Command Center return to the basement

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Since Leo retired, he is using the office a lot more throughout the day.  There can only be one person at the desk the way it was setup.  So I finally decided to move my PC downstaris to my office today.  I have a lot more room to spread things out and do my video editing.  Connie brought me a lot of VHS tapes to convert to DVDs.  I can just come down to my office and start that project whenever I need to.  I do like this setup better than before anyway.

I used to do my computer work on a small workstation, I can not work long without feeling fatigue setting in.  Now, I work on the old dinner table  with lots of room to put my elbows and writing tablet and coffee cup, etc.  I can work for longer time now without backaches.

REally taking it easy in the past couple of days.  I think I am rushing a bit on my recovery going out shopping and stuff.   I started to bleed a little agian yesterday.  After all, it’s only been one and a half week so far. I should not rush it.

Sunday

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Went to Giant Eagle today and had to take a nap afterwards.  Man, my stamina or energy is just not there yet.  And now I feel a bit of pain after running up and down the stairs to get the grill started for the steaks.  Even though I don’t have sharp pains from the surgery, these little tell tale pains are there.  I need to pay attention to it more and let the body get the proper recovery and rest.

Post OP

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Whew!  It’s done.  Actually, it was done last Thursday on the 26th.  It went very well.  I actually passed out before I got to the OR.  he he.  And when I came to, I was in the recovery room but I was so sleepy I just went on sleeping for 3 hours.  I was goofy when I got to my room.  I was shooting everybody in the room with my pretend gun.  And I don’t think I was making full sentences when I talked to friends and ey.  

Everything went well though.  I have had very little pain and was able to walk around the next day.  With only minor discomfort of constipation and coughing for a few days.  I went out for dinner with L tonight already to celebrate his last day of work and the beginning of retirement.  It’ll be a different life now with both of us at home all the time.  We’ll have a different routine and adjustments for sure.

But the op went well and the recovery went well.  And that’s something wonderful.

Goodbye Christinesweb

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Changed the URL to dancingchimes.  It’s what I use for gmail and everything else.  I think it’s about time to switch and consolidate.

I can’t understand why time flies so fast.  It’s 3:30 again and I feel like I have just got started.  Spent a lot of time trying to get the booksmarks to sync between my Vaio and the Macbook Air.  They won’t.  I don’t know why.  It’s frustrating.  They kind of do but the newest link I added to GTD just won’t show up on my PC.  I even deleted everything in the bookmarks and let mobileme replace it.  Still that one doesn’t show up but it did put a lot in.  So I don’t know what the deal is.

Oh, and I tried to connect the camcorder to the macbook air, it won’t recognize it.  But I was able to upload the clip using Vaio.  So that wasn’t total lost of time there.  I stayed up till almost 2:30 last night learning and using the smartlist in Itunes.  I’m quite happy about the outcome.  I can organize my video clips and music a lot better now on the iphone.  It’ll be easier at the studio when we work on the wcs routine in the future. 

Then I tried to use monkeyGTD online version.  Took me a while to remember that I have to use firefox.  So lots of wasted time there.  But hey, this is what I like to do so I am not complaining too much here.

Connie called to get my thoughts on whether to buy a PC or a Mac.  I kind of leaning towards a PC for her since she is familiar with all the software on it.  She was in the car going to Ganley Toyota to look at a car.  I guess Tim’s car is still not working.  She complained how cold it is here.  We sort of had a laugh about that. 

Still need to go over the rumba routine a bit so I am more familiar with it.  Yesterday was a bit rough, I can’t spin at all.

Rainy

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Another rainy day.  I’m sitting in my office downstairs looking out the window to the lake.  Geese and ducks were flying in and out and even it’s gloomy outside, there is a sense of tranquility.  This is an ideal spot for the desk.  It reminded me of my childhood room facing the street.  It’s behind the family restaurant that my parents run and after the busydinner hours, I can still remember my dad, the cook and others sitting around at the street corner, chatting, smoking trying to get a breeze in the summer night.   That image will stay with me forever even though the house may be on the verge of being torn down to build high rise now.  And my dad is long gone and mother is in the nursing home.  Time changes and the world changes, but memories stay.

