Category Archives: D.I.Y.

How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explains

April 7, 2022 Creative Commons

QR codes are visual patterns that store data smartphones can read. Photo- Adobe Stock

Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes, graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device.

QR codes have a wide range of uses that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing restaurant menus, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments.

QR codes are a close cousin of the bar codes on product packaging that cashiers scan with infrared scanners to let the checkout computer know what products are being purchased.

Bar codes store information along one axis, horizontally. QR codes store information in both vertical and horizontal axes, which allows them to hold significantly more data. That extra amount of data is what makes QR codes so versatile.

Anatomy of a QR code

While it is easy for people to read Arabic numerals, it is hard for a computer. Bar codes encode alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths. At the store, bar codes record the set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Critically, data stored in bar codes is redundant. Even if part of the bar code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID.

QR codes are designed to be scanned using a camera, such as those found on your smartphone. QR code scanning is built into many camera apps for Android and iOS. QR codes are most often used to store web links; however, they can store arbitrary data, such as text or images.

When you scan a QR code, the QR reader in your phone’s camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone. If the QR code holds a URL, your phone will present you with the URL. Tap it, and your phone’s default browser will open the webpage.

QR codes are composed of several parts: data, position markers, quiet zone and optional logos.

The QR code anatomy: data (1), position markers (2), quiet zone (3) and optional logos (4). Scott Ruoti, CC BY-ND

The data in a QR code is a series of dots in a square grid. Each dot represents a one and each blank a zero in binary code, and the patterns encode sets of numbers, letters or both, including URLs. At its smallest this grid is 21 rows by 21 columns, and at its largest it is 177 rows by 177 columns. In most cases, QR codes use black squares on a white background, making the dots easy to distinguish. However, this is not a strict requirement, and QR codes can use any color or shape for the dots and background.

Position markers are squares placed in a QR code’s top-left, top-right, and bottom-left corners. These markers let a smartphone camera or other device orient the QR code when scanning it. QR codes are surrounded by blank space, the quiet zone, to help the computer determine where the QR code begins and ends. QR codes can include an optional logo in the middle.

Like barcodes, QR codes are designed with data redundancy. Even if as much as 30% of the QR code is destroyed or difficult to read, the data can still be recovered. In fact, logos are not actually part of the QR code; they cover up some of the QR code’s data. However, due to the QR code’s redundancy, the data represented by these missing dots can be recovered by looking at the remaining visible dots.

Are QR codes dangerous?

QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.

The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to trick you into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account. While such an attack requires a flaw in the website you are visiting, such vulnerabilities are common on the internet. The URL can take you to a malicious website that tricks another website you are logged into on the same device to take an unauthorized action.

A malicious URL could open an application on your device and cause it to take some action. Maybe you’ve seen this behavior when you clicked a Zoom link, and the Zoom application opened and automatically joined a meeting. While such behavior is ordinarily benign, an attacker could use this to trick some apps into revealing your data.

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It is critical that when you open a link in a QR code, you ensure that the URL is safe and comes from a trusted source. Just because the QR code has a logo you recognize doesn’t mean you should click on the URL it contains.

There is also a slight chance that the app used to scan the QR code could contain a vulnerability that allows malicious QR codes to take over your device. This attack would succeed by just scanning the QR code, even if you don’t click the link stored in it. To avoid this threat, you should use trusted apps provided by the device manufacturer to scan QR codes and avoid downloading custom QR code apps.

Scott Ruoti, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Books, D.I.Y., Lifestyle, Travel

Peterson Field Guides make Perfect Companions for Bird and Animal Watching

April 2, 2022 Kat Lee

With spring now finally in full swing and pretty much all of us looking forward to getting out of our winter caves, taking to the wilds, in whatever part of the country we are in. Hiking while bird and animal watching can be an incredible treat to add more to the pleasure of the outdoors. Rather than relying on our trusty smart phones and a voice assistant or google search, why not go the tried and true route using a vinyl reinforced guide book with the photos and information right at your fingertips? If you do this right there won’t be cellular data reception anyway! Peterson just happens to have a fantastic assortment of guides for just this purpose, so, no matter what part of the US you find yourself in, or which species or category of living creature you expect to encounter check out the guides people as a perfect companion for your journey!

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 6th Edition

Guide to birds of eastern and central north america guides a unique identification system, which has been called the greatest invention since binoculars.

This guide is illustrated with drawings and photographs in color and black and white and all provide up to date range information and the most useful descriptions, pinpoints key field marks for quick recognition and easy comparison of species.

