Technology

My Favorite Editorial Task

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I have a bunch of duties over at Linux Journal. I’m certainly better at some things than others, and if you ask Jill (the Executive Editor), deadlines are not one of the things at which I’m particularly skilled. 🙂

There is one task I find especially enjoyable, however: Answering letters to the editor. I’m not entirely sure why I enjoy it so much, but for some reason, interacting with readers that take the time to write in to the staff really makes me proud to be part of something bigger than myself. It’s also interesting that while I answer a bunch of the letters, it’s not always me that does so. See, all the responses are signed simply “Ed”, meaning it comes from the editorial staff in general. Yes, it’s pretty humbling to represent everyone.

So if any of you were wondering what being one of the editors of an international magazine is like, well, it’s pretty cool. The best part, however, is simply responding to people. Because it’s the people that make a community, and it’s the community that makes my job so awesome.

-Ed

Disconnecting My Inner B0rg

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Sadly, one eye implant wouldn't be enough for me. My right eye is almost blind too. Perhaps I could be a Borg with a cool Transformeresque name, like "GoggleBot"...I have a deadline. Mind you, this isn’t just a regular deadline I’ve pushed off until the last minute (rest assured, I have one of those for Monday. Seriously.) This is a monumental project that has been delayed due to a myriad of reasons. Some reasons good ones, some reasons not.

But it’s a deadline. So I’ve decided this weekend is The Weekend Of Productivity, or TWOP. During TWOP, I will be disconnecting myself from the Internet hive mind. I will be putting my cellphones in the “off” mode. Actually, I’m not even sure they have an off mode, but I’ll at the very least put them in another room.

If you see me online any time after 4PM today — please scold the crap out of me. Without going into boring detail, my goal for this weekend is 15. I’m currently at 3. Unless I claim (in a believable way) that I’m done up to 15, please shun me.

If you need to get in touch with me, drop me an email. If it’s an emergency, well, chances are I’m not the person you should be calling anyway. I’m not exactly the type of person to rely on during emergencies. If the servers crash at work — it’s a school. They’ll wait. If my children catch on fire, my wife will handle it better than me anyway. And if the Internet runs low on snark, well, lets just say that’s unlikely.

Wish me the best, and if you want to contact me — you’ve only got a handful of hours to do so. That said, I hope your weekend is TWOP too! 🙂

In Which I Pimp My Own Interviews

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I’m sure it makes me horribly narcissistic, but I’m just so humbled that people actually want to hear what I have to say, I thought I’d pass the links on to you. In case, you know, you’re one of those people. 😉

First: Back at The Ohio Linuxfest, I was interviewed by Aaron Newcomb from The Source. It’s a video interview, and my section starts around 18:45 (not that you shouldn’t watch the whole thing, I’m just sayin…)

Second: I was asked to do an interview via Twitter, and was happy to do so. Jacob Kuehndorf (@BIOSShadow) posted me as his celebrity interviewee. I find that incredibly flattering. The interview is HERE on his site.

That’s it. Just wanted to give some linkage.

Why Would A Person Go To Ohio On Purpose?

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Maybe you like corn.

Or soy beans.

Or John Scalzi

Or Buckeyes.

Or humidity.

Or the occasional pig farm.

Or John Scalzi’s Cat

Or maybe it’s just on your way to somewhere.

Whatever your reason, I’ll tell you why I’M going to Ohio:

No, it's not like I'm normally silent at these things -- but this time, they're MAKING PEOPLE LISTEN. MWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAA

And in the words of Levar Burton, don’t take my word for it — come see for yourself!!! It’s free, it’s nerdy, and it’s so cool even me being a keynote speaker can’t ruin it. See you there? 🙂

The Time Management, She Approaches…

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Well, I bought the book. It’s the Kindle version, which O’Reilly promised was DRM-Free — but I’m not totally convinced. Still, the book is amazing. I’m about 25% finished. This guy gets it, and I can’t recommend the book enough.

Anyway, I think I’m going to officially start on July 1. I have bible camp next week, and need to do some preparation — but soon thereafter I’ll be ready to really try the scheduling thing.

I’m doubtful.

I’m not terribly excited about doing it.

But I’m still going to try. Honestly, the idea of controlling my time is appealing, it’s just the process that sounds “un-fun”. Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted.

Yes, I See the Crap Too

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I have no time to re-spiff my site right now, so this old theme (which makes the widgets look wonky, I realize) will have to suffice. The good news is we get to look at a photo taken on Mars.

I’ll fix it soon, but it might be the weekend. 🙂

A Month of Schedules?

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Look at THIS guy, he LIVES in a calendar. You'd think he'd be a bit more organized.I’ve spoken of this before, but the truth of the matter is that I’m a terribly disorganized person. I have an aversion to schedules, and I am a world class procrastinator. (Ask poor Jill, the editor at Linux Journal, about my deadline pushing. It’s disgusting. I have 2 more articles due today — and it’s already tomorrow AM.)

Once upon a time, I did a 30 day experiment in which I woke up at 5:00 AM every day. It was horrifying, but I figured if at the end I liked being a morning person, it would be worthwhile. As it turns out I don’t like being a morning person, so that plan sorta fizzled. I still consider it a success though, because now I know sleeping later isn’t just a bad habit.

I’m considering doing the same thing with scheduling. See, I’m convinced that I’m all artsy-fartsy, and I work better without a schedule. There is a distinct possibility, however, that I’m just fooling myself. Maybe if I learned to be better organized, I’d be even MORE creative. Sounds cool, eh?

I’m going to spend the rest of this week figuring out just how to schedule things. I think I’ll need to use Google Calendar, since I already have lots of stuff in there, including shared calendars with my co-workers. If I can get my iPhone to reliably give me notifications, it might work. But I’ll hate it, I know I will.

So I have a few questions for you uber-organized folks out there:

  1. Do you schedule “free” time?
  2. If you get behind, how do you fix it?
  3. Are todo lists helpful, or should everything just be scheduled into timeslots?
  4. Should I print out my daily schedule, or does digital-only seem practical?

Thanks for any feedback. Again, this is an experiment, so at the end of 30 days I’m allowed to quit if I so desire. 🙂 (And no, I don’t know what the official start date will be yet.)