I Think it Moved
If you haven't seen the Seinfeld episode, check it out, it's quite funny. George gets a massage and his reaction is priceless.
Then he breaks the news to Jerry.
Yesterday I went for my yearly urologist appointment. The doctor checked me down below the equator. But this time something was different. The doctor was very gentle and asked me first to drop my pants. The doctor looked and manually checked my private parts but...
I think it moved...
and then asked me to bend over to check my prostate. I was getting worried about this, but she didn't say anything so I guess it didn't bother her.
Quiet day due to good Friday
It was very quiet when I arrived at work at 11 AM. There was one guy there and me. It looked like a ghost town. But it was nice that it was pretty quiet. Next week my boss is on vacation and that's always a good thing.
Son back from College
It's always nice when my son is home from college. My other son and the dog really miss him like I do. On the downside when he's home I'm more likely to eat ice cream which I did after he went to Carvel and bought it for me.
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| Smith Machine |
My Gym Habit Continues
I continue to make it to the gym at Planet Fitness. I've picked 3 days per week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and my goal isn't any particular work out but just to go.
I picked these days because they have the least number of people at the gym. I found this info on Google, I do love Google.
I find that people are very unfriendly there and I haven't talked to anyone since I joined. I also don't like that there are no Olympic weight lifting bars that aren't attached to a Smith Machine. There isn't a track, pool or basket ball court or class either, though many other machines, steppers, bikes, treadmills. I guess you get what you pay for, $10 per month.
Top Things
Some top things I want to focus on this weekend are:- Get Listi to not be unzoomed when using on phone
- Speed up Listi during adds
- Be able to quickly go to an item in my focus list
- Add to a sheet with the shortcut and text
- Load a shelf to list
- Blog on one item from my focus list
- 20/80 the list of items in my focus list
- Use spreadsheet I've develople to a list into top 50/Bottom 50
- House chores
- Read/Record my ideas
- Record a podcast then transcribe it
- Record then transcribe model
Using Excel VBA Code to transcribe a podcast faster
I'm going to update the code to track how fast or slow it takes to transcribe a podcast. I've also been considering creating a process that allows me to outsource the creation of the podcast in parts and then charge for the transcription.
Excel VBA Time Tracking via Caption Monitoring
I've used what called caption monitoring at work to automatically track time spent on various tasks. Each window has a caption at the top and this information can be used to monitor what you're doning. This piece of Excel VBA software will log the caption of whatever window I'm on and the class name. Then I have code that looks for keywords in the caption or class name and tracks the time and counts the times I've used the window. I generalized the code where I can just add keywords to a spreadsheet to capture different windows. One thing that surprised me was how much time I spent on Outlook, which was over an hour 2 days in a row. This might be incorrect because if I was on Outlook and went to the bathroom this code would track thatI was on outlook the whole time. The next thing I need is to add is code to track when I'm not using the keyboard or mouse so this won't happen.
20-80 Rule vs. 80-20 Rule
The 80-20 Rule also known as Pareto's Law. This basically states that 80% of your outputs comes from 20% of your inputs. 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your customers. 80% of the time you wear 20% of your clothes.
I don't like calling it the 80-20 Rule as I think 20-80 Rule better describe it. What 20% of the tasks I do give me the 80% of the desired results? I want to focus more on this 20%.
Car Shopping and Buyer's Remorse
I'm in the market for a new car since my lease is up. I first went to a Buick dealer to see what their new car is. Their commercial worked. I thought about the attractive women looking at the car and saying is that a Buick! The Enclave is a nice looking car, but the trunk was too small. Their other model the Buick Encore was okay but too expensive. The dealer also sold GMC cars. There was a blue GMC Terrain that we test drove. Our salesman Roberto was nice and the car was okay but the price of $258 was higher than we liked. We then went to a Honda dealer to look at a Honda CRV. We wound up leasing a Black Honda CRV. with 10,000 miles per year for 36 months for $279. Of course my buyers remorse has set in. Will black get too dirty? Will it be too hot in the summer? It certainly looks nice. I could be an Uber driver with this color.
