/reader

The weight goal was easily quantifiable; I still have the same exact scale I was using 10 years ago and so it was only a matter of jumping on it every morning and track the progress. As for losing weight, I didn’t really have much of a plan other than not eating like an idiot and moving more. And I guess it worked. I’m now hovering around 82kg, going up or down depending how much I decide to eat—or not to eat—any given day. Last time I was this light I was probably in my late teens. And I think this is the perfect weight for my lifestyle, so I’m planning to stay at this level for the foreseeable future.

As for being in better shape, that’s a bit trickier to evaluate. My legs are definitely not as strong as they were back when I was in my mid-20s, but I was also playing A LOT of basketball back then, while now I play exactly zero. I do walk and hike a lot more though, and I overall feel much better.

So, success! Both goals achieved. Now what? Now it’s time to start another challenge, and this time it will span 12 months. And that’s because even though I do feel better, I’m nowhere near satisfied with myself and my body. There is so much room for improvement, and I realised that I need to have stupid challenges to keep myself motivated. So this is what’s on the menu for the next 12 months.

First, I need better cardio. I have never trained it in my life, and my cardio sucks. The realistic goal I currently have set for myself is to run a 5k in under 25 minutes and with a < 150 HR. There’s also a trail I hiked recently that I’ll go hike again next year, and the goal there is to do the first part in less than an hour. It took me almost two last time.

Next, I need to build at least some upper body muscle mass. I hate training upper body, especially because none of the activities I enjoy doing involves upper body strength, but it’s nice to have a balanced body and so I need to take care of that. This is a goal that’s harder to track, but I do have a reference body I’m aiming for, and I am taking progress photos at the beginning of the month, so at the end of the 12 months we can compare and see if I managed to get there.

Lastly, I want to improve overall flexibility. I am doing some stretching regularly, but I’ve always had a goal in mind, going back years, and that was to manage to get in full lotus position. So we’re aiming for that in the next 12 months.

This is gonna be fun. I don’t plan to constantly write about this because there’s not much to say on a regular basis, but if there’s anything you’re interested in, feel free to email me and ask.

Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

Connect via email :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month

For example, 14 years ago I built a personal side project called Nilai, a to-do app for bookmarks. My vision for that app, at the time, was to build something that would be around well into the future. So I decided to charge for it in the hopes that it would make just enough to justify keeping it online.

But that didn’t pan out. Not only did Nilai fail to get enough users, but I soon started a company, hired a team, and we had other priorities that meant I had very little time to maintain the project. So I shut it down.

A few years later, my team decided to dust off the idea of what Nilai was trying to accomplish (a to-do app for bookmarks) and we built Unmark and open sourced it from the beginning. I knew then that if we were going to build this idea a second time, we should make sure people could continue to use it even if we were to abandon it. Unmark quickly became, at the time, one of the most popular PHP repositories on GitHub.

And although it was never commercially a smash hit, it is still running today! I personally host Unmark.it, which is a hosted version of the open source Unmark app that has an additional feature or two.

Well, today I’m announcing that Unmark.it is no longer accepting new sign ups, it will be shut down by the end of the year, and that its repository will be put into stasis. Of course, if anyone needs longer than that to get their data, send me a note. All users will get an email soon about this.

Unmark’s underlying stack is very outdated and while I’ve managed to limp it along for several years I don’t think it has a future in its current form.

This is where Rinku comes in.

Rinku is an open source, cross platform, to-do app that is wholly inspired by the features and design of Unmark. Except it has no database, no “stack”, no install process. All of which were big hurdles for most people. You just run it on macOS, or Windows, or the Linux distribution of your choice.

I’ve learned from building Signboard that this method of distributing my software ideas is the best way to go. Just offer it free and open source. This way, I’m not left with anything to maintain or pay for. And I get the added benefit of people contributing their ideas and fixes as well.

I’ll have more to announce about Signboard soon.

This era of agents makes it much more reasonable to maintain the software. And because it is an app you install and all of the data is stored locally and synced however you’d like, it means (I hope), that these projects will be around an awful long time.

