Guesswork Theory Turns Five

Five years ago today I saddled up to my beloved R31 Thinkpad and fired up Guesswork Theory for the first time. I won't get nostalgic about it, blogs are silly things after all, but it has been incredibly fun and I have to admit I feel a small sense of accomplishment about coming this far. I have learned quite a lot about life, love, and why here.

One lesson I have learned over the years is that for me, writing for someone else is much more fun than writing for myself. I'm not a journal or diary fellow. In Fall of 2007 several of my closest friends took the plunge and started blogging, and you can see having them around sent my post counts through the roof -- I wrote more entries in 2008 than in the previous four years combined. Community is a powerful thing.

So I mean this deeply and sincerely when I say: thank you for reading. And thank you for commenting. I will go ahead and admit that for me, the most fun thing about writing here is getting comments in my inbox. If you enjoy reading one of my posts, I would like to encourage you to comment on it, even if it's just to say you liked it. It means a lot to me. It makes my day, every time, no kidding.

In light of all this, I've decided to take this occasion to perform a reader survey. I originally envisioned this space as a "journal of ideas," but in the last two years I've wandered quite a bit, and I keep wondering what the folks who read what I write here actually enjoy. So if you read this blog, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what interests you in the following questionnaire. I would love to write more of what you like to read.

Thank you, thank you, thank you again for reading, commenting, and for taking the time to fill out this survey if you can. You make this place fun.

Top 5 Gmail Tips

Gmail, Google's online email service, is my favorite online app bar none. Before Gmail, email took up a huge chunk of my hard drive, I had to delete old messages to save space, I could only access my old email from one computer, I was deluged with spam, and finding old emails was incredibly difficult. Not anymore. If you're still using Yahoo, Hotmail, or some locally-stored email program like Outlook, I promise you are making life harder than it has to be. If you need convincing, email me. I'd be happy to serve as a Gmail evangelist.

Over the years I've collected quite a few tricks to help make Gmail work even better for me. I thought I'd share them here.

1. Stop using labels and start using search.

For the first year or so after switching to Gmail I meticulously labeled my email just like I had organized it in folders in Outlook Express. Then one day I realized the only reason I label/file email is to help me find it later, and Gmail's search function is a much more powerful way of finding email than searching through labels. Using the "to:" and "from:" search operators I can find anything. If I need to know the details about the Halloween party my friend Adam sent me, I just search "to:me from:adam halloween" and it pops right up. Here is a full list of Gmail search operators for even more advanced searching.

Since my realization I have trashed all my labels except for a few I use for very specific purposes. For instance, it's pretty common these days for folks to email out their new mailing address when they move. I've made a label called "address-book" just for these emails. Now when I need someone's mailing address, I just go to Gmail and search for their name plus "label:address-book." I also have a label called "to-consider" for emails I want to read in-depth later. Whenever I have some free time and I feel like doing some reading, I do a quick "label:to-consider" search and I'm ready to go.

2. Create some creative filters.

Here's some instructions on creating filters. Filters can help you organize email automatically as well as keep unwanted email out of your inbox. It seems everyone has at least one distant family member (we'll call her "Aunt Glenda") who loves to forward annoying chain emails. A great way to avoid these without confrontation is to create a filter that automatically archives email from Aunt Glenda with the subject "FWD:", skipping the inbox. This way you still get Glenda's personal emails to you, but you miss the chains.

A lot of people use Gmail for quick-and-easy online storage by attaching something they want online to an email and sending it to themselves. I do this too, so I have a filter which automatically archives and "marks as read" all email that is from me, to me. When I need it again, I just do a "from:me to:me" search.

3. Create some new email addresses for yourself using the + sign!

Little-known Gmail fact: you can insert "+anything" before the @ symbol in your Gmail address and email sent to this address will go to you. In other words, if your Gmail address is john@gmail.com, then email sent to john+doe@gmail.com, john+table@gmail.com, and john+monkey@gmail.com will all come to you.

