Life Hacks

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 K.Z. Freeman 1 Comments

Smile broadly before answering the phone.

 Enter a room assuming everyone already likes you.

 Take note of people's eyes. Long stare. (huhu)

 For answers that you were given which you think are partial, say nothing. Wait.

 In nervous sutuations, chew gum.

 Notice the direction of people's feet. When their chest is facing you, but their feet are not, you have not won them over.

 Don't be intimidated by anyone; almost everyone is playing a role/wearing a mask.

 And my personal favourite:

 Immediately after the alarm wakes you, sit up, pump your fists in the air and shout, "YEAH!"

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Elementary OS Minimalistic Theme

Saturday, April 19, 2014 K.Z. Freeman 7 Comments



A friend of mine recently suggested I should be using Linux, since my Windows XP shell consisted of a minimalistic bbLean (Blackbox) setup. 

I've ran Ubuntu before, but then decided XP is good enough for my needs. Plus I can't do shit on Linux without hassle when it comes to *.exe. However I recently began to use Linux for writing, since it boots in seconds. Also, Linux is, unlike windows, cross-platform in that it is able to read the Windows partition as well, so files can be easily saved and accessed. This is more useful than you might think. That is to say Linux is great if all you want to do is write. 

A minimalistic approach was what I was after and I didn't much like Debian's interface, even though I knew it could be altered, so I chose Elementary OS (Luna), since it seems stable and quite lovely. 

In a nutshell, I found a Minimalistic Elementary OS Theme I really liked and wanted to use, but in the end managed to devote quite a bit of time setting it up. 

I want to save you the trouble I had to go through. I am that nice. Plus, what good is a nice looking theme if you can't shove it in people's faces.

The main issue with setup was that Things just did not work. And while Linux tends to be a system where you can do everything in the terminal, and while this is true, it can still be a royal pain in the actual ass for the inexperienced. Namely me.



First the easy steps:

2. Install Elementary Tweaks in Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) 

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:versable/elementary-update
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks

3. Install Wingpanel Slim. The easiest way is to install it is by using Software Center in your Applications tab. Simply write Wingpanel Slim in search and click Install on the right. Or you can do it in Terminal.

sudo apt-get install wingpanel-slim elementary-tweaks

4. Go to System Settings, open the previously installed Tweaks tab, select Cerbere, and delete your normal wingpanel so it wont load on startup.














Now for the bitch part of this setup.

Here are some of the issues you might have:


1. Conky Not Loading.
    The author says one just needs to download his script and install Curl and set permissions in .conky.sh file. But firstly, there is no such file called conky.sh in his Conky pack, and secondly, Curl is not needed. You could create a conky.sh but loading every single thing like this is just not very time efficient. Instead do this:
          2. Open up Software Center in your Applications and find Conky Manager
          3. Extract the Conky Script into conky-manager/themes/ and within this extracted folder (rename it if you want so you may find it in the manager easier) create a new folder named config, then copy all the extracted files into that new folder.
          4. You should be able to find the three of the things you need. the clock, weather and system info (CPU, Memory, Bandwidth). Enable these three.
          5. If you're using 1600x900 you'll probably need to adjust the positioning of your elements. Do it in the settings by selecting the specific scripts you wish to move around until you are satisfied.



2. Moving the Icons Causing Elementary OS to Logout

Now you're set for the Conky part of the deal, next download Avant Window Navigator in Applications-Software Center. A dock will load to which you can drag your Applications from the tab down into the dock. A problem may present itself here in the form of a logout when you attempt to drag an icon. This is because of a graphics driver issue. To fix this, open Terminal and use this:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev*


You will be using this dock from now on, so Plank is of no use to you. Uninstall it.
To Unistall Plank Open Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use: sudo apt-get remove plank 

Now changing the icons in AWN is as easy as selecting the app you want to change the icon of on your AWN, righclick on it and select the setting for changing the icon. Navigate to the folder you upacked the icons to and use the PNG versions.


 That's it. Obviously you need internet access for the weather station to work...

 I still want to test out if there's any difference in battery usage between the two systems so I might update this post very soon.

 Good luck.

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[Review] Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

Wednesday, April 09, 2014 K.Z. Freeman 0 Comments




Zen is not a philosophy or religion. It is not some esoteric teaching that will illuminate you with deep thoughts and koans that you must understand in order to attain some illusory goal. Zen is a way of liberation from a life run by your thoughts. Zen is Now.
Reviewing these types of books remains something I don't necessarily wish to do. How does one review a spiritual text or teaching? Either it resonates with you, or it does not.

 Because of this, this will not be a review as such, but a means of propagating awareness of this book's existence and that of Zen.

 It is true that one can gain bounds of theoretical knowledge from a number of books, but is that knowledge necessary? Unapplied knowledge will always remain useless knowledge, while this book will give you ways of actual practice that does not involve incisive thinking, but instead teach you how to come from a point of presence.

 Most never find this resonating substance or text when it comes to spiritual "data" and so just plough from book to book, hoping the next will provide that which is needed for some spiritual "ascension". But this way of thinking is wrong, because that ascension is already here, it was always here, now. Because one does not realize this, and as a result does not know how to apply this to everyday life, these types of books may become almost a drug. That is to say, a drug user will always look to a drug in order to find something or to be liberated from something, yet a drug is always "out there", so the lie the drug tells you is that you need to find something out there to locate or "fix" something within. Yet the within cannot be "fixed" by applying something from the without. Yet this testament is also true and untrue. You may find this contradictory when I say that this book will show you, since this book is also without, outside you, yet it points within.

 Zen is like this. Zen is contradictory, because the very nature of Duality is something that exists only in mind. Zen will never give you anything that you do not already have. It will simply show you how there really is nothing to fix. There is a sort of catch, however. There must be an everyday practice to attain this. Some may attain this presence spontaneously, but for most there is posture, breath, right-thinking and practice in presence and mindfulness. In Zen this is always done with direct pointing. It will never give you any philosophical thoughts, because that is the domain of the mind, You don't need such thoughts. The focus of Zen is always in the Now. Because the Now is all there is. Time is illusory. Even if you think of the future or the past, you are always doing it now. Even if you plan something for the future, you will execute that plan within that future Now. This is fact.

 Yet the reason why Zen might not appeal to those more used to elaborate thinking, is because Zen attempts to make you look, to stand behind the one who is thinking and observe the thinker and realize that the thinker is a rather ridiculous, erratic creature... Funny, but ultimately ridiculous.

Two students ask the master, as they look upon a waving flag in the distance:
Student 1: Look, the wind is moving, it is beautiful.
Student 2: No, the wind is erratic, it is the flag that moves.
Master: Both the flag and the wind simply are. It is mind that moves.

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