The Hearst Museum

January 5, 2009 in Anthropology, Current Events | No comments

As I’ve blogged here before, I did over 15 years of archeology mostly focused in the desert southwest; but also around the south central plains and even the Great Basin Desert. Most of my time though was spent in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. I was lucky enough to work at a few museums during my years including the Blackwater Draw Museum and the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield. I worked in most of them in an archeological or anthropological perspective; maintaining or creating displays, managing collections, and also building up materials such as narrative materials. I never was able to work at the one museum which always captured my interest at this most basic of levels. That museum would be the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Why you ask would this be important? What is so major about that place? Well, those are good questions and I have answers. For, you see, that museum was the home of Alfred Kroeber. Alfred Kroeber was this scientist who did so much for anthropology and archeological research here in California. He received his Phd from Franz Boas who I have admired for many years. Alfred and Franz go way back together and I’ve enjoyed reading and getting lectures on the important and significant advancements to anthropology in the new world that both of these fine scientists brought. Perhaps one of the most interesting things was Kroeber’s friendship and rescue of Ishi. The study of Yahi life and culture always stirred my imagination and fired my desires.

But what does all this have to do with the price of tea in San Mateo? Or pizza in Berkeley? Well, today my son who most likely will not follow in his dad’s footsteps received an internship there. My wife and son were invited to tour the collections, see Kroeber Hall, walk the floor of one of the collection sites. Of course to my son, this is just another entry in the growth and maturation process. To me, its this larger than life thing which makes me remember the stories and books and papers. Most of all it makes me remember the good days of doing the archeology. Archeology was a “doing” thing. You could not passively practice it. You had to get out there in the 125 degree heat in Barstow or the below freezing in the mountains and do it. Then you could say at the end of the day, “yes I did archeology”.

Now my son gets to see a set of prehistoric and historic relics that I have never seen but could get lost for years in. I could wander the collections halls, be lost to all reality, and gaze in wonder at the anthropology there.

I’m jealous and I’m proud of my son. He will see things far beyond my grasp.

Retrospective - 2008 in Review

January 3, 2009 in Current Events | 1 comment

I just noticed my good friend Dave posted an interesting and positive weblog post regarding his 2008. I think a weblog, because of how its arranged, makes an interesting platform to post a thing which recalls a year in the life. It toggles the screen at the top and then slowly makes its way down as the days flow by. I don’t know that I did one for the few years in the past. Many events were troubling and I lost a work colleague and friend that meant more to me than many people I’ve known longer. But that was the year of has beens and wannabe’s when I went back to a place I should not have. But if I had not, I would have never met DaveR; got to know his infectious jubilation, his amazing intellect, and the downright funny times we had discussing Seinfeld. But it started as a rollercoaster.

I digress and that was a few years ago. The year 2008 was very good for me and thanks to Setuid for reminding me to post a few things I found, left, or otherwise dealt with.

@Work

In 2008, I was in the middle of one of the most satisfying consulting jobs for this small financial services company. They hired me the year before and it was the truth that I never spent a day there that I hated. It made the difference for me that I got a job like that given my past severance and the echoing words of one malcontent telling me I would never get a decent job again. But I did, so I won and you lost. Then I left the little financial services company that could and went to Celestix Networks.

Celestix is another great story in workplace life. It challenges, makes me do more, see more horizons and I dearly love working with the Linux platforms and owning them at a product level. I feel I’ve brought something there that was missing. I’ve been with Celestix for about 9 months now and its been a good thing. I’m with people I’ve known before and worked with; so its even better.

@Life

Life seems a different pattern overall. I miss some things I had. Particularly archeology. I still feel that I am a servant of the anthropological union; but there are people that I’ve left behind that I either love or hate. Perhaps that’s okay. I’m traveling on to some other horizon.

Solitude versus Loneliness has bothered me. I feel the need to go “into the wild” or to be alone without being lonely. To see a personal horizon that I deal with on a personal level. What is it about me that needs or wants a life personal? I have never been a social creature and perhaps that’s why I chose archeology.

Finally, I’ve fell in love with some personal organizational skills around Getting things Done which have meant more study and involvement in the how and why of things that I do.

@Someday or @Waiting For

I’m still waiting for Someday :)

It will come and I’ll face it. There could be a career change because I cannot see just doing technology for some number of years more. There is a boundary to it. Simply put, I need more. Someday there will be more and I’ll know it. Perhaps I’ll spend a year in Desert Solitaire again like once or twice before.

