A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

Got back on the pseudo-GTD wagon a couple of days ago, opening up OmniFocus for the first time in ages and performing my "weekly" review of its task database. I was in no mood to show the least bit of clemency toward any project that no longer excited me. Most of them went into the shredder, and most of the rest got marked as "completed". When I was done, I only had a couple of projects left, out of the several dozen I'd started with.

First thing the next morning, I emptied my head into OmniFocus's inbox, sorted it all out, and got to work on the first tasks. I knew the system was working because by 4PM that day, and for the first time in a long while, I felt I deserved a beer. So I had one.

In a delightful surprise twist, among the mouldering projects I killed lay my intent to read the actual Geting Things Done book, and absorbing some other media relating to the system. Confident in my take-aways from prior exposure to GTD and its proponents, I don't need that stuff anymore. I've learned to use OmniFocus to relieve myself of the burden of trying to keep everything I'm supposed to do in-memory - even though I'm probably using only a thin slice of the app's full functionality.

I feel really good about this, and hope to stay on the horse longer this time. Not moving house should prove a good first step...

---

I've been thinking about what to do with The Gameshelf - the show, that is. Speaking of shredding things, I've decided to kick my existing Episode 7 concept to the curb. I can point my finger at a lot of reasons I wasn't getting it done, but after a whole year it's clear to me that I'm just not energized about that episode's idea any more. Right now I need to focus on just getting excited about doing the show again at all. If I can win at that, I can return to this idea later. (And all the footage that goes with it...)

Been rapping with taskboy3000 about it, this past week. It's time to push the show in a new direction, as suggested by the blog's evolution and some insightful words I've received from critics over the last year.

The show's current tagline, "Strange Games for Happy People", represents my original vision of focusing the show around reviews of "unusual" games - board or video games that mainstream culture doesn't know about. I'm now thinking of (begging your pardon) re-branding the show as "game history, comparison, and critique". Not so sure about that middle word; was thinking of a meaning like "comparative studies", there. Maybe "context", instead?

At any rate, of the emergent strengths of The Gameshelf has been how we take several games, usually from completely different media and time periods, and hold them up for study and commentary, while demonstrating how they are all related, and share common roots. I really enjoy doing that, and I don't think anyone does it like we've been doing it.

Joe and I now have a couple of solid ideas for episodes we could do this year, both of which would realize some show-related concepts we've been kicking around for a long time. In both cases, various circumstances indicate that now's the right time to bust them out. I'm really excited about this, and I've started getting some balls rolling. Wish me luck.

---

Also, this.