I am always looking for a better personal productivity methodology.  From Day-Timers to The 7 habits of Highly Effective People to todo lists and PDA’s (still have my Apple Newton!), so it is no surprise that I am constantly on the lookout for new techniques.

Right now, I am looking at Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It is an interesting system, in that he really doesn’t give you a system as much as a methodology.  He expects you to develop a record-keeping system that works for you.  I’m using an online planner system to do this called “Remember the Milk.”  I’m very impressed with it so far.  RTM is extremely flexible – almost too flexible.  I’ve reconfigured it about 4 times to get it to work how I want it to work.

What I like most is the combination of tags and smart lists.  Smart lists are basically stored searches,  but the UI treats them just as if they were lists.  So effectively, I can mix and match tags to create a very flexible system for organizing my work.  I haven’t decided if it is too flexible, but I have already organized and diced my work into about 30 different piles.  More on that when I get some time with it to see how it works.

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I have been to hillbilly heaven, and it’s name is Branson.

We arrived there late Sunday afternoon.  We had to do that because when I ordered our package, I got the dates wrong for the shows.  Our original plan had been to get their Sunday, rest, and start doing shows Monday and Tuesday nights.  Instead, we had Sunday and Monday shows and nothing Tuesday.

Sunday night was Jim Stafford.  Man that was a good show.  Jim Stafford is incredibly personable and funny.  More impressive, at 64 he is still very capable of putting on a very high energy show, with lots of antics and physical comedy.  What really impressed me was his skills on the guitar.  He is truly a master guitarist.  His ability to play the guitar has apparently earned him the title “The Victor Borge of the guitar”.  It is well deserved.  He played Pop, Classical, Flamenco, and of course Country.  Seriously recommended.

Day 2 was the afternoon performance of the 12 Irish Tenors.  We only had 11 as one was out sick.  Didn’t miss him however.  We were in the center left seats on the 2nd Row.  Wow.  Those boys can sing.  They are all irish, although not all from Ireland.  They sang a range of music from Classical opera to Irish standards to Broadway.  Very VERY good singing, lots of energy, lots of style.  Very impressive.  The theatre did not impress though.  The seats were very crammed, and the sound engineering was IMHO a bit inadequte.  Lots of distortion when the tenors vocal dynamics got very loud.

Our overall impression of Branson was positive, although we were not terribly impressed with the various places we went to eat.  We want to bring the kids next time.  There is a lot of stuff for them to do. 

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WHEEE!!!!

Packing to leave tonight.  Two youngest to Camp St. Raphael, 2 oldest staying home, and my wife and I are taking the first real vacation together without children since the first year we were married.

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I have been talking about getting my CCNA for a long time.  However, various things have gotten in the way.   Usually it has been a combination of too little time, too little motivation, and no money when I have the time and motivation.

Well, let’s be real.  If I had enough motivation I would have found ways around the time and money.  This last (thankfully short) period of unemployment has convinced me that it is time to get the motivation to pursue not just the CCNA, but follow that with a CCNP and CCIE.  That should keep me well employed for awhile.  So I am going to add blog posts here at least once a week on my progress.  I will also be putting together a study wiki.  More on that soon.

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