Good News, Bad News, and Getting Organized
The Good News: My MOO cards came yesterday, and they're SPECTACULAR. For some reason my Flickr buddy icon didn't print as requested, but most of the photos came out great. (See below for the details.) The cards are made of that wonderful plastic-coated pearl-finish paper that's used for trade paperback book covers these days (though these feel even thicker than a book cover), and they're positively divine to rub between your fingers. I can't wait to stick a few in my pocket when I go out shooting next—I've been dying to print up little calling cards with my Flickr URL on them so I could give them to the people I photograph, and these are absolutely perfect for that (especially since they have my photos right on them!).
One tip when you're choosing photos to go on the cards: The cropping tool that lets you figure out what part of the image you want to appear on the little rectangular cards is a bit off. If your image would not look as good with slightly more cropping than shown, choose another. I chose 22 different images, and two didn't work at all with the slight bit of extra cropping. Another six images didn't translate as well to the rectangular format as I'd hoped, 11 were so fabulous I ordered another set with just those right away, and 3 more were very nice, but not worth getting extra copies. Here are two photos of the ones I liked best (click to see larger versions on Flickr):
The Bad News: I was supposed to have my first (their second) practice with a new hockey team last night, and despite having looked forward to it for four days, I totally flaked and missed it. I think part of the problem was the new childcare arrangement we started yesterday, which meant that Hannah wasn't here for me to regale with tales of HOCKEY, HOCKEY, HOCKEY all day, and part of the problem is that I was just overwhelmed with an endless work/personal finance/travel planning to-do list. Al, Jess, and The Beaner all came in the door at once last night while I was desperately trying to finish fixing a bug, and hockey went right out of my head. I didn't realize until 9:30pm, after we'd gone for a walk, bathed The Beaner, and put him to bed, that I'd missed the practice (which ran from 7:15-8:45). When I realized it, I cried for over an hour. (Sadly, I am not exaggerating. I really, truly, cried for over an hour... as much because missing hockey was a symptom of my overloaded, overwhelmed state of mind right now as because I MISSED HOCKEY.)
This morning, in an effort to try to get organized and prioritize my to-do list properly, I'm trying Al's method of using the Outlook Task List. (I also set up an Outlook reminder about hockey practice that's set to go off at 5:45pm every Monday night.) Up til now, my to-do list consisted of a bunch of pieces of paper—notebook paper, sticky notes, bills, statements, prescriptions, brochures—and browser tabs open to various maps, blogs, articles, bug reports, Perforce diffs, recipes, and shopping sites. I'm not sure if it's going to work for me, but at least I can put my ENTIRE to-do list—the one that includes personal, home finance, and work items—in one place. I've been reluctant to mix personal and work stuff, which is why I'm constantly switching back and forth between two laptops (three, if you count my work Mac), but I'm realizing that a small concession can (and perhaps must) be made in the interest of staying organized. The details (e-mail, blogs) can stay on my personal machine, but the synopses should go in my Task List if I am ever to prioritize everything properly—and, more importantly, get it done.
I'm excited at the prospect of possibly becoming more efficient and productive. I'm also still sad as hell that I won't be able to play hockey for another two weeks. Hopefully, I'll get over that soon.