It took a little doing to actually find time to go through the list, things being what they are, but I did get through it last night. All open tasks I have to complete this year now have been prioritized, with estimates and schedules. This was a really useful exercise for me already, and I haven’t even gone through the list to do the fun part of the sorting.

First thing I learned is that I’m trying to do too much. Yeah yeah, we all knew that. But when you actually go through the list and do this kind of estimating with it, you get a really good view of just how much you’re trying to do. And how you really can’t do it all.

Second, I assigned multiple criteria that basically correspond to “How important is it to me?”, “How much time will it take to do?”, “How quickly do I need it to be done?”, and “Do I think it goes at the top of the list or the bottom of the list?” When I correlated on these criteria, this mass of tasks that I want to get done this year coalesced into a very clear image of what is really important to me this year.

I knew this exercise was going to be useful to help me get organized, but I didn’t expect such a clear picture for the year to form like it did. It’s kind of exciting. And I highly recommend you try this if you haven’t done something like this before.

Thing : Estimate, Formulate and Slate
Type : Organization
Size : Scattered
Description : I have 125 things on my To Do list for this year. I am not going to get 125 things Done this year. Some of them are small and high priority, some of them are big and low priority, and some are in the middle. But they aren’t in any kind of reasonable order. So I need to go through the list, size each task, and put it into some kind of priority so that I can set reasonable expectations for myself.
S.Q.U.I.D. Test : This Thing will not be Done until all open tasks in my task management system have:

1. An Estimate for how long it will take to complete the task
2. A Priority for each task, ranging from 1 (Mandatory) to 7 (Disposable)
3. A Schedule for when each task will be completed

All three of those things are going to be incredibly fluid – estimates are rough, priorities are approximate, and schedules shift according to needs. But this isn’t an exercise in precision, it’s me trying to get an order in place so that I can work a little more sensibly.

This should have been Thing Two. But I wanted to dive right in. If I keep trying to work this way I’ll go crazygonuts. So I’m going to fix it now, so that I stand a better chance of getting things done down the line.

I started 52WoD in order to knock off a bunch of things I have in various states of completion. It was perhaps naive of me to think I wouldn’t come up with something new to do while I was working on all those projects. But I had an idea last week that I thought was a pretty good one. And rather than adding it to a queue and letting my brain think about it for a while, I’ve decided to attack it now. The idea is to determine, this week, if it’s a viable thing to pursue or not. If it’s a good idea, I’ll pull the trigger. If not, I’ll put it down for good. This might not seem like it’s all that ground breaking, but usually I chew on things more before doing something like this. So it’s a departure for me to jump out publicly with something at this stage.

Thing : Playground Supervisor Dispatches – Launch It or Kill It
Type : Writing / Collaboration
Size : Scattered and Smothered
Description : Playground Supervisor Dispatches is an idea I had for pulling together a compilation of writings on a specific subject from a number of different sources. I thought it was a neat idea, but I can’t say if it’s viable or not until I put it out there to see if it floats.
S.Q.U.I.D. Test : This Thing will not be Done until it is Launched or Killed:

To Launch It, I need to:

1. Write a post detailing the project and calling for statements of intent;
2. Receive 24 statements of intent from prospective contributors;
3. Provide details for how the project will be brought to fruition;

To Kill It, any one of the criteria will be sufficient:

1. Failure to receive 24 statements of intent;
2. Failure to setting on details for a project plan;
3. Determination that the project budget is unworkable;
4. Determination, after a week of discussion with no less than 5 advisors, that the project is ill-advised

I acknowledge that some of the above criteria do not meet the S.Q.U.I.D. test as I outlined it in last week’s wrapup post – specifically, some of these criteria have third-party dependencies. But this Thing cannot be Done without these third-party dependencies. So there it is.

I realize that this post is pretty scant on details and specifics for the project. Never fear – those details will come in a later post, after they’ve been fleshed out.

My task was to create a Space in which I could get things done.  I had left this conceptually undefined, but had initial visions of heavy rearrangement of furniture, building walls, setting up a tumblr, a youtube channel, and more.

Then I got the plague, and got discouraged, and finally eeked out a kickoff post on Thursday, in which I declared that I would, in fact, Do Something.

In this case, something amounted to some purging, organizing and desk clearing.  And earlier this evening, I declared victory.  I have made a Space.  It is Done.

Did I take before and after pictures? No. I should have. Maybe some of it was being vain, but in truth I was halfway done before I remembered, and now I am in bed and I’m not going down there just for that.  But, suffice to say, where once there was an enormous jumble of gaming supplies, unopened bills, half-soldered projects and stuff I didn’t really need anyway, now there are a few scant but precious square feet of open desk space – enough to hold a laptop, a notebook, a cup of tea and a totem. Everything I need to start the next week.

