Dennis Sherman

I’ve been enjoying my Kindle 2 for 6 months now, and have started to accumulate quite a number of e-books that will work on the Kindle.  (There are a lot of free ones available, especially if you like to read classic science fiction!)

I can tell that I’m going to want to use some kind of library management on the PC, as a simple directory structure isn’t going to suffice for me.  So I’m taking a look at Calibre (http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/) for the job.

On first glance, it looks like it will fill me needs pretty well.  There are some features that aren’t working for me.  But I already have workarounds for those that are important to me.  I’ll open defect reports with the developer if I can’t figure out what’s happening, but they aren’t showstopper issues for me.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed as a result of poking around is that the “common wisdom” that the Kindle doesn’t support folders is untrue.  You can load data to the Kindle 2 in a hierarchical data structure, for example {author}/{title}/{title}.prc, and the Kindle will find the file and display it without any problem.  What is true, is that the Kindle’s UI doesn’t support that kind of structure, and will hide it from you.  All you see on the “Home” view of your library is a list of documents without the hierarchy.  I can hope there will be a kindle upgrade sometime that solves that deficiency.

In the meantime, using the Calibre ebook library manager, I think the Kindle’s UI issues won’t be nearly as important, as I’m likely to add and remove things from the Kindle more often.  I expect to keep notes in the library manager about what I have and haven’t read.

We’ll see how it goes for a few weeks, and decide if I’m going to keep Calibre permanently or not.

In an effort to further diversify my investments, I’ve been looking in to Peer to Peer Lending.  There are different risks than with stocks or bonds, which is important for diversification.  See Wikipedia article.  The article at http://www.peerlendingwealth.com:8080/PeerToPeerLending/P2PLoans.html is also very informative and persuasive.  And a Google search is always a good idea.

After doing my research, I’ve opened an investor account with LendingClub.  There are other web sites that provide a similar service, this is the one that made the most sense to me.  I liked the work they put in to qualify borrowers before their loan is put up for funding.  I liked that the loans are all for a fixed period of time, and a known interest rate up front.   And I liked the amount of information about the borrower, and being able to browse the borrower’s explanation of what a loan is for.

At LendingClub, the mechanics are that I put money into my account, and use that money to fund a part of one or more loans, providing a minimum of $25 to each loan I choose to fund.  For diversification purposes, I’d like to fund a maximum number of loans, so they’ll each get a small amount from me.

To start with, I’m using these criteria to select loans I will fund:

• Borrower credit score 714 >
• Borrower has 0 delinquencies in the last 2 years
• Borrower DTI (Debt to Income) ratio < 10%
• Borrower stable employment
• The loan description must show reasonably good spelling and grammar, and actually explain why the borrower wants the loan
• The loan description must give me the impression the borrower has a reasonable grasp of financial reality
• Be selective about business loans – carefully consider what it is for, and how it will be paid back if the business fails
• Look at the number of credit lines open, the revolving credit balance, and the revolving line utilization.  I’m not sure yet exactly what my hard boundaries are on these metrics for a yes/no decision.  I know that a revolving line utilization of 80% makes me too nervous to invest in that loan!

And I’ll see what kind of returns I actually get.

I’ve just finished listening to A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain, from LibriVox (http://librivox.org/a-tramp-abroad-by-mark-twain/) read by John Greenman.  Its quite interesting, the chronicle of a trip to southern Europe, which Twain intended to spend walking (i.e. “tramping”) although he kept finding reasons to take other forms of transportation, some of which are quite amusing.

Mark Twain sees things and tells us about them from a sometimes unique point of view, quite convinced that he is entirely correct, despite the guidebooks and facts to the contrary.  There are numerous episodes where he is the butt of his own story, although the narrator voice doesn’t seem to know it.  Which is of course the source of the humor.

The reader, John Greenman, is very effective, changing voicing for some characters, and managing multiple languages and accents adroitly.  The running time is about 15 hours, and I quite enjoyed it.  Well worth a listen.

I spent the last week of July 2009 taking beginner classes at the Viola da Gamba Society of America (http://www.vdgsa.org) annual conclave.  The conclave was hosted at St. Xavier University here in Chicago, and the beginner class was offered to community members at no charge, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn something about another instrument.

Classes were held Monday through Saturday late in the morning, ending just in time for lunch.   I rearranged my work schedule and took some vacation to make the time available.  Even with the daily 75 mile round trip from home to St. Xavier to work and back home (instead of my regular 22 mile round trip), I think it was worth while.

The class was about half a dozen people, with wildly varying skill levels and ages.  The youngest was 11, the oldest probably into their 60’s, with about one a decade in between.  Two were cello players, a couple had picked up the gamba on their own and were ready for some actual instruction, and a couple of us were experienced musicians but real  beginners on this instrument. As far as I could tell, everyone could read notation in a clef appropriate for their instrument.

