Better a Year Late Than Never

I finally responded to a year-old e-mail. I still haven’t completely registered for my pension plan as an independant worker (procedure started in November 2006!)

Hopefully I’m only in deep trouble, and not in very deep trouble.

Mon super titre d’article

J’écris ici car je ne peux pas parler parce que je n’ai pas trois mains!

Scattered on Hard Drives

I have a bunch of external hard drives now, and I’m trying to figure out how to organise all my data on them. Here’s what I have:

• 100Gb on the computer
• 120Gb
• 250Gb (big, not transportable, really)
• 250Gb
• 320Gb
• 1Tb

I have an iTunes library that is approx 20Gb, my Pictures directory is around 40Gb though I have moved quite a few photos off to an external drive already, Movies is 15Gb though I thought it was empty (also moved stuff off). I have TV Series (shhh) too. I have many Gb of source video I’ve taken (India is 56Gb, and then I’ve shot a few conferences).

I recently had to move my iTunes library off the computer. This is kind of silly, though, because if there’s one thing one wants on the computer, it’s music (so that when I sync my iPod it doesn’t decide to blank it).

So, here’s what I’m thinking. Keep the 120Gb drive for a “computer” backup that I can carry around with me. Keep a “computer” backup image on the 1Tb drive too.

Use the 320Gb to store photos and video, with a backup on the 1Tb.

Use the static 250Gb to store source video material I’m not working on or am done with (archive) — with a backup on the 1Tb.

Use the 250Gb (mobile) for stuff I want to watch or video I’m working on.

Thoughts?

Time Flying By

I’ve always (as far as I can remember) had the feeling that time went by too fast — except maybe during some long, unending summer holidays when I was a kid or young teenager. I’ve been thinking about that recently. What makes time seem to go by “too fast” is simply that I’m frustrated that I have accomplished what I thought I would in a given timeframe.

What makes it so difficult to evaluate what can be done in a day? How can I change my way of projecting myself in the future to be more realistic, or even better, pessimistic? Gosh, imagine if the story in my head went like this: “Wow, this was supposed to take all day, and I did it in 3 hours! I have lots of free time to do other stuff in, or relax!”

But that never happens. What happens is: “OK, I’ll be reasonable, and plan to write this blog post and send this e-mail today, even though I feel I should be able to do more in a day.” And at the end of the day, I’ve maybe written the blog post, but I haven’t sent the e-mail — or vice-versa — leaving me with a feeling of failure rather than accomplishment.

Just to make things clear: I’m not concerned about the “project management” aspect of evaluating how much time things take. I know that most of the time, we just can’t evaluate that correctly. What interests me is why we (or at least I) systematically over-evaluate what can be done in a day.

Not Fooling Myself

Some random stuff I’ve understood about the way I function, over the years, and things I need to pay attention to so that I don’t slide down slippery jungle paths.

For some reason, I seem to have this strange belief that if there’s something I need to do that I don’t quite feel like doing, it’ll go away if I ignore it — or I’ll magically feel like doing it later on. Things like doing the washing-up, taxes, but also cooking food, etc. I keep having to remind myself that no, I won’t feel like doing the washing up any more than right now if I go back to what I was doing and wait. One mechanism of procrastination debugged (well, it still pops up, but it’s a known bug).

A lot of my hardships in life come from a tendency to treat everything as a matter of life and death. Sometimes, simply remembering to treat a difficult situation as an “experiment”, to “see what happens” (rather than “succeed at all costs”), is enough to help me wind down and screw my head back on (not literally, but you see what I mean). A slightly more specific version of “take three steps back”, I guess.

Oh, and Don’t Forget

…to register for Going Solo before March 16th. Because the prices go up, after that.

Here We Go!

I’m all packed, I have a little less than five hours of sleep left before the alarm rings, and I’ve (gasp!) had dinner.

I’m off to Ireland, Texas, and California for a near-to-four-week trip. My favourite catsitter will be taking care of Bagha during my absence.

I’ll have access to the internet during my travels, of course, but as I’ll be mighty busy with conferences and the like, you can expect me to be even less responsive than usual. Yes, it’s possible.

An Example: Quoting

Here is the way to make a quote:

Things always take longer than expected. In this case, it wasn’t actually finding the venue (which was done in 4 days from start to finish), but sitting down in front of this computer long enough to blog about. (Well, I’ve been sitting many long hours in front of this computer, dealing with things like budgets, designers, partners, and registration — just not blogging.)

This text comes from this post on Going Solo.

Bagha and Me

Trying to be cute.

Morning Rituals

Let me tell you, there is something to be said for taking a shower first thing in the morning to wake up. And using that woozy wake-up time in the bathroom rather than in front of the computer.

Having been freed of the “wake up, shower, get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth” morning ritual since I became self-employed over 18 months ago, I think I’m on the verge of reclaiming that ritual for myself. I’d already noticed a few months back that it made a real difference, and then I slipped out of it again.

As we’re talking of morning rituals, I’ve recently started doing nasal irrigation (basically, letting saline water run in one nostril and out the other to clean the nose) — and my, do I wish I’d discovered this 15 years ago.

Let me explain: I’m allergic to dust-mites, which isn’t a huge deal in itself, apart from the fact I tend to run about with a permanently runny nose and a pack of hankies all year around. I’m also rather fragile in the upper respiratory department, so I get a lot of colds and stuff.

Well, since I started using a neti pot (see demo video), I’ve basically stopped having to carry tissues with me. Like… I went from blowing my nose 10 times a day to zero.

A few tips if you’re tempted, from the two links above and my personal experience — and if you have any kind of nose/sinus problem, I would definitely recommend that you give it a try.

• use warm-but-not-too-hot water (should feel nice and warm on the hand without being hot)
• don’t salt too much (my neti pot came with special de-iodized salt, and instructions say one flat teaspoon)
• don’t blow your nose, specially blocking one nostril, to get the water out — just blow gently through both nostrils and do the exercises at the end of the video (you’d be surprised how much water your nose can hold when you thought it was empty)
• if it hurts badly, something could be wrong — better check with a doctor
• if water starts running out of your mouth, don’t panic and keep breathing and just let it happen — your position might be slightly off (no big deal, with some practice you’ll figure it out for yourself)

I had a nasty cold this week and though at times I was so congested things seemed hopeless, I have the impression nasal irrigation really helped me get through it faster, without it getting worse, and with less cold meds than usual. So, it seems it helped with that too.