The strangely solid kerplunk I noticed when I emptied my trash into the garbage chute may have been the sound of a full index card case containing hundreds of index cards with notes from the Power Within event and from a brainstorming session on goals. Maybe. Possibly.

Argh.

That's okay. Good reason to write down my goals again. I know, I'll make that my reward activity for the day. Once I get through all the rest of the stuff...

Random Emacs symbol: decompose-string - Function: Return STRING where `composition' property is removed.

Would anyone happen to know of something that makes it easy to graph dependencies, preferably interactively? I'd like it to be ridiculously easy to split an entity into two entities A and B, while preserving the inbound connections for A and the outbound connections for B. This is for a crazy goal management thing I'd like to have... =)

If it's open source and keyboard-friendly, that would totally rock. If not, well, I'll sit down one of these vacations and hack something up. Maybe Christmas. (Only two months away! eek!)

Random Emacs symbol: message-unix-mail-delimiter - Variable: Regexp matching the delimiter of messages in UNIX mail format.

Listening to the Entrepreneurship 101, I find myself struck by the silence of the rooms sometimes. Perhaps it's Toastmasters training, but I feel strange when transitions between speakers aren't accompanied by applause. I've been up there before. The stress of speaking in public does *not* stop when you step off the stage. No, it gets worse. You start wondering whether you said the right thing. You're sure you rambled on and that no one learned anything useful. You retreat to your seat and agonize.

Gwah.

I should try applauding every transition, even if that means being the first to clap...

Random Emacs symbol: ad-update-regexp - Command: Update functions with an advice name containing a REGEXP match.

If I disappear from the surface of the earth or blog sporadically, it is because not only do I have a number of academic deadlines (important!), but I also have:

Taking the Terror out of Talk
Oct 10, 6:00 - 8:00 at Metro Hall
(A Toastmasters educational module on dealing with anxiety when speaking in public)

CASCON 2006
Oct 16 - 19, a free IT conference at which I am:

• on a panel about Enterprise 2.0
• presenting my research at the technology showcase
• giving a lightning talk
• organizing and running a "Hack Night"

DemoCamp: Livin' la Vida Emacs
Oct 26

AND the IBM Center for Advanced Studies is reviewing its proposals this month or so, too...

So we're looking at one major thing each week, although the truth is, all of them are droppable if I accept the consequences.

I can do this. =)

Random Emacs symbol: group - Widget: A widget which groups other widgets inside.

I come from a technical background, and the almost-sociological analyses we need to do for this KMD2004 course on Knowledge Media, Culture and Society actually scares me. That's probably why I participate the most in class - I want to test my ideas, even if that means admitting I don't understand something or taking a wild guess at something else.

I'm happy with the critique I submitted today, though. Instead of the usual bullet points, I spent some time last night and this morning picking out the main point and summarizing other points in the article. You can find a draft of my critique at http://sachachua.com/notebook/school/lea.muse.html . I like it more than the terse, almost telegraphic summaries my classmates prepared, following the text closely. It's less of a summary than a discussion, and I didn't repeat all the points during the main discussion - I just picked out a few to talk about. I'm happy with it, although I may have nervously rambled. I guess it's a good sign that as I explained things, I learned more, and I realized some of the answers to my questions! <laugh>

I can't take credit for another good thing that happened today, but still. =) During the break, the person beside me turned to me and asked if my frequent blogging examples meant that I blogged. I said, "Sure!", introduced myself, and handed him a business card with my blog URL. I asked him if he blogged too, and he said that he hadn't updated his in a while. I asked how I could get in touch with him anyway. Upon reading his e-mail address, I mentioned the roleplaying I'd done in high school, and that turned into a good conversation. (And he said he was shy! He started the conversation... <smile>)

I turned up at the MaRS Entrepreneurship 101 series and met a few people whom I want to introduce to others, so that was good. Heading over to No Regrets to catch Merlin Mann of 43Folders also netted me a few people I should follow up with.

I wish I could've worked more on the IBM stuff, but that just means I'll need to plan my morning carefully. And get up early, for once!

It was a good day, and tomorrow will be even better.

(I keep messing up the attribution of this quote! Socrates, not Aristotle, not Aquinas. Socrates. Must remember; I cite it so often!)