Don’t know how much longer I can keep up this pace. It seems like my obligations keep mounting, but I am trying to keep up and stay balanced.
Monday I discovered the chords for Ripple are also just G C D Am (a subset of the chords used in Uncle John’s Band). I sorted out the election results for the Alameda County Steering Committee for the local still-unnamed DFA chapter. Had to sort out some discrepancies with our election monitors, discovered a ballot that hadn’t been cc’d properly. (By Tuesday all the votes added up the same. I still have to announce the results today.)
Monday I also nailed down a time for coffee with Craig Newmark for my book, tried to reschedule lunch with Scot Hacker, reviewed a draft of my book’s title profile for my publisher, reorganized my sub to-do list of hard-to-land interviewees, did my laundry, and drove to Berkeley to make sure that the hotel for the Waterside conference is equipped to offer Boingo.net wireless service for our attendees.
I also ran through the Berkeley Bowl to get more steel-cut oats since I had spilled the last of our most recent batch all over the kitchen floor over the weekend.
Tuesday I had an 8 am sales meeting with my publisher’s sales staff (on conference call) all over the world, to discuss this book and the extraordinary efforts everyone is making to promote and sell it. The meeting was very exciting and inspiring. These sales folks have accounted for nearly half my income over the last 12 years. I owe them a lot.
Since I was in Alameda for the meeting, I went to pick up my restrung and action-lowered acoustic guitar (a Martin knock-off called, I kid you not, a “Carlos”) from The Thin Man String Co. I also got around to putting my notes from the book marketing meeting a week ago into VoodooPad format in anticipation of setting up a private wiki (whiteboard) for brainstorming.
Wednesday I ran late for my coffee with Craig, violating my new cardinal rule, “Thou shalt not waste anyone’s time.” I felt bad and was a little more motormouth-y than I often am (a real contrast to Craig’s quiet, considered speaking style), but Craig kept me on track, asking me as my interviewees often have to do, “What is the question?” As a whole, the interview went well and Craig expressed willingness to answer followup questions via email or phone as needed, so that’s cool.
I was unable to have lunch with my agent as planned, so we are now trying to reschedule for two weeks from now. I did sit in the sun in Cole Valley quietly strumming my uke outside the coffee shop for a while. That was fun.
At 4 pm I had a phone conference call for the NorCal-DFA (or whatever we’re going to be called) group, to discuss structure and governance. We had a lawyer on the call who very helpfully explained the rules surrounding PACs, 527s, and 501c(4) entities.
Then at 7 I dragged B to a meeting for PFA and CitizensVote. It was her first time meeting most of the old Dean grassroots campaigner and perhaps a strange introduction to the political work I’ve been doing since August, but it did get her thinking that maybe we should host an environmental-issue themed Party for America at our house this summer.

I’m still not logging my things done each day but I’m starting to get to it in less than a week, so that’s something.
Thursday I started an email interview with Levi, found the tab for Syd Barrett’s “Evervescing Elephant” on the web and transposed it for my ukulele, put out the garbage and the yard waste, and went to a meeting in the evening ostensibly to plan the PFA website but ultimately to work on voter-registration drive pyramid scheme.
Friday I managed to speak to Joan Blades of Move On for my book, went grocery shopping, and threw together a rapid first-draft wireframe for the Pyramid project using VoodooPad. I also got the tab for Uncle John’s Band, learned that most of the chords are doable easily on the uke, and serenaded my friend Nick with a tortured rendition played into his voicemail.
Saturday I went to another Pyramid meeting (developing software for political purposes goes much faster than for business purposes!) around 10:30 am in Berkeley and spend about four or more hours there, with lunch provided by our lovely hostess, Simona (a frittata, some risotto, and some strawberry-yogurt parfait). We hashed out a second draft of the process flow and I’m currently stil updating wireframe 2. On the way home I exchanged some unmentionables for B at Victoria’s Seekrit.
Yesterday (Sunday), on a whim, we drove into the city before midday to take in the Art Deco show at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. It was beautiful crisp day and hte Marin headlands were starkly visible across the golden gate. You could also see Mount Diablo quite clearly off in the other direction. The show was great too. IT was the perfect weekend afternoon. B bought a book on tiaras in the museum bookstore. I had a turkey and bacon sandwich in the cafeteria and B ate some of my pickle.
When we got home I practiced my uke for a few hours and then went out to write with Cecil Vortex and the Monkeyman, who are working on their new Monkey Vortex Radio Theatre concept, which I offered to host at x-pollen at least until they get famous and break my server.

