AMA POME

My hilarious wife sent me this:

AMA POME

Michael spends the day
Answering questions.
"Ask Me Anything!", he says, and they do.
So many curious strangers.
My Monkey, in a Private Zoo.

Is it strange for him?  I wonder.

I have queries of my own.  
So many things I would LOVE to ask 
him.
But the one question that keeps coming to mind is -
"Do you know where my keys are?" 

He probably DOES, too. 

If you’re going to get mocked, I find it’s best in verse.

Loots!

Yesterday my wife went out into the wilderness and came back with this:

Best. Wife. Ever.

It’s no secret that I loves me some comics.  Back in the day, when I worked closer to civilization, I was frequently able to trade all my useless money for valuable comics at Keith’s.  It feels good to do that again after all this time.

Speaking of Keith:

In this photo, Keith can be seen in his natural habitat, in the pose I call, “Trust me.  You should totally buy this.”

You wouldn’t believe how many times this worked on me.

TL;DR: Sweet, comics!

Now That’s Art

My new favorite thing on the internet:

You can actually get this amazing piece of art from ArtAkimbo’s Etsy store.  It’s not cheap, but worth every penny.  Apparently they take eight (8!) weeks each to make, which shouldn’t surprise me, considering the level of detail in them.

Lucky I know this exists now, because if there’s one thing my wife is tired of hearing every day, it’s, “Don’t you think the office could use more tentacles?”

Next!

Now that people are finishing Bad Radio, they’ve quite naturally been asking politely when the next one is coming out.

To those people, I’d like to say…SOON(tm).  See, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the second book in the series is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2012 (which actually isn’t too bad, considering that most series release on an annual schedule).

The good news is that I have another book, Walker, coming out on October 15th.  It isn’t part of this series (I know, boo! Hiss!), but is totally awesome anyway.

But then, I would say that, wouldn’t I…

The Last Adopter

I am not an early adopter.

I got my first DVD player so late that when I finally announced to my friends that I had one, I received a round of sarcastic golf-claps.  My first iPod was actually an iPhone.  And all my books are paper.

But today, I got on the trolley only slightly behind everyone else.  Behold, a Kindle!

“But Mike,” I imagine you saying. “Why change your cheap, miserly ways now?  Don’t you usually wait until they’re giving whatever it is away in cereal boxes?”

Because I’m a picky bastard, that’s why.  I got my book back from being formatted (by the amazing crew at 52novels.com), and it turns out that ebook formatting can display a little differently on software readers than on an actual ebook.

So, the official story is that I wanted to make sure everything looked right for both software and hardware e-readers.

Unofficially…WHEEEE! A Kindle!

Dignity…fading…

I was sitting at my desk working when my wife sent this picture to my phone.

Apparently, somewhere in the back of the house, there is a Dignity Removal Chamber where both of my dogs are trapped.

I’d go rescue them, but I’m pretty sure I know who will end up being forced to wear the pink sparkle hat if I do.

Godspeed, dogs.  And good luck.

R Withheld

You like professional ghost stories, right?  And robopsychiatrists?

Then you’ll love:

Dresden Codak

Don’t thank me, I’m just repeating what I heard around the schoolyard.

Dude, You Suck at Multitasking

I have a confession to make.  I’m an interrupt junkie.  Sure, I’ve read what Tim Ferriss has to say, and what Leo Babauta has to say, and what pretty much everyone else has to say, but it’s always been one of those ‘other people’ kind of topics for me.  You know, like, you should totally eat more leafy greens, and excercise more, and hey, would it kill you to call your Mom today?  That stuff.

I’ve read it, and not cared with the best of them.  Until now.  I recently realized, no doubt because I was actually trying to get something done instead of procrastinating as usual, that interruptions are pretty fucking annoying.  And since I frequently have the attention span of a field mouse (oh, shiny!), then every time I get an email notification or IM or phone call or whatever it is this ten seconds, my concentration jumps to the new, random topic.  Which, of course, derails my current train of thought.  Getting back on track is harder and more irritating than working through the current task at hand, due to the Law of Work Inertia, which states that it is easier to stay on task or procrastinate forever than to actually get any work done.

So, with that said, here’s the new plan:

No more email notifications. You know what?  If it’s that important, they can call me.  Nobody in their right mind sends a note in a bottle to tell someone they’ve caught on fire.  Email is not real-time, get used to it.  My mail client will pull mail no more than once an hour.  If that.

IM is off, not on busy when I’m doing something. I don’t know about you, but the busy status in IM is more like a red cape where I work than anything else, like my coworkers take it as a personal affront.  People will actually IM me to ask, “Are you really busy?”  Thanks, jackhole.

Phone is on silent when I’m on task. This one is a bitch.  I actually have to turn my phone over, because I can see it light up in the corner of my eye, and then, of course, I have to see who it is.  Then either answer it, or listen to the voicemail right then.  Which means at that point, I have completely forgotten where I was ten seconds ago.  I’m weak, sue me.  I do turn the phone back on whenever I’m not in the middle of something.  I like to say it’s so I can be available and a team player and all that jazz, but really, I just like it.

I started this about a week ago, and so far it’s been a lot easier to get things done, and suprisingly (to me, at least), a lot less stressful.  The first day or so I always had that nagging feeling that I was missing some important something-or-other, but I got over it, and my whole level of OMG EMERGENCY ALERTNESS faded out into something a lot more pleasant.

I recommend it.