The year 2009 promises a mix for me of goods and bads. I’m seriously hopeful but at the same time I want change. One of the great things I’ve maintained is personal health. I lost 90 pounds in over a year and its stayed off. I’m very proud of the differences I’ve made in my life there. Its a thing I never thought I could do that came about in 2008. I still look at my stomach in the mirror and remember that fat boy that was with the pulsing blood pressure, borderline this and that. If I have one recommendation is that you humans out there should take care of yourself.

Wrapping up the Hard Landscape, the Soft Actions, the Contexts

January 2, 2009 in Ideas | No comments

I’ve posted here a few times now on what my landscape is with Zen to Done. I think I’ve gotten a bit better at collecting and processing and I’ve endured the temptation to find new GTD tools. Here is the overall workflow and its simple enough to give me a 30 minute weekly walk through of projects and a daily collection attempt. I’ll try to spell out the tools as well.

Collection Tool - This varies but often includes a smartphone running PhatNotes, paper, and Microsoft OneNote 2007. I tend to get the urge to purge at different places but most often I have a computer or device with me so the phone I have works very well. It helps to have a company exchange server. I write quick or not so quick entries that I then process in the next step. Often the entries are complex definitions of how to fix a problem with a project at work so it takes me awhile longer to do the “brim of consciousness” stuff.

Processing Tool - You need something you trust for this. There are probably hundreds of applications for Mac, Linux, Windows that will work. I’m not particularly fond of Office applications; but for me Outlook 2007 just works. I spend hours every day in Outlook for work. I do my work email in it. I synchronize using our exchange server to my smartphone. Its the almost perfect tool. I have learned a few small things with the sets of tasks I’ve defined in Outlook. You can create a set of keywords that will let you see a nice pattern of search results across all the tasks. This creates a chain of events for your projects, tasks, and shows you the actions. It lets me see those big tasks I do on a daily basis and the big weekly things that rock my Zen.

Review Tool - I schedule the collection and review but often the collection is this brainstorming thing which takes me off into the project landscapes.

Passion, Commitment, Focus - I wanted to build a thing that was simple, that had no more moving parts and that let me be the geek that I am. Paper is not good for me. Writing is difficult. But I need a template, a tool, a place to record. The phone, OneNote, and other things let me do that. I also need to commit to the process and let it take its course.

Finally, Durability - Durability of use means that my tool enables me to learn my hard landscapes, my soft actions, my plans. I’m learning to not want a truly complex inter-linking GTD application. Yet I still try them.

So, I feel I’ve reached an interesting first zenith with the approach. I feel more balanced; but I still seem to charge off and try things. Doing Geek to Done (GTD) perhaps means we use computer/software tools because we can or want to, or need to. Perhaps it comes down to that.

I don’t like Outlook specifically and would use evolution; but I cannot. So I am a habilis and use what I use. I’ve bastardized Zen to Done to something else. Perhaps its Geek to Done.

Changing Times, Years, Ideas

January 1, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

Its a new year. I’ve made some changes to try to affect how I do things and to inject some simplicity into it. I have a job I enjoy at Celestix Networks which is imminently challenging, fun, and rewarding at a few levels. I guess overall I am thankful. The transition to simplifying the actual projects, ideas, tasks, goals has produced a few nice results. I’m able to check off things that I do which is rewarding. I also am able to simplify the things which means that they are more easily digested, managed, and done.

Moving to a new system has its challenges and I’ve met a few which in my journey. You have to stay committed to the system and not wander. I’ve looked a few times at what I need to capture those thoughts which pop in at unusual times. I have an idea about a work project when I’m driving and its a delicious, innovative, fun thing to try. But… I could lose the pieces of it. What to do to capture it? Now I pull over and pull out the smartphone and start typing into PhatNotes. Then when I get in, I deglue all the 1000 foot concepts into concrete things which are smaller, leaner, easier to manage and plan. They populate simple contexts and actions from the smartphone. Some may become major contributors to a daily important task to get done. Others become bigger things. Some are delegated. Most get done within a set number of minutes.

This is where the rub is and it takes constant practice to get this right. I tend to drift off into doing unfocused things instead of sticking to the plan. Perhaps this is my challenge.

Another challenge is that I still seem to want to validate my tools against others out there. There are so many web-based and personal productivity tools that the habilis in me strives to download, setup, use. What I’ve seen with a lot of these are that they are way too complex. I’ve found a basic and simple process to doing the “Zen to Done” for me:

The first thing is how I record things. I need a way to grab the idea, define it, place it no matter where I am. Paper does not work for me. The Motorola Q9 or any phone would work with a decent notetaker.

