Category: Journal

London Trip – Day 1 – Heathrow Express to Paddington – Welcome to London!

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I bought the Heathrow express 14 days earlier for a special. Tickets were stored on my iPhone wallet. I checked in the flight electronically and boarding pass was on my wallet. I have never travelled lighter!  Technology is allowing us to enjoy our life skipping the nuances of the technicalities of the structured civil society.
I think I over prepared for the flight. I had two magazines, a book, iPad with keyboard, my phone, headsets, popcorn, protein bars, and I didn’t touch any of those. The service was superb with two meals, and a selection of movies. I watched Captain Fantastic, and slept. They provided a pillow, a blanket, a blind, and ear plugs. It was a wonderful sleep.

At arrival, the first thing I noticed was that the bathrooms at Heathrow were minimalist modern design and very green (environmentally conscious).

The second thing was that all of the immigration officers looked ethnic (non-white or whatever the politically correct term is) and 2 out of the 8 immigration officers were wearing traditional Islamic scarves (Hijabies in case the word is not offensive to you).  A nice multicultural welcome. Standing behind me were four Iraqi gentlemen with Iraqi passports discussing how the hospitals in Samara and Beirut are better than the ones in Germany and London. They also complained about the length of the line. I felt a sense of Arabic prestige and entitlement I have seen for a while. Continue reading “London Trip – Day 1 – Heathrow Express to Paddington – Welcome to London!” →

Thought of Today: March 27, 2017 at 05:16PM

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“The true scarce commodity of the future will be human attention” Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft.

80: number of times you unlock your phone a day on average.

4.7 hours: average number of hours you engage your phone.

30% of daily media consumption is surfing the internet.

We are living in a world of digital noise.

Constant fragmentation of attention can result in PERMANENT loss of capacity for concentration.

FOMO: fear of missing out

A glance at twitter = 15-20 minutes of attention loss.

Solution:

1. Work deep: work accomplished = time x intensity – Pomodoro
2. Protect your time: tally your hours + deep scheduling.
3. Meditate to refocus your brain
4. Detox digital dependency and social media. People who matter don’t care how many IG followers you have.
5. Cut the shallow work

Source: Cal Newport and other articles

London Trip – Itinerary

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Saturday, April 1, 2017:fullsizerender-2.jpg

I leave Detroit at 10:28PM for a 7 hours and 37 minutes red eye flight to LHR.

Sunday, April 2, 2017:

I will arrive at 11:05 am in Heathrow airport in London on Sunday.

I booked the express train from LHR to Paddington Station for $15.50.

I also booked the return ticket on April 9.

I booked the first two nights in Hyde park area which is next to the Paddington Station so I can settle, rest, and then proceed with hostels for the rest of the trip.

Staying in this hotel:

Royal Eagle Hotel

royal_eagle_london_001

There, I will be meeting my friend Walid Marmar, and spending the few upcoming days together.

Visiting on Sunday:

  1. Diana Memorial
  2. Kensington Gardens
  3. Kensington Palace
  4. Hyde Park – Sunset

Monday, April 3, 2017:

Staying in Royal Eagle Hotel

Visiting on Monday:

  1. Serpentine Gallery
  2. Design Museum
  3. Holland Park
The rest of the trip is approximated in this map and it will be flexible to make decisions over there.  I will be posting a daily blog while I am there summarizing my daily experiences.

http://visual.ly/track.php?q=http://visual.ly/top-20-london-attractions-free-vs-paid&slug=top-20-london-attractions-free-vs-paidTop 20 London Attractions - Free vs Paid

From Visually.

Thought of Today: March 15, 2017 at 11:04AM

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Fashion Advice from a fashion expert friend in London to me:

1. Do not dress like American icons because they don’t know how to dress. They are rich and fashionless. Even our President’s fashion sucks.
2. Don’t wear running shoes, but wear comfortable shoes.
3. Don’t wear t-shirts with writing on them.
4. No slippers, sweat pants, hoodies, anything with a college emblem or name , no jerseys, no pajamas ever should leave the house.
5. If you pull a shirt or jacket more than 3 inches off your body, it is too big.
6. Jeans must be dark or white. No light blue jeans .
7. If you are over weight, lose weight. There is no fashion remedy to this.
8. Glasses, watches, scarves, and anything you put on, must match 100%. Check Pinterest if you are not sure.
9. No white socks
10. No Nike unless you are running in the gym.

Thought of Today: March 13, 2017 at 12:24PM

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Fight for freedom is gradual and eternal. Today’s fight for freedom can be manifested in:

1. Ending Israeli occupation to Palestine
2. Closing Guantanamo
3. Ending gender pay gap and economic severe inequality
4. Giving Transgenders access to their self-identified-gender BR
5. Ending search of electronic devices at border entries
6. Limiting NSA invasion of privacy
7. Limiting detention time at border crossings to 1 hour maximum
8. Redefining border crossing among nations
9. Ending endoctrination of children into sects and religions
10. Eliminating nationalism from education and teaching world citizenship
11. Redefining the 2nd amendment as allowing people to have equivalent legal power as government instead of arms.
12. Sanctioning countries that violate human rights and people’s right for self-determination and rule.

February 2017 Personal Productivity Report

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In the second month of the year, and after the Annual Strategic Meeting  at Fort Lauderdale that took place in the first week of February, implementing the W Plan for this month has a significant importance: it is testing the refined and edited plan to make sure it works, and stepping up the game plan based on the results.

So in January, I had 308 steps accomplished and an overall success rate of 55%. Last month of February, I had a 62% success rate and 367 steps accomplished.

Last month of February, I had a 62% success rate and 367 steps accomplished.

There were 12 important accomplishments in the month of February, including the establishment of 4 new businesses, establishment of a new meetup group and secured a great location for it, and some successes at the non-profit level.

The diet plan worked out fine and comfortable, although I followed the diet 76% of the time, and stuck to the menu 90% of the time, and exercised 85% of the time, I am 0.6 lbs away from the month’s goal.  This I counted as a failure, and next month it will get more strict.

Four of my goals in business that require coding and deep thinking, were not touched during the month due to lack of that “deep work” time.  Also, I had 53% success in doing my daily meditation, although much success in hiking through the woods. 

For that, an important resolution had to be made to tackle these “failures”.  The way is to create Deep Work time. Watch this video about Deep Work:

These resolutions were decided based on this:

2017.2.24.a Facebook is deleted as a phone application

2017.3.3.a Wake up at 6. Meditate to 6:15. Deep Work 6:15 to 8am.
2017.3.3.b To read and sleep, I have to be in bed by 10:30PM, otherwise a nap of 1 hour is needed in the afternoon of the next day.
2017.3.3.c Check mail once a week and scan once a month