My next 30 day challenge will be to sit and meditate everyday for at least 20 minutes. I’ve done 14 consecutive days before, but never 30. My meditation practices in the past have always been spotty, a day here and a day there, but I really want to make it a daily practice. (see below)

While I’m here, I also want to post some of my New Years resolutions, goals, and to-dos in this post. Better late than never, right? Here goes.

1. I’ll begin with my reading list. Some of these authors / philosophers I’ve already read, but I’d like to delve deeper into their works and worlds. My list includes Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Emerson, D.T. Suzuki, and a dash of Plato (specifically The Last Days of Socrates). On the tech side of things, I have a few networking security books I’d like you have a look at as well.

2. Speaking of tech, 2011 will be the year that I become proficient in Linux. I’ve always run dual boot systems (Windows and some flavor of Linux), but I’ve never really committed to learning the OS. Over the last week I’ve installed Arch Linux on four of my computers, each with its very own desktop environment –but it’s the command line that will get most of my attention. On a related topic, I also decided to learn the Vi(m) editor.

3. I’d like to compete in another triathlon. I’d also like to run some 10K races this year (Meg?). (Quick note on my Vibrams: I’m loving them and I don’t think I could ever go back.)

4. I’d like to go camping more. A lot more. I’d like to go to Acadia again.

5. Study Buddhism. (see D.T. Suzuki above). Meditate on a daily basis.

6. Write, write, write! Poetry, fiction, blog posts, whatever. My goal is at least 500 words a day.

7. Code, code, code! Python, C++, Lua, whatever. I have an ever growing list a projects (Arduino). I plan on tackling some of them this year.

8. I’d like to be able to hold a conversation in Russian. I’m pretty close, but I’m not quite there yet. I need to push myself to that next level.

9. I have a few personal traits I’d like to work on this year too. The first is to master empathy, the second is to finish what I start, and the third is to get out of my comfort zone, often. I think those are all pretty self-explanatory.

10. AND FINALLY, I’d like to be a little more hands on this year –a more practice, less theory kind of approach. Whether it be carpentry, electronics, metalwork, cooking, fly fishing, etc…, it’s time to put the books down and get busy. I just finished building my new workbench (well, one just like that), so I’m ready to get my hands dirty.

Although I think Hollywood is dying a slow, painful (and well deserved) death, I love seeing all these modernized versions of older movies coming out, i.e., James Bond, Batman, and now Star Trek. Coincidentally, my daughter (11) has been showing more and more interest in the Star Trek franchise. She’s even been watching all the old Next Generation episodes. Last week, she was rummaging through a bunch of old VHS tapes (remember those) at her Grandfather’s house and found the complete set of the original Star trek movies. She’s been begging me to watch them ever since. What a little geekling.

The ultimate gift for a geek in training!

P.S. I secretly installed Python on it when no one was looking; just in case she gets bored with Webkinz.

Battlestar Galactica Razor was great, although, I was under the impression that it was the season premier. It wasn’t. Needless to say, I was a little bummed saddened annoyed when I found out I have to wait until March for the next episode. Boo! A year and a half between seasons? This better be the best season EVER!

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Tin Man sucked. I hate giving negative reviews, but I just couldn’t sit through it. In all fairness though, I’m a pretty harsh critic. I hated Firefly when I first watched it too, now it’s one of my favorite television shows ever. I’ll probably give it another shot, someday.

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Facebook. Facebook. Facebook. I just don’t understand the hype, I really never have. I get that it’s a great social network, but isn’t that all it is? How can it possibly be compared to Google? How can it possibly be valued at 15 billion dollars? What’s going to happen to it when the next great social network comes along and people leave Facebook in droves in favor of the latest and greatest social phenomenon. 15 billion? Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is great and they’re really coming out with some innovative stuff, but it’s just a social network. Internet platform you say? I seriously doubt it, it’s far too proprietary for an internet platform. Open it up and we’ll see, but until then, let’s ease up on the hype a little. This is the kind of crap that makes bubbles burst.

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I recently finished David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been GTDing now for about 3 weeks and I can already see the benefits. Granted, I didn’t really have a productivity philosophy before this, so I guess it had no choice but to help me. Regardless, the community is great and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to tighten up their organizational habits.

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I just found out that the author of one of my favorite blogs, healthbolt.net, will no longer be writing for said blog. Nooo! I’ve recommended this blog to oodles and oodles of people. Sara Ost, said author of said blog, is moving on to bigger and better things. What kind of things? I have no idea, but I’ve already subscribed to her new blog and await her witty remarks with bated breathe. Seriously though, I read a ton of blogs, and Sara’s writing style is among my favorites. I’m curious to see what she’s got up her sleeve. >>>> saraost.com.