It’s not pretty, but it is Something.  And that’s a damn sight better that whining about how I was too sick to build walls.

Morning, and Week 2, comes early.  Night then.

I sat down after Kublacon and made a short list of things that have been piling up, and realized that the short list was rather long – long enough that if I only got caught up, I would be busy through the end of the year.

So I have initiated Operation : TCB. That’s Taking Care of Business, in case you are both a Bubba Hotep virgin and a Carl Perkins fan.

Phase One of Operation TCB means clearing off my desk, so I have a place in which I can work. I started this process late last night, and should have taken a picture of the desk before I got started.

However, I took a picture this morning of what the desk looks like after 3+ hours of archaeology. WARNING : NSF Neat Freaks

My Heaps and Mounds sorting structure serves me well when I am making SCIENCE from a bullhorn and an Arduino. But this system of organization falls down when I need to get some specific things done. In a way, clearing my desk is just reconfiguration to go from Inventing Mode to Production Mode. It’s like being a Transformer, without the explosions. Though you could argue that fire might improve things.

So, Phase One is clearing some work area.

Phase Two will be scheduling Work In nights.

Phase Three will be some kind of world domination.

I would love to say more, but I have things that need boxing.

The helmet I came away with is awesome. It’s all swoopy and angled – it looks like a bike helmet Batman would wear (although his would be a custom carbon fiber job with lots of built in sensors and other cool stuff).

I was discussing the Batman-like qualities of my new helmet with a friend of mine with whom I am riding and he said I should get a laser-cut Bat Symbol and mount it to the front of the helmet.

“If I do that,” I said, “I’d want to ride as Fat Batman. And I don’t want to ride as Fat Batman. I don’t want to be Fat Batman in everyone’s Tour de Cure pictures. I don’t want to be ‘Fat Batman’ at all.”

He looked at me and just said “Why?”

And on the one hand, the answer is obvious. Among the many reasons I don’t walk around in spandex all the time, the highest ranked reason is “I have no desire to go around looking like a pint of sausage in a half-pint bag.”

But on the other hand… Fat Batman.

So I was talking about this on the show last night and I put it to the listening audience. I said if someone emailed me and said that yes, they thought I should be Fat Batman, then I would make them put their money where their mouth is.

I got an email.

Me and my big mouth. But I said it, and I’m going to stick to it.

I found a source for a spandex Adam West era Batman costume.

I upped my fundraising goal for the ride, from $500 to $1,000.

If I reach my fundraising goal of $1,000 (I’m already at $400), then yes, I will ride 100 miles on the Tour de Cure as Fat Batman.

If you want to donate, you can do so at http://main.diabetes.org/goto/aterribleidea

If you can’t donate, spread the word. Write your own posts, link to the donation page, write a song about it, whatever you have in mind. It’s probably the easiest way you’ll ever find of seriously embarrassing me in front of a large group of people.

Over the past 5 years or so, I’ve put together a few different things of an audio nature. I can’t even bring myself to call them songs, because well… most of them aren’t. They are mostly just weird bits of audio that I cut up and mixed together in ways I thought were interesting. I always joked with the guys on Sneak Attack that I should cut an album.

Then, I got this huge bill that I have to pay in three weeks (with no room for error). In the process of scrambling to put together some things to sell, I realized that there was no time like the present.

So, I put the tracks together in an album over at Bandcamp. it’s 5 bucks. And it’s a terrible album. But if you’re into that sort of thing, then you should head over, give it a listen, and if inclined do please drop a fiver on it. I would appreciate it in Many Many Ways. If it’s not your cup of tea, tell your friends to try it. If you think it’s terrible, then sucker your enemies into buying it.

Wanna hear what it sounds like: Check it out below:

DriveThruRPG is having a HUGE sale for GM’s Day. It’s a good chance to get Shambles for 25% off!

Shambles isn’t the only thing available, of course. Lots and lots of PDFs at 25% off, from publishers all across the spectrum.

The sale only lasts until March 8th, so you’d better get while the gettin’s good.

I don’t know why, but I decided to jump in myself. Here’s my entry. Enjoy (or not).

–

He kept telling himself that it was just one time, a single moment of weakness. Surely, he could be forgiven.

