It’s about Tim

It appears that Merlin Mann has solid plans for 43 Folders

I don’t remember exactly when I discovered 43Folders; more than likely while searching for information on David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I’m almost certain that Merlin Mann’s site was my first taste of what those in the know call productivity porn. I found his insight addictive. Soon I got turned on to other sources and I found myself becoming a member of the gang Merlin is now addressing. I had RSS feeds coming in from a number of “productivity” sites and found myself constantly reaching for the next hint or tip on how to do something I already knew how to do.

So, with the respect I have for Merlin, I am going to use his site as he suggests. I’m also going to get back into productive mode and be a lot less consumptive. I’ve really come to recognize how much the computer and Internet has drained precious time from my life. Being a computer worker, I kept telling myself it was OK. Now I realize that like so many I became tool-focused rather than task-focused. It’s time for me to start seeing how much stuff I can do offline. Most news is noise, so with the help of the very effective Leech BLock Firefox extension, I’m limiting the flow of distraction into my life. If something really important happens will someone please call me?

In the meantime, I’m digesting some of the stuff I’ve taken in recently and plan to figure out what I have to offer the world that can be delivered through a blog.

On Lance Armstrong coming out of retirement to race again

I should not judge Mr. Armstrong, but I cannot help but think, on the news that he will will race again, of A.E. Housman’s poem

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

Happy 5th Anniversary

5 years and many more to go!

My kind of thinking

I’ve grown fonder of solutions that repurpose exisiting material. This could be super sharp if it works.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2032/83/

They want to close Pandora’s box

A few years ago my friend Tsuyoshi Fukumoto introduced me to Pandora and my sense of wonder in music was restored and exponentially expanded. I introduced a few other folks to it, feeling like a kid in grade school who was going to trump everyone during show and tell. My pal Paul Salcido wrote me and called it “mother’s milk for [his] 3 a.m. insomnia” after I told him about it.

I’ve got several stations, and many bookmarked tunes, in many genres. Take a peak at my profile if you want: http://www.pandora.com/people/ptkimrey.  A psychiatrist reviewing my profile might diagnose me as schizophrenic, but I know now that there are many out there like me. Folks who find themselves jonesin’ for some good old jazz for an afternoon, and later want to hear songs similar to that punk band that got them through the toughest days in high school. I have heard so many new songs, and BOUGHT many that I would have never heard had it not been for Pandora. Listening to Pandora is like sitting down with a friend in high school and having them say, “Oh man, you like Iron & Wine? You’ve got to hear Stew!” And here’s the thing I think the music executives seem to be missing: most folks don’t have that kind of time after college - we don’t have as much time to talk and explore music the way that we did then. I understand the need to make money and the need to have incentives for artists, but I hope something can be done to save Pandora. I’ll pay for a subscription if I have to, and probably still buy tunes because the only thing that comes close is satellite radio, and it really doesn’t come close. Call me socialist, call me a commie, but if there were some way of mixing NPR and Pandora I would be pleased as punch.

I’m pulling for you, Pandora. The Web will be a lesser place without you.

On the bedside table

Generally, I find that I am reading more than one book at a time. I will read a few chapters of a fictional piece and then pick up something historical or self improving. I go back and forth between the two, or sometimes three, unless it is something totally captivating that allows me to focus on reading nothing but that particular book (e.g. The Kite Runner)

Looking from the outside at an aspiring writer, I would question the presence of Selma Lane’s The Art of Maurice Sendak and Stephen King’s On Writing on the bedside table. What sort of books will come from that kind of mind?

Yep, we’re getting fatter.

I bought new undies today - Hanes’ boxer briefs, tagless, comfort waistband. I have worn a size medium for a while, but apparently medium has changed. On a pair of boxers only a couple of years old, also Hanes’, the label medium reads 32-34, on my new pairs medium reads 34-36.

We’re getting fatter. But I must tell you that it feels good to be on the low side of medium rather than the high side for a change.

If you ignore it, it will nag you to the grave.

Above my desk, I have a post card from my great friend, Kevin Rioux. Dated 22 December 22, 2007, the post card reads:

Tim-

Are you writing your book?
Hm?

Scrivere!

I started on a book a while back and told Kevin and others about it. Truth be told, by the time his postcard came I had allowed myself to be distracted by a life’s more mundane offerings - the book was not being written. Maybe the story needed time to grow in my head. I have certainly not stopped thinking about the book, but it’s not being written. So, It’s time to write it now.

In your correspondence with me, whoever you are, I ask you to hold me accountable. Ask me about the book. Eventually my answer will be, “I have sent the manuscript.”

Anne Lamott on plans

“If you want to make God laugh, tell your plans.”

Pardon the brief post. I just thought those were words worth sharing.

Ray Bradbury on writing

A reminder to myself, something I read once a while back and need to live by. “Only this: if you are writing without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer . . .”

I think it’s well past time I begin writing seriously.