Self
The personal file: milestones, missteps, and a few lessons that took embarrassingly long to learn.
Solo at Tahoe
1 tent, 13km hike, 1000 calorie breakfasts. No service, no pants, no worries.
This weekend I had the pleasure of camping at William Kent Campground. I'd felt cooped up for a long while, and I needed to clear my head. Taylor and I had originally planned on going together, but we thought it would be more ideal for me to try camping by myself for the first time. We've been going consistently in the cooler months, and I felt more and more confident every time. Was I still nervous? You betcha.
After a day of packing and cooking (with Taylor helping me prep...), I was off. While it usually takes ~3.75 hours to get to Tahoe from our home, it's closer to ~4.25 hours with the Tesla, and in real conditions 4.5-5.5 hours with traffic (if not worse—thanks, Sacramento). I left at a cool 09:30 to arrive by 15:00, making an additional pit stop at a clothing store because my dumbass didn't pack pants. To Tahoe.
I got checked in, had my usual lunch sandwich (and cucumbers with a dab of salt), and then it was onto something much more difficult than driving 4.5 hours: pitching the tent solo. After many failed attempts and several swear words in several languages, it was a beauty. I got the rest of my site set up, and it too was a beauty.
Besides sandwiches, I finally got the pleasure of cooking over the fire with a cast iron skillet—and I must say, this is living. My only complaint about camping was that I eat slow and the food gets cold fast. I don't mind sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag, I don't mind the lack of showers, I don't even mind the bugs or bears. But hot food is a necessity. I made a big pot of noodles with some spaghetti sauce (thanks Claude the LLM for the recipe and Luigi the human for the hint to use carrots), and created a diabolically good concoction. And it stayed warm for like 30 minutes while I ate in the majesty of nature's grace. For breakfast, I threw eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast into a skillet and called it good (it was good).
While I was only spending Friday through Sunday, I wanted to make the most of it. I went to bed early for myself (midnight) and woke up quite early (09:00) to get an early rise on the day. I never really touch my phone unless it's for my camera during camping, and this was much of the same. I solely use my Kobo e-reader—this time it was Dragon Ball manga and Game of Thrones: Clash of Kings.
I also managed to get a hike in on the Stanford Rock Trail. Again, my dumbass didn't realize that hiking a bike "rock trail" was going to be rough, but my feet were raw by the time I got back to my site. But I did manage a modest:
- 3h 35m
- 13.42km (8.3mi)
- 1,755 calories
- 1,014ft elevation gain (309m)
- 331 flight of stairs equivalent
On Sunday, I had to depart. After one last 1,000-calorie cast iron breakfast and some time of silence, I was back on the road for home. It's interesting how 70 hours of camping can give you the same sad feelings of leaving as a whole week or two-week vacation. Maybe that's the thing about nature—it doesn't count time in hours or days, but in moments where your mind finally stops racing and you remember what quiet actually sounds like.
📸 Photos are courtesy of iPhone Air.
Maposaurus, Napoleon, and 327,010 Steps
Evil Maposaurus prepare to meet your doom. Our hero has the power, glovebox is your tomb. Grab your Garmin take on the world.
The year is 2007: the iPhone launches, The Sopranos series finale airs, and Britney Spears may or may not have hair. It’s Super Bowl XLI — the Chicago Bears vs. the Indianapolis Colts. It’s the first Super Bowl played in the rain, and we’re heading into halftime with the Bears only down by two. Sadly, they would never recover. And the world would never recover from one of the greatest commercials of all time.
I’m talking about Maposaurus. A tongue-in-cheek homage to Ultraman, this commercial featured a befuddled driver fumbling with a giant paper map — remember those? — which bursts into life as a rampaging "Maposaurus" monster. A passerby pulls out his Garmin in-car GPS unit — remember those? — and, in true Ultraman fashion, transforms into a laser-shooting hero and defeats the beast. There’s even a sick rock soundtrack to go with it.
Evil Maposaurus, prepare to meet your doom.
Our hero has the power, glovebox is your tomb.
Grab your Garmin, take on the world.
Grab your Garmin, every boy and girl.
GPS, power, space, and truth.
MP3, traffic alerts, Bluetooth.
The champion of personal navigation. Garmin.
This commercial would go on to receive critical acclaim — and how couldn’t it?
Garmin returned the next year with another clever concept: Napoleon. Racing a red sports car through modern-day Paris, he relies on his trusty Garmin to guide him to battle. When the car screeches to a halt at its destination, Napoleon leaps out expecting war glory — only to be met by his troops presenting him with a small white pony instead of an army. I guess the joke is: even history’s greatest general can’t tell where he is without GPS.
While Napoleon didn’t receive quite the same praise as Maposaurus, both ads are emblematic of Garmin’s cultural moment — the undisputed leader in in-car navigation. When I told people I worked at Garmin, the #1 response I got was: “The car GPS thing?” Another industry, turned into an app on your home screen.
