still doing crazy things…

So last week, I wrote Viking Fridays as usual, hit publish, and then disappeared… thankfully, there were a lot of Vikings around to strike up a great conversation and keep things going until I returned.

Thank you, Viking friends.

What was I doing?  Was work getting me down?  Was I stuck in meetings, with no possibility for escape?  Did I drink the Folgers by accident, losing my mind forever?

No way!

I had decided to take the day off.  I went to do something crazy.  I took a Mitsubishi Evolution MR for a test drive… the very one you see in the photo.

No, I didn’t buy it – hey, it was over $50,000, and unless I sell one of my kids, I won’t be buying it tomorrow (pssst – anyone want to buy a kid?  They’re cute and they don’t eat much…)

But let me tell you, it was a lot of fun.  This is probably the fastest thing I’ve ever driven, and I’m hoping the salesman will forgive me for going 140 in a 40 zone, but I just couldn’t help myself… it was just that easy.

(That’s 140 km/h in a 40 zone, so about 87 mph in a 25 zone south of the 49th… hmm, I wonder if I can get in trouble for admitting that here?  Oh well…)

Okay, it was a little selfish pleasure and not something I really need.  I could say truthfully that I already have more “stuff” than I need.

I was just satisfying that part of me that likes to drive fancy cars – hey, I’m a motorhead and I always have been.  Francis understands…

(Lion, you wanted to know how it drove – in a word – INSANE.)

Then I decided to do something even crazier.  Something that might just satisfy a real need, a need to do some work that means something to me.

I had this idea a while back to do some niche blogging and maybe even blog consulting in my industry (thank you to Amy Derby for the inspiration).  I had contacted “the right person”, I had “gone through the proper channels”, and I basically got the brush off.

I felt like a cog.

So I did something crazy.  I emailed my idea to the CEO of the company.  I have nothing to lose.  Hey, it worked for J Allard of Microsoft back in 1994 – he wrote a pretty ballsy memo to senior execs, and he’s a VP today.

I’ll let you know how it works out.

It just seems like a good time to do crazy stuff.  Fall is coming, and it’s a great time to take inventory of our blessings, let go of things that have held us back, and move forward.

I’ve got more in store – but I’ll let my actions speak for me.

Watch this space.

(‘Cause I’m gonna buy that car…)

viking fridays – naked, i was a nobody.

Two wooden stakes stood on the plain,
On them I hung my clothes,
Draped in linen, they looked well born,
But, naked, I was a nobody.
- The Hávamál

The Vikings.  Wise men of the North.  Who knew they were more than horned helmets, axes and severed heads?

I’m sure eventually I’ll run out of quotes from the Hávamál, yet it continues to amaze me… obviously our society has done nothing but plagiarize the works of the Norsemen.

No wonder they got ticked off and went pillaging…

Save us, oh Lord, from the wrath of the Norsemen indeed.

So what are they saying this week?

The clothes make the man.

Mark Twain said it like this:

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

(Was Mark Twain a Viking?  Or were the Norsemen after his head for stealing their words?)

And how true that can be, during a job interview, a performance appraisal, or just your day-to-day dealings with people.

Even on the weekend, I tend to shave every day and try to dress well.  You never know – that lady you saw standing in line at the coffee shop – she might be interviewing you next week.  Or she might be your next client.

So if you’re going out to chop heads this weekend, make sure your sword is polished (shut up Friar), colour coordinate your belt and your tunic, and make sure your helmet sits straight upon your head.

Now – watch this video (warning: crazy Viking metal), and go kick some ass.

so you’ve got yourself a gmail account – now what? backup!

Gmail.  It’s cool.  You can use it anywhere.  It has great search functionality built-in.  It has a great spam filter.  It will even do your taxes for you.

Okay, I made that last part up.

But one thing I won’t make up is this – all your base are belong to Google.

So if Gmail goes down, or if Google decides one day, “Don’t be evil?  Frak that!”, then your email is not your email at that moment.

Unless you’re smart.

And you are smart, because you’ve enabled IMAP in Gmail and you have a locally synchronized copy of your mail.  Monika talked about wanting something like this in her Office Setup post.

(What’s Brett been smoking, you ask?  I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about!)

Backups are very important – as Harry and Melissa have shown us this year.  (Sorry guys, I’m not picking on you, honest!)  And if you use Gmail, a good way to backup everything is to enable IMAP and use an email program on one of your computers as a local mirror.

Here’s what you do.

Just go and visit “Getting started with IMAP for Gmail” – read through it, and start by clicking on “enable IMAP in Gmail” – that part is really easy.