What's more, you can create filters that redirect email coming to these addresses. So let's say you're signing up for a newsletter for people who like cars. You give them the email address yourname+cars@gmail.com, then set up a filter in Gmail so that all email sent to yourname+cars@gmail.com is labeled "Cars Newsletter." If one day you decide you don't want this newsletter anymore, or they sell your email address to a spammer, you can just change your filter to delete all email coming to this address.

Oh and by the way, Gmail completely ignores periods in your email address. Email sent to yourname@gmail.com and y.o.u.r.n.a.m.e@gmail.com all goes to you.

4. Use Gmail labs!

Gmail Labs is set of experimental features for Gmail, most of which are just awesome. Go to Settings>Labs in Gmail to enable them. Here are a few of my favorites:

Forgotten Attachment Detector -- This feature automatically detects when you might have forgotten to attach something to an email and lets you know when you click "Send." It's saved me a significant amount of embarrassment.

Send & Archive -- Most of the time, when I reply to an email, the next thing I do is archive the conversation to clean out my inbox. This feature adds a button to do this all in one click!

Undo Send -- This feature gives you 5 seconds to click "Undo" after you click "Send." Another real face-saver.

5. Stop using the delete button.

Remember that with Gmail's huge, ever-increasing storage space (I started with 1 GB and I currently have 7.4) there's really no need to ever use the delete button. Just archive everything! You never know when you might need a message later, and Gmail's powerful search is always there to help you find it. Email messages take up very little space and digital storage is only going to get cheaper in the future.

Here are a couple extra tips you may enjoy:

How to add a custom 'From' address
How to import old email into Gmail
(This is a tough one but oh so cool - my Gmail messages go back to 2001!)

Y O U - "How to Say Goodbye"

I'm sad to announce today that one of my favorite unsigned bands (and Strongbad's backup band), Y O U, has broken up. Here is a post I wrote about them last year with some samples of their tunes. It's a sad day for Erin and I; a lot of our dates in college involved catching their shows in Atlanta, and once in Clemson. It's heartbreaking that we couldn't even make it to their last show at our old haunt Smith's Olde Bar a couple weeks ago.

If you would like to support these guys and grab some great melodic pop rock, here are some links to their albums on iTunes:

Y O U
Everything is Shifting
Flashlights
The Long-Playing EP

My Shared Items: Week of October 27th, 2009

These are links from my Google Reader Shared Items to interesting webpages I discovered during the week of October 27th, 2009:

• White House, senators agree on media shield law – washingtonpost.com – Yay for freedom of the press! Wish they'd go further.
• The $10,000 suit – interesting perspective on buying local.
• Illegal downloaders 'spend the most on music', says poll – The Independent
• Marginal Revolution: Florida's Public Option – The story of public option home insurance in Fl.
• Friday Funnies – on the GOP
• State's high court dismisses juvenile convictions – HOLY CRAP!
• I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea – Ars Technica – That's better.
• A History of Family Hoaxes | Newsweek
• Flickr Photo Download: Swine Flu Mortality – Everybody just CALM DOWN.
• Web Boosts Grandpa's Brain : Scientific American Podcast – Justification.
• Pearl and the Beard – Will Smith Medley on Vimeo
• The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The Borg's freaky new ad for Bing – WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!
• The Vitamin C Myth : NPR – I'm beginning to think everything I know about my health is wrong.
• Grammar Girl :: May Versus Might – I love style tips.
• Obama's Declaration Of Swine Flu Emergency Prompts Pro-Swine-Flu Republican Response | The Onion – Bwahahaha.
• BBC NEWS | Size zero girls 'less attractive'
• Goat rentals for clearing brush – Boing Boing – I love solutions that use animals doing what they do best.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger's coded F-bomb in veto – Boing Boing – This was no accident, and it's awesome.
• Official Google Blog: Making search more musical – Cooool
• Creepy Cap-and-Trade Claims are Illusions | FactCheck.org
• tumblr_kolo40SQZq1qzy3cwo1_r1_500.jpg – "Hey Jude" flowchart.
• 091102_warer18964.gif – This is what the subway looks like everyday.
• FORTUNE: Trapped in cubicles
• The White House’s war with Fox News : The New Yorker
• Couple alive after car pins them to bed for almost an hour – CNN.com
• Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own – Ars Technica – Now that's an econ story.
• Op-Ed Columnist – The Fatal Conceit – NYTimes.com – DAMN STRAIGHT. I like David Brooks more every day.
• Acoustic Kitty – Wikipedia – The CIA is insane. Don't tell them I said that.
• The Associated Press: New movie takes aim at celebrity journalism
• Cap-and-trade: “Green Jobs” or Job Killer? | FactCheck.org
• The Raw Feed: Microsoft pulls out of Family Guy special – Hahaha
• Google Voice now (kinda) works with your number | CNET News – This looks promising.
• CNN Drops to Last Place Among Cable News Networks – NYTimes.com – Ugh, not looking good for news.
• Scozzafava Is G.O.P. Candidate, but the Right Likes Hoffman – NYTimes.com – Grrrrrr
• YouTube – Year one Leeroy jenkins skit
• Man Dies After Secret 4-Year Battle With Gorilla | The Onion

