Archives for October 2017

Goodbye Blogtober! Hello Blogvember!

by crisanzai · Oct 31, 2017

Happy Halloween! Today marks the final day of my Blogtober challenge. This was originally spurred by my CEO’s involvement in a monthly blogging challenge. He stated that it made him a better CEO and I thought I’d take a shot at it too with no real expectations.

Key Takeaways So Far

As I’m writing these blogs, I’ve noticed they work as a sounding board for myself (if that makes any sense), for bigger ideas. For example, if I wanted to start up a Photography blog – which I’m actually going to pursue separately (more on that later). Simply put, writing these blogs have been inspirational for other ideas.

This blog challenge also has me reading more. I’ve been reading a variety of other blogs and articles to try to help inspire and fuel my blog’s content. Right now all the topics are scattershot, and I feel like I need to move toward a niche and focus.

What’s Happening in November

In November I’m going to start keeping track of the time spent writing these blogs. I usually write late at night starting anywhere from 9 or 10 at night, after I’ve settled down from work and any other activities (Church, gym, family time, etc…). I want to start tracking time spent on this blog, just out of curiosity, and see what my output actually is. Thank you Jason Scott Montoya for the idea!

In November the plan is to write more intentionally. What I mean by that is to have more focused posts and planning out posts. I’m going to be writing less (I actually did the challenge incorrectly by writing every single day, instead of every single weekday) to give me time to plan out topics to write and have some sort of strategy. I think the first part of November I’ll be thinking about where I want CrisAnzai.com’s identity to live. It may end up just being a personal blog or a “catch all” where I post everything and anything and I may have separate blogs where I want to explore other topics.

As I continue writing, November, I hope, will be a refinement month, Hopefully my writing is actually improving… Anyways November will be as much of a challenge as October, I can already feel it. More details to come in tomorrow’s post!

Thanks a bunch for reading!

The Coming Techno-Economical Revolution

by crisanzai · Oct 30, 2017

A revolution is coming, not an industrial, political, or social revolution, but rather a techno-economical revolution. (Hey it’s my blog, I’m allowed to make up words). What does this all mean, you might ask, well don’t worry I’ll try to explain in more detail. Simply put the techno-economical revolution represents the execution of artificial intelligence into everyday economics. Some call it Automation – machines replacing jobs once performed by humans, but automation is just one small aspect of this revolution. The revolution also includes Machine Learning, “Artificial Intelligence”, and Deep Learning. All things that I’m way too dumb to explain, but you can quickly google. Anyways, bottom line is machines, if not already, will replace your job. And the scary part is that it’s not that far off from the future. Take a look at this chart I borrowed from Wikipedia, it shows the progression of Moore’s law from 1971-2011. The amount of microprocessor transistors is INSANE, and this does not include advances in quantum computing (which is an entirely different rabbit trail).

(By Wgsimon – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15193542Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License)

The Rise of the Machines!

Well I’m not too worried about a dystopian terminator-esque future, where we’re all slaves of the machine… although the threat is very real. Hey if Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking are worried about it…that’s nothing to sneeze at. I’m more concerned about the near future, let’s say the next 20 – 30 years. I’ll be an old fart by then, but my daughter will (hopefully) be finishing up college or starting a career. I predict AI in some form or fashion will be implemented in our everyday daily lives – I’m talking about driver-less cars, predictive intelligent software that integrate with super smart homes, and physical AI customer service (think robots that can serve you – most recent example of this is the bartender in film “Passengers”. See clip below:

This is going to have a REAL impact on everyone’s lives, and while we’re all concerned (primarily the media) about what or who a certain president is colluding with, AI is going to steadily progress and get faster, better, and cheaper.

What Do We Do!? We Can’t Stop the Revolution!

The simple answer is this, if you can’t stop them, join them! Insert your brain into the AI hivemind and all will be well, shhh just relax and enjoy the halcyon rhythms of connection between man and machine. or NOT. Well we certainly we can’t stop the revolution, science will do what it does to advance. So what now? Well, as automa.tion and machine assistance / AI become more commonplace, there will arise a need for more human connection. There will also be new jobs created, jobs that we can’t even think of yet, as they are yet to be invented. My wife’ grandmother, who sadly recently passed, grew up in the late 1930s, and 1940s, she couldn’t even predict color television coming into her life, much less something called the internet. Humans are terrible at predicting the future… if they were great at it, people would all be prosperous and the world wouldn’t have any problems.