This guide will feature updated text and range maps, and art updated to reflect current knowledge in ornithology. This is the most popular book for the area of the US that has the absolute highest number and greatest diversity of bird watching opportunities.

Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America

A comprehensive field guide that uses an innovative Sound Index to allow readers to quickly identify unfamiliar songs and calls of birds in western North America.

Bird songs and calls are at least as important as visual field marks in identifying birds. Yet short of memorizing each bird’s repertoire, it’s difficult to sort through them all. Now, with the western edition of this groundbreaking book, it’s possible to visually distinguish bird sounds and identify birds using a field-guide format.

At the core of this guide is the spectrogram, a visual graph of sound. With a brief introduction to five key aspects–speed, repetition, pauses, pitch pattern, and tone quality–readers can translate what they hear into visual recognition, without any musical training or auditory memorization.

Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America

This fourth edition has been completely rewritten, with all-new range maps and illustrations for all species

A Field Guide to Mammals of North America The most comprehensive, in-depth, and current guide to North American mammals, this book covers all the mammals found in North America north of Mexico, including those that live in near-shore waters.

The only guide to include paintings and photographs of the animals as well as photographs of mammal skulls, it has 80 color plates, plus 46 additional color illustrations and black-and-white drawings, nearly 400 range maps, and more than 100 color photographs.

With global warming on the horizon it’s more important than ever to learn about and appreciate the incredible mammals that exist on our planet.

A Peterson Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico

Detailed descriptions of insect orders, families, and many individual species are illustrated with 1,200 drawings and 142 superb color paintings.

Illustrations – which use the unique Peterson Identification System to distinguish one insect from another – include size lines to show the actual length of each insect.

A helpful glossary explains the technical terms of insect anatomy.

Donald J. Borror has worked as a professor of entomology at Ohio State University. With Dwight M. DeLong, he is coauthor of An Introduction to the Study of Insects, a widely used textbook. Dr. Borror recorded The Songs of Insects, one of the Sounds of Nature disks in the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology series, with Richard D. Alexander.

Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America

A completely updated edition, including 122 newly recognized or recently established non-native species of reptiles and amphibians.The new edition of this definitive guide reflects 25 years’ worth of changes in our knowledge of reptiles and amphibians.

It includes descriptions of 122 newly recognized or recently established non-native species, updated maps, and new figures and photos. Color illustrations and drawings show key details for accurate identification. More than 100 color photographs and 322 color distribution maps accompany the species descriptions.

Clear and concise species accounts provide key characteristics, similar species, habitats, and ranges, as well as subspecies, voice descriptions, and conservation status. This edition will be a crucial resource for professional and amateur herpetologists, naturalists, outdoor enthusiasts, and students.

Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, Second Edition

There are nearly 1,000 species of freshwater fishes in North America alone, and identifying them can sometimes be a daunting task. In fact, in just the twenty years since publication of the first edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, the number of species has risen by almost 150, including 19 marine invaders and 16 newly established nonnative species.

This second edition incorporates all of these new species, plus all-new maps and a collection of new and revised plates. Some of the species can be told apart only by minute differences in coloration or shape, and these beautifully illustrated plates reveal exactly how to distinguish each species.

The guide includes detailed maps and information showing where to locate each species of fish–whether that species can be found in miles-long stretches of river or small pools that cover only dozens of square feet. The ichthyologic world of the twenty-first century is not the same as it was in the twentieth, and this brand-new edition of the definitive field guide to freshwater fishes reflects these many changes.

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Apps, D.I.Y., Lifestyle, Observation, Social Media, TikTok

The Whole “be real” thing is Hard if you spent years learning to be Professional First

Video March 13, 2022 Madison Santel

Who am I? I’m the person writing this.

But is it really necessary for you to know that I am female, love only cats (no dogs) and just got engaged?

No? Good, cause none of that is true. (Except the female part) That’s only one example of the odd twists that can come with the current trend of people going viral when they show “realness” and vulnerability.

Heard of acting? That’s what Meryl Streep does when she plays a person that never went to Yale and is not a rich famous actor, wink wink.

I suppose, as with so many online phenomena these days, it’s TikTok leading the way. No longer a place for young girls to dominate using only dancing, beauty and feminine wiles, it’s now a place where less objectively attractive people can blow up by showing, ostensibly, who they are.

Or by wearing a bear head as a hat.

https://www.tiktok.com/@madelin._.crochets/video/6983841654092352773

This trend towards realness has, based on informal research, also spilled over into places like LinkedIn, Medium and even Twitter.

On the whole, I think it’s a great thing. If Meryl Streep was only able to play herself, movies would be much less interesting, no doubt!

