A year of blog posts

1. 2011 – sachachua.com

2. 2011 – sachachua.com
January 2011 ......................................................10 Sketchnotes: Gretchen Rubin, Happiness On appearance and bias: thoughts from the
Weekly review: Week ending December 31, Project book tour ........................................... 22 Nerd Girls panel at Lotusphere 2011 ............ 37
2010 ................................................................10 Of recipes and memories............................... 22 Weekly review: Week ending February 4, 2011
Sick days ......................................................... 11 Fun and rational economic theory: reflections ....................................................................... 39
Momentum and holidays ............................... 11 on the book “The Logic of Life” ..................... 23 Monthly review: January 2011 ....................... 41
Sketches: If you want to make the most of your Monthly review: December 2010 .................. 25 Disagreement and the road to trusting yourself
next conference, you should blog ................... 12 Sketchnotes from Quantified Self Toronto ....................................................................... 42
Marking up books .......................................... 12 meetup #3 ..................................................... 26 Working on estimates ................................... 43
Moving my book notes online ........................ 13 Weekly review: Week ending January 21, 2011 Things to write about: questions for your
....................................................................... 27 blogger’s block ............................................... 43
Emacs, BBDB, and getting your contacts on
the Android or iPhone .................................... 13 Sketches: What index cards are teaching me Thinking about personal random moment
about drawing ............................................... 28 studies ........................................................... 44
Weekly review: Week ending January 7, 2011
........................................................................ 14 Unbaffled ....................................................... 29 Hackbuzzbuzzbuzz ........................................ 45
Snippets from life ........................................... 15 Tweaking fun and nudging myself out of Books to write................................................ 45
procrastination .............................................. 30 Weekly review: Week ending February 11, 2011
Work on the business from the outside, not in
it – Book: Effortless entrepreneur ................. 15 Cross-posting between Lotus Connections ....................................................................... 46
blogs and a personal blog ............................... 31 On friendship and getting better at it ........... 48
Wrapping up projects and preparing for the
next one .......................................................... 16 Draft Lotusphere BoF on working with the On presenting, anxiety, and moving forward 49
Connections API ............................................. 31
Three tips for cheerful chores ........................ 17 More about getting 27″ washers and dryers
A braindump of tips for other new immigrants down 26″ hallways ........................................ 50
Book: Let’s Get Real About Money: Profit from from the Philippines ....................................... 31
the Habits of the Best Personal Finance How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Managers ........................................................18 Pre-conference networking tips for the Webinar: Energy, Interaction, and ROI ........ 52
Instructional Technology Strategies
13,705 steps and counting ..............................18 Conference .................................................... 33 Energy ........................................................ 52
Weekly review: Week ending January 14, 2011 Weekly review: Week ending January 28, 2011 Interaction ................................................. 53
........................................................................ 19 ....................................................................... 33 Radically increasing your ROI ................... 54
Emacs 24 and the package manager ............. 20 February 2011 ................................................... 35 From zero to hero: a newbie’s guide to learning
Switched my Fido plan .................................. 20 Lotusphere 2011 wrap-up ............................. 35 and building a reputation along the way....... 56
Batch baking for fun and awesomeness ......... 21 A story of pi ................................................... 37 Imagine success for social media ...................57
On friendship and becoming more social ..... 58

3. 2011 – sachachua.com
Book: Daddy Long Legs, and letters ............. 59 1. Direct ...................................................... 74 Miscellaneous ............................................ 83
LinkedIn tip: Customize your profile URL ... 59 2. Search .....................................................75 Get More Value from Blogging, part VI: Let’s
Decision review: Limiting my blog to one post 3. Browsing .................................................75 Get Down to Business ................................... 83
a day .............................................................. 60 4. Referrals .................................................75 1. ROI ......................................................... 83
Weekly review: Week ending February 18, 2011 5. Learning from others ............................. 76 2. Questions, updates, resources, and
....................................................................... 62 serendipitous conversations ...................... 84
Get More Value from Blogging, part IV:
Waking up: looking at my data ..................... 63 Connecting with People................................. 76 3. Connection ............................................. 84
ITSC guide to conference awesomeness ....... 64 1. Introduction ........................................... 76 4. Reputation ............................................. 84
How I spent my Family Day weekend ........... 65 2. Deepening the connection ...................... 77 5. Jobs and careers .................................... 84
Kaizen: Thinking about presentations .......... 65 3. Appreciation ........................................... 77 6. Accountability and transparency ........... 84
Posted revised “Remote Presentations That 4. Reaching out ........................................... 77 7. Culture ................................................... 85
Rock” presentation ........................................ 66 Presentation experiment: Shy Connector, Six
5. The great conversation .......................... 78
Get More Value from Blogging, part I: The Steps to Sharing, and other presentations in
Immediate Benefits of Thought .................... 67 March 2011........................................................ 79 March! ........................................................... 85
Part I: The Immediate Benefits of Thought Dealing with intimidating projects ............... 79 Weekly review: Week ending March 4, 2011. 86
................................................................... 67 Get More Value from Blogging, part V: Monthly review: February 2011 .................... 87
Get More Value from Blogging, part II: The Communication Matters ............................... 79
Can’t see cross-domain images in your Flash
Compounding Value of an Archive ............... 69 1. Writing ................................................... 79 file? Make a crossdomain.xml ....................... 88
1. Search ..................................................... 69 2. Visual communication ........................... 80 Quick notes from Emacs Org-mode talk at
2. Review.................................................... 69 3. Presentation ........................................... 80 GTALUG ........................................................ 89
3. Growth ................................................... 70 4. Conversation .......................................... 80 Leveling up as a developer! ........................... 90
4. Overview ................................................ 70 5. Avoiding the curse of expertise ...............81 Trying MemoLane (social timeline) ............... 91
4. Value ....................................................... 71 Questions and answers from #infoboomSC Math and energy ............................................ 91
5. Rediscovery ............................................. 71 tweetchat on blogging ....................................81 Weekly review: Week ending March 11, 2011 92
Trying out Slideshare’s new Zipcast feature .. 71 On making the time to write .......................81 Get More Value from Blogging, Part VII:
Weekly review: Week ending February 25, On perfectionism and personal branding ..81 Inspiring Yourself and Inspiring Others ....... 93
2011 ............................................................... 73 On finding ideas......................................... 82 1. Making your goals real ........................... 93
Get More Value from Blogging, part III: On practices ............................................... 82 2. Connecting with inspiration .................. 93
Sharing Makes the Blog Go ‘Round .............. 74 3. Progress ................................................. 94