Being an associate minister isn’t really any fun. You give the sermons when the other guy is golfing, you might get to give a night sermon every now and then. You go see the poorest of the elderly in the worst of the nursing homes. When people see you, they’re always looking for “the real minister” – someone even said that to him once. There was probably opportunity there for him to learn humility from it all, but somewhere after he turned 40, he’d just lost interest in the whole ordeal. He was never going to be allowed to do God’s Work. He was relegated to doing God’s Busy Work.

Yet every Sunday, he’d sit in the front row, and smile. There was nothing else for it, really. He had to try and make the best of what he had. He was too old to start over now, and too used to what he was doing. He was coming to peace with his circumstances, even if that peace didn’t involve prayer anymore. Besides, those cast-offs, those people too unimportant or unattractive to talk to the other guy, they still needed a minister.

She was a bit of a lucky break, really. She came to their church for the first time while the other guy was out of town. She was going through a rough divorce, and tearfully was looking for someone, anyone to that could help, just to talk. He was only too glad to offer his services, and they spent the entire afternoon in his office, talking. Everything he ever learned in seminary, everything he’d learned on the job, everything he’d ever been told, it all said the same thing: she’s emotionally vulnerable, weak, hurting and will become attracted to you if you aren’t very careful. There are things you do in those situations to help mitigate the risk. He knew what they were, all of them. But he ignored them.

A single moment of weakness.

They met again later in the week for some Bible Study. And every Sunday and Thursday after that. He could tell there was something there, something special for both of them. Sometimes they would read scripture and talk well into the night. If he had been the other guy, tongues would have set to wagging. But nobody gossips about the associate minister.

It was one of those late night sessions where she decided, abruptly, that she was ready to accept Jesus into her life. She was ready for peace. She wanted to be baptized, right then, and so off to the church they flew.

They parted briefly, awkwardly, to go into their changing rooms, and each listened quietly, minds racing, as they could hear the other fumbling on the other side of the wall, removing their clothes and putting on their respective robes of ceremony. He closed his eyes trying simultaneously to drive away and embrace the image of her flesh, how yielding she would be, how soft and tender. He beat his lust into submission.

A single moment of weakness.

He was waiting in the baptistery when she came out, her robe clinging to her body in ways contrary to intent and design. He forced eye contact as she came into the water, clapping a mental hand over the voice in his head that was providing ceaseless narration. Taking her hand, he showed her where to stand, what to do and how to cover her nose lest the water get inside.

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

She leaned back into the water, and he dunked her in deep. And for reasons he’d never fully understand, he held her there. He held her there through the surprise, through the panic, through the noisy splashing and scrambling for purchase on the baptismal floor. He held her there until her frantic flailing quieted. He held her there until she found peace.

Now she floated before him, his single moment of weakness, and he prayed for forgiveness.

I’m also going to re-order the list from now on, putting recently touched things on the top of the list, and watching untouched things sink to the bottom.

On The Table:

1. Shambles Source Material #1 – I am working on the first piece of supporting material for Shambles as my 40 Day Project, and it’s coming along quite nicely. The outline is over half done, and about 10% or so of the writing has been completed.
2. NEW – Maschine Zeit Material – As I Previously mentioned, I’m one of several people providing material for Maschine Zeit. This one has a deadline, so expect it to move quickly.
3. Codename: Pandoran Apothecary Chest – Talked a bit more with the designer, bought some stuff to work up a prototype of my own.
4. RPBGN – Still treading water on rpgbloggers.com until a couple issues get sorted.
5. Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – Still kicking around that system-changing idea..
6. Codename: Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda – Unchanged (erp).
7. Codename: Simulated Jocular Anaconda – Unchanged
8. Codename: First Rural Delusions – Unchanged.

In The Closet

1. NEW – Mobile Audio Rig v2.0 A new project I posted about yesterday- Mothballed 2/24/10
2. Unfinished – (NaNoWriMo 2009 Entry) – Mothballed – 01/28/09
3. Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – Mothballed 11/04/09
4. Codename: Big Audio Dynamite – Mothballed 11/04/09
5. Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – Mothballed – 11/04/09
6. Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – Mothballed 10/28/09
7. Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – Mothballed 10/28/09

In The Trophy Case

1. Shambles – My RPG about life as a Zombie. First revision. (read about it here) – Completed on 2/17/10
2. Obnoxious Howler Monkey – An Arduino driven, VMUSIC2 bases soundboard designed for use as a mood-setter for tabletop games. (read about it here) First Revision. – Completed on 11/18/10
3. The Grognards Of Gygax – My entry into the “Best Quest” contest for Legends of Zork. It won Second Place – Completed on 11/11/10

Excuse Of The Week: What? I’m getting things done, just not the things I’m SUPPOSED to be getting done.