And maybe at least half of all the realness really is real. Just take it with a grain of salt if you see posts of someone getting engaged 3 times. In the same week.

All kidding aside this trend is part of a bigger, important evolution in digital communication

The evolution from journalistic norms, such as never referring to yourself directly but only as “your scribe”, “the writer”, “your correspondent” or just “one”, as in “one can only wonder…” to today’s norm of writing like the whole world wants to read your diary….

These journalistic conventions seem archaic and even ridiculous when the formerly forbidden “I” is commonplace and the authenticity of direct TikTok style casual presentation is already dominant and growing as a trend.

But the overall shift has more than just a style preference behind it, if you ask this writer (me).

It’s also far more than just the outgrowth of armies of non-journalists communicating spontaneously in every format and on every platform.

It’s really the early beginnings of what has become a common topic of late: the transition to the so-called Metaverse.

Not the Zuckerbergian Metaverse where people run around without legs and have joyless celebrations of themselves.

But rather, the real life cyber world where billions are on their phones communicating in various ways basically all the time. Even while jaywalking.

And as we do this more in every imaginable format, the desire to see “beautiful” landscape photos that have been photoshopped to death, instagram style, is eventually diminished to zero.

And what follows in a new hunger for the “real” or at least the honest seeming portrayal of the real (hi there Meryl!) and content that pushes an entirely different layer of psychological buttons.

As I mentioned above, dear reader, I love this! In spite of the fact that it leads to really scary TikToks (just check out the posts of some of the people that follow you on Tiktok (to see what I mean, the ones that follow 8753 people and get followed by like, 23 have nice videos…) where the frightening reality that’s out there (the banality of empirical unattractiveness you might call it) is already on full display, and how.

But that’s just the price to pay for a deeper and more authentic experience. And for the benefit of the real and valuable advice and knowledge you can get directly from “non-professional” actors who are not acting (presumably). We are reaping the profits of real life experiences, in exchange for nothing more than our attention, and clicks, likes and follows. And I say, Amen to that, bro.

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Climate Solutions, D.I.Y., Lifestyle, Observation

How to Implement small yet Meaningful Changes towards Zero Waste

October 28, 2021 Madison Santel

Cause and Effect of Convenience

We have all experienced how, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can be very challenging to break away from convenience. When it comes to products and services, many large companies utilize fast, cheap, and easily disposable single-use containers made from plastic.

Sodas bottles are plastic, baristas serve coffee in plastic cups with plastic caps and straws, fast food restaurants prepare orders in single use wrappers with plastic containers for condiments, and the list can go on and on. These products are used and then discarded.

Single use plastic items, as the name indicates, are used only once, yet plastic breaks down extremely slow, with some forms taking hundreds of years to degrade as shown in the tweet below from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF):

Plastic is designed to last, and that's why you may want to rethink using coffee pods. Here's why: https://t.co/qkujPm77gU pic.twitter.com/oegWoWPFCq
— WWF-Canada (@WWFCanada) July 6, 2018

Zero Waste Defined

Zero Waste as explained by Waste Management, is a philosophy that aims for resources to be reused, recycled or composted, in order to allow for very little to “zero” trash to be sent to landfills or spill into the ocean.

Clearly this issue is important, and getting more so, therefore should be considered a high priority – the reality is that huge amounts of plastic garbage does end up in the ocean and dumped in landfills. This dire state of affairs continues to jeopardize ocean and wildlife as well as our own health.

The organization Eco-Cycle Solutions urges the need for a complete change to our current system. With dwindling natural resources, a compromised ecosystem, and major changes in climate already evident today and with likely more on the way, there is no way the Earth can sustain for much longer and survive for future generations.

The obvious need for large-scale changes at the corporate level, regarding plastic usage, is clear, but we also need to ask ourselves: what can be done on an individual scale?

Small steps can lead to Big Change

Here are a few products that can be swapped-out and used instead of single and disposable use options:

Bamboo Toothbrush – both brush and bristles can be composted when time to replace
Lunchbox – making meals at home instead of eating out eliminates containers and can also be an opportunity to eat healthier
Water and Coffee Bottles (aluminum, glass or BPA free bottle) – can be refilled endlessly
Metal or Glass Straws – sturdier than the plastic counterpart and can be used over and over
Shopping Bags (canvas or other fabric) – can be used to carry groceries or any purchases
Cloth Napkins – for drying hands or wiping up around the house

“Using more sustainable products offers many benefits: saving money, eating healthier, all while creating a smaller ecological footprint in the world. While all are positive steps, most importantly, these small individual acts can ultimately help in the fight for the survival of future generations.”

