DESKTOP(S) OF THE DAY: Spaced Out

Oh lordy we got some catching up to do! But, I've been following my own advice and writing down my ideas in the meantime, so I've got a couple great images for you today.



This one's a view of the International Space Station from aboge, made by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery. You can read all about it here. This comes to us from a great site for wallpapers, the Astronomy Picture of the Day archive. Each day they post a new and amazing photo from space, with a description by a real astronaut or astronomist.



Here's a beauty from Airliners.net showing the flight path of a space shuttle launch - that blinding flash at the bottom left is takeoff.

If you're still looking for other good wallpaper images, I always like to try Flickr (usually by going to Popurls first, as mentioned here). If you want to see some photos I loved, check out my Flickr favorites page here. Oh, and if you want to see the few pictures I have posted so far (all of my cat), you can check them here.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: space station shuttle desktopoftheday

MORE POSTS TO COME SOON

I'm sorry I haven't posted recently! Have no fear, your Destop of the Day and a new Personal Productivity article are coming soon. My wife got pretty seriously sick at the end of last week, so that's thrown both of our schedules off. Plus, last night I attended the debacle known as "NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 1" so I'm completely wasted and my arm is sore from waving one of those plastic clappers around as hard as I could. Who knows, maybe I should follow Paul's example and just email everyone I know when I have another blog post. ;-)

Thanks for your patience - I'll make it up to ya!

PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY PATH: Write It Down!

One of those ugly things about becoming an "adult" is that you learn that slacking through or relying completely on talent just doesn't work anymore. Not following through on a project or not remembering an appointment doesn't just give you a bad grade anymore - it could mean your job, your livelyhood, or your career. It's taken a school of hard knocks for me to learn that I needed to change my wicked and slothful ways, but now I'm pursuing a new path - one I'll be shaing with you. Call this "GTD for the common man" or a "Dummies Guide to Juggling Life," but I'm going to share in this topic ideas I've found that actually work for me - whether they're radically geek or extremely boring old-school.



Like myself, I'm sure many of you think you have a brain. Let me help you with one clear truth - you don't. At least, you don't have the brain you really need. All of us have deficiencies in how our minds work, even the ones that look like they have it all put together. For me, the problem is often that I have too many ideas. I'm an ENFP, which means I'm great at perceiving interrelated ideas or intuitively discovering needs, but I'm terrible at following through on them. I get more lightbulbs above my head than there are on the Vegas strip, but just as fast as you can lose your money on a blackjack table, they're gone. Our brains are incredible processors, but without training or help, they're terrible hard drives.

So when you look at creative types across many disciplines, you'll see one theme running through how they pull down all those ideas - everyone has to write it down. Whether you're an aspiring comedian, web comic artist, creator of fine art, or just a guy trying to get things done
, there's an amazing power in putting your ideas in a written form while you're thinking:

• Writing your ideas actually helps you remember them, because you engage your visual and kinetic learning paths


• Writing creates a fixed state for your ideas, so you can look back on them and see how your position has changed - this is why you should write the date on everything


• Writing ideas creates a small level of commitment - every time you see it, you'll be reminded about what that means for you

What should I write on?
What actual instruments you use are completely up to you. As an avid Palm user, I always love using my PDA, but it's not always the best choice for writing. I've taken to carrying a small notepad with an elastic closure with me where ever I go (not a moleskine, mind you, I'm too cheap for that), because writing my ideas on a small pad of paper eliminates the barriers of Graffiti and styluses (styli?). Whatever you write on should be quick, easy, and present as few barriers as possible for getting the ideas from your mind onto something concrete.