4. 2011 – sachachua.com
4. Inspiring others ..................................... 94 Quid est nōmen tuum? Nōmen meum est Study group update: negative numbers,
Coconut buns and the economics of home “Sacha” ......................................................... 113 exponents, and awesomeness ...................... 129
awesomeness ................................................. 94 April 2011 ......................................................... 114 Learning from my mood data ...................... 129
Continuing experiments with Slideshare’s Running the Selenium IDE testing plugin with Making better use of travel time ..................130
Zipcast web conferences................................ 95 Firefox 4 ....................................................... 114 Compost magic and happiness.....................130
Recipes: Coconut cocktail bun recipe ........... 96 Weekly review: Week ending April 1, 2011 .. 114 Mr. Fluffers: Stray or not stray?................... 131
Thinking about a developer setup template.. 98 Starting up our garden ................................. 115 Back in the garden, the perennials are coming
Decision trees and self-challenges: how my The Busy Person’s Guide to Learning from the back .............................................................. 131
laptop’s recent battery failure is a great excuse Network (a guide for IBMers) ...................... 116 Weekly review: Week ending April 22, 2011 131
to think .......................................................... 99 Setting up Ruby on Rails on a Redhat Monthly review: March 2011........................ 133
Cats: 0, toilet paper monster: 1; also, ArtRage Enterprise Linux Rackspace Cloud Server ... 119
and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ..................... 101 Writing macrons in Linux for Latin
Troubleshooting: ...................................... 119 pronunciation ............................................... 133
Spring! ......................................................... 102 Helping kids learn algebra .......................... 120 Stuff or experiences ...................................... 134
Weekly review: Week ending March 18, 2011 Why we use more than math textbooks and
..................................................................... 102 The enemy of your enemy is your friend:
general-purpose resources ........................... 121 mnemonics and negative integers................ 135
Pirate kitties .................................................103 Spousonomics: Using economics to master Remote training that rocks .......................... 136
Learning more about Websphere and web love, marriage, and dirty dishes ................... 121
service development .................................... 104 Giving a presentation using Autodesk
Decision review: Battery .............................. 122 Sketchbook Pro and a web conference ......... 137
Shanghaippy birthday, John Grimme! Recipe: Writing more about life ................................ 122
Lumpiang shanghai ..................................... 104 Study group: Flashcards and the Leitner
Weekly review: Week ending April 8, 2011 .. 123 method .........................................................138
The three argumenteers ...............................105
On developing a reputation for project work Weekly review: Week ending April 29, 2011 139
Weekly review: Week ending March 25, 2011 ...................................................................... 124
..................................................................... 106 "An Easy Method for Beginners in Latin" and
Math study group: Positive and negative macron-insensitive search for Tiddlywiki ... 140
Filling in the learning gaps........................... 107 numbers ....................................................... 125 May 2011 .......................................................... 143
On typing in Dvorak .................................... 108 Still cold? Wear a hat to bed......................... 126 Negative productivity and learning from
Helping kids learn about automation ......... 109 Using behavioural economics to motivate oopses ........................................................... 143
More thoughts on time analysis: correlations yourself when working on risky projects ..... 126 Thoughts from marriage: Learning together
and revealed preferences.............................. 110 Three cat life ................................................. 127 ...................................................................... 143
Becoming a faster developer ........................ 112 Weekly review: Week ending April 15, 2011 127

5. 2011 – sachachua.com
Cucumber, Capybara, and the joys of Finding mentors ....................................... 156 Microsoft Windows development environment
integration testing in Rails ........................... 144 Making the most of mentoring ................. 157 ...................................................................... 167
On people changing companies ................... 145 Helping others .......................................... 157 Hungry hungry compost and other garden
Tweaking married life for everyday happiness updates .........................................................168
Next steps ................................................. 157
...................................................................... 145 It’s Bike Month in Toronto! .........................168
Notes from the airport: Missed my flight; not
Rails: Exporting data from specific tables into the end of the world after all ........................ 157 Monthly reviews: April and May 2011 ......... 169
fixtures ......................................................... 146 Decision review: calendars, development,
Victoria Day weekend: back to the garden ... 159
Condensing requirements into use cases ..... 147 standing desks, toe shoes, Kindle, bike, CSA,
Gardening: Horticultural investments, social Autodesk Sketchbook, blogging ................... 170
On kids and the learning of tangible things . 147 dividends ..................................................... 160
Rails: Paperclip needs attributes defined by Bike ride in the rain...................................... 171
Experimenting with standing desks ............ 160
attr_accessible, not just attr_accessor......... 147 Weekly review: Week ending June 3, 2011 .. 171
The flow of opportunities in a large company
Back from the Netherlands ..........................148 ...................................................................... 161 Plans for summer: Relationships, work,
Weekly review: Week ending May 6, 2011 ... 149 gardening, biking, drawing and photography,
Taking a break while working on presentations making, and finances ................................... 172
First foray into community-supported ...................................................................... 161
agriculture .................................................... 149 Made a stuff sack for J- ................................ 173
Developing a workflow with Autodesk
Cattus Petasatus ...........................................150 Sketchbook Pro ............................................ 162 Negative optimization .................................. 174
Weekly review: Week ending May 13, 2011 .150 Weekly review: Weeks ending May 20, 2011 Thinking about our development practices . 174
Rails: Preserving test data ............................ 151 and May 27, 2011 .......................................... 163 Drush, Simpletest, and continuous integration
Dealing with a bad calendar week ................ 164 for Drupal using Jenkins (previously Hudson)
Finding the bright side of business travel .... 151 ...................................................................... 175
Walking outside my comfort zone – bike? May 29, 2011: bagels, banana bread, bok choi,
bath stuff, and books .................................... 164 Sketchnotes from Democamp Toronto 29,
push/kick scooter? ....................................... 152 June 2011...................................................... 177
Ordered a Kindle with free 3G ..................... 154 Made a kitty soap holder .............................. 164
Managing configuration changes in Drupal. 177
Travel updates: GPS, Pearl Street, Vibram toe Seasons and salad days ................................ 165
Weekly review: Week ending June 11, 2011 . 179
shoes ............................................................. 154 Learning from Mr. Collins: Practice,
conversation, and what to do when someone Getting things ready for the next week:
Waiting for my Kindle .................................. 155 cooking and gardening ................................. 179
says something mean ................................... 165
Presentation draft: Mentoring on the Network This is what my blog looks like on paper .... 180
...................................................................... 156 June 2011 ......................................................... 167
VMWare, Samba, Eclipse, and XDebug: Decision review: Kitchen counter computing
Why ........................................................... 156 (ad hoc standing desk) ................................ 180
Mixing a virtual Linux environment with a
Challenges and advantages....................... 156