Here’s a great little perspective on what we can do about it! pic.twitter.com/c4coggI247
— Greenpop (@Greenpop) November 10, 2018

While it may be impossible to free us of all waste, with effort and change, not necessarily perfection (decades of waste cannot be eliminated by a short term solution), small steps can lead to a better tomorrow.

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Apple, Apps, Cutting Edge, D.I.Y., iOS 15, macOS 12 Monterey, OS Software

iPadOS 15 Preview: Get Ready for AI and Machine Learning that will Blow You Away

Video July 4, 2021 Eric Cho

Boring? Are you kidding me? Time to look under the hood…

Somewhere in the land of media herding there was a familiar refrain. iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are “boring”. Apparently the idea behind this is that there is no single feature that changes the entire experience of the iPhone or iPad – no “killer app” or killer upgrade.

The “boring” crowd have focused on things like “you can banish your ex from memories in iOS 15”. I saw a slew of articles with a variation on that title.

The biggest problem with the attitude, which must have been initiated by someone that has not really been hands on with any of the new iOS software (which is still in non-public beta only) is that it’s not true. (A public beta is expected in July but it is not recommended unless you are a developer testing on “non-critical” devices).)

Why? Because there are so many killer upgrades that it’s overwhelming, basically due to the avalanche of amazing new features and improvements. This article will attempt to give an illustration of that by focusing on only one feature inside one built-in app: Memories inside of the Photos app.

First a short digression. We have been testing on several devices including a MacBook Pro 15” from 2017, an original 1st generation iPad Pro (2015) and an iPhone XS Max from 2018. None of these machines have the new Apple Silicon chips and for that reason they are only able to produce the upgraded features that don’t require it.

That makes the improvements that are possible without buying any new hardware even more amazing. Stunningly, of the three devices we upgraded the MacBook Pro was the most stable right out of the gate. Any beta software will have bugs, glitches and sometimes crash but that does not prevent one from testing out features that are new.

The iPad pro, in a non-technical observation almost appears as if the screen resolution has been increased, obviously not possible but, as you will read below, could be part of a stunning emphasis on increased beauty, sensuality and luxurious feel in the new suite of OSs.

Memory movies on iPad OS15 are an amazing example of how AI and machine learning are evolving

For those not familiar with “Memories” they are auto-generated film clips that can be found in the “For You” tab in your photos app on iPhone and iPad. While you are sleeping this feature scans everything in your photos library and uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and neural networks to choose and edit the clips, as the name says, for you.

One not confirmed but almost certain technical backdrop to this is that the learning is improving even between updates to the OS. Not only that but all Apple devices on earth are “cooperating” to help each other learn. That’s a powerful force that spreads across over 1.65 billion devices.

This feature was added in iOS 12 but started to function in iOS 14 on a much higher level. If you had tested and used the feature over the last few years as we have you’d have noticed that the ability of the AI to “see” and select photos and videos to include was limited and, at times, comical. Not any more.

Much of the data that clues the software in as to what photos belong together is from the embedded meta data. The date, time and location information helps to tell the AI that you took a group of images or videos on a day in a particular location.

The difference in iPad OS15 (iPhone too, of course) is that the more difficult to accomplish tasks, such as recognizing the subjective quality of one photo verses another (humans often take several photos of the same scene to try to capture the best out of a bunch). Or, more importantly, who and what are the subject of a photo.

All of this began to get interesting in iPad OS 14 and many groups of photos and videos were already being chosen, edited and enhanced by the software to a level that was fairly impressive.

AI and aesthetics collide and the result is a Joy to witness

Something that is starting to become a thread and a definitive direction that Apple is taking, particularly with the iPad Pro series, is, true to the name, a Pro level of visual production and manipulation throughout the OS.

Center Stage, for example and many other video and photo related upgrades were some of the big features in the newest generation of iPad Pro. Those are great, but require a new iPad along with the OS upgrade.

When it comes to the memory movie clips what we found is that even on the oldest iPad Pro from 2015 the evolution of the software due to the constant learning by the AI is already taking a huge step forward doing all the things that it was already doing only much better.

Apple’s upgrade took that and give it an additional kick up a notch with somewhat that the company is known for: good taste.

What has changed specifically?

In iPad and iPhone OS 14 there were a few things that felt awkward in the way movies were created. The biggest shortfall was in the softwares ability to deal with various aspect ratios.