The second thing I need to do is to process those things. Here is where the wandering sometimes comes in. So I have exercised a bit of control and just do the work and do some mental disciplining around the effort.

The last thing I have noticed is when and where the most creative of ideas occurs. I’m sure you all have done this. When you are solving problems, locating solutions, you engage in this primordial creative state where ideas pop around like comets, things join up and then separate. You are doing more. There is a neural mindmapper working; joining ideas to other ideas. Wondering if a previous solution would work this time.

At this level of distracted awareness, I process ideas and formulate a plan that I have to write down. If I don’t; its gone.

Short and Long of it...

It all seems to work. Ideas process, I manage their collection. I use a simple solution to capture the flow. I have some challenges though. My normal and ordinal process is free ranging solutions architecting. Things bubble all around. I need a simpler solution than the classic business focused GTD. Perhaps I need to create a thing which blends the Zen to Done, the methods I have deifned, and offer it up.

Divide by Zero - My Draft Zen to Done Setup

December 27, 2008 in Ideas | No comments

Since I decided I wanted to organize the events in my life (personal and work) and try to get things more organized and less complex, I’ve probably played around with tens of possible pieces of software. Web and application, hosted, and personal. When I wrote the last blogpost, I had decided I needed something that would “integrate” into a workflow I commonly use. It seemed to me that Outlook 2007 with the Zen to Done setup would just work for me.

I spent a day or so accounting and writing everything down on paper I could possibly think of. Don’t kid yourself; this is hard work! It takes a bit of time, effort, and cringing to record things.

I had already created workflows which seemed simple. I created a few containers that would hold the pieces of my personal and work life. They came out to be about 5 different action names like:

  1. @Errands
  2. @Work
  3. @Personal
  4. @Waiting For
  5. @Someday

These are probably very familiar if you have read any of the GTD primers. But what I learned is that I had been going at this bass ackwards. You cannot find the tool that will work for you until you know the path. Its like wanting to go from San Mateo to Fremont and not knowing what direction it is. You’ll spend a lot of time driving around…

So, after the first workflow, I decided how things would get placed into places, what the review cycle would look like. I created the following containers for that

  1. .Big Rocks - these are big things I want to do in a week.
  2. .Important Tasks - these are the daily or so tasks. I tend to create enough for two days or so.
  3. .Projects - this one takes a bit of practice. I first wanted to find something to actually manage the project. I have redmine, MS Project, etc for that though.

Now for the glue. If you skip ahead and look to see the tool I chose, you are cheating and you’ll pay :). I chose Outlook 2007 and I chose to use no additional software except for my Motorola Q9 and a nice piece of organizational software on it called PocketInformant. So I created a set of tasks in Outlook parlance for each of the above. The action words were given the sets of undated tasks or ongoing resonsibilities. Like in @errands I have “go shopping for new tie”. This task is undated because I have not done the morning review yet to determine what and when. When I decide what and when, it gets moved or a date assigned or whatever.

Some of the workflow is still open and some things will not get moved to the .ImportantTasks category. I’m still working on the flow of things that will work for me. But the main thing is that this will work for me!

My goal that I set for this was to implement it with no additional software, using the tools I already had. More tools equal more exploration, more setup time, less getting to Zen.

Now a task moves through the continuum of action, delegation, done. It works! I’m still trying to visualize the overall workflow; but the Outlook 2007 setup compared to the other dozen tools I’ve used is simple.

Summation

So this will work for me; I have this sense that I will be able to wake up in the mornings, study my projects, define the day’s Important Tasks, assign, complete, delegate. Be done.

I don’t feel more organized; but I do feel less complex. For me the classic GTD philosophy seemed to breed complexity. Does work and home have to be that way? Projects, milestones, deliverables are already complex enough and have very complex tools managing them. I don’t need more tools.

Coolness overall.

Moving Past GTD to Zen

December 26, 2008 in Current Events, Ideas | No comments

Zen is all or nothing its said and Zen to Done is a simpler and kinder way of doing GTD. Here is a workflow I have built which incorporates ZTD and GTD steps. Its all done in a central tool (namely Outlook 2007) but you could do it in evolution on Linux or other tools as you want.

Workflow 1

Contexts Assignments - I’ve created 4 main contexts for myself. These are @work, @personal, @Waiting For, and @Someday. I create tasks/actions in one of these that are undated in Outlook. No due or start time. This lets me dump all the existing stuff and not worry bout dates or times. Its good consciousness clearing stuff. I found that this workflow worked better than the classic GTD. I’ll reflect more on this at the end of the post though.

