You are what you eat...

...but also what you breathe.

Did you know that plants are largely built off the carbon they pull out of the carbon dioxide in the air? People also get a large part of their intake from the air around them, which is fortunate since there's so much of it.

Similarly, your mind isn't based just on what you intentionally consume ("eat")—it's largely influenced by the environment around it (what you "breathe"). If you find that your mind isn't growing like it should, evaluate what you're putting in it, but also think about where it lives. Forget polluted places, whether they're polluted with noise, clutter, or even attitude. Get more encouraging friends, a positive workplace, or a quiet place, and give your mind what it needs to flourish.

Different Tools for Different Problems

When I have a task to accomplish around the house, I reach for my trusty toolbox. In it are tools for all sorts of things. In fact, an important part of any home improvement job is figuring out which tools to use. A wrench and a hammer each have their uses, but they are not interchangeable.

In my college computer projects, a similar problem existed: choosing a computer language to suit the task at hand proved to be a difficult but important prerequisite to completing the work. C++ and Haskell are different tools that require and even enforce differing solutions.

In changing the way your life is going, there are different tools, too: setting goals, introspecting, analyzing patterns, and social support structures are just a few of them. Again, all useful, but hardly interchangeable.

It's usually worthwhile to give some consideration as to which tools best fit a job. Note that you don't always go with the best tool—you might instead choose a tool you already have, or even better, one in which you're already proficient.

Just be mindful that your choice of tool will change how you solve the problem, and how well.

Long Read, Short Read

Okay, I've finally finished my recent read of Godel, Escher, Bach. To break from the wordy, dense style of that work, I took on a less ambitious project, and a more pleasant one: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by Ian Fleming. Instead of a month, this book took me just a day (a refreshing fact).

If you're in the market for a fun read, you might try it. But don't expect it to be too much like the Disney movie...

The Digital Difference

Some time ago, I bought an Nikon's D40 (now out of production, but still available refurbished). It has enough features to allow me all the expressive power of which I am currently capable. That is, I don't know for sure why I would want a "better" (more expensive) one.

A few months after my purchase, I was discussing a couple of photographs with another amateur photographer. In the midst of the discussion, he asked me nonchalantly, "So, how many megapixels does your camera have?"

I couldn't tell him.

It's not that I don't have a head for numbers. And it's not that I didn't do any research. No, the matter of megapixel count simply was not something that entered into the question of which camera to buy. Mostly because, even at large 8 1/2"x11" prints (like the kind I have hanging on my wall right now), it is nigh impossible to make out any graininess, even with pictures taken on my old Canon PowerShot (rocking a hefty 2.0 megapixels).

Another reason that megapixel counts are misleading is that the higher numbers don't (usually) mean bigger sensors. For example, "doubling" the megapixel count will actually do nothing more than shrink the size of each pixel, all other things being equal. And shrinking those pixels lessens their sensitivity to light, and therefore increases noise.

So if you're looking for a camera with expressive power, there are more important things than megapixels. Two of the biggies are ease of use and lens selection (if you're getting an SLR).

Funnily enough, megapixel counts seem to be a big part of how camera manufacturers differentiate between their models. Maybe that's because it's a number, and an easy one to increase between revisions. One thing's for sure: in the digital world, what's marketed isn't necessarily what's important.

Maybe that's true in other areas as well.

Saving with No Regrets

Retirement saving is a big theme that I hear among older people. Mostly, they seem to lament not having saved more in their earlier years of wage-earning. Presumably, that darn past self of theirs should have given up the fun toys and frivolities of youth so that their present self could reap the benefits!

Since I'm under thirty years old, the typical retirement age of sixty-five is the second most distant life event I can think of, next to being dead (hopefully). With longer left until retirement than all the time I have experienced thus far in my life, how am I supposed to plan for it?

Despite my doubts as to how much is "enough" to save, we have settled on a strategy for now: we try to be frugal in our buying decisions, and any extra money we have goes to savings. We spend enough to have everything we need, with some comforts to boot. And we even put some of our budget toward "frivolous" things that are important to us, like travel. But we have agreed that those extras will improve our quality of life here and now, as well as in the future when we have those memories on which to reflect.

And that's something I won't regret in forty years.

Big Book Blues

April was a long month, but in terms of book's I read, I have precious little to show for it. I haven't been spending much less time reading; the problem (if I may call it so) is that I am tackling a much larger book than usual: Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach. Weighing in at 742 pages, my edition is a hefty one. I've been doing my best to cart it around with me, but lugging it on the bus is a challenge, and it's been rainy enough lately that I haven't dared take it outside much.

Oddly, this book has inclined me toward buying a Kindle (or similar gadget). I know that for most every book I've read up to now, I haven't entertained thoughts of instead having a slim electronic gadget. And it seems silly to drop several hundred dollars just so that I won't have to hold this one heavy book. Nevertheless, the idea has now entered my mind.

Maybe Amazon's target audience was people who read dictionary-sized books for fun.

Catching Up after Falling Behind

With the beginning of "the lusty month of May", my new habit is to stick to a daily exercise routine. This is not a new goal—I had the exact same goal last year, when I was initially trying to get into doing some regular exercise. Why the repeat?

In March, some personal health issues prevented me from sticking with my routine, and I didn't recover at all during the month of April. May is here, and it is time to get on board again, but my habit is broken. (I tried getting started yesterday to verify this—it was tough!)

So with May starting up, I have a decision to make on which monthly goal I would like to pursue. While I would love to tackle something bigger and better this month, I realize that I have taken a few steps back, and I should work back up to where I left off.

When you get out of a habit, don't be afraid to take some time to get back into it—it sets a foundation for further progress..