Once IMAP has been enabled in your Gmail account, then go back and follow the “configuration instructions” for your email program of choice.  Really, just about any email program will do.  I chose to use Mail on my MacBook Pro as it came with the machine, and I’ve never used Mail before.  I wanted to try something new and learn about it.

If you don’t know what to use, you could use whatever is on your computer right now (Outlook Express, or Outlook, or Windows Mail if you have Windows, or Mail if you have a Mac like me).  Or you could download Thunderbird and try that (it’s the email program from the folks who make Firefox).  I used it for many years and it is very good.

In any case, just follow the instructions for what you are using, and before you know it, you’ll have an IMAP-enabled email program on your computer with a local backup of your Gmail.

Just remember to start up the email program once in a while to synchronize everything!

What if you don’t use Gmail, but Hotmail, for example?  I’m not sure if Hotmail allows IMAP, but I do believe if you use Windows Live Mail you can pull mail down from your Hotmail account that way.

As always, if you have any questions about this, email me at brett DOT legree AT gmail DOT com and I’ll be here to help.

one at a time.

To do two things at once is to do neither.
-Publilius Syrus, 42 BC

Imagine if you will, a fire in your office building (with a humourous link back to Friar’s safety post!) – the alarm bells sound, and everyone runs simultaneously to one exit.

What happens?  Everyone gets stuck in the door.  People get trampled.  Broken noses.  Some people might not even make it out.

Not good.

So what should happen?

The alarm bells sound, and everyone walks calmly out, single file.

One at a time.

Call this a strange analogy if you will – but I’d say this is a lot like some people’s work schedules.  You have a million things to do, perhaps a day job, and your family obligations, and then you want to break free, become independent, so you’re working on that too.

You try to do it all.  Things get lost in the fire.  What to do?

One at a time.

That’s why I let this post sit yesterday.  I knew I couldn’t get it to where I wanted it, and also give my family the attention they needed (it was a rainy day), so I spent the day with my kids.

And then, to get it finished, up early today – before my family was up.  No music, no email, no feed reader (no Twitter, but that has been less important to me these days anyway).  But even before that, I had to work on my important personal projects.

To keep me on track, I keep a list – though the purpose of the list has changed.  It used to be an all encompassing “task list”.  Now I use it like this:

I start the day by making a list of intentions, what I will do, and what I really expect to do that day – perhaps 3 to 5 things – and make sure that some of them are for my personal projects.  I keep a separate list of other things that come up during the day, to keep for later.  I then set aside time to focus on these things – technology free time (or if at the computer, I make certain email and so forth will not bother me).  It is important to set some ground rules for where I will and will not check my mail, surf, chat.  So I have a spot for writing, for instance, where I only write.

I guess I’ve been developing this myself for some time, and then I stumbled across the same concept explained very well by Linda Stone.  It really works well for me (being the “full-time job, four kids and husband who exercises a lot and really likes the internet” sort of guy).  Perhaps it might also work for you.

Just remember.  One at a time.

(I know this topic has been covered many times elsewhere, but I find it is easy to forget how to focus on the important.  I could write at length on this, and in fact, I am doing so in one of my books.  For a nice essay on this, check out The Autumn of the Multitaskers.)

–

And, lest Wendi think I forgot – 4,721 words this week.  I also ran once (on Wednesday), 2.1 km in 20 minutes (a bit slower than normal – but just for fun, I didn’t even wear my funny shoes – that’s right – totally barefood on pavement!).

My friend continues to work on his liberation.  A reader of this blog contacted him with some promise, and he has also been working in the background on traditional and independent employment.

how to switch – part 2, and the mouse.

Whoops!  Where did the time go?  Something about best laid plans… now was I the man, or the mouse?

Anyway, now back on track (mostly), and with some new fire thanks to the straw, what do you do next?

Continue with Phase 2 of how to switch, of course!

You have a nice shiny Mac sitting in front of you, and you have your data backed up.  You have backed up your old PC as a virtual machine, or you may decide to make a fresh start.

I have tried both, and in the end I settled on a fresh install, as I only need a few applications on the Windows side (Internet Explorer 7 for my work VPN; Liquid Story Binder XE, which I use for writing – and will blog about soon; and Office 2007, since I haven’t saved up to buy Office 2008 for Mac yet).

Anyway.  Open up the web browser of your choice and go to Vmware to download Fusion.  You could just out and out buy the current stable version, or throw caution to the wind and run the latest beta for free (for now!)

Hey – fail early, fail often, right?  Right!  The latest beta works just fine, and has for the last three weeks with no problems.  Sometimes they’ll offer a discount for beta testers, so why not give it a whirl?

