Monthly Archives: August 2012

It’s Wednesday Already? (ROW80 Check-In)

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The first, aborted draft of this post was around a thousand, barely-coherent words. Let’s hope this draft behaves itself.

When I first took on the task of writing about the Boston Celtics this season, I mainly did so as an experiment and writing exercise. Instead of writing what I knew, I wanted to write about what I didn’t know and what I didn’t give a shit about.

So imagine my surprise this week when I discovered I’m actually getting into basketball. The sport itself deserves some of the credit, but mostly I’m blaming the Red Sox.

I’m having a tough time believing that Bobby Valentine will go down in history as anything but the worst manager the Red Sox have ever had. But the less said about that, the better–especially since what I originally wrote here was a six-hundred-word essay on that subject.

Suffice it to say, I can’t wait for October to get here.

Anyway, goals.

This has been a fairly decent week work-wise, but trying to nail myself down to a short list of projects has been excruciating. In fact, the effort has left me wondering if I have any sense at all. I no sooner get a list written, say “this is it,” then six other projects jump up and make me start the whole process over again.

What’s worse, I’ve decided I absolutely need to have some Me Time goals in the mix. Yes, it’s official, unless I find a way to trick myself into thinking I’m working, I seem incapable of having fun.

Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?

Whatever. The point is that coming up with a list of three projects–one big, two small–has now become coming up with a list of six projects–two big, four small, split evenly between Work and Fun.

If I had more coffee in me, I’d elaborate. For now, I’ll just leave it that next week I hope to have a new set of goals written.

Honestly, though, if this week has been any indication, I’ll be lucky if I have a set of goals ready for the next round.

Only Sort of Checking In

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The end of last week didn’t give me much joy, just a load of bad noise which meant I didn’t do squat. Such is life. Yesterday things turned around a bit and I was able to write some stuff, but once again I’m faced with trying to fit productive work in around the cracks.

Most of my non-writing time yesterday was spent on trying to wrap my brain around how to organize the mess of work I’ve created for myself. I was talking to someone a week or so ago and mentioned that my normal habits result in a fairly predictable cycle.

Step 1: Take on a new long-term project.

Step 2: Work like hell.

Step 3: Reach a comfortable balance where I feel like I’m in control.

Step 4: Repeat from Step 1 until I have an aneurism.

Step 5: Prune my project list back to a reasonable level.

It takes between two and three months for me to run through the whole cycle. And today sees me firmly in pruning territory. Too many things on the plate, not enough time in the day, you know how it is.

One of the reasons I like talking to other writers is I rarely have to explain crap like the above. I haven’t met a single writer who hasn’t gone through this. Biting off more than we can chew seems like par for the course. In fact, I sort of wonder if the Writing Gene comes with the I Have No Goddamned Perspective trait as standard equipment.

Anyway, my goals have largely been beaten and left for dead this week. Partly my fault, partly my choice. I managed to hit my three posts a week goal for this site, but that was more luck than anything else. On the freelancing front, I got nothin’.

I’ve pretty much swept these goals out the door with a final grunt of disgust, opting instead to give myself two tasks to finish by the end of this round.

  1. Choose three projects to work on. One long, two short. The plan here is to work on the long or big project every day, while I work on the two short on alternate days.
  2. Figure out a better way to measure my progress. I’m leaning toward hours worked on the smaller projects, words written on the big one. And of course, whenever research needs to happen, I’ll track hours worked there too.

I think if I lock myself down to three projects and no more, I might be able to break the aneurism-inducing cycle I’m always trapped in.

Of course, when I dream, I also have a pony.

Wherein I Climb Back in the Saddle Again

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Some days are ruled by bad noise. Nothing between the ears seems to work, and no amount of pushing gains me any ground. The best I can manage is to spot those days when they come and conserve energy instead of spinning my wheels until the tires go bald.

The last couple of days were ruled by the noise, and sometimes the noise was literal.

Squirrels have been waking me up every day, the little bastards bouncing acorns off the porch roof, filling the morning air with a sound like gunfire. Then there’s the sound of power tools, lawnmowers, and screaming children. And, of course, there’s been company. Every goddamned day, company for someone or another has been camped out on my porch yammering away into the evening.

