"And the pattern still remains on the wall where darkness fell
And it's fitting that it should, for in darkness I must dwell
Like the color of my skin or the day that I grow old
My life is made of patterns that can scarcely be controlled"
-- Simon and Garfunkel
The first stage of the transition (to Comcast.net) went smoothly. I'm still waiting on the first stage of the transition of the new corporate Perl structure at work to happen.
I'm stuck in that cycle again, having so many things I want to do that I'm getting none of them done. So I finally listed them all out, and managed to summon enough strength to start culling the items that I know I'm not going to get around to finishing. So, the Parrot Configure Mess? Gone. The regex engine I was working on? Shelved. (Although I'll try to help Brent out with what I've learned as much as I can.) PBCII? On hold.
As a matter of fact, I decided, for sanity's sake, to limit myself to four(!) pet projects, and that list must include anything I need to do. It will be a rolling list, so as I finish one thing, I'll backfill it with some else. It took a while to come up with a short list I was happy with. Volleyball season is about to start, so that's one. (Even though I'm on two teams, I'll only count the one I'm managing.) The Perl 6 summaries will be number two. I'm going to resume my documentation activities on the language side of the house for number three. (Since I then won't have to worry about keeping pace with the real coding machines.) Bug fixes and other maintenance-type stuff (no enhancements) will be number four.
I've got to remember that The List comes after, and doesn't exclude, normal life. I hate making lists, because I then tend to focus on the list, and not what's on it. I'll remember twenty things, but make me write down five of them, and the other fifteen will get lost in my brain somewhere.
The ironic thing is that I'm exactly the opposite at work. Whether it's the external pressure, or the critical nature of what I do, I don't know.
