Dholdrums

So a few weeks ago, after hearing some good things about it from friends, I started using Uber.

I also started using Lyft, because according to reports, drivers like it better (perhaps this has to do with the fact that they can get tips through the app). The first couple of Uber rides I took, the drivers were also Lyft drivers, and when I asked them, they said they all preferred Lyft.

I want to like Lyft. I really do. But there are some things that are annoying about it:

• Authentication: You can't login with normal username/password credentials like everyone else in the whole world. In order to login, you enter your phone number into Lyft's website, and they send you a code via SMS.

  I'm not sure how they handle things if you need to login through some other phone/device. What happens if you change phone numbers?

• Profile pic: Even more annoying, there is no way to add your profile picture through the app. So right now, I have no profile pic in Lyft.

  Lyft seems to think that everyone uses Facebook, so they want you to use the app that way. Facebook, presumably, is how one would set a profile picture.

  UPDATE (2015-06-15): Three days after I wrote this post, Lyft updated their iPhone app to fix this problem. You can now set your profile picture through it.

• Fare Estimation You cannot get a fare estimate through the Lyft app

  What you have to do instead is open up a browser, go to the Lyft webpage for your city, and punch in two addresses, and get an estimate that way. Completely annoying and very hard to do if you're not exactly sure where you are.

Neither Uber's nor Lyft's app is perfect, both definitely has rough edges, especially the UI around setting a pickup location, but you get over these quickly enough.

But Uber's is light years ahead of Lyft's.

I attended a conference a while back, and sat in on one of the main presentations.

It was a great talk, had great content, and the speaker was well known, having written a widely used piece of software.

Overall, I really enjoyed the talk and learned a good amount.

But he did one thing that I found extremely distasteful.

On the bottom of all his slides was a banner ad for his company, it took up a quarter of the screen.

Tacky.

Over the weekend I decided to watch some movies and went over into my long dormant Netflix streaming account. Some time earlier I had added some documentaries on veganism, but had never gotten around to watching them.

I ended up watching the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". Without giving too much away, I want to say that this is one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen. I immediately watched it again after watching it the first time. And today, I went ahead and showed it to a friend.

It's basically about an overweight Australian guy who decides to start eating (or drinking in this case) healthy, and the lengths he goes to achieve that. The real star of the show is someone he accidentally befriends in Winslow, Arizona during a cross country trip through the US. Do watch it, it is amazing.

I ordered a juicer. It is coming Wednesday. Do yourself a favor and watch this film. It will change your life.

A couple of postscripts:

• the film has a website: www.fatsickandnearlydead.com and it can be seen for free on Hulu (albeit with commercials)
• the juice fast portrayed in the film is apparently called "Rebooting" and there is a reboot website as well
• I haven't bought into Juicing as the end-all, cure-all, I think a much better place to start is the book Eat To Live, authored by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (who is featured prominently in this film), but it's certainly a start

I discovered a productivity tip this week that I just had to share.

So recently I had some vacation time, and I was mostly using it to stay home and fix up my place and take care of some errands. A college friend of mine invited me down to her place in the Washington DC metro area, so I went down on Christmas day and crashed with her for a week.

Now I should mention that apart from two days when my friend was working, she had a really packed schedule for us. Movies, dinner parties, theater, restaurants, salsa dancing, etc. Not that I minded, I think we had a great time.

But towards the end of the week, I noticed and pointed out to her something very interesting: I got a LOT of stuff done when I was staying with her. And I mean a lot. I upgraded one of my servers, I finished a graphics design project for a charity I work with. I wrote some code. I read. And so on.

In fact, I was so much more productive during my vacation, that I got more work done than when I was actually at work.

And I was really puzzled by this.

Even my friend was surprised, and we had a long discussions about why this was so. My first theory was that Virginia and the DC Metro area in general was so much more stress-free and relaxing than NYC, that I was in a mode to be productive. Her theory was that I was not at home and didn't have the usual worries I would have had I been there, so that relaxed mode put me in a state of super-productivity.

I wasn't sure what the reason was, but in any case, I was very pleased that I got so much stuff done on my break.

Then, two nights ago, I drove home. I came into my house and sat down. And it hit my like a TON of bricks.

My television was making me stupid and unproductive.

You see, as soon as I came in, I grabbed a soda from the fridge, plopped my arse on the couch, and started watching shows I had recorded on my DVR. This is something I usually do when I come home from work.

My friend in Virginia didn't have DVR. She didn't even have cable. I had 500+ channels coming in on Verizon FIOS, I think she had 3 or 4 terrestrial channels. I had a large screen tv, she had a dinky little 12 inch. When I was at her place, there wouldn't have been anything to watch, or watch it in any style, so I didn't watch any television.

I realized that so much of my life at home revolved around me spending HOURS sitting in front of the television. When I was at my friend's place, I didn't have that luxury (if I could use that word), so I did the next best thing, I did work.

How many times over the last year(s) had I just wasted in front of my television for no good reason? How much of my life have I sacrificed at this altar?

Now pardon me while I go to kill my tv.