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Brian X. Chen writes that It’s Time to Stop Paying for a VPN. I think he’s right, especially given that some VPN providers may be owned by less-than-trustworthy parties. For a time, I was using iVPN, which still seems to be a reasonable choice. However, when my subscription lapsed, I didn’t renew. My motivation to use a VPN just wasn’t as strong as it once was.

For those that still need a VPN, self-hosting is an interesting option. The article mentions Algo, which looks straightforward and well documented. I haven’t tried it out myself, but if I feel the need to for a VPN in the future, I might opt for Algo over a commercial provider.

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This morning, I was looking for an album to play. I came up with Duo, which brought back fond memories.

It was 1999, I was new in town, and Charlie Hunter & Leon Parker had string of shows at Joe’s Pub to support Duo. Hunter’s guitar work always blows me away and Parker is an excellent match for him on stage. He used every inch of his modest drum kit for his part of the rhythm section.

Charlie Hunter and Leon Parker Circa 1999

I caught at least three of those shows. At each one, they brought a friend or two up at some point. The only one I remember is David Sanchez who sat in for Recess one night. There’s nothing like seeing masters like this live, in an intimate setting like Joe’s Pub. It will be wonderful when we can all go out and see live music again.

Album image from Amazon.

Photo of Charlie and Leon from Dummer World, unfortunately not at Joe’s Pub. The shows predated 2007 or so. Since then, seemingly every moment of every event is photographed and available online–sometimes to the dismay of others in the audience.

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This summer, some sailing buddies and I chartered a boat in Newport. As with other charter experiences I’ve had, it was spectacular.

Adam and I were co-skippers on this one, and it was thoroughly planned. Upon our return, we jotted down this list of things to think about next time around based on our experience.

This is not an exhaustive bareboat charter planning or passage making guide. Think of it as short addendum to the many guides available both in print and online.

Continue reading →

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I’m prone to procrastination from time to time. The way to stop procrastination is to identify when procrastination is happening, then just stop procrastinating. Yeah, easier said than done. Identifying procrastination in the moment isn’t always easy for a variety of reasons, but I’d like to get better at it so I can move on.

What about a fun (simple) device to help break the cycle of procrastination? I’m thinking a big button that logs the moment in time when I’ve decided that I’m procrastinating. It should also make an amusing noise or something (gong show?). A bonus would be if it recommended a low friction task I could do. It could even be integrated with a Pomodoro timer (e.g. stop procrastinating, start a pomodoro with this task).