Month: March 2014

Categories
Julia Twenty Somethings

Appropriately Categorized

I’m pretty sure I have been going through the various stages of the trendily-named “quarter-life crisis” for the past five years. I’m getting to the point where I am pretty sure I should be worried about this, really worried. And I’m trying to bring it to an end…

I have read all of the articles that tell us our huge uncertainty is simply an effect of having so many more viable options in what life can offer. Knowing it’s the endless options causing my heat-thumping, short of breath, dizzy so you have to remember to breathe deeply, panic moments; I find myself wanting someone to choose for me. Which isn’t possible – for someone to tell you how to live your life – unless you’re into indentured servitude,then go for it.

Since I don’t have a thing for indentured servitude, and I know no one else can direct me, I have been slugging it out. I haven’t found much comfort in blaming the innumerable options. I grew up being told I could do whatever I wanted and be accomplished, because I was smart and a hard worker. And now, not knowing what I want to do has led me to feel not so smart and blasé about all the hard work behind and ahead of me. Its not the options fault, or the fault of being privileged enough to be born into a country and society where this and a couple of other things top my “biggest concern” list. Its my fault for not trusting the process.

If there are two options before me, or endless options, I am attempting to pull myself out of this panicky-hole and trust that each little change I make will make a difference. The change from writing on my computer and saving files in Word, to publishing my thoughts on a blog; the change to work out everyday (or lose $50 a week to a friend); the change to take care of potential health concerns before they develop into anything serious; all of those little things are going to get me where I need to go. I’m making a concerted effort to believe this, to uphold my small changes, and to not give up when things aren’t magically  perfect two or three weeks from now.

Hopefully one day soon the free-fall feeling that is associated with making big decisions will subside. Or maybe my small intentional changes will help me appreciate the free-fall into whatever is coming next.

J.

Categories
Technology

Benefits of encrypting your web traffic

With all of the revaluations about the NSA (insert any number of articles)  I thought it would be a good idea to touch on the benefits of using a VPN service.  Now before you stop reading this article because “your not doing anything wrong so who cares if they are looking at your internet traffic” let me quickly explain several other cool uses for encrypting your traffic, and also tell you why you should care even that anyone is looking at your private data (even if you don’t break the law!)

Normal everyday uses for VPN:

-circumvent local sports blackouts and watch your favorite sports team online while saving tons of money on your cable bill.

-protect your laptop/smartphone/tablet while you are connected from a public hotspots

-stop online companies from capturing your web browsing trends and advertising to you + selling your likes/interests to data mining companies who in turn direct market to you (think spam snail mail)

-stop companies, and the government from spying on you!

There are tons of companies out there that offer solid VPN services.  At the end of the day its kind of a crap shoot weather or not they really store you internet logs (companies in the US are very likely to be forced into compiling with the NASA to turn over logs/store info about users).  For that reason my VPN company of choice is Viper VPN.  They “own” all of their infrastructure, and they are based in Switzerland. Very far from the long arm of the US spy machine.

Setting up the VPN is about as easy as it gets. You download their local client for your machine (they cover all major operating systems including windows, android, IOS, and linux).  From their you can set the program to start when windows boots up and your connection will forever be encrypted.

This is not a fool proof method, and yes if someone as powerful as the US government wants to reach your silly emails and texts they will figure out a way to do it.  However that does not mean we should make it easier for our rights to be trampled on.  It might sound silly, and like I am up on a soap box here but collectively as a society, we in the US are as “free” from government tyranny  as any society in the history of the earth has ever been.   There is a shift happening in the social consciousness of our country that it is “ok” to loose “some” of our rights in order to be better protected from terrorism.  If we continue down the current path we are going to severely regress as a nation in terms of the freedom to live our lives, and we will loose all notion of privacy….. like the great MLK once said:

If I lived in China or Russia or any totalitarian country maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic 1’st amendment privileges because they haven’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly.  Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech.  Somewhere I read of the freedom of press.  SOMEWHERE I READ that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights!

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Quotes

Great Quote From A Good Friend

I’m going to share a great quote that my friend Travis and I crafted together a couple weekends ago while drinking a few (possibly too many) beers. The quote references the thought I constantly have about how I get my best work done between the hours of ~10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.

Minds are like computers working on a network of consciousness. Whenever you are up very late or very early, the network is clear and its easier to distinguish your own thoughts as opposed to being flooded with the static of other minds on the network. Your most original and best thoughts are accessed during this time. – Travis & Sam

Categories
Technology

First Post

This is the first post on our new blog… not really I’ll delete this a make a cooler one later.