Wasteful Squanderings . . .

In OmniGroup’s OmniFocus software, as borrowed from David Allen’s bestseller, “Getting Things Done,” there are discrete, single-step actions you typically do or need to do during your day.  In a very immediate sense, such actions, when undertaken, would be best undertaken in a particular context.  Actions grouped together by a particular intent, form projects.  Projects whose action is driven by the intent in question, which may be expressed as an infinitive verb: “To <Verb>.”

Generally, we think of projects in a temporal, instance-by-instance way.  Projects whose outputs are process-driven, and where such processes are well-defined sequences of actions, can be thought of as templates for particular action.  I would differentiate a Process from a Project as I might a Template from a particular Document using that Template or, in programming terms, a Class from an Object of it’s instantiation.

This occurred to me in the context of embarking on a non-linear video editing project.  I downloaded a trial copy of OmniFocus to complement the iPod Touch app I have already purchased.  I’m a little ambivalent about the price tag, though.

Omni Group charges US$79.95 for a one-person license for OmniFocus.  I already spent a whopping US$19.99 on the App Store for what would be it’s workhorse, OmniFocus for iPhone.  Getting both would add up to just shy of US$100.00.  That’s a lot of money.  Can’t I get away with just the iPhone version?

A good question…

What if I had a little proposition for these OmniFocus types?

OminFocus: Take my idea for adding Process Templates to automatically enter complex, perscribed sequences of actions under the instance of a particular project’s domain.  Take this, implement it as best you can, and give me in exchange one personal, unlimited-machine license for OmniFocus.  And, give me due credit in the creative-commons form of acknowledgement.

I will re-read this in the morning, edit as needed, and send a email to the most inventive contact I can dig up in their company.

Maybe I’ll even Tweet to Will Shipley….

Thinking a bit more about my previous post’s topic tonight, I want to add some things.

There are times when I would like to post multiple forms of media as a given blog post.  What forms of media I might want to include in a given :post” may vary with each post.

I may, one evening, simply want to post a photo with a title and perhaps a caption.

Another day, I might want to share a poem, with a song to accompany it.

Later, I might find something to write about, and want to include sidequotes and perhaps a photo.

Next, a video might be in order, with a follow-up commentary with sidelinks, sidenotes, and perhaps an orchestrated slideshow.

Also, for any of these, I’d love to be able to redo the layout completely, save for some thread of consistency in the form of navigation.  And skin the page differently, with a default option or set of options.

You get the idea.

Add to this idea social networking interfacesm and it gets even better…

I don’t think this sort of thing exists in a way that could be laied out differently for each “post,” as a page unto itself, with some navigational consistency, but a seperate piece of individual art.

I guess I’ll have to build it, unless somebody “Wow’s me with an existing solution. If I build it, though, I have to be able to do so on a Macintosh.  No DotNetNuke, though I dare say I could whip one up in that framework in record time.  Unfortunate my professional work is so limited to PC’s at the moment.  I crave building kick-ass Cocoa tools for OS X!

For those of you not blessed by the ability to correctly guess the meaning of a given, unfamiliar acronym (or at least invent something funny or otherwise disgusting and lewd out of it), this stands for Same Shit, Different Day.

I’m not referring to my life, though.  I am talking about the venue of self-expression that is my blog.

Honestly, it was fun setting it up, getting a host, figuring it out, and kind of initially tweaking it.  But the party seems to have died down.

In thinking about looking back at a given blog entry, I decided that there is a collection of bits I’d like to have accompany each post I do.  I just have to figure out the best (read: simplest) way to go about it.

I’d like each post to be a full page, laid out with the usual blog entry, but optionally with a photo accompanying it, and possibly some other time capsule bit of the day.

Anyboday have any good tips on how to make wordpress do this?

I’ve been unimpressed by my last several months of sharing.  From my “blog” to my tweets, I’ve had some good moments, but lately I’ve not been feeling all that great about it.

According to my mother, most people, and even I tend to agree, I’ve always had the tendency to wait to participate until I felt some degree of confidence about participating.

I think a lot of people feel this way.

And I’ve been reading some interesting blog entries on social media, and how much sharing is critical to them — I’ve even mentioned the idea myself.  But until tonight, something just never clicked.

I have one self-perceived disadvantage, however: I’m not blogging for any particular purpose.  I’m not a professional social media consultant (although I could play one on TV!).  I’m not in it for the money, fame, or sex.  In all humility, I just want to participate in all the sharing that’s going on across the Internet.

But tonight, I eased off of my concern that I’m doing it right — that I might look like a fool.

I followed the music link, to a cool hypno-country Brian Eno song, of an Internet friend.  And I realized, this person just shared something simple and beautiful with me, just to share it.

And that’s when I found the love.

Think about what you might have that someone else might find valuable…..

For me, I came up initially with music.  I’m a singer, and have a fairly good collection of music, though I started fairly late, so it was an easy thing.  It’s what I share with people I call friends in my day-to-day life.

It’s the kind of stuff you would like to share with someone you were interested in getting to know.