In any case there’s no use worrying about what will be, only that there will be change. Much like farmers in the 1900s whose jobs were eventually replaced by machines and more efficient methods of agriculture, many of our existing jobs too will be replaced. Some of my terrible predictions include – Accountants, Data Analysts, Attorneys, Medical Professions, Cashiers, and Traffic Cops (one could only hope – no offense traffic cops). The problem not comes from these jobs or other jobs being phased out, more recently auto-workers, but rather holding onto the past and hoping that these jobs would be returned (and not doing anything about it). Vocational training and education would be the best path to overcoming these job shortfalls.

What do you think? Am I completely off base? Still interested? If you are take a look at this Ted Talk –https://www.ted.com/talks/david_autor_why_are_there_still_so_many_jobs

Thanks everyone and have a great evening!

A Key Money Saving Principle

by crisanzai · Oct 30, 2017

This principle is not about actually saving money in the sense of putting 10% of your paycheck into your savings account (which I think you should at least do regardless), or saving up for a Dave Ramsey style $1000.00 emergency fund, but rather about the other side of the coin of saving – spending. I’ll boil it down to one phrase -If you can’t afford to lose it, you can’t afford it.

I see people employ the opposite of this principle all the time. They buy luxury vehicles, over financed homes, and just expensive crap. The problem is these types of “keeping up with the Joneses” people can’t afford to lose the “things” they purchase. They get trapped in a cycle of debt and a thirst to spend. I don’t ever want to be caught in this situation so I employee my own rule of “If you can’t afford to lose it, you can’t afford it.”

Said another way, aside from big ticket items like a car or a house, if you can’t immediately replace the thing you just purchase – phone, tv, jewelry, couch, whatever.. then you shouldn’t buy it, because you can’t “afford” to lose it. I always use this check when considering buying what I call a “luxury item” – something that’s not a basic need such as basic food, water, shelter, and clothing.

How many things have you purchased that you couldn’t afford to lose? Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones that can afford to lose anything… maybe one day I’ll be there, but life’s not about just owning stuff.. you can’t take it with you when you’re dead…

Thanks,

One Major Flaw In Prepping

by crisanzai · Oct 28, 2017

The recent wildfires in California has really got me thinking about one of the major flaws in prepping. I’m by no means an expert at prepping, but I am a student and lifelong learner of preparedness. One of the major flaws in prepping is not having a bug out plan and hoarding all of your preps in one location. I’ve seen enough on the show Doomsday Preppers to see how the major flaws of “bugging in”. If you don’t know, bugging in is the notion that you would stay put or “ride out the storm” of any major disaster or incident. A lot of preppers use this mentality of bugging inand store years and years of preps at their home. There’s a HUGE flaw with this kind of thinking. The problem is (unless you have some sort of awesome bunker akin to an abandoned minute man missile silo) a natural disaster will complete void out your bugging in plans.

(Image shows fires and smoke in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, and Montana, courtesy of NASA, taken Sept 5th)

How do you prepare for a fire? If you’ve looked at the news recently at the fires in California and the Pacific Northwest, there are neighborhoods literally wiped off the map – just ashes and husks of immolated cars. If you’d like a more intimate view, see the video below:

In truth, there’s not defense for this kind of raw destruction from nature. Your only option is to flee, that’s it, if you stay you die. It’s a cold hard truth that I don’t know if many preppers really think about. What’s the point of hoarding 5 – 10 years worth of food, if it can just be destroyed in a matter of seconds? The disaster doesn’t have to be a fire, it could be a flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or even a major thunderstorm. In any of those instances the best thing to do is “bug out” and escape the situation.

I think instead of focusing on just preps at home and investing in long term food storage (which i don’t have a problem with if it’s within reason – maybe 2 – 5 years worth of food and supply preps), but also investing in an alternate bugout location. Having a plan and discussing with your family where to meet up if something unexpected happens and discussing where to bugout with your family should be one of your most essential preps. Also having a place to access hard assets such as cash, gold, and barter items may be helpful while bugging out. You never know when ATMs will stop working or all of a sudden places stop taking credit cards. Case in point the War in Donbass that happened in recent history, where Russia invaded the Donbass region of Ukraine. During that time, citizens could not access ATMs, Banks, and cash ran everything. See this article for more information. This is the kind of thing that they don’t really cover on the news.

