I’m in a better mood this morning. Yesterday was pretty productive. I’ve been using Life Balance now for a week, and I think I’m a convert. It’s interesting as I watch myself juggling the various things I need to do in life. Over there on the right is the current balance
I’m achieving. 
Work dominates, which surprises me a little, since I haven’t felt like I’ve been getting a lot done this past week, but other than that, I guess things look pretty reasonable. Part of the balancing act is figuring out how much effort
things are going to take, which determines how much credit
you should get for completing the tasks. I tend to rate fun
things as low effort. Chores are similarly low-effort for the most part, even if both of those things take more time for the effort. The other thing I’ve noticed is that I think I need to break work
into two parts: billable and non-billable. Anyway, I think it’s kinda neat, and it really helped yesterday when I wasn’t feeling terribly focused, and had a lot of stuff to do. Being able to just work my way down the list, focusing on one item at a time, is a lot less stressful than trying to keep everything in my head, and having daily chores listed in there gives me a feeling that I’m getting something done as I do those things, rather than just wasting time. Hey, maybe it’s just a rationalization, but those are important, too.
In last night’s Saints’ game, the boys won again, moving their magic number to four. For a team that was contending for a pennant in their division, Joliet didn’t look especially sharp last night. Or maybe it’s just that the Saints are a better team at the moment. I like the fact that the Saints are playing well as we head to the playoffs. While they’re still not certain of making it in, it would take a choke of epic proportions to not see any post-season games, and I picked up my playoff tickets last night.
- BoingBoing has an Update on arrest of Joshua Kinberg, Bikes Against Bush. He’s out of jail, and has a court date for Friday, but the cops still have his bike and other belongings. [boing boing]
- Is Arnold Schwartzenegger the The New American Idol of politics? Maybe. The article starts out strong, talking about the fact that there are a huge number of fiscal conservatives who are socially liberal (that description could apply to me), and neither major party is addressing our concerns. But when the author started talking about how he’d fix the problem, he lost me. Update: It’s been pointed out to me that pages three and four of this article are by a completely different author. No wonder I was confused. [wired]
- Conrad’s talking politics again. In Economics 101, he explains how GWB’s fiscal policies are better than those of John Kerry, among other things. And in No More Mr. Nice Guy he talks about Alice Cooper’s recent comments on politics, pointing out that Alice ran against Nixon in 1972, and the weirder candidate actually won. [gweilodiaries]
- Bruce Schneier’s been busy lately, with four different opinion pieces out. One looks at Olympic Security, saying that much of the $1.5 billion spent was wasted. Next, he says that
Trusted Traveller
programs are An Easy Path for Terrorists. He explains how the U.S. ‘No-Fly’ List Curtails Liberties, not to mention being a real pain in the tuchus if you happen to get on it and you aren’t Ted Kennedy. And finally he asks How Long Can the Country Stay Scared? Well, we’re going to continue to have yellow and orange alerts just as long as it helps the government keep growing. Hell, that might as well be a plank in the GOP’s platform:Keep everyone scared so they’ll keep voting for us so we can give our cronies more money.
- Compared to the US Government’s spending to keep things from us, the cost of the Olympics was nothing. All That Secrecy Is Expensive says that we spend $6.5 Billion making documents secret, including people within the Departments of Agriculture, Health & Human Services, and the EPA who are among the almost 4000 government employees who have the power to classify documents. [boing boing]
- Wonder if maybe someone’s overstepping their bounds? Justice Department Censors Supreme Court Quote. Ugh. I feel ever so much safer now. [boing boing]
- Secure Flight Gets Wary Welcome. It’s not CAPPS II, but it’s still not a great system. As Schneier has said, simply checking names against a database of known terrorists won’t catch unknown terrorists. [wired]
- Here’s a take on a protest where Everything Is Permitted and they didn’t need (nor ask for) any steenking permits. What happens when the Manhattan LP turns out to protest. [endwar]