I first saw Maposaurus during my second internship at Garmin, thanks to my then-mentor Alex. I carried that lore with me into my first full-time job the next year. When it came time for the annual corporate walking/step challenge, I already had the perfect team name: Maposaurus. Then I walked like the glovebox depended on it.
Maposaurus finished top 5 of more than 40 teams, and I came in #16 out of 200+ individuals on a leaderboard that clocked me at 316,423 steps. My own Health app, counting every step, says 327,010 across those 18 days, February 18 to March 7, 2019. The day-by-day:
The official tally, for the record:
By the end of the competition, others were inspired — and even copied our headers!
The best part: it wasn't just a contest-week spike. I averaged over 17,000 steps a day across the eight weeks from mid-February to mid-April.
Bookmarked Books
So many books, so little time.
The following are my favorite books I’ve read. I’ve added them here in the hopes you might like some of them too. For a full list, check out my Goodreads.
Fiction
- The Harry Potter series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- And Then There Were None
- The Great Gatsby
- Treasure Island
Non-Fiction
- Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine
- American Prometheus
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- I'm Glad My Mom Died
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
- The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
- Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
- The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives
- Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
- How Google Works
- The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One
Textbooks
Hello👋 I’m Illya Starikov. Welcome to my personal blog.
Over the years, I’ve made many iterations of blogs. Blogs about Apple, technology, programming, portfolios, entertainment. This one is just about me.
My interests, that I will likely write about, include:
- Cats
- Programming
- Technology
- Traveling
- Video games
- Running, lifting, basketball
- Photography
Hope you enjoy!
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Maya Angelou
Breakdown of My Homescreen
A method to the madness.
Two months into the release of iOS 8, many of my workflows have changed. With new workflows come new apps—likewise, new apps lead to new iOS homescreens. I thought it would be appropriate to take the time to talk about my post-iOS 8 home flow.
Something to note: my homescreen is not the first page—it's actually the second. The first page is all iOS default apps that come with iOS 8, and the third screen is apps that I usually use monthly or weekly. The last page is all folders and one beta (Sunrise).
Before we get started, I'd like to talk about the overall layout—there is a method to my madness. The top row is dedicated to news—including Pocket, Pinner, Reeder, and Flipboard. The second row is dedicated to applications I access at least one time a day, if not multiple times a day. Tweetbot is far right because I access it many times a day, Day One because I typically access it once a day. The middle row is dedicated to writing—for blog posts and for Evernote, typically. The last two rows are just miscellaneous utilities that I like to access often, and obviously messages are at the far right for quick access.
My dock is for apps that I would need for quick access anywhere, anytime—as most docks are used. Because of interactive notifications, I no longer use Messages nearly as much; Mail is different. I cannot reply with a single gesture, so I have to actually click the app. OmniFocus is my task manager that I use so often that it has to be in my dock. Launch Center for shortcuts, and Safari for my default and only browser.
Here, I will further break down my apps, how I use them, and why I use them.
Homescreen
Pocket and Pinner
Pocket and Pinner are my "Reading Lists" from Safari, but better. Pocket is for any article that I come across that I might want to read later, and just archive. Likewise, Pinner works the same—but with a twist. Pinner I use for more referencing material that couldn't be part of Evernote. Articles I might want to quote, links that I may like and want to reference, essentially anything that would go into Evernote—but doesn't quite fit.
Reeder and Flipboard
Reeder is for all of my RSS needs. Any blogs that my internet acquaintances post to (Spinhalf, Casey Liss's blog, Mark Gurman's blog) typically go here. Furthermore, more Apple-related blogs (MacStories, Daring Fireball, AnandTech) reside within Reeder. Furthermore, I like subscribing to Apple PR, Developer News, and "Hot News."
Flipboard is more generalized news. I don't like the idea of having RSS for everything, and I like bigger stories curated. Listing out all of what I subscribe to—with the addition of the new categories the Flipboard team threw in—would probably be longer than my list of apps on my homescreen.
Day One
Day One is my personal Twitter. Any minuscule highlight of my day goes into Day One, and I love going back and seeing what I was doing months from now. I try to use Day One daily, because I know there are things that I want to go back and see what I was doing months from now. I don't always succeed.
Hours
Hours is more motivation for me than anything else. Currently, I am logging all the time that goes into my studies outside of school—mostly homework and studying. During winter and summer break, I will likely be using it to track how much time I put into writing.
Evernote
Evernote is one of my highest-used apps. It's marvelous on iOS, and I can refer back to anything I typed on my Mac. Here are a few of the many uses of Evernote I have:
- School Notes
- Programming Notes
- Gift Ideas
- Terminal Tidbits
- Recipes I Like
- Research
The list goes on continuously. Anything I want to reference goes into Evernote.
Tweetbot
On-the-minute news is mostly thanks to Tweetbot. Tweetbot is my favorite Twitter client, and it is my only means of accessing Twitter. The fast timeline sync, share sheets, Tweet counter—basically every little detail of Tweetbot is amazing. I have tried going to Twitter, and the things they are doing simply do not interest me. Since Twitter cards were introduced, I have actually only seen one—and it was an advertisement from a parody account.
