where I literally can’t work over 40 hours per week, but I feel like I have less free time.  Probably some type of strange psychological quirk! 

I really do try to avoid just wasting time, (it is very easy to do!).  Maybe setting priorities on my time will provide more time.  I assume that is what I did in my past, I set priorities because time was limited.  However, even than, I read three newspapers a day, usually exercised about an hour a day more than I do now, plus worked a lot more hours, including two or three meetings per week!   

Anyway, I”m going to start keeping track (somewhat, I don’t want it to take a lot of time!) on how I use my time, just so I know.  It will help me set priorities for using my time.

That’s it for now, Thursday, April 13, 2017.