Someday and Waiting For Contexts are outside my control at this poing and tasks may remain there for some unknown period of time. I’ve delegated some and am waiting for an action on some.

Accomplishment for Workflow 1 - All tasks are entered and my flow has been placed into a “trusted” system which replicates thanks to our exchange mail server. No additional software needed.

Workflow 2

Rocks - I created four new “Rocks” keyed to @Day, @Week, @Month, @Year. Here is how this works for this workflow. I go through each day in minutes the undated and unmanaged next actions from Workflow 1 above and then classify them into tasks for the day, week, month, year. As I learn more, there is a flow from the larger groups (week, month, year) into the smaller controls. This lets me work on tasks at a daily rate and get them done.

Accomplishment for Workflow 2 - Tasks are ordered based on my needs into undated, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. This creates buckets and I can step through, add email to tasks, reorder each day or week. I tested the flow this morning with some required project steps. Its a natural flow for me at this workflow level.

Workflow 3

How it integrates - Well the main thing here is how the work flows. There is a natural ebb and flow to my work and life scheduling. As an inveterate project manager, I wanted this system to take the place of MS PRoject, Trac, Redmine. Lets be fair; that’s not to be. Those are the tools I use to manage the projects themselves. For me this integrates easily into sets of undated tasks which grade into dated tasks. I look each day at the daily tasks and classify some at the beginning of each week into weekly tasks. Then I will do the same and tasks will move throughout the workflows.

Why the Classic GTD does not work (for me)

Classic GTD does not work; because it takes to long to prepare and analyze for me. I spent more time in finding a tool than using a tool. Since I am a tool user by trade; I tend to succumb to the fancies and fantasies of habilis life. Not good!  Classic GTD would work but I would walk through many paths and cycles to get it done. The change to a Zen to Done type of management means that Outlook 2007 becomes the centerpiece for me and our exchange server manages the entire thing. Its good for me wherever I am.

At this point, I’ve created the containers, contexts, steps and am working on still visualizing the actual workflow, testing it, etc. But the main point here is an “action” point. I’m doing it and not studying it. Part of the issue I found with classic GTD is one spends so much time on tools, analyzing, looking, testing; that lesser time is spent on “doing”. Perhaps my approach should be lessened to “Doing Things”. But I really appreciate the Zen to Done step and ebook. We don’t need abstract complexity and 10 contexts. We need the doing and not the planning.

Summation

The ZTD steps mean a kinder and gentler ordering of life tasks, requirements, and a central tool which my employer graciously provides and I can use on any computer. I don’t need a cloud system, a sync system, a dedicated application. I just use a tool which he so kindly provides me. Now my ZTD approach is multiplied across all my systems with no software to buy. Cool! I could also do the same thing on evolution for work; once I get evolution and exchange happy together. But the main point here is the “doing” and not the “planning”. In some ways, the classic GTD seemed more like for me “Planning to Get Things Done”.

It meant that I spun a lot of cycles attempting and not doing.

Bad boy…

How much GTD is too much GTD?

December 25, 2008 in Ideas | 1 comment

I’ve been spending precious time trying to lessen precious time spent on building a core Getting Things Done system that I could use. I’ve tried a whole bunch of software, web hosting, etc. There is one tool which I use every day for the better or worse, which I’ve felt should be the central point for my tasks and time management. That would be Outlook 2007. I don’t particularly care for Outlook; but the 2007 version offers enough customization to be able to build a basic GTD system. I’ve made the following changes based on this site’s suggestions:

1) I transformed my tasks menus and categories into a minimal set of Next Actions like @Computer, @Travel, @Personal. I’ve added agenda items for the folks that I interact with most often. I also added in a series of Projects that I tend to deal with everyday.

2) I changed and customized the views to reflect more of a Next Action philosophy.

3) I added in something which I had felt never was particularly good; namely categorized Notes.

The niceness of this system is that the core setup transfers to all the systems I use Outlook on with little additional work. Our company exchange server helps out quite a bit with this effort.

So what are the strengths and weaknesses? Well, a strength is that this system is much quicker and light weight to access and I see it everyday when I do mail. Its not another application which I have to click on. It seems to be be very responsive to additions and changes. On the negative side, its primarily Outlook. But, the real thing is that even if it is Outlook, it offers a consolidated picture for me of email, tasks, calendaring; and it moves to my windows mobile phone nicely.

