Monday, January 18

An interesting day, worked on the designs my nephew supplied for the mystery writer's website, and prepared some files to allow her to review them. I'm looking forward to her reactions, as well as using her input to create the final site soon.

While I've been less than happy with my production of late, I have been attempting to expand my brain a bit with my Netflix selections. Terry Jones' "Medieval Lives", "The Power of Myth", "Cosmos" and a few Frontline's to catch me up on the collapse of our economy. The one thing that's become abundantly clear is how internal my focus has been, and while I think some degree of examination is helpful (vital even), moving from ideas to action is what the next few months are about. Prior to my beloved pool season, my head and body need to have been put through the paces so that I actually "deserve" some kind of break. Ever since Christmas, I've been on some kind of mini-sabbatical, and as of today, its over.

Joseph Campbell's admonition to "follow your bliss" and to not allow the consciousness to believe it's "in charge of the show" both struck me strongly as I listened to him today. I reread his book "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" again a couple of months ago, and not for the first time, was blown away by the insights contained within. We are both wondrous, and banal creatures, and it all comes down to our choices as to which side of that ledger we fall.

Sunday, January 17

Jeezum Cronies, I just can't shake this funky ill'in feeling, I can function but its like I'm just running on vapors. That said, I got a lot taken care of today, in particular my cooking for the week. Prepared the chicken breasts which'll marinate overnight, cooked six servings of eggs (2 real, 3 egg white), six two-cup servings of tuna salad, cut and bagged the bagels, prepped six 2-cup servings of cottage cheese, so I'm set. Watched the Cowboys get their asses kicked, which is the next best thing to actually having a competitive Redskins team. Synced up with Lincoln and we agreed upon our weekly writing goals, so we'll have a context for our "mutual support" group.

Tomorrow, being a holiday, is going to be a dry-run for my new weekend approach. This past weekend was a wash, and I'm two pay periods in from when I started my three-day week, and I've yet to have what I consider a successful sequence of days. I'm going to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to have a successful week this week. I'm going to bed on time, I'm waking up on time, I will hue to my schedule and my goals. The buzz word is "energy", I will fuel my body, I will rest my body, and I will push my body. Getting the more animal parts of my goals working will help with my more lofty goals. Want some more female energy in my life, will have to seek that out this week.

P.S. I hope it's the illness, but I can't get Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" out of my head, help me.

Saturday, January 16

Evidently, I was a little optimistic in my prognosis of full health, started the day at the gym but things devolved horribly from there. Had that fuzzy-head thing, then the whole "should I rest? should I push forward?" which I always fall into when I'm feeling punk. I am seriously the worst sick person, it happens so infrequently, that when it does I'm always second guessing my approach to fixing myself. Bah! Very frustrated.

While I couldn't focus long enough to either write, or develop the "Lila Dare" website, I did get my grocery shopping done which was a minor victory. A feeling quickly quashed by my poor decision to continue on up the road to McDonald's for some pre-playoff comfort food. Again, I say "bah", Sunday better bring a sense of extraordinary well being, I have a lot to make up for to pull even with my goals.

Oh, and the Cardinals/Saint's game was abysmal, the Colts/Ravens game is not inspiring confidence either, I've made it to halftime, and I'm not feeling bad about hitting the sack.

Friday, January 15

Woah Nellie, I am in the grips of a very annoying seasonal illness, all the sweaty, shaky, snivelly, achy, bah humbugy symptomology. I've had it with this. Started the day thinking it was all over, but my morning workout just seemed to stir things up again. I did have a good 10:00 am get-together with neighbor (and fellow aspiring author) Lincoln, and we chewed the fat over a mutual support mechanism to help keep us both on track. It's also good to hear the general life issues confronting a 35 year old, and remember how far I've come since then, though it is an exciting time of life.

Okay, I'm gonna' nuke myself with Nyquil and zone out to whatever I pull up on Netflix, and cross my fingers that Saturday will bring some much needed relief.

Tuesday, January 12

"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail." - Napoleon Hill.

It is time for me to adjust my approach, I've not succeeded in enforcing my schedule, and need to admit that it's not working and create another one. It's about the mid-point of the month, and my goals aren't getting any closer to being accomplished, so need to get my schedule/time management hat on, and do the do.

I'm going to get some changes started tomorrow, but will put most focus on Thursday when I can apply my full attention. Nothing radical mind you, it's just that for my burdensome three-day work week, I'm only going to get so much done on my personal goals, and need to put those energies into the four days I control. Okay, time for dinner!

Monday, January 11

This day certainly didn't turn out the way I wanted, got up late, worked late, got home late, all in all I was LATE. Some things are avoidable, and those are the things I need to edit out of my life. I'm exhausted as I write this and have nothing of interest to add to the lives of other. Got my Netflix order of "Inspector Morse" and "Funny People", and need to get on a better rotation, having two sitting there is too much of a temptation.

This cold weather is getting on my last nerve, I've got some sort of grizzly bear gene that genetically makes me recognize my soft, down comforter as a faux cave from which I shouldn't exit until butterflies are gracing my windows. A HUGE struggle in the mornings. Being such a wussy, need to sign off before I endanger my fragile male ego with more admissions of weakness!

