Big Data

Big data is a buzz topic. I normally don't find buzz topics very interesting, but this one has intrigued me.

Phil's quick definition: Big data is what Google does.

You want to find something on the web, but the web is flipping huge. Google boils down that large information to something that you are looking for.

Here are some things to know about big data that might be helpful to know. 

1. It can't be done on your home computer. As incredible as our personal computers are, they are too slow for big data.
2. It is expensive for the equipment. The company I work for just started a big data project that is going to require 20 different servers to essentially run one analysis program. To give you a visual, that's like a computer the size of a refrigerator that costs $50,000.
3. The research projects that Universities have done with big data have started to draw attention of companies that want to spend money on big data projects. In other words, the industry is growing, and very few people are experts in the field (I think of my very smart brother who is about to graduate high school).

You may have seen studies that caught your attention from big data already. One study looked at twitter to gauge how people are feeling around the world at any given moment. More recently, a university did a study that included more data than just twitter. They included blogs, facebook, any social media that they can find to draw a correlation between how people felt on a given day, and how the stock market reacted for the next 3 days.

Other studies get more specific to a company. They might be trying to answer a question like, "After a commercial in the Superbowl, how did people feel about your company?" Theoretically, someone who pays $5 million for a commercial, could watch the entire country's reaction to its commercial in real time. They may even be able to predict sales for the next week more accurately depending on the reaction a commercial had.

My examples surround marketing as you can tell, but there are more practical uses for this too. When networks go down at gigantic companies, it causes problems. A website goes down, email is unavailable, all kinds of problems can occur. The company I work for is using big data to solve those problems. It analyzes an entire network of computers, with enormous amounts of data (logs from servers, reports from load balancers, and many other tools) to hone in on the problems of a huge network

That's all. I'm just interested, and thought you might not have heard about it.

3rd Floor, 5th Bathroom

At about 10:00 each morning, the demand for toilets on Fort Knox increases. This can be a problem as there are only 3 total toilets, in 2 mens bathrooms, on a floor of 300 I.T. employees (a career field that is predominantly male.)

The main problems with this situation is obvious; there should be more bathrooms and more toilets. There could be many reasons for this, but it seems easiest to summarize it this way, "It is a government building."

Another element of this toilet problem is the timing of the cleaning of the restrooms. I definitely am grateful to have a cleaning service and consider this a luxury, but I must say that they have odd times to vacuum and clean. Like, while we are working. It sure would be more convenient (for us and them) to let them clean in the evenings after people had gone home. We can probably chalk this issue up to a government process as well.

I have learned to deal with this situation. Usually I avoid the 10 o'clock hour, but I have mapped out 4 bathrooms (8 toilets) on 2 different floors as a contingency plan. Yesterday marked a new level of planning for me, and I felt like it was a big step that I wanted to share. I added a 3rd floor and a 5 bathroom...

 

That's right. Of my 4 restrooms, 2 were being used, one was being cleaned and the other was being used for urinalysis testing. Sigh. 

I refuse to add another bathroom to my plan now. I have reached my limit. Five is enough. If I cannot find a toilet by the 5th bathroom, I'll just stand by the stall and wait.

Simplifying My Taxes, A Letter to the IRS.

While I'm simplifying my life one segment at a time, I decided I would take on the greatest challenge of all, simplifying my taxes. Turns out there are laws about this... Which led me to writing this letter to the IRS.

Dear IRS,

I'm writing you to discuss the simplification of my personal taxes. See, I want to pay my taxes. I'm thrilled to give you my money in exchange for the right to work, live, and own property in the United States. I couldn't be happier about the arrangement we have going here. My challenge is this, I just can't figure out how much money to give you.

I know how much money I made last year exactly, and I know exactly how much was withheld from my paycheck and given to you. I just can't seem to figure out what that is worth to you. It appears that I will need to fill out the following forms to figure this out.

• 1040
• 740mp
• Colorado Partial Year
• 740 full year
• Schedule A
• 3903
• Schedule E
• 4562
• Schedule M
• Schedule D

Is this really necessary? I'm an honest guy, and have no desire to cheat you out of any money. How much do you need? Do you need to have about 10% of what I made? 15%? 20%?

If you really want me to fill out all of these forms I will, but hey it's me, Phil. We've done business together for years. You know me, I know you. Just tell me how much I owe you, and I'll give it to you.

It doesn't have to be a flat tax, but couldn't it at least be simple?

Your Favorite Tax Payer,

Phil

The Goal 2012 - Rebirth of a Ballpoint Pen

In 2005, I learned to eat M&M's slowly. In 2010 I finished an entire tube of chapstick one year. In 2012, I am attempting to accomplish something equally as challenging.

