For your amusement, here’s my criminal wishlist, which I came up while riffing:

- Jump into a car and shout “drive,” while hanging out the window and shooting at a police tail.
- Shoot one of my own henchmen because he displeased me, preferably on a transatlantic flight of my private jet
- Trade a suitcase full of money to a guy with a foreign accent
- Answer a call from a hostage negotiator
- Make demands from aforementioned negotiator while condescendingly referring him by his first name
- Attempt to fire a gun only to find out the gun is empty and then resort to hand to hand struggle with a protagonist
- Finally be taken out by being knocked backwards onto a conveyor belt with hazardous machinery, in a warehouse ironically owned and operated by my own sinister mega-corporation

Dear Netflix,

I was calling to report a minor bug, but seems like I stumbled upon a few more issues, eh?

Issues

1. My Instant Queue keeps changing from 161 movies to 148 movies, and back again, roughly half the time I click “Instant Queue.” (This is the problem I was originally calling about.) This is reproducible in IE and Chrome. I was able to ID at least 4 movies that were vanishing and returning at the top of my list.
2. The account settings page gives me an error when I try to remove one of my connected applications, Flixter. This was my attempt to diagnose if a third-party add-on was toying with me, but a Netflix bug prevents diagnosis.
3. When your website says “Current hold time is: 1 minute”, why am I told by your phone system that the wait is just short of 15 minutes? It get’s worse; I then wait 22-24 minutes before hanging up.
4. When your phone system asks a caller to enter the “six-digit service code” displayed on the web page, apparently the system accepts the number 5 all by its lonesome. I know this because right at the very moment that my nimble finger hits the next number in the code, 8, I step on what the recording is trying to say and I’m told “thank you” and I am then placed on hold with music. A workaround to enter this code appears to be to call back and WAIT until the phone system asks if I would like second opportunity to enter my code, at which point I can enter the entire code.

   Note: This problem only exists if you wait long enough (about 2 seconds) for the female voice to inform the caller where the code can be found on the website. This message ironically would be helpful if it didn’t prevent me from entering the code.

Summary

The entire time I was on hold I kept reproducing the queue count issue (issue #1) to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Over and over it worked. Finally, around minute 22 the issue was resolved without me ever reaching customer services. I got tired of being on hold, and wanted to wrap up this entry, so I hung up.

Seeing as I never closed Chrome or IE this entire time I believe I’ve narrowed down the possible causes:

• I still can suspect Flixter, but since Netflix is bugged such that I can’t kick them off my account, I have no idea.
• Netflix was doing a non-peak deployment of new code at ~1am PST when this occurred, and then quickly fixed the issue or rolled back
• Bug has something to do with watching shows that were just removed from Netflix streaming, changing the queue count, which did occur on this night. However, I only had 3-4 expiring movies in my queue, not ~13 (the difference between the alternating counts).

I doubt this puzzle will ever be solved, or that Netflix support actually exists (insert wink here), but I’m glad the bug is gone.

Regards,

Justin Reinhart

These results are my own and published for your amusement.

Eating Habits Recap

I was on a (subjectively) healthy diet (the slow-carb diet) for almost a year which resulted in my lipid panels on 12/12/2011. I’ve been on the Paleo diet since 2/21/2012 with very few exceptions. My data is pretty clean. I haven’t eaten at a restaurant, and I haven’t had any cheat days. I’ve made all my meals from scratch at home.

I’ve eaten madman-like quantities of some misunderstood foods like steak, eggs, bacon, and sausage; Sometimes I eat more than one steak a day. To most this seems crazy. “What about all that saturated fat?!” But here are the positive results that I anticipated:

Results of Paleo Diet on My Lipid Profile

Test dates:  12/12/2011 -> 3/22/2012

CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL: 163 -> 157  (lower = better)

HDL CHOLESTEROL: 36 -> 43   (>40 ideal)

TRIGLYCERIDES: 158 -> 102  (<150 ideal)

LDL-CHOLESTEROL: 95 -> 94  (lower = better)

CHOL/HDLC RATIO:  4.5 -> 3.7  (lower = better)

Summary

In your face. Or rather, in my face. With lots of healthy food.

