GTD Tip: Don't Save Bookmarks

At least not in the usual places, such as del.icio.us or in your favorite web browser. I thought about this when there was a recent thread on Lifehacker.com (I think) about where people keep their bookmarks. If your a GTD nut like me, you should know that simple is best. Have the fewest data capture devices, pare down your inboxes, and keep all reference material in one spot. Repeat: keep ALL reference material in one spot. What does that mean? That means your bookmarks shouldn't be separate from the rest of your system! If all your reference material is in a wiki, then why keep bookmarks apart?

Four months ago I decided to clean out my del.icio.us account completely, all 350 links worth. What I did was I integrated those links into my already standing reference system, which is just one HUGE OmniOutliner file. If I find links that are relevant to a project, why not just dump that link right into your OmniOutliner file or folder? Then on top of having your bookmarks either in reference, someday/maybe, or projects, you can also do what I do, and turn your Firefox bookmarks into a new inbox. For me it works. If I see something on the interweb I think is interesting, I bookmark it and go about my business. Every few days I open all the bookmarks into different tabs and go one by one trashing, moving to Omni, or doing immediately (like signing up for yet another networking site).

Anyway, that's my method, and I'm not sure why all other GTDer's aren't doing something similar.

Long Days

Days have been moving slowly. Early rise, blogs and emails on the library's free wireless, lunch at Whole Foods, reading in the park. Today I had sushi from the mall, and by the time the meal ended I realized I had just eaten sushi from the mall. In the park, I committed to each chapter before starting it. Without that, my mind would wonder and I would end up reading the same words over and over. I have had a lapse in my regular meditation, but I am still trying to keep some level of mental discipline. My only complaint of the day was that the sun would peek through the shade of the trees. So once in a while, I had to shift my position to keep reading. When your only complaint of the day is the movement of the sun, life is pretty good.

I made $1.46!

After about 15 hours of work on posts, 10 hours of work setting up the website, getting a domain, moving it from Wordpress to Blogger, and setting up Google Analytics and Google Adsense, I have made one dollar and forty six since... sweeeeeeeet! After spending 10 dollars to register a domain name, my investment of time and money is finally paying off. I can't wait till that fat Adsense check gets directly deposited into my bank account, because I'm gonna go on the shopping spree of my life! Look out CVS!

I hate decisions

No, I really hate decisions. And for some reason, I keep getting more and more thrown at me everyday. A few months ago, there was the decision to quit my job. I was a school teacher the the School of the Future (I know, it doesn't sound real to me either) in Philadelphia. The lack of a discipline system, the inability to control the little 14 year old laptops, the lack of traditional grades which caused a decline in effort was all too much for me. Combine that with the lack of time to apply for graduate schools and the strain on my relationship, all lead me to quit. I applied to grad schools, and got in to one, the Human Machine Interaction Master's Program at Carnegie Melon. But then more decisions.

Despite the huge interest in the field, etc etc etc, they still don't give any money, so the whole degree would cost me 60k to finish! So a few weeks ago, I was faced with the decision to say "screw it" and take the 60 thousand hit and get grad school over with, or defer for a year in search for cash. I almost killed myself pro/conning and nagging friends and mentors for advice. Eventually I decided to defer. I'm a minority and the truth is that I should be able to get some from someplace. But then. this decision actually made my last decision possibly the wrong decision. If I was just going to go to grad school in 08, I could have kept my job! DARN IT!

So here I am again, with more decisions to make. I have been looking for a "real" corporate widget cranking job for months, and since my personality doesn't seem to mesh with those employers, it seems like right now my best option is teaching english overseas. But I guess I don't have that decision to make yet, so I'm in the clear for a month or two.

Howto Pick a Travel Guitar

Living out of one bag has been a great experience, but I have been without a guitar for too long. I think if I am going to make an exception and have a possession that does not fit into my bag (besides my bicycle), it's going to be a travel guitar. Fortunately, or unfortunately there are too many to choose from these days.

• Small Body Guitars
• Disassembling Frame Guitars
• Fold-able Guitars

Small Body Guitars
Small body guitars have been around for ages. They are exactly what you think they are, guitars that have shrunken bodies. Either the guitar just has a smaller body than a normal guitar, or the body and the neck are shrunk. Remember if the neck is shorter than a normal guitar, then going back to a normal guitar is going to take some getting used to. My personal favorite is the Blackbird Guitar which is made of carbon fiber and has a hollow neck to pump out more sound, unfortunately, there is no nylon string version yet, so I'll have to wait. Until then, I guess I will have to be satisfied with the Martin Backpacker Series Guitar.

Blackbird above
Martin above

Disassembling Frame Guitars
After the realization that people wanted guitars to play in hotel rooms quietly, and instruments that would transfer over to their professional counterparts easier, the disassembling frame guitar was created (honestly I have no idea what chronology actually took place). But yeah, these guitars usually don't have actual bodies. Instead they have removable parts that can support your body similarly to what a real guitar body would do. The plus side is that you get the feel of a real size guitar, the negative is that you actually don't get any acoustic sound, everything is through a pick up. A company called Miranda makes them, but my personal favorite is the Solo-ette shown below.




Fold-able Guitars
I didn't even know fold-able guitars existed until recently, and even more amazingly there are companies that make acoustic versions! Devillian makes a sweat electric fold-able, but since I prefer the sound of air vibrations sans electronic manipulation, I would have to go with one of these sweet numbers from Brunner below.




I think all of these guitars have their pros and cons. For the ultimate portability and autonomy, I would have to go with the Martin Backpacker. It's the smallest of the bunch, it doesn't require batteries like the detachable body models, and at under $300, it's hard to find a better deal. For the ultimate cool, I would go with the Blackbird Guitar. If I were a professional, I'm sure I would choose the Solo-ette, simply because it provides the same guitar experience without the sound. I'm not so keen on the fold-able guitars, just because, if your traveling all the time, too many moving parts equals too many possibilities for things to get broken.

I thought this post would help me choose, but unfortunately I'm still torn... I just wish Blackburn made nylon string guitars. (sorry to all the bandwidth stealing in this post for the pics :-) won't happen again)

Diogenes: A Man with Only 3 Possessions

Diogenes was a follower of Antisthenes, who in turn, was a follower of Plato and Socrates (to give some historical background). He believed in the ancient Greek philosophy of Cynicism which stated that the only necessity of happiness was virtue. Cynicism also seemed to be a precursor for Buddhism, in that both believe the root of unhappiness is desire, and the continual following and pursuing of desires (wikipedia).



Because of this belief, Diogenes had only three possessions: his walking stick, a robe to cloth himself, and a barrel to sleep in. There is a story about him and Alexander the Great. Alexander stumbled upon Diogenes while he was taking in the sun. Alexander asked if it were true that Diogenes had no desires. Diogenes said that he only wanted one thing, and then asked Alexander to move to the side so that he could continue enjoying the rays of the sun.

After this encounter, Alexander said that if he were to be anyone else on the Earth, he would want to be Diogenes. (Merrill)

I think the main difference between this approach and at least my humble understandings of current western Buddhism, is that in Buddhism, you should not have to get rid of all of your possessions to remove desires. In fact, just because you have nothing doesn't mean you still don't lust for possessions. In the end, I guess no path is more correct. Both schools of thought are attempting to pursue happiness, and in this world of wealth, exploitation, power, and complication, the pursuit of happiness is one of the few true paths still worth pursuing.

In any case, this guy tops me by about 98 possessions :-) and currently a philosopher is doing the same thing for a week.