These days when we shoot photos and videos with an iPhone it is tempting and, at times, wonderful to use the vertical orientation. Other times, for landscapes and other scenes we might prefer a traditional film aspect or even use the panorama feature to get an ultra-wide screen “cinema-scope” style.

Until now this was dealt with very poorly by the software. Mostly the photos would constantly zoom in (the so called “Ken Burns” effect) and if shown without zooming in a vertical portrait shot would have ugly side bars (like a vertical letterbox effect).

The zooming and most of the effects in general destroyed the resolution and therefore the quality of many photos by enlarging them and adding the effects.

Additionally the effects that were added, while cute and fun, were not much more than a way to add fun and not what would likely be used by a human editor. All of this and more made for a kind of novelty feel to the whole process that was nice to have, but many never even bothered to look at the movies that software created for them.

That’s about to be over.

A whole new array of options for the AI to use while trying to entertain

In iPad OS 15, as can be seen on the photos and videos in this article, the ways that the software solves the aspect ratio issue as described above is genius and, dare I say it, beautiful.

In a collaboration between the AI and the software itself it now has a new bag of tricks to use and, boy, does it work. One feature that is fantastic is the letterbox generator for any wide screen photos in any aspect ratio.

How this works is that it takes the iPad aspect ratio and then uses the photo in it original at 100% full resolution and then adds a letterbox. But this is not the usual plain black bars we are all familiar with – the software and AI are able to see and analyze the photo and create a custom gradient letterbox that can be any shade or color.

Photos in clip above courtesy of The 2021 International Portrait Photographer of the Year
Copyright © 2021. www.internationalportraitphotographer.com

The effect is often astoundingly tasteful and often makes the original photo look even better. We tested it on award winning photos (video above) and the result is, basically art. Also on our own “nice” photos, chosen 100% by the AI and software, look amazing also.

Actually, all the photos and videos in the clips generated from the library look much better than I had remembered. That turns out to be because the software and AI now do automated color grading on all the photos and videos in all the generated memories !

Color grading also known as color correction, especially for video, has traditionally required an expensive expert and high end software (and hardware) to enhance and color match various photos and clips, that have often been taken at different times and places, where lighting conditions vary and sometimes were shot with different camera.

AI and machine learning software on iPad OS15 (and iOS 15) now has a virtual colorist actively adjusting your shots and enhancing and color matching them while you sleep. That is basically insane. That’s probably why it appeared that the photos and even the iPad itself had been upgraded.

Ok, I could go on and on about that one feature, but let’s move to some more features. There are also new effects that are added that vary with each memory (there are a lot more clips being generated, including various versions of the same idea to choose from).

In the experiments so far the effects are clearly better and more subtle than in iOS 14. Again in many cases I found myself saying the word “beautiful” when I tried find an adjective to describe the results.

For shots that have a vertical bias there’s a vertical geometric split screen effect, often with a thin black border, and it has a kind of 60’s on steroids feel with the bars sliding in and out and resizing into place.

Another effect not seen in iOS 14 is a kind of circular rotation – great for landscapes – it’s not a common effect probably because it is computationally complex, but for the AI, it’s a snap. Sometimes this effect has a kind of blur-dissolve added which makes it fun and, again, still tasteful.

It appears that the effects are not only better and there’s a larger bag of them, but they appear to evolve and adapt to the content, that is to say that the speed and depth of each changes with the music combined with the photo and video content.

Oh, and the music. OMG. Each clip has 6 songs pre-selected and the entire clip adapts, in real time (!), when you change the song, showing you various styles and looks that match. Apparently Apple Music is also connected if you have a subscription.

As a mater of fact, it is hard to be certain, as we have not had more than a few hours to test this, but nearly everything appears to be “live” and constantly evolving in real time. In order to “freeze” a version of a memory you have to “favorite” it (with the typical heart symbol) and then “add to memories” in order to edit (change the names or choose more images – or remove anything if it is not to your liking).

There is so much more not yet mentioned here: this article could probably be a book

The AI is also getting creative with names and “concepts” for the clips. For example, if you had lunch (or took photos) over the years in the same city (for me it was Knoxville, TN) it might look at the coincidence that you tended to take photos around midday in that town and then create a memory clip called “Lunch in Knoxville over the Years”. Or for example the clip at the head of this article: “Golden Hour Over The Years”.

This is an early and primitive foretaste of the literary ambitions of AI. In the new Photos App in iOS 15 it is beginning to “think” about when, where and why humans take photos and videos and then conceiving a story that fits the behavior it is witnessing.

