Another Year

for me to get my act together. I mean to actually create something, build new habits, and learning. Create, for me, means writing a book, blogging regularly, and writing short essays. New habits would be regularly meditating, doing yoga, writing daily, exercising, keeping house, cooking new recipes, budgeting, saving, paying all bills. Learning would be in photography, sewing, cooking, writing, coding/ web design/development, dancing, playing the piano.

Lots of stuff that’s always been on my mind but have never even started. Well maybe barely. Definitely have not even come close to accomplishing. I just need to get steady at it, get some momentum going and it will be done.

New Word: Chiral

A chiral molecule /ˈkaɪərəl/ is a type of molecule that has a non-superposable mirror image. The feature that is most often the cause of chirality in molecules is the presence of an asymmetric carbon atom.

Read while trying to figure out more about the sarin gas used to kill ~1400 Syrians on August 21, 2013.

New Word: Avarice

Excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain.

I encountered the word on ZenPencils blog, cartoons interpretations of inspirations.

New Word: Parochial

Characterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.

I read in the NY Times while researching more on why the US gives Egypt $1.3 billion a year.

Apps for Sanity

Franklin Covey PlanPlus has been my friend for years now. I mean ages. I started using this PlanPlus Outlook plug-in back in last century, late 90s. I think I started off with Version 1 and now it’s up to Version 7.+ something.

I’ve basically used it more for keeping track of tasks at work and also my personal stuff. I’ve made up so many categories based on project, work or personal, online or not, and where I am. What I really loved about it was my syncing it with whatever PDA I had back then and I still do so until now. I first started off with the Palm IIIc then got on HP Windows Pocket PC mobile. I stayed on Windows Mobile platform for a few years until I got on the Android and Apple iPod Touch 3 years ago.

I’ve done syncing combinations of my tasks and calendar with Toodledo, Remember the Milk (costs a bit of money, Toodledo is free), Google Tasks, and Pocket Informant which eventually integrated Franklin Covey PlanPlus into their system. I’m in the middle of trying different cloud-based apps for project management/task management and I’ve decided (for now) to stick with PlanPlus tasks in Outlook while at work, and syncing that with my Toodledo account (web-based) using Chromatic Dragon, then syncing FROM Toodledo to Pocket Informant which I have installed on my Android phone, Android tablet, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Sounds a bit crazy but if you try it, the UI is really great. I’m still trying out lots of other apps, installing them on different mobile platforms and testing them online. One thing I really need them to do is be cloud-based and work with Google Calendar. I’m just trying to avoid using 2 separate apps for tasks and calendar.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for other cool and sexy apps out there. Thanks.

The ever-elusive productive weekend.

I’m back to the grind of having a real job, commuting to work each morning at the same time, working the set number of hours, and getting back home at the usual time. It’s been a good 10 months of not doing this so it’s actually been a bit of a relief to have some sort of routine and set expectations for the day.

NOT working, no reliable income, and no set sleeping hours were really throwing me off. I’d try to plan to do something productive or get some schedule down during the week but it just wouldn’t pan out right. I guess I’m now beginning to understand what’s meant by “if you want something done, ask a busy person.” Now that I have so much to do at work AND in my personal life, I’m actually getting so much more done. Even during the day at work, I’ve been very good at taking care of personal stuff real quick over the phone or online. I’m just ON IT.

With the weekend coming around though, I’m back to being listless and lost and wandering with what to do next. I guess I still do get some shit done but I’m just missing that stronger sense of direction with real deadlines.

I want to work on that with my own personal goals, or rather dreams. They say dreams only become true goals when you stick a deadline to them. I can say I have dreamy goals then, for now. But seriously, I want to figure out how to become more mature and responsible in getting what I want, on my own.

Project: GET SHIT TOGETHER

I’m getting my shit together and here’s the quick basic plan for now:

* Move to my own place next week.
* Enroll in some classes.
* Pay off all debt.
* Make extra money on the side.
* Get fit – run
* Buy a car

I’ve already been “on it” after I:

* Got a job
* Quit smoking
* Found a place to live
* Found the perfect school for Pooka in the fall

Now I’m on to writing, like writing this blog, as something I’ve always needed to do.

And now I have a clear topic: getting my shit together as much as I can by the time I hit 40 next year. Hopefully, the world won’t come to an end in December and all this will end up meaningful after all…