I, Phil Mondy, intend to use an entire ink pen until is completely void of ink and no longer writes. I intend to do this by the end of the calendar year 2012. Furthermore I intend REFILL that ink pen with a new cartridge of ink, giving that shell of a pen a second life!

It was early in 2011 when this idea first came to me. I received a set of pens from an online deal site by the name of woot.com. The box of pens came with all of the necessary components I would need for this accomplishment, refills for every pen in the box.

'Absurd!' I thought to myself, having rarely heard of a person owning a pen long enough to empty it's contents completely. Even in all of such cases I'd heard of, the pens were simply disposed of. On the other hand, what was I to do with refills that came with my pens? Kids are starving in Africa! I decided I would put the refills in the drawer in the laundry room for further consideration.

Time passed, and the thought occurred again. Could it be possible?  Probably not, but I started to believe the impossible could happen.

Now here I am, against all odds. I'm going to do it. I will refill a pen in 2012, and give it the gift of life again. There's no turning back now.

Simplifying The Basement Part 2

"There is some perfectly good junk here." I said. "We can't just throw away perfectly good junk, kids have AIDS in Africa."

So naturally, out of my concern for Africa, we thought of Goodwill. They have a drive through drop off. It's so easy.

It's easier than selling for sure, but still more complicated than throwing it all away. Complicated is bad. Complicated is very bad. Like the devil. No, the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Simple.

Simple is the goal, the greater good, the messiah which will rescue us into 2012.

But I was weak. I should have stared my conscience in the face and thrown it all away; forgetting Africa and Goodwill, but I chose the option which made things more... I can barely even say it I'm so ashamed... complicated.

We made two piles. One of trash, and one of donations. It was a setback, but we did it. Then, we pressed on.

After many, many  mind-numbingly, word-jumblingly, proof-readingly difficult hours in the basement, we simplified the basement. Nine plastic tubs, a shelving unit, two fridges, a treadmill, and two people survived to tell the tale.

It felt good. We were still bested by consumerism at times, but I believe that we won the battle. We faced the fear. We stared consumerism and the face and said, "Simplicity is better than having more stuff, you ridiculous, consumerist dragon!"

One small step for simplicity, one giant leap for quality of life.

Simplifying The Basement Part 1

Nobody likes to think about organizing basements or garages or attics. They are a mind trap waiting to suck the energy out of us. Cleaning the basement is worse than standing in line, worse than getting a speeding ticket, possibly even worse than an office Christmas party. It's like voluntarily being banished to the dungeon. The dungeon is lit by a couple of small windows, and has a supernatural power to inflict guilt until it is clean and organized.

Did I mention the dragon?  The one that slings cardboard boxes filled with useless things constantly? Difficult to believe unless you see it with your own eyes, but that's what we had to face when we descended into our basement last week.

How hard was it, you ask? How hard was it to go into the basement and answer this simple question,  "Do you want to keep this?" I don't want to exaggerate here. It was mind-numbingly difficult, word-jumblingly difficult, proof-readingly difficult. It was hard. 

It was hard to answer a simple question 1,000 times in a row, no matter how simple the question was. It was even harder to answer the follow up questions.

Let's say the answer was yes. "Where should we put it?" Was the follow up question.

Well if we knew where to put it, it wouldn't be in the basement. So we had to ask, "How long has it been since we used it?"

Again, it's probably been a long time cause it's in the basement. So we ask the original question again with emphasis. "Do you really want to keep this?" And the cycle continues.

If the answer was no, we don't want to keep said thing, the follow up question was, "Can we sell it?" This was a huge rabbit trail. Selling things takes effort and it has nothing to do with cleaning, organizing, and simplifying which is what we were trying to do. We gave up finally and made a blanket rule. No selling anything.

That felt good. We made a rash blanket rule to help us with our simplifying. That's what I needed. A big fat dramatic rule to keep us on task.

And that's when my conscience kicked in.

(More tomorrow)

Simplifying My Closet

I get excited when my closet looks like it has extra room on the hangers. I'm excited because it looks like I'm making progress. I am simplifying my life, and getting rid of waste.

One way I'm doing this is, giving away "backup" of something. Having a backup of something is my excuse to buy things I don't need yet. So nowadays, if I wait until I'm actually giving the old shirt away before buying a new one, that is a success.

Another way I'm simplifying my closet is by making things last longer. I bought insoles for several of my shoes recently. The cheapest insoles work just as good as the expensive ones, so $3 can make a pair of shoes comfortable for 6-12 months.

Another thing we've done is that we don't have a dresser in our room. So, no extra chest of drawers to fill space and collect clothes. What I'm finding is that if run out of space for our clothes, we can just get rid of clothes instead of making more space.