1. Did first scan of peer-review comments on Ch 3
2. 8:30 Talked to my editor to synch up on priorities
3. 8:50 Phoned Fox media rep, left message
4. 9:15 Called Nicholas to plan for Dead conference
5. Called Arthur to discuss digital studio plans, and to get his mobile number recorded
6. Left JAC a message to find out if her dog is OK (she called back later, he is doing fine – what a constitution that dog has!)
7. Took message from Jodi (best. landlord. ever.) about the tree guy coming by this afternoon – gave her B’s phone info
8. Sent followup inquiry to MoveOn founder for interview
9. 1:15 Marketing brainstorming meeting with my publisher
10. 3:30 Jodie and tree guy come by – we put B on the phone and they walk around trading the headset and discussing the trees overhanging the roof that need trimming
11. 4:30-6:00 huge email backlog catchup
12. 7pm Democratic Unity MeetUp – ad hoc DFA / East Bay for Kerry summit meeting, rapprochement, beginning of plans to coordinate together
13. 8:45 Jupiter for pizza and beer.
14. 9:40 Greendale II

Now that’s what I calll lifelogging!

If you thought I was busy before, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Actually, I heard a good new impromptu expression form Outlandish Josh the other day that I’m sure I’ll find myself repeating. I asked him if he was busy and he said yes, he was busy, but “flexible busy.”
A week ago Monday I handed in the introduction, frontmatter, and final chapter of my book (in crappy first-draft form). Representing a triumph over deadlines and earning a bonus.
Tuesday my flu was pretty much gone. It’s kind of weird that I got sick on the day of the Cal primary and got better the day after my deadline from hell. Also the sun came out in a big way and a lot of other things happened at once so I got so bubbly that my close friends started looking at me strangely.
I had a phone interview for a possible job that ran about an hour and a half and which I enjoyed immensely (I hope she did too). I got my haircut. I shaved my winter beard.
Wednesday I did some laundry, called the flacks of a bunch of famous people I’m trying to interview for my book and in a job-seeking mood, sent out about 10 copies of my newly updated resume.
Thursday I went grocery shop first-thing in the morning. For once there were beautiful unpicked-over chanterelles available. That evening I went to Howard Dean’s announcement of DFA version 2.0, but it was so crowded and insane in the hotel ballroom that I retreated to the hallway to snap photos and try to blog what I was seeing. I also realized that rallying is fun but what I was really looking forward to was the upcoming Northern California grassroots DFA summit, a working meeting.
Craig Newmark happened by and invited me to tag along with him as he addressed the SF Democratic Club, with folded perfectly into my need to talk with him about the 311 project through which San Francisco is trying to improve its “customer service” for my book.
I also got the OK that day to decloak the blog for my book.
Friday I saw my therapist, finally paid my bills (nothing scary was lurkingin there), and booked my plan flight to San Antonio for early next month (for the Dead caucus at the American Popular Culture Association conference where I will be presenting a paper on James Booker and Jerry Garcia, plus seeing my buddy Nicholas, and possibly syrup as well, and maybe now jonl, fresh from SXSW, may show up too. I gather that San Antone is only 73 miles or so from Austin.
Saturday I went up to Montclair in the morning and bought some chives and some grassfed beef to grill later (well, not the chives – they were for the baked potatoes). Then I went home a slept for a while. B finally got most of an afternoon off, and later Rich and Martha came by for dinner. B sauteed the chanterelles and also cooked some cauliflower with grated cheese that was ncredibly delicious. The grilled steaks came out great, especially with the mushrooms on top, and the potatoes were good as well, although for some weird reason I only baked three and when B tried to give me her over the centerpiece, I got kind of embarassed and barked at her, leaving her with the hot potato in her hand.
Sunday B went down to Palo Alto to celebrate her mom’s birthday. I wanted to go but couldn’t because I had this NorCal DFA summit from about 10 am when I picked some folks up at BART till well after 4 pm. If you’ve never been in a room with 50 battletested organizers (these are the doers, not the talkers) who have a broad consensus on what they want to do next and what they’re long term goals are, let me tell you: It’s very exciting. One of my mentors, whose first campaign was Youth for Wallace (Henry, not George!) reminisced with another longstanding activist that the only similar moment they could compare it too was the Roosevelt campaign. So much more to talk about but this isn’t the place for it.
Monday
I left a message with a city council chief of staff I met during the campaign and stlll would like to take out to lunch some time to learn more about how local politics work, and I don’t remember what else I got done that day, and it was just yesterday. I know I sent and received a lot of email and kept working on Chapter 4 but did not finish it.
Oh, one thing was that something clicked for me and I suddently realized that VoodooPad is the best thing for a writer) sinced sliced breaf. Maybe this is what TinderBox does (or less), but when I finally realized that I could just jot notes anywhere anad link them all up with all the bogus instantly static pseudo structure of all my previous organizational and productivity apps, well it was like a veil was lifted. Joe Bob says check it out.
(Then I blogged about my newfound enthusiasm and earned a friendly reprimand from the editor eagerly waiting for me to finish my chapter revision.)
Tuesday morning I finally finished Chapter 4 and sent it in, spoke to my editor to discuss priorities, revised Chapter 6 and sent that in and initiated or sent follow-up communications with all the people I still need to talk to about either of those two chapters.
Now I’m off to get my guitar restrung and get some new tires put on Eve.
In the still-not-done category, there’s get new tires for Bandx, nail down travel dates for the Dem convention in Boston, rent a car in San Antonio, try to get press credentials for the convention, and continue figuring out whether it’s worth $90 to replace the lost sunglass clipons from my spare pair of glasses.

