#197 - September and "Less Projects"

Motto: "September" is an anagram of "Mr. Best Pee"


I'm looking forward to September for tons of reasons. September 1st - Labor Day... free vacation. September 2nd - the XKCD: What If? book is coming out. September 2nd - the draft for my first ever season of Fantasy Football happens. September 4th - the Moto 360 and successor to the Moto X is getting announced.
September 9th - IKEA opens less than 2 miles from our place September 9th - the iPhone 6 (and maybe other stuff) is is getting announced. September 9th - Captain America: The Winter Soldier is coming out on Blu-Ray. September 9th - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 is coming out on Blu-Ray. September 19-21st - 43rd Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. September 23rd - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 premiere. September 24th - Modern Family Season 6 premiere. Sometime in September - Android L, Android TV, and the next Nexus tablet & phone?
Sometime in September - The Renaissance Festival All of September - Temperatures will be more tolerable. All of September - the challenge of the MONTH WILL BE DIFFERENT AND I WILL BE ABLE TO WASTE TIME ON MY PHONE MORE EFFECTIVELY AGAIN. I'm looking forward to September.

Now for the other thing.

One of my goals for August was to have fewer projects. At the time I didn't know how to put that into a coherent English sentence, but I knew there was something I wanted. Something regarding projects and the word "less". I have come to realize that " less projects" is not what I wanted; what I wanted was "not EVERYTHING is a project." Don't get me wrong, I love projects. They give a sense of completeness, but the need for completeness and perfection can sometimes harm you when "just good" would have sufficed. The best case example I can think of for this came at work last week. I learned a new fact about a system I'm helping to build and my first inclination was "cool, what else is there to learn about this system? What other related facts are there to learn? Who would know these facts? Which platform would be the best choice for my documentation of this system? Where can I fit this documentation into my workflow such that it is accessible when I need to refer to it, but not cluttering up my occupational RAM?" Then I thought, "maybe I should just take this fact for what it is, remember it, then move on." I like projects because they are clean. Everything has a purpose. Nothing ad hoc will remain out in the voids with no proper place. But, man, sometimes you just need to know that the server you are working with is green and move on. (That wasn't the actual fact.)

 So. That's what I meant.
Top 5: Meals From My Recent Pictures
5. Steak, Asparagus, Onion, Mushroom, Shells and Cheese, and a Nectarine


 4. Skinnybun Hamburgers, Potatoes, and a way-too-much-Caesar Salad



3. Pork Chop, Quinoa, and a way-too-much-Caesar Salad

2. The "Looks Awful, but It's Awfully Delicious" Beef and Stewed Cabbage from SSF


1. PRETZELS!


Quote:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#258 - Feature: Notetaking Platform Anxiety

Image
Motto: Writing for Me, by Me Melissa is going back to grad school, she's taking her Mac Air & iPad with her & utilizing Microsoft OneNote. While she was setting up her notetaking environment, I started thinking about how I would architect my "idealized system for handling graduate school". Fair warning, this is a bit of an epic. A system for succeeding in higher education is defined in several broad categories: What would I physically bring with me to class? How would I take notes that are relevant immediately and in the future? How do I manage time & tasks? Answering these questions is the purpose of this Column. I'm going to do so both "in general" and given my specific (more interesting to me, but less interesting in general) case. 1. What would I physically bring with me to class? Obviously I would bring with me a bag. I'd probably just keep my current messenger bag for simplicity sake. Anything could work. In all...
Read more

#42 - Life, The Universe, and Everything

Image
Motto: Don't Panic. BSOD My current computer is crashing on a multiple-times-per-day basis now. It's a little over 4 years old and has been needing to be put to rest for a while. Given that I know technology and what-not, I've decided I am going to build my next computer myself. Seems obvious now, I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It's going to be built specifically to suit my needs. This essentially means I'm going to build a computer specifically for video editing. There will be more on this at a later date... I have a couple of Nexus devices I want to get before the computer time ever comes. Having a job and money is so much better than college was it's not even funny. Whoever said "college is the best time in your life" must have not went through an engineering program. Don't get me wrong, college as great... but would I rather be doing that than what I'm doing now? No fricken way. Most negative words seem to st...
Read more

#22 - It's my party and I'll cry to get attention.

Image
Motto: Two days ago, I was 23. Then I was 24. I aged one year in a day. Yesterday was my birthday. A few friends of mine helped another friend of mine move from Lawrence to Kansas City. The trip up there was hot and windy and stressful. We lost a pillow out of the back of the truck ( not entirely my fault), but otherwise had no casualties. The rest of this story will be told in bullet-point fashion: We relaxed in the air conditioner. We ate Minsky's pizza. We held the first meeting of my secret society that has been held in probably a year. Nobody knows that but me. We threw marshmallows into each other's mouths. We eventually built a slingshot and started using it instead of throwing them. We walked around a really nice apartment building. We were denied access to the pool or the movie theater room on account of them being previously engaged. We got lost (mildly lost) driving around looking for a convenience store.  We saw what is apparently "the bad part o...
Read more