Tag: introspective

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Bit late to say week commencing yesterday, but never mind! Last week continued the tradition, this summer at least, of unending hot, sticky days.  Regardless, it was a good week for many reasons, though perhaps not the best in history 🙂

Last week:

Work

  • [-] SEO customer project
  • [-] Database update customer project. Test out Kexi
  • [-] PHP calendar development for customer
  • [X] Visual design/template revision work for customer
  • [ ] Get list together of targets for Project “L” and plan launch
  • [X] [Arrange to] visit datacenter for scheduled maintenance – the machines, not me 🙂
  • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas
  • [ ] Minor company homepage change
  • [ ] Review structure of site and content; trim.
  • [ ] Complete SVN/Bugzilla integration project.

I have continued to make more progress on project “W”, such that it’s starting to take on momentum of its own.  With luck, August will see it come to fruition.

Life

  • [ ] Tax return
  • [ ] Siu Lim Tao / stretching
  • [ ] Properly start my involvement in an open source project
  • [X] 2 swims, 1 mile each
  • [ ] One more form/session of exercise (run? weights?)
  • [X] Grocery shop
  • [X] Social life 🙂

I took to playing with Android on my Samsung Omnia during the weekend.  Linux (the OS in general, not just the kernel) is so hackable it’s great.  Managed to work around a low memory condition issue.

Misc

Saw:

This week:

Get back on track!

Work

  • [-] WAITING: SEO customer project
  • [ ] Database update customer project. Rebuild Kexi from source and test after a fix from lead developer
  • [ ] WAITING: PHP calendar development for customer
  • [ ] Visual design/template revision work for customer
  • [ ] Get list together of targets for Project “L” and plan launch
  • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas
  • [ ] Minor company homepage change
  • [ ] Review structure of site and content; trim.
  • [ ] Complete SVN/Bugzilla integration project.

Life

  • [ ] Tax return
  • [ ] Siu Lim Tao / stretching
  • [ ] Pick up files for F/LOSS project and start documenting…
  • [ ] 2 swims, 1 mile each
  • [ ] Some personal correspondance/organisation to be achieved.
  • [ ] Social life 🙂
  • [ ] Looking forward to meal with family friends this weekend

Misc

Would like to see more:

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    Last week was fantastic. Lots of stuff achieved, plus a few blockers along the way which have spilled over into this week and new challenges. To top off last week, a close friend of mine had a great birthday BBQ on Saturday and then became a father on Sunday. Congrats to them!

    Last week:

    Work

    • [X] Development work on 2 customer projects
    • [X] Stay in touch prospective clients/leads
    • [ ] Get list together of targets for Project “L” and plan launch
    • [X] Review charity project costings: is there a more cost-effective approach?
    • [ ] [Arrange to] visit datacenter for scheduled maintenance – the machines, not me 🙂
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas
    • [ ] Minor company homepage change
    • [ ] Review structure of site and content; trim.
    • [ ] Complete SVN/Bugzilla integration project.
    • [X] Complete new cashflow tool.

    ** DONE Investigate why CentOS box is looking for dpkg (Debian packager) in cron job
    ** DONE Revise Project “W” PDF
    ** WAITING Put project “W” site online?

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [-] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [X] Clean house
    • [X] Try to get a bit of Family Guy in

    ** DONE Clean car

    Misc

    • [X] Decide on Slovakia trip
    • [X] Learn GnuCash
    • [X] A few more CDs to add to the collection

    This Week

    Work

    • [ ] SEO customer project
    • [ ] Database update customer project. Test out Kexi
    • [ ] PHP calendar development for customer
    • [ ] Visual design/template revision work for customer
    • [ ] Get list together of targets for Project “L” and plan launch
    • [ ] [Arrange to] visit datacenter for scheduled maintenance – the machines, not me 🙂
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas
    • [ ] Minor company homepage change
    • [ ] Review structure of site and content; trim.
    • [ ] Complete SVN/Bugzilla integration project.

    An unscheduled but important piece of work is also project “W”. I have made significant progress on this over the weekend and need to keep the pace up!

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [ ] Siu Lim Tao / stretching
    • [ ] Properly start my involvement in an open source project
    • [ ] 2 swims, 1 mile each
    • [ ] One more form/session of exercise (run? weights?)
    • [ ] Grocery shop
    • [ ] Social life 🙂

    Misc

    Would like to see more:

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    Didn’t note in enough detail the unplanned tasks that I had to tackle last week. Am planning this week to note down the things which sidetrack me from the main goals.