6. 2011 – sachachua.com
Cook Or Die Season II: Community-Supported Meaning and acknowledgement .................. 193 Dealing with web development and stress ... 217
Agriculture ................................................... 181 Context-switching and a four-project day ... 194 Weekly review: Week ending July 16, 2011 .. 217
Kaizen in the little things: The way the door July 2011 .......................................................... 197 Dealing with a heat wave in Toronto ...........218
opens ............................................................ 181
Four-day weekend ahead ............................. 197 Starting piano again .....................................218
Make-ahead meals .......................................182
How I organize my personal finances .......... 197 Rhetoric and the Manila Zoo; reflections on
Personal projects ..........................................182 conversations and a request for insight ....... 219
Getting a grip on a large database migration
Getting the hang of community-supported ...................................................................... 199 Public transit day ......................................... 221
agriculture ....................................................183
Fifty kilometers on my bicycle .................... 200 Weekly review: Week ending July 24, 2011 . 221
Gardening notes: Cut-and-come-again lettuce
......................................................................184 Embracing Pollyanna .................................. 200 Cats in high places ....................................... 222
An abundance of cilantro, now freezing in Organizing my digital life ............................ 201 Sketchnotes from Quantified Self Toronto
cubes; strawberries and peas .......................184 Hacking Drupal views and taxonomy: looking meetup: Conferences, pollution sensing, and
for 100% matching of terms ........................ 202 growing old at home .................................... 222
Weekly review: Week ending June 18, 2011 185
Planning for summer .................................. 203 Piano lesson week 2 .................................... 223
Thinking about speaking topics ................... 185
In an imperfect world .................................. 205 Long weekend ahead ................................... 223
Switching back to Linux as my development
host ............................................................... 187 Thinking about activities to share with others Mornings at our house ................................ 224
(500) days of salad ....................................... 187 ..................................................................... 207 Software and making pots ........................... 224
Portal 2 and teachable moments in argument Weekly review: Two weeks ending July 9, 2011 Weekly review: Week ending July 31, 2011 . 225
...................................................................... 187 ..................................................................... 208 August 2011 ..................................................... 226
Portal 2 .........................................................189 Monthly review: June 2011 ......................... 208 Looking back at life as a 27-year-old........... 226
Mindful spending, experiments, and living in On cherry tomatoes, frugality, and wanting 210 Rhetoric and advocacy: the value of a different
line with your values ....................................189 Love, web development, and imaginary friends approach ...................................................... 227
Weekly review: Week ending June 25, 2011 190 ..................................................................... 210 Learning by imitation: getting inspired by
Strawberry rhubarb baking .......................... 191 The first blueberries from our garden.......... 211 Exploding Dog ............................................. 229
Writing your way past “What have I been A zucchini a day keeps the vegetable drawer Drupal and JQuery 1.5: Fixing the JSON
doing with my life?” ..................................... 191 okay .............................................................. 211 encoding of ampersands ............................. 229
Learning from the speeches of grade seven Cake was not a lie ......................................... 212 Drupal, HTML Purifier, and embedding
students ........................................................ 192 An elephant love story: Real stories of Manila IFRAMES from YouTube ............................ 230
Drupal notes from helping a client improve her Zoo ................................................................ 213 Weekly review: Week ending August 5, 2011;
development environment ........................... 193 Piano lessons ................................................ 216 thoughts on discretionary time .................... 231

7. 2011 – sachachua.com
Jalapeño jelly............................................... 233 “Hello, Monday!” comic series launched on Drupal: Finding nodes through autocomplete
Drupal: Overriding Drupal autocompletion to IBM intranet home page; now I’m a comic ..................................................................... 268
pass more parameters ................................. 234 artist! ........................................................... 248 Decision: Not getting an Ontario Science
Decision: Piano lessons? ............................. 235 Built a USB foot pedal using the Arduino Uno Centre family membership.......................... 269
..................................................................... 249 Transcript: Blogging (Part 2): Growing into
Lessons learned from project M.................. 235
How to set up more frequent merge blogging ....................................................... 270
What worked well .................................... 236 replications in SQL Server 2000 ................. 250 Dusting off my Sony Vaio U1........................ 271
What I’m going to work on improving next Re-setting up my computer......................... 252
time .......................................................... 237 Tweaking the fingerprint settings on my
Mailing non-Emacs users your Org notes ... 252 Lenovo X220T ............................................. 272
Thinking about blogging and planning ahead
..................................................................... 237 Practising drawing ...................................... 253 Weekly review: Week ending September 9,
Code and circuit for a six-function Arduino- 2011 ............................................................. 272
Living an awesome life as a 27-year-old: a year
in blog posts ................................................ 238 based USB footswitch .................................. 253 Thinking about getting better at decisions . 274
Weekly review: Week ending August 12, 2011 Weekly review: Week ending August 27, 2011 Deliberate practice, typing faster, and Emacs
..................................................................... 239 ..................................................................... 255 ..................................................................... 274
Reflections on creativity .............................. 240 Drupal debugging story: Rules defined in Free Geek Toronto: Notes from the build
multiple Features .........................................257 session ......................................................... 276
Volunteer notes: Free Geek Toronto ............ 241
Batch cooking .............................................. 258 Transcript: Blogging (Part 3): Blogging and
Discovering Yourself through Blogging (free other social tools .......................................... 277
teleconference Aug 16, 6 PM PDT, 9 PM EDT, Getting rid of the “I can’t draw”s ................ 259
9 AM Philippine time) ................................. 243 September 2011 ............................................... 260 Learning new tricks about learning: maps and
history .......................................................... 277
Session follow-up #1: Discovering Yourself Transcript: Blogging (Part 1): Blogging and
through Blogging ......................................... 243 introverts ..................................................... 260 Back to school, back to study groups .......... 278
Thinking my way through a tough MS SQL Notes on transcription with and without a foot Monthly review: June, July, and August 2011
Server 2000 replication problem ................ 244 pedal ............................................................. 261 ..................................................................... 279
Git bisect and reversing a mistaken patch .. 245 Starting up my experiments in delegation Weekly review: Week ending September 16,
again; the difference between what I want to 2011 ............................................................. 279
Kids’ cartoons and learning piano .............. 246
do and what I want to see............................ 262 IBM Comic: Watson on helpdesk duty;
Weekly review: Week ending August 19, 2011 variants .........................................................281
..................................................................... 246 Weekly review: Week ending September 2,
2011 ............................................................. 264 Update on typing: Added AutoCorrect hotkey
Thinking about outsourcing transcription or script, now clocking in at 118wpm .............. 282
doing it myself ............................................. 247 Thinking about improving our freezer use . 266
Planning for currency conversion ............... 282

