Being around children most of my waking hours and enjoying it, I watch how they interact with the world. The words I would use to describe this would be whimsy and wonder. This got me to thinking about how the word “childish” is often used as adults to describe something that is immature, poorly thought out, or ill advised. The use of language here is very important as I believe it speaks to intent. The intent here I believe is almost one of jealousy in that most “adults” have had these feelings washed out of them over time after being beaten down by life. The artists we love as a people or a culture all have denied this and still hold pieces of their inner child. This isn’t to say that you should remain willfully ignorant to things or inexperienced. It is also taken too far with infantilzation in adults. Like most things, it is a spectrum and balance is required.

The perspective of children is uninhibited, endless and beautiful. Childlike should be used as a compliment, not an insult.

No Gapps, no problem?

Previously, the thought had come into my head to run Android without Google apps but due to a variety of factors I opted not to. Fast forward ~8 years and now it is very viable to run Android without Gapps. Google apps are the pieces of Android that Google places in the operating system in order to get the Play store to function as well as most of the core behind the scenes stuff that goes on.

Why?

Privacy and Security

Also, my Son completely destroyed the screen on my Oneplus 10 pro and I need something to replace it.

How?

After installing many custom roms, I am familiar with the tools and tasks in order to get off running. GrapheneOS takes all of that out of the equation and makes it the easiest and most seamless experience I have ever had. The install takes place over a web browser and takes around 10 minutes.

Results?

Honestly, I think that this experiment has been a great success over the past 3 months. I have found myself not using my phone as much in the normal time wasting ways I have previously.

Cons?

Well, I would be lying if I said that the experience didn’t have a couple of things that were bumps in the road. The device itself feels slower and doing things often takes more time. I am unsure if this is a baseband issue with my carrier or not but prior to updating to Graphene the phone’s cellular network felt much faster. Installing apps takes longer through Aurora or F-Droid. The maps alternatives aren’t as good as google maps. Losing the ability to use my banking applications on my phone (pro and a con). No access to Android Auto

Resolution.

The cell phone is a tool and eventually the needle can get moved to where the tool is using you. Not having Gapps has been a great exercise in critical thinking, work arounds and optimization. That being said, I have reinstalled stock PixelOS after I saw a friend of mine screen a call through the google automated screening tool. Mobile computing on pocket screens where you don’t own the hardware is only as private as you believe it to me without getting something like a Pinephone. Even then, you are using cellular service which connects to a tower that you don’t own.

Future-

It looks like Android Auto got patched into GrapheneOS via some additional functionality. This might make me revisit it and reflash my phone once I take an accurate inventory of all apps installed but I will circle back on that likely in Q2 2024

Recently I had a door to door salesman come to my house and when he was making small talk he said something to the effect of “wow you’re my age but you have 3 kids how is that?”. The question was interesting for me because my reality was as foreign to him, as his reality was to mine.

One of the themes that I’ve revisited through the history of my posts here is that of rebirth at the point of actually giving birth. Ideas are brought to reality  that previously only lived in your head. This is what i see pregnancy as from a man’s perspective at least. Simultaneous synchronicity between the death of the person you were prior to this as well as being given a gift two fold, a new life to cherish and a new life to live. The idea of death here being that you are no longer the person with the responsibilities that you had prior to this miraculous event, you have new ones.

The “ego” in this case is one of the things that if not completely removed, at least needs to be put on the back burner for a long while. I think that a balance is necessary here such that you still have an idea of self when your children no longer require your constant watch / supervision. The nuance here is not to be lost, as it is very important to remain grounded but steadfast. You must create a foundation for family in the person you choose to make the family with, after you have created offspring more vigilant than prior to this event. Without parents holding unity in mission, you have no foundation of a family unit. Many people think fiscal here which is important but not as much as being able to adapt and change. A relationship with a partner is a lot like a plant and just pouring water on it – forgetting about the root system, the nutrient needs or the requirement of sunshine dooms the plant to fail. Relationships are living breathing things when they are with living breathing people. You can’t just pour fiscal tap water on them and expect everything to go swimmingly.

Ideally the best tool going into parenting isn’t something that you read in a book but instead the idea of anti-fragility, thriving in change and dynamic environments instead of being paralyzed.

Sitting is the new Smoking is the new Standing is the new..

I have had a couple of standing desks; they were the ones that came out around 8 years ago that used pneumatic cylinders and required you to grab onto two handles in order to modify the desk height. This desk height was not the actual desk height but instead where your monitors, mouse and keyboard were living that was then sitting on your actual desk. This design was awful to use, had limited space and was not very stable. Enter The future!

These electric dual motor desks have been popping up all over the place over the recent months / years and I figured why not give one a go. The market is very saturated with options, so I priced one out that was too expensive before I was reeled into a ~$500 USD price cap. I picked out this one from Amazon and a mat to go with it. I assembled it shortly after it arrived, and I have been using it since.

Amazon says the arrival date was 09/02/22 and I am poised to believe them.

Results thus far:

• Increased productivity (subjective)
• Decreased tightness in my hips

Procrastination is harder when you are standing

This is something that I hadn’t thought of, but if you force yourself to stand until you complete a task. You are less likely to procrastinate if you are looking forward to sitting.

V2.0 – The Short lived and Rarely Used Bike Desk,

I had seen this indoor trainer that really piqued my interest. It is a Wahoo Kickr Bike that can measure your power, go up when you are climbing virtual hills and pitch the nose forward when you are going down them. These features alone put this machine at more of a price range for people who are actual athletes and might be a post for a different day. Nevertheless, I saw that they were announcing a new version soon and this allowed the current version to go on sale for a significant percentage off. I leaped at the chance and was so excited when this bike arrived on a half pallet at my door. I put it together and the next stage of the standing desk was ready, BIKE DESK. Basically, the way that it would work is I would wheel the bike over to the desk after it was raised, and sit down and pedal away. Once completed, I would move the bike back out of the way so I could stand comfortably or sit comfortably without banging my arms on it. I was riding a cycling game called Zwift while answering e-mails or attending e-mails scratches two itches at once – the urge to exercise and the urge to play video games. The total amount of times that I used this while working was comically low, but this was more of a machine with a larger picture in mind which would be a dedicated indoor training environment that will come later in the chronology. I did have a laugh and even tried to ride the bike while playing the game “Fortnite” a couple of times with abysmal results. It turns out that multi-tasking in some cases, is just doing multiple tasks below the threshold of what many would call “acceptable”. I did get to ride the bike in an hour and a half long meeting once and that felt like I was somehow hacking time itself. Nevertheless, it was quite the sight – seeing a “professional grade” cycling trainer in front of a 4-display monitor setup. I will try and find a picture to attach.

V1.1 – Current – 1 year later

After relocating to the new office environment, I took the standing desk and I use it on occasion to shoot into the air and tackle tasks. The best possible way that this would work (for me) would be if it rose at scheduled intervals that were not subject to change (user intervention) and remained that way until it was time to sit again. Overall? I would say that it is a good buy and it completes the task that I had in mind when I bought it, with ease.

Potential Considerations

• If you use headphones a lot, I suggest relocating your 3.5mm jack to a place on your desktop or mounted under it with plenty of slack to allow the desk to raise without having to compromise your posture to lean to one side
• On that note, make sure all of your cables are capable of growing by an additional ~20 inches without adding additional stress to the ports that they are plugged into.
• Standing mat: If you are new to standing a lot or are coming back to it after sitting a lot, I would say that a standing desk mat is perfect to keep you engaged with minimal pain / strain.
• Monitor Mounts: ensure that your monitors are at a comfortable distance and view angle so that you do not have to move your neck out of the neutral position.