Level Up! Time Management RPG

NaNo is over. The chaos of Christmas and New Years is behind us. And the grace period of January has been expended. It’s time to pick up my novel again, and get some work done.

Truth be told, I enjoy working on my novel. But again and again, I find it bewilderingly difficult to actually get my novel out and do something. Imagine I’m sitting in my favourite café, a pot of delightful tea in front of my, headphones firmly planted in my ears, the pages I’m editing on the table. So what am I doing? Probably checking twitter on my iPhone. Or wondering if I feel like a piece of cake (poke poke, no, not really, I think I feel kinda meaty). Or trying to decide which tea I’ll try next.

But once I actually pick up my pen and start work, I’ll be at it for hours. I’ll even be disappointed if I run out of work to do.

So why can’t I get started?

Yesterday I decided to try something new. I found this blog: Time Management RPG through a forum sig – someone else who, like me, like the blog writer, needed a bit of an extra push to get started.

The system is simple: complete challenges to gain progress points. Gain enough progress points to level up.

And clearly, I need the help. Over the weekend I procrastinated myself into deciding that I would start on Monday (granted, I was otherwise occupied on the weekend, and when the muse says jump, you say “how high”, and my muse wanted me to draw, so draw I did); but I almost failed on the very first day.

Granted, one of the benefits to the Time Management RPG is that you can’t fail. In the early stages you can fail to progress, but you can’t actually screw up.

I was pretty tired last night, so when I got home I decided to take a nap. At about 9pm when I woke up, I was trying to decide if I should get up and do stuff, or just sleep through till morning. And sleeping seemed like a pretty tempting option. Almost everything I was planning on doing: showering, cleaning, eating; could wait until morning. But I hadn’t done my 5 minutes to level up.

As embarrassing as that would have been, failing to find 5 whole minutes on the first day, it is even more embarrassing to admit that the reason I got up and cleaned, showered, ate, and worked on my novel is not because of the Time Management RPG, but because I needed to harvest my yellow roses on Farmville, and that wouldn’t keep till morning.

The shame.

Had I written this post yesterday (ha! procrastinate much?), it would have been far less interesting, but I also would have been able to tell you that I’d decided to make one small change to the rules, and it would have looked like I was being too hard on myself. In light of what happened last night, perhaps I’m not being hard enough.

HOUSE RULES

1. I can only level once per day, no matter how many progress points I earn.

2. Progress points do not roll over. If I level up, excess progress points are lost.

3. I can lose levels under 16.

a. On any day that I fail to do any work at all on my novel, I automatically lose a progress point. For levels under 12, this means losing a level.
b. On any day that I don’t meet the requirements to gain a progress point, I will not lose a progress point if I have completed the equivilent of a progress point for one level lower than my current level.

So, after fucking around on Facebook for a while, I managed to find 5 whole minutes, and I leveled up! I’m currently level two, which means two 5-minute sessions within a half-hour period today.

Follow my progress on Twitter.

Edge of Darkness

The first thing I will say for Edge of Darkness is this film does not make you wait. Some movies take a bit of time to get going, this is not one of those films. Here is a man, here is his daughter, here is a secret, here is death, let’s go!

A gripping and emotional thriller of a man willing to do anything because he has nothing left to lose, Edge of Darkness is a shocking, intriguing, emotional ride.

Caution! This review contains very minor spoilers. I’m not going to say spoiler free, cause your definition of spoiler might be different from mine, but it’s pretty much spoiler free.

Right from the start, I knew I was going to like this film. There was no overly-long exposition to introduce the characters, yet they were well-rounded and three-dimensional enough that you easily understood what you were witnessing. The opening sequence is crammed with information, so you can understand the relationship you’re seeing and jump straight into the action.

Deductive Enjoyment: Sherlock Holmes

Not being too familiar with Sherlock Holmes (I did own a Holmes novella in my youth – the Five Orange Pips, don’t remember what it was about though), I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this movie. But the previews promised me a shirtless Robert Downey Jr, action, and snappy one-liners; so I tried to go into this one with an open mind and not expect too much.

This review contains minor spoilers; nothing hugely plot-relevant, but some things are given away. Please proceed with caution.

Tap Tap Revenge

There’s a first time for everything, and maybe now is time for my first game review. I try to shy away from writing actual reviews on things that aren’t movies. Any bumpkin can have an opinion on a movie, bumpkins like me! Music and games, however, that’s a lot harder. You kinda need to have some idea what you’re talking about.

I recently became the proud owner of my very own iPhone. I’m not completely in love with it (there are some bugs and kinks that need to be worked out), but it’s very shiny and finally combines the only two possessions I take everywhere with me without exception: my iPod and my mobile (I kid you know, I take my iPod more places than I take my wallet, I have a money clip for essentials like cash and ID). In fact, it lets me take my iPod more places than ever before (there are certain social situations in which carrying an iPod might be construed as ‘rude’). If the damn thing had a built-in flash, I might have even been convinced that I don’t need my camera for gigs (jury’s still out on the quality of the iPhone’s camera, though the ability to shoot and upload is a plus).

Dope/SOiL/MM9 – December 18, Club 299

Step aside Johnny Galvatron, and please return the tiara at your earliest convenience, for I have discovered the sexiest man in rock. Who is this unparalleled paragon of awesome? you might ask. He is Tim King, the bassist of Chicago-based band SOiL.

A bassist? You cry in disbelief. Did someone slip something into your drink? Are you sure about this? Well, I am sure. Sure as something that holds its value even through economic crisis (turns out that wasn’t houses after all).

Behold!

Five of these images were shamelessly stolen from the net.

Not only does Tim King have the most amazing hair I’ve ever had the joy of witnessing on any guy; not only is he an incredible show man; and not only did he hand out promotional plectrums for the adoring masses; but: when the bassist from Dope somehow went missing en route to their Australian tour, Tim King stepped up to the plate and learnt to play Dope’s entire set in just four days so that the tour could go on. Generosity and skill aside, that means he’s playing a 45 minute set with SOiL only to turn around, change his shirt, and rock it for another hour with Dope. Sir, I salute you.

Did I mention that he has the most gorgeous hands? No? Well he does.  I think that needs to be said.