    Last week:

    Work

    • [X] Support major customer project
    • [-] Development work on 2 other projects
    • [-] Stay in touch prospective clients/leads
    • [-] Kick off charity project
    • [-] Expedite tasks that are currently “WAITING”
    • [X] Clean up customer/supplier records on CRM tool
    • [-] Set up virtual machines
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [-] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [X] Clean house

    Misc

    • [X] Finish FLAC’ing CD collection
    • [-] Learn GnuCash

    This Week

    Work

    • [-] Development work on 2 customer projects
    • [-] Stay in touch prospective clients/leads
    • [ ] Get list together of targets for Project “L” and plan launch
    • [ ] Review charity project costings: is there a more cost-effective approach?
    • [ ] [Arrange to] visit datacenter for scheduled maintenance – the machines, not me 🙂
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas
    • [ ] Minor company homepage change
    • [ ] Review structure of site and content; trim.
    • [ ] Complete SVN/Bugzilla integration project.
    • [ ] Complete new cashflow tool.

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [-] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [ ] Clean house
    • [ ] Try to get a bit of Family Guy in

    Misc

    • [ ] Decide on Slovakia trip
    • [-] Learn GnuCash
    • [-] A few more CDs to add to the collection

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    Summary:

    Last week was a bit short, as I went on my little surf expedition early Thursday afternoon. So I’ll forgive myself for not putting X’s in all the boxes.

    From last week:

    Work

    • [-] Stay in touch prospective clients
    • [-] Kick off charity project
    • [-] Expedite tasks that are currently “WAITING”
    • [X] Complete 2nd quarter accounts
    • [ ] Clean up customer/supplier records on CRM tool
    • [ ] Set up virtual machines
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [X] Light grocery shop
    • [ ] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [X] Surf trip
    • [X] Clean house

    Misc

    • [ ] Finish FLAC’ing CD collection
    • [ ] Learn GnuCash

    This week:

    Work

    • [ ] Support major customer project
    • [ ] Development work on 2 other projects
    • [-] Stay in touch prospective clients/leads
    • [-] Kick off charity project
    • [-] Expedite tasks that are currently “WAITING”
    • [ ] Clean up customer/supplier records on CRM tool
    • [ ] Set up virtual machines
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [ ] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [ ] Clean house

    Misc

    • [ ] Finish FLAC’ing CD collection
    • [ ] Learn GnuCash

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    Inspired by a well-known figure online, I have decided to imitate her style with a weekly [p]review blog. It is a review of the previous week, and a preview of the coming week. I will try to capture tasks that I want to see complete plus the unexpected events that everyone gets in a typical week.

    From last week:

    This is my first weekly review, so there’s nothing to see here yet!

    This week:

    Work

    • [ ] Stay in touch prospective clients
    • [ ] Kick off charity project
    • [ ] Expedite tasks that are currently “WAITING”
    • [ ] Complete 2nd quarter accounts
    • [ ] Clean up customer/supplier records on CRM tool
    • [ ] Set up virtual machines
    • [ ] Create additional web forms to service other business areas

    Life

    • [ ] Tax return
    • [ ] Light grocery shop
    • [ ] Practice Siu Lim Tao and stretching
    • [ ] Surf trip
    • [ ] Clean house

    Misc

    • [ ] Finish FLAC’ing CD collection
    • [ ] Learn GnuCash

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    I recently ‘dented’ (tweeted on identi.ca) a question to a group of software developers: what music do they listen to that is conducive to coding?I received a variety of answers, with just as wide-ranging tastes as you could expect, really. Clearly, I hadn’t conducted a very economic experiment. Perhaps I was asking the wrong question.

    The question I should have asked is this: which music do you listen to that evokes a calm, creative and logical state of mind? In other words, I needed to key-word the question to (a) elicit greater impact on the reader and (b) give the question more scope, more context.

    The premise of the question is the science behind brainwaves. Apparently, alpha waves in the brain (those which occur at between 8-13Hz [cycles per second]) are the most conducive to creative AND logical thinking. It is commonly associated with a meditative state of mind, deeply relaxed, daydreaming, fantasizing and creatively visualising various scenarios.