Follow the instructions to install Fusion (drag to Applications folder, not too difficult!) and then fire it up.  Once running, you can either click “New” to create a new virtual machine (you’ll need your Windows disk), or you can click “Choose” to open up the virtual machine you created from your old PC using Converter.

(If you are using your old PC as a virtual machine, just make sure to copy the files from your external hard drive or network share onto your new Mac’s hard drive before you do this.)

After Vmware is finished working some magic not involving underpants, you can then start up the machine (just click the little symbol that looks like a play button).  By default, it will start up in a window.  Once it is running, you can go to View on the menu bar and select “Unity” if you wish – this will hide the virtual machine and allow you to integrate your Windows applications into your Mac desktop.

The picture above shows a Word 2007 window and Internet Explorer 7 integrated into my Mac desktop.

This works so well, you have to see it in action.

Please excuse the cheesy music…

Anyway, what about the mouse?  If you ever have a chance to use one of these – awesome.  Just wish it would work with my Windows laptop from work…

So there you have it, in a non-technical nutshell.  I’m still working on the PDF for the “tech stuff”, and once it is finished I’ll put up a quickie post to link back to this.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any detailed questions – like the Koala Brothers, I’m here to help.

viking fridays – wake early.

Wake early
if you want
another man’s life or land.
No lamb
for the lazy wolf.
No battle’s won in bed.
- The Hávamál

I think our Viking friend should have spent more time stretching before he tried yoga…

Now I’m pretty sure that the Vikings didn’t wake early to exercise, but the idea of putting first things first when you are fresh was not lost on them.

I can’t say it is for everyone, and some days it isn’t easy – yet I continue to do it, because I’d rather give the best part of my day to me.  During the workweek, I am able to get a few things done on my personal projects before I have to slave away for “the man”.

And then on the weekends, I’m able to spend some quality time with my children while mom gets to sleep in a bit (although it usually doesn’t last long for mom, as they miss her…)

Does it work?  Well, I get about an hour or so in every day when my brain is well rested, to work on my books and so forth.

At 365 days a year, that’s a lot of hours.  My current paid workweek is 37.5 hours.

What could you do with almost 10 weeks?

You could take that man’s life or land… you could get that lamb… you could win that battle.

Or you could do some yoga…

Sometimes, it is nice just to do absolutely nothing.  Sit outside under a tree, with a cup of coffee, before the rest of the world wakes up.  That’s a good time to plot how you’re going to take over the world!

(As always, thanks to Friar and his bear for the great artwork!)

best laid plans.

This is a report about not running today.  Usually, I write my Saturday morning running report in my head, as I run on Friday night.  I did not run last night, so I am writing this “live” on Saturday morning.

I chose not to run on Monday night this week because I had to give a presentation I did not want to give on Tuesday morning, and I didn’t want to risk injury (hey, you never know).  In spite of not believing in what I was going to do, I chose to embrace the suck and kicked ass.

My attempt to run on Wednesday night was foiled when our employer (Cathryn & I both work for the same company) decided to send her on training until Friday, and I could not get anyone to watch my children while I went for a run.

So I thought, “well, that will give me time to catch up on some other work in the evenings”, which I did.  The power of positivity!

Friday morning I was coming down with a cold, and I decided to stay off work as I had put in a lot of time already and could use the mental health break.  Besides, I had to prepare for the evening and Cathryn’s return, as it was our 10th Anniversary yesterday.

I had a lot planned, a nice dinner (which was excellent – steak and wine!), and some very unique gifts.  The traditional 10th anniversary gift is tin, and pewter is mostly tin, so that was the underlying theme.  The modern gift – diamonds – will have to wait until we have a chance to visit South Africa (my wife is a native of South Africa).

I thought with some luck I might catch a short run last night, once everything was quiet.

Dinner was excellent, as I mentioned, and the children were playing as they usually do before they go to bed.  I had just brewed the coffee and we were about to share a cup when “BOOM”.

Sometimes at my house, things go “BOOM”.

Last night’s “BOOM” went something like this.

(lots of noises of kids yelling and screaming) untelligible as I was downstairs getting the pyjamas

“Owen’s just split his head open, there’s blood everywhere!!!  Call 911!!!”

I’m still not sure who pushed who into what corner of a random wall / door / chest of drawers… there is blood everywhere in one of the bedrooms, it looks like a drive-by shooting gone bad (not that this one was bad, mind you…)

We had a good look at him while we were waiting for the ambulance, and it appeared to be a scalp wound (very vascular, those are) but as it was a head injury, it was still a good idea to go to hospital.  My mother was available to watch the other children, so we followed the ambulance.