The first thing we did is learn to tune.  Tuning strings is a bit different than tuning winds, and you can hear quickly when its wrong.  And if you happen to have perfect pitch (I don’t!) you may be in for a disconcerting time, as gambas typically play at A=415, instead of the more common A=440 that modern recorders use.  Good thing my tuner is adjustable!

Actually, the first thing we did is learn to hold the instrument correctly.  “Viola da gamba” means “viola of the leg”, and you hold it on your legs.  That’s “on”, as you sort of make a cradle with your legs to rest the instrument in, instead of squeezing with your knees.

And once holding and tuned, we took off playing!  The gamba is fretted on the neck, unlike the violin/viola/cello family of instruments, so getting the right pitch is just a matter of getting the right finger on the string and fret at the same time.  (Ever notice that “just” is a four letter word?)  There are six strings to keep track of, and many pitches can be played on at least two strings, so there’s a lot of choices to be made while playing.  That’s what practice is for!

Then there’s the bow.  We actually spent quite a lot of time on bowing technique, how to articulate with the bow, how to choose when to down-bow and when to up-bow, and so on.  And now I know what some of those funny extra squiggles mean in some of the early music I play — they’re editorial hints for string players, suggesting which way the bow should be moving.

By the end of the week I was fairly comfortable playing simple and slow tunes, even sightreading if slow enough and mostly steps and thirds.  “In nomine” and “La folia” were recognizable at a respectable speed, even if my tone could use some work.  Overall, I had a good time, and can heartily recommend taking advantage of this opportunity if it comes up again!

I’ve finished a week of viola da gamba beginner lessons. They were given at the annual conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, which was in Chicago this year. (http://www.vdgsa.org/pgs/conclave-2009/conclave.shtml#CLASSES)

I learned quite a bit I think, and I’m going to see if I can rent an instrument for a while and learn a bit more. I haven’t decided yet if I want to start adding strings to my instrument repertoire. The fingers on my left hand are already developing tough spots from the strings. Gut is a lot more forgiving than wire, though, and the frets make it a lot easier to find a note and play it in tune than on a violin.

I am pretty tired of the commute. 75 miles a day to go from home to lessons on the south side of Chicago, then to work, then home again. And an extra hour and a half in the car. I’m glad that part is over, even if I did have a lot of fun in class.

I recently needed a stopwatch at work, and forgot that my cell phone had that built in.  So I went looking for one for the Palm.   What I found is way better than just a stopwatch!

The TikTok Timer for Palm is, as the developer’s web site says, “…a simple, no nonsense, timer utility for a Palm OS device…”.  It does multiple countdown and count-up (stopwatch) timers simultaneously, with an easy to use interface.  It isn’t new software (most recent revision is 2006), but I don’t care as long as it works!  And it does.

The most negative thing I’ve found about it so far is that after TikTok Timer fires an alarm from a countdown timer, the Palm takes a while (5-10 seconds) to begin responding to keys and stylus taps again.

It is very easy to support a GTD 2 minute action timer, by pre-defining a 2 minute countdown timer and setting it so you don’t get stuck Doing a long action when you’re supposed to be Processing.  I’ve set up mine with 2, 5, and 15 minute timers predefined, and finding it very useful.

I’m using a Palm Z22, it ought to work on any earlier Palm, and many later ones.  Give it a try if you’re in need of a timer!

As I’ve said in a previous post, the 15 categories provided by the Palm Task manager are enough contexts for my GTD implementation.  Except at work, where I sometimes use Outlook Tasks to assign work to other people, which I want to keep track of.

Outlook allows multiple categories to be assigned to a Task.  The Palm doesn’t support multiple categories, but with a little planning, that won’t matter.  Outlook will always list multiple categories in a known order, and moves the first one back and forth to the Palm.  My list of Next Action contexts (Palm and Outlook categories) includes

• @Agenda
• @Computer
• @Home
• @Waiting For
• @Work

I also keep my projects and someday/maybe lists in Tasks, and separate them by home and work.

• ^Projects-H
• ^Projects-W
• Someday/Maybe-H
• Someday/Maybe-W

Notice the non-alpha characters at the beginning of some categories.  They keep the list sorted so that the ones I need most are at the top.  They also mean that when multiple categories are assigned in Outlook, the funny character categories will be listed first.

So if I have three team members I assign work to, Allan, Bob, and Charlie, I will create a category for each:

• w-Allan
• w-Bob
• w-Charlie

I also may create categories for ways I might want to retrieve data, for example by product:

• w-WhizBang1.0
• w-WhizBang1.1
• w-GeeWhiz3.7

Now I can create an Outlook Task for a project to add a feature to WhizBang 1.0, and assign it to Allan.   The Task might be titled Add Super Sexy Feature to WhizBang and be assigned to the ^Projects-W, w-WhizBang1.0, and w-Allan categories.