Yesterday the noise turned into a kind of Chinese water torture. Every sound hit the same spot in my mind, over and over again, bruising and maiming it beyond repair. Even a few seconds of stolen silence felt like I was getting into a warm bath, only for the next ring of the telephone, or BANG of an acorn, to throw a bucket of ice water over me.

It should go without saying that it’s impossible to work in conditions like these.

But this morning the squirrels took the day off, or maybe I was just too comatose to hear them. Either way, I woke up on my own at 7:30 and smiled before my eyes were open–just like my daughter usually does.

A joyous silence filled my room, a simple moment of peace and quiet, and I felt my brain reset.

I feel pretty good today, leaps and bounds beyond where I was yesterday.  Someone’s making a racket down the street, but I’m not bothered by it in the slightest.

There’s work to be done. And now that I can think again, it should be easy going.

Not an Actual Wednesday Check-In

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Between hanging out with my daughter for the last few days of her visit, and taking care of a bunch of non-work things which needed to be done, I made practically no progress on my goals.

I was hoping today would be better because Alex is once again back with her mother, but no, not gonna happen.

  1. The light switch in the kitchen is on its last legs, joining a wall outlet in that room on the list of electrical things that aren’t working. Those are getting fixed this morning, which will require the power being cut during Peak Do Stuff Time.
  2. I have a friend coming over sometime after that so I can help him with a web site he’s trying to set up. That’ll take a while and use up whatever Do Stuff Energy I have.
  3. After driving myself to a near-aneurism trying to fit things in around the demands of my awesome and energetic seven year old, I’ve decided to take the two items above as signs that this should be a day off. I plan to spend whatever time I can playing Uberstrike, drinking coffee, and enjoying the day.

Sunday I’ll have something worthwhile to report. Until then, have fun!

Veganism and Grim, Meathook Failure

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After a brief argument with my carnivorous self, I’ve decided to go the vegan route. Not because I see anything wrong with eating animals–animals do that to each other all the time–but because the amount of resources consumed by the commercial raising of animals for food is just insane. Something like 30 percent of the Earth’s land is used for livestock. That stat alone should be enough to force ethical consumers to say goodbye to animal products.

Anyway, I told you that so I could tell you this: expect to see the occasional vegan recipe here, as well as the general ramblings of a person new to the vegan thing. And doing the “vegan thing” is harder than you think.

Not eating meat? That’s fairly painful. Not eating eggs and dairy? That’s cruel and unusual. It should also be entertaining, since my personal food pyramid is built upon a foundation of cheese.

That said, onto my goals.

This Site

Check, check, check. The posts go up, I’m reading and commenting on more blogs, meeting great people, and generally feel pretty good about this site.

I’m especially enjoying my adventures in the land of basketball, which I’m posting here, but that’s another story.

Freelancing

I’ve started tracking the time I spend doing research. And by “tracking” I mean “sort of writing it down, kind of, when I think about it.” Other than that, I haven’t done much else.

I’m an awful person.

Which brings me to…

ROW80 Thoughts

If my napkin math is right, we’re just past the half-way point of this round of ROW80. This is my first round, as I mentioned way back at the start, so I figure it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the experience.

I jumped into this round without any real warning. The ROW80 challenge had been on my list of things to check out for a while, and when I did, I saw a new round was only days away from starting up. “Jump in with both feet,” seemed like the best course of action, so that’s what I did.

As it turns out, I knew less about myself than I thought. It also turns out I wasn’t nearly as good at setting goals as I believed. I didn’t have good metrics for a big part of one goal, I had to tweak another because it was too easy to meet, and I tanked a third within days of starting.

That smells a lot like failure to me. Still, I’m a silver-lining kind of guy. Since sucking is the first step to not sucking, I figure I’ll be doing okay if I can take something useful from this experience–and I have.

I have a better idea on how to account for my full-speed/full-stop approach to work. I’m also much more aware of what is a good, measurable goal for me, and what is nothing more than an ambiguous black hole. With these new bits of wisdom, I’m already looking ahead to the next round and thinking about better goals, along with better ways of approaching them.

That’s progress, right?