BrockLi Soup

It seems that over the past two years, I’ve heard from a consistent stream of friends and acquaintances who have converted to the Getting Things Done system. Most recently, it came up when Lewk and Schmitty were here last week. Lewk whipped out his well-worn copy and explained how he’s been keeping track of things on to-do lists and the like.

And then I realized, it’s been ages since I had a real to-do list.

Obviously, I keep one at work, because I always seem to forget the minor details in my pursuit of the bigger picture. And I’ve still got a list of project ideas that I’ve had running for a few years now. But really, I haven’t kept a running, daily-consulted to-do list since I finished classes. In a way, it’s been kind of nice: I’ve felt relatively free from responsibility. I’ve done a lot of reading. I’ve put a significant dent in the list of movies I hadn’t seen (that list doesnt count, since I never really made it). I can’t really say I’ve accomplished much, though.

I think it’s time for that to change. I’ve been feeling listless lately, like I’m not sure what to do with myself, and having some personal projects on deck would certainly help. But then, what to do? I’m losing interest in programming; it’s not the kind of thing I can do all day at work, and then do at home for fun. I keep saying that I want to write more. I’ve got the time, and I’ve got the means, but I don’t have the inspiration. I have some ideas, but when I actually go to write them down, I don’t know what to say.

Lewk mentioned that writing things down has helped him be more creative. It’s true that I tend to be more stressed when I lay in bed each night, mentally re-hashing everything that needs to be done in the coming days. I still carry my Hipster PDA, but haven’t used it much lately. I also got in on the Moleskine craze a little late, but I’ve been jotting notes and making lists in there a bit more lately. It’s tough to get in the habit of making a quick note when ideas occurr to me.

I’m hoping that Lewk is right, though: maybe taking a couple minutes to get things out of my head and onto paper will allow other things some breathing room.

I finally got around to cleaning up the hockey gear that had been occupying half of the floor space in my room. Next to it was the pile of crap that used to live in the Rubbermaid tote before I dumped it all out so we could use it as a cooler for the party.

While sorting through the crap (and by “sorting through” I mean “piling into a different box”), I came across the pink notebook that FN, Schmitty, and I used (on the way to No Way Dave’s in New Jersey) to compose the lyrics to Hotel Honda Prelude, a rendition of Hotel California that tells the tale of our drive to Arcadia the week before.

I can’t remember how I wound up with it, but I hung on to it so I could return it to FN. It pops up every six months or so and sends me sifting through old LJ archives looking for the two posts I linked to (this time I thought to add them to my memories to save me some time in December).

I miss the Grillbillies a lot. This is the second summer I’ve said I would make it to a bunch of festivals, and I already know that it’s not going to happen this year either. I’m going home this weekend, throwing the Champagne Party the weekend after that, going home again the weekend after that. Two weeks later - the weekend of OATS - I’ll be doing chemistry labs for three days to complement the chem class I’m taking via distance learning. I need to find a job teaching so I can take summers off again.

College would be so much better with more money and more free time.