Gregory Paul Johnson – Personal Update 201311 | 8 December 2013 | Sunday
Greetings,
Here’s my personal update for November 2013.
Delayed Newsletter. It’s been over 10 years that I’ve been sending out these personal updates, and 14+ years of sending out my monthly Resources For Life newsletters. It’s rare that I wouldn’t get one sent out in any given month. This past month, we were about a week without reliable Internet service at our home after the storm that went through. Multiple providers were having issues, and even my own mobile hotspot was having performance and signal strength issues. So, I just postponed a lot of my work including the newsletter. It doesn’t take a lot of time to get it done, but it does take a moment of uninterrupted and focused attention which just didn’t seem to materialize this past month. I think also my choice not to get it done was a Buddhist-like desire to detach from the stress and pressure of feeling it must get completed by the end of the month. Over this past year, I’ve been writing and posting these updates on the last day of the month — which sometimes gets a bit dicey depending on what other commitments may arise. This month I hope to get the December newsletter sent out earlier.
Internet Wiring Issues. As mentioned above, the storm that went through the midwest last month disrupted our Internet service. Coinciding with the storm, a coaxial splitter in the wall failed. We didn’t discover this until later in the week. It turns out that the wiring that delivers our Internet needs to be entirely replaced. It’s from about 30 years ago when the grade of coaxial used was intended only for antenna or cable analog video — not for high speed Internet service. Apparently, until we get the wiring replaced, we’ll still have some signal quality issues.
Non-Working Vacation. During Thanksgiving week, the University of Iowa classes are not in session so many staff take the week off (Thursday and Friday offices are closed anyway). Usually I do some extra consulting over Thanksgiving break, and also work at the office during this time, but this year I decided to actually take the week off and have a non-working vacation. Makur and I had planned to go to Chicago and use up some of our 190,000+ frequent flier miles on a hotel stay there, but given the colder weather, we decided to just stay home and postpone the trip.
Abundance of Emails. This year I’ve received over 20,000 emails, which seems about average with what other people are receiving. In addition to emails, there are text messages, phone calls, and Facebook communications. I’m doing my best to keep up with the inbound requests and communications, but forgive me if there’s a delay or lack of response. To enhance my ability to respond to request, I’m writing more articles, product reviews, and producing educational information that answers many of the questions people have.
Donating Computers. Over Thanksgiving break, I managed to cleanup and securely erase more than a dozen Windows computers and donate them to Goodwill. Having that pile of computers (large tower CPUs and a few notebooks) no longer taking up so much room was a load off! That may sound like work, but it was mostly just part of our goal to get some cleaning up done around home. To securely erase computers, one needs to wait many hours for the hard drive to be completely overwritten so it’s a task that can take days when you have so many computers.
Wellness. As you probably know, I have my interests and attention fairly spread around. In recent months, because of my desire to loose some weight, I’ve been focusing more on fitness, nutrition, and overall wellness. I’ve been having some great success with the wellness tracking system I’ve mentioned previously. After gathering a substantial amount of data, I’m ready to begin doing more research on that data and developing effective, yet simple and free, wellness protocols. I want to acknowledge and thank my many sources of information and inspiration, including Dr. Jason Bradley, Dr. Darlene Ehlers, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Michael Lam. These doctors promote a broad, holistic, clinical, data-driven approach to promoting strategies and protocols for overall wellness. I’m also grateful to Makur and Pavan Jain for their wellness wisdom, ancient remedies, and yoga knowledge.
- Wellness Tracking System. About two years ago I developed a wellness tracking spreadsheet. It is a heath data entry system for the iPad, iPhone, or any other mobile device with spreadsheet capabilities. With the tracking system, it’s possible to pick a specific health characteristic to measure and chart over time, like blood pressure, for example. Then, following diet and lifestyle changes, it’s possible to produce the desired results with positive feedback. It’s possible to have significant control over blood pressure, resting pulse, body pH, body temperature, percent body fat, weight, blood oxygen levels, and blood glucose levels all through diet and exercise. Progress can be measured at home using inexpensive home testing kits. In this way, it’s possible to create a customized program for your own body that produces the results you seek. I’m planning to continue improving the system, and hopefully getting some long-term beneficial results from it. I’ll be reporting more on this through upcoming articles.
- Universal Wellness Program. The Universal Wellness Program (UWP) is a system I’m developing that should have benefits to just about everyone wanting better health. It’s developed with universal design principles to be widely adopted and applicable.
- Infographic on Interrelated Illnesses. I’ve developed an info graphic on interrelated illnesses that is a companion learning resource to the UWP. It’s also available as a High Definition (1920×1080) image.
Writings. I’ve written many articles recently on a variety of topics. You can see them listed by title in the right column under recent posts, or view the most recent articles on the main page of the ResourcesForLife.com website.
Facebook. If we’re not already connected on Facebook, please visit my Facebook page and send me a friend request. I’ve been using Facebook to post ongoing photos and links to content.
Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began as a desire to share from my personal life about topics of faith, health, career, financial insights, and relationships. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
Many thanks to all of you who keep in touch and provide support for the work I do.
~ Gregory