You might have also noticed that this site is experiencing slower then usual response-times and an occasional outage (21 hours this running month) I am looking at resolving this, but until then please endure with me. I hope to have this all sorted shortly, and the last few glitches sorted out.

During and after the move I no longer tracked or kept track of all of those infometrics. Why would I? It has served it’s purpose; I am aware that I need to watch the amount of sugar I consume, I stopped drinking caffeine completely – and well, my sleep is what it is. I learned a lot from tracking all of it though.

Throughout the last few months I have begun to shift my focus away from trivial matters and started focussing more on the things and people I care about. I have become more protective of those important items, and dropped anything that wasn’t important or mattered.

One of the other ‘casualties’ that I no longer use, is Google Reader. I have un-subscribed from all of my feeds (par my friends) and am quite happy with it. Why would I need to know everything that happens all the time? I stopped watching news and reading newspapers a long time ago but yet was still reading it via RSS. Granted, it was news from sources that I found interesting – but still.

In this hectic life with information, data and charts flowing around us all the time I stepped out of the noise – and into the calm. What I see, read and watch is about what I want to – when I want to. And it’s not backlogged, saved or stored. I jump into the stream of information when and how I want, and get out – when I want.

If anything, I am more happy and content with what I have, get and give. And about what I don’t see, hear or get in my inbox.

I should be able to post a few updates somewhere this week so – no worries!

More on later…

Moving is so much easier when you enjoy a minimalist life-style :-)

In the not-so-far future I should be moving to a new apartment, and that means packing up my stuff – and of course unpacking it. Since I do not own tons and tons of unwanted, unneeded and otherwise pointless materials it should be a jiffy. It should actually all fit into a small van (yes, I really own that little – and enjoy it) Now I’m aware that moving is not an annual (or even bi-annual) event – but it just underlines once more that living with only what you need, use and like – is a lot more sustainable.

Think about it; off all the stuff that you own and have around you – how much of it do you actually use or like? How much are you just keeping around ‘just in case’? Of course, certain items are a good idea to keep around for eventualities – but do you really need to keep a 3rd TV-set around just in case for example? Be critical, question whether or not you will actually use it in the next month or 6 months – or year (if it is seasonal related material) If the answer is no, then store it away for that period (month, 6 months or year) and if indeed you haven’t used in that time – get rid of it (give it away, donate or sell it :) )

There is a saying that goes along the lines of;

Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you?

In case you want to read up on this ‘minimalist lifestyle’ try visiting the following people’s blogs;
http://www.zenhabits.net
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

Start with these 2, or just one of them. Read their blogs (subscribe to their RSS-feeds to automate it a bit) and implement the advise you want to implement. Because being and living minimalist is not following a regime, it’s about being and living with that (or without) what you need and love – without the junk you don’t need.

This coming Sunday 28th of March at 2.00 AM (in the morning for you non AM/PM-ers ;-) ) the clock will go forward 1 hour.

Be sure to check your clocks, computers, laptops, phones, digital camera’s and all other equipment if it set the new time correctly.

More info on DST at Wikipedia: Daylight saving time – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The version of Facebook Mobile that was installed was version 1.0.0.7 (from the top of my head) You can verify your version by going into Facebook, then at the home-page click Menu followed by About.

Now to upgrade to a higher version, you can use Microsoft Marketplace (which should already be installed on your phone) Simply search for Facebook and it should find it. Install it as normal of course (as a tip; be sure to set Microsoft Marketplace to store it’s files on your SD-card)

If however it doesn’t, click on Menu followed by Settings. Change the region to United States – English and click on Save. Now try the search again and it should find it just fine.

I have of course made sure that the HTC Sense UI still maintained the Facebook functionality amongst my contacts – which I find incredibly handy. It of course did – and I have since rebooted the phone (You might be asked to reboot your device as well)

So now I am running with a far more usable version of Facebook mobile on my HD2. Oddly enough the app still is in Dutch, but you can’t have your cake and eat it :-)

Lately I’ve been dabbing into personal infometrics; statistics on a personal level. Two of the things I track are the amount of caffeine I consume, and the hours I sleep. See the correlation already? Now normally speaking you would say: less caffeine during the day means better sleep at night. I now have proof that this not the case. What the cause of my lack of sleep is, is a completely different subject altogether.

However, since I track both I can correlate these 2 together and come to amazing conclusions;

As long as I consume no more then 3 cups of caffeine-holding drinks (cola, coffee etc.) a day my sleep is pretty much the same as without consuming any caffeine. I also seem to sleep more on a Tuesday-evening – opposed to a Saturday- or Friday-evening (remember; I have the Wednesday’s off)

This combined with my Positivity Ratio tracking has led to some interesting finds about my life and insights I might not have had before.

In the future I want to also start tracking my sugar-intake (in terms of cubes or spoons I consume in my decaf coffee, tea etc.) to see if there is a correlation there.

Now, if you are interested in finding out more about personal infometrics, feel free to check out these sites;
For Positivity Ratio scoring; http://www.positivityratio.com (I highly recommend the book!)
For all other types of tracking; http://www.zealog.com (in case you need an invite; please let me know in the comments as I got a few to hand out)

Just like someone I know says; if you don’t track it – you will never know the full depth and truth of it.

And my life (and insights into it) have been changed, and are changing because of it.

Keep in mind; filling in these items literally takes me 2 minutes or less a day. I used to spend (a lot!) more time on other trivial items.

Now ask yourself; what insights might it give you? Does all that working out help your weight? Do you really drink just a few cups of coffee a week? How much water do you drink a day? A week?

You never know, until you track it.

Take care, and be safe

On a personal note, I am doing good at the moment. Enjoying a 2 long overdue 2 week vacation spent visiting friends, family and well – shopping. One of the items I bought is a Samsung PL50 – a digital camera. It’s good to be shooting photos again, only this time with a small(er) one then what I already own. I’ll let you know how it works for me.

So all in all – life has been going good at the moment. Sorry for keeping it short, but well – back to the vacation for me!

Why Wednesday? It breaks the week, and not the just the working week either. It’s a break from everything, all chores, work, obligations, appointments – everything. On these Wednesday’s I do everything I want to – as slow as I want to.

If I feel like watching (recorded) TV, or reading a book in my hammock I just do it. No inhibitions, no reservations.

As weird as it may sound but for a long, long time I haven’t had one of these days. It’s good to not to worry over obligations or appointments or work or… you get the point.

I only had 2 of these days so far, but the outlook of one coming helps me through the week. Of course during the weekend I do fun stuff as well, but this? This is different. It almost feels like meeting up with a long-lost friend.

Today I spent a big chunk playing around with photos and iPhoto. Nice little app, and it was fun. Between iPhoto and Google Picassa, I’d still pick the later though.

Having said that, I do like the integration with Facebook in iPhoto. Let’s hope Apple steps up the paste in Snow Leopard, which I have in preorder :-)

And I must admit, I’m anxious to see it. First time in a long time that I have been anxious, in a good way, about technology. I missed that. I missed being able to tinker with things, figuring them out, breaking them and then fixing it all back together.

Even as it all may sound like a big step forward, I’m realistic. It will be a long, strenous road back. But I took the first steps.

And that’s always the hardest, the first step.

Take care and be safe.