The Hard

The Heat

The weather’s been in the 90s this week, so it’s been a bit unpleasant. On Monday, I had very little energy, and I’m pretty sure the heat was the main cause. Alas. A day off from work and I didn’t have the energy to use it productively. I even went for a walk to try to get more energy, but that didn’t work.

Also, Aaron and I have been snippy at each other because of the weather. Luckily neither of us takes it too seriously.

So much to do

And so little discipline. On Wednesday I came home from work and instead of doing the things I said I’d do (make food for the cat, calculate fabric amounts for Pennsic clothes, and do some cleaning) I read World Without End, practiced music, and read some more. It was fun, and I did get the music practiced, but I felt guilty about the time spent on the book.

Working 9 – 9.5 hour days.

We’re leaving early today for a wedding this weekend in Ohio, so I had to flex out those hours over the week. While I’m at work I don’t feel the extra hour. It’s when I come home and there’s not much time left that I start to feel resentful. Yeah I know people have it worse… that still doesn’t make me feel better.

The Good

Sno-cone Maker!

Last summer we bought a sno-cone maker and it’s turned out to be a great purchase. Yeah, we have an ice-crusher built into the fridge, but this thing does a much better job. Very refreshing.

Exercise!

Biked to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. Took a walk on Monday. Friday we’ll be leaving for Ohio, so no biking. Yay!

Got writing done.

Just about finished a post for the future. Started a few more.

Singing

We’re singing and playing music at the wedding this weekend, so we did some practicing on Wednesday. A lot of the music I already knew, and it’s in a good range for my voice.

Enjoyed Reading about Underground Houses

A goal Aaron and I have is to one day build our own hobbit hole. I got a book from the library called $50 & Up Underground House Book on just that topic. It’s dated (published in 1978 dated), but the information is still good, and it’s very entertaining. Well, entertaining for me since the author’s a back-to-the-land hippie…

The Learning

Exercise makes me happy… but only up to a certain point.

Last Friday I biked to work and felt ecstatic for the first few hours of my workday. This week I’ve been biking daily and my mood hasn’t been lifted nearly as much. As I mentioned, on Monday I went for a walk in the hope that it would wake me up and it didn’t. I didn’t feel worse afterward, I just didn’t feel much better either.

I’ll keep on exercising regularly, but I’ll try not to be disappointed on the days I don’t get a euphoric boost.

Pleasant rituals are hard to break

I start my day reading my personal email and checking feeds. This feels good and comfy, but I know I’m not as productive when I do start my day this way. The obvious thing to do is to replace my morning “check email and feeds” ritual with some other pleasant ritual, but I haven’t come up with one that’s sufficiently pleasant and sufficiently motivating. Apparently going through my to-do list isn’t that motivating to me. I will think about it.

Fun is as important as other stuff

I have this ongoing fear that if I do the things that need to be done I won’t have time for fun. Take Thursday. After choir we packed for Ohio and made kitty food. By the time we were done with that it was 10:40pm. Our bed-time is 11pm. Instead of dropping everything and reading for the last 20 minutes I wanted to make an icy drink and turn off some of the lights upstairs. If I had done that it would have been 10:50pm and at that point I might as well go to bed, fulfilling the “I can’t do work and have time for fun” prophecy. Luckily Aaron insisted I just go and read.

I don’t want to binge on fun stuff and feel guilty about it later, so I’m going to start including fun stuff in my “things to get done” list. I’ll keep it at the end of the list so I don’t procrastinate on less fun stuff, but I’ll make time to do it. I have a feeling this will work. That’s it for this week.

After I read Pillars of the Earth last summer I decided to put off reading the next book, World Without End, because Pillars destroyed my week. In a good way, mind you, but still. I couldn’t afford that kind of thing two weeks in a row. Or even two weeks in as many months. Also I wanted something to look forward to.

Now that the wedding’s over and we don’t have any TV shows to compulsively watch, I decided last weekend that I was ready to have my life eaten by a good book again. World Without End has definitely been delivering. I’m still not done with it, and I’ve had to read the book summary and skip around to the sections I was really looking forward to in order to keep myself from going insane.

Life is a Lot Better When You Want to Improve at Your Job

You’ll make more money. You’ll be more effective. You’ll more easily be able to switch jobs. People will be more able to handle it when you make mistakes. Etc.

Conversely, if you don’t want to improve at your job you won’t maximize your earning potential, you won’t be very effective, you’ll have a hard time finding another job in your field, and you won’t be very happy. It’s not fun feeling like you could be making more of your life if you were doing something else.

8 Hours Is Not Enough

I like the feeling of not being busy. I like playing with the cat, chit-chatting with Aaron, watching favorite TV shows, and spending time with friends and family. (Although sometimes the last one can feel like a chore…) I like choosing what to do based on what I feel like doing rather than based on what’s on my list.

I also like making progress on projects. I like being able to say I’m one step closer to my goals. I like making things. I like working through my mental blocks. I like practicing musics. I like learning about new things.