On the Palm I’ll find Add Super Sexy Feature to WhizBang in my Tasks list in the ^Projects-W category, just where it should be.  And on the Palm, I don’t see the w-WhizBang1.0 and w-Allan categories.

In Outlook, I can order and filter my Tasks in many different ways.  I usually use a view that groups by category.  Now I can see Add Super Sexy Feature to WhizBang in my ^Projects-W list, and it also shows up under w-WhizBang1.0, so I can see all the projects currently under way for that product.  And I can look at the w-Allan category to see what his workload is like.

The trick to making this all work is to preface the “extra” work categories with a character that sorts alphabetically after all the Palm categories.  For me, a w- (for work-) does the job.

I try to do two reviews a week.  One is primarily for work, and only visits the NA contexts that are applicable for work, and the work projects and someday/maybe lists.  The other is primarily for non-work, and usually does not include the work projects and someday/maybe lists, but when it does, entries are there as they should be, because I make sure that every Task entered in Outlook has one of the categories assigned that matches a Palm category, and the sync manages to keep it all lined up correctly!

GTD, or Getting Things Done, is a personal productivity system by David Allen.  One of its strengths is the way the concepts behind it are implementation agnostic.  That means the system can be done using index cards, a notebook, within Outlook, on a Palm or other PDA, using dedicated software, or many other ways.  That flexibility is one of the things that many people starting out with GTD find as a hindrance, not knowing just how to set their system up.

I’m planning a series of posts about my GTD implementation, as a model for other people to consider.  I started using GTD in December 2006, and after about 6 months of thrashing around trying things, settled pretty much on what I’m using now, which has mostly been unchanged since.

My GTD system is electronic, based on a plain vanilla Palm OS PDA, which I synchronize with the Palm Desktop at home, and Outlook at work.  I keep a single calendar for work and personal landscape, and I use the Task/ToDo list for my Project list and Next Action contexts.  The 15 categories provided by the Palm are plenty of contexts for me, with a little creative hacking of Outlook that I’ll detail in a later post.

I use a physical 43 folder tickler file implementation at home and at work.

Palm Memos / Outlook Notes are very useful for reference material of all kinds.  I reserve one category for Project Support information, and make sure I name the memos that relate to a project the same way, so they’ll sort together.  I reserve one category for general reference material, and one for “Higher Level” notes.  I name those so that all the notes for a level will sort together, e.g. 20kft-Finances for my “keep the bills paid” Area of Focus.

That’s the high level overview, more to come in the future.

I had an interesting insight about GTD and resume maintenance Manager-Tools style, fostered by a Get-It-Done-Guy Podcast on resumes.

Save those Project and Next Actions lists full of completed items at least until the end of the month.  At that time, use the finished entries to jog your memory for the month’s accomplishments to add to your draft resume, also known as your career management document.  Quick, easy, and a task that’s easy to tickle so it gets done regularly!

(GTD / Getting Things Done is a systematic approach to personal productivity.   There are many sites available on the web with information about GTD, use your favorite search engine to find some.)

My GTD implementation is vanilla Palm syncing with Outlook (work) and Palm Desktop (home).

I use several different methods to handle recurring Projects and Next Actions.  Which one I use for any particular instance depends on a bunch of things,  suffice it to say my rules work for me.

Starting with least technology specific, here are methods I use:

43 Folders tickler file – physical checklists go into the folder when they should become active again.  Last thing on the checklist is an indication of how far in the future the checklist should be placed for the next time.

Calendar “To Do Today” entries – simple no-time entries on a specific day, with notes that explain what should be activated.  Outlook and Palm both enable recurring calendar events, so I use these both for recurring things and as an electronic tickler.  Just review the calendar daily, and take whatever actions are in the notes, e.g. “Activate Project – Oil Change for 2004 Civic”.

Outlook recurring Tasks – when you create a Task in Outlook, you can mark it to recur in a bunch of different ways.  These can be especially useful if you use a future start date, and configure your view of Tasks to hide incomplete tasks with a future start.  You won’t see them until they should show up, then they’re just there.  Unfortunately, the Palm doesn’t have a start date feature, so you’ll see future tasks in the Palm, but not in Outlook.  And I find some of the recurrence patterns a bit peculiar to configure to do what I want.

Palm application ReDo: this application has the best implementation of recurrence patterns of anything I’ve seen.  Make an entry in ReDo, and it appears in your Palm Tasks list at the appropriate time.  Sync with Outlook, and there they are.

Many of my recurring projects are irregular – like the Oil Change project.  Every three months, or 3000 miles?  The last NA (Next Action) on most of the recurring projects is to tickle the next occurrence, whatever that may be.  If it is set up to electronically repeat, great, I don’t have to take any action.  If not, I can either set up electronic repeat, or use one of my first couple of methods where I’ll get a trigger to activate the project.