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Cam is getting Mario Galaxy for Christmas. Sweeet. I can’t wait to try it for her to try it out. I also bought her another controller so I can kick her ass in Tennis. I don’t care if she’s nine, she’s going down!

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Okay, that should do it for now. Oh yeah, I’m going to see “I am Legend” Friday with MLL. I’ll let you know what I think. I’ve been dying for a good movie lately so cross your fingers.

On a related note, “Transformers the Movie” still holds the title of most incredible animated movie ever made, followed ever so closely by Titan A.E. and the Secret of Nimh. Oh, and all of Hayao Miyazaki movies. That guy’s pretty impressive.

Click on the image to make it larger.

Geek pics.

That’s it. Do you dare disagree with my sci-fi expertise? Post your own list here.

So a few of us have been working on a new community site geared specifically towards geeks. The site is still being developed, but the forums are up and running and the official blog is only days away.

Check it out at zengeeks.com. A bit of a warning though, this community is not for everyone. It’s for the geekiest of geeks, e.g., TWiT fans, digg fans, gamers, coders, technology enthusiasts, sci-fi fans, movie buffs, web 2.0 geeks, cyberculturists, Mac heads, hardware freaks, modders, podcasters, bloggers, internet junkies….

If you don’t have an interest in at least one of the above topics, then save yourself a trip. You would most likely die of severe geek shock. In fact, just to be safe, I set up a little geek test for you below. See how you do. Don’t cheat!

You must know one or more of the following people (and if they’re fictional or real):

• Joss Whedon
• Steve Wozniak
• Leo Laporte
• Kara Thrace
• Kevin Rose
• Boba Fett
• John Carmack
• Gordon Freeman
• Linus Torvalds
• Kevin Mitnick

You must know what two or more of the following stand for:

• LotR
• IBM
• BF1942
• HTML
• USB
• RSS
• WoW
• 1337
• HTTP
• BIOS

You must understand and accept the following:

• The internet is not a series of tubes.
• Web 2.0 is not the next version of the web.
• When someone tells you they’re in a clan, don’t assume they’re racist.
• Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, & 3 suck!!
• A hacker is a programmer, not a pimply faced kid in his basement trying to break into your computer.
• Never use the term “l33t haX0r” in a sentence, written or verbal, unless to tell people never to use the term “l33t haX0r” in a sentence, written or verbal.

Was that so bad? If you think you did half way decent then head on over, register a user name, create a profile, and start geeking out. The more the merrier. The more the geekier. Sorry, I had to say it.

There are two specific things on this weekend’s agenda that Cameron and I are particularly excited about. By the way, it’s a beautiful thing when you and your 8 year old daughter start getting excited about the same things. She’s turning out to be quite a geek. But I digress.

Friday night is the season premier of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and boy do we love Avatar. Cam and I watched seasons 1 & 2 religiously. I know what you’re thinking, it’s a cartoon, but trust me, it’s great. I don’t watch many cartoons, let alone look forward to them, but this show is close to perfect. It has an ongoing plot that really keeps you on the edge of your seat, but it never gets too serious. There’s action, lore, humor, a surprisingly deep storyline, and best of all, it’s great for all ages. So to recap; season premiere, great show, don’t call us Friday night between 8:00 and 9:00.

Next on the agenda at Geekfest 2006 is Lego Star Wars II for the Nintendo Gamecube. Oh yeah! Cam may have turned me on to Avatar, but I introduced her to the ever so exciting and titillating world of Star Wars. What do you get when you combine Star Wars with Legos and the Gamecube? Hours of brainless stimulating fun. Needless to say, we blew through the first game in no time. Like Avatar, Lego Star Wars is great entertainment for all ages. It really is. We can’t wait.

So this is our lazy rainy weekend. Not too shabby, huh? After this it’s back to business, so we better enjoy it while we can. Oh, and we will.

What happens if it rains out?

Then there’s Netscape.com. You might notice some similarities between this site and Digg’s. That’s because Netscape is a complete clone of Digg, through and through. That’s fine, shitty, but fine. I’ve seen this done plenty of times before. What I’m confused about, however, is what Netscape’s head honcho, Jason Calacanis, is proposing to do next. He is offering to pay the top posters of Newsvine, Digg, Reddit, and Flickr if they post a minimum of 150 stories per month to Netscape. They would receive $12,000 a year and be dubbed Netscape Navigators. Clever, huh? But that’s not what I’m confused about either. Business is business after all.