Other titles go beyond the basic “Amsterdam in 2016” and start to use the understanding and visual ability to “see” what is in the photo to create a clip like : “Playing in the Snow at Christmas”. Snow? Does it know it’s cold? Maybe just that it’s white and happens in the northern hemisphere in December. This is just the very beginning of something that will evolve, hourly, from now on. I can’t wait.

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D.I.Y., Health and Diet, Lifestyle

New Years Challenge: How to Find Your Triumph of Meaning

January 22, 2021 Madison Santel

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Adobe Stock

For a lot of us, the New Year kicks off by creating resolutions of things we hope to change

In the past, I have unconsciously set myself up for failure whenever forming resolutions. The unrealistic rhetoric of “New Year, New Me”, got me thinking that the way I was setting my resolutions, was almost automatically leading me down the same path, one that would be extremely short lived and make me feel bad that I couldn’t “change” and ultimately fail.

This year instead of trying to give myself over-reaching and vague goals like “lose weight”, or “try a diet plan” or “join a gym” ( which is a precarious decision right now anyways) I decided to do it differently.

Again, for me, in the many years I’ve pledged in the past, to aim for these types of resolutions, I’ve have almost always petered out. The focus and effort only lasted for a very short period, sometimes less than a month.

Setting up these absurdly, overly ambitious and wholly unrealistic goals, it’s no wonder that almost no kind of transformation or shift in my behavior ever actually happened.

With all the craziness of 2020, and the continuing rocky start in 2021, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of a resolution or straight-up decision to change, I decided to instead focus on creating healthy and positive intentions and goals.

How to narrow focus, yet open up to the idea of what success actually looks like

After the pandemic and all the stressors that came alongside it (physical, emotional, financial) putting another unnecessary stressor, such as desperately wanting to get down to my high school weight seemed wrong.

I consider myself a generally healthy person that “sometimes” works out, though with covid-19, the workouts have been more sporadic and inconsistent. This year, I wanted to make healthy goals, in the form of a realistic resolution, while also holding myself accountable in ways I could actually attain.

I wanted my resolution to encompass something physical while also trying to get better with my followthrough ( I’m very much a “phase” person).

I decided I wanted to have run 1,000 miles by the end 2021.

Having a specific number, like 1,000, I would be able to better breakdown and track myself and monitor my progress. I also by thinking number itself as a concrete thought, or writing it out to solidify the idea, can help to engender a stronger commitment.

Looking at that number, 1,000, I knew it was a high number, but when broken down, I knew it could easily be achieved. I just did some simple math. There are 365 days in a year if you divide that by my goal of 1000 miles that’s only a little bit less than 3 miles a day (2.73).

While 3 miles is not a lot for a “runner”, it certainly is do-able for me and would not take more than an hour a day. On days where I have full energy, I am able to run a mile in about 10 minutes, although sometimes I’m not in the mood to run and I walk which then takes double that. Still either method would count toward the distance goal and is definitely possible to achieve.

It’s both the challenge to improve and the satisfaction of meeting a goal of my very own that drives me forward

With this concept in mind, the design of my resolution, and how to reach it, gives a little more flexibility. If I don’t feel good for example or have a crazy busy day, and take a day off, there might be “make-up-days” where I’m going to run 6 miles. I think having more than 2 off days (meaning I would have to be responsible for 9 miles) would put me on check not to get too far behind.

I think it’s important to be gentle with yourself when putting forth energy into something new and positive for yourself. There are always and understandably going to be “fails” and bumps that get in the way. Yet if you are able to not get down on yourself, these fails can be opportunities to learn about yourself and even turn into internal motivators to keep going.

My hope in that I can achieve my goal. I’m optimistic because I’ve purposely made the resolution (intention, goal, etc) based on something that I already do (exercise). Instead of trying to achieve something that is not even in my wheel-house, like win first place in a triathlon.

Why? Because I think it’s important to find reasons to be proud of yourself. Last year was really rough, yet many of us have survived, so while this year is starting out rough for many, I feel that, for me, a resolution focusing on something under my personal control is a way to start 2021 to be better. In short it’s privately optimistic beginning that hopefully leads to a much better outcome as the new year unfolds.

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D.I.Y., Lifestyle

Dreaming of a better Year? Getting Organized could be the Solution

January 17, 2021 Madison Santel

2021-2022 Monthly Planner: Large Two Year Planner with Floral Cover

Click to see “
2021-2022 Floral Monthly Planner“. Also Available on Amazon.

This beautiful planner will help you schedule your appointments and daily activities, plan events, set goals, and get things done. It will also make a perfect gift for family and friends.

