On good things, residual guilt and wondering why I sometimes feel like I am nuts…
Sheesh! Things have been crazy here.
A client had a security problem, and it has taken us about a week and a half to recover. In between all I made osme $$$ – but it has become clear that for the time being as my responsibilities escalate I am not in a position to be without the ability to make use of a terminal. I have a number of factors working in concert at this moment…
- More and more of my work involves writing proposals and technical documents.
- More and more of my organizational system depends on my “to do” list. This is a good thing, I am getting much more done than I thought all the time – but it has greatly expanded my dependence on that list. i keep less “in my head’ and more in a “to-do” list that is now almost 100 items long. There is a long post on this later, for now the overachievers can google “Getting Things Done” and “David Allen” for more info.
- I have been attending real live client meetings, and will probably be doing so once every other week. I have been taking notes at these.
- I need to do more writing for my current projects. I have reviews and tutorials to write. I have Estate book work to do. I have email to manage with clients.
- While all this is happening, I am spending 6 nights a week out of my house. 3-4 at the Dojo and two with Tatsumi.
- I have an old IBM laptop bequeathed to me by Tatsumi’s dad, but that is heavily in use by my Mom who has finally gotten into the internet age (BTW – Wired says we don’t capitalize that any more).
The logical answer to these problems is a PDA. I have tried to work with them in the past but for a variety of reasons it wasn’t working out the way it should. I had gotten an iPaq 3635 a few years ago (2001) as an anniversary gift – and used it like crazy for about 18 months (you know, past warrantee) and it was broken during a car shopping trip with my Mom. I didn’t have the money to get it fixed, neither did Mom but she always felt responsible. It’s not totally destroyed – in fact I may wind up having Kimiko use it as a “read only” device for my contacts and schedule and so on – but the data entry portion is just a bit – whacked. I checked and it’s a $200 repair. I bid $50 for one just like mine at an auction but was out-bid right away.
So while I was discussing the current crisis with my family (Mom, Aunt) they were asking me how I could avoid some of the fears of being out of touch. We discussed a laptop (too expensive) and then the topic of handhelds came up again. We discussed that I used to have one, and what happened to it.
Long and short, it looks like between my birthday and residual guilt over the death of the old one I will be acquiring a new one mostly as a present. It seems like an indulgence, and I wouldn’t do it entirely on my own dime; but with financial input from them and their encouragement (they really didn’t like the way I got f*cked these last 2 weeks) that’s how it looks.
I know that if I take them up on it that this will not be the most popular decision I have ever made with some of people who care about me. They tend to think I am too gadget and “stuff” oriented in inappropriate ways. I can only make the best decisions I know how and hope that in the end they trust my judgment.
ed note: this paragraph deleted ’cause it sounded like whining
I’ll just have to lay down the damn law if it gets out of hand ๐
Seriously, I really do appreciate all that has happened over the last number of years to help me (gasp) mature, get a grip on my impulse spending (mostly, you have to have a little fun) and I think I have respoded with a fair amount of success and personal growth. So thanks for the watch dogging… I’m better for it.
But you have to trust me on this one.