Author Archives: David Truss

Data hoarders

I have thousands of photos on a computer that I can’t turn on. I have files on floppy discs. I still have tape cassettes, records, and CD’s. I have videos of my kids on digital tapes that I can only play on the camera I filmed them on, although I’m sure I can still get them on to my computer if I tried.

And I have thousands and thousands of digital photos that will never make it into a frame. They will never see ‘the light of day’, and many of them might not even be seen by me again.

Talking with my buddy, Dave Sands, he mentioned that we have become data hoarders. But unlike those TV shows about outlier people that hoard physical things and clutter their homes and lives, we are all becoming digital hoarders!

Our phones used to be fancy if they could take half-MB images and now some phones are approaching 10MB. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 with 20k of memory (and I was excited to buy the 16k adaptor to get me to 36k), and now I wouldn’t buy a computer with less that 350G. We used to buy 250MB backup drives, now we are buying multiple Terabyte backup drives.

But will these drives be easily retrievable in 30 years? Or will we be searching for an equivalent to a tape cassette recorder, or an 8-track player, to somehow get our data back? Or, how easy will it be for others to access this data as we share more and more of it in the cloud?

Beyond the fear of others getting access, will we even want this data? When was the last time you looked at a backup file or drive that has data you no longer have on your computer or phone?

We have become digital hoarders, all of us. What implications does this have for us, or more specifically, for our future selves?

Why blog daily?

“For years, I’ve been explaining to people that daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating and (eventually) fun.“ ~Seth Godin

I enjoy writing, but I’m slow at it. So, when I get busy, I don’t write. This has really hampered my sharing on my Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts blog. At one point, I was constantly thinking in blog posts. I enjoyed this. I would think of a concept or idea, expand it in my thoughts, then wrap it up on my blog. But I’ve written less and less and so that ability to create a full narrative around an idea has faded. I miss doing that.

So, what can I do to get that back? I need to practice writing; to practice thinking in story; to make writing a routine and expectation – not just something I wish I did.

When I started Daily Ink years ago, I was going to hand write a journal and then take a photo of the writing (images are gone from moving this blog around before finally getting DavidTruss.com)… This digital sharing of analog writing was to be a blending of two worlds. It didn’t stick. Then I shared links and videos with a small commentary (I might still do that occasionally), but now this is about (re)finding my joy in writing.

It might go to an audience of just one, but I’ll share it publicly, and hopefully anyone reading this, besides me, will enjoy the writing journey I’m on.

What’s a habit that you want to develop? And what can you do right now to get it going?

Slow starts

Summer is a time to rest for educators, but it can be hard going from 100 miles an our to 1 mile an hour without a little lethargy kicking in.  For me, it’s my morning routine. With no time constraint to push me, I can wake up early and get almost nothing done before the day really begins. Today, for example, I’ve had my coffee, I’ve done my meditation, and I read an interesting article on LinkedIn. Beyond that, I haven’t really done much in an hour and 45 minutes. Bleh.

Part of me wants to rationalize that it’s ok, but then part of me just wants to complete my routine… Finish writing this #DailyInk, get my exercise done, shower and really start my day. By that, I don’t mean that my day starts after this routine, I mean that my routine really starts my day!

I’m in a quiet house, everyone else still sound asleep, I’m feeling refreshed (I don’t need more sleep), and yet I’m being hard on myself about my slow start. Why? I think that I thrive when I’m intentional with my time. Even if that time is entertainment, or giving myself a break. But watching time disappear unintentionally is painful.

Part of my plan today is to create a list of ‘starter’ ideas for my daily write. I think that if I can get this done early, I’ll feel better about how my day started and that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the rest of the day. On that note, I’ve just added a new Daily Ink idea to my Notes on my phone: Why #dailyink. Let’s see what time I get that completed tomorrow?

I got this

I was not a swim coach. I coached water polo and I did a level one swim coaching course, and there I was coaching the season’s first swim practice at a high school with over 10 years of back-to-back championships. It was a small 25 yard pool with 5 lanes, including the diving board lane that didn’t have a diving block. 124 students showed up.

It was mayhem. I saw a sea of arms, flailing, splashing, and colliding, despite my instructions to ‘stay right’, and not to flip turn with so many people in each lane. This was crazy, what did I get myself into? I can’t do this!

Then I called for everyone’s attention to begin the practice. I decided to do a few 50’s (two lengths of the pool) so that I could see students do the different strokes. Great in theory, but I quickly discovered that with 25 kids per lane, students couldn’t do a full lap without bumping into the lineup. This was ridiculous. What have I gotten myself into?

I blew my whistle, 4 or 5 loud blasts, and kids stopped and looked up. It got quiet. “Everyone out of the pool and onto the deck in the deep end. Stay in your lane lineups.”

“Ok, here we go. I want you to swim one length, then get out and walk back to your lane. Go 5 seconds apart. You can dive or jump in, your choice. Any questions?”

Now, I had order. But watching these swimmers go by was still overwhelming. That stroke looks good, that one is awful. That student is pulling his hands out too early. This student is doing something wrong, but I don’t know what?

