The Column

Motto: Hi guys! I had a week vacation. Although I went into the week with some loosely-defined goals & objectives, when it came time to put the wheels on the pavement my body, brain, and soul told me no. Full stop. I stopped writing. I stopped tracking life metrics. I stopped basically everything (other than filming a second-a-day, but that hardly counts). I played videogames, watched TV, and even read some. I worked out at a retail gym with a buddy. I helped Melissa with schoolwork from time to time. Mostly though, I just took it easy. That's what I realized I needed. I'm glad I did what I did with that time.  Things are going to be different now that my vacation is over. I'm going to have a lot less time to do the things I do... and I do a lot of "me" things (see the Top 5). I think that I probably won't be able to sustain all of those activities going into the future. I don't know which of them I'll end up nixing, but I'm about 90% c...

Motto: I have half an hour to write this It's the beginning of the month. That means I'm transitioning between two 30 Day Challenges. Here's where I reflect on my previous month and set a new goal: Last month's challenge - Sweat 5 Days a Week Results - Glorious failure... sweat barely over 3 days/week in reality Reflection - Disappointment with self This month's goal: No screens after 10PM I am going to do this.  I have only really had 2 "good" months out of the first 10 months of 2015 in terms of successful challenge completion. That's terrible. Here's to turning it around. Having said that, this month's challenge might be particularly challenging because I GOT THE NEXUS 6P TODAY! It's gorgeous. It's wonderful. My Nexus 5 went from "meh" to "AGGGH GET IT AWAY FROM ME IT'S HIDEOUS" in 5 seconds. The screen quality alone is reason enough to switch. See the Top 5 for more. Here are some relevant pict...

Motto: Well That's Disappointing In 2014, when Google announced the Nexus 6 that was a huge personal disappointment, they announced a few other things that I passed on. My car isn't running "Android Auto" and my television isn't running Android TV... any more. I had read reviews for the NVIDIA SHIELD console (later rebranded as NVIDIA SHIELD TV, which seems like it's just screaming itself at you) for the past 5 months. It had been on my Amazon wish list since the first week it was available. On a lark, I decided to swing by the local Micro Center (electronics store) to see if they had one in stock. To my surprise/delight, they had exactly one in stock. I picked it up and took it home, filled with glee. I plugged it in, booted it up, logged in, and started playing around. Then the problems started. Nothing huge. Just... a bunch of little things. The Chromecast functionality was spotty. The audio cut out from time to time. The applications available o...

Motto: GREAT SCOTT! Yesterday was "Back to the Future" day. That is popular knowledge right now. I'm not stating that not so much to inform you now, but moreso as a reference for the future to give this Column some context. Anyway, in Back to the Future 2 we got to see what 1985 America thought 2015 America would look like. There were some articles that came out yesterday in which people predicted what life will look like in 30 years... I think they were all wrong. Here's my 100% "or your money back" guaranteed predictions for the year 2045: I will be 57 years old (or dead). I'll weigh 240 pounds. Slightly heavier than I am now. I will have aged like fine wine… with the face of a sophisticated gentleman. Mizzou will still not have a Men's Basketball National Championship... likely will still not have even gone to the championship game... or the Final Four. We will still not be flying everywhere we go (unless somebody recreates Tony Stark...

Motto: GET ON MY LEVEL The initial reviews for the Nexus 6P are coming back. I'm buying into the #HYPE . Initial .  Reviews . Are . All . Positive . Seriously . I am excited for this phone in a way I haven't been since the Galaxy Nexus four years ago... it looks to be a phenomenal showing for Android - a true flagship to stand opposite the iPhone. My Nexus 6P and my wife's iPhone 6S Plus are a perfectly matched duo - I like that. It's a nice symmetry for the life of our tech. Speaking of #HYPE : I'm not the world's biggest Star Wars fan. Not that I'm not a fan - I actually quite like Star Wars... it's just that I've only ever seen the original trilogy once for certain - and that was about a month ago. I'd seen parts and pieces of it in the past, but I hadn't "officially" watched them all the way through, in order. Thus I cannot properly say that I have the same level of #HYPE as other, better fans... but I'm sti...

Motto:  Hey/Okay Siri/Alexa/Cortana/Google, are you hearing me? Technology is cool . I think we are on the cusp of a cool, new, and exciting future in the world of consumer tech. #BoldPrediction It used to be that geeks thought "some day soon, everyone will have a PC".  Then it was "some day soon, everyone will be on the internet".  Then it was "some day soon, everyone will have a smartphone".  Now I think some day soon, everyone will have a smart home.  More than that, a smart everything .  I expect most people already have at LEAST 3 of the following items: computer smartphone tablet smart TV &/or streaming box &/or gaming console smart wearable device (smart watch, fitness tracker, etc) internet-connected car internet-connected speakers any number of smart "home automation" devices (smart thermostat, smart lights, surveillance  camera, etc) Amazon's "Echo", which is really a new category of device ...

Motto: IT MIGHT SEEM CRAZY, WHAT I'M ABOUT TO SAY... I'm about to write something I promised myself I wouldn't ever write: "It's been so long since I wrote, I should write in my Blog more!" Now, it has  been a while... for good reason. I've been doing a lot of stuff...  Namely: Udacity classwork - the largest chunk of what I've been doing Battlefield 4 - a larger chunk than I'd like to admit Exercising - basketball 2-3 times a week, gym 1-2 times; am taking this 30 Day Challenge a bit more seriously Seeing friends - more than before Feature writing - I've written a bit on the Features that will eventually get updated (Tech Factionism, Marvel stuff, Life Tracker stuff) MCU rewatch - related to the feature writing Life Tracker fixes - my weather API provider decided to start flaking out, so I had to find a new one I'm making an active effort towards "hobby diversification". I'm not saying I'm about to rad...