8. 2011 – sachachua.com
Transcript: Blogging (Part 4): Parenting .... 282 Tweaking my Windows 7 setup more: Emacs Weekly review: Week ending October 21, 2011
Working with the Editorial Calendar plugin for on all virtual desktops! ................................ 299 ...................................................................... 311
WordPress; on scheduling posts ................. 284 Monitoring multiple WordPress sites for Geek travel update: Mostly as planned ........ 312
Batch cooking, community-supported comments using Yahoo Pipes...................... 299 Thought roundup: Podcasts, drawing, cats,
agriculture, and gardening .......................... 284 Geek travel: Planning outfits using matrices and towels .................................................... 313
Weekly review: Week ending September 23, ..................................................................... 300 Practising drawing: variations on a theme .. 314
2011 ............................................................. 285 From the feeds: Ramen, personal assistants, Transcript: Blogging (Part 9): Learning from
Quantified: How I spent seven weeks ......... 286 productivity, co-schooling, and being yourself others............................................................ 314
......................................................................301
From the feeds: entrepreneurship, teaching, Decision review: Switching from Rackspace
biking, riding ............................................... 289 Working with FTP sites ................................301 Cloud to Linode ............................................ 315
Getting better at working at the office ........ 289 Transcript: Blogging (Part 7): Learning how to Weekly review: Week ending October 28, 2011
write............................................................. 302 ...................................................................... 315
Transcript: Blogging (Part 5): Getting started
..................................................................... 290 Decision review: Working at IBM ............... 303 Stories from our trip: Furry caterpillar ........ 317
Converted my Arduino foot pedal into a The joys of development with Selenium web- Quantified Awesome: Data from waking up 3
Teensy foot pedal! ........................................ 291 testing .......................................................... 305 hours earlier than normal ............................ 317
October 2011 ................................................... 294 Weekly review: Weeks ending October 7 and November 2011 ............................................... 320
October 14, 2011 .......................................... 305
It turns out that “I suck” moments are more From the feeds: Selling benefits, not features;
negotiable than I thought ............................ 294 Passioneer survey (Submit your answers by caramel apples; graphic novels for kids ...... 320
Oct 18) ......................................................... 306
Weekly review: Week ending September 30, Planning an Emacs-based personal wiki –
2011 ............................................................. 294 Monthly review: September 2011................ 307 Org? Muse? Hmm… .................................... 320
Tracking and organizing my clothes: From the feeds: Writing, more writing, Transcript: Blogging (Part 10): Difficult
substituting mathematics for fashion sense 295 journalism, and automation........................ 308 situations ...................................................... 321
From the feeds: Saving money, making money, Jetlag-assisted early days ............................ 308 Decision review: Cat boarding .................... 322
balancing life, reading books, and making Transcript: Blogging (Part 8): Slow life down Weekly review: Week ending November 4,
rainbows ...................................................... 297 and speed it up ............................................ 309 2011 ............................................................. 323
Learning browser-based testing with Selenium Figuring out how to plan for a month ......... 309 Quantified Awesome: Development-driven
..................................................................... 298 Stories from the trip: Making my peace with behaviour and integrated tests for life ........ 325
Transcript: Blogging (Part 6): Looking back endings .........................................................310 Monthly review: October 2011 .................... 326
..................................................................... 298 Sketchnotes from Quantified Self Toronto Oct Quantified Awesome: How much music do you
Decision review: Marrying W- .................... 298 21 2011 ..........................................................310 have?............................................................ 327

9. 2011 – sachachua.com
Visualization resources ............................... 329 Transcript: Blogging (Part 13): On frequency
Thinking about how to get even better at bulk- ..................................................................... 346
cooking ........................................................ 329 Decision review: Scheduling posts and using
Transcript: Blogging (Part 11): Looking back at themes ......................................................... 347
the year ......................................................... 331 Weekly review: Week ending November 25,
Decision review: Metropass instead of biking 2011 ............................................................. 348
to work in November................................... 332 Thoughts from helping with homework ..... 350
Weekly review: Week ending November 11, Quantified Awesome: 116 web resources for
2011; thinking about the temptation to work Quantified Self............................................. 350
..................................................................... 332 Rails experiences: Building an interactive
Stories from the trip: Terminal 3 ................ 335 tutorial .......................................................... 351
Quantified Awesome: A place for everything, Things I’m learning from tracking ............... 351
and everything in its place .......................... 335 December 2011 ................................................ 353
From the feeds: Friendship, planning ahead, Transcript: Blogging (Part 14): Writing for
and crossroads............................................. 337 yourself and writing for others .................... 353
Massages, physical feedback, and behaviour Upcoming decision: Considering different
modification ................................................ 337 cellphone plans for J- .................................. 354
Transcript: Blogging (Part 12): Two homes 338 Weekly review: Week ending December 2, 2011
Decision review: Lenovo X220 tablet PC (with ..................................................................... 354
graphs!) ....................................................... 339 Clearing out the basement .......................... 356
Weekly review: Week ending November 18, Quantified Awesome: How I’m starting to use
2011 ............................................................. 340 Tap Log for Android .................................... 356
Learning how to model with Google Sketchup Busy, busy, busy week ................................. 358
..................................................................... 343
Geek tidbits: Postfix configuration for
Quantified Awesome: Why I track .............. 343 development and testing ............................. 359
From the feeds: Development, food, Transcript: Blogging (Part 15): Tools to help
connecting with people, e-books, finance ... 344 you get started ............................................. 359
Ruby on Rails: Extending ActiveRecord::Base Blog analysis for 2011: 173,363 words so far;
to define your own ActiveRecord association also, using the Rails console to work with
methods ....................................................... 344 WordPress ................................................... 360

