HardwYred

I am going to keep this blog post brief as I try to explain where I have been for over two weeks. For those that follow my blog, you will notice that it has been 15 days since my last post. I would like to say there is a valid reason for this; I will not say it is a good reason, however. I could possibly make several excuses as to where I have been. I could say I have been busy with getting ready for the holidays or with Abigayle's basketball schedule. I could say that work has been busy or that there have been no interesting topics in which to talk about. As someone who reads the news every day, I can assure you that there have been some good topics. No, the reason I have been gone is that I had no motivation to write. While I know that that is not a good thing to say as a writer, it is the truth, and I prefer to tell it. When I go throughout my day and night, I often think about what I would like to write about and the words typically come to me. It is very easy to write at t

I would say this question is really meant for parents and guardians: How closely do you monitor your child's internet access? I can honestly say that this is something I have thought about quite extensively, and I just cannot come to an accurate answer. Admittedly, I am not a parent yet so I have never had to address this personally, but as an individual with extensive interest in technology, I wonder how people address internet safety and security. For instance, I have basically witnessed both sides of the spectrum in terms of monitoring. Some people believe that kids need "big brother" watching every single thing that a child does. This includes closely monitoring (or banning) social media, daily reading text messages, child blocks on sites, et cetera. I understand that many view this as necessary to protect children from situations they are not mature enough to handle. Trust me, I get it; it is a scary world. People want to protect children at all costs and see thi

First of all, welcome back! My hope is that everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well as Black Friday if you are one of those with the courage to get up early and brave the crowd. For those who prefer sleep and lack-of-injury, I hope you individuals are ready for the joy of Black Friday from the comfort of home (or work): Black Friday. Now to the topic at hand, and for the purpose of argument, I am going to use my (future) brother-in-law as they are the perfect age for this topic. Kids today (at least those under the age of 10) have been born and raised entirely in the age of connected devices and handheld technology. On most occasions, I have witnessed that the two I mentioned earlier cannot be seen inside without a device in their hands. Whether they are using the restroom, eating dinner, et cetera, these kids have a phone/tablet/iPod in their hand playing some game or watching some video. For these reasons, and I am just assuming many kids are like this, we tend to generalize this

The future of the world seems to be autonomous. We have reached a point that the future is going to be in Artificial Intelligence; Google has even said they are an AI-first company. The idea behind this push is for machines to learn and adapt to our needs. We want machines to work easily for us. One category of machines that is being pushed to work for us (and without us) is automobiles. Even when transportation consisted of horses pulling a buggy, humans have always been "behind the wheel". By that, I mean that humans have always controlled where, when, why, and how a vehicle will be moving. We have now reached a point where the future will consist of cars that control speed and direction without the need for human control. Aside from convenience, the main reason for the push: removing human error. It is no surprise that the vast majority of automobile accidents can be traced back to human error. Whether it is not watching the road, driving too fast, or simple reckless b

It is no secret that we have a significant "Fake News" problem in the world today. Before everyone starts preparing their defenses for their favorite news sources, let me clarify that I am not talking about "Biased News". As much as President Trump likes to say it, CNN is not actually "Fake News" and neither is FOX, NBC, ABC, et cetera. Biased as these sites may be at times (mostly all the time), the news they are reporting is based in fact; it just has a very biased spin. I would think that functioning adults would be able to tell the difference between: "Trump signs healthcare reform in to law causing issues for middle-class" and "Trump seen punching babies on his way out of gentleman's club" While there is no way for me to know if the second statement ever happened (I highly doubt it), I would assume that most people would understand that one is fake and one is biased. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a point that peop