For more of my shared items, grab the feed or join Google Reader.

How to Post Your Facebook Status on Your Blogger Blog

You might have noticed that I have my Facebook status posted in the top left-hand corner of this blog. It's updated automatically. I thought I would post instructions on how to do this for the benefit of any Blogger users who might like this on their blog as well.

1. Log on to Facebook and go to your Notifications page.

2. On the right-hand side you’ll see "Subscribe to Notifications." Click the "Your Notifications" link.

3. Go up to the URL in your browser and replace the word "notifications" with "status".

4. Highlight the entire URL and copy it (ctrl+c). This is an RSS feed of your FB status.

5. Login to Blogger.com and go to the Layout page for your blog.

6. Click on the "Add a Gadget" link in your sidebar.

7. A popup will appear. In the popup window, scroll down and click on "Feed."

8. Paste (ctrl+v) your URL from step 4 into the Feed URL box. Click "Continue."

9. Change the Title to "My Facebook Status" or whatever you prefer. Set the Show drop-down menu to the number of recent statuses you want to display (I selected "1" so I only display my most recent status). Check the Item dates checkbox if you want to display the date along with your status. Check the Item sources/authors checkbox if you want to display your name along with your status.

10. Click "Save" and you're done! Your status will now appear in your blog's sidebar. If you want to change where in the sidebar your status appears, click and drag the "My Facebook Status" box to wherever you prefer on your Layout page.

An alternate method of posting your FB status in your sidebar is to use a FB profile badge.

Special thanks to TechLifeWeb.

Harrison Hudson - "On My Heart"

Harrison Hudson is a friend of mine from childhood; I grew up with his older brother John. Harrison and I played in worship bands together in high school. He was always one of those kids who really knew how to play, while the rest of us were just "good enough for youth group worship."

After drifting through a number of bands, Harrison settled into his own as a singer/songwriter and released a killer album titled Angels on One Side...And the Other on the Other. His music is a gritty blend of Roy Orbison, Elvis, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, and Johnny Cash: or in other words, 100-proof Americana (well ok, minus The Beatles). This is my favorite track from the record, featuring splendid background vocals by The Bridges.


Buy "On My Heart" by Harrison Hudson on MySpace

You can find Harrison in Nashville, on Facebook, and at HarrisonHudson.net. I encourage you to show him and his band some love if you dig their tunes.

