5 Proven Tactics to "De-stress"

Cold and flu season are in full swing, application deadlines are looming, and major life changes are on the horizon; in other words, stress is in the air and odds are you are suffering from it. Here are 5 tactics I use to deal with my stress, hopefully some of them will be useful to you.

1. Be Disciplined - This one may seem counter-intuitive at first, as we often hear about "letting loose" as a way of combating stress. I agree and therefore advocate being disciplined about when and how you "let loose." For some, letting loose may mean developing a craft while for others it may be having a nice meal with some friends. Whatever your "letting loose" lever, make sure you regularly set aside time to use it. Personally, I like watching movies, reading a book with a nice cup of black tea or meeting up with good friends. I make it point to do at least one of these things every weekend, most often on Saturdays.

Super Bowl Blackout 2013: During and After

The lights went out at the Super Bowl, and it was probably the most exciting event of the game for me and all other 49ers fans out there.

Here are the top 4 things to happen since.

Facebook Graph Search: Utility or Futility?

Facebook launched its Graph Search product today in a closed beta and they are excited.

But I'm not sure they should be.

Why? Because at its core, Graph Search is severely limited by the data that Facebook users provide.

Indeed, soon after I wrote the above quip in a Facebook wall post, The Wall Street Journal published this gem of an article, where they similarly argue that the problem for Graph Search is that our Facebook networks only contain a very small amount of the useful information on the Internet.

I agree with the article's arguments but add to and elaborate a bit on them in this post.

Zain's Top 5 Moments Of 2012 - Moment #2

This is a multi-post series highlighting what I think were my top moments / events in 2012.

Moment #2 - "Disrupting Class"

Me teaching a session on the academic applications of Twitter

We are now at Moment #2 of my Top 5 Moments of 2012 year review and things are getting a bit more serious.