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First of all, I've spent this summer in many wonderful ways. Erin went to Florida for a week. When she came back I was able to take care of her after she had oral surgery to correct some gum problems. Then I went to Corpus Christi to play a gig at a place called BlackBeards. As it so happened I was there on Father's Day. This was nice because we spread my dad's ashes from the deck of the Lexington. I spent a few moments in the shadow of the Lexington in honor of him. When I got back from CC, Erin and I went to Pittsburgh to visit my family. This was a great trip. It couldn't have gone better. We spent time with Chris and Amelia and my family. It was unfortunate that we didn't get to spend time with any other friends but it was still a great trip. When we got back life was busy with social occasions like the 4th of July and such. Then we tripped to Colorado. It was beautiful! Erin and John both caught huge Rainbow Trout. We hiked all over the place surrounded by all the beauty nature had to offer. When we got back Erin went to camp and I've been home since. Now for the blog post...

On the way back from Pittsburgh, I began to read Lynchpin by Seth Godin. I have recently been interested in productivity, creativity, synergy and other business buzz words. I follow a number of blogs that all write about these topics.

Zen Habits
Lifehack
43 Folders (not updated since April 2011)
Lifehacker

This stems from a need to get organized and declutter my life. I am always trying to get over getting rid of stuff. I have never been a very organized person. This was part of my downfall in high school and college. So to become a teacher with no organizational skills was a difficult and trying task. Efficiency was/is not my strong suit. On last year did I really start to file things and my online filing cabinet desprately needs to be overhauled and organized.

In addition to these blogs, I listen to a number of podcasts.

This American Life
Radio Lab
Stuff You Missed in History Class

Those are my standards. I used to listen to a podcast called The Marketplace of Ideas. I stopped listening for a while because I felt the people being interviewed either were not talking about something that interested me or because I felt they were talking over my head. I recently looked it up again. I found that Collin Marshall, in his most recent post was interviewing Merlin Mann, writer of 43 Folders. He had done an interview previously with Merlin Mann that I really enjoyed. So I downloaded the episode and they started talking about a new podcast that Merlin Mann was hosting with Dan Benjamin called Back to Work. Inevitably I downloaded that podcast and the basic scoop is that these guys talk about business and how to "get back to work." Merlin willingly concedes in one of the first few podcasts that listening to a podcast about getting back to work is not getting back to work, but I find it worthwhile because it smacks me in the face with the stuff that I'm not doing that I wish I was doing more of and the stuff that I am doing of which I wish I was doing less.

Things I wish I was doing more of:
-Reading (stories, plays, presidential biographies, teaching stuff)
-Writing Curriculum
-Writing (stories, plays, blog posts)
-Creating stuff
-Researching for writing
-Spending time with people I love
-Spending time with people who inspire me
-Meditating

Things I wish I was doing less:
-Facebook
-Mindless TV watching
-General Mindless Web surfing
-Video games

Ironically, Facebook, mindless TV watching, and general Web surfing takes up a largest chunk of my day. This is the most writing I've done in a long time (putting aside the letters I've been writing to Erin since she's been at camp).

I think I shall stop here for a moment. Just know that the Back to work podcast has inspired some thought that I will publish here. Hopefull not in a year.

Cheers!