    This dispels some notion that left brain/right brain dominance exists. I can’t remember which is which, but it is said that the right hemisphere is more creative and the left, more logical/analytical. Or vice versa.

    But this alpha wave state could, in fact, also support such dominance, if it allowed for the idea of submission of the dominant region during periods of relaxation. In other words, we will have one personality profile when active, busy, even stressed, and another profile when relaxed, calm, clear.

    It follows, then, the people seeking to produce creative works – whether it be software code, writing, visual art or music, should always seek the best environment to create alpha brain waves. Music is just one component; meditation, light scents, lighting, physical comfort and staying hydrated also contribute, as does the avoidance of caffiene and alcohol.

    But for me, most of all, it’s music.  And quite often, that’s trance. 😉

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    Some time ago, mainly because my then-girlfriend bought me 3 Hacky Sacks (or ‘juggling balls‘, as they seem to be known these days), I took it upon myself to learn how to juggle.
    An image of three juggling balls

    The learning process is actually quite simple.  This is the method I have used:

    1. With two in one hand (e.g. left) and one in the other, throw up one (of the two) first and simply catch it with the other hand.
    2. Then, repeat but throw back from the right to the left.

      Completing just this first step is the key to learning how to juggle. 

      Continue to practice this method, tossing the sack from one to the other hand.  When you can always catch it, try the next step:

    3. When the ball is up in the air, throw the opposite ball up too.  The best time to throw it is just before the first ball reaches the parabolic peak (the top of the arc of travel).   Now that your second hand is free, catch the first ball.
    4. If you can, try to catch the second ball as well, using your first hand – just as you have already practised.

      Once you have got this far, you are well on the way to becoming an expert! 😉

    5. It goes without saying that, to improve, you need to throw the third ball into the air before catching either the first, or the second.

    The paradox

    This is the secret to success.  In order to successfully catch, time after time, you must successfully throw.  In other words, to hold on, you have to let go.

    Perhaps it can be best summarised with a quote from Star Wars.  When Princess Leia is speaking to Governer Tarkin, shortly before he destroys the planet of Dantooine, she says (paraphrased), “the more you tighten your grip, the more will slip through your fingers”.

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    I have two blogs hosted by Google/Blogger (a blog for work, life and general stuff that interests me) and WordPress (a blog just for work).  I differentiate these on the basis of content type as opposed to areas of interest.  That is, purely commercial (or tech-commercial) stuff goes to the WordPress one.

    And yet, I wonder, what is the point?  With the ability to group, tag, label and so on, I can collect similar articles together in a variety of ways.  Anyone with half a brain, left or right, would be able to see that any articles I have labelled “business” are probably more commercially-oriented that ones labelled “may contain nuts”.

    The problem is, I don’t want to miss the party – anywhere.  WordPress blogs seem, by some opinion, so popular that it makes me wonder if WordPress is more of a writer’s platform than blogger, and that blogger is something more akin to myspace for the blogosphere – a kind of scrawly, messy, throw-together-but-informative kind of creative jumble.  Perhaps I’m being harsh of others’ blogger blogs, even if I’m being slightly too kind to my own… 😉

    Conversely, the opinions cited in various threads (1, 2, 3) would suggest that Blogger is the way to go, at least for feedback options and template customisability. 

    Regardless, I am not entirely convinced that either system is, actually, tremendously brilliant. Maybe I’d be a better person to judge once I’ve committed a thousand or two- more articles to cyberspace and then regret/celebrate making the wrong/right choice.

    Then everyone would really thank me for my opinion.  Then disregard it.  😉

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    It’s been a very busy start to 2010 but I have finally managed to get myself into gear with use of Emacs. I’m using it in console-only guise as far as I can, simply to learn the keystrokes as quickly as possible.

    One feature that I’ve been very happy to stumble across is this weblogger.el extension. It means you can simply open a new buffer in Emacs, blog and save – all in minutes, if not seconds! Much better than opening a web page every time you want to blog about something.

    The inspiration to really use Emacs in earnest comes from my new hero(in): Sacha Chua. A hugely popular and influential personality, Sacha is a true geek (in the best possible sense, of course) and a rising star for 2010 and beyond. I highly recommend reading Sacha’s blog at sachachua.com.

    Happy reading!