Yesterday we wrote the our final test. Now just the exams in five weeks are a little horrifying! But what is funny: I am just happy. I am satisfied and am happy. I can not really understand why because I probably should be a little scared or something but I am not!

Over all I would like to get out there that this year seems kinda nice. My projects work out pretty well (OK I could need some help with AIDvertisement but I got it done in time and it works), my plans are going forward and one secret project also runs great.

Over all happy weeks to come, bit stressful but that is OK!

Some days ago I submitted my desk with two photos to SimpleDesks curated by Pat Dryburgh. Now they are life out there: Photo 1 and Photo 2.

If you would like to read more about the desk and its history: I have written two pots about the it.
The old one about the formal setup and the new one with the new tech stuff.

And here are the two photos

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a tinkerer. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve taking apart my toys, figuring out how they worked, and putting them back together.

~ Josh

As far I can tell, I was pretty much like that. But much more of a problem is the second part.

I’ve given up almost everything serious that I’ve attempted to do. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to discover a reason for this so I can try to remedy it. When it really comes down to it, there are only a few very specific things that come naturally to me, and when I encounter something that’s difficult or that I can’t pick up and perfect right away, I get very discouraged and give it up.

~ Josh

That is pretty much also my problem. Often I think about others, and what they do and that they do it all life long. I am not such a person. I start many things, have many ideas and try different things all at once. All that is sometimes very confusing and also that way it is hard to get one great thing done.

Over the past I tried to get more focused and to concentrate on one thing but that did not happen. I am still doing several things all at once. And one thing I hate about it is that it influences my marks at school — which really is bad!

One reason I keep telling me is that I am still pretty young and that it is OK to try different things. Still, I would like to get one thing that really works and that I love.

In the end I come down to minimize the things around me. Stop project I do not think are worth the effort and try to focus on the things I like. Even than that are to many different. So I start to stop things I like the least. And than — not that much later — I just start one new thing.

I hope that gets better over the next weeks as I am going to — again — have some final exams. And that I will be able to concentrate on that. Afterwards I hope that I can find something I really like to work on (but still I will have one more year of school which needs to be done).

I will see how things will turn out!

I never even knew that this existed.

Whereas the widely preferred QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow people down (it was made for early typewriters, whose keys clashed when people typed too fast), the Dvorak layout was designed with speed in mind.

~ Dean Tastic

Ever struggled with Time Zones? There is a solution for that: Every Time Zone.

I just was waiting for something like that, and it looks awesome too!

I had an idea. I often heard that eating absolutely nothing for a couple days would be great. And now I did ti.

I started eating nothing Friday the 26 March with just eating 2 apples and a soup the whole day. The next days were filled with drinking water, juice and tea. The first solid food I ate again was on Monday (29th March) evening around 7 P.M.

Thats a total of 91 hours and just 2 apples and a soup to eat.

What I can tell about the experience is that it is not that hard. I had nearly no problem with the eating nothing. I had no serious hunger. The only problem I encountered was that I thought about things to eat and how great they would taste. In the end I was happy with the meal I eat the next days. One more thing I noticed was that you have some free time if you eat nothing—maybe not that special, you do not need to cook and you do not need to spend time on the table but over the long run, it also is not too health.

Over those days I noticed more than ever that there is a reason that you should eat with some thoughts in mind. And to really sit down, eat well and enjoy what you have to eat.

One article I really recommend reading about how to eat is —from zenhabits—“How to Master the Art of Mindful Eating”.

Our there are many tools that let you organize stuff. Some are for example: DEVONthink, Evernote, Nifty-Box or Yojimbo. Over the past year I probably tested 10 Anything Bucked systems but fell in love with one I already owned from day one.

What is a Anything Bucked?

Anything Bucked is a tool or App which lets you organize stuff. PDF-files, web archives, serial numbers, text, bookmarks and images. Add tags or comments to the different items, filter and search that stuff. All that in one app and if you create a structure it also is fast and logical.

Why you should bucked!

Saving all that information in your head? Probably not possible. So you need a place to save all that stuff. Doing so with a Anything bucked? Probably not!

Why not to use a Anything Bucked

Four out of five of you are nerds. On your computer exists your hobbies, your current and/or future career, and the rest of your daily life. You don’t own a snowboard, but you do have a blog, a Twitter, an RSS reader, and a pirated copy of Photoshop.

You, my friend, need an Anything Bucket.