I’m happy to report he is fine today (he’ll just have a nasty scar to explain if he ever decides as an adult to wear his hair really short).  Today is his birthday (along with the other 2/3 of the triplets) so that should be fun!!!

In any case, I didn’t run last night as we had to stay fairly late at the hospital for observation.  And this morning was just *not* going to be an early to rise day!

I did make some progress on my writing – 2632 words.  Next week, I plan to at least triple that, if not more.  Should be easy as I won’t be Mr. Mom… and assuming we don’t have to hang out at the hospital again

Welcome to life with four kids!  These are some of the stories that are contained within my book.

Take care of yourselves and your families, and have a safe and happy weekend.

how to switch – part 1.

1. Collect underpants, err, buy a Mac
2. ?
3. Profit

So perhaps you’ve wondered about moving to the Dark Side, you like the Get a Mac commercials, but you’re not quite sure what to do in Phase 2, because you have a lot of files and applications on your PC.

Rather than wait around for one of the Underpants Gnomes to explain it, I set out to discover for myself what it takes to switch painlessly to a Mac and take everything with you.

Sure, you could just find alternatives – but what if you can’t?

–

Phase 1

Duh.  Buy a Mac.  Unbox it, turn it on, bask in the light, feel the effects of the reality distortion field.

(Hey.  I realize it is just a computer.  But, people like different things, there are many different kinds of cars too, for instance.  A car is a car, true.  Except that your Toyata Yaris won’t win the Indy 500.  So there are differences.  And feature for feature, a Mac and a similarly spec’d PC do cost about the same.)

–

Phase 2

Everyone will always say at this point, “back up your data”.  Well, you could do that.

Eh, what’s the fun in that!  Besides, we’re assuming you are getting a new Mac, so you’ll still have your old computer with your data as your backup.

Then again, if you’re like me, and you’ve sold your current computer to a friend (hi Friar!), it is good to have a backup.  I won’t bore you with too many hardware details.  Probably the easiest thing to do is use a portable hard drive.  If you have a home network and a shared folder somewhere else, you could also do it that way.

So, with that out of the way, we can move on to the fun stuff.  How to get your old computer onto your new Mac.

I’ve chosen to use a couple of products from a company called Vmware.  The first product is aptly named Converter, and what it does is make a virtual machine image out of your current computer.  It is very easy to use.  Simply install on your current computer, start it up and follow the instructions.

The built-in help will guide you if you are not sure what to do (or you could contact a helpful person, like me!) – in the end, you will have a folder containing two files.  This is your virtual machine.

You will need to transfer these files onto your new Mac, so with some luck, your portable hard drive will have sufficient space, or you can use your network if you have one.  It is worth noting that the virtual machine is only as large as the used portion of the physical hard drive, not the total size i.e. if you had only 20 gigabytes of files on your original PC, and the hard drive was 100 gigabytes, your virtual machine would only take up 20 gigabytes.

(This of course is just a simplified overview.  I will have a detailed document with nice pictures available as a PDF download within two or three weeks.  I think that most folks wouldn’t want to read pages and pages of heavy tech stuff here – if you did, there is a good chance you probably already know how to use Vmware!)

–

Phase 3

This part is up to you.  You know your craft, you have set your goals, and you can and will be successful.  If you think a Mac could help you to do this better, then my hope is that my words today could help smooth the transition.

But before that, we’ll have to finish Phase 2.

Next week, a continuation of Phase 2 – transferring your virtual machine onto your new Mac, installing the second product, Vmware Fusion, and running your Windows software.

(Note – there are other products as well, such as Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox – these would also work in a similar way.  As I’m not affiliated with any of them, I just chose the one I know best.  It is also worth mentioning that Vmware Fusion and Parallels Desktop are both payware, and VirtualBox is free.)

canada 2, greece 0. a story about running.

(Disclaimer: I look nothing like the dude in this picture.  Especially my nut graf – I need the *large* peanut bowl to cover it.  If you don’t believe me, ask the regulars at the Lusty Weevil…)

Today I’m going to tell you a story of two countries, both involving a decidedly non-Greek hero (me), and his quest to run a marathon, barefoot.

Canada.  A country of great beauty, vast expanses of wilderness, rich in culture, and possessing four very distinct seasons.  Seasons which sometimes seem to overlap.

In my mind, it is spring.  Yet, last week, we had a bit of a cold snap on Wednesday and Friday – winter redux.  On both nights, your friendly neighbourhood kilt-wearing Viking decided to go running in his funny shoes.  Both nights seemed to feel pretty good, and my distances increased on each successive night.  The second night, my lower legs did feel a bit tender, but nothing unusual.  Just the good feelings you get when you exercise.