Then it happens. I see a beautiful stroke. Elegant. Fast. The student is passing the the boy in front of her at just past half a length, despite his 5-second lead. At my knowledge base, I have nothing to teach her. But maybe…

As she walks by me I ask her, “do you swim with a club?l

‘Yes.’

“Can you do me a favour?”

‘Yes, sure.’

“Please go over to the other side of the pool and help coach lane 1.”

And so it begins. I find the next good swimmer, ask if they swim club, and ask them to ‘take a lane’ and help.

The practice ends with 7 coaches, including me. I break up the schedule so that I never have to face everyone at once anymore. And I decide that I actually am a swim coach.

I got this.

The spaces in between

It had been a few years since Jerry and I met face to face. I arrived at his house, greeted him with a hug, then went in to say hello to his wife, Sandy.

I met Jerry on the first day of university over 32 years ago, and I was with him at the party where he met Sandy.

Then off Jerry and I went on a fishing trip. The years apart melted away and we had fantastic day together. It wasn’t two distant friends reconnecting, it was two great friends melting away the time in between our opportunities to meet face to face.

Jerry doesn’t ‘do’ social media, and so I don’t connect as often with him as I do with others that are geographically distant. So, it will likely be at least a couple years before we connect again. Some of the stories will be retold, others might be forgotten, but the time together will be treasured, no matter how long the space is in between our visits are.

What’s on your home screen?

I think it is interesting to see what people put on their phone’s home screen. It is a little peek into their personality. Where do they spend their digital time? What social media do they use? What do they do for entertainment?

I think I want to start a little informal research and ask people about their home screen preferences. What will I learn from that? Will it change what I keep on my home screen?

What do you keep on your home screen, and why are those things important enough to take up that space?

Dear Siri

You don’t get me (yet). I know you are trying, but you just aren’t smart enough. When I call my wife a dozen times on her cell, do you need to ask me on the 13th call if I want to call ‘home’ or ‘mobile’.

When I say words together many times over, don’t autocorrect to a similar phrase… know me, don’t make me the average of what most people want.

I wish you could tell me things about other apps, act as a concierge, and predict ways that you can be helpful without me asking.

I know it’s a lot, I know you’ll get better, I know you’ll eventually ‘get me’… I just want it soon.

Much appreciated.

Dave

What do you see?

When you say that you like nature, do you like viruses, cancer, and decay?

When you say that you enjoy the city, do you enjoy traffic, higher crime rates, and sewage systems?

When you say that you love someone, do you love their idiosyncrasies, failings, and character flaws?

When you say that you are interested in something or someone, what do you see? What do you choose to overlook?

When something or someone bugs you, how much does your disposition affect what you see?

Someone just took the last piece of a cake… are you pissed off that you didn’t get it, or genuinely happy for the friend that did get it? How much does a small decision like that affect your mood? Or your attitude towards your friend? Or your overall happiness in the next hour?

You have incredible power to decide what you see, and to create a universe in your mind based on these decisions.

What are you choosing to see, and what kind of life are you living thanks to these choices?

Photographs in my mind

We used to take our negatives to a film processor to have them developed. Then we waited. Long ago we waited for a week, and eventually that time was reduced to just an hour. We’d collect the envelopes of photographs and before we left the store we were going through our shots one-by-one.

This one isn’t focused. This one has a blurry arm from it moving during the shot. In this one her eyes are closed. In this one he looked away. And this one, yes this one goes in a frame.

I say this with a bit of nostalgia, for there was something I enjoyed about the process. About the not knowing how good a shot was until long after I took the shot. About the surprise of a shot being better or, sadly, worse than I thought.

Film also gave me something else that I miss. As a photographer using film, every click of the shutter costed money. This made me more selective about the shots I would take… and not take.

It is an odd thing that I have photographs burned into my memory, but they are photographs that I never took.

There is the lost kitten jumping after a minister’s tassels during a wedding. I was being paid as the photographer and didn’t want to ‘waste the shot’ since they paid me by the roll of film.

The shot I did not take of the salt flats of Utah that faded into the sky without a horizon line. A brilliant memory that probably would not have made a good photo anyway.

There was the shot I lined up at Pike Place in Seattle, of an older man sitting on the hood of a parked car enthralled in a book, while cops on the street behind him tended to a fender-bender. I can still see the image that I did not take, feeling like I was invading his privacy.

We seem so much more free to take photos now, always having a camera in our pocket, and not a concern of the cost of taking one more shot.

But of all the shots I didn’t take, the photographs that still linger in my memory. These come to me from an era when film was the only option and the cost of the next shot lingered in my mind.

Necessary evil

Life isn’t always great. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Tragedies happen. Friendships fall apart. Misunderstandings cause discomfort. And sometimes you have to interact with people who just aren’t nice.

No one likes situations like these, but we don’t strengthen our character or our convictions when everything is going our way.

We don’t learn perseverance, perspective, fortitude or patience without encountering challenges. We don’t build resilience or resolve when the stars align and our universe is unfolding ‘as it should’.

When we face challenges, by nature they are not easy, they are not desirable.

Yet they are necessary if we want to learn and grow.