Features:

– January 2021 – December 2022
– 8.5″ x 11″
– Monthly spreads with holidays (2 pages per month)
– Yearly reference calendars
– Extra lined pages to record notes
– Pages to write down important dates
– Contacts page
– Laminated cover, matte finish
– Perfect binding to secure pages for the next two years and beyond
– Premium 50 lb. white paper

2021 Mindfulness Daily Journal

This one year daily journal is perfect for big planning. Plan for a month from now or a year from now in one convenient planner.

This beautiful boho-inspired journal will help you to accomplish your goals over the next year, once you spend time to think of them, plan for them, write them down and schedule them in your planner.

A compact and easy to carry planner that is convenient to use with matte textured cover and sheets.

The Mindfulness Daily Journal includes:

Private information page to write all your personal information.
2021 calendars with beautiful rainbow illustrations.
Journal prompts to allow you to reflect on how your feelings and gratitude.
Journal pages where you can write all your daily memories, diaries and adventures.
Size is 8″ x 10″, easy to carry around.

This Mindfulness Daily Journal makes the perfect gift Easy to carry – this journal is the perfect size for traveling.

2021-2023 (3 Year) Planner

Click to see “2021-2023 Planner“. Also available on Amazon.

This three year planner is perfect for big planning. Plan for a month from now, a year from now or three years from now in one convenient planner.

This planner will help you to accomplish your goals over the next three years, once you spend time to think of them, plan for them, write them down and schedule them in your planner.

A compact and easy to carry planner that is convenient to use with matte textured cover and sheets.

The 2021-2023 Planner includes:

– 36-month pocket calendar for the years 2021-2023.
– One month for every two page spread.
– Dated January 2021 – December 2023.
– 2021-2023 Yearly Overview, Contact Name, and Notes.
– Size is 8″ x 10″, easy to carry around.

This 3 Year Planner makes the perfect gift Easy to carry – this planner is the perfect size for traveling.

**2021 Carpe F*cking Diem Planner**

Click to see
“2021 Carpe F-ucking Diem“. Also available on Amazon.

Packed with profanity and lots of funny, swearing stickers for adults, this sarcastic and humorous carpe diem swear planner says it like it is while keeping you organized.

It’s time to cut the crap with a motivational, badass calendar so you can get sh*t done all year–maybe swearing will help! Also makes the perfect gifted organizer for women or men in your life!

Features:

Four pages of funny, swear word journal stickers for adults
6″ x 8″ planner with durable hardcover and double spiral binding
Elastic band closure
Environmentally responsible, FSC certified paper
Year at a glance
Monthly and weekly spreads with ample writing space and “sh*t to remember” lists
Notes pages
Goals pages
Holidays and observances

2021 Dot Matrix Weekly Planner

Take charge of each and every week with this unique agenda, featuring dot matrix patterns throughout for creative visual planning!

Perfect for home, office, and school scheduling; bullet journaling; time blocking; and weekly planning!
Cover 16-months (September 2020 — December 2021).
Weekly planner format with a mini monthly calendar for quick reference, plus space for notes for ”If There’s Time” and ”Don’t Forget.”
Includes major holidays, observances, and lunar phases.
Perforated tear-off page corners for each week help you keep your place.
Monthly planning pages.
At-a-glance Yearly Views.
Space to jot down a year’s worth of Monthly Happenings.
Space to note birthdays, anniversaries, and dates to remember.
12 pages in which to record information about your Contacts.
13 pages for Scribbles!
Sturdy double-spiral gold metal binding lies flat or folds back for writing on the go.
Durable hardcover boards.
Inside back cover pocket holds notes, business cards, other flat items.
Planner measures 8” wide x 10” high.

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Books, Celebrities, D.I.Y., Documentaries, Lifestyle, Movies

De-cluttering is love: Marie Kondo: Joy Is The Only Goal

January 16, 2021 Kat Lee

Finding Joy in the act of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo wants to help others find joy in the act of tidying up. The opportunity to reassess and bring more awareness to our personal belongings in a more mindful way is her unique approach to cleaning.

Best Known for her bestselling books, “ The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, “Spark Joy”, more recently Kondo is gaining fans for her Netflix show, “Tidying up with Marie Kondo”.

On a mission to inspire others and to “spark joy”, she’s aided by her expertise in tidying along with her organizational method called KonMarie.

Thoughts of tidying often conjure up an end result of little more than a somewhat cleaner and more tidy outward appearance. Marie Kondo’s special talent is to help illuminate many indirect personal benefits that can arise as a result of confronting your sub-conscious attachments to belongings.

Dreaded Chores or Opportunity for Joy?