10. January 2011 – sachachua.com
o [X] Tidy up
Preparation 23 Including
January 2011 o [-] Tidy up my computer, too: hours disassembling washer
backup, reorganize, clean and dryer
o [X] Plan garden Work 19 Took some sick time
Weekly review: Week ending December
31, 2010 Plans for next week hours
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22022
January 1, 2011 - Categories: weekly  Work Routines 16
From last week’s plans hours
o [] Work on Project M:
Documentation, tidying up Social 8
 Work hours
o [] Work on Project S: Clean things
o [X] Work on Project M: Make up
sure users have permissions to do Writing 2.5
things o [] Idea Lab: Run Idea Lab hours
o [X] Work on Project S: Clean o [] Illustrate networking tips Travel 2 I’ve been using some of
things up hours this for writing time,
 Relationships too
o [X] Idea Lab: Process responses
o [] Look into cooking or cleaning
o [-] Illustrate networking tips Break 2
assistance
hours
 Relationships
 Life Exercise 1.25
o [-] Hike or bike with W- hours
o [] Get well
o [-] Write more cards
o [] Hire a virtual assistant again Learning 0.75
o Had Maira’s family over hours
Time analysis
o Had New Year’s Eve dinner with
Driving 0.75
W-’s family Dec 25 to December 31
practice hours
 Life Time totals messed up because I didn’t track as Untracked 39.75
much over the holidays, but here’s a guesstimate: hours
o [-] Get MobileOrg Android
patches into mergeable state Sleep 53 ~ 7 hours per day
hours Tweaking my time-tracking…
o [X] Review and revise plan,
outline 2011

11. January 2011 – sachachua.com
A terrible cold has put a crimp in my productivity W- has kept me on a steady infusion of chicken This New Year’s holiday must have been the
and my holiday celebrations, but W- has been soup, cuddles, and Pride and Prejudice – several quietest holiday I’ve had in a while. It’s weird!
totally awesome at taking care of me. He’s been different versions, in fact. I’m half-dreading the abrupt change in pace
shaking his finger at me for having insisted on when I get back to work tomorrow, particularly
spending Friday working when I should have I like BBC’s Lizzie and Lost in Austen’s Darcy the as I’ve managed to commit myself to some rather
been in bed. “You’ve been working feverishly,” he most. Heresy, I know. Colin Firth in the BBC’s high-intensity days coming up.
said, “and now you’ve come down with a fever.” 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is the
That explains why I was shivering underneath all definitive Darcy, of course. Lost in Austen’s (Fortunately, the world works in mysterious
those covers. Fortunately, it’s nothing W- hasn’t Fitzwilliam Darcy (Elliot Cowan) does more of a ways. It could have been crazier, but it isn’t.)
dealt with before, and aspirin soon sorted that transformation from utterly disagreeable to
out. (Thank you, mdern medicine.) totally awesome. It’s hard to write about anything other than being
sick when you’re sick.
Definitely time to break out the ginger tea. Ginger tea (salabat): The powdered form is
(Hello, salabat!) very convenient, of course, but you can make up Actually, this is not true. I snuck in some work
a batch by crushing ginger and boiling it it in this afternoon and I made a lot of progress
water. Add brown sugar to sweeten it. writing a developer’s guide for the system we’re
Sick days building. It’s hard for me to write about life or
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22023 You can’t do much with a cold except to try to not productivity or connecting at conferences when
January 2, 2011 - Categories: life, sketches make it any worse. Definitely a good time for my nose is stuffed, but I can talk about node
relaxing. access records and workflow transitions, no
Still sick. Flush with a fever, congested with a problem.
cough and a cold, voiceless, and all around under
the weather. Not the best of ways to spend a Momentum and holidays Maybe that’s what I should do next time I’m sick
holiday, but a worse way to spend a workweek, so http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22026 and feeling lethargic. Never mind the mid-day
this is okay by comparison. January 3, 2011 - naps. A good round of coding or documenting is
Categories: life, productivity, sick a great antidote for the doldrums.
To soothe an irritated throat, in a
mug, combine: Monday: I don’t do “relaxing holidays” very well. Being sick is great for all sorts of realizations,
My idea of a perfect holiday is one where I’m all actually. I have the free time to do whatever I
 Juice of half a lemon wrung out at the end and ready to go back to want to do (within reason). I don’t have the
work. Building a chair. Bottling a gazillion jars of energy or the inclination to do many things.
 Tablespoon of honey jam. Taking apart and rebuilding appliances. Granted, a lot of that is because of the cold, but if
 Hot water Hanging out with family and friends. (If you’ve I don’t get around to doing something even
met them, you know what a whirlwind they can though I have an unencumbered day, what are
(Do not give honey to babies under a year old.) be.) the chances of my getting around to it with an
extra half hour?

