I admit it I read "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. I did not pay attention to the fact I had been reading his blog for a few months.

One blog he wrote was about note taking. He calls himself a note-taking Geek. I agree with this statement "...but I trust the weakest pen more than the strongest memory..."

For years I carried a palm pilot with important note. Mostly things that would save me when I'm in a co-lo and I need information at my fingertips to get that internet connection up and running. After that I had my bookmarks to different website available to me.

I at least remember what book I saw something in. So I know what book to reread. But I rarely remember the details after I stop making active use of information. So rereading and relearning is a way of life.

I've always been a bad note taker. So I have tended to reread books when I need to recapture information or skills for a project.

I have had 2 instances recently where this has been a crazily painful experience. One is at my current job where I've been relearning C++. I've been going through about 1500 pages of materials. I know in summary form, this would all be 300-400 pages.

Another is that I have a friend that wants me to interview at his company. This means relearning Java and network protocols. This entails 500-600 pages of reading. Plus working on example code since I am not writing Java during the day.

OK, I normally would not consider jumping ship after a few months. But you don't pass up on an opportunity that would be a financial gain of 25% over my current salary, including 401k contributions and cost of medical benefits. Plus more vacation, sick leave and I get to work from home a day or two a week. Plus, the work would be very interesting. Money is important, but project has to first interest me. Well paid and being bored or frustrated is not a combination I am willing to accept.

If I had been someone who was a note-taking geek, I might not be spending months coming back up to speed. I would just be reviewing my notes. Even on subjects like Java and C++ either would take a month or less.

On smaller projects, this would speed things up even more.

On jobs, these notes are in the form of written code. I write code and I have my documented built in examples on how to use different libraries. So the longer I am working somewhere, the less time I take to write fresh code. I just keep building my examples in my working code.

At home, I'll keep magazines or articles. But most of these never made it into the palm pilot. Many get trashed because I never find the time to use the information.

Tom says he has 8 feet of shelves for notebooks. I would love him to write up his overall indexing system. He believes in doing things one thing at a time. Does that mean he only need one notebook at a time? Does he carry a notebook for each project? How many notebooks does he carry when he works remotely.

Since Tim talks about being able to work from anywhere, how does the 8 feet of notebooks work? Pack what you think you need and use fedex for the odd forgotten one?

This writeup by Tim follows up on an article I read on Lifehacker about the 5 million pages of notes Thomas Edison kept.

I've been thinking about this. At this time my idea is tiddly wiki. It is a wiki written in javascript. With items like th Asus EEE or other smaller laptops, that 8 foot of notebooks can be kept with you at all times. Since the wiki is standalone, an internet connection is not needed.

If needed, the wiki documents could be kept on a thumb drive. For under $100, 8GB holds a lot of text. Using TrueCrypt, those notes can even be kept secure. Since each section in the wiki has its own name, the top level index is already there. Since each wiki is a html file, subjects are easily separated. Since the documents can refer to each other, some twiddler pages can be index documents. This seems like a reasonable possibility.

This does not eliminate the need for note books. Images are an issue. Images found online can be easily captured and stored with the wiki. Hand created notes are the issue. Both the wiki and the notebook need to reference each other until the image can be digitized and embedded into the wiki.

There are 4 options for images:
1. scan it. If you are on the go with your "4 hour work week", then you have to carry an expensive ($150+) hand held scanner. Or wait till you get home.
2. Just carry the diagrams in a notebook and have the reference from and to the wiki.
3. Redraw or carry a small tablet such as the wacom Bamboo.
4. Invest is a digital pen. Logitech IO2 or LeapFrog Fly. The problem with these is the special paper you must use.

I am still thinking about it. My pile of things I have read and need to remember is growing. At this point the items are 3 books on C++, a series of articles from Java world, my last 3 issues of Linux world and a book on Perspective Drawing.

In college I carried one note pad. I would take my notes. Then when I got home, I refiled my notes into a binders for each class. This kept by backpack lighter. I drove 30 miles to school. So there was no opportunity to run back to the dorm for a notebook or text book. No wonder I have a bad neck and back.

Shall it be wiki to the rescue? We will see.

Ok, I saw it. 2 girls 1 cup. And I thought scat was a form of jazz singing that Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé so well known for. :-)

Obviously, knowing what it is making watching the reaction videos much more fun to watch. I guess this video is the "Crying Game" of the viral video world.

The crazy thing is why this video? This sort of "crap" has been around the internet for years.
Hell it was even in the movie "Team America:world police".

One part of the blood work was great. My A1C is 5.7%. That is in the normal range.

But my genetics have screwed me. I've lost 30 lbs and been going to the gym 5 days a week for the last 2 months. My cholesterol is up 20 points, 225. My HDL, which is supposed to go up from exercise has gone down to 30 from 32. My triglycerides are down to 225 down from 548. My LDL is down to less than 150.

So good news and bad. I am not looking forward to taking a statin. Nasty drug. There are somethings guys want to be big. The liver is not on that list.

Additional Notes:
Since I only need about a 10% reduction in my cholesterol, I am trying niacin. The flush can be intense. Feels like a sunburn for about 30 minutes. Better than a liver that doubles in size.

Bunch of random food thoughts.

OK, I just got hooked on butternut squash. Tastes like a yam and i can actually eat some of this.
I just cut it in half and roast it on the BBQ face down for 30-40 minutes. Shave off the burnt crust off. Treat it like yams after that. I add nutmeg, salt, pepper, butter and Parmesan cheese.

I cooked a soup/stew partially from scratch yesterday. I received a package of split pea soup along with a couple of food books as a gift from a friend who heard about my diabetes. I have a bad london broil that was tough. So adding some fatty beef stew mean and a couple of marrow bones from a cow, I cooked a stew. I added onion, bell pepper, garlic, parsley, tomato paste and balsamic vinagar and some various spices to the mixture. Turned out well. The split peas would up acting as a thickener to turn the soup into a stew. But it tastes good. For the next batch, I'll but the london broil into much larger pieces. It dissolved into the stew. I'll also skip the peas so the soup does not thicken into a stew. But it was very good.


For Thanksgiving I made a turkey on the BBQ. Ed showed me should to cut up a turkey and I then put different spices on the different parts. The breast got bicentenial rub, One leg, wing and thigh got jerk spice. the other leg, thigh and wing got trinidad spice. cooked the parts in batches for 5-6 hours in indirect heat. I also had hickory wood smoking on the BBQ all day as well. It turned out really well. I bought spices from Penzeys Spices.

For TK I also made stringbean casserole. But instead of using all the canned ingredients, I followed Altons Browns recipe. The only thing I was disappointed in was the onion rings. Too soggy. I think his looked great because he has a convection oven on the set of the show. He called it Best Ever Green Bean Casserole.