Catalyst Castle

A week ago I posted about a project I am undertaking to log how I spend my hours throughout the week and make adjustments to be sure I'm leading a balanced life. The project continues. This past week I logged my time again, and here are some of the highlights of my results.

Here are the rankings for top activities:

1. Sleeping
2. RPG Preparation
3. Work
4. Movies/Shows
5. All Theocratic Activities Combined

Sleeping was still my biggest activity. No surprise there. I didn't work as much last week as the week before, so work slipped down to third place. What's most appalling is that my theocratic activities combined slipped down to fifth place, which is unacceptable.

Time spent on RPG prep shot up from 6 hours to 14 hours. A big reason for this is that I started a new RPG campaign with Gareth. Preparing for a new campaign always takes extra time. In future, however, I would like to spend no more time preparing for RPGs than I do playing them. We'll see how that goes.

Time spent on Movies/Shows rose from 8 hours to 12. I don't see that it's getting out of hand yet, but I do need to keep an eye on it, especially since it beat out theocratic activities.

Reading, on the other hand, dropped from 12 hours to 3. I didn't intentionally cut back on reading, I just fell behind.

Those, of course, are just highlight. I also spent quite a few hours on miscellaneous stuff. I still had 43.5 hours unaccounted for, which is only slightly less than last week. That tells me I could still manage my time better to be more productive.

I think my final observations for last weeks log are these: I need to increase my theocratic activities by spending more time on personal study, field service, and meeting preparation. I also need to be more efficient in my RPG prep, so that I spend less time preparing for games.

Last night I watched The Big Bang Theory and Heroes (Spoilers Ahead!).

The Big Bang Theory was pretty funny. Leonard tries dating Leslie again, but they finally break up over a difference of scientific theory. Leslie is a hilarious guest star with almost Sheldon-level nerdiness. Her "Call me." line was perfect.

Heroes delivered even more surprises, just as I expected. I was waiting to see how they would explain Niki's escape from the exploding building at the end of season 2. Surprise! She didn't. Makes me wonder if we'll see more "Nikis" as the season progresses, and how many. It also raises a question of why one family got two (Niki and Jessica)?

So, Peter got out of the body of Jesse. I wondered how long that might last. Sylar is working for the company now. 3 of the 12 bad guys have been brought back in, and 1 of them has been killed. I didn't expect that to happen so quickly. Who is Daphne working for? Will she become a love interest for Hiro? The questions continue to mount.

For a while now I've been writing a Star Wars fan novel called Star Wars: Aspirations. Recently, I've been thinking about my reasons for writing this story. I've decided that their are a few.

First, they say that you should write what you know. I definitely know Star Wars inside and out. I love the Star Wars universe as well. It is an exciting place full of action and adventure, where good battles evil on an epic scale. The Star Wars stories have always entertained me, and I hope my story will provide some entertainment for others.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I think I'm writing this story because I need to write it. If you've read any of my novel thus far, you probably realize that it deals with some pretty heavy themes and subject matter. The most obvious of these is how society devalues human (or alien) life through slavery and violence, and how it makes women into sexual objects. It explores the effects that being a victim of such a society could have on a young woman. Such themes and subject matter is made relevant by the fact that, underneath the the sci-fi tropes, the Star Wars universe is much like our own, riddled with corruption and evil. In spite of these dark themes, Aspirations will also address what I believe to be a universal truth - that people are ultimately redeemable.

Now, I'll admit that these themes are pretty heavy, and maybe not appropriate for "entertainment". I, myself, certainly do not find them entertaining. I do, however, feel that I need to write about these things in order to get them off my chest, so to speak. Incorporating them into a story based in my favorite fictional universe makes it a little bit easier for me to write about them. Here is where storytelling becomes a form of self-expression.

I've started a new project to examine how I spend my time and hopefully evaluate how I can use it more productively. I'm also trying to become more balanced in how much time I spend on various activities. I started this project last Monday and tracked my activities through Sunday. Here's some interesting numbers from my log:

I spent 56 hours sleeping. That's an average of 8 hours a day. It's nice to know that I seem to be getting a healthy amount of sleep while not oversleeping.

My second biggest activity beyond sleeping was working. I only spent 16 hours working, so I was kind of surprised that it ranked second. Apparently my activities are pretty diverse. My work hours should ramp up during October, and then stay pretty high through November and December. After the first of the year I'm going to get a full time job.

My third biggest activity was reading. There is no surprise here. This was mostly informational reading. I spend quite a bit of time online, reading up on game design and the like.

Another big one was movies and shows. I was worried about this. I think I may spend too much time on entertainment, but at only 8 hours throughout the week it might not be too bad.

I spent 6 hours on RPG prep, and 3 hours on RPG play. Actually, I didn't have any prep to do for the RPG I played. I was preparing for an RPG I'd like to run in the future.

The most discouraging thing is that I only spent 12 hours on meeting prep, meeting attendance, and field service combined. My goal is to make my time spent on theocratic activities at least third under sleep and work.

Probably the worst thing is that I had 45 hours unaccounted for on my log. That means I spent those hours peddling around doing relatively nothing. It's funny how we never seem to have enough time in the day, and yet we waste so much of our time.

So that's it for last week. I'm logging my time again this week, and trying to make some adjustments.

I just finished watching the anime Ergo Proxy. So here's my review:

Ergo Proxy is a science fiction suspense anime television series, featuring a beautiful combination of 2D digital animation and 3D computer effects. The series focuses heavily on the psychology and mentality of its protagonists. I might would describe it as a cross between Kino's Journey and Wolf's Rain.

The story takes place in a futuristic, post-apocolyptic world where the invironment has been ruined and most humans live inside of large domed cities. Only the outcasts of society live outside. The story follows two main characters, an internal security agent named Re-I Mayer and an imigrant from another city named Vincent Law. It isn't long before they get caught up in an intrecate conspiracy involving robots that have been infected with a computer virus, and a mysterious monster called a Proxy. Their actions lead them into trouble, and they eventually embark on a journey across the ruined landscape searching for answers.

The characters are the focus of the show. They are interesting and well developed, with compelling motivations. The plot is a little hard to follow at times, but just when you think you're totally lost, the story usually comes around and explains itself. The ending is where a lot of animes seem to falter. Ergo Proxy's ending was satisfying, though a bit vauge. It delivers mostly half answers, but it provides all of the most important explainations. While it ends with a note of finality, it also leaves me thinking that there could be more to tell about these characters and this world.

All-in-all, I would probably rate it 4 stars out of 5. The complete collection is a bit pricy at around $60, but I might would buy it if it was on sale.