Living the Simple Christian Life is HARD

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves?" Richard Foster

Several years ago my faith was revolutionized when I came to know and understand a handful of truths which I outlined in a blog post with the tongue-in-cheek title "Essential Truths of the Christian Faith" -- namely, that I am and will probably always be uncomfortable with some of the Bible's teachings, no one (including me) has a monopoly on precisely what the Bible says and means, being right is not a virtue, and love is the most fundamental characteristic and pursuit of the Christian faith.

This led me come to grips with the fact that the faith I had been living was not a faith that springs from the truth of these ideas. These ideas led me to a simple faith, one that pursues loving God by spending time in relationship with him and one that pursues loving man by serving him/her. They led me away from a faith that concentrates itself primarily on theology, apologetics, and biblical reasoning. They led me away from a faith that focuses on typical Christian church activities rather than actions that serve my fellow man.

But in the years since I have found it incredibly difficult to live out these truths. In fact, I would say I've completely failed. Prayer and time spent with God is still largely vacant from my life. Church activities still take the place of intentional efforts to love my neighbors. Reading (Orthodoxy, The Problem of Pain), writing (Community Church and the Dunbar Number, End All Youth Groups Now), thinking, and conversing about theological ideas still comes so, so easy to me. I run to it. Of course there's nothing wrong with these things, indeed they are considerably positive, but when I am reckless about pursuing them in the absence of what Jesus made possible -- a personal relationship with him -- they are not so good after all.

The disconnect between what I know to be true and the actions I carry out is jarring. My favorite quote of all time (and this is not without some consideration) is G.K. Chesterton's "What is wrong with the world? I am." Or to paraphrase, the trouble with the world is me. It is my relationship with God that needs my action, it is the question of my own faith that needs my consideration, it is my lack of obedience that needs my attention. The salvation of the world can wait. Religious and theological ideas can wait.

The years since my epiphany have made me realize: living the simple Christian life is hard -- at least for me, but probably for most people. Spending time alone with God is awkward, it is difficult, it is messy. Prayer does not come easy. How much easier is it to read C.S. Lewis than Moses or the Apostle Paul? How much easier is it to give my money to the church every week than to cook a meal for a homeless man or pursue a friend who is hurting? Waxing philosophic is easy. Theological pontification is easy. It is simplicity that is hard. Discipline, obedience, devotion: these are the challenges. I must resolve to meet them.

I will leave you with a few passages from Let God: The Transforming Wisdom of François Fénelon by Winn Collier. If you read this blog much, that's a name you've probably heard before.

Be content with leading a simple life, however that fits for you. Be obedient. Bear your daily cross -- you need it. It is a gift given by the pure mercy of God. The essential idea is to despise self from the heart, and to be willing to be despised, if God allows it. Feed upon God alone. Saint Augustine says that his mother lived on Prayer. You do the same, and die to everything else. We can live toward God only as we allow our self to continually die. [...]

You don't need to know more truth. What you do need, however, is to start obeying the truth you already have. We are deeply deceived whenever we think our spirituality is progressing simply because our useless curiosity is being stimulated. [...]

And I have to ask--why are you chasing after all this knowledge anyway? What we need is to recognize how much we don't know, to see how poor and desperate and helpless we truly are. Books and big-time teaching won't help with that. You don't need what they're pushing. You just need to know a few simple things: you need to know Jesus. And you need to know Jesus died on a cross. Pretty simple, huh? Saint Paul knew what he was talking about: "Knowledge puffs up while love builds up."

If this is  true, then running after all this knowledge, thinking it will finally make you happy with how you are, is a waste. What you need instead is to learn to be contented with love. Just love.