However, this data comes with one seldom-known caveat: Single tests are not enough to determine cholesterol levels. The standard deviation for total cholesterol, for example, is 17 mg/dl–it can shift 35 mg/dl in either direction for no apparent reason.

Total Cholesterol Variability: 35 mg/dl
HDL Variability: 10mg/dl
LDL Variability: 30 mg/dl
Triglycerides variability: 40 mg/dl
Total cholesterol/HDL ratio variability: 0.8

Faced with this knowledge the results don’t look as impressive, but all numbers did shift in a more ideal direction as expected. If I assume–perhaps naively, but I don’t care–that these numbers already represent their mean perfectly, then I can go on celebrating.

And it has only been a month on Paleo to see these kind of results. I doubt the first 3 months had any variability as there were no significant dietary changes then.

Paleolithic Diet Primer – For those not in the know

• Eat only Paleolithic foods we evolved to eat (pre-10,000 B.C.)
• Avoid all agricultural products like wheat, gluten, grains, rice, legumes, dairy, soy, processed vegetable oils, canned foods
• Avoid meats from animals that did not eat their natural diet (cows eat grass, chicken eat bugs–be wise to this)
• Low carb (low sugar) except for fruit (in moderation)
• Avoid Omega-6; Enjoy Omega-3
• Eat organic and avoid pesticides
• Etcetera

Yeah seems like a nightmare at first. I won’t disagree. This section is not nearly a full guide to Paleo, but gives you some idea. For example, I didn’t mention at all what foods you can still eat. Well, surprisingly a lot:  Meat, fat, non-starchy vegetables, in nearly unlimited quantities, and fruit in moderation.

The selling point for Paleo is typically “try it for 30 days, and then you decide how you feel.”  Remember, there is no participation trophy. It takes 15-30 days for a civilian body to repair itself from intestinal damage, and 3-4 weeks for an athlete to start seeing better results. Stick to it. If you are hungry, eat more of the approved foods. I’m serious. There is no reason to be hungry.

Most importantly, don’t stress over it your entire life. When eating out with friends do what you can; However, I highly suggest completing the 30-day challenge with no exceptions. Once completed, feel free to introduce other foods back in, one at a time, to see how you feel. This is important diagnostic information for yourself.

Help yourself with this book:

Buy The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf  on Amazon

I will never stop trying to improve things. Here is my open letter to Zynga about Hanging With Friends for iPhone. I do take software tweaks seriously.

Good work guys. Great game. Some feedback regarding woes of auto-forfeit:

Description:
I’m usually a very busy person and when I finally sit down to play Hanging With Friends on my iPhone, I find my notification center says something to the tune of “Your game with [friend] will be forfeited soon. Make a move now! 21h ago.”

I tap the message and I immediately get shown a “You Lose” screen because the forfeit has already occurred. I find this this a bit heartbreaking.

Suggestions:
1. Can you just make the forfeit time longer? It seems to be right on the cusp of the amount of time I need to sit down and play, which is once a week. Extending to two weeks would be better and likely would call for little coding change.

2. Why not give the other person the opportunity to force a forfeit or to play fair? I’m certain my friend does not want to win based on a technicality. This isn’t fair to me or them.

3. Leaving this message in the notification center (iPhone) when the forfeit has already occurred is a source of player disappointment. I personally got my hopes up that I still had a chance to make a move but–to my surprise–I didn’t.

4. Less than 24 hours notification of a forfeit? Can you give this
warning sooner?

Thanks for your time. I just want to see your games get better and better.

Best regards,
Justin Reinhart

Part of my self-training and self-discipline towards being a superior human being includes seeking out books that would otherwise be alien to me. This exercise stretches the imagination and requires an open mind, and it is something you should do. On just such an occasion I sought out a spiritual book. What? Me spiritual? Certainly not before reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. After reading and re-reading, I am no longer ashamed to call myself spiritual. If you have trouble calling yourself spiritual, consider maybe there is more to learn about what it means. You can shout “hokey new age nonsense” all you want, but there’s obviously some psychology here to be learned.

