My Weekend

I had a really good and productive weekend:

On Sat:
- I got up early and did an overdue GTD reveiw (which means I finished a lot of short 2 minute tasks I had been putting off).
- I had a short meeting at 1:30 about the Rice Toastmasters Club I am helping to start
- I had an Houston Ishmael Meeting at 3:00. This was my first one and it was kool to talk with like-minded people.
- I visited with Jenny after that meeting (around 6:00). We hadn't had time to talk in a long time.
- I went to the Veggie Club meeting and got a really good Indian Food dinner.

Sunday:
- I got up and read for school until around 11 when I decided to get read to go out.
- I headed over to Te House and finished all of the work that I needed to do for school that didn't involve a computer or my books.
- I went to the Melody Club for Swing Dancing for the first time in ages. It was fun. I had like a mini-private with Tena. She was nitpicky, which was good, but it is funny to see how a lot of what she said directly countered things that other teachers have told me. I think at this level a lot of the advice has to do with personal style. The lesson ended with a random comment from a newbie (heard by Aramis) saying something to the extent of "How does she move that well with her butt sticking out like that". So yeah... I have some work to do.
I spent a lot of time practicing my layout (which I can't seem to get on one side). Since then, I haven't really been able to walk that well.

So that is my weekend. All that I have left to do for school this week is reading 40 pages about Buddhism and writing 3-6 pages on the philosophy of sustainable design. I can handle that! And oh yeah! I am working at Taft now. You can catch me there tomorrow morning before noon. :-)

My Productive Day

Wow. I had a really eventful/productive day. I got up this morning that did a complete GTD review. I had let things slide a bit. :-( But now things are good. And I had a lot of 2 minutes tasks that I got done that I have been putting off. That was good in and of itself.

After that, I had a string of meetings. I had a Toastmaster's meeting with Igor. And then a meeting with the Ishmael Club. And then I went over to Jenny's for a bit. And then I went to the Veggie Club dinner at Jones (really good cheap Indian food!!)

I am completely caught up on blog reading and email! That feels good. Now I must spend the rest of my weekend reading except for a quick run to the Melody Club tomorrow evening. But I don't plan to stay that long.

I volunteered at Taft for the first time on Friday! It was fun! I will be doing more of that this coming week. I am hoping to take 1 or 2 shifts a week. I liked being behind the counter and running the cash register. And soon I'll actually be able to make coffee. :-) (And for those of you wondering why I am volunteering at a coffeehouse, I am getting school credit for it for my leadership certificate)

Some Thoughts

I am writing a paper where I am looking at 41 values and deciding how much they mean to me. I have 4 values left on my list and my mind is completely fried! ::ahh!:: This paper is due tomorrow. You can tell that I have a paper to do when I am posting so much on Fearful Symmetry.

Here are some of the things on my mind today:

• I have been reading and watching youTube videos about the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. This seemed like a great device and I was actually thinking about getting one once I discovered that it runs Linux and not Windows. But then I discovered it's fatal flaw: It does not run Ajax web programs. So no Google calendar. :-( That is the point of getting it.

• I have been thinking a lot about money lately. Not sure why. I want to make money this summer but not actually work that hard. I have been trying to think of something that I can do. And extending this beyond summer, I want to come up with a service that I can offer that makes me good money. I don't need more money to live, but I like the idea of supporting myself when I get out of school. I'd like to put some away now. Here are some ideas:
• Blogging - I'd like to put some effort into Fearful Symmetry and get more well know in the blogger community. I believe that I have good information to share. I just have to learn the craft a bit better and find my niche. (And get Adsense).
  
• Some sort of service - I am not sure what I have to offer. I am not yet proficient at Internet technologies enough to do web services. (Although this is a goal of mine). And I don't teach swing well enough to even think about privates. And I am not a even close to a proficient writer.
  
• Resale - I know the resale business well from my mother. But I think it would be a bit too much work for me.
  
• Bracelets - I know how to make these little safety pin bracelets. But I don't think they will be profitable. And where would I sell them at?
  