I read somewhere that says the journal writers all have the secret hope that someone will read their journal in the future.  That’s not true.  I don’t hope that someone will read this when I”m gone.  This is just a place where I come to park my thoughts when I need to let them out, whether they will be read or not, is not the purpose.  In fact, I would love that this is private and stays private.  But I’m too lazy to do it in a restrictive way either by location or means.  Web is the best medium for me.

This also plays into my decision for a good GTD system.  It has to include the web in some way.   It’s where I feel comfortable in. 

Just can’t get over this.  This location is the writer’s heaven.  Ducks are happy in the water right now.  Oh, heaven!

I stayed up and read “Living a Beautiful Life’ by Alexandra Stoddard.  Ritual is the word that she uses quite a lot.  Building beautiful riturals to enhance your surroundings and your life.  Yeah, I remember that.  And I have forgotten it for a while.  Yesterday, I was looking at the books on the shelves and saw all the book I love and still excite me to look at.  I pulled this one out and it is so soothing just to read the grace notes in it thinking about how I can implement some of them.   Flower on the desk, fragrant candles, boxes covered with pastel prints, a beautiful cup and saucer for coffee or tea.  Too often, I resort to practical ways instead of paying attention to things that bring beauty to my world of senses. 

Manfred was just coerced into laying on the blanket by the heater.  I had to push him onto it to show him that it’s a warm place to stay.  And he did.  So he’s resting at my feet as I type.  What can be better than this!

So many apps, so little time GTD

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Yeah, I will never get anything done if I keep looking for the app that will be the system for my GTD.  Man, so many of them out there.  

Remember the Milk  ttp://www.rememberthemilk.com

Nozbe http://www.nozbe.com/

Omnifocus http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/

GTDTiddlyWiki http://nathanbowers.com/gtdtw/index.html

MonkeyGTD http://monkeygtd.tiddlyspot.com

They are all gems on their own.  Some free, some expensive, some small, some on multi platforms.  I’m narrowing down my selections.  But there are so much out there, it’s addictive to go from links to links to links trying to catch up on all of them.

Lifehacker and 43folders are two sites I really like.  But there are so many other good ones out there.  I’m trying to catch them into my evernotes and organize them there.  It will be my online reference material deposit box.  I’m thinking about using RTM because it’s free and see how that fares out.  The dilemma is you don’t want to start using one system and have to convert everything to another.  So I’m trying to find the one that best suits me.  I like the electronic ones better because it’s easier to enter the tasks at one place and populate it all over the place.  But there are those times when written notes are best so I’ll need the paper system too.  decisions, decisions…

Office Makeover

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After a few days of brooding or brewing, I finally decided to give my office a long over-due makeover this afternoon.  Moved all the boxes and things that are just laying around to the storage area in the basement.  It’s already looking a lot better.  As David Allen said, getting some clean edge in your physical space helps with your psychic.  It really does.  Then by moving the furniture around a bit and getting rid of clutters, I am loving this space again.  Haven’t really getting my file system back in shape yet.  There are papers to be filed for almost a year I think.  But now that I have the space setup, I can move ahead with that part of the makeover.

The reason I haven’t been using this office downstairs is first, it has never been finished since we moved in.  I have boxes still laying around, an open loop that says work whenever I come down here.  A mental burden I guess.  And second, it’s cold down here.  Maybe it’ll be better in the summer, then again maybe not, with the AC all coming down here and staying down here.  Right now, I have the space heater going, and that helps a lot.  

I won’t be able to use this office for a few weeks after the surgery but after that, I should be able to fully utilize it when Leo retires and stays home then.  We should have separate spaces to move in and not be in each other’s way.  It’s a good thing.  And yeah, I’ll be going back to work and that should help too.

Now on to the paper mess…

Health and Life

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I think the reality of the hysterectomy is slowly sinking into the consciousness.  Wednesday was a blank, I heard the news but it wasn’t me we were talking about.  Yesterday, I didn’t give it any conscious thought either, just letting it sit in the background.  Today, it’s coming back and I am starting to give its existence a chance to survive.  So to speak.  I called the doctor’s office to see how soon I should let them know.  It was probably a good idea, the person was trying to blow me off by saying the doctor is out of the country till April 1st.  Not what the doctor was telling me.  She changed her story when I told her my talk with the doctor herself.  But I should call Monday to get in the queue though, so the day won’t fill up on me.  Only one day left this month.  She is only operating on Thursdays and the one before the last week is already filled.

