Good news and bad

Well, if that song title isn't the launching point for a story, I don't know one that is.

There was a good word at work today. One of my co-workers had flown to India to visit his family, who live in a coastal town right in the path of the tsunami. Fortunately, his family lives in a new suburb somewhat inland, and he and his are all right. The people who lived on the water's edge are not, but there is a big relief effort underway in his district.

On the other hand, who do you know would steal dental floss? At least twice, the dental floss I keep in my desk has disappeared. This morning, I had an apple for breakfast and I needed the floss afterwards and there was none. How annoying. I also seem to have left my emergency pair of nail clippers at home.

Subtle messages

The new year is less that 36 hours away, and we've all been thinking about our New Year's resolutions (or denying that we have any), and while I was twiddling with mine I had an insight that has kinda struck me.

I've been a big fan of Life Hacks, which is the geek term for applying David Allen's Getting Things Done to programming and similar activities, for a while now, and have applied a lot of the tips and techniques to my own life. I regularly make TODO lists and keep them up-to-date, and I regularly carry around what we call a "capture device," a way of getting everything that flits through your head that might be valuable down so it doesn't get lost. It's just a notebook. I haven't quite gotten the hang of the "Waiting On..." list management yet, but I'm getting there.

One thing I'm terrible at, however, is defining a project. A project, according to Allen, has an outcome that is valuable, desireable, and well-articulated. And this is where, subtly, I start to resist Life Hacking. Because what this tells me, oddly enough, is that there are some projects for which one of those categories is never clear.

For example, my writing. The point of my writing has never been well-articulated, not even to me. I don't know why I like to write and do so with intensity, day in and day out, and if I'm actually too tired or off to do my minimum hundred daily words one day worry that I'm losing it.

For another example, one thing in my "TODO (someday)" projects list is,yeah, organize my porn collection. Yeah, I have one, kept under crypto lock and key, and organizing it would be "desireable" and the outcome "well-articulated" (I could finally find every Chloe Vivier and Ai Iijima picture I have), but would it be "valuable?" Even I know it's only something to fiddle with. I suppose in the same category, Finish Half-Life 2 is a "project," but unlike the former it doesn't have more than one obvious action required to make it happen. I suppose it's something that it's in the (someday) category, not something I'm taking seriously.

But still, there's this "value" thing that questions whether or not such "projects" should be on the page at all. I'll still play Half-Life 2, still write, and yeah still read smut now and then. I feel dishonest not putting down the "projects" that I do on my projects list because they don't have valuable, desireable, or well-articulated goals. I suppose I should put them down anyway, and still feel that twinge when I ask myself, "is it valuable, desireable, and well-articulated?"