Will I stick with GTD? Who knows. If it becomes more trouble to categorize, manage, deal with the system I may not. But my current GTD trusted system and workflow seems decent. The whole setup is easy to manage. I did notice that there is a GTD add-in for outlook which I may also try. I am waiting to hear how it works in an exchange 2007 environment.

Does this make me evil incarnate or somehow less when it comes to Linux? I doubt it. I just use the tool that works. So heap the blame on if you feel like it :)

Significant Project Steals Holiday

December 24, 2008 in Current Events | 1 comment

It must be one of the cardinal principles. When its a holiday be handed a significant project which requires lots of hours, stressful work conditions, phone calls all hours. I was given this project to work out with a Fortune 500 integration firm that buys a very specialized appliance we make. Starting about a week ago with a phone call, the entire picture of holiday taking it easy season all changed. I ended up doing 11 hour days for the last week with no break. Finally, I was able to bring a bit of stability to things after delivering a set of builds which work for them.

Don’t get me wrong though; its been massively challenging and I have not had a thing in awhile which stretched me in so many new directions. Now, we’re approaching the 33% done stage I think but there is still a lot of stuff left to do. Projects within projects; tasks within tasks. Its made me feel truly wanted and valuable. It also may place into hazard my upcoming international travel to Japan and Thailand for a sales conference.

So now its Xmas time again. Hard to believe. Seems time spins away down its own roller coaster.

Work this last year has been a mix of good and better. I loved Visa Information Products and it was the best thing I’ve done. I got to meet people that shared a vision of how teams should work and my management team was top notch. Thanks to Matt, Scott, and Manny. You guys rule! Now I’m at this place that does appliances and its even better. I was given management responsibility for an entire product line and I’ve attempted to make it better by building basic project management goals around how we do software.

Anyways, for any that read this puny attempt at a blog; be happy and prosperous. Enjoy the holidays. Be thankful if you can. Its bound to get better. I see light around the corner and it may be Barack but I think its something more. Its bigger change. For there is nothing so constant as change. Embrace it.

Bye bye Dave

December 19, 2008 in Current Events | No comments

I’ve lived here in the SF Bay area for some odd years. Radio stations have come and gone but Kfog has always been steadfast. Its taken me across the bay when I worked at Visa and part of that trip was always this guy Dave. Dave also did the 10@10 thing which was usually a wonderful parade down my past lined with political, philosophical, and social undertones. The Merc has a nice write-up of Dave and this statement kinda summarizes the feeling:

The nothing special part is hogwash, of course. Morey’s natural ability to connect with listeners via his mellow, low-key demeanor and vast musical knowledge was evident since his early days at KFOG, when he worked the midday shift and wrote commercials. Morey had the honor of flipping the switch in September 1982, when the station changed formats from so-called elevator music to
rock ‘n’ roll.

Dave’s Kfog blog tells the meandering story better perhaps.

It was all special and the years I spent with Dave and the music were special. He always let me feel connected and the memories from 10@10 were good.

Thanks Dave.

Settling in for a Winter

December 16, 2008 in Ideas | No comments

I’ve gotten busy at work lately with a rather fun and challenging project around disk imaging for a enterprise customer. I’m rolling out a DRBL Clonezilla server that will image 10 systems at a time. It runs on my Ubuntu 8.04 desktop which is a Dual Core box with 4g or so of memory and two network cards. I’m building the Clonezilla image files now and tomorrow I roll it out for some testing.

The deliverables are all contained between now and Xmas but the project goes on until February or so. I took a few hours when I found out I was going to support this architecting my proposed solution and then preparing a backup of a critical disk drive that was the only one that was not corrupted.

Other News and Notes

Its gonna be Xmas in just a week or so and I have this hibernation feeling coming over me where I don’t want to go out and do stuff. Perhaps that’s caused by the weather or something… I’ll have to try and do something next week when I’m off for a few days.

GTD revisited

GTD requires a lot of persistence I think. I’ve gone from using Tracks to trying out Thinking Rock which is a Java application so I can run it on Windows, Linux, whatever. I’m using it with this nifty little backup and sync thing called Dropbox which runs on Linux and Windows and makes synchronized copies of various and sundry files that you want to share. I’m also using it with Wikidpad to note my journeys on the project above and then provide the notes to the customer as a series of “howto” documents.

The main thing is I am not completely sold on GTD since it appears to me that its at least as much work if not more maintaining the contexts and actions as it is just including them in a file. Perhaps GTD requires one of a certain mindset; able to take the brush strokes of life and paint them into noticeable arrays.

I’m going to stay using GTD ideas to help me manage all the tasks; but its not the primary mover.

We’ll see how it goes :)

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