Marie’s unconventional and heart-warming approach is refreshing and helpful in comparison to how most people view cleaning (example: as a dreaded chore).

Take the clothes in your hands and see what you feel. If they make you feel happy and motivated, keep them. On the contrary, if they make you feel guilty or bring you unhappy emotions, let them go. By letting go, you can make space for clothes that make you happy and support you.
— Marie Kondo (@MarieKondo) November 2, 2018

Her methods are systematic and start by organizing items based on categories (versus by location). There are five categories that are in a specific order: clothing, books, paper, komono (which encompasses kitchen, bathroom and garage), and lastly, sentimental/emotional items.

As can be seen in her Netflix Show, when first coming into any clients home, Kondo first greets the home, allowing the residents to give thanks to the home for shelter and protection, and as a formal way of communicating the beginning of the tidying process.

Under her system, each category requires you to accumulate all the items together (e.g. gathering clothing from all rooms and creating a large pile) in order to pick up and touch each individual item.

The very act of collecting all belongings within each category forces one to confront the possessions and, in some cases, take a hard look at any excessive materialism.

Only items that spark joy, creating a warm and positive feeling (“holding a puppy feeling”) should be kept and items no longer wanted or needed, are to be thanked and and then let go.

By choosing to keep only items that spark joy and letting go of unnecessary items a cathartic refocus can occur, leading to understanding of what is most important and, ultimately, learning to cherish what you have, in order to achieve greater happiness in life.

Earthquake Preparation for the ‘Big’ One – not if but when

September 5, 2020 Kat Lee

Living on an earthquake fault line has all Southern California residents thinking about the next big one…

Living in Southern California we all know that earthquakes can happen at anytime. As a matter of fact, small shocks happen all day, everyday. Every year California experiences around 10,000 tremors, most of them small. Perhaps around 100 per year are above 3.0 and fifteen to twenty are above 4.0.

It is also important to understand how the size and strength of quakes are measured. The richter scale, once used to measure the strength of earthquakes, has now mostly been superseded by the Moment Magnitude scale (M_w), which measures an earthquake of M_w  7.0 at 1000 times as much energy as one of 5.0 and about 32 times that of 6.0.

Now That We Have Your Attention: Some Earthquake Preparedness Advice

Many simple things can help to reduce any possible damage to your home or, more importantly, harm to yourself and your loved ones.

Just as you wouldn’t want a bookshelf to accidentally fall on your baby, in an earthquake, furniture and especially appliances can be dangerous to anyone in the house.

Prepare for an earthquake in advance by using “baby-straps” that can be purchased at any hardware outlet, and use them to secure shelves, televisions and appliances like microwaves. People can be injured or even killed by these heavy objects in a severe quake.

What to do immediately after a quake:

To panic or to rush is always dangerous. You can’t outrun an earthquake. If you are in public, such as at a movie theater, concert or sporting event, get down onto the floor and protect your head and upper body.

If in a large building, drop and cover, under a sturdy desk or table and hold on until the shaking stops. Stay away from windows and elevators.

When you are already outdoors, or if you can easily reach an open area, if it is safe to get there, stay away from anything that could cause harm – power-lines, billboards, buildings, even cars and trucks.

If near the ocean and the quake has a large enough magnitude to cause significant damage on land, a tsunami is a real possibility. Get to high ground, further inland, 2 miles or more. Driving is unlikely to be feasible, so hike to a spot more than 100 feet above sea level.

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D.I.Y., Lifestyle

7.1 Quake in Southern California was not “The Big One”: Here’s How to Prepare for when the Next One Hits

Video July 7, 2019 Kat Lee

At ELEVEN times the strength of the temblor on July 4th, just one day earlier, Friday’s earthquake has all of Southern California thinking about the next one…

Now That We Have Your Attention: Some Earthquake Preparedness Advice

Many simple things can help to reduce any possible damage to your home or, more importantly, harm to yourself and your loved ones.

Just as you wouldn’t want a bookshelf to accidentally fall on your baby, in an earthquake, furniture and especially appliances can be dangerous to anyone in the house.

What to do immediately after a quake:

If in a large building, drop and cover, under a sturdy desk or table and hold on until the shaking stops. Stay away from windows and elevators.

Find books on Big Tech, Sustainable Energy, Economics and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org

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Lynxotic may receive a small commission based on any purchases made by following links from this page.

Anatomy of a QR code

Are QR codes dangerous?

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 6th Edition

Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America

Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America

A Peterson Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico

Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America

Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, Second Edition

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**2021 Carpe F*cking Diem Planner**