John's Time and Space

Things To Do on a Commute

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 14:56:00 +0800

If you have a full time job (or even part time), chances are you'll find a lot of your time being spent travelling to and from work. I find myself on public transport a lot, so here are some ways I enjoy using that time:

Read ebooks on Kindle (You can find some old classics on the Kindle Store or Project Gutenburg)
Learn a language

Radio Lingua (Coffee Break ____ series)
Duolingo

Run to or from the train station (if your workplace has showers)
Ride to work (if you can't ride the whole way, start by riding to a train station)
Read the Bible
Relax
Bring your laptop on the train and write

Environment

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:29:00 +0800

Have you ever tried to get something done but just couldn't? It didn't even really feel that hard to do, it's just you ended up procrastinating or doing other stuff instead.

Let's say that your goal is to go for a run each day. Maybe you do it for the first one or two days but then eventually circumstances get the better of you and you miss a day or two. Then you break the habit and never seem to get time for it.

So how can you stop this from happening? Try changing your "environment". Manipulate your surroundings to make it as straightforward as possible to do what you want to do.

In the example, you could put your running clothes on top of your pillow. Having them there will serve as a constant reminder to you to go for a run on that day. If you get to the end of the day without running, they will still be there as a last minute reminder when you head to bed.

Other examples:

Trying to lose weight? Remove all unhealthy food from your fridge and cupboard
Cutting down on distractions? Uninstall facebook from your phone. Add an app that blocks youtube from your browser.
Writing a book? Keep the document open on your computer, or keep the paper on your desk
Learning an instrument? Keep it in your room, out of its case and plugged in
Want to pay more attention in meetings? Always take a notepad with you and write notes
Studying? Take everything off your desk except your study materials
Want to get to bed earlier? Shower and get into your pyjamas an hour before you actually plan to go to bed.

Doing stuff is hard. Make doing stuff as easy as possible.

80-20 Rule

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0800

So there's this idea that's going around now days, that 80% of the sum total of something is the result of 20% of the sources. This is often exemplified from such examples as 80% of the worlds income belonging to 20% of people. 80% of your uni grades comes from 20% of your study (I may or may not have taken advantage of this while getting my 80% average at uni!)

Far from being an exact formula, it's more of a rule of thumb used as an alternate way of thinking about things.

Something that is interesting to think about is that it can more or less be applied to skills as well. 80% of a skill comes from 20% of the practice & learning. And the final 80-20 heuristic I'll be touting is this: 80% of the perceived skill comes from 20% of the techniques. So you can seem like you are 80% good at something when you really only know/can do 20% of it.

Desk

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:19:00 +0800

As I've mentioned before, I'm always looking for ways to clean out my room.

A while back I decided to clear out my desk. I simply asked myself “what do I need?”

My answer:

Keyboard
Mouse & Mouse pad
Laptop
Laptop fan
USB Hub (TARDIS design optional!)
Phone charger
Headphones
Water bottle & coaster
Tissue box

Write down everything that you need for an average day of work. If you remove everything else, you’ll have a much cleaner desk with less distractions. And less distractions means more productivity.

Cleaning the Cupboards

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 6 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0800

I'm always on the look out for ways to clean up my room. I have a daily task on the todo list on my phone (Astrid) to throw/give away at least one item of my possessions. So that way even if I go for ages without cleaning up I'm still progressing, even if it's just one thing at a time.

In any case today and yesterday were more of the direct approach. I went crazy on my cupboards giving away clothes that I don't need and sorting out the various other things in my cupboards. You can see the before/after shots here:

It feels great to have a clean cupboard and although there's a few things still in there that don't need to be, it's great progress! I highly recommend cleaning your cupboard!

The Return?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 11:32:00 +0800

One would have thought that all those years ago, getting my own laptop would have given me more opportunity to blog, but alas 3 laptops and 5 years later I have not touched my personal blog. In that time, I've enrolled in and completed a degree, and acquired full time employment. Yeah that's about all I did so now consider yourself caught up!

So with an updated design and an updated mindset, I've decided to start posting again!

PS. Many blogs on the internet are filled with "Oh I haven't updated in a while..." and "I promise to post more often" and no actual content. Don't worry this isn't going to become one of those, but c'mon. First post after 5 years deserves a bit of a write up? No? Fine, proper posts begin tomorrow!