Also, something very underplayed: the Avenir font option. When using something so extensively, it's nice to get away from the system standard Helvetica font. For reading, I prefer Avenir more than Helvetica.
Clips
Simply put, Clips is for all of my miscellaneous short snippets of text. The keyboard seems like too much, but the Today View widget is simply amazing. Nothing is faster than copying a snippet, pulling down Notification Center and saving it, and moving on. Fast, simple, and efficient.
Drafts
Drafts is for, well, drafts.
Anything I want to jot down really quickly, I use Drafts. It's much faster to click Drafts and write down "mom wants $10,000 diamond necklace for Christmas" than to click Evernote, find my mom's gift ideas, and then write it. Also, mom is going to be disappointed this Christmas.
Editorial and iA Writer Pro
Something I might get grief for: Editorial is not my main writing client; iA Writer is. Yes, I do love the many workflows Editorial has. I love the many things that Editorial can do. Editorial is simply not for me.
However, I do use Editorial for just that. All the workflows make editing snippets of text remarkably easy. I sometimes write whole articles or reviews in Editorial. Simply, Editorial is the best text editor on iOS without a doubt. If I wrote in iOS more, I would probably use it much more.
Now, for iA Writer Pro. As Editorial is the most functional, iA Writer is the most visually appealing. When I'm writing much more, I am really oriented about how the text editor is aesthetically. iA Writer has iCloud Drive support, which is a big win for me. I know many are skeptical, but I want to invest my time (and money) into something that is more native. Finally, the Mac iA Writer is what really sells me. The iA Writer for the Mac is just as appealing, and the support of iCloud Drive makes picking up where I left off a breeze. Since most of my writing is done via my MacBook, iA Writer really wins here.
Clear
Clear is for all general list needs. As strange as it may sound, I do have a dedicated list app. Normal lists, such as shopping lists and expensive toys I want to buy, can be found here—along with strange ones, like states I want to visit.
Sunrise
My favorite calendar application. Sunrise can vary from the official app to the betas they distribute—but it always has a special spot on my homescreen.
I also have Fantastical, which I use for the natural language event creation.
Spotify and Overcast
Spotify is by far my favorite streaming service. I very regularly listen to music offline, and Spotify handles offline content much better than other services that I have tried.
Overcast is not only my favorite podcast client, but many would agree that it is the best podcast client. Handling background downloads works flawlessly, the Smart Speed option has saved me plenty of hours (seven to be exact), Voice Boost is ideal for listening on a speaker, and it simply works intuitively. Also, I listen to the developer (Marco Arment) weekly on Accidental Tech Podcast, which shows me how much thought and effort really went into Overcast.
1Password
I use 1Password religiously. Storing all of my long, complicated passwords isn't just amazing because it works for what it should, but it goes above and beyond. All the little details of 1Password make me more comfortable using the app. 1Password simply gives me peace of mind every time I have to use the internet.
iWork
I don't use iWork daily—but when I do, it just works beautifully. Pages are for mostly essays and longer pieces of narrative. Numbers are for spreadsheets and graphs that I may use. Keynote, granted I use Keynote a lot less, is for presentations I may give.
Phone and Messages
Staying connected to friends and family is something I very regularly do. I don't like keeping Phone and Messages in my dock, because with interactive notifications, I never need to. I use OmniFocus, Mail, Launch Center Pro, and Safari far more than Messages, so Phone and Messages stay at the bottom left of my homescreen for quick access.
Dock
I use Mail enough to the point where it is a necessity to have in my dock. Emails from work, friends and family, and from people writing me are something I want quick access to. Therefore, Mail is one of my dock apps.
OmniFocus
I've tried many task-managing apps, and OmniFocus has been my favorite because of its ease of use, functionality, and amazing syncing. As a regular iPhone/Mac user, syncing is something I very regularly use. OmniFocus is the most functional for me, because it doesn't tell me when to do something, but tells me when it is due. OmniFocus is by far my favorite task-managing app.
Launch Center Pro
Since Federico Viticci's many great articles on Launch Center Pro, I decided to give it a shot; I have not looked back since. Launch Center truly is a step towards iOS automation. It does have stipulations, like the fact that it is so reliant on URL schemes, but it is worth the time it can save you.
Safari
Safari is likely to be my favorite app made by Apple. It is an amazing web browser, and works so seamlessly between OS X and iOS. Many of its great features—iCloud Sync, Keychain, etc.—are very valuable assets to me in my everyday workflow.
Honorable Mentions
I have a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut to my iOS homescreen, but are still apps I use pretty much day to day.
- Pillow: a smart alarm app that works with Apple's Health app.
- Skitch: for all my annotations.
- Weather Line: general use weather widget—since widgets, I use weather apps much less.
- Wolfram Alpha: a calculus survival tool.
- Elevate: beautiful brain training game that I play when I have free time.
- Mint: money management, because believe me, I need it.