A picture of you and your friends

I don't have many pictures of me with mates but this one wasn't too terrible. This was taken during a weekend holiday to the Coromandel. 

From left to right:

1. Daniel, who I believe I only ever met on that holiday. Really cool guy, very friendly and very intellectual. At least at the time was co-owner of a Sandwhich shop.
2. Hammish, my old work colleague. Fun loving personality and sense of humor. Even though he works out at Mangere now I still catch up with him occasionally.
3. Des, who works with Hammish. Good sense of humour, very smart and easy to get on with.
4. Yours truly, looking suspect as ever with that beard and camo cap.

A recent picture of me and 15 interesting facts

This was a photo taken today with Kirsty's new camera. How much more recent can you get? The answer is none more recent.

Here are the facts:

1. Has lived in numerous towns and cities in New Zealand. Blackball, Rununga, Hannah's Clearing, Haast, Lawrence, Oban (Stewart Island), Tokanui, Cobden, Greymouth, Auckland.
2. Politically a moderate Libertarian.
3. Religiously a protestant Christian, though without a denomination I can theologically identify with.
4. Is probably Dyspraxic. Though I was never officially diagnosed I seem to match nearly every sign.
5. Has collected autographs from at least four people I admire: Ace Pilot Chuck Yeager, Bond film actor Roger Moore, Highlander TV and film actor Adrian Paul, anime voice actor Crispin Freeman.
6. Indie game developer that has had work published in NZ PC World and displayed on free-to-air TV.
7. Has been with my wonderful partner since January 1st, 2008.
8. Has been an Aucklander since September 11th, 2005.
9. Wrote a novel in a month for NaNoWriMo, 2009 
10. Wrote a screenplay in a month for ScriptFrenzy, 2010
11. Has jumped off the tallest building in New Zealand three times.
12. Was a student at Tai Poutini Polytechnic from 2002-2003 and a staff member there ever since. 
13. Scottish/Irish heritage with a small portion of Maori blood.
14. My namesake is my 92 year old Swedish step-grandfather. 
15. Nearly destroyed my Dad's then $3,000 C64 by spilling Milo through it. 

This describes version 2 of the GTD inspired, Remember The Milk based Task Management framework I discussed earlier and currently use.

Basic Configuration

The system revolves around five core lists:

1. Inbox
2. Next Day
3. Next Week
4. Next Month
5. Action

The Inbox is a list of Tasks or Projects you have committed to working on. This can contain one off tasks that you can do any time, or repeating tasks (Clean Kitchen, Get Haircut, Call Mom etc). The 'Due Date' field is used for any Task or Project that should be done in the future.

The Next lists contain a list of Tasks or Projects that you can't or don't want to commit to just yet, but will have another look at on the next Day / Week / Month etc. There's no reason why the system couldn't be adapted to have different time periods like next Fortnight, Year etc.

Action is a Smart List generated from the following search string: list:Inbox AND (dueBefore:tomorrow OR due:never). This is set to be the default list of the system. It is simply a filtered view of the Inbox items that are not set for the future.

Adding Tasks

For the system to work effectively it needs to contain as many of your upcoming tasks as possible. The more you keep only elsewhere - on paper, in your memory etc - the less useful the system will be.

1. If it's a task that you have committed to working on now or on a definitive date, add it to the Inbox. Make sure you set the appropriate due date or repeating options if applicable.
2. Otherwise, if it's a task that you don't have a firm commitment to, add it to one of the Next lists for later review.

Adding Projects

In this context, a Project is a collection of Tasks that need to be done to reach a certain goal. Even routine Supermarket Shopping could be considered a project, with items that need to be purchased as individual tasks. You could also do a reading project, with the books on your reading list as individual tasks.

These are the steps to add a project to the system.

1. Add a Task representing the Project to the Inbox if you're committed to starting it now, or add it to one of the Next lists if you may commit to it in the future. Make sure to tag it as #Project to make a clear distinction from your one off tasks. Set repeating options if you want to work on the project daily.
2. Choose and configure the management system for the Project. For simple projects (eg Supermarket Shopping), just creating a dedicated list in RTM is fine. For complicated or long term projects you may want to consider an online project management system like Trac or Basecamp.
3. Link the Task representing the Project using the URL field. This will give you instant access to the list of Tasks the Project requires right from RTM.

This is a bit of a hack but you can also link directly to Remember the Milk lists. Go to the list, right click on the Print link and choose the option to copy the URL. Paste this into the URL field but replace the word 'Print' with 'Home'.

Maintaining the Next lists

For each of your Next lists, add a repeating item to your Action list as a reminder that the list needs to be maintained. I have mine configured so the Next Day list is checked every day, Next Week is checked every Sunday, and Next Month is checked on the 1st of the Month.

For each maintenance run, simply scan through each and every item in the list, going from top-to-bottom, and decide what to do with it. There are three possible actions:

1. Commit to doing it. Move the item into your Inbox, add Due Date and Repeat options if necessary.
2. Decide it doesn't need to be done. Just delete or mark as complete.
3. Promote, Demote or do nothing. If you still don't want to commit to doing it or not doing it, you can leave it where it is or shift it to a different Next list.

Actioning Tasks

1. Open up the Action List. If the system is configured correctly then it should show only the Tasks you currently need to concern yourself with.
2. Use the Priority System to quickly raise the most important task that you can currently do to the top of the list.
3. Action the top task.
4. Repeat until the list is empty.
5. Take a breather, or go looking through your Next lists for more things to do.

This process can also be used for Project lists managed in Remember the Milk.

Phew, that's it. Any questions or suggestions?

It looks like DRM-Free downloadable game retailer Good Old Games is closing down, ironically shortly after it was announced that downloadable PC game sales are outstripping physical ones for the first time in history.

Sad to see it go. The idea of having a completely DRM-Free downloadable game service was an admirable one. I suspect the lack of a client for the service may have contributed to it's downfall, in the age of Steam and the Apple App Store hardly anyone wants to manage installers anymore.

I admit to never have actually used the service, but I had been planning to buy a copy of Shogo: Mobile Armour Division from there for ages.

Edit - Damn it, this was all a publicity stunt. Definitely not buying that copy of Shogo from there now. Well.. maybe..