Github

I'm starting to post code up on Github for the projects I'm working on. There's little up at this point, and I'm not sure how useful it will be for other people, but it's a good way to force myself to have good documentation and keep things organized. Plus it should make direct sharing of code easier. We'll see what happens...Check it out.

Managing multiple social networks

Okay...so following up on my previous post, I think I have a workflow that will work for maintaining Twitter, Google+, and Facebook accounts simultaneously. This assumes that you want everything posted on all three, and that you seed from Facebook (there are definitely arguments for segregating them, but I'm going to try to limit my posts such that there's nothing one one I wouldn't want on the others...besides, this will only share things I directly post from Facebook to the other two networks).

Using an account on  IfThisThenThat (IFTTT), it's all pretty easy. I made some of the recipes myself, but I bet they've all been made before if you want to search.

Basically you set up four simple recipes, one each for status updates and posted links, for both Twitter and Google+. (it's annoying that the status update recipe alone isn't enough, but apparently the two events are handled differently...).

Anyway, the Facebook-->Twiiter recipes are 100% straightforward, but the Google+ is a bit more complicated. I followed the tutorials here.

But with the four recipes made, anytime I post a link or status update to Facebook, it automatically pushes to Google+ and Twitter. Easy!

UPDATE: I switched to using Buffer the same day, as it makes sharing links to Facebook and Twitter super easy wit h a Chrome plugin (there are options for Firefox, Safari, etc.). Unfortunately it doesn't have support for Google+, so I'm still using the IFTTT recipe above for that.

Website updates

This whole "presence" thing online is a pain.

But I'm trying. I've made some major updates to my main IU-based webpage, and am generally pretty happy with it. It's super-simple but I figure that's a good thing. I'm also beginning to feel like my about.me is not as useful as it once was (it's pretty redundant with my main page), but that's what's on my business cards, and I do like their embeddable widgets (see the right-hand side of this page). I just want to get an easy workflow going here, because I don't want to spend a bunch of time doing social media management. Hm.
Anyway, Here's a link to my new IU page.

Tim and Eric movie?

[Alina, Arvo Pärt]

Look!

I love Tim and Eric, but I hope this doesn't mean they're selling out. Either way, I'm excited to see some new material by them.

Flow

[Listening to as I write this: Kurr, Amiina]

I mentioned before that I've started reading Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who, incidentally, is Hungarian...I thought there was a good chance of that, given his dauntingly difficult to pronounce surname). I'm only 77 pages in as I write this, but feeling pretty moved already. I'm not without complaints (I love pop-sci, but some his examples are growing repetitive, and the therm "psychic energy" makes me cringe...I'll likely have more to say about that later), but this book will really get you to reconsider, or at least re-articulate (I imagine I'd fall more in the latter category) what it is to truly enjoy your life. The book ostensibly offers lesson about achieving happiness, but I find myself reminded of a conversation with a friend who told me that being "happy" is not actually all that important. Life is about growing as an individual an understanding one's self. As I read this I realize that Csikszentmihalyi and my friend are actually saying much the same thing (I just think Csikszentmihalyi would call that such self-actualization IS happiness).

But anyway, the specific thing I wanted to point out here was this passage:

When a person invests all her psychic energy into an interaction - whether it is with another person, a boat, a mountain, or a piece of music - she in effect becomes part of a system of action greater than what the individual self had been before. This system takes its form from the rules of the activity; its energy comes from the person's attention. But it is a real system - subjectively as real as being part of a family, a corporation, or a tem - and the self that is part of it expands its boundaties and becomes more complex that what it had been.

Whoa. This sounds a whole like an extended mind proponent talking, and I'm what Csikszentmihalyi thinks/knows about that business. Interesting to think about, and I'm going to keep it in mind as I keep reading. Maybe it will be worth getting in touch with him about it at some point. Hmm.

Ok, ok, ok...

...Cupid, that is. I sent out two okCupid messages tonight, bringing my grand total of initiated conversations to three (well, I uppose a conversation requires two-way communication, so the total remains zero for the moment). I've received a few messages, but passively waiting doesn't seem like the best strategy.

But anyway, I don't really plan on writing at length about my lack of love-life on okCupid (though it's actually a socially and intellectually interesting topic...perhaps another time). It was more of an excuse to get me to post on here again, which has been a challenge, but now seemed like a good time.

I write this in a hotel room bed here in Sunnyvale, having returned for a week of fun (?) at Yahoo, unfortunately saddled with some sort of head cold that's had me sniffling, etc. for the last 48hrs or so. But more importantly, I'm feeling introspective more so than usual, which I credit to the confluence of finishing the semester (alleviating the stress of papers and such and giving me the simultaneously pleasurable and disconcerting chance to actually THINK more), beginning to read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, and traveling back to California. It's strange how even a short term relocation (I'm here for only two weeks) can provide a perspective shift.

So that's where I am, to overwhelmingly condense things, and unfortunately I'm too tired to write more now, but I want to start fleshing some of these things out in the days to come. Hopefully I can pull it off this time.

Back on the horse?

Damn. I seem to be repeating my unfortunate pattern of not keeping up with any blog I attempt to work on...

But it's summertime now, and assuming I can resist the pull of Fallout: New Vegas, I should have time to get more content up here. Here's hoping.