~ Shawn Blanc
Systems like Yojimbo or one of the other tools mentioned above all have one problem. They cost money (just Nifty Box does not!). But even worth, they just let you save specific files. And who has just PDF’s, text files and bookmarks? I do not. I have Numbers, Pages, Keynotes, Doc files and Excel sheets, PHP/JavaScript or other code and of course I have some zip files. All that is not organizable by that Anything Bucked systems.

Which system to Chose

If you want to store data of differing types within a lightweight organization system, I encourage you to check out the filesystem.

~ Alex Payne

There is one Anything Bucked all of you already own. It is called your OS-File System (Operating System File System). Since I am on a Mac, that is that is HFS+. A file system with everything you need. You can add tags to a file (if you want) you can save comments and you can store the files in folders, create aliases. To search the data just use SpotLight or some other tool. Maybe look at Quicksilver, AlfredAPP or the Google QSB.

That way you can save some money. Use what you already have and will never have problems with upgrading—a problem with a Anything Bucked, what are you going to do if the software firm will stop supporting the app you used?

If you don’t want to be forever accumulating applications, store stuff as plain text on the filesystem. It’s dead reliable, you can shuffle it about however you want, and you’ll be able to search through it quickly, even without an index.

~ Alex Payne

Still

Some aspects of a Anything Bucked are positive. I do not use a fully featured Anything Bucked, but I use some things that help me structure some data. One for example is Notational Velocity together with SimpleNote and SimpleNote for iPhone. Those are the tools I use to save my todo-lists and some ideas I get while on my iPhone. Since it is over the air sync and The Hit List for now lacks an iPhone app!

Conclusion

In the end everybody needs to work out a own system. Mine is the file system + a few extra tools to get some special, related things organized.

To find that system, I encourage you to read these two pots. One is pro Anything Bucked the other is con:

• The Case Against Everything Buckets ~ Alex Payne
• Yojimbo, and The Case for Anything Buckets ~ Shawn Blanc

Many, many of the apps are far better, more useable and more natural than either their desktop or iPhone counterparts. While that is certainly true of many of the built in ones, it is not exclusive to them. Twitterific for iPad is far better than any other version. The Kindle app is even better than the Kindle itself, let alone on the iPhone or Desktop. Instapaper is an absolute dream. The list could go on. I really believe this is also related to the speed and fluidity of the iPad and how these apps simply behave in ways that are natural and intuitive.

~Minimal Mac

Patrick Rhone is by far not the only one who experienced this. But first about me and the iPad: I am not going to get one (at least not for now). The reasons are:

• It is simply to expensive to be a 3rd gadget to do the stuff my Mac / iPhones does
• I have a MacBook
• I have an iPhone
• The iPad is not available here in Germany yet (even if I would like to get one I could not)!
• It has no camera

But all that should not be the topic. What I read over the iPad most was that the device goes away and the apps are gorgeously designed and usable and as far I can tell that is the case — just loo at some sample videos or screenshots. And there the problem goes!

Why is it possible that developers can develop that good looking apps for a device like the iPad? Why is nobody out there to just do the same for the Mac? Is it because Mac OS X feels differently? Or is it cause it is not the ‘right’ computer?

I think developers who develop stunning apps for the iPad (and also have a Mac / iPhone version) should seriously set their asses down and, now after they released those bad ass apps for the iPad, switch the focus to the Mac and iPhone version! Those really are in need for some time to be spend on them! It has to be possible to make those apps as beautiful as the once on the iPad. Even if that means cutting down on functionality (you do this on the iPad all the time why not at the Mac)!

Here is my point. The reason the iPad is awesome is that there are developers out there who make it badass. Now is the time to give those who are not going to get an iPad some bites of what you are capable of regarding UI design!

I have one problem! I am not that great in managing my time. Well I do many things to manage time and I also do things to get more time, but all that has never touched the root of the problem.

My Main Problem: Movies

I think movies are my main problem cause I really spend way to many hours watching movies. Sometimes I watch one at least one movie per day — OK, that was a one time project — but still I most of the time feel the need to watch one movie in the evening. Now I changed that. I use these two hours of time either to go to bed earlier to be more alert in the morning or I use the time to finish the day up, to do homework or to get some project work done, sometimes I also study in that time for up coming tests.

All that was not done before I started to really get rid of these addiction. Still I am watching movies (about one per work week and at weekends two) but much less than two month ago.

The Second Thing I do not Like

I read not enough books in the past. I just wrote that that changed in my LSC series. I started to read more in September 2009 and since then I do pretty good in reading much more than before. I even started a book with 1300 pages — never even started such a huge tome!

I hope I keep this things up — more reading, less movie watching — and will get more done by doing so!