Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
I knew Snow was coming so I setup my Pixel2 to best capture the snowfall on Saturday 2nd Jan 2021. It was good but I didn’t position the camera behind my black out blinds and so you get a slight reflection and later in the video the light of living room in the sky (I obviously removed this part as it looked weird). I also need to sort out the autofocus next time.
Still a nice timelapse of the clouds rolling in then the snow for a short while.
Its been quite a year and everybody is looking for a better year in 2021.
Following my review of last year… here’s my New Years Resolutions for 2021; which follows on from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 ones.
This is a follow on from last year, my sleep, alertness, etc are great but I for decades have neglected my skin. Since I was young, I would use petroleum jelly on my face and hands. I only really noticed the issue with this while shaving. But I was convinced by my barber to stop doing this and use proper face moisturisers. My family were amazed my skin turned out as well as it did we 30+ years of petroleum jelly. So its time for something new and less harsh?
…I studied her face to see what her intention was. Maybe it was a spontaneous comment that didn’t really mean anything. Perhaps she was playing to the cameras that surrounded us?
The longer I looked, the more smug her expression became. She might have been pretty before but that dirty grin said it all. If she was trying to push my buttons she had found them alright. What happened next was not my finest hour.
Maybe the combination of divorce, Mr Tango and the button pushing had something to do with what happened next. It felt like I was thinking it but it came out.
Regardless, I do take responsibility for what happened next…
Bet you are dying to know what happens next right? Hopefully this year you will know.
So that’s the 12 for 2021 (still no real reason why its 12, it just is). Its a tough one because I wanted to include things like visit a new country but I decided its unlikely this coming year. I was also going to add one about getting the Covid19 vaccine/jabs but I just learned one of the ingredients includes pea protein? So it might be a even longer wait for me to get the vaccine.
Have a good new year all!
I am privileged to have an amazing view across East Manchester to the Pennines. It is a great view and nothing large has been built in between, obstructing the view. This is part of the reason why I have a small TV and went for the projector route for big screen view.
Recently I had a conversation with my Newcastle friend Oli Wood and we got talking about his timelapses. I mentioned I had entered a timelapse into the life in a day documentary. Oli suggested I should do more, especially because its built directly into the Google Pixels camera.
Since then I’ve been doing some experiments behind my black out blinds so I can use my living room hue lights as usual without it messing with the timelapse. I would say they are pretty good, but I’d like to sort out the autofocus and position it somewhere a bit more towards the Pennines.
I will certainly do one for New Years with a quicker shutter time. Hopefully to pick up some of the great fireworks I usually see during my new years eve parties.
2020 has been one heck of a year for me and pretty much every single person on earth. The Covid19 pandemic effected so many peoples lives from people dying to people having to operate around nationwide lock downs. People I know have had covid19 and a couple people are still suffering with the long covid19. From memory no one I know has died but I’m not certain.
The thing about the pandemic is its like background radiation. Its always there and it affects everything. Even if its small things.
Then in the middle of everything the police in American murdered a bunch of black people and the whole thing was captured. May 2020, was a turning point for many, finally we could talk about systematic racism and people were listening. Not to say they did a lot about it but in some places the light was shone and people finally understood what it means to be an anti-racist.
So with all that how was my year from the Quantified Self data point of view?
Here’s my review of my new years resolutions from 2019.
Day 25: High and low Vertex Suns
Of course something special for the last day of my Diabolo advent calendar.
I am still getting my head around the vertex but one of the tricks I picked up quickly was the high and low suns.
When I’m going and slowly turning along with the vertex, it looks incredible but its very difficult to maintain the momentum.
Here is another better one I did the other day.
Thats it for the advent calendar, hope you enjoyed a little daily dip into the diabolo world?
Happy holiday where ever you are and what ever you do. Remember to stay safe!
Day 24: The Vertex
This is the new dimension in the Diabolo world, the Z dimension.
For the last few years I have added learning the vertex in my new years resolutions.
