The Daily - Saturday, September 22, 2018

Writing Challenge- Day #24

HEALTH & FITNESS

I was very pleased to jog 3.63 miles in 66 minutes today. I used a different Podrunner track called "136 BPM - March of Progress." It has easily become one of my favorite Podrunner mixes.

One of the joys of running is that the possible routes are almost endless. As I started this morning's jog I thought about going one way and when I came to a certain point I changed my mind and decided to go a different way, one with less car traffic to avoid fumes. It was a good move and it allowed me to go further on my run.

GOALS, DREAMS, HABITS, RITUALS

Today was the first day I did not use a to-do list. It was costly in a couple of ways, most importantly that I forgot to take my meds and vitamins until this evening. Normally I take them with breakfast around 10 AM but I got distracted by having to run my daughter to her job and so I lost track of things. I think the trick for me is to get the list done the night before, and then review the list first thing in the morning right after meditating.

PERSONAL GROWTH

Despite not using a to-do list for the day, I did manage to get much done. For example, I got some things ready for next weeks trip and did some shopping. One of the items I bought (double-sided tape I will use to improve my A/C filter positioning) ended up helping to re-position the WiFi antenna on my PC. It looks better and works more efficiently than the way it was before.

TIPS & TRICKS

This gentleman has developed a great self-watering system for inside plants. Very well-thought-out system and extremely inexpensive.

PODCASTS / VIDEOS

I am a minimalist or, at the very least, a minimalist in training. I have made progress in some areas and have slipped in others. In other words, I am human. Today I came across this nice video that gives solid advise on how to get started in the process of minimalism.

I tend to be the room-by-room, do-it-now, no plan, purger. I will try some of these strategies to help me become more efficient at handling the excess items in my life.

TECHNOLOGY

The planned installation of the new router went without a hitch. The new unit is a NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900, and the thing screams. After some minor fine tuning, the wireless speeds have gone from under 10 Mbps to just under 50 Mbps. My cellphone maxed out at 99 Mbps downstairs, and about 50 Mbps upstairs. I am very pleased with the equipment and with the increased performance.

If you are buying a new router, it is advisable to do a few things immediately:

1. Change the administrator's password; my new router forced me to change the password, which is a very welcomed change from past practices.
2. Change the SSID (the wireless identifier) to something unique and also that will not identify you personally. Leaving the default name (my router used NETGEAR70) could possible allow a hacker to guess the password of your unit. Change the router name makes it just a little harder.
3. Change the default passwords. My router has two possible passwords, one for the 2.4 GHz band (for desktops and laptops) and one for the 5 GHz band (for mobile devices such as phones). You can allow the router to use the same name and password for both or you can keep them separate; I have opted for separate for now.
4. Change the passwords for your WiFi access every three to four months. Use some cyber-security hygiene steps and use a strong password that has 10-12 characters made of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.I advocate the use of password padding: select a password/phrase that is easy to remember (for example, TheRedFox99) and now use three or more of the same special characters at the start and end of the word to make it stronger. For example, $$$$TheRedFox99$$$$ is easy to remember and not so easy to crack. By the way, that is NOT a password I have ever used. :-)  Use a password strength checker and see the difference padding can make. The one without padding came at 78% strength. The one with padding was 100% strong and the only weaknesses reported is that it uses repetitive characters and repetitive numbers. So, to make it near perfect, we could change it to !1@2TheRedFox98#3$4 … but now that gets hard to type and hard to remember. To me, the small difference between $$$$TheRedFox99$$$$ and !1@2TheRedFox99#3$4 is not worth the extra brain power and confusion.

Tomorrow I will write a little about password managers and why they are critical for online security.

STREAKS - For the record

Current list of streaks:

• Writing: day 24
• Blood Pressure Readings: day 11 (started on the high side but I wa able to bring it down with deep breathing and acupressure)
• Logging to SparkPeople: day 14
• Daily Exercise Routine: not counting for now
• Cardio: Yes -- awesome 3.63 miles in 66 minutes
• Yoga: Not today
• Strength Training: Nope
• Stretching: Yes, as I got up and after running
• Meditation: Yes, first thing in the morning
  
• Meditation: day 11
• Number of tabs open: day 7