Big Brother application

I put in an application with Big Brothers last month. It's something I had been thinking about for a while near the end of 2006. During the Christmas break I spent some time reflecting and writing out goals for the coming year. I attempted to structure my goals according to a model I have found called Wheel of Life.

The Wheel of Life has eight spokes. They are called Career, Physical Environment, Fun and Recreation, Personal Growth, Romance, Friends and Family, Health, Money. Under Friends and Family I wrote "Big Brother". And so it went from being an idea to being a written goal.

When the New Year rolled around, 2007, I decided that the start of a new year is a good time to make changes in one's life. January 2007, I decided, was the time to start taking action. I found a local Big Brother's web site, downloaded an application form, hesitated and struggled with some self-doubts, got over them and finally completed my application and sent it in, near the end of February.

I know that the process can take several months as the organization goes through their screening and matching process, so I am still waiting to hear back from them.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about adoption...

LifeBalance

I've discovered a new organizer for my PDA. It's called LifeBalance. I've downloaded a trial version of the application and started enjoying it in the first couple of days of using it.

One feature it has that I like is the ability to tag each task with a Place. A Place is like a Context in the GTD system. It allows me to filter and see only tasks for a given place. For example, Home or Work. This means that when I am at work, I can see a list of tasks that I can do only at Work and not be distracted by all the tasks I need to do at home but can't when I'm at work. Filtering by Place takes away a lot of frustration.

LifeBalance also has an outline editor which allows me to set up my projects and tasks in a hierarchical fashion. The top items in the hierarchy are called, appropriately enough, top level items or TLI's.

The really cool feature about LifeBalance is that it will automatically prioritize my tasks in a way to make sure I am balancing all my TLI's. Every time I check off a task, I get credit which is displayed in a pie chart. I get a slice of pie! If I check off a lot of tasks under, say the Music TLI, then the Music slice of pie gets fat. LifeBalance will determine which slice of pie is too thin and move the corresponding tasks higher in priority. So tasks will percolate up to the top of my list where they will get my attention, rather than getting stale at the bottom of the list.

Two weeks into my trial run, the LifeBalance crashed horribly and erased everything I'd put into it. I was really out of sorts when this happened because I'd carefully built up a hierarchy that worked well for me and I'd really come to depend onthe automatic prioritization (not to mention that I like getting my slices of pie). Since then I have built up a new hierarchy and continue using the application. I will definitely buy a licence when my trial is up, but I want to be sure that I can restore my data in case it crashes again.

Deep fried coon chops

I was on my way to my client site this morning when I got a call from my team leader - Don't come to the client site, the power is out. Instead the team met at our branch office so we could do our testing remotely.

There is a power transformer in the parking lot at the client site. The transformer is inside a fence. Somehow a raccoon had got in and blew out the transformer. The building was expected to be without power for the entire day until the transformer was replaced.

Poor Rocky. I expect the client will have a barbecue this week featuring coon burgers.

Painted Smiles reviews - Part 3

The best ranking that Painted Smiles attained on GarageBand.com was 242 of 394 in the Indie Rock genre, which is closer to the bottom of the list than to the top. I can't help but wonder how it would have done if I had submitted it to the Progressive Rock genre instead of Indie Rock. I'm tempted to re-submit, as a learning exercise, but I want to understand what is GarageBand.com's policy about submitting the same song twice to two different genres.

From Tacoma, Washington -

Very nice lead mix. Thick Santana guitar. The vocals and backing are sung well, but the mood does not match the beautiful guitar riffs very well. Santana with a Green Jello twist. Very original. Good work.

From Richmond, Virginia -

not too sure how to take this song. it has me thinking tenacious d.
is it serious or not?...I wish I knew.

From Pensacola, Florida -

I'm not sure about that guitar in the first part. But the melody is really nice. And the vocals are cool and really dig the lyrics. Sounds a bit like the 80's or 70's but it's all nice on ice!

From Nashville, Tennessee -

At least it's different. Creativity goes a long way. Not my particular taste, though. I can respect what you're doing, but I wouldn't buy the album. And the guitar solos are a little over the top. Trying too hard to sound dramatic.

From Mount Pleasant, Michigan -

So until the vocals came in this one really gave me a Eagles vibe. I'm not sure how i feel about the talk sing vocals here. They're pretty comanding of attention, but the cliche lyrics make them seem out of place. This one really leaves me wishing i could listen to hotel california instead.

From Bedroom, United Kingdom -

Intro sounded very 80's rock-style. When the voice came in too, it was very much an 80's rock ballad kinda sound. Which is not necessarily a bad thing...

Hmm. Not really that keen on this. Sorry. Sounds dated and the lyrics are trite, not much of a melody. Doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Bland, average sounding rock ballad stuff.

Some nice sounding Queen-esque guitaring.

Funny last line too which leads me to think it's slightly tongue-in-cheek. Still a bit boring though.

From Bournemouth, United Kingdom -

I found the guitar sound and style a bit dated and mixed too up front.

The vocalist has an interesting deep quality to his voice an the lyrics are quite interesting

The line 'Iwon't believe it' is repeated too many times in the middle of the song