Its only this year with covid19 and plenty of time in the community garden, I really got to put the time into learning how this quite new trick actually works.
I’m still learning it but imagine all the tricks I have shown over the last 24 days and imagine them operating on the Z dimension! Thats all to come…
Till then I can enjoy finally being able to manage a vertex with a loop or as a open loop stick grind.
Day 23: The cross stick grind
Nice stick grind which can look impressive if held correctly at the end of a performance.
As you can hear the diabolo is still spinning but I think its better when it stops in that grind.
Day 22: High throw to whip to duicide
This is a combo which really gets people excited.
In single steps it should be straight forward but the high throw makes the diabolo whip very difficult and prone to being missed.
On top of this the momentum of the diabolo instantly makes a whip to duicide swing around very quickly, causing the duicide not to go back up.
Theres a closer up view here .
Day 21: Diabolo Genocide
We are getting much closer to the edge of my skill set now.
The suicide can be difficult and the duicide was tricky to learn, but they all pale in compared to the genocide.
While in the suicides and duicides, the diabolo is still realistically on the strong.
In the Genocide, the Diabolo leaves the string and you are left holding one stick. Check out the side view to see it fully.
Its insane and I find it hard to pull off.
I was blown away by the recreation of Alton Tower’s Smiler. Its all pretty much there. I looked at planet coaster at the start of April but it doesn’t run on Linux or the Steambox, sadly.
Day 20: Diabolo stick suicide
One of the key tricks in the Diabolo world is the suicide.
I kinda skipped over it but in short if you let go of a sticks mid trick its a suicide move.
The stick suicide creates a suicide by crossing the sticks to control the speed of the trick. I have seen someone this trick turned into a infinite stick suicide.
Over the last 9 months I changed by work hours from 1000-1800 to 1100-1900. I use to get up out of bed at 0800, giving myself 2 hours to wake up, shower, have breakfast and get to work on the bike. Generally I would be a sleep about 0100 meaning 6.5-7 hours of sleep.
If you feel like you heard this stuff before, you most likely have, here and here and even here.
Now with the change in work time, I’m sleeping by 0200 and awake just after 1000. Meaning 8 hours of sleep.
I can’t tell you how much better I feel!
Some have asked what if I slept 8 hours but shifted your hours towards the morning?
They misunderstand what it means to be a night owl vs a morning lark. As explained in this business insider. There are big differences.
Staying awake well into the night and having to wake up early for work can be problematic for people who identify as night owls. As the AsapSCIENCE team points out, most societal activities occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., putting night owls at risk of sleep deprivation.
Its not something you can not just simply switch. Even more importantly is the direct effect of the time.
At the very beginning of a workday, the difference between morning and night people can be obvious; morning people seem to be getting everything done, while night owls are slow to get going. But that difference may not last.
One hour after waking, early birds and night owls perform equally well in reaction time tests, AsapSCIENCE reports. Ten hours after waking, however, night owls perform significantly better than morning people in similar tests.
I mentioned to colleagues I was recording and editing podcasts at midnight without too much of a problem. Heck I’m writing this blog at midnight right now.I scheduling blogs, microblogs, emails and texts (before I switched back to Google Messages) has been a great way to going unnoticed. Not that I really need to but people always worry when there is a email sent at 0100.
Simple as this, 8 hours of sleep starting at 0130, for me is better quality sleep than going to bed earlier at 000 and waking up earlier at 0800. I have 5 years of sleep data which also points in the same direction.
I’m a night owl and theres little at this stage which is going to change. The pandemic has been good to me on this front.
Day 19: Around the arm combo to whip
Another more dynamic view of what I generally call the around the arm combo.
Day 18: Long bounce around the head to grind to whip
A much longer version of the bounce around the head to the music in my headphones but with a stick grind and nice little whip
Day 17: Orbit to duicide to mini orbit to duicide
Quite a combination of tricks and when its done correctly looks impressive. Its getting at the more difficult end of the scale for me now. Each trick is possible but together its a whole different kettle of fish.