The 8 hours when I’m not at work and I’m not sleeping often don’t feel like enough time to relax, produce things, and do dishes. I also tend to get resentful about not having enough time to pursue worthwhile projects or having to choose between a Project and playing with the kitty (or the husband). Saying no is hard when I really do want to say yes.

I think the solution is to accept where I am… that I don’t have all the time in the world. I also need to remind myself that this state is temporary, and eventually my time will be much better aligned with my aspirations.

Online Shareable Lists are Cool

One of the reasons I wanted an iPhone was to have shared lists with Aaron. When I finally got one last fall I didn’t end up putting any list sharing software on it because there didn’t seem to be any good ones.

This week I had another look and found Listingly, which does just about everything I want. Aaron and I now have simple, shareable lists available anywhere that has internet access. Easy to update using my phone too. If there’s anyone you’d like to share to-do lists with, you should take a look at this site.

Building a Backlog of Content

I’m working on writing a backlog of well written content for TPLT. Once I get enough posts in there I’ll start posting them on Wednesdays in addition to the weekly check-in.

That’s it for now. Have a good weekend!

Also, while I like the distraction free environment, there’s other stuff I like to have in a text editor: syntax highlighting, easy search within the file, keyboard shortcuts, etc. It does’t have to be heavy on the toolbars and text markup a la Microsoft Word or Open Office, but I’d like it if it had a little more functionality than, say, Notepad.

Truthfully, I like vim. It takes a bit of effort upfront to figure out, but after that initial investment it’s really a great text editor. Now if only it did the distraction free thing…

Oh wait. It Does!

At least it does on the Mac. Not sure if it does on the PC or Linux versions, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does.

If you do have a Mac, and you already love vim or would like to learn how, here’s how to get the distraction free version to work.

Step 1) Download MacVim.
Then install.
Then start it up.

Step 2) Pick your color scheme.
To change your color scheme you can use the main toolbar as such: Edit –> Color Scheme –> murphy.

“Murphy” is the one I’m using. You can choose whichever on you’d like. One with a dark background is probably a good idea since in fullscreen mode, the sides will be black.

Alternately you can use the command

:colorscheme murphy

in execution mode.

Step 3) Turn on spellcheck
Using the toolbar go to Tools –> Spelling –> Spell Check On
Using execution mode:

:set spell

Of course, you don’t have to turn this on, but for writing blog posts it is useful.

Step 4) Turn on Word Wrap
Using the toolbar go to Edit –> File Settings –> Toggle Wrap at Word
Using execution mode:

:set linebreak

Step 5) Full Screen
Press the following three keys:
Command Shift F
That will toggle Full Screen mode. Then you basically have WriteRoom with the features of vim.

How to get a quick word count
In command mode press the following:
g Control+g
Which is to say press g, and then press Control and g at the same time.

Enjoy!

If you google at all you’ll find plenty of reviews about what Roomba can and can’t do, so I’m not going to repeat them here. Instead I’ll tell you about some indirect benefits of having a Roomba do the vacuuming and some tip or two about how to keep it in good working order.

Good Thing 1: No Clutter on the Floor
Sven can’t clean under the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. In fact he’ll get stuck in them.

This was the main reason I wanted to get a Roomba: I wanted a strong incentive to keep my clutter off of the floor. For the most part it’s worked. At the very least I’m quicker now to put away whatever it is that’s on the ground, since I’d like to let Sven be able to vacuum all the rooms.

Of course, the way around this is to pile your clutter on couches…

Good Thing 2: No Crumbs in the Kitchen
We cook a lot. And with cooking comes food prep detritus landing on the floor. Before Sven we’d sweep the floor after washing the dishes. I used to dread doing it. Now we can just put Sven in the kitchen and let him do his thing. It’s not perfect, but it goes a long way toward making our kitchen a more pleasant place to work.

Tip: How to Clean Your Roomba
The one downside with the Roomba is that it has to be cleaned fairly often, and unlike other vacuum cleaners the process has multiple steps. You have to empty out the bin and then clean off the brushes. If you have long hair the brushes will have hair wrapped around it. Both Aaron and I have long hair so we’ve experienced this firsthand.

Roomba’s fairly easy to clean except for the beater brush. For whatever reason, the part that gets lots of hair caught in it is a solid piece of plastic that can’t be removed. At least not easily. There’s no tool that comes with it either.

To clean out that roller we use a pair of Toenail clippers kinda like these. They aren’t perfect, since they don’t quite fit inside the clogged area, but they do a pretty good job. With enough patience I can usually remove all of the hair stuck in there.

Final Thoughts
Will the Roomba solve all of your clutter problems? No. You have to really want to not have clutter first. Roomba can only act as a final push to get you to keep it off. Also, I’d say you have to already be pretty enamored with the idea of Roomba doing the vacuuming for you. If you don’t think Roomba is the coolest thing ever, I imagine it’s affect on your life will reflect that.

Was it worth it for me? Absolutely. Will it be worth it for you? You’ll have to answer that yourself.