Smile! 30 Seconds to a Positive Outlook

One of the most important aspects of having a powerful, productive day is first generating that positive attitude that will carry you through your tasks and experiences.


How can you do that in 30 seconds? It's a basic psychological trick.

Action --> Emotion

If you're groggy, apathetic, or downright negative first thing in the morning, you can turn that right around. Because actions can change your emotional state. Why do you think that actors and actresses who act as lovers so often end up as lovers in real life?

Action --> Emotion

So here's your trick: Stand in front of the mirror and smile. Hard. And by hard I mean contort your face into the most exaggerated smile you can contrive. And hold it for 30 seconds. You may begin laughing. That's fine. Don't fight it.

And when you're done, your outlook on the day should be much brighter.

Why does it work?

Your brain has a very strong link already built in concerning smiling and the neurochemistry associated with it. Like Pavlov's dog salivating to the bell, the simple activation of the smiling muscles elicits the activation of some of those chemicals that - under normal circumstances - trigger the smile. The psychological component is an internal justification for smiling; your brain says: I smile when I'm happy, so if I'm smiling, I must be happy. And the final piece is the mirror. You recognize yourself in the mirror, smiling, and reinforce the psychological component of the justification loop.

Action --> Emotion

If it didn't work well enough, do it longer. If you need a refresher, do it often. But be warned: it works negatively for frowning. And if you're dead set on being melancholic, it probably won't do much good.

So smile in the mirror every morning, smile at people all day, and keep that positive attitude and drive. You'd be amazed how it can change your outlook.

Palm Pre and Me: Networking Fail

Because in the land of milk and honey all is not milk and honey. That is: with the Palm Pre.

Don't get me wrong; I'm still blown away by what it can and does do. For instance, I get a hell of a lot more done in clearing emails on the run, blogging (coming soon from me through the phone), and once you get the hang of the zoom gestures, fully-rendering web pages are a breath of fresh air.

But this morning I woke up and tried to check my AccuWeather app as the rumblin' was a-comin' from the west and the phone stalled out. When I jumped on my email to do some early brush-clearing, it told me "The network is not available. Please enable networking in order to continue. Activate Wi-Fi?" Wait - what? Shouldn't the Sprint Network be rocking out?

Later I made phone calls without issue, but the "network" would still not respond to my desire to check my facebook or Gmail. I just figured it was down for a time and went through the rest of my morning.

Once I got settled into my work after some AMA and some networking with a good friend, I tried again. No dice. "Well," I thought, "The internet is not working on my phone. Perhaps I should just click the 'Help' function on the interface."


Apparently a search of help for the internets is an Auto-FAIL because the base Help product ...requires an internet connection.

(apologies for the fuzzy image - despite my Pre early adoption, my digital camera is still an older 2.1 megapixel Sony Cybershot. That is officially 0.9 megapixels LESS than the phone I took a picture of

UPDATE NOTE: Thanks to @FlipTheOrg for the following tip: "Take screenshots of your Pre by pressing orange+sym+p at the same time, then check photo album." Hawt.)

So still perplexed, I went through the [enter any cell phone provider name here] hoops. I called the store I bought it at. They didn't have tech repair people. I called the people at the tech-repair-capable store. They didn't have the tools to troubleshoot over the phone. So I called the national tech assistance line.

While I was on hold to speak with the HelpDesk CSR, the message announced something and I just about smacked my own forehead - on purpose - into the corner of my desk: "If you have not yet turned off your device and turned it back on...." Damn.

Condensed: I did that and my internets worked fine.

I'm not sure if it's my tenacity and practice of sometimes searching thousands of lines of code for a misplaced period, comma, or curvy bracket, but every once in a while I hit myself in the head because when I run into a computer or phone problem I can't get right away, my brain (or caffeine) turns on the "Solve!" center before the Procedural System is booted to say "Hey, um, did you reboot?"

I'm very good at what I do, but sometimes it's nice - and humbling - to be reminded that you are human. I certainly am.

UK Not "Too Much" Big Brother

From the AP:

The British government said Monday it wants communications companies to keep records of every phone call, e-mail and Web site visit made in the country. But it has decided not to set up a national database of the information, a proposal that had been condemned as a "Big Brother"-style invasion of privacy by civil liberties groups.
...
Under current rules, British Internet service providers are already required to store records of Web and e-mail traffic for a year. The new proposals would also require them to retain details of communications that originated in other countries but passed across British networks - for example if someone in Britain accessed a U.S.-based e-mail account.

Quick recap: under current law, communications companies are required to keep info on web and email traffic in Britain for a year. New law says all phone is to be added as well as any communication even passing through Britain. And they think a centralized database would be overbearing? This is ALREADY Big Brother. They're placating some of the masses by requiring a phone call or email from the police as opposed to just having it there for them? And that's not to mention how ripe it is for stealing, losing, or abuse.

Does this sit well with you? How do you feel about information privacy and technology? I'd love to hear what you think.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Tech?

Aside from the obvious terror of the internet (or someone's basement RAID array) becoming conscious and, therefore, potentially Skynet or a sad accident between a IEEE 1394 interface and a corpse populating the world with zombies (and, by proximity, the internet, creating ZombieSkynet), what reason is there to be afeared of technology?

For some, it's called Wii. Wii Fit, that is.


Yeah, that's the Japanese version, just for kicks

Granted, the Wii instills fear in many people for many reasons. Hardcore gamers tremble at the thought of friends and families gathering in the living room to laugh and exercise with an intriguing but admittedly imprecise user interface.

While there are arguments for Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 3, the Wii Fit is an argument against why computers should gain the ability of sentience (like this lovely comic).

Wii Fit made me fat. It's true. I never thought too much of the mild bulge around my mid-section, but when I stepped on the Wii Fit, I found I was barely Overweight and flinching to Obese. And I'm a reasonably-fit, albeit heavier-than-i'd-like person.

And then I tossed it off, said I was too good for Wii Fit. But there it was, under the coffee table, begging me to do the age thing again, begging me to be weighed. And after a month or so, I did it again. And, by a twitch, I hit Obese.

DAMN YOU, WII! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

No. Stop. It's not the Wii's fault. It's me. I knew. I've known for a while. But I ignored it. And I ignored it. And then I couldn't. Who wants to be fatty-boom-ba-latty? Who wants a computer to tell you you're Obese?

Not me.

C'mon Wii Fit. Bring it. I'll take breaks for Wii Sports boxing. But only that. Then back to the balance board. Stretch. Bounce. Games. Yoga.

Even if you're sporting a T-800 memory chip under there, it only serves to make me better to fight the robot (or zombie) Armageddon.

Bastard!

Violent Video Games: I Can See for Miles and Miles...

From Techdirt:

Nearly six years ago, we wrote about a study showing that playing video games can help improve your vision, and now there's another study showing that such video games can help improve vision -- specifically contrast sensitivity, which is noted to be "important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility." But, of course, rather than paying attention to all that, we get stories about how all violent video games must be banned.

It's a delicate balance and a controversy that will always be around, especially as games for next-gen consoles (and those coming after that) are only going to get more and more realistic. Unfortunately, the studies and research and thoughts are all reliant on tests trying to quantify subjectivity. Vision is measurable and objective, but violent tendencies and video games rely on hundreds of different personality and history variables that really can't be converted to reliable numbers. And even the worst studies hit on correlation - not causality - which is the rule more than the exception in psychological studies.

What are your thoughts? Are video games too violent? Is there good in them if they have benefits? Do you think brain exercise titles that have appeared recently for the Nintendo DS and Wii can replace the violent nature of war games and still deliver the benefits?