Monday I invited some potential speakers for the upcoming Waterside conference this April, had lunch with Phil Wolff and interviewed him for my book, and then deal with a flat tire on Eve. I wasn’t carrying my insurance company’s roadside help card, so I called B (on Phil’s cell phone) and asked her to call AAA and meet me there on Lake Park. The guy from Ken Betts’ tow service asked me why I’m still wearing my Dean button. “That guy lost when he lost on TV, man,” he tells me.
On Tuesday I reviewed the general notes memo from my developmental editor about how to structure the chapters in my book. I also finally trimmed and posted my photos from the blogger / new media dinner in San Francisco a week before, including as many observations as I could recall. I also worked on Chapter 7
Wednesday I worked all day finishing the first draft of Chapter 7, uploading it via FTP before going to be around midnight.
Thursday morning I woke up early to make sure that the file had uploaded, then went back to sleep. Around 10:30 or 11 am I saw email from my editor saying that the file I had uploaded contained only a bunch of notes and quotations. I had uploaded the wrong working copy of the file. I uploaded the correct file and then went back to sleep. I spent the rest of the day dozing on the couch and later in bed, waking up every 15 or 20 minutes when the phone rang (it was usually Jerry Brown telling me to vote for Henry Chang or Barbara Lee telling me to vote for Measure A, and so on). Bottom line: I was burnt out and needed a day off. It was great.
Friday I put on my agent hat and made a bunch of calls to publishers, authors, and my agency’s mothership, to sort out some backlog of billings for one of my writers and to tdiscuss the production process for the second edition of the Phish Companion being published by Backbeat Books. I also finally remembered to tell the Mockingbird Foundation (the nonprofit that “writes” the Phish book collectively) about a show on the Princeton campus in 1985 in which Trey Anastasio and – I think – Jon (?) Fishman regaled a quad full of partying preppies with literally several hours of Grateful Dead songs, played and sung in two-part harmony arrangements with custom-made miniature guitars. I doubt anyone taped it and I’m sure memories are hazy but this seems like a key missing link between the east coast Dead Heads I grew up with and the whole Phish trip, so we’re going to try to get the anecdote into the book in some form.
At the end of the day I called in for part of an activist-techie conference call, but had to ring off (and later read the transcript) so I could drive across town to Picante in Berkeley to pick up tamales and enchiladas and agua fresca for our dinner. For the last two weeks B has been working nearly around the clock, attending evening and weekend meetings, sometimes staying up till 1 or later preparing comments and reports, and generally wrestling with deadlines every bit as grueling as my own, so I wanted to make sure dinner was a no brainer that night.
Saturday I did the grocery shopping that I usually try to do during the week. The Bowl is insane on Saturdays, so it took a while. I helped out with the vacuuming later that afternoon, and then remembered that we were out of coffee. B made a wonderful bouillebaise (how the hell do you spell that?) with snapper, mussels, and clams, but my stomach was a little upset, so I had a small bowl of it before going off tobed early.
Sunday I finally got around to cleaning the bathroom, reviewing the developmental editorial comments on Chapter 3, and revising and returning a pitch letter that my publisher’s genius intern drafted to query some of the more famous-y people I’m still trying to nail down interviews with for my book. Then I watched most of the academy awards and finally met Dan and Bill at the L’amyx tea bar on Piedmont Avenue for our weekly writing session.
Here are some of the things I meant to do during the week and never got around to: pay bills, interview Craig Newmark, resubmit Chapter 3, review Chapter 4 comments, catch up on organizing interviews, solicit someone to write the book’s foreword, set up three Princeton alumni interviews, follow up with Elsevier for an embedded systems book proposal, interview other contributors, resubmit Chapter 4.

X-POLLEN design maintenance
DONE add comments links – 10
DONE add rss modules
DONE fix CSS problems

THE BANNER THAT WASN’T WORKING:

+-+----+
|B|    |
+-+blog|
|s|body|
|i|    |
|d|    |
|e|    |
+-+    |
|    |
|    |
+----+

Here was the offending CSS code (though I should probably include the sidebar code it clashed with):

#banner {
font-family:palatino,  georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;
color:#333;
font-size:x-large;
font-weight:normal;
padding:15px;
border-left:4px double #666;
position:absolute;
margin-top:0px;
margin-left:0px;
width:212px;
}