What baffles me is this; if you are going to hire professional posters (pseudo-editors if you will) to add content to your site, then why clone Digg at all? The whole point of Digg and the web 2.0 movement is to rely almost soley on user interaction and participation. A read/write web instead of the static web of old. Why not clone Wired, or Slashdot, or CNN.com for that matter? Or better yet, come up with something original.

Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv threw in his two cents, saying that Jason has once again “whipped up a nice publicity stunt”, and a distasteful one at that. He further states that the success of Digg, and the other above mentioned sites, isn’t limited to any one set of users, but rather by user participation as a whole. I tend to agree.

Here’s where the gloves come off. Kevin Rose, co-founder of Digg.com, said the Netscape situation was Bullshit on Friday in his weekly podcast. Jason retorted by saying, “This is a serious discussion and I’m saddened that Kevin has reduced it to personal attacks.” Of course Kevin retaliated with this post on his blog, ending it with:

“ps – have a beer and relax, it’s just diggnation ”

I had to chuckle. This is geek gossip at its best folks!

In a related story, Netscape got hacked today. Visitors to the site were greeted with a pop-up message saying”Hi to all you diggers out there“.
You can’t make this stuff up.

But what I’m about to reveal to you just can’t wait! I found what could be the greatest program ever written! It’s called MacSaber. Simply put, it takes any MacBook and transforms it into a Jedi weapon of death.

In case you didn’t know, MacBooks, and I believe older Powerbooks and iBooks, have motion sensors built into them. The reason for this is quite brilliant. If you, or anyone else, accidentally hits the laptop or knocks it off the desk, the motion sensor detects this and immediately locks down the hard drives to protect your data (more about this in my review).

Enter Ian ”isnoop” Anthony. This guy wrote a brilliant hack that takes complete advantage of the MackBooks motion sensor technology. Just install this little program and start swinging your $1400 MacBook around the room to hear the melodious sounds of a Jedi’s lightsaber. It’s music to your ears.

And to think, a week ago I was carrying my MacBook around the room like it was a new born baby. No more I say. My MacBook has since been converted into a finely tuned instrument of death. One in which I flail around the room as if I was battling Emperor Palpatine himself. Not unlike this actually.

I think it’s fair to say that this little gem justifies the purchase of my new MacBook.

On an unrelated note, you guys may also want to check out this post from Buzz Patrol. I won’t tell you what it is, but I’ll give you some hints. It has to do with awards, Scarlett Johansson, and cleavage.

See what a great liar I am? The reality is I usually never admit to my mistakes and I bury the truth deep within the bowels of my soul, hoping that no one ever discovers my dark little secret. Alas, I made an error in judgment that I feel I need to address. Back in October I reviewed a movie called Serenity. I stick by my review for the most part. It’s my thoughts about the T.V. show Firefly that I wanted to amend.

As I said in my review, Firefly is the T.V. show leading up to the movie Serenity. I also mentioned that I watched it and hated it. However, I never really gave the show a fair shake. I only watched the first episode, which I read recently was never intended to be the first episode. Fox, in their infinite wisdom, decided to shuffle the order in which the series would be aired. After Serenity came out I decided to make good on my promise and give the show another chance. I am so glad I did. I rented all the discs from my local video store and watched the entire season in a week. I loved the show so much that I bought the DVD set and watched the entire season again. GEEK! I know, but it could possibly be one of the best sci-fi shows ever. As a matter of fact, I don’t think the term sci-fi best describes this show.

My initial reason for not liking the show was due to its western motif. I’m still not a huge fan of that per se, but the characters Joss Whedon created are so much greater than the environment they are in. The characters in Firefly are so entertaining and interesting (and completely original) that I quickly forgot what it was that turned me off about the show in the first place.

There, I’m glad I got that off my chest. Now I can sleep at night. I’m also half way through season 2 of BSG and I’m loving every second of it. For those of you have not yet seen it, I would highly recommend it. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m afraid I’ve already said too much.

You quicken your pace to ensure your dominance over the little slice of heaven that awaits you. Blinded by delight, you bustle through the crowd with a blatant disregard for gracefulness. When out of nowhere, bam, you stub your toe on the coin dispensing machine. I’m not talking about a light graze of the big toe here. I’m talking about the stub to end all stubs. The kind that sends shock waves through your body. So what do you do? Bottle it up? No, that’s a one way ticket to serial killerville. And screaming words like “HECK” or “SUGAR” just don’t cut it. In fact, sometimes it makes you even more angry for saying something so stupid. Well don’t fret little one because I have a solution for you. Allow me to let you in on a little secret that sci-fi writers have used for years to baffle and confuse the TV censors while still maintaining the power and audacity of the curse word. I truly believe that we can use this same formula in real life situations.

