Category Archives: Off Topic

Shingles Schmingles

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Last Friday I started feeling a piercing pain in my right hand chest. At first I thought maybe I had stretched a muscle or something, but the pain kept growing over the weekend.

IMG_4930Monday afternoon the pain was getting pretty severe so I decided to get a checkup at the hospital, and it turns out I have an outbreak of shingles. While uncommon amongst ‘younger’ people, it does happen it seems.

Good thing is, if you attract this while young it lowers the risk of getting a more severe version when you are older.

Lucky me… ahem

Anyways, given the above there will be less DIY’ing and more sleeping over the coming days…

Will keep you posted.

 

Stuck in an endless AdSense loop…

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I’m not extremely active on Youtube, but I do post a video from time to time and some of them have accumulated at least a some views. I’ve been thinking about monetizing them using ads, so a while back I applied to join the Youtube partner program.

In order to complete the application I had to also create an AdSense account and link it to my Youtube account via a publisher ID. Said and done, about a day later I got an email from AdSense saying my account had been approved for Youtube monetization.

I went back to the Youtube video manager and sure enough a green dollar sign (woop!) now appeared next to my videos. A quick click through and ads were enabled for all the uploads.

I also noticed in the AdSense admin UI that I my account had the word ‘Hosted’ next to it in bold, red letters. Curios I decided to dig a bit deeper to understand the meaning. As it turns out, if you create an AdSense account via a Partner (Blogger, Youtube, …) your account is considered ‘Hosted’ and you are only allowed to monetize through the channel you used to sign up your account.

AdSense offers an upgrade path if you want to also monetize other channels, such as a blog or webpage. Since I run a few other sites I figured I’d try to upgrade and show some ads on them as well. This is when the trouble started.

Since hitting the upgrade button I have now gotten stuck in an endless loop of approvals and rejections between Youtube and Adsense, which seems to go something like this:

  1. I get an approval from Adsense to monetize via Youtube.
  2. I enable Ads in my Youtube channel.
  3. This triggers a rejection from Adsense which…
  4. triggers Youtube to disable monetization again.
  5. I try to login to AdSense which now says my account has been disabled, but there is no info or email from AdSense about the reason. All I can do is reapply for the AdSense account.
  6. Which I do.
  7. The loop repeats from step 1.

This is now happening on almost a daily basis, and since neither Youtube or AdSense offers any support to minor channels, I’m at a loss. Since AdSense wont tell me the reason for the ‘rejection’ I’m not sure what needs to be ‘fixed’ either.

If you have any experience with AdSense or any clue as to what’s going on please leave a comment and I will send positive vibes via the ether!

UPDATE (2014-08-17): The problem was resolved via some friendly folks at the AdSense forum. Still no clue as to what the root of the problem was…

Fantastic Earplugs!

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Got these amazing earplugs from a gacha machine on my last trip to Japan! Sadly I didn’t have time to get the whole series (there are 6 variations in total)…

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Off Topic: Sleeping Patterns

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Another Off Topic post. Sorry but without access to my gear I’ve found a lust to write about things besides making music. Live with it.

Since I stopped drinking loads of coffee and switched to tea, I’ve also seen some of my sleeping patterns change ever so slightly. I find that I get more tired in the evening due to the lower caffeine intake, and I feel less down in the mornings until I have my first cup of black.

Taking this a step further I’ve decided to try and twist my sleep cycle and rhythm slightly backwards so that I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. My decision comes not only from a shift in caffeine intake, but also from a string of articles I’ve read lately about the adverse effects of not sleeping enough. I also recognise some of the tell-tale signs of prolonged sleep deprivation mentioned in those articles. (No link, there’s a ton if you do a  search and .)

For the longest time I’ve been convinced that I’m a ‘night person’ but to be frank I’ve never made an effort to revert this and see what the alternative might be like (except from jet lagged periods). I’m really curious to see where this leads…

Have you ever tried to change your sleeping pattern? What was your experience?

Off Topic: Tea vs Coffee

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Ok this is going entirely off topic, but why not?

Since I arrived in Sweden I’ve become a heavy tea drinker. Just like my friends I’m taken by surprise by this since I’ve always been a heavy coffee drinker and never really ventured into the world of tea. So why now? Turns out the temporary housing I’m staying in while waiting for my apartment has no coffee maker. I know this is hard to believe in one of the heaviest coffee drinking nations on earth.

teaSo instead of hitting the horrible instant coffee variants available I decided to give tea a try, and the results have been really interesting.

Though tea contains caffeine just like coffee, the amount of caffeine in a typical cup is much less. This mean my average caffeine consumption has fallen drastically which has made me much more sensitive to the substance in general. The result is that I actually feel the energy rush of coffee again!

As a result of consuming less caffeine I also sleep better at night and my stomach feels more relaxed. I’ve also learned to appreciate many tea sorts that I did not know about before.

In summary, the switch to tea has made me feel better, sleep better and enjoy several new tastes. It also lets me save the power boost of caffeine from coffee to when I really need it.

Have you done or tried the switch? What was your experience?