Rinku is just getting started but I’ve been using it every day for months. It has most of the features Unmark did, and has a few I always wish existed (like contexts for work and personal, etc.). And I look forward to continuing to make it better with the help of the community.

My recaps are pretty simple. I’ll provide a spoiler-free synopsis, talk about how well the episode actually uses Halloween or spooky themes, and then grade it based on two things: the strength of the Halloween atmosphere and whether I’d want to watch it again.

This time around, we’re taking a look at Dharma & Greg.

Season Two, Episode Six – “A Closet Full of Hell”

Original Air Date: October 28, 1998

Synopsis

Dharma and Greg discover a secret room in their new apartment filled with dolls. Things get a little more unsettling when two new dolls suddenly appear that look exactly like them.

Halloween Thoughts

This episode aired right around Halloween, but it isn’t actually a Halloween episode.

That being said, it does lean heavily into spooky imagery, and an attic full of creepy dolls is certainly doing some of the work for us.

There’s nothing genuinely frightening here. This is still a light Chuck Lorre sitcom, after all, but Dharma completely losing her mind over the possibility that the dolls might somehow be alive makes the episode a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really put me in the Halloween spirit. There are no fall references, no real Halloween decorations, and none of that cozy seasonal atmosphere I’m usually looking for when I put together one of these watchlists.

Still, as a spooky sitcom episode, it’s worth a watch.

Halloween Theme: C
Re-Watchability: B

Season Three, Episode Six – “The Very Grateful Dead”

Original Air Date: October 26, 1999

Synopsis

Dharma believes she may have been possessed by the spirit of a deceased neighbor who never fully lived the life she wanted.

Halloween Thoughts

While I'd argue that none of the Dharma & Greg episodes that aired around Halloween ever fully embraced the holiday itself, at least this there are costumes in this one, but only a brief portion of the episode actually connects them to Halloween. What the writers do embrace is the supernatural.

The episode plays around with the question of whether something genuinely strange is happening to Dharma, and that gives the story a fun little spooky edge. I always appreciate when a sitcom is willing to leave the door cracked open just enough for the supernatural to possibly be real.

Unfortunately, this episode didn’t do much for me overall.

It’s not bad, and there are some entertaining moments, but when I’m putting together a Halloween watchlist, there are plenty of other episodes I’d reach for first.

Halloween Theme: C
Re-Watchability: C

Season Five, Episode Seven – “Used Karma”

Original Air Date: October 30, 2001

Synopsis

Dharma begins worrying about karma after buying a used car, especially when Greg’s personality starts resembling that of the car’s deceased former owner.

Halloween Thoughts

This is easily my favorite of the three episodes.

Once again, it barely qualifies as a Halloween episode. There’s one small scene featuring costumes and some decorations in the background, but the holiday itself is largely irrelevant to the story, but what saves it is the supernatural premise.

The episode is genuinely funny, and it does a good job of making you wonder whether Greg is actually being influenced by the car’s previous owner or whether everyone is just reading too much into his behavior.

It’s one of the stronger episodes from the show’s fifth season, and I absolutely recommend watching it.

I just wouldn’t recommend it specifically because you’re looking for Halloween atmosphere.

Halloween Theme: C
Re-Watchability: A

Final Ranking

1. “Used Karma”
2. “A Closet Full of Hell”
3. “The Very Grateful Dead”

Dharma & Greg is an interesting case when it comes to Halloween television because the show repeatedly aired supernatural-themed episodes around the holiday without ever really committing to Halloween itself.

You won’t find elaborate haunted houses, neighborhoods filled with trick-or-treaters, or the wall-to-wall decorations you get from shows like Roseanne or Home Improvement. Instead, Dharma & Greg seems more interested in ghosts, karma, creepy dolls, and the possibility that something supernatural might actually be happening.

That makes these episodes enjoyable October viewing, but not necessarily essential Halloween viewing.

If you only watch one, make it “Used Karma.”

Worth repeating: Expect an avalanche of new software because the dam has broken, one person who knows what they want, and understands UI design can make a big complex app in 2-3 months. Over a weekend you can snap together an app from common UI concepts. Think of making software the same way you play with LEGOs. #