Below, I’ve compiled a small list of curse words used in popular science fiction TV shows and movies. These words used to be reserved for the geek elite. Oxymoron you say? I think not. Try these words in any real life situation and feel the satisfaction you receive while at the same time preserving your self-respect.

• Goram - from the T.V. show Firefly – A very nice word to add to your arsenal.
• Ruttin - from the T.V. show Firefly – Another word I really enjoy tossing around.
• Frag - from the T.V. show Babylon 5 – Not bad, but there are too many other meanings for Frag.
• Dren - from the T.V. show Farscape – You’ll find that this word adds a bit of color to any conversation.
• Frell - from the T.V. show Farscape – Be careful with this one, it’s very powerful.
• Nerf Herder – from the movie Star Wars – I’m not sure these are actually considered curse words, but I am sure you don’t want to be called one.
• Frak - from the T.V. show Battlestar Galactica – My personal favorite. I frak’n use it all the time.

Commit these pseudo swears to memory and you will never be caught in that awkward curse-free position again. Not at Chuck E. Cheese, not at Disney World, not even in your sons kindergarten class.

“Stop throwing the frakking playdough Tommy.”

See how easy it is, and fulfilling. But don’t stop reading yet, I saved the best for last. I’ve actually created the ultimate curse word and I plan to unveil it right here, right now, on this website. It wasn’t easy. As a matter of fact, it’s still in the beta testing phase, so I take no responsibility if anything were to go wrong. Use it wisely and responsibly my friends. Are you ready for it? Can you take the suspense?

Wow. This my friends is the swiss army knife of curse words. It’s compact, and yet delivers a powerful punch. Hate your job? Crunk it! Have a problem with me? Crunk you! Hit your thumb with a hammer? Son of a Crunk! Perhaps you like to talk dirty to your lady friends. Hey baby, you look Crunkolicous!….. Snap!

Now I know this word has other meanings in the world of slang, but none so profound as what I’m offering. I mean come on, drunk and high? Crunk? Please! This word is far to intense for such a lame definition. Consider what I’m trying to create.

It’s bold enough to stop your target in it’s tracks, and yet subtle enough to fly under most radars. Let me give you a real life example I use at work.

{phone ringing}

Me >>
Hello, how can I help you?

Customer >>
Yeah, how do you justify the fact that your prices are much higher than your competitors? Maybe I’ll just take my business elsewhere.

Me >>
Listen, what the crunk to you want from me!! We need to make some crunkin money too you know. Crunk It!

Customer >>
{silence}

At this point the customer is disoriented. He is trying to comprehend what just happened. Let’s continue.

Me >>
Listen Sir, I’m sorry about my outburst and I see your point. Perhaps we should just forget this call ever took place.

Customer >>
Oh, umm, okay. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I’ll send my payment in right away.

Me >>
Not a problem. Have a nice day sir.

Customer >>
Thank you, you too.

Me >>
………crunk

Customer >>
{silence}

Me >>
//click//

As you can see, “Crunk” is a very useful word for all kinds of situations. Feel free to use the above example as a template. But that’s not all, if you act now I’ll throw in my level two curse word Schmint. This versatile word can be used as a stand-alone swear:

“It smells like schmint in here!!”

Or used in combination with others:

“You crunking son of a schmint!”

See how the two words complement each other so well. With a little practice you can put together more complex sentences like the one below:

“I frakked the crunk out of that schminter!”

Ouch. A little warning though, don’t try something like this until you’ve mastered the art of sci-fi cursing. We don’t want any accidents.

Now that you have the basic formula for success, go out into the world and put it to practice. Good luck to you all. And always remember our motto, “Is that crunk I smell?” “When in doubt, crunk it!” “May the Schmint be with you.”. Well, we don’t really have a motto, but good luck anyways.

“A sense of humor is a strong male quality, a sign of good intellect” Those crazy Ruskies. I’m hilarious and wicked smat.

I’ll be seeing this on Thursday. Prepare for my full review…

This is a great interview with Tim O’Reilly by Wired. Make sure you read the “O’Rielly:What is Web 2.0″ article I posted last week before you read this one. It’s worth it.

I’ve been a fan of Ubuntu Kubuntu since I learned about it last year. Here is an interesting interview with Mark Shuttleworth about various topics concerning Ubuntu. Originally from slashdot.