12. January 2011 – sachachua.com
Here’s what I’m learning: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22029  It keeps you awake and concentrating.
January 4, 2011 -
 It makes your reading active.
Writing and coding boost my energy, and are a Categories: blogging, highlight, sketches, tips
great way to cheer myself up if I’m feeling  It helps you remember the thoughts of
unproductive. the author.
Playing the piano is fun, too. I’m slowly getting Maybe I can get the same benefits by writing my
back into it (compensating for the time I couldn’t thoughts down elsewhere, but not on the printed
speak?). I like the slow development of fluency. pages. Ratchet up my book-blogging, perhaps, as
Plus, my playing nudges J-, and she ends up a life-long project to build a personal, digital
teaching herself a bit too. I’ve been teaching syntopicon?
myself Schumann’s “Von fremden Ländern und
Menschen” (the easy version W- has started a fresh new professional notebook
from http://www.free-scores.com/download- for 2011. In this, notebook he writes down ideas
sheet-music.php?pdf=8153) because of its and lessons from his work and from the books he
appearance in McDull, but it’s also a pleasure re- reads. He’s been taking notes on another book
encountering old friends like Für Elise. (larger version on blog) I’ve browsed and dogeared – Visual Meetings.
Drawing and preparing for presentations are I sporadically keep paper notebooks. They can be
pretty low on my radar. I should think about how Marking up books much more convenient than typing on a laptop,
to tweak that. Fortunately, I’d written a number http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22030 especially when one is propping a book open to
of blog posts from when I was presenting more, January 5, 2011 - the right page. Perhaps the tablet will make it
so I can remember what it’s like. Categories: book, highlight, reading easier to keep my handwritten notes?
Sewing has a bit more of an activation cost than I’ve been rereading Adler and van Doren’s “How What would my ideal book notes system be like?
it could. When work settles down again, I’ll set to Read a Book”. I always get tripped up by the Decades later, I’d like to be able to say – ah, if
aside some time to see if I can fix this. advice to mark up one’s books (p48-51). I’ve you’re interested in that, here are the books I’ve
experimented with this on and off – wild sallies read about it, and this is how they’re connected
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I still have a into the world of underlined passages and marks to each other, and the arguments they made, and
bit of a cough and some sniffles, and I’ll probably in the margins of books that I own — but I always how my personal experiences have supported or
work from home, but my voice is back and I can recoil, returning to furtively dog-eared pages contradicted them, and what I’ve done with what
focus on work. (More easily on work than on (and even this, when done to library books, earns I learned from those books, and what else I could
other things, even.) me a teasing frown from W-). But Adler and van add…
Doren spend two and a half pages arguing for the
value of writing in one’s books and giving tips on Margin notes can’t contain these, but maybe I’ll
Sketches: If you want to make the most of how to do it effectively. Their reasons: figure out my own system over time –
your next conference, you should blog searchable, hyperlinked, backed-up, personal,

13. January 2011 – sachachua.com
and social. In the meantime, I keep my notes in CAPTURE: Using Org + Remember to capture notes into this system – text notes in my Org file
an Org text file, organized in an outline, tagged book notes uses the same process as my other and blog entries for linkability/commentability.
with keywords, and (occasionally) published on notes. Diagrams can be scanned in and attached Progress…
my blog. to files. I used to scan and OCR dogeared pages,
but typing or dictating them in is okay, and it
What’s your system for book notes? helps me review. The capture part of my process Emacs, BBDB, and getting your contacts
is fantastic. on the Android or iPhone
ISBN:0-671-21280-X http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22034
How to Read a Book ORGANIZATION: org-refile or copying and January 7, 2011 -
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren pasting are easy, so this part of the process is Categories: android, bbdb, emacs
fine.
Want your Emacs BBDB contacts on your
Moving my book notes online REVIEW: I might schedule times to refresh my Android or iPhone?
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22033 memory of certain books. I can do that with Org
January 6, 2011 - Categories: emacs, reading agenda fairly easily. The easiest way I’ve found is to export your
contacts to CSV, then import them into
I moved more of my book notes online, reasoning SHARING: Here’s where the process breaks something like Google Contacts. You can export
that a braindump is better than occasional down a little. org2blog-post-subtree is great, and your BBDB contacts using bbdb-to-outlook.el,
whining about the lack of a good system. ;) I’ve used that a number of times to post the which is available in the BBDB package in
Fellow Emacs geeks who use Org will probably relevant subtree of book notes. That adds the the bits/ directory. Download bbdb-to-outlook.el
get the most out of this, as they can open it in notes as entries in my blog, storing the post ID in from Sourceforge if you can’t find it in your
Emacs and work with the hierarchy, but someday my Org file so that I can get back to the post BBDB directory. To use:
I may figure out a neat little hyperlinked solution afterwards. org2blog also makes it easy to edit
that will make it easy for everyone else. Or I’ll entries, hooray. 1. Load bbdb-to-outlook.el and use M-x
pull more and more of these posts into my blog, eval-buffer to load the code.
where they’ll be individually linkable and Once it’s in my blog, people can use the
commentable. categories to find other entries. However, my 2. Use M-x bbdb to open your BBDB
current blog layout doesn’t highlight the records, and search for . to show all the
Compare: http://sachachua.com/blog/category/ categories, and it’s not easy to browse the records. Alternatively, search for a subset
book/ , which wins points for being graphical and different book-related categories. Maybe it’s of your records.
highlighted and comment-friendly, but loses worth tweaking a “reading” or “book” category 3. Type O to run bbdb-to-outlook and
topical organization, overview, search, and layout page. choose the file.
offline access.
Aha! How’s http://sachachua.com/blog/book- Tada! Step one done. Review the file and delete
It’s a start. Here’s what’s working well: notes/ ? It’s a manually-edited list at the top anything you don’t want to include.
(thanks, Org!), followed by an automatically-
generated index. I’ll gradually move my other

14. January 2011 – sachachua.com
To import the contacts into Google Contacts, go o [X] Work on Project M: o Started teaching myself the piano
to Google Mail and click on Contacts. Click Documentation, tidying up again
on Import and choose your file. After some time
o [X] Work on Project S: Clean o Sketched my goals for 2011.
and some fiddling, you can get that synchronized
things up
onto your Android or iPhone. o Posted my book notes and
o [X] Idea Lab: Run Idea Lab improved my book workflow.
I haven’t thought about syncing, but I’m trying to
o [X] Illustrate networking tips o Posted a Kijiji ad looking for a
keep my BBDB as The Master File for Contacts
piano teacher
anyway, as it’s so much more flexible than any o Learned how to hack Drupal
other contact database I’ve tried. (Although messaging and notifications Plans for next week
gist.com is pretty cool and I do like the Android’s o Found out my Lotusphere 2011
merging of photos, contact info, and updates…) session got accepted  Work
There was some work on synchronizing BBDB o Had team lunch with Jennifer o [] Finish up on project S
with the Palm, so that might be a possibility. Nolan, Johnny Patterson and o [] Start testing project M
Elena Neroslavskaya
Enjoy! o [] Fix my Lotus Notes
 Relationships o [] Look into Lotusphere
Weekly review: Week ending January 7, o [-] Look into cooking or cleaning
assistance  Relationships
2011
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22035 o Watched Bride and Prejudice with o [] Get around to hosting a get-
January 8, 2011 - Categories: weekly W- and J- (hooray library DVDs) together, maybe a game night
o Read Pride and Prejudice and o [] Plan May trip
Relearning the piano. It’s interesting. I can
remember playing better than this. Now I’m re- Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
 Life
learning how to play these pieces, going, “Ahh. o … and in general, enjoyed all sorts
That feels familiar. And then there should be this of things Austen o [] Get back into sewing: work on
bit over here – yes, that’s right.” On the other black dress
hand, I read notes a little bit faster now than I  Life o [] Post more book notes
did before.
o [X] Get well Time analysis
Getting well. A persistent cough and some o [X] Hire a virtual assistant again Sleep 73.6 ~ 11 hours per day,
sniffles, but definitely better than last week. hours thanks to good
From last week’s plans o Watched Bottle Shock, also from
the library – that was fun weekends
 Work

