Like most people on the internet, I go through phases in which I’m sick of social media. It doesn’t do anything other than make me angry. Everybody is wrong and I can’t do anything to prove they’re wrong (or they won’t listen/believe me). Frustrating!
So I’ve been trying to take a step back (again), breathe, meditate, close Facebook, etc. I’m trying to remind myself that people are ALWAYS going to believe what they want and will only change those beliefs when THEY want. Why should I get frustrated that somebody believes or thinks differently than I do? That’s going to happen in the world with or without Facebook. It’s just that social media *highlights* those differences. Then our expectation of the world doesn’t match the reality, and we get angry or frustrated.
I’m going back to studying more Stoic philosophy because I find their lessons really strike a chord with me. I subscribe to The Daily Stoic and one of the emails this week really hit home. It was titled “This Is Why You’re Upset” and was all about our attitude being responsible for how we feel.
Marcus Aurelius said, “You take things you don’t control and define them as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ And so of course when the ‘bad’ things happen, or the ‘good’ ones don’t, you blame the gods and feel hatred for the people responsible—or those you decide to make responsible.”
And a direct quote from the newsletter is what I need to tell myself regularly:
We have to remember: What happens is objective. Most of it has nothing to do with us. Most of it is not anyone’s fault and most of it does not actually harm us. We just tell ourselves it does. We insist on having an opinion. We insist on assigning blame.
Now listen, I understand this doesn’t pertain to ALL things. There are some very real issues happening that need people to be active and have an opinion. But not everything. Do you really care if people try walking on milk crates? Does it really affect you if that high school friend you’ve literally only connected with on Facebook posts a “black lives matter” or “blue lives matter” banner?
Anyway, those are things I’m having to remind myself and think about.
May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows
~ Jason Mraz “Have it all”
Stuff I’m Reading
I finished “Creative Calling” by Chase Jarvis this week. It took me longer to read than is typical because I was falling asleep so quickly this week. Plus I had a midterm to study for, a research paper to complete, and regular homework and reading for my Operating Systems class. Blerg.
Overall a good book for me though. I’ve always felt like a pretty creative person. I used to draw/doodle. I’m fairly musically inclined. I’m a good “outside the box” thinker. But some of my more creative tendencies have been beat down by the drudgery of life. I’m focusing on writing more (as you can plainly see) to stretch the creative muscle. I also want to draw some more, even if just silly doodles. So “Creative Calling” was a good wake-up call, reminding me to just create … don’t worry about perfection or what’s good/bad. It also had some good takeaways for me on how to work creativity into my day. The end of the book was more geared towards folks trying to monetize or “submit” their works to the world somehow. I suppose this blog is sort of like that. But I’m not necessarily trying to build any sort of community at the moment (heck, I only get about five hits per day on my site) … just writing for the sake of producing.
I’ve also been reading the reviews on the latest iPhone release. Now, I’m an Android user, but still like to keep up on tech. Seems like most of the reviews follow my feelings about the iPhone in general. The phones are great. They’re incrementally better than the generation before it. No real reason to buy unless your old phone is dying. I’m waiting for the Google Pixel 6 release anyway.
Finally, I’ve been reading a lot of random, but interesting, articles that I’ve saved in Pocket for the last few years. I finally got sick of the fact that I like to save things to read later and don’t schedule any time to actually read them. So I’m making a push to read/review the old ones I’ve saved and have scheduled some time in evenings and on weekends to read through the random things I save.
Security Tip of the Week
Have backups! Both Windows and Mac have built-in tools to backup files and/or the whole system. USE THEM! You should buy an external hard disk drive (HDD) to store the backups. A 2TB external HDD is less than $100 on Amazon right now (or Costo, Walmart, Target, etc.). That’s a one-time charge too, the built-in tools are free to use. And trust me, spending $100 now is WAY less than what a ransomware jerk may try to charge you to get your files back. Also, NEVER pay a ransomware jerk … you just fund a criminal enterprise when you do that.
If you’d rather backup your files off-site, try an online service like iDrive (the one I use), BackBlaze, or Acronis. They all work by installing an agent (small background application) locally to your computer. Then you decide which files/directories you want to backup to their encrypted cloud. You’ll pay a monthly or annual fee, but you’ll have peace-of-mind knowing your files are safe and easy to restore.
If you want to delve deeper into the world of backups and really prepare yourself, research the 3-2-1 method and start keeping more copies of your data.
Song of the Week
Don’t laugh, but it turns out I like Harry Styles. I KNOW! I’m not even a teenage girl. Crazy huh? So here’s his NRP Tiny Desk concert to give you a taste of some of his tunez.
This post has been day 40 of #100DaysToOffload