Matt

  • Two years of Bullet Journaling

    It was two years ago that I learned about a system of keeping an agenda/journal that really made sense to me.  Bullet Journal is a flexible way to organize a plain physical journal so that you get exactly what you want out of the practice without the rigid space limitation and structure of pre-printed agendas…

  • No More News

    I have been finding myself increasingly frustrated with the amount of American news that I see as a Canadian. On many topics it seems like I know more about what is happening in another country than in my own. A sad state of affairs. Most of these things are actually meaningless to me personally. Decisions…

  • Scary Future

    If the climate models recently published by the IPCC are accurate, then things are not looking great for the future. Indeed, if we continue on the same path that we are currently on then it is unlikely that my daughter will live long enough to die of old age. When rising ocean levels force a…

  • Soft Launching

    Last week I did a soft launch of the revamped Blockagram platform that I’ve been working on for the last while. Blockagram is a service that allows you to send messages to people for marketing purposes with a small amount of Bitcoin to incentivize them to both subscribe to your marketing list, and act on…

  • Applying AI to Human Learning

    Last night I was attempting to learn a little bit of Chinese after being inspired from a series of documentaries and travel vlogs (ChopStick Travel) that I’ve been taking in over the last 3-4 weeks. Anyway, I opened up DuoLingo and was quickly disappointed. Then I tried Memrise, which was slightly better, but it suffered…

  • New Blockchains

    Over the last week I ran into a difficult problem to solve with my B lockagram application that I have been working on for the last few months. It required some deep thinking. I spent three days with some sensory deprivation to really focus my thoughts and avoid even the slightest distractions. An eye mask…

  • Media Distractions

    “Are you distracted by breaking news? Then take some leisure time to learn something good, and stop bouncing around.” – Marcus Aurelius It can be difficult to block the media from your view. Over the last year or more I have been trying to limit my access. Several years ago, I was having a conversation…

  • Creating Structure

    Leaving my job and subsequently taking a month long vacation to visit family and reset was quite disruptive to my usual routines. Focusing again on my entrepreneurial adventures is very different now that I’m back.  On the one hand it is amazing to be fully in control of my schedule, I can allocate time between…

  • Work in progress Beer Fermentation Cabinet

    After thinking about how to make better beer at home last week and a successfully brewed cerveza I wanted to up my game and build a fermentation box to lager. The number one objective is to make the brewing process with the least amount of effort – no lifting heavy things, transferring fluids around as…

  • Brewing Beer Again

    It’s been a while since I last did any homebrew beer but for some reason I had the motivation to put on a new brew when I got back from vacation.  Nothing fancy, just a simple kit. The one new piece of equipment I got was a conical fermenter.  The Fermentasaurus is a pretty neat…