How ta “live in the moment”

The past couple of months for me passed by really, really, really, really slow. In fact, I had one weekend where it felt like three years had gone by. I really don’t like time being *that* slow. But, well, it happened like that for me, and I can’t help but show you how to DIY.

1. Turn off the television.
2. Turn off your computer.
3. Don’t use, and/or don’t have, the following devices: mp3 player, iPod, iPhone, telephone, cellphone, Wii, Nintendo, PlayStation, Gamecube, Xbox360, PSP, Nintendo DS, etc.
4. Isolate yourself from technology.
5. Don’t have any hobbies. OR, if you do have some hobbies, don’t engage yourself with them.
6. You should be completely in the moment right now.
7. Focus on your breathing.
8. When you do your next task, focus completely on what you’re doing. Think of nothing else. Look at what you are manipulating, on the most basic level.  This makes time slow down even further.
9. You should get bored easily doing whatever you’re doing, because you’re focusing on it at that level.
10. Congratulations, you’ve just used the concept of time dilation in your favor!

If you’re *really* tempted to live life at the speed of grass growing, be my guest. Really. I’ve given you the keys to my slowmobile.

Programming mystery solved! It’s all math, folks ^.^

Well, one thing’s for sure. The programming mystery I’ve had for about seven years has been solved tonight. I’ve always aspired to be a programmer, and yet I couldn’t figure out why C++ (the language I tried to learn) was so limited in its arguments. The bulk of its commands seemed to be centered around mathematics, something which I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. How were programs created from this nonsense? How can you make something real out of pure math? Well, pcguide.com explains this phenomenon quite clearly.

A processor only understands a few limited instructions, which are usually quite primitive: for example, a processor can multiply two numbers, or make a decision based on the result of comparing a number against another one. All programs you use on your PC are built from these mathematical “building blocks”, even though their complex appearance makes this difficult to believe.

Heh, had I known that from the start, I probably would have programmed something by now. Instead, I’ve been scratching my head thinking this must be some sort of mistake, that maybe I’ve got the wrong version of C++, and “what’s wrong with my computer?” Hehe.. at least I have this misconception clarified now.