Quotes: Quiet Desperation, Intelligent Life, and Smoking Crack

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things." Henry David Thoreau

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." Bill Watterson

"Anyone who thinks we move in a post-racial society is someone who's been smoking crack." Spike Lee

My Shared Items: Week of October 20th, 2009

These are links from my Google Reader Shared Items to interesting webpages I discovered during the week of October 20th, 2009:

• In the US, Hope for Victims of Genital Mutilation | Newsweek.com – Be forewarned, this is extremely graphic and sickening. But it is also hopeful. We must face these demons if we are to fight them.
• Senate Passes Blame By Vote Of 91-8 | The Onion
• Big in Japan: Burger King Sells Windows 7 Whopper – FOXNews.com – They just don't stop the terrible marketing, do they?
• Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man | Video on TED.com – Fantastic and funny.
• Art of UnNaming: UnNaming Wisdom – Now those are rules for an unborn son!
• One shot of gene therapy and children with congenital blindness can now see
• The Associated Press: 1st polygamist sect criminal trial set to begin
• YouTube – BRAZILIAN MUSIC INSTITUTE 2009 – TICO TICO – I'm pretty sure at one point the man's left hand is playing with the woman's right hand. Amazing.
• YouTube – Obama Gets Tough Question From Fourth Grader – Good answer.
• The Middle Way Forward: The Entitlement Narrative – Oh election season, how I miss you.
• BBC NEWS | Rich Germans demand higher taxes
• Wallstats | MintLife Blog – I heart wallstats!
• Net neutrality: John McCain says no, Glenn Beck sees a Marxist plot — DailyFinance – Let's remember that McCain has admitted to not knowing how to use a computer. And let's remember Beck  - actually, please, let's forget about Beck.
• Maryland Reins In Hospital Costs by Setting Rates – WSJ.com
• Swiss Model for Health Care Is Gaining Admirers – NYTimes.com
• D3d2K.jpg – Calvin on Wall Street.
• Breakdancing Cat Flip Accident
• Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China – This is hell.
• Life Imitates 'Arrested Development' | The New Republic
• Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn: Scientific American
• After 5 Years In U.S., Terrorist Cell Too Complacent To Carry Out Attack | The Onion
• This American Life – Hands down the most entertaining, interesting thing I've read/heard on the Healthcare issue.
• For Some Seeking Rebirth, Sweat Lodge Was End – NYTimes.com
• 1001 rules for my unborn son – 396. Never get your haircut on the day of the big dance. – This took me 25 years to learn.
• Selling Sickness: How Drug Ads Changed Health Care : NPR
• How The Modern Patient Drives Up Health Costs : NPR
• Ezra Klein – Health Reform for Beginners: The Suprisingly Important, Occasionally Controversial, Dartmouth Atlas Studies
• The Telltale Wombs Of Lewiston, Maine : NPR
• The Raw Feed: Best Halloween costume yet: It's Balloon Boy!
• Left vs Right (World) | Information Is Beautiful
• BBC NEWS | Apology for singing shop worker
• Naked Man Arrested – wtvr – Hard times for the Dude.
• Disapproving Michelle Obama To Be Printed On All Fast Food Containers | The Onion
• iRobot's oozy ChemBot amazes and terrifies | CNET – Be afraid. Be very afraid.
• Rift between Obama and Chamber of Commerce widening – washingtonpost.com
• YouTube – The Awesome Levitating Train – Science rules!
• NASA names cosmic treadmill after Colbert – CNN.com – Don't know how I missed this one.
• Clive Thompson on the New Literacy
• An Interview with Scott Buckwald, Prop Master for the Hit TV Show Mad Men | Collectors Weekly – I WANT THIS JOB!

For more of my shared items, grab the feed or join Google Reader.

"The Eternal Appetite of Infancy"

Recently I posted an exhaustive list of quotes from G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. I also wanted to include this passage, but the post was far too long as it was. I found this section of the book inspiring; Erin can vouch for how excited I was reading it. Don't you love those moments when you read something so truthful it's electrifying, yet somehow you feel you always knew it? Well I do.

All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact. For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life, but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire. A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still. But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness. The very speed and ecstasy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction.

Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life or purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and that at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain. Repetition may go on for millions of years, by mere choice, and at any instant it may stop. Man may stand on the earth generation after generation, and yet each birth be his positively last appearance.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy