I went to Wikipedia to look up a quick fact on the function of the US Secret Service for Inconsequential. An hour and a half later I closed it in disgust with myself after learning that the last Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle was nicknamed El Rey by its Mexican assemblers.
DAMN YOU INTERNET!!
Anyway, in more pleasant news, 10K Commotion updated for the first time in months. Finally, conflict! Finally, climax! Finally, a reso–whoops, that’ll be a little while longer. Still, the story’s getting very good now, and I still stand by my remarks from four years ago– as soon as this is in print, as soon as I can buy a physical copy, I certainly will.
Inconsequential Update: 18 scenes left to go, with 77,777 words written. Exactly. I am still a major slacker about it, though.
Oh, and Kanon: Saw to the end of Episode 12 last night (the middle of Mai’s arc). Of course, the end of Makoto’s arc did to me what it always does. I have to go back over it sometime to see what’s changed, though I do think there’s been a couple of changes. Overall, though, I was pretty sure that Mai’s arc unfolded very differently… we’ll see.
This week I feel especially productive. Don’t ask me why; maybe it’s because I’m coming from a particularly interesting and peaceful trip to my parents. Maybe it’s because I spent last night watching some of Kanon (note to self: re-start at Episode 8)… and there’s a lot I want to talk about with that series, but right now I can’t as I’ve not caught up to ‘current’ yet (but soon). Maybe it’s because my shot of Vitamin GTD has reminded me that I am this close on, like, a zillion projects. Maybe it’s the fact that not only did I have a Case O’ Bawls in my fridge this morning, but I also found a new flavor of Amp that I actually don’t think tastes like liquid ass (for reference: it’s the cherry-’inspired’ Overdrive variant, which is actually damn tasty and still has enough go-juice to be worthwhile).
We just don’t know.
Anyway, then, here’s the plan. I’m looking to get five scenes of Incon written this week, which would knock me down to 14 left. In terms of gaming, I’d like to get leveled to 40 or 42 in FF12 so that I may have a Plotsplosion over the weekend, possibly even enough to finish up the game (but I’m not counting on it); also, the Valentine’s Day event is still on City of Heroes, and I have four characters there who ’should’ get it. If I have some extra time, I might also want to start reading one of the three books on my side-table… but that’s not terribly likely. Finally, I also want to find all of the squirreled-away writing folders I’ve spread across three hard drives and consolidate them into one. Those are what I want to do. I also have to do project analysis on three other things, which have to remain kind of hush-hush for now (well, two, anyway; the third is still too pie-in-the-sky for me to talk about just yet).
If I accomplish any one of these things I’ll be happy and feel like I’ve done something constructive this week; any more than that and I’m setting a very dangerous precedent for myself.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about David Allen’s fantastic book “Getting Things Done”, but have remained oddly quiet on it in the interim. The simple fact is that I only managed to get halfway through it before life intervened in that way that it always seems to. Still, I spent some time during the snow-in skimming over the last half of the book, as well as the overview provided in Gina Trapani’s LifeHacker book. Of course, this all came to produce a story that sort of illustrates my point, much like most of what I write about here.
Wednesday morning, of course, happened to me like it did to everyone else in the Northeast. Intense sleet had fallen overnight, encasing the outside world in ice and rapidly-freezing slush. About ten minutes after I made my post to the blog, I came back into my apartment after chiseling my car free from the ice, and removing the largest part of what would block my vision if I was foolish enough to consider driving in the very dangerous conditions. Anyway, I came in, showered, and was just picking up my backpack to get it ready for an attempt when my power went out. It flickered twice and died for good.
Naturally, panic set in. I scrambled to find my flashlight (tucked behind the lampstand at the door), turned off as many lights as I thoguht I had turned on, and had a good thirty seconds of grousing that things had just ‘gotten worse’. After that, however, I started thinking clearly again. I called in to work, checked in with my folks, and decided to make the most of the situation. I pulled out my notebook and searched for stuff that I could do in the meantime. There was a little– mostly work stuff, but a couple non-connected things on my list. Granted, I didn’t catch everything that I could have done, but that was partly because I’d mislabeled it in the actions list. Even at that, I accomplished so much during a period I would have considered to be ‘dead’ time.
Here’s an abbreviated list of what I did, just during the time I was without power and the period after that with no internet connection (about 8 hours):
* Updated my resume, and corrected a problem with it that I had forgotten about on several occasions.
* Folded the remainder of the laundry from the day before.
* Wrote a guide for a co-worker who was having trouble understanding a feature I’d written, even though I wouldn’t be able to send it immediately.
* Continued development on my current work task, writing a lot of “it should work in theory” code that I wouldn’t be able to check/debug until later (my battery was starting to die).
* Read more of the C# books I’d picked up; also, updated my version of the XNA framework based on the installer I’d downloaded last week but forgot about.
* Backed up and cleared out my InstallFiles folder and a few other miscellaneous dumping points on my Windows machine and flash drive.
* Other miscellaneous personal stuff, all of which I’d been ‘meaning to do’.
That’s seven to ten points on a checklist that I’d previously thought to have been insurmountable. That’s also including a little bit of ‘break time’ spent (once I had power, and whilst eating lunch) playing Geometry Wars. Seriously, that is one damn addicting game. The main point being, by having a list of what I needed to do at the ready and waiting, I was all set to take the maximum amount of advantage of the time I had suddenly found myself in posession of.
I’ll be honest with you. At first, I was abusing the system by overusing the system. I had scheduled time for FF12 and for leisure reading, which added to my stress in that I didn’t know which instrument of slacking off I was going to set myself to, and therefore I would sit and surf aimlessly for a few moments until something appealed to me, until it was bedtime some six hours later. These days, I just keep a brief list of open games and open books at the bottom of my projects page, and whenever I don’t think I can do anything on the list, I pick a game or book and relax. Wedging my relaxation activities into the worklist was definitely not the right thing to do, but as with everything, there’s a learning curve. And I am still learning, myself. I’m tring to find a way to do a mid-level project analysis so that it makes sense to me, but fits within the context of my notebook.
That’s probably the thing I most love about the GTD system. The basic bottom line is that there’s no real rules to follow. You can do it in any way that makes sense to you, without having to worry about fitting what you want into the pre-printed form fields. I’m still tweaking my weekly planner layout, because I’ve got way too much space for projects (leaving those painfully ambiguous right now), but not so much space for my ‘drop lists’ like Waiting, Someday, and Open Games, or my random-access Actions list. The Actions list gets added to and crossed off of over the course of the week, and this previous week, I wound up having to go to another page– bad when you want everything to be in one location. If I had bought a $30 day planner, I’d be stuck with how they think I should be organized. GTD lets me get organized on my own terms.
I hate to sound like I’m suggesting everyone go run out and buy this– it’s not for everyone, I admit. I think it is, and wish it was, but I know some folks aren’t into the obsessive-compulsive, always-carrying-a-thick-notebook-and-pen thing. The GTD book has an outlay, depending on where you get it, commensurate with the pre-printed day planner, when combined with the notebook you’ll need. But the thing is, where the expensive day planner is a yearly expense that doesn’t get any cheaper, the notebook is a recurring expense that’s much less.
Anyway, I hope I’ll be able to share much GTD stuff in the future. We shall see.
Also, this morning, the AP reports that Chinese prognosticators believe the coming Year of the Pig will be full of turbulence, both political and psychological. This is in part due to the fact that this year is governed by two conflicting elements. Quoth Raymond Lo of Hong Kong, “Fire sitting on water is a symbol of conflict and skirmish.” It’s also a sign that you may be living in Cleveland.
I’m off, ladies and gentlemen. Updates over the weekend as per my usual idiom, and I’ll catch you folks on Monday.
Irony is completing a post advising everyone to be safe on the roads during the snowstorm only moments before my power goes out for four hours and my internet access goes out for four beyond that. Oh, and the only road out from my apartment is covered in slush and ice and completely impassable. Things should be fine now, but yesterday was… not good.
In any event, after I finished work yesterday, I advanced some in FF12. Not advancing the plot just yet– I just landed in Giruvegan, which is about 2/3rds of the way through the plot– but leveling. I don’t seem to mind grinding out the levels, as I’ve found a good spot where a significant number of Malboro Overkings spawn; each one nets about 750-900xp per kill, plus a good chance at dropping a Malboro Fruit (worth 600 gil). A couple of trips through that area gets me a level on all six, which works out pretty well. I’ve also just finished outfitting my characters with the best armor and weapons available, and I’m working on boosting my magic resist. Bosses are not really my concern; the baddies between the bosses are what worry me.
…as I spent most of yesterday dealing with thirty different things. Yeah, yeah, slacker, I know. Anyway, rather than leave you hanging, I’d like to encourage you (if you haven’t already) to check out the weather monitoring program/device of your choice and to be careful out on the roads. Because while yesterday was nice, working from home and all that, I know some folks don’t have that option. More than that, those who don’t might wind up in serious trouble if/when they get stuck. Believe me, folks, I’ve been there before; enough times to have come up with the 30 Degree Rule: “If the direction your car is traveling differs from the direction your car is facing by thirty degrees or more, you go home.”
I’m going to see if I need to chisel my car free, now.
Have a listen to this commentary piece that I heard on Morning Edition yesterday on the way in to work. I like NPR in general, but to be honest, this one is basically just fishing for some fire. The gist is that a mother is concerned that her kids’ burgeoning addiction to Wii Sports is crippling their sense of self-worth, by convincing them (insidiously!) that playing tennis is just as easy as flailing literally aimlessly. “Kids will never learn what a real level playing field is,” she says.
Sure they will, as soon as they wind up out of high school. In the meantime, it’s your job, lady, to tell them that what they’re doing isn’t necessarily real, and leave the rest of us who can tell fantasy from reality alone. Because if you complain that Wii Sports isn’t real enough, then all video games are going to get more realistic, including the gory horror games and shooters that, in about two years, you’ll be complaining about. Heck, as soon as Manhunt 2 hits the Wii, you’re probably going to buy that thinking “It’s on the Wii, so it must be OK for my kids”.
I thought that NPR catered to the ‘intelligent’ crowd. Maybe they are, and I’m supposed to be as amused by this as I am.
Incidentally, Kid Icarus and Kirby’s Adventure dropped on the VC yesterday. I myself was kind of hoping for a later-gen title or two this week but these are good picks. Ice Climbers rounds out the set, which I don’t see many people buying… Hrm. Kirby, Ice Climbers, and Kid Icarus. Mayhap some news on Super Smash Bros. Brawl is on its way this week? We shall see, won’t we?
Also, though it’s of practically no use to anyone but me, I’ve started tinkering with Greasemonkey a little bit, crafting some custom scripts for those times when I’d really like to mess with how someone else wrote their site. So far… one (plus two admin-related ones that are for my use). But more, eventually.
The weekend was good; nothing terribly interesting to report. Gunstar Heroes was a nice diversion for a while, and I’ll probably play through it again at some point; but for now, I’m trying to concentrate on FF12 and Dead Rising.
I didn’t get to see any of Kanon. Which depresses me, as I thought I’d be able to– aside from stuff coming up, I was ready to sit down and run through it. But yes, stuff came up– minor stuff that wouldn’t really be of note except that it took my attention away.
This week is likely to be ‘uneventful’ as well, as I prepare for a trip to my parents’ house over the weekend. So, yeah. Daily updates as per my promise, but you’ll still be hungry afterwards.
