Category: Other

I had been using Quicken for bookkeeping since 2000. As I moved away from Windows and retired those devices, it became more difficult and inconvenient to continue using Quicken. I searched for cloud-based alternatives and finally found CountAbout last year. The basic plan costs only $9.99 US per year and it does everything I need. I highly recommend this service.

Over the past year of using CountAbout I had occasionally thought about developing an equivalent application myself, not to save money but as a fun project. Two weeks ago, with nothing else to do, I finally started prototyping and today my replacement application does everything that I had imagined. I learned OO PHP and Javascript, and used extreme programming techniques to create the prototype. My application is not pretty but the UI is efficient and I improved on some of the CountAbout workflow.

During the project I reverted to the obsessive software engineer that I used to be. I resented interruptions and was constantly thinking of the various technical problems that I was facing. While that’s how I got things done, it didn’t make me a better person. I like myself better as a gardener.

We arrived in Garden Bay on March 21. Today, March 22, was sunny and I spent the afternoon outside cleaning fallen branches and inspecting my messy garden. Next priority will be rose bush pruning.

I like to be busy and productive, and I read at night to prepare to sleep. For the past I don´t remember how many years, I have been reading almost exclusively fiction in Spanish. Before this phase I used to read almost exclusivley non-fiction, and I have just rediscovered that interest due to not being busy nor productive here in Guanajuato.

First book read this year was Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating and I am now an avid healthy eater! My dietary sin was saturated fats and basically they have been minized in my diet. For example, no more butter BUT I still put a measured amount of cream in my coffee. I found a great website for daily nutrition tracking that for me makes eating goal-based rather than just filling the hole. Since I enjoyed reading this book so much, I searched for another stimulating read.

The third book read this year was The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself. This is a mixture of current science and philosophy that I found very interesting, true, and relevant for the sexagenarian that I am. My favourite quote:

“That´s us. Ephemeral patterns of complexity, riding a wave of increasing entropy from simple beginnings to a simple end. We should enjoy the ride.” – Sean Carroll

In between the non-fiction I read Mariposa Intersections: a novel written by a friend of mine. It´s an interesting story set in Mexico with an underlying theme of nuclear power and climate change. Ideas beget ideas, and I think this book led me to the current book that I am reading.

Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know I admit that until now I´ve been a casual observer of the changes occurring in world due to, and in response to, climate change. It finally dawned on me that climate change could “be the defining issue of our time” so I better prepare myself and participate responsibly.