15. January 2011 – sachachua.com
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22037 extract. I made pandesal. W- discovered a good
Work 33.5 A little overtime, but
January 9, 2011 - Categories: life combination: egg tarts (3 whole eggs + 3 extra
hours it’s good
egg yolks), coconut macaroons (4 egg whites),
Break 22 Recuperating We celebrated J-’s birthday at Korean Grill and oatmeal cookies (the recipe we use involves 2
hours House last night. During a lull in the eggs and an extra egg yolk). All in all, nine eggs
conversation as people digested the vast and no extra parts languishing in ramekins in the
Writing 12 quantities of food we’d just consumed, she took fridge.
hours out her iPod and started flipping through an e-
book. Of course, now we will need to find coworkers
Piano practice 7 and friends willing to take some of these baked
hours Her uncle asked, “What are you reading?” goods off our hands (and away from our
waistlines)…
Routines 5.5 J- answered, “Pride and Prejudice.”
hours Life is good.
Simultaneous jaw drop from uncle and aunt,
Outsourceable 4 grins from W- and me.
hours Work on the business from the outside,
“Pride and Prejudice?! Are you reading that for not in it – Book: Effortless entrepreneur
Exercise 2.5 school or for fun?” http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22038
hours January 10, 2011 -
“For fun!” Categories: book, entrepreneurship, reading
Social 1.5
hours We’ve been on an entire Pride and Prejudice kick One of the key points of “Effortless entrepreneur”
this past week. We watched the 2005 movie, the is that you need to create systems and delegate
Travel 0.5 Worked from home so
Lost in Austen miniseries, Bride and Prejudice work so that you can free up time to improve
hours that I wouldn’t get
(the Bollywood version; quite a few laughs); read your business.
others sick
“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the p38. Work on the business from the outside, not
Untracked 5.9 Jan 1-3 had hole-y Dreadfuls” (the prequel to “Pride and Prejudice in it. A great entrepreneur builds systems to run
hours records, but Jan 4 – 7 and Zombies”); quoted and joked and the business as if it were a machine, and stands
was all tracked improvised. over it instead of being part of its inner
workings. A business owner should sell that
Yes, we’re geeks. machine to clients and perfect its functionality,
Once my categories settle down, I might do some but not sit in the gear room. How many times
between-week analysis… — have you seen a local store owner answering
phones, doing paperwork, and assisting
We spent a very agreeable afternoon in the customers all at once? This business owner
Snippets from life kitchen. We chopped up vanilla beans for making works IN the business, not ON it, and hasn’t

16. January 2011 – sachachua.com
identified the different positions within his vegetate a bit more, then hit the sack. I’m looking forward to do even better. At work, I
business, such as receptionist, salesperson, and Or perhaps you’re a parent and you want to to learn more about Drupal 7, consulting,
cashier. Instead, he does all those jobs himself. leave work with just enough energy to and the processes we have. I’m also looking
get through your parental forward to writing up more notes and coaching
Creating manuals and training maps for each requirements in the evening. others. In the rest of life, I’d like to experiment
position from the get-go forces you to evaluate with delegating again, invest time into becoming
 Option B: On the other hand, let’s say you
what needs to be done and helps identify tasks a better writer, and continue building wonderful
go to work and intentionally keep half
you might not think of right away. That can mean relationships.
of your energy for yourself. You give
fewer unpleasant surprises down the road. At
the company 50% of the gas in your
first, you’ll likely have to work IN your business How about you? How can you not only work in
tank. After you leave, you spend that
and do most, if not all, of the work for each your business, but on it?
50% improving yourself. You go to
position. That’s common when you start out. But
night classes. You go to the gym. You
create a system that allows you to just work ON it Effortless entrepreneur: Work smart, play hard,
go to the library. You go to meetings of make millions
as soon as possible. Once that system is
professional growth groups, like 2010 Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman
operative, a business gains its true value.
Toastmasters. Three Rivers Press
Work on your business, not just in it. It ISBN 978-0-307-58799-2
Well, maybe not 50%. If you can do your work
makes sense, although lots of small-business
with 80% effort, and then invest the rest into
owners find it hard to make that jump. Book: Effortless entrepreneur 2011-01-10 Mon
building skills and processes, then it’s like a 19:27
How can people practice this now? After all, even savvy entrepreneur investing time into building
if you work for a company, you work for yourself, systems, not just fighting fires. Sometimes it’s
too. more like a full-energy work and 20% extra, but I Wrapping up projects and preparing for
enjoy the work and the learning along the way. the next one
It’s kinda like what Trent (The Simple Dollar) http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22039
At work, I’m learning about the way we work on January 11, 2011 - Categories: career, ibm, work
writes about in “Who is your real boss? Some
perspectives on career success”: projects: the processes, the templates, the
My belief is this: the people that succeed are the questions and conversations. I like making We’re in the final phases of our two Drupal
people who invest that energy and time and systems, processes, and tools, so I’m learning projects. We’re writing test scripts, fixing bugs,
patience and thought a little differently. how to improve things. and loading production data. In a week or two,
What do I mean? we’ll finalize the source code and save a copy of
I’m working on applying this idea of “working on the database. I’ve really liked working on these
the business, not just in it” in personal life as projects, and I’m looking forward to working on
 Option A: Let’s say you go to work each
well. Hence the household optimizations: batch similar things in the future.
day and leave it all on the table. When cooking and a chest freezer, tweaked routines,
you leave work, you’re so drained you relationship-building. Capacity-building for
can barely make it home. You sit on the As I wrap up on this project and get ready for
future adventures. future ones, I can’t help but think how working in
couch, vegetate for a while, eat dinner,