• A product - I am not sure that I have resources to make a product. Well, it depends on the product.
• When it comes to doing something that I like, well, I could do something that involves organization. I don't have all of the answers, but I have tried a ton of different systems. I'd love to help people find systems that work for them. That would be fun. But as of now, I don't think I am qualified to do that.
  

• On the same line of thought, I am going to start asking everyone a question.
  
• The preface: I am not asking this question for real. I don't really want more to do right now. It is more of a theoretical. It is a question for my personal growth.
  
• The Question: What would you pay me to do? (Assume that I possess the skills needed to do it)
  

social crap

It seems that life hangs on a point. My social life is either non-existant or painful. There are certain people that I just don't want to be around. At all. Even though I am uber-nice when I am around them (don't worry. If you are reading this, it isn't you).
One person in particular is ruining the swing events for me. Hank says that I just need to ignore them, and I used to say things like that all of the time, but now that I am in the situation, I am not sure it's that easy.

Being around these people is actually nausiating. I don't want it to be, and I am not sure why it is, but it is. And I have found that if I just don't go. If I don't put myself in the positions where I will be around them, I am much happier. And when they are not there, I usually worry about them showing up.

Tonight, I forgot about them. That is, until they walked in. Then I didn't know what to do. I wanted to run, and i didn't want to run. I ended up running. Although I do have work as an excuse.

At the beginning of this year, running was not my style. I actually had the opposite responce. I put myself in the situations just so that i would be sure to know what was going on, but I have learned my lesson. If I avoid and run, I can just not think about it. And that makes me a much happier person.

Ok, before your mind runs all over on this, let me say that this is not romantic. This is not a romance gone wrong, or anything like that. So don't even think it. Actually, the main person that i am talking about isn't even a guy. So don't even think it.

Actually not real sure why I react this way. ok, I guess i do know, but it is a bit uncalled for. And no, I am not giving any details. So don't ask. I just trying to figure everything out. My life has been a little rocky lately. Mentally I mean. I am not really sure why. I think that this is what burnout feels like. I'm burnt out. Mentally. And I have so much to do and not much fire to do it with. To tell you the truth, if I did only what i feel like to doing, I would stay in bed all of the time, curled up either asleep or with my computer and computer learning books. ( I want to learn how to program in PHP, Objective C with Cocoa, and either purl or applescript. I am on track to become an apple developer. :-) That makes me happy.

The worst part of life right now is all of the stuff that I have to do that is not directly connected to Marion's Ledge. That leaves me like no time to do Marion's Ledge stuff. And there is so much that i need/want to be doing. But instead, that just get lumped in with the school work and pushed aside for the stupid papers that I have to write that mean nothing to me. Who really cares about the argument whether all languages have parts of speech. Give me the problem sets dammit!!

I have to much to read for those papers. That is what I should be doing right now, but I have too much on my mind to consentrate. So I am writing this as a mind dump. I am on the balcony of taft overlooking the dance. I danced some. But now i am not. (see above)/ :=/

ok, I think I have dumped enough. I better read some now.

Welcome To My Life 2.0

This is the first entry in this new blog. This is where I will be posting personal journal entries. That way Fearful Symmetry readers don't have to hear me rant about stuff. This is the rant section. From now on, Fearful Symmetry will be used to post interesting and useful information about Apple, Life Hacking, blogging, and general inspirational material. I hope that you stay tuned to that blog as well as this one. (Or just regularly read the sidebar where I'll have the Fearful Symmetry RSS feed ---> )

Small update since my last post:
- I went to Vegas for my 21st B-day!! That was a good experience (although I am not sure I'd want to go back.)
- I saw snow for the first time while I was in New Mexico visiting my dad.
- I got a blood test and didn't cry. (That's my weak spot)
- I started a new semester of school. Seems like It should be pretty easy.
- The Marion's Ledge website got a facelift!!! Check it out at MarionsLedge.org

Some Not too new stuff:
- My apartment is still messy. :-/
- I am still on the never-ending search for a new way to organise my life.
- I'm still me.

ok. Catch y'all later.