Or so it seemed.

Greece.  A country also possessing great beauty, rich history, architecture, culture, and really great food in my opinion.  Much warmer than Canada.  Oh, and statues of really fit men with small penises.  The birthplace of the marathon.  And favourite vacation spot for Shirley Valentine.  I love that movie, okay?

(Costas: Boat is boat, fuck is fuck.)

So where am I going with this?  Well, I don’t live in Greece, I live in Canada.  And as I mentioned last Saturday, my toes were a bit cold and it seemed to affect my running.  I think one of those vampire kids shot me in the right ankle, because by Monday morning it was apparent that my right leg was stiffer than expected.  Probably one of those Scorpion King arrows.

Monday night, I tried to go out running and I knew after about 20 or 30 steps that I’d be foolish to continue.  I came home and stretched instead, knowing I’d stressed my right Achilles tendon.  This seems a common thing with runners and especially with a weirdo like me trying something crazy.

I guess my mom didn’t do a good job dipping me in the Styx.

I decided to wait it out until last night, so I didn’t run Wednesday either.  I listened to my body, just like my friend Lode did.

No matter, I took some time to reflect on other things.

Fail early, fail often.  And learn something.

So how did I do?

	Distance	Time	Weight
Monday	- km	- min	199 lb
Wednesday	-	-	199
Friday	4.5	35	200

And while I was reflecting, what did I decide to do?

Dave “I hate lemons” Navarro threw down the gauntlet the other day, a 7-day challenge to spend 15 minutes a day doing three things to bring more balance into our lives.  I picked up the gauntlet, and then thought a bit more about it.

I decided to extend that to my next 6 week challenge.  See, I’ve been writing a story for a while, an important story, and with all I’m doing lately, I’ve let it slide a bit.

So, I will be writing first thing, each day, 30 to 60 minutes, working on the story of my wife, for 6 weeks.  I’ll give a word count at the end of 6 weeks, or maybe even each week, just for fun.  I’ll be starting Monday morning, as I have a few things to do first.

I believe that by the end of 6 weeks, the story will be complete in draft form.  And if not, a new habit will be so ingrained in me that it won’t be much longer until it is complete.

I hold myself personally accountable to all of you.  And Tyler Durden.

do what you love, and the underpants will follow.

What, you thought I blogged for money? No way, I blog and write for ice cream. And underpants.

Last night, I ran in the warm spring rain, without a rain jacket. I couldn’t find it, so I went anyway and got soaked. Literally from head to toes, because of my funny shoes.

I could feel the water soaking through the fabric after the first 200 feet or so, and it was very nice. Only the sound of the rain, and my feet softly padding on the ground. Okay, and a couple of cars… it’s a small town, but it was Friday night.

The spring air was alive, the moisture filling me with vitality, the source of life. The raindrops collected on the lenses of my glasses, distorting my vision slightly and transporting me into a dreamscape.

Magic.

I run not to lose weight, I run to feel alive.

And so that I can celebrate, by dancing like all good Vikings do, and by eating ice cream.

Thanks to everyone – all of you – for a great week, here, and at your blogs.

Do what you love, and do it well. The money, or the ice cream, or the underpants will follow.

So, without further ado:

	Distance	Time	Weight
Monday	3.1 km	23 min	199 lb
Wednesday	4.0	29	199
Friday	5.2	37	198

I think this is pretty good for two weeks of running, I’ll have to be able to run 42.195 km for a full marathon. I know I can do it. Barefoot (almost). In a kilt. Without briefs.

Perseverance. Time. Effort. That’s what it takes. If I run at 8 km/h for 5 hours 16 minutes 27-3/4 seconds, I can complete a marathon.

I think I did well since last week, and it will be interesting to see how far I’ll be running by the end of the sixth week.

Once again, thank you to everyone for your encouragement and support, and a lot of laughs this week.

Laughing with friends about underpants – what more can one ask for?

Perhaps another bowl of ice cream… if I were a superhero, my secret weakness would be ice cream.

Just ask Sandie, she knows – she’s one of the great people I met this week, and her son MonkeyBoy makes me want to turn in my geek card. I’m amazed at how many people I’m meeting through blogging. The network is expanding exponentially. I’m thinking that soon we’ll be able to take over the world.

(Yes, that’s a rum bottle in the photo, Captain Morgan to be precise – but it is maple syrup, honest!)

Next week, I will return with more stories. They may or may not involve underpants. Oh, and a new 6 week challenge – if you tell the entire world you’re going to do something publicly, there is no better motivator.

^^
. .
^
o

Next Page »