Her Morning elegance by Oren Lavie

Such a beautiful video, and a good song. Now back to work.

Procrastination

Just how bad of a procrastinator am I? Bad enough that I took a 20 minute test to measure it.

:(

Try it yourself.

I am 100 out of 100. This is pretty depressing.

Your score is 100 out of a possible 100

Usually a Procrastinator

You rank in the top 10% in terms of procrastination. That is, when it comes to putting things off, you often do so even though you know you shouldn’t. Likely, you are much more free-spirited, adventurous, and spontaneous than most. Probably, your work doesn’t engage you as much as you would like or perhaps you are surrounded by many easily available and much more pleasant temptations. These temptations may initially seem rewarding, but in the longer-term, you see many of them as time-wasters. Though you are likely incredibly productive just before a deadline, you might not get all your work done and there is a lot of unwanted stress. You may want to reduce what procrastination you do commit. If so, here are three tips that have been shown to work:

Goal Setting

This is one of the most established ways of moving forward on your plans. Take any project you are presently procrastinating and break it down into individual steps. Each of these steps should have the following three aspects. First, they should be somewhat challenging though achievable for you. It is more satisfying to accomplish a challenge. Second, they should be proximal, that is you can achieve them fairly soon, preferable today or over the next few days. Third, they should be specific, that is you know exactly when you have accomplished them. If you can visualize in your mind what you should do, even better.

Stimulus Control

This method has also been well tested and is very successful. What you need is a single place that you do your work and nothing else. Essentially, you need an office, though many students have a favorite desk at a library. For stimulus control to work best, the office or desk should be free of any signs of temptation or easily available distractions that might pull you away (e.g., no games, no chit-chat, no web-surfing). If you need a break, that is fine, but make sure you have it someplace at least a few minutes distant, preferably outside of the building itself. If you are unwilling to take the time to get there, acknowledge that you likely don’t need the break.

Routines

Routines are difficult to get into but in the end, this is often our aim. Things are much easier to do when we get into a habit of them, whether it is work, exercise, or errands. If you schedule some of those tasks you are presently procrastinating upon so that they occur on a regular schedule, they become easier. Start your routine slowly, something to which you can easily commit. Eventually, like brushing your teeth, it will likely become something you just do, not taking much effort at all. At this point, you might add to your routine, again always keeping your overall level of effort at a moderate to low level. Importantly, when you fall off your routine, inevitable with sickness or the unexpected, get back on it as soon as possible. Your routine gets stronger every time your follow it. It also gets weaker every time you don’t.

Farewell Howard

Thank you for the 50 state strategy. Thank you for being real, an antidote to Terry MacAuliffe's terrible leeching of the states. You will be missed, teal sweatshirt and all.

James Risen gets his due

Who is this James Risen guy? He's the NYT reporter who played a big role in crucifying Wen Ho Lee in the press before there was any solid information. So do I think it's more than slightly poetic that he was the target of NSA/FBI wiretaps?

Yes. Though overall, it's a scary thing when your nation is listening in on journalist's phone calls.

The reason he was targeted by the Bushies is because Risen broke the story about the whole illegal wiretapping in the first place.

If this were a movie, it would have lots of symmetry.

Something stinks in Obamaland

The crushing of the 50 state strategy as designed and delivered by Howard Dean is here. The 200 state organizers who were assigned to state parties have been fired, and they probably won't be coming back.

Instead, Obama will centralize operations and while the 2009-2012 operations will be broader than the 13-17 states that were focused on for 2004, they won't be all 50. It will keep the traditional hot battlegrounds of Ohio, Florida, Missouri, and second tier purple states like Nevada and Colorado that joined the blue column this year will get their places cemented on that list. I would also bet that it will be around 20 states including nontraditional places like North Carolina and Indiana which also swung blue this year. I would hope that Georgia makes the cut - it's truly impressive that Obama came within 5 points of John McCain here, and the close Senate outcome (not during the special election) suggests that had Obama kept his team here, we would have a Senator Jim Martin to bring us to 59.

Something stinks in Obamaland, and I smell Rahm's stench all over it. Well, him and the other Clintonites who have grabbed positions of power.

Funniest comment about Rahm

On a gawker post about how Rahm knifed Howard Dean by 1) not giving him the Secretary of the HHS post and 2) having D.ean dispatched to American Samoa when Obama introduced the new DNC Chair, VA Gov. Tim Kaine.

Some people are saying that Rahmbo turns them on, and in steps the quitest, funniest comment I've ever seen:

"Hold me closer, tiny dancer."

A perfect quip.

Worst 500 passwords - is yours one?

Check this list of the 500 worst passwords of all time - ie, the ones that hackers find to be most common and try first. See if yours is on there, and try not to grimace at how many iterations of sexual organs are on there.

Also notable are how poor some of the passwords are:

password
666666
7777777
qwerty

If yours falls on this list, make sure to check yourself, protect yourself and change it to something harder!

Economy sucks, let's play a game!

A neato piece of advertising for the firm that designed it, so due props to Blue Earth.

Play the Bailout Game in which you can dial Alan Greenspan in his multiple guru forms and hand out up to $1000000000 to bail out banks. But watch out for the recession (burning pitchforks and all behind you!)

Notable player names: Adam Smith, socialist, Donald Trump.