What do I do with what I've written?
Also entirely up to you, but writing an idea down shouldn't be the end of it. If it's a project, you need to move it into some sort of workflow system, even if that's as simple as a to-do-list. The paper is a temporary fix, just getting the idea down and set so that it doesn't float out your mind. Even if you write everything that's ever in your head, if you don't do anything about it you're still stuck at square one. I like to use an icon system of sorts for defining items that require action, are just for my own information, or are related to a phone call I've made. Review your notepad or index cards or whatever as often as possible, so you know that everything that's in there has a place and an action if necessary. If you don't know what to do with what you've written, put it in a different place or on a page called "HUH?" and come back to it later. If it still doesn't do anything for you, you can probably get rid of it.

I hope you'll enjoy embarking upon the path to personal productivity with me, and I really want to see your comments on if you're using this concept!

"Today is where your book begins/ The rest is still unwritten."


Technorati Tags: GTD moleskine notepad writing productivity personalproductivitypath

DESKTOP OF THE DAY: Purity

I don't know about you guys, but I can't stand a boring desktop wallpaper. One of the first things I do when I get a new computer or after a fresh install is to change the background to something more my style, and then I rotate out about every week. So since I've already done all the research, you can expect a fresh desktop of the day every Monday to keep your screen space looking cool. Today's is an extremely cool virtual landscape care of MyDeskCity - a haven for lots of interesting wallpaper images. The page is in Japanese ( I think?), but don't let that throw you. Enjoy!


(Links to fullsize image)



Technorati Tags: mountain purity wallpaper desktopoftheday

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

A couple of changes on the site, so if you're reading this via RSS, feel free to take a moment and come look at the thing in full Technicolor!

Additions:

• Blogroll, thanks to the good folks at Blogrolling


• Technorati - Would you believe I had this here all along and didn't realize I'd accidentally broken the code to display it? So sad - I'm turning in my geek card now. Check those links - I'm expecting the "blogs that link to this site" part to grow...hint hint...


• Google Ads - I don't care if you click them or not - this is more just a testbed for me to figure out how to use AdSense. No actual ads yet - my application's in the "mail."

More fun actual content later. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: newstuff, blogrolling, technorati, AdSense

Updates:

• Google block is now populated with actual ads


• Also added a tagcloud, which shows you the most popular words I've been talking about of late. Since it's only started recording as of today, it's keyign in on that "Make Your Humaan Boss Laugh" post, and identifying every time I said "boss" there. I like my boss, but I don't plan on that being the main topic of discussion here.

SO I FOUND THIS COOL WEBSITE...

Hi guys, sorry it's been a while since my last post.  I'm working on redesigning/adding new elements to this blog, so all that time I usually take to create a post, I've been playing around with CSS code and the like.

See that title?  My wife and I have been joking that most of my conversations start with that.  My co-workers always tell me that I know all the cool sites.  Well ya know what?  It's time I shared some of those with you.  Lay these bookmarks on your friends, and they'll think you've got all the cool sites, too.

• You've just gotten home from work and it's time to make dinner, but what to make?  You search through the pantry and fridge and find a random collection of ingredients that just don't seem to go together.  Are you lost and doomed to a life of fast food?  Oh no my friend, check out Allrecipes.com's Recipe Ingredient Search
  . Just enter in those seemingly unrelated ingredients, and this site will spit out great food ideas for that unusual assortment.


• Got a question? Sure, we all do. Before you go talking to your Uncle Charlie or whoever, check out Ask Metafilter, an online forum for anyone to ask a question and anyone else to answer it. Some of the answers are terrible, but there's also some true gold to be found there. A great search function will help you find if anyone's already asked your question.


• Great games have great music. Great geeks want the music. Great downloaders can find it here.


• I like my coffee, especially from my Melitta One:One coffee pod machine. Interested in the one-cup phenomenon? Like every other fad, it has a blog.


• And if you've lost your coffee mug, here are the twelve principles for finding something lost.


• If you want to learn more about web development, don't buy a book - it's already online. Meet the Web Developer's Handbook.


• LIFEHACKER. Lifehacker, lifehacker, lifehacker. If you don't know immediately what this is, go there now. I've found more information to enrich my life here than any other web site. Seriously, it's like second to the Bible in that category.

Technorati Tags: links coolsites