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own.”
- Bruce Lee

The Power of Now taught me quite a few things about people, my environment, and even myself. One of the most intriguing concepts was that of a “pain body.” A pain body is (and here I’m giving you my best interpretation) a negative “fingerprint” of painful feelings associated with past events.  It is a like a bad spirit living inside a person that explodes when it perceives pain. Yeah, I don’t like using “spirit” to describe it either.

OK. Let’s cut the heebie-jeebie talk and let me say it again. A pain body is a programmed reaction within a person, that reacts negatively to familiar events it perceives. When the pain body is activated, it takes over and lashes out defensively, almost without logical explanation.

An example might be a girl flirting with you when she asks you for your number, and you say with a smile, “I dunno. You aren’t a stalker are you?”  It is a playful tease and misdirection, making the girl work harder for your attention. It usually goes over well. But every once in a while you get a very serious “if that’s the way it’s going to be” reaction. Holy cow. Chances are she’s been accused of stalking, has been stalked, or identifies heavily with rejection. The joke was just too close to home, or rather too close to the pain body.

Years ago I had a very visceral reaction to an innocent joke, when I politely asked a girlfriend to walk over and help with something simple on the stove top. She (acting annoyed) jokingly said, “What are you, an invalid?” as she was getting up from her chair to help. Believe me, I knew it was a joke, but I dropped what I was doing and I started crying. Tears streamed down my face like someone turned on a faucet. I could barely lift my arms because they felt so weak. I couldn’t explain it. I felt like I was possessed. There was no active sobbing; just me standing there in disbelief, experiencing an acute sensation of mind and body separation. I reached up and touched my wet face to see if I was crying, much the same way that someone after a car accident would check themselves for head injuries.

Much of what pains us is deeply woven in identity. When you identify with something on some level, you make yourself a target. Picking a political party is an example of this. Think of all the flabbergasted [old or young] [democrat or republican] relatives that fight to the death over a simple opinion about President Obama. Without trying to sound too obvious, you may think a racist joke is funny, until the next joke targets a race you’ve identified with, and it changes your interpretation. Compliment something that someone has closely identified with, and you may elate them. We are limited by our identities.

One thing to keep in mind is that many of the words and concepts taught by Eckhart Tolle (and perhaps Buddhism) are merely signposts pointing toward something which does not really have a name. You don’t have to believe in the existence of pain bodies to believe the psychological phenomenon exists, whatever name you decide to give it. I personally withhold judgement and look toward Tolle’s teachings as a way to view life through a different lens and absorb details I would have otherwise missed.

Help me think more like this:

Buy The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment on Amazon.com

Today I’m offering tips on how to prepare to handle huge amounts of learning material by adding meta data to your books. When the game is on you don’t have time to think and this way you don’t have to.

Imagine for a moment that you are in an advanced college math class. You have just acquired a rather large math book and you don’t know where to start. You don’t want to start. At first it seems so daunting. Reflexively you reach up and touch the side of your temple with two fingers, activating your bionic eye’s heads up display. You look down at the book in your arms and suddenly crisp clean text begins to superimpose itself over the cover, augmenting your reality with relevant facts and details about the contents of the book. You can see how much of the book you’ve read (currently 0%) and the text jutting out from the side tells you which homework problems are due and when, and what chapters to read before exam dates. My how the future is cool.

Back in the real world, 2011, we can build a system as good as the bionic eye (sans the x-ray vision, sorry) and it only takes a little work. It is the same way I survived my college classes and the only way I’ve ever been able to motivate myself to pull out a book and do homework while waiting in a dentist office:

If you are in a class and the teacher is kind enough to provide a syllabus (lesson plan) that covers the future dates of exams and homework, take some time to process the data onto colored Post-It notes. Places these sticky notes into your books such that all your information is in one place. We want to get away from the idea that you need to have a separate notebook that tells you what your homework will be.

The Many Ways To Track

Homework Assignments

Put Post-It notes on each page where a homework lesson starts. Write the homework assignment directly on the note. Include problem numbers and due dates. Placement: You want this note to be slightly hanging out of the book so you can easily locate and turn to the correct page. You can even write the homework assignment on the non-sticky edge that will be hanging out of the book so you can see it when the book is closed; or at least pick a Post-It with a designated color for homework, such as Orange. You pick the color.

