In Brief

Today is one of those “40 hour work week crammed into a single day” Sundays. I need to pull weeds, clean the house, write all of my Examiner.com posts for the coming week, write all of my UncleBear.com posts for the coming week, finish a playtest character, finish up two freelance assignments, work on Worldbuilding 101, clean out my closet, and pack. I do have a lovely nap planned. I thought about sneaking off to see a movie at some point, but there’s not a blessed thing I want to see in the theaters right now. Will probably take a couple of breaks to watch eps of Brisco County Jr.

Added Wilderness (slasher flick, blah) and Deathwatch (which actually look pretty interesting) to my DVD queue, because those are the only two movies directed by Michael J. Bassett, who is directing the Solomon Kane movie out this October. I want to know where to set my expectations. One of my favorite “that guy” actors, Pete Postlethwaite, is in it, so there’s some hope. I haven’t seen Rome yet (I know, I know) so I’m not familiar with James Purefoy’s work. According to IMDb, he was in the National Geographic TV docu-drama Blackbeard: Terror at Sea, which I also added to my Netflix queue.

No recipe this week; eating frozen dinners, leftovers, cereal, easy stuff. no time for cooking, too busy. Once I’m setted into my new place, cooking will resume.

Status

This blog, and the various personal blogs before it, have always been ephemeral things. I fiddle with various style and content ideas, experiment with blogging formats, and generally try to meet my needs at the moment rather than having any sort of long-term goals. That said, I do have long-term goals and a plan for the BerinKinsman.com domain name. While I’m not shutting down this blog, things may get funky and experimental over the coming weeks.

Marathon

Touching base, because communication with me could be spotty over the next couple of days. Up early this morning to run errands, then off to work. Directly from work to playtest session. Home, bed, up early for doctor’s appointment Thursday. From doctor straight to work, then home and straight into writing mode, because I have deadlines to meet by Friday. That means up early Friday to finish anything I don’t finish Thursday night, before day job. Hopefully I can relax Friday night, but more than likely I’ll have some last-minute prep for the Gamemaster’s Conference on Saturday. When that’s over, I’m planning to come home and drool in front of the television. Sunday is my regularly scheduled writing day, but I also have yard work and packing to do, and I may sneak out to a movie just to give myself a break. What’s playing that’s worthwhile?

Next week, back on the same dreadmill (not a typo) of  deadlines, packing, and planning. The Saturday after this is RPG Guild Saturday. The weekend after THAT I have nothing going on, so that’s going to be packing weekend.

I am so looking forward to RinCon. That’s going to be my next actual downtime, even if it is marathon gaming and running amok with friends.

Project Management, Part 1

It’s well known that I work on multiple projects at once. Xose Lucero suggested it would make a good topic to write about, and I aim to please. So here’s my system:

Binder
I’m currently using a 1/2 binder, specifically because it only hold a limited amount of information. Each project I’m currently working on has a divider tab, with a few sheets of loose-leaf paper. For each project, I’ll have a page for next steps, a page for random thoughts and notes, and a page for references and contacts (people to email, websites to check, books use). I may put a few other pages in, printouts of a reference, an outline or table of contents for the book, and so on.

For blogs, one page is a list of topics to write about. As I come up with thoughts and ideas about a project, I jot them on the appropriate page in the notebook. I also make a schedule, 2 weeks in advance, just a list marked Mon, Tue, Wed, etc and the date. As I write a post or article and schedule it, I write the title in. Then I can see how far ahead I am. If there are specific things to post on specific days, like blog carnivals, holidays, or events, I highlight the space but only write the title in when it’s written, with a note in the margin to remind me with it is.

At the front of the notebook is a monthly calendar. Actually, the current month and the following month. I write things like doctor’s appointments and events like game days on it, not only so I’ll remember but so I know not to expect to get a lot of writing done that day.

Every project gets a “review day”. For example, Monday is Worldbuilding 101 day. I go into the notebook, take the next steps, revise and update the notes. I don’t set “hard targets”, like I’m going to write 5,000 words. That doesn’t work for me, and my screwy life. I just need to touch that project and get something done. Some days it’s a little, some day’s it’s a lot. If I get stuck, or bored. I will move on to a different project. If I’m not in a Worldbuilding 101 mood, I’ll work on the Tao of Shemp. On Shemp day, I’ll probably do a little and may be in the mood to do some Worldbuilding 101. So it all moves forward.

The idea is to keep myself moving forward, but to have fun and not fry my brain.

There’s also a generic “other projects” tab in the binder, for things I’m not actively working on. I have a page that’s a list of ideas. For projects where I have a little more, they each get a page. I jot ideas as they come to me, so when I do get around to them I’ll have a foundation.

Salad

A habit I have is making a ton of something and then eating the same thing for several days in a row. Hey, if it tastes great, I’ll eat it again, and usually it’s all gone before I start getting sick of it. I mention this because someone I know, for some reason, bought a giant container of crumbled feta cheese and gave me a bunch of it. I need to eat it up before it goes bad, because I hate wasting food. It being too hot to want to cook, I decided to make a Greek Salad.

Start with a bed of fresh spinach. Sprinkle on some crumbled feta, sliced red onion, sliced pepperocinis, thin-sliced cucumber, and canned black olives. For some protein, and because it’s too hot to cook, I shredded rotisserie chicken and added it. Use a caesar dressing, oil and vinegar, or tzatziki sauce.

For variations, try leaving off the pepperocinis and black olives, and using grapes and tzatziki sauce or oil and vinegar. Make a dressing out of the pepperocini juice, olive oil, fresh ground black pepper, and some paprika (I leave off the pepperonis and just chop one up in the dressing for this).

You can take the above ingredients and stuff them into a pita pocket or make a wrap, if you want some carbs. Use more chicken, and I suggest using tzatziki sauce so your sandwich doesn’t get messy or runny.