Sunday, January 10

I'm not going to lie, this was a fun weekend, but damn unproductive related to my goals. Sacrifice is the soul of change, and I desire change, however I can pretty much state it's not the "white-hot desire" which it needs to be. When it comes down to it, if I'd been more disciplined with my scheduling, I would've been able to do all of the fun things (well, with the exception of zoning out to the Packers-Cardinals game) and still achieved.

So, this week is focused on that realization. I'm not way off, but I'm off enough to cause me trouble in the long run. I'm going to revisit my goals, print them out, then keep them in handy places. Now that I think about it, I'll do the Napoleon Hill gag of reading them before sleep and upon rising.

That being said, hitting the National Botanical Garden, having an excellent Greek feast, seeing "Up in the Air" coupled with syncing up with Alex over some nasty/tasty fajitas at Don Pablos made for a good time this weekend.

Speaking of time-sucks, did some online flirting that seemed like a serious win/win for the two of us, which alas resulted in naught. No biggie, but it's interesting to note how our minds seize upon the most ephemeral vapors if it offers whatever "cookie" it's looking for, and this was my kind of cookie.

Friday, January 8

This day, my friends, was a wash. I got a little distracted, then just sort of punted, not my proudest moment. But, in the great scheme of things, I had scheduled Sunday to be a day of sloth, so now I'm just shuffling things up a bit.

Have a few social engagements over the weekend, and a few random details like thank you notes to write, but my main focus is to knock out about 3500 words on the novel, get Kat out of the bar on on to the roof, and end her "being sucked in" phase of the book. After the events on the roof, she switches from "this is beneath me" to "now this has my attention" mode, and it's a slight tonal shift as things go from dark to relentlessly dark.

Okay, it's late, I've watched "Extract" today, fun but inconsequential, need to remember to zip it up in its little pouch and zap it to Netflix.

Thursday, January 7

While not the most steely-disciplined of days, it was productive and fun. I cooked my chicken for the week, scored a haircut, hit Big Planet for my weekly dose of comics (need to create a budget for that now, I'm not rolling in money the way I used to), bought a DECT 6 phone (to help a friend), got a couple of hoodies at Old Navy (to replace the banged up one's I go to the gym in every morning), was disgusted by the selection at Barnes and Noble, then strapped in for three hours to enjoy "Avatar".

If you're not a creator (or aspire to be) of fantastic ideas that you want to then communicate to others through text, images, spoken word, whatever, you may not understand why it was the sheer ambition of "Avatar" that I reacted to most, second the spectacular rendering of the Na'vi characters (Cameron has indeed solved the "dead eye" problem of motion capture). The story's kind of hokey, but you can feel it meant a lot to Cameron, it's there in every detail. I'm blown away by the achievement.

I'm inching up on my daily goal list (referred to as "Daily" in the grid in the right column), it's very hard to hit the full 13, and those days are bliss. I'm going to have to bear down these next three days, the playoffs, and syncing up with some friends will make it hard, but if it was easy, everyone would do it!

Wednesday, January 6

People, I have GOT to get my head around how to make my, seriously wonderful, three-day work week more pleasant and productive. That my client is a major challenge, and my focus on quality and process doesn't precisely align with my firm's normal approach are well known to me, and I shouldn't be reacting like it's a new revelation every time something knuckle-headed occurs. My intent is to have all three days tightly scheduled, so that every day is highly productive and that I can add value, and since people have returned from the holidays I've been more distracted than focused. That being said, this is no crisis, it's just something I wanted to jot down to remind me of a couple of things.

Didn't get to the gym after work, and am going to have to get serious about that next Monday. This has been a bit of a "get back in the groove" sort of week, and I think I've just finally gotten my sleeping pattern adjusted, so just need to stay steady in my approach.

Tomorrow's my first non-holiday Thursday since I began my (very expensive) three-day week, and will be my first where I push hard to leverage as much productivity and activity as I can. May finally get out and see Avatar, booyeah!

Tuesday, January 5

I have to note how ridiculously cold it's been here since New Year's, relentless, thank god the wind hasn't been kicking. Takes all the fun out of running around in my shorts between the truck and the gym.

Speaking of which, things are heading in the right direction, got the morning workout in. Didn't manage my emotion (member of the team dropped the ball, well, more like forgot the ball back in the locker room) which got me hot, and didn't eat all of my meals which killed my energy at close of business. Not proud moments, but at least narrowing the things I need to bear down on.

Will be getting to bed at the right time for the second night in a row, so am hoping to reset the body clock within a couple of days. That's really the last vestige of my "holiday behavior" that needs to be put behind me, then I'll be ready to rock.

Thursday and Friday will be my first where I create my new week, so I'll be running a Mon-Wed week (devoted to putting food on the table), and a Thur-Fri week devoted to both finishing my novel and creating an alternate future for myself.