17. January 2011 – sachachua.com
IBM Global Business Services helps me learn  Maybe work on a conventional skill set – cooking marathons are an excuse to break out
about different parts of consulting. We can help J2EE? the knives, chopping boards, and stacks of food
with proposals for new projects. We have an containers, and we have great conversations
 Work on paperwork: project assessments,
internal marketplace that lists openings and while slicing and dicing. We also enjoy the walk
certification, etc.
required skills. We can submit our resumes and to the supermarket (which often involves a side-
set up interviews. We need to do a little  Improve the Lotus Connections toolkit trip to the library, and you know how I enjoy
marketing on our own, and we always have to that). Folding laundry is a good time to watch a
work on keeping our skills up to date. Just like independent consultants need to always movie (borrowed from the aforementioned
be building their pipeline, I should see if I can library), which leads to more shared experiences
Today I attended a call with my resource balance my future project work so that I’m and in-jokes, which helps cultivate a relationship.
deployment manager. Her role includes always working on the pipeline for the next Turn chores into social bonding time, and the
matching people with projects. She shared some thing: helping out with bids, learning a new skill, time will fly.
tips on how to make the most of our tools, some and so on.
things we might invest time in if we have some Use the time to reflect and
downtime between projects, and upcoming Fun! improve. Cooking is a great time to learn new
projects we might be interested in. recipes or improve my skills. Tidying up reminds
me where things are and gives me an opportunity
Here are some things I’m looking forward to Three tips for cheerful chores to simplify. Spend a little extra time making
doing if I have some time between this and my http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22040 things better for the next time you do something.
next project: January 12, 2011 - Categories: life, productivity
Eliminate or delegate things that really
 Help write proposals for Drupal and Web I’ve been taking a closer look at household tasks sap your energy. Speaking of cats: scooping
2.0 projects that I could outsource or simplify. Groceries, out four litter boxes was not fun. So W- did a bit
laundry, cleaning, cooking… of research and ordered a Litter Robot. The
o Compile case studies spaceship-like contraption now commands a
o Estimate Drupal projects … but really, they don’t take that much time, and corner of the living room (next to the toolchest,
I probably get more value from doing them than actually). It’s been worth it not just for
o Prototype? I would from a few extra hours of writing or convenience, but also for entertainment value.
 write up and share my Drupal notes work. Our cat Luke loves to watch it, but when he steps
on it for a closer look, the Litter Robot stops
 Create and compile assets (Drupal case Here are three tips I’ve found that help me enjoy rotating. This confuses him and always makes
studies, Web 2.0 overviews, etc.) what I’m doing. Maybe you’ll find them useful, me laugh.
 Learn more about Drupal 7, AJAX, too!
information architecture, mobile We could cut back on savings and hire some of
development, project management, and Many hands make fun work. Turn the chore these tasks out – but we’d probably replace them
other interesting things – discuss into an excuse to build a relationship. For with time spent taking long walks together,
priorities with manager example, W- and I love cooking. Our batch- learning new skills, or improving the flow of life.

18. January 2011 – sachachua.com
Which is basically what we would’ve been paying possibly one of my new recommendations in this  Regularly buy something that you
someone else to handle, so we might as well do it area. historically have viewed as frivolous
ourselves. but which you can truly afford.
I’ve been thinking about whether I’ve got the
 Buy more gifts for the people you love.
What do you do to make chores cheerful? right balance of saving for near-term expenses,
investing for the future, and enjoying the  Go easier on yourself and family when it
2011-01-12 Wed 19:38 present. The book has an entire chapter on this comes to everyday expenses.
(pp.103 to 112). I particularly like the section on
reflecting on whether you’re postponing This year’s probably going to be pretty easy to
Book: Let’s Get Real About Money: Profit achievable dreams, and the quote: plan for, actually, because we’ve got the two big
from the Habits of the Best Personal It is very well to be thrifty, but don’t amass a trips planned (Netherlands and the Philippines),
Finance Managers hoard of regrets. and we might look into improving the insulation
http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22041 of the house. We’re also saving up for other
January 13, 2011 - Categories: book, finance  French poet, Charles D’Orleans (quoted adventures over the next year or two. Big rocks.
on p.118 of Let’s Get Real About Money) It’s easy to plan other things around those:
Let’s Get Real About Money: Profit from the perhaps piano lessons, sewing lessons, gardening
Habits of the Best Personal Finance Managers I’m reminded of Ramit Sethi’s story about how experiments, and woodworking projects.
(c) 2008 Eric Tyson some people set aside money for meeting
FT Press, New Jersey interesting people. Might be a fun experiment, Anyway… “Let’s Get Real About Money” is a good
ISBN: 978-0-13-234161-5 although perhaps not to that scale. Ditto for read. Try the self-test in front, and check out the
learning and experimentation, which I do chapters on insurance and managing risks. Have
My expectations were low. The subtitle “Profit explicitly save for, and which has paid off quite a fun!
from the Habits of the Best Personal Finance bit in terms of interesting life experiences. So I’m
Managers” made me think of celebrity-focused not doing too badly in this area, and I’m 2011-01-13 Thu 21:22
“secrets”-type books with more fluff than continuing to learn.
content. But hey, it was on the library bookshelf,
so I picked it up anyway. I’ve found all sorts of There are useful tips on p131 on keeping saving 13,705 steps and counting
gems in unlikely books, and I’ve skimmed my in proper perspective. Here’s the summary: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22042
way through seemingly-solid books that proved January 14, 2011 -
to be disappointments. It’s easy to take risks on  Understand the standard of living that Categories: android, ex
books when they’re free. ;) can be provided by the assets you’ve ercise, health, life, trac
already accumulated. king
I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The
book has a lot of practical advice on money and  Get smart about investing your money. 13,705 steps in two
relationships, family, raising savvy kids,  Go on a news diet. and a half hours of
spending plans, frugality, investment, insurance, leisurely walks spread
and learning more. Well worth a read, and out over one day,