Homework Help

The same note you use for a homework assignment can also be a great place to write the homework problems you need help with. You can easily ask a friend or teacher for help with “27, 32, and 83″, for example; It will all be right there on the page if you write it down. Placement: Consider hanging a “danger” colored note out of your book–a visual cue like a Red Post-It–reminding you in class that you need to ask for specific help. This note will guide you to the right page.

Stopping Points

Put a Post-It note below the last problem of each homework assignment, warning yourself to STOP HERE. I been burned numerous times doing more homework problems than I needed because I just kept on going, not realizing that I had completed the assignment. Covering up the very first problem you are not supposed to do gives you a finish line to race toward and lets your brain relax and focus on the task at hand. There’s simply no way to advance without removing the note and of course you’ll read it.

Reference Material

Tired of finding the answers section repeatedly? Mark it with a blue Post-It note. Placement: Hang this color outside of the edge of the book and write the name of the content it is marking on the edge, so you can clearly see and return to it later.

Exam Due Dates

Put Post-It notes in the book at the end of each chapter you will have been required to learn by a certain date, because of an exam, for example. Include the due date on the note. This works only when the teacher is keeping a tight schedule of school days and has opened it up to you. Placement: You want this note to be at the end of the chapter you need to have read, and have it slightly hanging out of the book so you can see how far you need to read to.

Unfinished Progress

Ah, the regular ol’ bookmark. You need to use another color of Post-It to represent how far you’ve read. In some cases I have two bookmarks. One represents how far I have read once, and the other represents how far I have read the book twice when I’m re-reading certain material. Another example is having a “skimming” bookmark and a “reading” bookmark because skimming a chapter before reading does enhance your ability to absorb the material.

Let me do some coaching here. If you are having a tough time with the material, it is also a good idea to try to exceed the class schedule so information is more relevant when you are in class.  More on this:  Your brain is better at absorbing what it is actively looking for and trying to relate to. If you attempt a homework lesson BEFORE it has been covered in class and you get stuck, the next day in class your brain will be “all ears” for the information that would allow you to pass the blockade. Show your brain what is needs and lacks, and it will actively listen for ways to succeed.

Let’s Review

By now you should have a book with at least three or four color Post-It notes in it. E.g. Green for Exams, Orange for homework, Yellow for everyday what/when, and Pink for a bookmark of where you’ve read up to. Use any colors you want to mark the other stuff like where your next homework assignment is, or quick assess to homework answer, glossary, or places you felt you needed to re-read later. Whatever you can think of.

Why this Works

- Information is where you need it instead of in multiple places
- Time is saved such that you are not searching and re-searching for material
- Less motivation is required to do the work since it has been planned out
- It is inherently fun to process the homework Post-It notes by reaching them and then throwing them away once they are completed

Help me think more like this.

Today I’m going to tell you how to build daily habits by turning routine into a game. Become super productive and give yourself a foundation and permission to explore things that YOU want to do.

1. Get a calendar to hang on the wall. Buy yourself a full year wall calendar if you can find one. Having the full year displayed at once is not terribly important, but I’ll explain and you can decide if a month-by-month calendar works for you. If so, fine. (Works fine for me because I got one for free. I tore it apart and taped the months to my door.) Get calendars on Amazon.com or try FreePrintableCalendar.net.

2. Get colored markers. At least 4 colors is recommended but you can start with a single one if you’ve got it. Here are some markers on Amazon.com. Get some fat and fun markers with distinct colors.

3. Get started.

Getting Started

Pick something something you need to do every day as a habit. For me, a nice starter habit was: Consume 2 tablespoons of Oat Bran every day. (This was when I was experimenting with the Dukan diet.) And hey, Oat Bran is sort of brown so grab a brown marker.

Draw a horizontal line across the first day that you meet your goal. Let’s pretend it is Monday as an example. The next day, when you have the Oat Bran again, continue the horizontal line over Tuesday. Continue on Wednesday. What you should be building is an unbroken line clearly indicating your success over the last 3 days.

Your goal: Don’t break the chain. Wrap that line all around that calendar and don’t break it.