My laptop

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:37:00 +0800

Last wendsday, I bought a new laptop. It's a Acer Aspire 5315. It has a huge 15.4 inch screen ( Well, maybe it's just big, not huge ) and an awesome graphics card that can play Halo, Lego Star Wars II and Trackmania Nations, which are my favourite games. Michael gave me two 512s of RAM, to replace my one 512, so it has 1GB. The screen is 16:10 so it was rather nice to watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on it yesterday. ( I took it out of our mobile library )

Just two quick notes: I've added a twitter gadget on the side, so you see exactly what I've been up to. And Plain Jeans is still updating these days. It's almost come to the end of the season, so you haven't got much time to read the archive. ( 42 comics )

Doctor Who re-runs

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 9 Mar 2008 19:22:00 +0900

They are playing re-runs of the old '60s Doctor Who again! Well, not really. They are playing series 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the new episodes. It's on ABC2 ( The digital channel ), but it's on Friday 8:30 so I am out at Imprint. ( Young adult "program" of church ) Luckily it's their camp this week so I'll be able to watch it! I mean, "It's a pity Imprint is not on, but atleast I will be able to watch Doctor Who instead".

I went with the remains of our family to my brother, Daniel's house for his birthday. Micheal and I played with Daniel on his X-Box for a while. We had an awesome game of Halo 3.

In other news, I never did get around to updating Plain Jeans. My phone is rapidly filling up with ideas that I can't get around to making into comics. I've got so much other stuff that I want and need to do! Hopefully I'll be able to do them in the far--I mean near--future.

PS. I nearly forgot to mention that I got braces a few weeks ago. They make it rather difficult to eat, as they prevent me from actually closing my mouth. Also, they hurt for the first few weeks. They are teal at the moment as I just got them changed/tightened. They were silver last month.

PPS. I've started my Kalgoorlie trip wrap up now. Only got about half a day into it, though.

Noblogitis

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:35:00 +0900

I can't believe I haven't blogged about the Kalgoorlie trip yet. And already Lauren is going to go down to Kalgoorlie herself... I hope she doesn't manage to blog about it before I do.

Yesterday I had to get an injection that I was supposed to have when I was 12. I hope 3 years late is okay. I'm not exactly sure why we forgot to do it, but it may have something to do with the fact I don't go to the doctor's to often, and I'm homeschooled. Anyway, the actual needle was a lot less painful than I remember, but my arms got rather sore late yesterday afternoon. Thankgoodness they are okay now.

This would be fine. Just lounge around the whole day, right? No I have to do paperound, and it's boiling hot. Mum decided that I should do it at night instead, when it's cooler. So that's what I was doing 10pm at night. With a sore arm.

Plain Jeans will be continuing later this week. I've got plenty of ideas for comic strips in my phone's notepad, I just am having making them in flash.

Kalgoorlie!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 1 Jan 2008 07:03:00 +0900

I arrived in kalgoorlie yesterday afternoon after a long, 5-hour train trip. We had to get up early so we could get into the train station by 6:45. The train only left at about 7:15 and it took until 2:00 that afternoon to arrive. Well now we are at my sister's house, which was the whole purpose of the trip. Oh and by "we" I mean my older sister, Melissa and her husband (who own the house), and my younger sister, Caitlin.

This post was brought to you by a Dell Axim, and Melissa's Wi-fi internet. My hand is tired from this artificial keyboard, so I'll have to explain more when I get home on another 5-hour train ride.

Oh and by the way, happy New Year everyone, and happy birthday to my older sister, Lauren!

Birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:43:00 +0900

In the long time where I haven't posted it has been my birthday. It was on the 20th. I went to "Fasta Pasta" with my cousin, my dad and my friend from church. I got a big Lego Mars Mission set from my brother. It's awesome.

Not forgetting that I got two of my favourite Bionicle sets from my sister and the rest of my family.

Also in that space of time I purchased a Nokia 6085 phone with birthday money I got from various people. Well, excuse my I've got to fiddle with my phone some more.

My Sister's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:27:00 +0800

The 12th was my sister's birthday. We gave her alot of toys and various other stuff. She seemed to quite enjoy the day.

Right now she is out with her two best friends at Miss Maud's eating a nice birthday dinner.

Lamborghini Concept Car

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 20:36:00 +0800

On digg, I found a great picture of a concept Lamborghini. Called a "Embolado", it looks awesome. I hope that they don't change it too much before it's released. I want one. But may need to become an eccentric millionaire first.

