The Life and Times of Marcus P.

I love lists, lists help me unload my mind from trivial things. Remember to buy toothpaste, call someone about something, send an email next Monday etc. Without lists my mind would be in a mini panic every day I’m sure.

Imagine this, Im sitting at my laptop and my mind is with me. It’s not shooting off in random directions whenever something bubbles up through my concouisness reminding me to do something. Why? Im certain that everything I need to do today/this week has been captured into my ‘trusted system’ so I can turn my brain away from needing to remember things and towards more productive tasks. Whenever something does come about  that I’d like to do, as for example this morning as I realised the kids are out of toothpaste as our toothpaste had walked into their bathroom, I stopped what I was doing and made a quick note in Wunderlist (Our Supermarket shopping list) It took a few seconds and then it was wiped from my mind.

Then as walking from the station this morning I thought it would be a good idea to email the owners of the holiday cottage we are renting next Monday to advise them of our late arrival time, a quick squeeze of my iPhone microphone and a little chat to Siri ‘Remind me to email Toad Hall cottages next monday’ was all it took to add this to my Omnifocus inbox (Omnifocus being my main list making software) ready to be scheduled when I next sort through my inbox.

I know that to some this amount of control may seem anal to many people, but after watching my partner chastised herself 3 mornings running for not sending a belated birthday card there is no way I’m going back to trusting my memory to remember everything as It’s not very good at remembering things!

If you think this sort of approach could work for you it’s really easy to start, the geek or non geek way!

None Geek way.

Invest in a pocket notebook, whenever anything needs to be done, capture it. Right there and then. Do so knowing that you can’t complete the task right now but reading your notebook at a later date you can schedule things that you need to accomplish in your diary.

The Geek way.

Beginners can’t go far wrong than signing up for Wunderlist to capture their tasks. It’s available on PC, Mac, iPhone and Android (Blackberry also I think?) and they all sync nicely together. You can schedule due dates in the app itself. It’s free too!

Review your lists often.

In this basic setup all you need to do is capture everything that pops into your head and then review your lists in what I call a morning review. A quick scan of your list will enable you to schedule what needs to be done.

Advanced Todo Lists, GTD.

I use the GTD ‘Getting Things Done‘ principles of task management which is a more advanced way of structuring your todo lists and it’s the obvious stepping stone when you feel comfortable capturing all of your task. I would recommend the GTD book by David Allen as the perfect place to continue your study into developing your productivity skills, and of course my website www.GTDWizard.com. Davids book covers using Pen and Paper and some technology systems also, it will teach you some great skills in managing your life!

Getting Things Done: How to achieve stress-free productivity: The Art of Stress-free Productivity

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Buying a book on Minimalism? Ironic or what?

Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life [Kindle Edition]

Ive been thinking of buying a book on minimalism for a few months and this one came recommended but was a little expensive when it was originally released. However it’s now dropped in price to £5.22 for the Kindle version which seems great value! Hopefully with my Mindfulness meditation with a dash of minimalism I can continue my journey in finding more calmness, peace, happiness and joy… simples!

Winchester visit.

Louise and I spent most of the day in Winchester, a lovely walk around the walled city and visit to a Vintage Fair in the guild hall. There were some amazingly dressed people, some in fully 40′s 50′s and 60′s things and some with hints of these past times in their appearance. They all looked amazing. (Nearly purchased a nice bag…. nearly!!) Day was finished off with a tour of the National Trust Mill and a cream cake! I do enjoy my QRT (Quality Recovery Time) makes life all the more fun!

Related articles

• Day tripping to Winchester (roundaboutlondon.wordpress.com)

I’ve just uploaded one of more recent iPhone photo’s to depixtions.com for inclusion in camera phone gallery on the 13th March in Orlando Florida which is a shame as I would of loved to attend! I’ve looked at a few on the website and there’s some really original pieces of work there.

Earning some Kama

My photo will be printed and displayed in the gallery, then sold (Hopefully!) with all proceeds going to the New Hope For Kids charity.

Enter yourself.

If you use Instagram (or Camera+) on your iPhone you can submit your favorite photo also (1 day left though!) The photo has to be taken on a smart phone, in square format and only use your smartphone software to enhance the photo. Full details can be found on the depixtions website.

My entry.

I went for this recent photo and titled it ‘Alien Bubbles’ I hope it will stand out a little from the other entries and that it may even make people stop and have a good look at it as they  try and work out what it is. (It’s a paper weight!)

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• Depixtion’s Camera Phone Art Show (thedailycity.com)
• Camera Phone Love (thenyegotist.com)

Just time between cooking some nice steaks and consuming a nice bottle of Sancerre and only enough time to post a picture of Louise’s Valentines card from her secret admirer… (Well not that secret…)

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• Valentines Cards for Geeks (geekergosum.com)

I was very pleased to see a new headspace mobile app released from the Get Some Headspace guys that can help you get involved with Meditation. My Daily commute gives me a great opportunity to have a little ‘me’ time and having a daily guidance on my phone is perfect!

