It would seem that spring has been sprung; there are animals everywhere. I want a puppy.

This didn’t work, but Killzone took my sleep and I don’t have the energy to give myself a worse headache making it better.

It’s not perfect, but then I don’t even really know what I wanted. I guess perfection doesn’t exist, in that case.

I love the memorial. There is always someone cool doing something cool around there. Today was no different!

Annoyingly, that tree got in the way and I didn’t even notice. Hopefully he’ll be down there again and I can get it right.

I have to tag this photo so he can find it!

In other news; OMGZ 300! Check my attention span!

I’m really enjoying playing with this Raynox. You need a steady hand, though, and after 3 hours of trying to get the PHP 5.3 RC to play nice with MySQL (lucky for me all of my local databases are for development only and I have all the create scripts!) my composure is a little, well, I have crappy composure anyway.

This weekend will hopefully be fun. I want to go and see Hsiao Ning, but I bet the weather will suck.

This radio gets blasted out at full volume every morning. Bloody Radio 4 wakes me up and drags me out of bed with a muffled cacophony of intellectual quizzes and Archers-esque programs. Apparently, Charlotte needs a new one.

I might get her one with water-proof headphones so I can get a little extra sleep in the morning.

My two least favourite things about myself (well, about anyone really) are laziness and compulsiveness. Normally, my laziness takes over my compulsiveness, case-in-point: I have to do the washing up in the evening, I’m very lazy, the washing up doesn’t get done. Gross, I know.

I have, however, found a way to combat my laziness with it’s strongest rival—you guessed it—my compulsiveness! Lists. Until recently, I listed everything in my diary, in a notebook, on my laptop, basically anywhere I could find some paper. That is, until I started using GTD apps.

I started out with Cultured Code’s Things. A deceptively simple app that organises your lists into projects, areas and tags with a useful Quick Entry HUD for creating tasks as soon as you think of them (so they don’t just go in and out). I love the simplicity of Things, and the fact that it has a counterpart iPhone app (buggy though it may be) is very useful. I used it briefly in the beta, but I just couldn’t integrate it with my workflow. It wasn’t until I started listing everything I do that I saw how useful having this on a computer could potentially be.

As much as I love Things, it does have some holes. I won’t go into all of them, because a lot are bugs in the software or things that are on the roadmap, so it wouldn’t be fair. All I’ll say is that I’m no longer using Things, and have replaced it with Potion Factory’s The Hit List.

For me, The Hit List’s single feature that sets it apart from Things is the presence of timer functionality for each item in your lists. You simply select an item, hit B and the timer starts. As a freelancer (or anyone who works on billable projects, really) this is incredibly useful. I create lists that directly map onto projects that I’m working on, so being able to log time against each item shows me not only how long each aspect takes me (for future quoting), but how much to charge.

The Hit List is still in beta, but I’ve found it to be very usable. I’ve only had to restart it once, when the HUD wouldn’t invoke, and it’s not done it since so I’m happy! There is also the promise of an iPhone app (which I have found to be almost a must-have), which I hope materialises soon.

Now that I have my GTD app in-hand, I’m able to make lists and set deadlines. My compulsiveness doesn’t like deadlines, oh no. It forces me off the sofa and to the sink to do the washing up, or to take out the bins, or to send the email I’ve been putting off and offers laziness as a reward. How generous!

So, there you have it, if you’re compulsive like me, but also incredibly lazy at times; try pitting your compulsiveness against your laziness. If you give it the right ammo, compulsiveness always wins!

So, it’s finally back. And I’m £400 lighter.

Too bad that I had so much to do today that I didn’t have time to even think about using it. Definitely try to use it tomorrow, though. In the meantime, this sums up my glee satisfactorily!

I dislike the dentist. I’m not scared, I just dislike them in the same way I dislike taking my car to the garage – I don’t have any knowledge on the subject, and I always feel like I’m getting screwed over. I also think my dentist doesn’t like me – he’s always cancelling appointments.

Today, though, my dentist was on holiday and I had an appointment with the other dentist. He was awesome – said my teeth were fine. Considering my “Tandy Teeth”, I’ll take “fine” and be happy with it!

I realised that there are a lot of interesting things in the bathroom; hence a mini-series “Macro In The Bathroom”.

Cotton buds are the best. If you have a piercing, you’ll basically die unless you have cotton buds. Personally, I always make sure I have a few in my bag wherever I go.

No, I’m not joking.