Cleaning Up My Life

Our 2014 List

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:26:00 +0000

Hi - I'm Susan and will be using this blog along with Don to re-visit "cleaning up my life". We have (or mainly I have) been on a quest to eliminate the clutter from our lives - room by room by room. Some days/weeks are well - others suck. I'm a pretty organized person, but sometimes it feels like I just can't get ahead of the "stuff". So there's THAT for the year . . .

We also started a list - a completely off-the-cuff list - of accomplishments, large and small, that we would like to work on this year. The list is too large to accomplish financially, I think, but once we prioritize it, we could perhaps accomplish quite a bit.

I need to get this list out of my notebook and somewhere more visible so we can work on it.

restore the kitchen in some way

new range, at the very least

solar panels on the house
sort through the papers under the stairs in the garage
IKEA cabinets for the dining room
get a structural evaluation of supports on the first floor
new driveway

new driveway extension on the right of the garage

fence for the dog
an RV/Rialta/mobile home
decide what to do with the Triumph Rocket III
sell the Simpsons
empty the storage unit
convert all the movies to digital storage
close all Family Partnership accounts
order new passports
get general physicals - both of us
set up a six-month teeth cleaning
evaluate Susan's health care from Aetna - find new provider?
add a wall of bookcases to the south wall of the green room
put iron pickets for rails on the stairway
build a new deck
rent a steamer to remove the wallpaper from second story bathrooms
set-up an October vacation for Don and Sue
purchase new windows for the house

at least for the kitchen - north side of the house

insulate the first floor in the crawl space

So now, all we need to do is prioritize the list . . . it's pretty all over the place . . . and keep decluttering.

Of course all of this sits on top of the bigger question of whether we stay living in this house or not? Half of the list would be eliminated if we chose a different place to live . . . somewhere perhaps with . . .

a flatter back yard
more land
a smaller house footprint (so I wouldn't have so much to clean)

a ranch (one level)
with a basement

room for out buildings

Ah, well . . . one thing at a time . . .

Living Small... Could you do it?

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:37:00 +0000

We'd love a tiny house. How about you?

A brief history of pretty much everything!

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:03:00 +0000

Ghostbusters 1954

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Star Wars Hammertime!

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:07:00 +0000

How big is a Trillion dollars?

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:21:00 +0000

What happened on Wall Street.

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Nice video by WSJ.

Part 1:

Part 2:

This would have done well in the 80's

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:05:00 +0000

Zombieland

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Another Zombie film. This one is looking good.

How to remove Spymaster from your Twitter account

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:26:00 +0000

In case you are not aware, there is a game that has taken off in Twitter called "Spymaster" It's a game along the lines of the Mobsters type games on Facebook, but it happens on your Twitter account. It's fun, but only until you realize that you have been spamming your Twitter account with messages from the game. :-(

Many Twitter users are dropping friends who have this app installed because they can't stand the spam it's shooting out anymore and have no way to stop the messages. The game gives you access to remove notices, but many are just removing anyone that tweets from the game.

If you have not tried the game, you probably have nothing to worry about except some unwanted "I shot so and so" messages. But if you have played the game, why not drop the game instead of having your followers drop you?

Of course, since the makers of the game don't make it immediately clear how to do so I've outlined the (very easy) steps required below. Fortunately, the makers of the game used the official oAuth connections so removing the game is easy and does not even require resetting the password on your account. It does not appear that you will lose your game progress, but I'd assume that it's possible and even probable that you will, so proceed at your own risk. Of course, if you are here reading this, that probably isn't your main concern.

Step 1: (click on any image for a larger size) Select the "settings" link on the top of your Twitter page.

Step 2: Select the "Connections" tab after the settings page loads.

Step 3: Find Spymaster in the list and select the "revoke access" link.

If you do not see Spymaster in this list, then you most likely have never installed Spymaster and should have nothing to worry about. If you know that you have installed Spymaster and do not see it in this list, please send me a DM.

That is it. You are now less likely to have your account dropped by followers. You'll still get the spam sent by other users who still have the app installed, so your DM feed is screwed unless you drop anyone with the game installed, but at least you won't be spreading the spam yourself.

If you found this helpful, follow me for a while and see if you find me interesting. I'm @synstelien

Update 7/14/09

I received a DM on Twitter that indicated this did not work for one person. After reviewing the process, I find that it does still work, these are still the correct steps for removing Spymaster's access to your account. If you have never "installed" Spymaster, then you won't be able to follow these steps and you have nothing to worry about.

Keep in mind that this process is not designed to remove *all* Spymaster activity from your account, just the access it has to send messages from your account automatically.

Your friends that still use Spymaster will still be sending out messages which you will continue to receive. Unfortunately, the only way to solve that problem is to stop following those users or send them a DM and educate them on how annoying the game can be.

Cheers,

Don

Swine Flu, take 2

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Interesting times.

