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This is a continuation from my first post on CBD oil for anxiety while programming.

So, recently I’ve been having a lot of work related stress, having taken on one too many freelance projects. These past few weeks have felt very robotic, and I’ve been on edge and quick to go off, and I remembered my earlier experience with CBD oil that I documented here, and thought I’d try CBD oil for my anxiety one more time.

I did some reading online, researching the best CBD oils for anxiety here and eventually deciding to buy the 500mg full spectrum CBD oil from Royal CBD. It took a day to arrive, and once it did, I dosed 16.66mg twice per day, and I instantly felt much more relaxed. While I was quick to write it off as a placebo, when I tried the oil a different time at night (keeping it under my tongue for 60 seconds as the bottle suggested, instead of just swallowing it the firs time), the effects came on much more quickly and were more pronounced, and taking it like this for my later supplementations proved beneficial.

When faced with more tasking project deadlines and roadmaps, it’s always good to have something to fall back on that’s natural, and when meditation only gets you so much relief. While this CBD oil is a bit expensive for my liking (though I’m happy with this provider, as my first experience with a lower quality CBD oil vendor left me with awful tasting hemp oil with no benefits), I’ll definitely be keeping it in my arsenal for those tough days.

Programming is tough. I can’t count how many times a project manager or boss has swung by my desk and asked what I was working on, or come by to tell me that I have a month to complete a project that would take at least three times as long. When asked, the managers “don’t think it will take that long”.

I find that wherever I work — and in the past 25 years as working as a programmer, I’ve held three different long term positions and worked as a consultant for more than 20 firms, and a freelance developer on hundreds of projects — there are always expectations set that are simply not rational.

Often times, as programmers, we are introverts. A study from the University of Vermont found that 73% of software developers self-reported their personality, when given the choice between introvert and extrovert, as introvert. That means that, by default, we are more likely to face issues like anxiety and depression.

So, how can we manage this pressure that leads to these unwanted conditions? Giovanni, a friend of mine, and fellow senior developer at a FinTech startup in San Francisco, recommended CBD oil after it became legal after the 2018 Farm Bill late last year. He had been bugging me to try it, but I had turned him down: I am not a cannabis user, and I didn’t plan to start now.

However, when I learned that despite being called CBD (cannabidiol) and sounding like cannabis, CBD oil is not derived from cannabis and doesn’t get you high. I learned, after reading on iSum that CBD is derived from cannabinoid-rich hemp, and that CBD is one of the two main cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, but does not have to be derived strictly from cannabis.

It’s been praised as a treatment for pain in humans, but even dogs are getting in on the action. While most common for pain, it is also used for anxiety, according to this post on iSum: https://isum.com/cbd-oil-for-anxiety/. I will say: while we cannot control the pressure that our bosses put on us, what we can control is how we deal with it. While right now I don’t have any deadlines coming up as I am taking a paternity break, I will be giving CBD oil a try to see if it can help me bite my nails and pull my hair out less when placed in high pressure situations like the ones outlined above.

I will keep you all in the loop, and hope you check back for updates on my CBD journey

I just returned from a vacation after spending the past two weeks in Reykjavik, Iceland where I came back from hiking and spending time with my family. With the ability to visit my family once every summer, the time I spend with them is cherished and goes by quickly. During the trip, I was actively engaged in business, and as a self-employed freelance developer and designer, I was able to work on my projects while traveling — that’s just one of the perks of being a digital nomad. 🙂

I first arrived in Sweden as my first of two flights had just landed, and realized I didn’t have any Swedish Krona. I was planning on taking out a loan from Sambla like I usually do, but they wouldn’t process forms submitted abroad. I did some research and decided to take out a låna pengar from LoanStar and pay it back at the end of my three day day in Sweden with my debit card.

The typical day consisted of waking up, having breakfast at a local café, exercising and hiking until the sunset, and shower, eat dinner, rest, and do the same thing the next day. When I first got there, I didn’t have gear, but was able to buy Montem trekking poles at the resort shop.

The photos that I took unfortunately are not all able to be shared because I lost my camera at the resort! I hope that they will mail it back, and have been in touch with them, but the language barrier without the translators (a.k.a. my family) at my service makes communication difficult. Still, I had some photos backed up to the cloud, and have some photos that I took on my phone.

 

I have been working on a new version of FLV Player. The most important change is the ability to play On2 VP6 encoded FLV files. Other improvements include a resizable window and zoom 1x/2x buttons to allow for quick jumping to the FLV’s original size (after resizing FLV Player’s window, for example) and to look at your .flv file at 200% zoom. Version 1.3.2 and later also supports loading an FLV file or stream from either a regular webserver or an RTMP streaming server.

FLV Player is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista and works quickly, it converts FLV file format without any additional driver installations needed. An OS X version is in the works, no info on a release date yet.

• Download installer (sponsored page) – click the bottom-most link on the next page, you can also download tryout versions of flv recording and flv conversion software there.
• Download source files (.fla, .as, .sws)

This new version is based on Flash Player 8 and utilises the default Macromedia FLV Playback component, which uses a slightly customised skin (blue instead of green highlights). FLV Player is built with Screenweaver Open Source, which is still in beta, so your mileage may vary. Let me know if you encounter unexpected results. Or, even better, join the Screenweaver Open Souce initiative and help us create an even better version of Screenweaver!

One often requested feature that hasn’t been incorporated yet is the “fullscreen” option, Partly because I need some additional time to work on that specific ability, partly because I’m not sure if it’s that usefull. Playing FLV’s fullscreen is very CPU intensive. I think the zoom 2x feature and the resizeable window will suffice for now, but if you’d really like a fullscreen option, drop me line in the comments.

An important note to keep in mind: FLV Player uses the Macromedia Flash 8 FLV Playback component to play .flv files with. This component functions best when your .flv contains valid metadata.

Update August 22, 2017: The Mac OS X version has been released and is currently in public beta. Please get in touch if you are interested in becoming a beta tester.