Yoga

Is Yoga the best value-for-time workout?
* In ancient times, people worked physically and so mental work like studying that Jewish people mandated was non-trivial.
* Today, we strive to keep the body in good shape but focus on our mental abilities and work mainly mentally.
* Yoga engages our full presence, both physical and mental. During practice, it feels like wasting good "mental" time. But it may just be the element that makes it the best value-for-time workout.
* Swimming, in contrast, can be meditative in a different way. You can think of other things while swimming for hours. This seems like the complementary activity - waste of physical time. You are not productive with your energy, and not being present in all aspects.
* I can testify that once, on improving my swimming-style, I was very present and enjoyed swimming in a very special and rewarding way.

Supermarket or Grocery Store?

It occurred to me that in contradiction to what some people think, supermarkets are not necessarily less human than grocery stores.
I was buying in some supermarket and the cashiers were happy and had some good vibes among themselves and towards the clients.
So I guess it depends on the supermarket owners, operators and staff.

Good luck buying products, you all!

Elementary Instruments for Effective Workout

Having a good and meaningful workout is a  hard task for me sometimes.
Sometimes I feel limited in my ability, energy or inspiration.
It turns out there are two essential tools that I can always resort to.
One is breathing - when you breath with awareness, things get interesting.
The other is imagination - add another dimension to your simple movement.
For example, say you are trying the "dog looking down" Yoga exercise.
I once heard a good guidance for it:
On inhale, imagine your palms and feet get planted deeper in the ground.
On exhale, imagine that in your joints, especially lower back, a telescope effect is taking place, and that the parts are drifting apart.
This example includes both instruments - breathing and imagination.

Another useful tip, especially for the creative folks, is:
"limit your options to get more ideas."
That is, say, only allow yourself to move one hand while standing. See what new movements this hand invents. You will find out that your brain needs a frame in order to be creative in it.

Good luck with your workouts, folks!

On the Best Defense (anyone said PRISM?)

Usually they say "Best defense is offense".

But as I was thinking how can I defend my digital privacy, I came to conclusion that the best thing I can do is "break routine".

I mean that I have to be creative and think of some slight random change in my behavior so that my casual patterns cannot be used against me.

Then I thought, is this idea useful for organizations? small ones? big ones?

I think that eventually, you cannot have a "written routine for breaking routine".

You have to, say, randomly pick a person, then tell her to think of some change for this week or day, and guide everyone to obey her instruction.

(and hope she's not malicious or bitter employee...)

Maybe you can define a set of areas and randomly pick one, and in this area pick a random parameter.

Say that today "NAT" was chosen, and thus a new IP mask for some domain was randomly picked. I guess its not bullet-proof, but it can make life pretty hard for big and patient attackers, like organizations.

I know this idea isn't really original. Every good soldier knows that breaking routine is basic defense method against guerrilla and any enemy in fact.

Still, it struck me to be the only general technique available besides the regular missile-race.

Good luck with randomization, everyone out there!