Everyone wants to re-live the 1970's so bad that they can not be happy just having a global economic collapse, a gas shortage and problems with Iran. Now we have to relive some Swine Flu memories as well. I think I have a scar on my arm from the last bout we had with this virus. So to bring back some "good memories" for you all, here is a great commercial telling you to get your shots! I can't wait to see what the new ones look like!

SuperNews

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:07:00 +0000

How have I missed this. Awesome stuff.

I so wish that this movie was real...

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:44:00 +0000

Gobstopper Trailer - watch more funny videos

My new Facebook friend

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:11:00 +0000

I think this guys is on to something.

Domain name fail

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:35:00 +0000

While looking for domain names, I said "what the heck" and typed in "Twitter" to see what alternatives might come up. Click on the image to enlarge and see what Go daddy suggests:

I would type the suggestion, but I'd hate for that to be indexed on a Google search with my name on it.

The Watchmen opening credits (won't last long)

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Video removed. They took em down. Looking for a new source now. :-P

Found a new source. You can find it here: http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/4969-qwatchmenq-opening-credits-online.html

John Stewart nails CNBC

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:30:00 +0000

I watch CNBC regularly. This is the best description of the channel I've ever seen.

Morons.

The perfect livingroom

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Wow, if only I had a leisure suit.

Microsoft's vision of the future.

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:09:00 +0000

But where is the BSOD?

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Cooking depression style

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Clara was around for the first depression.Take a few tips from her to survive this one in style.

House of cards

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Great video by CNBC

House of the Dead, Overkill

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:39:00 +0000

Another Zombie game is out. This time for the Wii only. I'm a sucker for Zombie games and have spent the better part of my free time in the last month playing Left 4 Dead.

Let's see how much of my life gets sucked into the abyss with this one.

SNL just keeps getting more relevant every week.

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:08:00 +0000

Now if only I could find whole episodes online I'd watch the show again instead of snippets.

La Jetée

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:51:00 +0000

I pulled this movie from this post about 16 amazing mindfuck movies. I've seen most on the list, but this one I had not. Enjoy.

Laid off

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Layoffs suck. But what is little appreciated is that they are great catalysts for change. I have now been laid off two times. The first was back in 2000 during the first recession to hit our industry. The second was last month. The first led to better things, I'm sure the second will as well.

I'm exploring all kinds of possibilities from starting something new to joining one of many companies that are better and more likely to succeed than MySpace, which was the last place that I hung my hat.

For those of you who don't know - mainly because I was never allowed to blog about anything work related until now - I co-founded FIMLabs, an R&D arm of FIM. Our quiet little group created products like SpringWidgets.com, the new design for the MySpace Mobile iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Wap and a lot of other things for Fox Interactive Media and MySpace including several top secret initiatives, MySpace and MySpace product designs and redesigns, new product prototypes and new ideas with completely fleshed out business models.

My team and I started the company from the inside and Influenced several tens of millions of dollars in revenue by doing so. We were integral to the creation of several very successful products, were the most prolific patent producers at FIM, had close to a 100% retention rate and we were probably the most frugal company that Rupert Murdoch owned, though I doubt that he knew anything about us.

I did get the chance to hang out with a childhood friend of Rupert's while traveling on FIM business and from his description Rupert sounded like someone that I'd have enjoyed meeting.

I personally met with and gave advice to everyone from the CEOs of both FIM and MySpace on down and in some cases, had they listened, my suggestions could potentially have allowed MySpace to remain the number one social network instead of on a fast track to third fiddle. But that is fodder for a book and not a blog post. (publishers, feel free to contact me at your convenience)

The best part of the last few years has been working with my team: The bright shiny people in this picture. (except for Bart, Lisa, Homer and Marge, who are in my garage waiting for an eBay sale) The picture is missing a couple people who joined after we took this, but this is the only group picture that I have)

We shared blood, sweat and tears as we climbed Mount MySpace trying to make a positive influence and meeting new challenges at nearly every step. Working at FIM has been a hard road, but my teammates made it a worthwhile journey.

I've been spending most of the last month trying to get members of my team work to do or jobs to take. As for my situation - I'm pretty well padded and have some time to consider options. Perhaps I'll use the next few months to try and start cleaning up my life again ;-) Maybe visit a soup kitchen and work the ladle? Maybe I should become human again.

Alas... I have time to consider the options.

For your amusement, I've added myself to the chart in this picture (original found here). The picture itself is a pretty scary image and I'm wondering when the curve back to normal happens. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I do think it could be a while. Potentially years.

Here is to hoping that Obama has the vision and the right people to get things fixed. In the meantime, it might get ugly. I'd recommend that you pretend like you are about to get laid off as well and save accordingly.

Good luck!

If you are interested on knowing more about me, check out my linked in page: Don on LinkedIn

If you owe me money, here is your chance to pay me back with perfect timing ;-)