time management

I've had a nasty cold for about a week now - it seemed like it was getting better on Saturday and Sunday, and I actually got out of the house those days, but yesterday and today it has taken a nasty turn. I'm living on 12-hour sudafed, ibuprofen, and nyquil.

Whenever I'm stuck at home with a cold for long stretches, I always feel justified in being a little lazy. You have to rest, after all, in order to get better. So I end up watching a lot of tv and movies and such. I've probably seen more tv in the last week than in an entire month. I'm just that way - I don't really turn on the tv because it's such a passive activity. Even though I waste hours at a time at the computer (more interactive I guess) I always feel tv is more of a waste. I even forget to watch shows that I like. But as I said, I've been watching this week. The more you watch, the more you want to watch, it seems. I saw Project Runway for the first time last night, and of course, now I want to know how it's all going to turn out. I saw a few episodes of my favorite animated shows - Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad, King of the Hill, and watched some Malcolm in the Middle waiting for those other shows to start. I also caught The Daily Show and The Colbert Report last night. I could easily watch each of these shows every time they're on. I didn't catch any South Park, but I wish I had. On top of all that, I have 183 movies in queue on netflix - even if I watch two of those a week, which is highly unlikely, it would take me nearly two years to get through them all - assuming I don't add more and more movies to the queue, which I add to continually.

Yesterday I got a book in the mail that I had ordered from half.com - 28 Barbary Lane - which contains Armistead Maupin's first three Tales of the City novels. I've already read them, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, but I was recently in San Francisco, and now want to re-read them. But I'm still finishing two books of short stories, and earlier this summer, started Don Quixote, which I think will be rewarding if I can find the discipline to hunker down and read it.

Everything I've mentioned so far are leisure activities. Sure, not all of it is mindless entertainment - some of it is art and will enrich my life and understanding of the world. Even pure entertainment is necessary once in a while, for a little 'down time'. But I then find I'm not practicing enough piano, not getting to the gym as often as I should (alright, I've been sick, so I haven't felt like it), not investigating ways of bettering my carreer or financial situation, not cleaning the apartment. It's so easy to avoid those things that take real mental and/or physical effort because of the overwhelming availability of leisure activities. (If tv can be called an 'activity'...)

So how much of my non-work time do I spend 'working' at these things? Do I need to make a schedule? Only allow certain time slots for internet or tv? It would be an interesting task just to see how much more productive I can be if I plan my time better. I think it might also help me feel like I'm not sitting on my ass, wasting my life!

Now I'm off to work.

some pictures from san fran

I used a little Photoshop magic to make this one blue, but the bridge really was disappearing into the fog like this. I took it out the car window on our way to Sonoma.

This is city hall...

...and this is a view from the Top of the Mark, where I also had a delicious lychee martini.

Madonnarama

A month ago, I got really drunk at this club called Pure, and winded up in this karaoke competition called The One. They picked ten of us that night, put our pictures on the website, and people voted online the next day. The one with the least votes got eliminated. This Friday was round two - Madonnarama - in which the remaining nine of us had to sing Madonna songs (she's in town this week performing on Wednesday). I had prepared three songs, and the one I was asked to sing was "Borderline." They had moved the competition from a small basement lounge, up to the huge main dance floor, and constructed a stage with a runway, on which we were to perform. The crowd was much larger than usual, which was nervewracking, AND I had to go FIRST!

Aaaaanyway, it went ok, and since the judges' comments and scores were irrelevant - again, people voted yesterday - I was passed to the next round, August 5th. We are supposed to sing two songs this time, one upbeat and one slow. The theme is "Legendary Men of the 1970's". I have no clue what to sing yet. I am open to all suggestions!