That’s kilometers. 30,000 of them. In 10 months. Saida-Beirut. Every day.

Yesterday was the third time getting my car serviced. Apparently you’re supposed to change the oil every 7500km and then every 15,000km you change all the filters and do a general checkup, change oils, see if you need new brakes and all of that stuff. I missed on one of the 7500km points, ooops and just went 15,000km on a single change of oil. Which isn’t the end of the world (otherwise the dashboard would have indicated something) but you know I love my car and want to keep it healthy.

Thankfully everything is brand spanking new on the car and I’ll only need to do about 3000km before there is like a steep drop off for the commute. We’re talking economic crisis level like drop of. My estimation is that I’ll be covering like max 700km in a month (as opposed to 600km in a week).

Should make me slightly calmer in general, as driving here is taxing on anyone’s nerves, but I fear that it will definitely reduce into my podcast listening time which I’m actually really enjoying at the moment. I’ll need to find other times to listen to my podcasts.

I guess you could attribute it to a number of things, but the winter of 2010-2011 felt so damn long. Seriously bloody long. Probably one of the longest in recent memory, with a slew of ups and a number of downs. Obviously as things get closer to the wedding, situations can either be calm and quiet, bloody stressful, unexpected and oftentimes completely unwanted.

I could not wait for Mother’s day, because in Lebanon and the Arab world it signifies the end of winter and the start of summer, it also happens to be Iranian new years day (so happy Nowruz to everyone over there or who believes, hey Danny). Over here in Lebanon the trees are greener, the sky is slightly bluer and things just seem slightly more hopeful. It doesn’t get dark at stupid o’clock anymore and I actually see the light when I leave the office.

I do long for the English evenings that just stay bright for a freakishly long time, but at the same time I also love it when it rains in Lebanon, which typically is at night when you’re all cozy and tucked into bed, and which pours like a motherfucker….seriously it’s insane how hard it rains over here.

So come May I will be going through yet another major change in my life as I become a married man, different responsibilities, different set of rules. My focus will no doubt change, and I will be getting a lot more time to myself as we’ve rented a flat in Beirut which is like all of 10 minutes from work. I’ll probably talk and show more of this in the future no doubt.

So much to talk about. The truth is I’ve honestly missed this form of communication, so hopefully I’ll get back into the habit of discussing something every day, I can spare 20 minutes, or at least I will learn to spare 20 minutes again.

Since I started with a new slate on my macbook (ie just reinstalled everything and started from new), the one breakout piece of software that will forever become a part of my computer experience is Notational Velocity.

They say that the best things in life are free, well this is definitely one of the best applications that I currently have on my machine. The reason for it is simple. It’s does one thing, but it does it better than anything else on the mac.

It takes notes and allows you a level of customisation and has been thought out soo well. It’s completely unobtrusive and it’s one of the lightest programs you’ll ever run. The thing is nearly instantly loaded.

I currently love having the note titles on the left hand side, with the actual notes located on the right hand side.

I remember downloading this years ago, and then just uninstalling it pretty quickly. I just didn’t understand the beauty of the simplicity.

Everything is achieved through shortcuts, which are pretty easy to learn.

1. J and K for up and down

2. Tab for flipping between the omnisearch bar and the notes

3. Esc for clearing the ominsearch bar

4. Return for adding a new note

5. Cmd R for renaming a note

And that’s about all you need to know.

It syncs to Simplenote with a free iPhone application, which is awesome. The actual application is super simple, nothing overly complicated, and it’s blindingly fast. Seriously fast in syncing. It’s not instant or live, but it might just as well be.

For my needs at the moment, which is basically putting down ideas and thoughts, it’s nice and simple and extremely convenient. If you tried this application years ago and didn’t know what to do with it (like I did), I seriously think you should check it out again, it’s worth your time.

Navigating Mac Dialog Boxes - This is one of those things that I honestly haven’t worked out until now, nearly 4 years on a Mac, d’oh!

One of the things that I always find fascinating about my brain is how quickly in turns to other things the second I actually get some time off. And by time off, I mean when I am off on holiday. Holiday for me isn’t just sitting around and watching videos all day, it’s actually more like a time for reflection and creating things now that my time can be devoted to those things that get pushed back while I attend to work and life in general.

Central really to all of this is how I choose to get myself out of the normal life is buying a magazine. In the past I used to buy Computer Arts or Wired which would also provide me with a level of news that I could get inspired from or get excited. I’ve realised that actually you have to be selective in what you buy and actually try and broaden that pond that I keep dipping into.

The only other magazine that I buy with any regularity is The Economist. I like the fact that it is a dense read and that you feel like you’ve learnt something after you’ve read it. And this week’s issue was no different. On the cover is a weird looking violin. Upon reading further you realise it’s actually a 3D printed Stradivarius. The main article basically discusses the whole new industrial revolution where products are printed through a series of powders rather than having a solid block of something and chipping parts away from it.

Another magazine I might expand to is The New Yorker as well, to see if I start to learn more stuff as well.

So I’m off to Greece on Saturday. This is my first time off since I started work in Lebanon and at PDP. I’ve had a couple of days off here and there (Bank holidays, not my own days off mind) and it’s been a pretty long slog. There’s sooo much that has happened over the various months that honestly I don’t know where to start.

Needless to say I feel it’s well deserved. To be fair it’s not all fun and games as I’ll be trying to sort out my suit for the wedding and also trying to finish off the invitation cards (we’ve been designing the hell out of these cards with Yasmine).