Recipe for the best smoothie (originally from Earthbar).  Serves 2 16 oz cups; half the amounts for 1 serving.
- 1 frozen Sambazon Acai bar (pure and unsweetened)
- 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries.
- 2 bananas (preferably still green -> more fiber, less sugar).
- 2 teaspoons of unfiltered flax oil (lignans for anti-cancer).
- 2 tablespoons...[More]

Personal tennis notes for myself.  I am ambidextrous and play tennis with both hands (or two rackets), so I've had to come to my own conclusions on a lot of things.  I also trained initially under a coach who basically had me hit every shot with an extreme western(?) grip for top spin, even on serves both hands (which results in inside-out slice serve, I think - not sure what it's called), so most advice I get has often not been helpful (especially things like suggesting *not* to use such an extreme grip).  My grip is actually rotated to the point it is actually a continental grip, except I hit with the outside face instead which is the complete opposite and forces you to over-rotate to meet the ball and creates the kick in top-spin.  The hand motion without a racket looks like I am hitting the ball with the back of my hand instead of the palm.  I went through some phases in my life post-college where I was repeatedly told I was holding the racket wrong...[More]

For those curious what it's like seeing with retinal occlusion... (aka RVO, RAO, CRVO, etc)

The first time your eye goes out, everything is white.  This happened for my left eye in the spring of 2012.



Sometimes...[More]

Just my thoughts and notes on where to go in each city, what's worth seeing and doing, what I enjoy in each city anyway.  Not so much a guide as much as a set of bookmarks for myself.  For a more anecdotal sense of what the three major coastal US cities are like, check out NYC vs SF vs LA.

United States

Chicago
- Best Area...[More]

The gist of how I basically play poker:
1. Play like a moron who always bets.
2. Play like a moron who always folds.
3. Only bet when you have something.
4. Bet whenever you think they think you think you might have something.
5. Never bet.  Only call or raise when someone bets into you and you have something.
6. Restart at a random step.

Below is a list of trends, technologies, and other developments that perk my interest and I'm keeping tabs on.  I'm mainly interested in things that are truly novel or cutting edge, not the next big app nonsense.

2019
- Cryptocurrencies down from highs about 90%.  Not too many better opportunities to invest in this year.  Afterward invest in companies directly integrating blockchain in real use cases - ie Facebook, Moneygram.
- Plant-based meats (Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods) - was eating soy nuggets for a year at Whole Foods without realizing it wasn't chicken.

2017
-...[More]

A short summary of the skills I've accumulated throughout my life, almost all of which are self-taught (school only confused me and made up names for things I was already doing <_< ).  Much thanks for the support from online gaming communities I was active with in 2003-2007 back when the internet was much smaller.  I have been programming and making games since I was 12, creating short films and composing music since I was 14, and trading stocks since I was 18.  My latest projects and activities can be found at my creations page.

Technology and Multimedia
• Programming: HTML/CSS, PHP, (My)SQL, Java(Script), AS3, C++/#, Hadoop, Ruby, Python
• Video/Photo: After Effects, Premiere, Encore, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator.
   - Post,...[More]

My lists here will be quite sparse compared to other people's.  I generally put a lot more weight into what I consider a "favorite" before adding, so there are works and inspirational figures I probably like but aren't here simply because they didn't leave a strong enough impact.

My interests are pretty wide ranging and hard to bucket, probably from the diversity of works I was exposed to having spent most of my childhood online, in books, and in movies/games.  I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on as early as 3rd grade, though it's toned down a bit now. I probably read too much in elementary, going through as much as a hundred novels a year and ending up with 5.0 diopters of nearsightedness by 7th grade (though I've trained myself to never need glasses outside of reading, even in skiing or tennis).  For music, I started off more in games, world/ethnic, and (Goa)(Psy)Trance/Techno/DnB before starting to listen to film and...[More]