The 1st 10 days are free so you can see if meditation is for you. Im going to give it a go and see if worth the subscription after the initial 10 days.

http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/

So SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) day is upon us and some sites have shut down for 24 hours as a protest. The proposed bill basically gives the US Govt. the ability to remove DNS entries that will stop you and I reaching websites if someone launches a complaint, which to me is the crux of the issue. If someone takes offence at my blog or I link to something that I shouldn’t by accident my website could possibly be taken down.

Would I be consulted 1st? Would I be able to fight the judgment? Even worse if I’m on a shared server and someone else was doing something naughty that server could be banned, affecting lots and lots of other innocent sites. Where will it stop, the Govt. stopping you visiting sites it deems inappropriate?

It could possibly be the 1st step towards internet censorship and Im happy to see many internet users expressing their outrage to this draconian measure.

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• SOPA Author Attacks Wikipedia, Schedules Debate on Bill (mashable.com)
• Where Do SOPA and PIPA Stand Now? (mashable.com)
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I’ve got no idea if this a true story, I have no way of verifying it, but I like to think it is as it tells us so much about human nature and socialism. Sounds too good to be true for anyone wanting to argue Socialism fails and Capitalism works!

The Story

An economics professor had never failed a single student, but recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equaliser.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.”

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. 

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

If socialism doesn’t work and isn’t fair in the classroom, why would it be any better in the economy?

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Related articles

• Classroom socialism (homepaddock.wordpress.com)
• An Entire College Class of Obama Zombies Fails a Socialism 101 Course (ireporters.wordpress.com)
• Failing Grade for Socialism (rustybingham.wordpress.com)

Cases for mobile phones can be a little hit and miss, I’ve owned a number over the years some of which have been a complete waste of money! Wandering around an Apple store on Sunday I found a quaint antique book type cover which cost £50! Nice but far too rich for my wallet. After a little search on eBay I found a very similar version for less than £20 which arrived yesterday. It’s looks nice and will keep my iPhone safe and will replace my wallet on nights out thanks to it’s card holders. (One issue, it smells really strong of a turpentine type smell, but It’s abating a little now!)

iPhone Vintage book cover

Anyway, I had a look around the ebay sellers ‘shop’ and can see he has a great selection and for all types of phones, my shopping experience was 1st class and would recommend the shop to anyone looking for a new case for their phone.

Teepeeonline store

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My Home (Gaming PC) was Windows, my work laptop was Windows and even the phone in my pocket was a windows phone. The O2 XDA exec. This was quite probably the largest phone I’ll ever own! (That may change as I see Android phones growing bigger and bigger currently!)

As I look back I do have fond memories of the XDA exec, even with the limitations of Windows Phone OS It was a mobile warrior, being able to complete most of the office tasks from my phone back in 2007 was novel, not without some challenges but it did work!

Jan 9 2007

Then 5 years ago, Steve Jobs delivered one of his trademark launch pitches to fevered Apple fans, but I wasn’t interested. At launch the iPhone was missing some fairly basic functionality, the 2 that stick in my mind is the lack of copy/paste and it’s rather slow EDGE network speed!

I purchased an iMac to replace an ageing PC about 4 years ago, because I was tired of Windows and fed up of such ugly designs sitting on my desk at home! To my surprise I really enjoyed the whole experience of using a ‘closed’ hardware system for one main reason; It just pain worked out of the box. No tweaking, no driver updates, no need to remove vendor crapware. It was a revelation after years of Windows ‘fun’.

iPhone 3GS

Over the years the iPhone evolved also and the more I read about some of the great apps that were being released the more I was interested. Eventually I purchased an iPhone 3GS and I’ve never looked back. Like all Apple products they are designed with the user in mind, some geeks complain that it’s all locked down and your locked into the Apple eco system, but for me its a small price to pay for such easy to use and reliable products. For me the iPhone is my all purpose device that I can rely on 100% everyday. Phone, SatNav, Social Networking, Music, Movies, email, office, reading… as Im a child of the 70′s I still can’t believe what an amazing device I carry around in my pocket.

So Happy Birthday iPhone!

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• The iPhone: Five years later… (macworld.com)
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I can hardly believe that the Commodore 64 was released 30 years ago, even though I was a ZX Spectrum boy back in 1982 I have a huge fondness of the C64. It’s music chip was massively better than my Spectrums, and it’s hardware smooth sprites looked great. Of course I can blame one friend who got me interested in computer back in 1992 my good friend @sm0d You have a lot to blame for buddy!!

An 8bit musical blast from the past.

8 bit gaming in 2012, done right!

Before I start explaining that games back at 1980′s as being the best games eva… (they were not!) let me tell you about a great little iPad/iPhone/iTouch game that has it’s roots firmly set in the 80′s 8bit gaming. Swords and Sworcery - http://www.swordandsworcery.com/ it’s such a lovely little game and reminds me so much of early Commodore 64 gaming and it’s music, it’s keeping me nicely entertained on my daily commute! As it’s designed for todays hardware it’s so much more fun than trying to run a MAME version as they were all designed for joysticks not a multitouch screen so Im happy to leave 80′s gaming as a loving memory and play games like this that rekindle my love and memory of gaming.

Related articles

• 30 years later: Remember the Commodore 64? (cbsnews.com)
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