I'm making a webcomic

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 8 Oct 2007 10:50:00 +0800

http://plainjeans.blogspot.com/

It all ready has two strips. Nothing particularly unique yet, but I'm working on that.

Phone Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 14:37:00 +0800

I went shopping for a phone yesterday. I didn't buy anything, I was just there to have a look at what was in store. I still have not quite decided which particular phone I want to get: I still have a few choices left. It will all depend on my budget I suppose. With my birthday coming up, I'm kinda hoping to get some money or gift cards, so I'll wait until then before buying a new phone.

My leader's wedding

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:01:00 +0800

My small group leader got married this afternoon. His grooms men were his brother his friend and my second leader. It was a great wedding ceremony, and I sent my congratulations to him and his new wife.

My Twitter account

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:47:00 +0800

Check out my Twitter profile! If you've never heard of Twitter, basically it's just a mini blog site. Unlike Blogger, where long posts are the style, Twitter encourages many tiny posts. I'm not replacing this blog with my Twitter one, I'm going to see if I can keep both up to date. It should be fun!

In other news, school has ended for two weeks of holidays! I'm already quite relaxed, and it's only 1 day and one morning in. I wonder if I will post more or less now that I don't have school to do. I shall see, I suppose.

Favourite Dad's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:25:00 +0800

Today is my Dad's Birthday. We only gave him 2 polo shirts and after shave, but we did have delicious pizza for lunch. We are going to have cake later tonight ( and perhaps some leftover pizza too ) joined by my oldest brother, who no longer lives in our house, and his wife. I can't wait for the cake!

Don't be alarmed

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:21:00 +0800

Don't worry, you're still on the same blog, I just changed which Google account I was using, and also decided to change the template of the blog, too. If you have a blogger blog, I must warn you: Don't try changing accounts. You have to manually re-submit each post, modifying it's time to the right date. Even though I only had posted 6 times, it took me a while to get right. ( Partly due to the fact I did it when I was very tired. ) Anyway, I'm glad I did it before I posted too much.

Doctor Who Season 4 is over

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:16:00 +0800

Well, Doctor Who has finally come to an end. It seemed to just fly by too quick. The last episode was great fun to watch. It reminded me of the first series a bit, but in a good way. I won't go into what happened, incase I spoil it. And I am bored. But it was good, trust me.

I found out after going to the Doctor Who website, that there will be no 2009 series, but it will continue in 2010. Well I'll be doing year 12 in 2009, so hopefully I won't notice. *sniffles*

Speaking of school, the term ends this week. It will be good being able to relax for 2 weeks before getting back into it for Term 4.

Darklight!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:04:00 +0800

Well I must admit Darklight was more fun then I had expected. We played two rounds of all on all through a giant maze of towers and bridges. I tried to stay inside the towers but it was rather difficult because there was 36 people there, meaning that guys with guns were scattered everywhere. So every once in a while I found myself battling it out on the ground level. Not good at all. You could not stand on the ground a second without getting picked of by snipers in the towers.

Anyway, before I write a Darklight tactics guide I should mention that I met my two cousins David and Mark there. David managed to get 2nd in both games, which was awesome! I only got 18th in the first and 28th in the second. I think over all the first game was better; I got a 9.3% accuracy in the first. It might not seem like much, but I got only 5% in the second game. I spent 867 shots, and was shot an amazing 110 times, both games put together. ( Dying 110 times amounts for 11 minutes out of the game, since you're "dead" for 6 seconds when you are shot )

I'm looking forward to doing it again. Even though it's not quite as intimidating as paintball, the fact that it's a quarter of the price makes it worth it.

The Bestest Plots Ever

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:59:00 +0800

My goodness! The last part of Series 3 has been awesome so far! But before I go into that, a bit about me. Tonight I will be going down to "Darklight" ( laser tag ) with the rest of my church's production and music team. Hopefully it will be great fun. I've never gone before, but I have gone Paintball-ing, so it might seem boring compared.

Anyway, with one more episode of Doctor Who to go I'm getting so excited! It all started a few weeks ago, as I was excitedly waiting ( as usual ) for Saturday night. I knew the episode was going to have something to do with stone statue angels and blinking, but I didn't think that it was going to be anything particularly special. How wrong was I.