I’d never mention work stuff, because what I actually do for a job, while rewarding in its own way, is not something that fires me up.  If I did work in such a context, you’d bet that I’d be sharing about it all the time.

Music. Systems that could solve complex problems on a global scale. Theatre. Things mystical. Past experiences. Stories…  Ah, yes… stories.

The pressure is getting intense.

Tomorrow I will cast my ballot for Obama to be the next president of the United States.

Most of me right now is afraid, and could be described as an upset waiting to happen.  I don’t trust polls.  There are too many people around who actually believe McCain would be a better president.

Personally, I want transparency. And I want this transparency not in the candidates personal lives, but in the process of making the world where the artifice and illusion of scarcity has been replaced by a reality of abundance.  I would rather be voting on actual inclusive, effective solutions to actual existing (physically measurable)  problems, rather than voting on politicians.  I’m voting for Obama because he represents the strongest possibility of seeing this world realized.

If McCain wins tomorrow’s election, I will be seriously deflated.

But, having trust in evolution at both physical, cognitive and spititual levels, I will take note of the numbers, and there will still be in existence an amazing grassroots movement for real change that is, if nothing else, Obama’s gift to the world.

Whatever happens in this election, we will be sure to see more change coming.

The following quote is from a live Bill Hicks performance:

“Get this, I actually asked one of these guys, OK, Dinosaurs fossils - how does that fit into you scheme of life? Let me sit down and strap in. He said, “Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith.” I think God put you here to test my faith, Dude. You believe that? “uh huh.” Does that trouble anyone here? The idea that God.. might be.. fuckin’ with our heads? I have trouble sleeping with that knowledge. Some prankster God running around: “Hu hu ho. We will see who believes in me now, ha ha.” [mimes God burying fossils] “I am God, I am a prankster.” “I am killing Me.”

Sorry, I ran across that looking for the actual quote I was supposed to post, and couldn’t resist.  Here’s the really quote I you to see:

“Folks, it’s time to evolve ideas. We . . . . You know, evolution did not end with us growing thumbs. You do know that, right? It didn’t end there. We’re at the point now where we . . . we’re going to have to evolve ideas. The reason the world is so fucked up is because we’re undergoing evolution, and the reason our institutions, our traditional religions are all crumbling is because . . . they’re no longer relevant.”

Bill Hicks dies in 1994, of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 32.  He is one of those people you don’t typically hear of, except by word-of-mouth.  Oral tradition.  It’s still alive and well, and now spreading to the Internet.  Some of the most subversive ideas in regard to our existing paradigms.

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Today the Dow Jones index dropped another 700-something points.  This, after a continual slide despite the news of the Bail-out bill passing.

Nobody knows exactly what to think.  But in the back of each of our heads is our own, fearful interpretation of The End of the World.  If you’re a tribalist, it’s the realization of primitive prophecies.  If you’re a Christian Fundamentalist, it’s all in the Book of Revelations, another myth, but more widespread in the modern world.  If you’re a rationalist, it’s global economic collapse into crises and anarchy.  It could be global natural disaster caused by global warming.

Of noticably curious timing, at this point, is the sudden rise in the popularity and understanding of the Internet: the one global media conduit that is relatively unfettered, globally, by the powers that be.  And the big stink for businesses is the whole notion of social media.  Naturally, Big Business wants in, but the paradigm is not theirs, and they have trouble seeing how to survive.

To this opportunity flock the growing array of social media consultants.  Seems like everybody’s getting into this game.  There’s a relatively low level of technical expertise involved, and the game is fun!

Social Media is of, by, and for the people.  The spirit is one of reciprocity; of mutual sharing. This is not the profit-based mentality handed down by our ancestors.  It’s a spirit of creating authentic community, not of focus groups, manipulation and money-lust.  Most of the people I come across in Social Media are decent-seeming people.  And this is quite a new thing for traditionalist businesspersons.

Hicks on the advertising industry:

“By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing… kill yourself. No, no, no it’s just a little thought. I’m just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they’ll take root - I don’t know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there’s no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan’s little helpers, Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you’re going, “there’s going to be a joke coming,” there’s no fucking joke coming. You are Satan’s spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It’s the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, “he’s doing a joke… there’s no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don’t care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, “Oh, you know what Bill’s doing, he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market, he’s very smart.” Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! “Ooh, you know what Bill’s doing now, he’s going for the righteous indignation dollar. That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We’ve done research - huge market. He’s doing a good thing.” Godammit, I’m not doing that, you scum-bags!Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!

“Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill’s very bright to do that.” God, I’m just caught in a fucking web! “Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar…” How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don’t you?”

Our traditional systems are failing in the face of change.  We need to imagine new, better possibilities. Ones that work for all people, not just the lucky few at the top.  There is no existing social institution that isn’t quantitatively showing some signs of failure.  Education. Banking. Government.  Law.  Medicine.  Economics. Law Enforcement. Energy.  Agriculture. Transportation. And these are external ones.  Our internal systems are also failing.  Our very understanding of our selves is inadequate to the task.

*                          *                         *

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey - don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride…” And we… kill those people.”We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real.” Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter because: It’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you’ve been great.”