Daily Archives: January 30, 2013

Politics, US History

The Second Inaugural Address

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Winter                                                                      Cold Moon

Read the text of Obama’s second inaugural address today.  I’m a words guy, that should be clear by now for those who read this.  Words matter.  Yes, actions matter, too, but I’ve never been a fan of what I consider the false dichotomy between thought and action.  Acting and thinking, words and deeds, run together in life, preceding the other, and effecting the other in turn.

This is an important speech and it seems, from what I’ve read, that Republicans caught its importance more than the Democrats.  This is an unabashed hymn to the America I love.  The one where the founding documents inspire us to move towards more inclusion, a broader and deeper sweep of justice and to embrace the collective as well as the individual.

Like words and deeds, the individual and the collective are not in opposition, rather they are in dynamic tension.  When the creative work of the people is done, it helps the collective, but it does that by helping individuals.  Freedom is not a zero sum game.  As I gain more and more freedom, you don’t lose yours, your freedom grows along with mine.  We both test the limits of our individual destinies and in so doing increase the available free space for all.  Individual action breeds collective health and collective health breeds individual freedom.

An inaugural address is not policy, or executive order or legislation or federal rule, but neither was the Declaration of Independence.  It was a call to a fractured people, join together and together we will become more than a colony.  This second inaugural underscores the common action that has traditionally made us strong and renews the call of the Declaration.  I’m proud to have a President who speaks these words.

About time.

GeekWorld

Gettin’ Things Done

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Winter                                                                                 Cold Moon

I’ve discovered a neat tool that has helped me get stuff done.  Well, three of them.  In particular.

The first one is the Weekly Planner.  I guess it’s based on Stephen Covey’s work, though I haven’t read the Seven Habits.  What it does is very simple.  It gives you a column for creating color coded roles in your life.  Mine are:  Self, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Family Guy (Siblings and Cousins), Scholar, Writer, Art Historian/Critic, Blogger, Gardener/Beekeeper/Woodsman, IT Guy and the role name I’m least happy with:  Pagan Thinker.  Just not sure about that one.

Next it asks you what is the most important thing you can do this week in that role.  There is a one-week calendar next to the list of roles and you slide the goal over to the day and it goes with the color of the role attached.  Then, you click on it when you’re done.

Here’s why it’s helped me.  It makes me consider, at the beginning of a week, what are the important matters I need to be sure to work on.  I don’t clutter this calendar up with other matters unless I have an appointment or time with a friend.  Then, I enter them here only to ensure I leave enough time for what’s really important.

It’s simple and effective.  If you’re into this kind of thing, I imagine you’ll find it useful.

The second tool is Evernote.  Again, a simple idea, but so useful.  Weekly Planner is free at the level I’m using it which is fine for me. It’s free, too. Evernote I pay $100 a year to use at an advanced level.  Why?  Because it’s the equivalent of a filing cabinet for the web.  See an article that would help writing my Tailte novels?  Click on the Evernote icon and it asks where to save it.  Press save article or page or url and it puts the article under Tailte Mythos.  Researching a trip or already made reservations online?  They go under travel.  You can create any number of notebooks, headed however you want.  Tres useful.

The third is Instapaper.  If you’re like me, you go through the web, see an article and think, gee, I’d like to read that but not right now.  It may not be something you want to save.  I click on the read later icon installed on my bookmarks bars and the article is stored in my account.  Which is free, by the way.  Then, when I have time, I click on my account, go to stored articles or webpages, read them, and often delete them.