"Blink", as it was named, was AWESOME. It had scary, scary aliens, plenty of time travel, and not much of the Doctor or Martha. Well, that last one doesn't really make it good, but I did love the two new characters that replaced them. The plot was quite gripping, although not very suprising; the whole episode was just a re-write of "What I did on my summer vacation by Sally Sparrow". I read it in a Doctor Who collection book I got for Christmas last year. It was, though, highly changed so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The two episodes that came before Blink, "Human Nature" and "Family of Blood" were also taken from a story ( apparently ) I'll spare you all the details of the episodes, but it was amazing what happened to the Doctor in them.

The two episodes after Blink were also amazing, because we get to see the Master come back from the old series, and also Jack from series 1 of the new stuff ( and Torchwood ). It was amazing the Torchwood references in the episode, though it is a spin-off, so it's excusable. At the last scene from the latter of the two episodes we see that the Master has succeeded in his plans and the Doctor is currently over 100 years old. Jack is dead ( for the moment ) and Martha has gone running.

What will happen? I will have to wait until Saturday. Maybe, just maybe, it will end up that the Master's wife is actually Romana, in secret. Who knows!

PS. I know I skipped out reveiwing a couple of episodes, I might do them later.

Camp, Party, Doctor Who and More!

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:42:00 +0800

Just forget the 'more'. Yes, I went on youth camp yesterday. I didn't sleep there, I was only visiting. I had a good lunch there, frankfurts and shredded carrots. I love shredded carrots.

I played soccer, on defence. I was pretty good. I reacon I saved our team atleast 5 goals. If you don't think that's much, I think that the ball only came down our side of the field about 7 times. Okay it was more like 8 times. Anyway, we ended up winning 4-7, I think. It was hard to keep track of all the goals we were scoring. We played for a full hour and a half, not stopping for half time or anything, so we're better than the real soccer players, though not everyone stayed for the whole game.

I also went to my cousin's house for her 18th birthday party. It was great! We had plenty of nibblies and soft drink, and lots of stuff to talk about. We played Sing Star on Playstation 2, boys vs girls. I was the best boy for sure, but I didn't beat any of the girls.

Since I was at the party, I recorded Doctor Who and Harry Potter, and watched them today. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter, but I don't mind watching it. I really should be reviewing the Doctor Who episode for last week, but I think I'll do it later. Until then, goodbye!

The Shakespeare Code

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 8 Jul 2007 13:26:00 +0800

Since I reviewed the first two episodes of Doctor Who, I'll do the Shakespeare Code as well.

It was, as I feared, quite similar to Unquiet Dead from Series 1, so as to follow along with my predicted pattern of Doctor Who Episodes. Even so, it wasn't too much like it, so I'd be completely bored. Shakespeare was cool how he didn't speak like his books. I hated the witches, and everything to do with them. Except, maybe the words of power thing. But only maybe. And the actual proper Carrionites were okay, but the witches in the house were horrible. And I don't mean that in a good way.

The Back to the Future and Harry Potter references were quite wierd, but all in all the Episode wasn't too bad. Gridlock looks good of what I've seen ( Just the next week preview ). I think it's going to be a nice fun one with a scary plotline, and we might get some good friend characters in.

Doctor Who Series 3

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 2 Jul 2007 13:58:00 +0800

The third series in the remakes of Doctor Who has finally come to Perth. The Christmas episode for 2006 was on Thursday, and the first episode of 2007 was on Saturday. The Christmas episode wasn't as good as the 2005 one, but it was still okay. I loved it when the Doctor was making the Tardis fly, but I really felt sorry for Donna in the end, and I was supprised that she didn't go with the Doctor after it all.

Saturday's episode was pretty cool. I liked it how the Doctor was back into doing completely random stuff, like in the X-Ray room how he danced around and threw his shoes into the rubbish bin. Not to mention him doing a "genetic transfer" with Martha. Speaking of Martha, I think she's going to be an alright companion, as long as she doesn't end up too much like Rose. The saddest bit in the whole episode was the Sonic Screw driver exploding. Atleast he got a new one. That must be his fourth? He really does go through them

Now for the Judoon and the Racnoss. The Racnoss was only average CGI and make up. They probably could have done her better. I liked it how the Humans were actually able to defeat an alien! But I didn't like it how the Racnoss' ship was the center of the earth. How many aliens are now responsible for us humans?

The Judoon were cool, but they looked to much like Rhinos, and they were a bit top heavy. The bit where it turns out that their gun is a language detecter was so funny. The fact that it took so long for the leader Judoon to say "Take out your detectors" in his language was also funny, but I'm not sure if it was meant to be.