Now, when you pick something as simple as this, and do it for a week or more, you will be addicted. As you strengthen the muscles of self-disciplined, that’s when you grab your black marker and practice playing piano for 15 minutes a day. (Insert your target habit and color here.) Draw that black line on Today, right under the brown line for Oat Bran.

The next day, another 15 minutes of Piano, another serving of Oat Bran, and another black and brown line respectively. (Note to self: Don’t get Oat Bran in the piano.) Just keep on going. Add as many things as you like but I recommend you ease yourself in one at a time. When you run out of colors, try to get more markers, but in a pinch you can use words.

What if my habit isn’t daily?

OK so what do you do with things you can’t do every day, like lifting weights?

Answer: Multiple Vertical lines that cross through all the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, for example. Not frequent enough for you? Time to break out the candy-cane lines. (Since this is corner to corner, this really only works best with one single habit color.)

The point is the make it fun and to challenge yourself to keep those lines going. And don’t worry if you break some chain at some point, especially if you have a lot of other chains on those days! The point is to see how much work you really do, and have incentive to continue being an all-star at your huge number of positive activities.

After a while, the lines aren’t important anymore. It is about putting something on that calendar on every day. You’ll be damned if you let a day go empty.

When I first started this, here were my colors:

Red – Exercise or Diet
Green – Having a clean environment
Blue – College
Brown – Oddball notes for infrequent activities ranging from Piano, to performing Favors, going to the Doctor, or going out on Dates. I view this as mostly interchangeable. At some point random activities just become Track D in your life.
Black – Exceptions, such as working late and not being able to work on my chains

I always want to add more things onto the calendar, and lots of things really, but I don’t feel bad about not doing it because I can clearly see: I’m really busy. I’ll need to swap things out to make room.

Reward Yourself

So guess what all this does for you? I bet you thought it was to be super productive. Well sure, but equally important this frees you up to take some time off. Yep. When you see this massive array of colors streaming into your retinas for something like 21 straight days, believe me you will feel A-OK to write “Me Me Me Me” on a Saturday and do nothing but play video games.

One of my favorite axioms David Allen coined was, “If you put all your [work] in one place, you will go on a diet.” Indeed; True in every aspect of life. I realized that I was overworked and needed to set aside time for myself.

The Approach to Lines

There are many ways you could go about arranging your colors. I chose to build a foundation like this:

Physicial Health -> Cleanliness and room to work -> Primary Goals -> Extracurricular.

I felt very much at the time that unless I was treating myself correctly through diet and exercise that my other lines would crumble, so Red (Exercise or Diet) was always my first line drawn. You might feel differently about this and that’s just fine. If your goal is to write for 15 minutes every day before you even have breakfast, then go for it. Make that your first line of the day. Others (maybe the most wise among us) would start their day by watching inspiring films or comedies.

Any way you go about it, always make it a game. Draw an especially thick line or braid if you worked at it really hard that day. Make it meaningful by try to keep it simple. Give yourself permission to doodle on each day instead of drawing lines. Do what works.

If you are reading multiple books–let’s say 15, like myself–you need a bookmark for every book.

I know this seems silly but I was actually keeping track mentally of where I was in each of these books; successfully I might add, but with a nagging feeling I would eventually fail. I was devoting so much mental power into this task I was actually afraid to continue reading.

So I grabbed a stack of Post-It notes, peeled off one for each book I own, folded them over as to not be sticky on any side, and put them into my books in the correct places. Even books I intend to start reading!  I grabbed those new books and put a bookmark on the very first page clearly stating my intentions to read the book at some point.

It feels great.

Why this works:

- The tool enhances cognitive power, specifically my memory such that I no longer have to keep track of where I am or which books I intend to read
- Reality now matches my vision for reality, such that my intention to start certain books is now clearly indicated with a physical marker
- Energy is preserved such that I don’t have to re-think something I already knew, namely which books I have read and those I intend to read. I simply pick up a book and read from the bookmark

P.S. Actually in retrospect, if they don’t leave any residue, I like having the Post-It notes sticky which makes the bookmark not shift around in my books when I travel.

Today I’m going to tell you how to empower yourself to get rid of the clutter in your life and make room for what you REALLY desire.