Don't get me wrong, there are exceptions to the rules. I'm attempting to move in the right direction, but I'm not going to the extreme. For example, I believe in dressing nicely at work. My perception at work directly impacts my income. So I replace shoes every 2-3 years and pants and shirts every 3-5 years. I'm not going to try to stretch the life on these clothes.

Also, sometimes a backup still makes sense. I churn through jeans and tennis shoes fast enough to have one backup. But I still feel good because I limit it to one backup.

How cool is it to celebrate having LESS in a culture that always desires more money?

I Like Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet raised his kids as if they weren't wealthy. In the same way most kids don't know what exactly their parents do, his kids didn't either.  It wasn't until their mid twenties that they really even knew the full reality of their father's wealth. He was the richest man in the world.

When they were kids, they thought he was a security guard because he worked in securities. When they turned 19 they were given $90,000 to get started in life, and that is all of the inheritance they would receive.

I just like that. Living below our means creates a lot of freedom. It allows us to focus on important things, and prioritize needs over wants.

What if we did the same thing? What if we set a budget that was well below our income? What if we planned to live that way for our entire lives?

Check this out. Warren Buffet still lives in the same house he raised his kids in which cost him $31,500 in 1957. What if we perminently stopped house shopping? How would that change us?

I believe this way of thinking could nearly eliminate the covetousness. It would put a kibosh on wanting something bigger and better all of the time. It would foster contentment.

Side note: I still haven't bought back into the stock market much. I'm waiting for it to drop to 10,000 on the Dow. Patience is my game still. Warren Buffet says he's back in the market (Berkshire Hathoway is buying), and that he doesn't think recession is coming. Can't argue with him really, it's going to be time to buy back soon.

The Secret to Chocolate Chip Cookies

I could write a long post about chocolate chip cookies. They have been my favorite thing to make since I was a kid. Instead, I think I'll just give you the secret to making good ones in case you are having trouble making them.

1. Whip real butter into the sugar first.
2. Tweak the amount of flour at the end depending on altitude (usually add some extra four).
3. Take them out from 350 degrees between 10 and 11 minutes no matter what.

I chose my words carefully in that list. Don't go screwing this up by whipping the eggs in with the butter, cooking them too long, or anything foolish like that. Trust me on this one.

Healthy Breakfast

Check this breakfast shake idea out. We have been making these for breakfast and end up with more energy and feel healthier all day. The idea came from a place we visited in Thailand called Healthy Breakfast.

1 TBSP red beans
1 TBSP steamed carrots
2 TBSP pearl barley (cooked)
1 TBSP frozen spinach
1 whole mushroom
1 scoop of protein powder (we use soy)
1 banana
1 apple (sliced)
1/4 cup frozen fruit (any kind)
2 tsps flax seed (ground)
1 cup water
1 cup ice

Some ingredients vary, depending on what we run out of, but the top 6 items stay the same.

We are busy people, and have high stress at work many days. Anything that can give us a better start to the day is much appreciated as the week goes by. I don't know how long we will keep this as our breakfast routine, but after a couple months we are addicted.

Pipe Carving

My extremely cool brother in law got me a pipe for Christmas.



 Not just any pipe, a pipe that I can carve myself.   

I'm not quite done, but here is what it looks like today.

What You Need To Go Fly Fishing

I just went fly fishing for the first time, and it was spectacular. I even caught two brown trout! My friends showed me what to do, and they let me use their equipment. So I owe much thanks to Jeff and Ben first of all.

Since I didn't know what I needed to go fishing with my friends, I thought I'd write a blog passing that information on. I'm aiming for the least expensive way to try this sport. So, these are the things you need to go fly fishing the first time.


1. Fishing License
Getting a fishing license isn't as hard as it sounds. In Colorado, you can just walk into a grocery store and ask the person at the desk. You can also go to the Colorado Division of Wildlife website. Day license is about $9, full year is about $30. Other places in the world are much the same I'm sure, so make sure you look into the license before you fish.

2. Waders
The cheapest way to get waders is to go to Wal-Mart. We found some hip waders for $36 that did the trick. If you just want to get started and learn how to fish, this is the way to go.

3. Pole & Reel
Borrow it. Seriously. Don't go spend $200 on a fishing pole yet. Just see if you can borrow one from your friends.

4. Flies
Each river, in a given season has a handful of flies basic that are good for catching fish. You just need someone to tell you which flies to buy. I have two suggestions for you. One, go to a fly shop with your fisherman friend. If you can find a shop close to the place you are fishing, even better.Two, email my friends at info@theallenbrothers.com, or visit them online at www.theallenbrothers.com. They have flies that will catch you fish in any river.

5 Other Stuff
Here are just a few things that a lot of fisherman carry, none of which are actually vital. Sunscreen, sunglasses, oil to help dry flies to float, additional tippet, fishing line, net, vest with tools and tackle, cooler with food.