Derek Scruggs

This year one of my resolutions is to go see more movies. I find that even in the age of Netflix and Hulu, I never watch TV at home except for the occasional sporting event. Something about mentally committing to two hours to watch a movie in front of my TV makes me feel guilty, like maybe I could be doing something more productive.

Going out to a movie, on the other hand, is much more rewarding. It makes me feel like I’m engaging with the world instead of just staring at a computer screen, and the experience of being in a dark room and a big screen heightens the overall experience.

(I created the Boulder Movie Meetup Group to help me stick to my resolution. So far over 100 people have signed up. Join us!)

Last week we saw Melancholia. I’ve wanted to see this since it came out. It got good reviews, and I enjoyed this interview with star Kirsten Dunst on Fresh Air.

In a nutshell, the movie is about a depressed woman and her sister confronting the possibility that the world may end from a collision with another planet. I’d heard good things about the movie and really wanted to like it. I did like Kirsten Dunst playing the depressed sister. As someone who’s struggled with depression myself, I thought she was believable without being overly dramatic.

But… overall the movie Was. Very. Slow. I get it: depression is kind of like Zen. You live in the moment, it’s just that every moment sucks. However, I couldn’t help wondering when we were going to get to the good part. The good part eventually did come, but not until the last 30 seconds of the movie. Oh well.

Every year at this time I like to spend some time reviewing what I did over the past year. Not just accomplishments, but just things like concerts I saw, movies, vacations etc. Last year as I was making the list I really struggled to remember. I went through my calendar and email to give me hints, but it kind of freaked me out how little I could remember.

That got me to thinking about how quickly time seems to fly by. As they saying goes, “the days are long but the years are short.” I thought that maybe it seems to go by so quickly because I, I forget what happened. I don’t retain the memories (at least not without prodding) so everything becomes a blur.

As it happens, there was an article in the New Yorker about this (alas, I can’t find the link). But it focused more on novelty of experience. The researcher who was the subject of that article posits that when we are children, time goes slowly because every day is a new adventure. But as we get older we tend to do the same things over and over (same job, same commute, same co-workers etc), and so nothing stands out.

Anyway, here’s my point. In 2011 I started recording novel events in a Google Doc, which I linked from my toolbar. I didn’t do a diary per se, more a listing of things I did out of the ordinary: a date, dinner with a friend, a party I attended, a movie I watched etc. I kept each entry very short, the idea being that it should be just enough to trigger the memory. I also added especially notable current events such as the Arab Spring and the earthquake in Japan.

I got two things out of it.

1. My year end review was much more rewarding. It was a blast to relive the highs and lows (yes, I record those too)
2. As I worked on it during the year I would occasionally look back over the document. I was amazed at how often I would forget something that happened just one month before. Or conversely, how much time had passed since an event that seemed like had only happened yesterday.

In short, this little journal slows down time and increases the resolution of my life. I plan to do this for the rest of my life.

I strongly recommend everyone try this.

A couple other things I started:

A journal of happy memories. That is, when I remembered something from my childhood or adult life that I hadn’t thought about for a long time, I would write it down.

A journal of “imprints” that other people have left on me. For example, a girl I dated for a while back in the early nineties was a huge Garrison Keillor fan. After dating her for a couple months I became one too. And every now and then when listening to his show I think about how, if not for her, I may not have discovered him for many years, perhaps never. Since his show makes me laugh at least a couple times every week, I’ve probably experienced thousands of laughs because of something she introduced me to almost twenty years ago.

So even though that particular relationship didn’t last for the long term, I consider it a success. In fact, I consider practically all of my intimate relationships a success for similar reasons.

I was not as diligent about these journals as the first one, but I hope to do a better job in 2012.

Great guest post by Noah Kagan of AppSumo fame (not to mention Mint and Facebook and…) on the always-insightful Smart Bear blog:

Then it hits me around 2pm, I feel like shit. I can barely push myself to work, I have zero interest in doing anything AppSumo related, my teammates are chatting in our group chat and I want to be doing anything but this.

One cliche you hear about startups is that it’s like a roller coaster.

Bullshit. With a roller coaster, even the downs are fun. In fact, downs are the best part!.

Downs are no fun in a startup. Occasionally are the fount of creative thinking or even lucky breaks (“just when we thought there was nothing we could do and would have to shut down the business, my phone rang…”). But for the most part these are just stories we tell ourselves after the fact to give our suffering a narrative arc.

98% of the time, downs just plain suck and nothing good comes out of them. The only way you get out of them is distracting yourself for a while until you go from incredibly depressed to merely depressed.

In the last few years I’ve noticed more and more posts like Noah’s, and I’m glad to see them. Here are a few others that have resonated with me:

1. When you want to quit because it’s just not worth it
2. Stop lying on stage
3. Why do we do this

I just had a flashback to junior high. A time when…

”Teens still had to call the home to reach the person they were interested in,” Bailey says. ”But then came cellphones and the Internet.”

Egad! Calling the girl was scary enough, but what if her dad answered the phone?

Or is Firefox 1.5 buggy as hell? I’ve had it crash so many times on me, and it chews up memory. I didn’t realize this is what they meant when they said they wanted to replace IE.

This year I resolved to go to more conferences and it turns out South by Southwest Interactive and O’Reilly ETech are both happening at around the same time. I asked some friends who have attended both and the consensus seems to be that, while you can learn a lot at ETech, you’ll be eating dinner alone every night. Conversely, SxSW is as much about meeting new people and learning from them as it is learning from the gurus at the podium. I’ve had a lot of great experiences at the more community driven conferences in the past, so I’m really excited about this one.

Look me up if you’ll be there. I’m staying with a friend in Austin, not that the hotels, but otherwise I plan to be there for the entire four days.

…before checking out Chewbacca’s blog. I warned you.

Sorry to interrupt you, but just in case you know someone who might be interested, and assuming you didn’t already see it on Craigslist, my wife and I are selling our 1997 Lexus LS 400. Details are below, but the short description is, it’s everything you imagine when you think of the word “Lexus.”

Price: $14,280

Smooth running four-door Sedan. 93,000 miles. Excellent condition, drives like a dream, body and interior in mint condition. We don’t want to give it up, but we’re leaving the country, so now it’s someone else’s turn to enjoy it.

We also have an extended warranty on the vehicle that lasts until 100,000 miles or August, 2007, whichever comes first.

Elegant white pearl color with gray accents and tan interior. Fully loaded, including:

• 4 speed automatic transmission
• Air Conditioning with automated climate control
• Top grain leather seats and door siding
• Dual Memory Power Seats
• Tinted windows for UVA and UVB protection
• Power Sun/Moon roof
• Power Steering
• Power Windows
• Power Door Locks
• Power Tilt Steering Wheel
• Power Antenna
• Heated outside remote control mirrors
• Cruise Control
• Premium sound system AM/FM, 6 CD changer and cassette player
• Driver side Air Bag (SRS)
• Font passenger air bag
• Anti-lock Brake System (ABS)
• Alloy Wheels
• Halogen headlight with integrated foglamps
• Lexus emergency tool kit and First Aid kit

Reviews

Don’t take my word for it, here some other reviews of the 97 Lexus LS400:

• http://www.carsurvey.org/viewcomments_review_52518.html
• http://www.automotive.com/1997/12/lexus/ls400/reviews/index.html
• http://www.epinions.com/auto_Make-1997_Lexus_LS_400/display_~reviews

Pictures

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day when I took these pictures. Also, I did this with a cheapo camera. They don’t do it justice.

I could use one of these when reading in bed, which I do every night before going to sleep.

Need redemption? Ask Jeebus and forgiveness is yours.