Have you ever found some paperwork on your desk or in a closet that you kept because you thought it was important but it was never used? A good example of this might be your auto-insurance coverage. Being the smart individual that you are, you held onto the coverage plans and the descriptions of what the different coverages mean on the off-chance you may need to reference it later.

“I’ll keep this around, just in case.”

In fact you did need to reference the information later, maybe once or twice when shopping for cheaper car insurance, but you realize you *didn’t* actually fetch the paperwork. In the spirit of the moment, you called the 800 number, asked about your current coverage, and you wrote it down. Or maybe you looked it up online.

Let’s examine the malfunctioning clutter life cycle:

1. You take the time to file the papers away (or toss them somewhere nearby)
2. As time passes, the papers become outdated
3. You will eventually find the paperwork again, and you’ll stare at it trying to figure out what it is and why you kept it
4. You’ll become repulsed by the material and throw it out because it is outdated

Along the way this paperwork might even lay on top of and cover up something more important you should be doing, and this creates a small but cumulative amount of drag on your lifestyle and productivity. It doesn’t have to be this way.

How to turn this process around:

For each and every thing that flutters into your life, be realistic and–standing over the garbage can–ask yourself these questions:

1.  Am I going to fetch this later, or am I going to Google it?
2. Have I needed and successfully used something in this category in the past?
3. Where do I envision myself being when I need this? Will it even be nearby or not?
4. What are the consequences (if any) of not having this?
5. How long exactly do I expect to keep this? Should I be buried with it?
6. Do I have a reliable and inherently fun system for getting rid of this, once it gets old?
7. How much joy will I feel knowing this will not be in my life or on my desk or in my inbox any longer?
8. Is keeping this getting in the way of things that are more important to me?

If you are doing this correctly, you’ll be throwing away 95%-99% of the items you encounter. Marvel over the fullness of your waste basket, and the space you’ve made that can now be filled with things you enjoy.

It should come as no surprise that this also works in the digital age, with files and email for example; In fact, it is pretty much required. Just ask yourself the important question: Why am I keeping this around? You may find that what you could be doing instead far outweighs your psychological need to keep the item. Toss it, and be happy. On a roll? Look around you and strike while the maturity iron is hot.

Help me think more like this.

Attention nerds.

This post is about how I solved my problem upgrading to iOS 5 on on my apple device. If you aren’t a total nerd who has setup a symbolic link for iTunes, you can totally tune out right now.

I have an Solid State Drive (SSD) in my Windows 7 64-bit PC which–while extremely fast–has some space limitations. This might cause one to setup a symbolic link to send iTunes backups onto a different drive, as I have.

Here’s a guide if interested: http://lifehacker.com/5722932/free-up-hard-drive-space-by-changing-the-location-of-itunes-backups

Problem:
When I was updating my iPhone 4 (from iOS 4.3.5 to iOS 5), an extremely large iPhone backup was performed. During the backup I was getting an error:

“An error occurred while backing up this iPhone (-1303). Would you like to continue to update this iPhone?

Continuing will result in the loss of all contents on this iPhone.”

Yikes.

I decided to try 6-7 more times over the next hour and I noticed the backup always seemed to fail about 5% of the way in. I tried a number of unsuccessful steps including rebooting the phone, turning off antivirus on the PC, and deleting the previous iPhone backups to force a new one to be created. These steps did not help.

Solution:
If you had at some point taken the time to cleverly setup a symbolic link, then get rid of the symbolic link, at least for now.

While the symbolic link has been extremely helpful and hasn’t prevented my backups in the past, this time it appeared to be the problem. I took the symbolic link out (you do this by sending it to the recycle bin) and ran the update again. I immediately noticed the backup was taking a lot longer than previous attempts. This immediate change in behavior was hopeful, and the backup was completed successfully after a while.

I admit this could have just been a coincidence but I’m not above mentioning it. It is possible that–because my symbolic link removal worked–the error was simply related to hard drive reads or writes that were failing. This may mean that some users can get by with just repeated attempts and get lucky. I don’t have enough data to draw a conclusion.

Good luck people.

P.S. The update is complete. I have iOS5.