Welcome to my new page. I have noticed that on most of my posts (at least on the old blog) that I am getting views, but I am not seeing a lot of comments and discussion. I am thinking this has more to do with the format of the posts rather than a lack of opinions from others; everyone has an opinion these days. So, I am going to start with this post to see if we can get a little more interaction. This weekend I finally got around to seeing The Circle (a movie I have wanted to see a while back). For those who have not seen the movie yet, I will give you a basic run-down. The magical Emma Watson (pun intended) begins working at a technology company that is basically working to make the world entirely connected, visible, and interactive; their methods for attempting this (cameras everywhere, guerrilla-style searching) are quite invasive. While I found the movie to be incredibly far-fetched and not well hashed-out, there was one part that really had me thinking. In the movie, Watson

Reflection/Conclusion           If you have read through this entire series, let me take the time to thank you for reading, but I am sure at this point you are wondering: what is the point? I can assure you that I did not write this to be congratulated or to get recognition for achieving what I have. The actual idea came to me Sunday night as I was driving home, and I started to realize as I was writing it the actual point.           I wrote this because I know that God told me to write it; there is someone out there that this was meant to reach, and my hope it that it reaches that person. Simply, my point in writing is that I hope that even one person can benefit from reading this. I am a very impulsive and distracted person that finds it difficult to stay focused on one thing for an extended period of time, but I am. Maybe this will give some hope to someone that needs to be shaken up or that wants to make a change in his or her life, but is struggling to find a way. That is

Spirit           I guess I could have seen the connection between the physical and mental when I started as I am sure there is plenty of research to back up the claim. However, what I did not expect was the tremendous spiritual growth I would experience along the way. While I could see how this is less connected to my newfound routine, I still believe that a line can be drawn back to the physical work.           I consider myself to be a strong person of faith, and I know that my relationship with God has been stronger than it has ever been, but I believe that this relationship (like any relationship) requires work and maintenance. In a way, I believe I had gotten lazy in my faith in that I did not put in the effort to grow my connection with Him; I had just been settled in to a routine. So, as I began to feel a change in me, I began to channel the positivity in to my faith, and the results have been amazing.           Each morning on my drive to work, I listen to K-LOVE and

Mind           Prior to starting this new workout program, I don’t think I ever understood the direct connection between physical positivity and mental positivity. However, I have noticed quite significant changes in how I go about the day and how I interact with others.           I have never considered myself to be a bad person, but at the same time, I know that there were certain parts of who I am and how I interact that were not up to par with the person I want to be. By feeling better physically, I have been able to carry the positivity in to every other aspect of my life. For instance, at work, I find myself much more optimistic about my day; that is not to say that I absolutely love my job. I am just much more patient with my coworkers, more willing to help, and less disappointed as my day goes on. I am able to appreciate that a few of my coworkers are constantly under pressure and busy so I am happy to help in any capacity.           More than my work, I have found that m

Body           I think the most obvious change (and the one I had most sought after) was too my body. After the holidays, I felt miserable with both how I looked and how I felt. I had not been doing anything physical and had consumed more food in a short amount of time than I had done all year. This state of mind is what led me to undertake this journey in the first place.           However, unlike when I was going to the gym, I chose to also completely change my diet. I decided that to completely invest in the program, I needed to quit sabotaging my own results. I gave up on almost all sugars, quit drinking soda, and began monitoring everything that went in to my body. While it is not only more expensive, but also more time consuming, to change my diet, I have found the results to be well worth it.           I have found that in only two months that the changes have been night and day. I have completely lost every bit of weight that I put on during the holidays as well put mysel

Background           I figured the best way to start this would be to give a little background to this as I am sure the title is not exactly the most self-explanatory thing in the world. It is not as if I decided to one day start waking up earlier than normal knowing it would change everything; the actual story goes a little bit differently.           This whole scenario can be traced back to me moving. At my old residence, I would drive to the gym every day after work; this kept me in decent shape and helped me stay active. After I moved, it became too much of a hassle to drive there everyday so I quit going. I would say this was not such a big deal until the holidays. Between the amount of food and the sheer fat content, I felt tremendously out of shape so... I decided to make a change.           About two days before New Year's Day, I made the decision that I was going to start the Insanity program again; however, this time, I was going to workout in the morning instead of