Anyways hopefully this is food for thought! Bugging In isn’t always the best option.

Thank you for reading,

Worry’s For Another Day

by crisanzai · Oct 27, 2017

I used to have a huge problem with anxiety, it affected my home life, work life, and social life. It was definitely a big deal. I’d worry about everything, from what others thought to my financial situation, to being successful. It was quite ridiculous now that I think about it. There’s even a term called “Anziety” that I’ve been called – a play of words with my last name a fond anxiety. I usually play it up for funs now, but a few years back it was a big problem – so much so I was on anxiety medication for a time. This was a hard time, I had recently been laid off from my job, my first child was on its way, I was dealing with some medical issues, and it was at a time where I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Needless to say it was very trying on my mental state. I made it through this season and reflecting back on it, I think it was definitely a major period of growth for me both spiritually and mentally.

I think I was even being “attacked” spiritually, I don’t know if it was the result of the stress or some weird side effect of the medication, but I experienced what is coined as “sleep paralysis” – the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life. A hooded figure stood before my bed and I was unable to speak or move (apparently this is a global phenomenon and if you want to go down some rabbit trails just google “shadow person”, “sleep paralysis”, or “night hag”. Anyways I let my pastor know about the experiences and he recommended I start reading more of the Bible, praying, and sleeping with a Bible in my bedroom. I started reading the Bible and Praying and eventually I stopped having the night terrors.

Anyways one day I was feeling a bit down, and I for whatever reason came across the Opening Theme of Fraggle Rock. A childhood TV show that I loved. I was seriously into Muppets when I was a little kid. Well one of the lyrics is “Dance your cares away, worry’s for another day!” You can view and listen to the theme below:

For whatever reason those lyrics resonated with me and I kept thinking, where have you heard something like that before. It really ate at me the entire day, until I opened up my Bible to Matthew 6. I was reading along and verse 25 struck me. This was what I was experiencing and I needed to read these verses.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. – Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV)

After reading these verses I felt a sense of peace, a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time. I kept up with these verses anytime I sensed anxiety and eventually (recently) stopped taking my anxiety medication, as God was curing me Spiritually as well as Mentally. Since then I haven’t experienced a night terror and my life is not ruled by worry. I do have worries come up every so often, but I try to remind myself, what’s the point and it isn’t a HUGE struggle anymore. There’s nothing that worrying can accomplish, aside from more worrying. Nobody ever in the history of mankind solved a problem with worrying.

If you truly believe in the all power, all knowing, ever present God and you seek out or have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, His Son, you should not have to worry at all. Always seek Him first and ALL the things that you need will be added to you.

Thanks for reading my odd, yet personal story,

Ready Player One (a sort of book review)

by crisanzai · Oct 26, 2017

I don’t think I’ve ever connected with a work of fiction on such a personal level as I have with Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One

Before we begin, a little background about me to get a sense of perspective. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and have played video games and PC games at really young age. I enjoyed early PC games and still do! I use dosbox, a dos emulator, to play classic computer games from the early 90s such as Dune 2 (1992), Syndicate (1993), Wolfenstein 3D (1993), and Warlords (1990). This was a time when you had to type in commands in dos to get a game to run. I’d play these games and other games on my classic Nintendo such as the Legend of Zelda, Dr. Mario, Gradius, and Excitebike for hours and hours. I used to save up allowance and birthday money from relatives to buy these games at a local video rental store who sold and bought used games (pre gamestop and even blockbuster I think), mostly for $10 – $20 which was a lot of money for a kid who didn’t have much money! Anyways when I got older I got into the newer games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein and eventually a game that almost ruined my life – World of Warcraft (but that’s a story for another time).

So when I started readying Ready Player One, a flood of nostalgia just came back to me. I wish this book was written when I was growing up. I could relate to the main character Wade Owen Watts on a deeply personal level.