I guess these major surgery brings the mortality to the foreground.  I thought I should at least give it some time.  Funny that I just started getting back to the GTD system.  I guess if I think there are still a lot of things to be done yet, I’m not really thinking about the mortality seriously.  Or maybe I am because I suddenly realized that there is limited time left.  Who knows.  

Starting to think about things I can do in the recovery period.  Books, knitting projects, blogging, ….  And also funny that P P just got back to me about the employment opportunity at the university after being silent for weeks.   It’s a good news and one of the things that will make my day fuller and more structured.   

I’m at the library now.  Time has changed and the library is catching up.  I still remember being scolded at before when I had the notebook plugged into an outlet years ago.  Now that have stations setup for laptop plugins and even a private room for people to use.  Technology has certainly creep into the daily life for the general mass.

Found a book “101 Best Home-based Businesses for Women”.  hmmm.  posibilities..

Getting more organized

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I’ve been freeflowing since I stayed at home.  That is, most days, I have not schedule and no agendas.  I just do whatever pops into my nind that day and appeals most to me.  I like the stress free freedom and have been enjoying it.  But the other side of me has been wondering if I’ve been wasting my time away if I don’t have a schedule or an agenda for the day.  Am I missing something I should have done?  Am I being a slob?  So when I stumbled back onto David Allen’s GTD on youtube, I’m happy to reinvestigate his method and see if I can employ it in my jobless phase.

Actually, I can.  Even though there is no external pressure now to accomplish certain job related tasks, there are tasks in everyday life, there are goals we should set for ourselves to live a meaningful life.  It gives you purpose and feeling of accomplishments.  Both are positive influence in our lives.

So I did a brain dump yesterday.  Even doing so, I found myself repeating the same items cause i don’t remember if I put it down or not.  It’s embarrassing.  But at least they have been recorded.  If the purpose for the brain dump is to relieve your brain from trying to remember everything you have to do, not sure if I have put them down is certainly a detriment to the system.  But I’ll just have to see how it works for me now that my forgetfullness seems to be getting worse and worse.

Now I’m looking for the system to use to keep the engine rolling.  I know I have to choose something that is easy to do or my laziness will prevent me from doing it.  The fact that I have maybe a monthful of mail to open can attest to that.  I hate paperwork.  So it needs to be an application and one that I can get to easily anywhere.  A web app is probably the best.  And one that is free is also essential.  Or one that I can install on my website.  Hmmm.  Something to look into,.  One more thing for the brain dump.  Heck, at this rate, I may have more brain dump than I can put them into a system to keep track of.  he he.

But there are always paper trails that need to be kept somewhere.  So I still need a file system and a place to put the reference materails for a future task.  I’m still not very clear how to implement the system and looking for something that suits my way of doing things.   This is a process that is not finished yet.

GTD Kick and possible surgery

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By chance I ran across David Allen’s presentation at Google on Youtube.  It got me back on the wagon for GTD.  I watched a lot of other related youtube videos and it also got me on to moleskine notebooks.  Thus I’m inspired today and went to Office Max and puchased new gel pens and pencils, tabs for the notebook.  I started off load the stuff on my mind to a quadruled writing tablet.  Plan to dig out the GTD book too to refresh my memory.  Life is good when your brain is challenged and also feels free to express itself.

Went to the OB/GYN yesterday and the news is the old news.  Still have the low grade whatever.  I asked the doctor what can we do about it.  She said we can keep an eye on it like we do regularly every 3 months or so and we can perform the leap procedure as many times as we want.  Or we can have a hysterectomy and drop the risk down real low.  Not zero cause we still need to keep an eye on it with regular checkup.

Well, it’s a big decision but some how it doesn’t feel like a big decision.  There is always risk when you have a surgery,  but I guess it’s Connie’s situation that helps me to deal with mine a little calmer than I would have.  I don’t know.  I’ll need to have 4-6 weeks to recover.  Which means I can’t dance during that time.  Maybe I’ll be able to work on the website and my knitting a lot more.  It’s not a bad thing actually.