For those not familiar with the term buyers's remorse or seller's remorse it's pretty self-explanatory. After you buy something or sell something you'll be sorry that you did wondering if you made the right decision, got the best price...
I violated one of my rules. "Never buy something the day you see it." So when you go car shopping or shopping for any big purchase, go home and mull over it for at least one night. Though doing this could cause another problem "analysis paralysis."
The negotiation was simple. We were offered $279 a month and wanted to get it down to $250 a month or avoid the $400 return fee on our current lease and $850 damage fee. So we asked if the $1250 could be waved. The salesperson Briana went to her manager and came back and accepted our offer. This made me a little suspect that my counter offer was too good. We did take the car for a test drive and we already have a CRV so the risk is low. At first I wanted a grey version, but then thought the black would look nicer.
Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
I developed a way to transcribe a podcast by using shortcut keys instead of the mouse. Am I wasting time transcribing the podcast? It's the efficiency vs. effectiveness debate introduced to me by +Tim Ferriss. Now I can transcribe a podcast faster than ever before, but is this an effective use of my limited time.
There is something about transcribing what +Seth Godin says that makes me learn it better so that's good.
I was getting very annoyed at the previous method which was way to much typing and switching windows, moving the mouse back and forth. But on the other hand now I have a transcription of Tim Ferris and Seth Godin podcast.
I did notice that Tim and Seth aren't as good speakers as I thought they were and could improve. Tim's questions would start somewhere and then go somewhere else and Seth's answers were also long winded. I guess they could both be more concise. Of course I'm not close to their skills but the transcription process taught me something.
I was getting very annoyed at the previous method which was way to much typing and switching windows, moving the mouse back and forth. But on the other hand now I have a transcription of Tim Ferris and Seth Godin podcast.
I did notice that Tim and Seth aren't as good speakers as I thought they were and could improve. Tim's questions would start somewhere and then go somewhere else and Seth's answers were also long winded. I guess they could both be more concise. Of course I'm not close to their skills but the transcription process taught me something.
I vs. You vs. People
Don't Bother Me
Yesterday both of my son's wanted me to do things and I said "No." One wants to go to city, Yankee game, and the other to play chess. I'm not sure why I said "No." I'm looking for someone to be closer with and my family is right there. Why did I avoid these. I believe that part of the reason is that these things aren't fun to me. Each one has it's issues. Maybe I need to have them do something for me first.
I work in New Your City everyday and walk between 1 - 3 hours there. It's not how I want to spend my weekend. But I would go to take the dog as I'd be interested in how she is with all the other dogs around. Chess is okay but I do find it boring. I've beaten my son and I'm also afraid of losing. I feel my time could be better put to use doing something else. I think I'll make a list of trades of things they could do for me if I do these things for them.
Google Ad Annoyance
One thing I've been finding annoying is seeing the same ad on every webpage I visit. Once I search for something on Google this happens. I was looking for a car and now every ad is a car ad. If I buy protein bars then every ad is a protein bar ad.
On the other hand the content on the internet is free because of the ads. I don't mind seeing non-flashing type ads that I can ignore or view if they are something I'm interested in. But once I bought a car I don't want to see car ads over and over again.
Facebook Posts without Permission
I was searching for a solution to a problem on one of my spreadsheets. I wasn't seeing the grid-lines in Excel anymore. I tried everything I could easily think of and then searched Google and found a website with a very nicely documented answer at GuidingTech.com. I went to post a comment but my name showed via Facebook on the post. I didn't want to post it with my name but it did.
A Larry David Moment
My son told me about an incident at college that was right out of Curb your Enthusiasm. He can't find his Yankee hat and he sees a kid wearing it in his frat house. He says "That's my hat" and the kid says "My dad gave it to me." This reminds of where Larry's Joe Pepitone jersey goes missing and he sees a guy on the street wearing. Leon leaves the car and gets it for him.