A Brief Synopsis (which is basically a synopsis of a synopsis) If You Will

Wade’s an outcast in a bleak dystopian future where everyone is connected by a VR game. The creator of this game died some years back, but in his last will and testimony set out a contest that would change the game dynamics for ever. The contest revolves around Easter Eggs (things hidden within the game intentionally placed there by the game creator), and 3 Keys and 3 Gates. Whoever gets the 3 Keys and unlocks the 3 gates will win the massive fortune the game developer – James Halliday – left behind (which includes controlling ownership of the game itself, which in this story practically runs the world economy). There’s an evil corporation that’s after this prize as well as Wade and his friends. Hi-jinks, hilarity, and drama ensue and you get to join Wade as he quests to find the hidden keys and gates. This book happens to be a tribute to the 80s and is packed with so many 80s references that if you blink you might miss one.

I got this book from a Loot Crate (which regrettably I’m no longer subscribed to), Loot Crate is one of those subscription based services that send you Nerdy chachkis, swag and shirts for a monthly fee. I proceed to buy the audio book when it came out (it’s narrated by Wil Wheaton – who happens to be a character in the book – very meta). The audio book is just as good as Wil actually gets (truly understands) the nostalgia and the tone of the book.

Anyways I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars… oh and if it’s any indication it’s that good – Spielberg- yeah THE Steven Spielberg – (E.T., Jaws, Jurrasic World, Indiana Jones, etc…) he’s directing the movie set to come out in March 30th of 2018. Needless to say, I’m excited to see it. The trailer is below!

Thanks for stopping by!

3 Lessons I’ve Learned From My 3 Year Old Daughter

by crisanzai · Oct 26, 2017

Quick post tonight, stayed up too late editing photos and also recovering from a cold. Fueled by sleep deprivation and vitamin C I give you some lessons that I’ve learned from my 3 year old daughter.

I’m a father of a 3 year old, rambunctious daughter, that for some reason… doesn’t stop from the time she wakes up until we nearly have to force her to sleep. Being a father is fantastic… when they said kids will change your life… well that’s a bit of an understatement. She’s taught me quite a lot these last 3 years she’s been on earth and it’s actually helped me be a better person.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Whenever my daughter stumbles or falls down she enthusiastically shouts “I’m OK!” I don’t know if we accidentally trained her to say this (I guess we asked “are you OK” maybe one too many times), but she says it just about every time she has a wipe-out. Even when we know she’s audibly in pain she just shouts “I’m OK!” sometimes in a pitiful puppy dog way. It’s quite a cute sight! I use this same philosophy to apply to bumps and bruises in my life. For example, just today we “lost” one of our four pet ducks. We think it was either nabbed by a bear or got spooked and flew out of it’s pen. Instead of sulking all day being super depressed, I reminded myself to say “I’m OK” and it put a smile on my face.

Naps are Needed

I think every parent in some form or fashion knows when their child needs a nap. You may see that your child has been acting super emotional and cranky, or even frustrated. My daughter certainly has her cues, and when she hits starts to begin her tantrum, we try to put her down immediately – put her down for nap. (I always found that phrasing “I’m going to put the baby down” funny – in my weird mind I picture someone hunting an elephant sized baby… yeah I’m weird). Sometimes when I get frustrated, I need to settle down and take a nap as well, or at least take myself out of that situation and negative state of mind. Even in adulthood we are prone to tantrums if we aren’t well rested or irritated, physically and emotionally removing yourself from the negative situation will make things better!

A Little Encouragement Goes A Long Way

I try to encourage my daughter to try new things and keep persevering. One day she was playing with some legos and was so frustrated that the legos kept falling. She was trying to build a tower. My wife and I saw this and encouraged my daughter – saying “keep trying, you can do it!” She got really excited and after a couple of stumbles, she eventually built a large tower she was really proud of. It brought us joy seeing her succeed and brought her joy for completing the frustrating task.

Learning from my interaction with my daughter I try to seek some encouragement from others by finding friends that encourage. I get encouragement from my wife as well and those at my church. Encouragement helps me persevere in hard times and motivates me to get better! I always remember that a little encouragement can bring both joy to the encouraged and the encourager, but only if it’s genuine.

Thanks a bunch for reading!