2010 July | Alain M. Lafon

Archive for July 2010

Screw it

July 18th, 2010 — 01:19 am

In a recent night, I really, really wanted my Macbook C2D to be less noisy. Even though it is not my primary workstation the permanent high-pitch humming made it near impossible to get any decent work done.Thanks to ifixit.com it took me a mere 2h to disassemble, clean and reassemble my MB. The process taught me a decent humbleness before those who do this for a living – this computer is definitely _not_ built with frequent modification in mind.

If only I had found a any dust to clean out, the work might have been worth the effort. In the two+ years of heavily working with the MB (also in potentially “dirty places” like couches, beds and cars [pun intended]), there was close to no dirt accumulation. Either that’s due to a really good design or I can easily start to mess my apartment a little more up.

Anyway, two screws will never find their way back into the MB. One is lost due to the bolt thread being fragged by unscrewing, the other I just forgot to put back to where it came from. Well, what good (or bad) can such a tiny screw do?

At least the MB hasn’t become louder in the process.

[Show as slideshow]

Comment » | personal

Doing it consciously

July 7th, 2010 — 03:40 pm

While running, I realized something today. More often than not I tend to do things as if there was some kind of enforcement of doing them – even if I especially like doing whatever it is I’m doing. Sometimes this happens in the strangest of circumstances, for example running in a beautiful forest during lunchtime.

When I should be happy about escaping business for an hour or two while seeking harmony of body and soul, I wonder about some unfavorable thing I will have to do when finishing my run. I could think about work, having to have a long drive afterward, preparing exams, doing all kinds of crazy demanding stuff.

Instead I should focus on the moment. Sometimes there’s something really good going on even without me having made the choice of doing it. And if I made a choice, I should stick to it even more, quit moaning and enjoy the hell out of it.

This conclusion came to me on kilometer 9, on an uphill battle against my concentration of not going to stop just because there’s a hill in my way. Needless to say that the hill probably was the best part of the workout. My run today trained me well and I felt really good about it. And I’m humble of having had this particular pleasure.

Anyway, I wonder.. I believe I have known about this small, but prevalently important attitude. I should start meditating again, I miss it at any rate.

Comment » | personal