Pilgrim’s Progress

Yesterday I spent four hours with my friend Allison helping her get her office (and a portion of her life) more organized. I’ve been using a lot of the principles from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen for about eight years now, and it’s really turned my life around in a lot of ways. When I was younger, I depended on my memory and pure mental horsepower to make sure that my projects got completed, my bills got paid, and so forth. But as my life got more complicated, this approach started to break down. One summer when I was working on two full-time consulting jobs and trying to finish writing my first book with two young children in the house, I realized that something had to give.

 So now I’ve got a pretty good grasp on my work, and I’m not often “surprised” by things that used to slip through the cracks. And I got a real feeling of accomplishment helping Allison start doing the same thing for herself. Time is the one commodity they’re not making more of for any of us, so anything I can do to help people use it better seems like a worthwhile way to spend mine.

Somehow I wound up seeing this video today. I’ve always had my reservations about Walt Disney and his influence on the world, but seeing these cute little Japanese girls dressed like pirates and singing It’s a Small World After All caused me some serious psychic trauma. Watch at your own risk.

My latest creation is ready for late-night TV. Hopefully it’ll be ready for prime time soon, but one step at a time. For your enjoyment, go play my Internet rock, paper, scissors game. It’s designed for the iPhone, but you can play it on IE or Safari. Right now you need to have an opponent to play, but maybe I’ll be adding an AI in the near future. Stay tuned!

because when the beating stops you feel so damn good. I’m not happy about being divorced, and I certainly never planned for it to happen. My parents divorced when I was 12 and it made an indelible impression on me. Their divorce shaped my life (for good or ill) and I never wanted my own children to have to deal with the sheer terror of seeing their parents split apart.

But now that it’s done, and I’ve had a couple of years to start rebuilding from the train-wreck of the divorce itself, life is so much sweeter than it ever was before. It’s weird, but the absence of pain feels like pleasure, if it went on for long enough. So no matter what else happens from now on, at least the daily beatings have stopped. Huzzah!

Ok, I’m not ashamed of it. I love my iPhone. And this isn’t a casual thing. It’s a Barry White kinda love. So now, being a software guy, I’m compelled to start writing things to use on it. This is where the honeymoon seems to be ending.

 Apple doesn’t really want me to be able to write things that run on the iPhone. Not directly, anyway. The iPhone does a great job of displaying web pages through the Safari browser, but this isn’t the same as being able to write applications that run directly on the phone’s underlying operating system. To do really cool things (like add things to the address book, integrate with the on-board Google map, etc.) you need an API. But according to the Apple 2.0 guys, there’s hope. I’ll keep my fingers crossed (as I sleep with my iPhone gently cradled in my hands).

No, my megalomania is still safely in check (mostly). I just finished reading the Austin Grossman novel of that name, and I really enjoyed it. I’m not a big comic book (ok, ok, graphic novel) fan, but this story really grabbed me. It’s about Doctor Impossible, who suffers from Malign Hypercognition Disorder (he’s an evil genius). He escapes his supermax confinement and launches another plot to conquer the world (his 12th), only to be confronted by the superhero team called the New Champions. The whole book delves into the relationships between the members of the super team, the motivations behind the evil genius, etc. A good read.

the rest of the day really is cake. Getting ready for my test means I’m making as many black belt classes as I can, and it just so happens that today’s class started at 7:00 AM. I did not want to get out of bed at 6:00 AM and drive downtown to get on the mat. But some creative self-delusion works wonders in these cases. The trick is not to think too much about the overall plan. Just roll out of bed, brush your teeth, throw on some clothes and start driving. Put on the gi, roll around a little. Then when the throwing and choking starts, you don’t really have much choice.

For some reason that little rhyme came to me the other day. I learned it when I was getting my bare boat charter certificate in Seattle, 15 years ago or so. What it means is that the boat that’s showing two red lights in a vertical line isn’t being steered by anybody, so don’t expect it to get out of your way.

I’ve been feeling a little like that lately, like I’m more-or-less drifting with the current. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing, but for someone who’s been used to having a long-term plan at all times it’s a little disconcerting. Maybe it’s just that I’ve never really had the certainty that I thought I did, but before I wasn’t aware of it. Most people are comfortable living a reactive life and going with the flow, but I’m not. Not at all.

I went to see 3:10 To Yuma on Tuesday. Russell Crow, Christian Bale, and about 10,000 rounds fired. What’s not to like?

Besides being a great action film, watching Russell Crow play this very bad man was instructive. Absolutely nothing bothered him, nothing surprised him, and you got the feeling that even when he had a pair of handcuffs and four guns trained on him he had the upper hand. When people are talking about presence, that’s what they mean.