Monday, January 4

Not the most successful day, but I pretty much engineered that result. People, while most understand this by the time they're six, I've finally come to the realization that if you go to bed late you'll wake up late (or at least groggy and out of it). Better late than never I say, and as stupid as this may sound, my goal for this week is to get to bed on time.

My schedule during my brutal three-day work week, is TIGHT, the kind of tight where 15 minute swings mean the difference between getting to the gym and not. I woke up late today > missed morning aerobic workout > felt off throughout the day > missed evening anaerobic workout > ate dinner very late.

Well, I may be slow, but I'm persistent. I'm going to bed on time tonight, and goddamnit I'm waking up on time tomorrow!

Sunday, January 3

Alrighty people, now ends the holiday. For the first time in a good while, I scheduled my day like someone who's looking to succeed. Scheduling is a lot like exercise, you have good and bad days, but a bad day is a million times better than not doing it at all. It's also important to note that like any skill, time management gets better with practice. There's nothing more hilarious than putting a lot of work into a perfectly formed daily schedule, only to ignore it, it's like preparing a meal and throwing it out the window.

I got all of my chores done, prepared my meals for the week, and re-worked my diet a bit to ensure proper energy throughout the day. Note to self: must leave office no later than 5:30. Been dawdling lately, and it's back to two-a-day's tomorrow, and it is soooo easy for me to get home around 7:00, and that is game-over in terms of getting to the gym. Also, I've been letting my arrival time slip a bit, which is all related to getting to bed late. So, my mantra for the next couple of weeks is "focus on the fundamentals", schedule, diet, sleep, planning, execution.

Got a chance to chat with Nephew Ellory today about the Lila Dare website project, and I'm really looking forward to working with him on it. I've never pulled together a set of document deliverables for my own usage, and this will give me a chance to do so, and in so doing pass them along to him. I'm looking forward to his visual designs, he's got a great eye, and this'll be an opportunity for him to apply it to a new type of project.

I have GOT to do something about how I slouch when I'm at this computer, the chair is fine, but I hunch over like a 90 year old. Discipline in even the smallest details.

Saturday, January 2

Yeesh, once again proved why I must not dabble in technology on the weekends, it just puts me in a foul mood! Started the day doing a heap of laundry, and tangentially, organizing the closet so there'd be someplace to put it. This was when I made a foolish decision. I've promised an author friend of my nephew to set up a small site for her pen name's new novel, scheduled to come out in March. One of the niggling little details is to set up the domain hosting situation, and she'd chosen GoDaddy as her provider, and I have no experience with their setup. And that showed in how long it took me to figure out what was going on. Also, tried to use their page utility to set up a temporary page, only to see it had GoDaddy adds on the top and bottom of the pages, and that just doesn't cut it for a professional site. I then created a page on my computer, and for some reason I just couldn't get the site to build properly. All in all this took around four hours, and not four happy hours either, lots of teeth grinding.

Be that as it may, in terms of my personal development, I've identified a huge flaw in my approach. My fundamentals suck. Scheduling, food intake, and sleep management all need to be adhered to, or else you get all kinds of unexpected results. So, proper bed time tonight, proper wake time tomorrow, and a fully scheduled day are on tap. I'll let you know how it works out.

Friday, January 1

A fine New Year's day this was, while not exceptional, I did some good deeds and that makes me feel good. Finally set up the wireless network for Victoria, which was a bit of a cluster, but everything worked out in the end. Less successful was setting up her cable. She'd found out recently that she'd been paying for basic cable since she had her internet service installed, but never hooked it up! So we were able to get it strung together, but the quality was horrible, so more cable is needed to pull this off. Pretty much just ran out of time, and I left the job diagnosed, but undone.

As I start the year, I don't feel super focused, I have a number of things that need to get folded into my regular week but keep procrastinating. Feeling a little "drifty", which has got to stop. I finally got my new, reduced salary last week, and let me tell you, I'm paying a hefty price for this extra time. And I've just been flushing it for relaxed days these past few weeks. Whatever, the holidays suck for getting things done, there's always something to distract you (if you're of a mind to be distracted).

Thursday, December 31

I'm not sad to see the year end, but then, I'm never sad to see a year end. I'm not a nostalgic person, nor am I prone to a belief that things that came before are better than things to come. We get one life, I've lived mine to the best of my abilities, I've won some, I've lost some. But in the final analysis, I'm a better man today, than I was yesterday. And I hope I can say that every day, for the rest of my life. I backslide, I give in to temptation, I procrastinate. I'm far from a perfected vehicle. I've grown far too comfortable, comfort is something to be desired, but when you get it it's a bit of a narcotic. Maybe Marx was on to something with that whole "opiate of the masses" thing, but I think there's something to be said about constructing a life where you have access to comfort, but don't use it frequently. Where comfort becomes a reward, not a given.

Jesus, waxing a little philosophic there, need to stop. I've got a lot of work to do, and have spent way too much time getting this site into 2010 today. Will be back tomorrow, with the first post of the new year. Whoever might be reading this thing, I thank you for taking the time to look in on my world, and I wish you health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year!