The Desk of Endless Tasks

Soon is good

I am still digging out of the most impossible summer schedule.  It is amazing how things can grow to absorb every waking moment of your life.  I have to admit that when some says something like, “When you have a little spare time,” i just look at them them a dead pan “What do you want?”  It is just easier that way.

I admit that the Desk of Endless Tasks is getting a little deep.  Numerous projects are moving slowly through the grist mill.  With anything that resembles luck, numerous wonderful projects are going to wrap up very quickly.  I am eager to start making announcements.

GeekTankRadio.com continues to grow and find new listeners.  Now that you can go to the IHeartMedia.com and look up the show by name.  It is fun hearing from new fans around the world.

The Fix-It-Up show is seriously picking up steam.  Apparently, a lot of people around Memphis enjoy trying to stump Joe and I with their home repair and other projects.  So far we have had questions from raccoons in the attic to living edge tables.  This show is a live call in show and goes so fast to us in the studio.  It feels like we sign on and a few minutes late we are signing off.  We just can’t believe an hour has flown by.

I also managed to sneak in a live appearance at Movies by the Lake at the AgriCenter.  The movie that night was Pirates of the Caribbean, so our Mid-South Pyrate Blades got invited to be the opening entertainment.  We had a complete blast “fighting” with the kids.  I was amazed at how many people attended this event.  We have already been invited back to another event so we will have to be bigger and better.

https://www.darkoakpress.com/allanstory.html
https://www.darkoakpress.com
https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-fix-it-up-show
http://www.geektankradio.com 
http://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZeqwiRmndPqhU_ifBYuvfg

 

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The shows keep growing …

The summer heat keeps up the intensity.  It does make getting simple things done more difficult.  Nothing quite like sweating buckets every time you try to do anything outside.  Happily, GeekTankRadio.com and the show involve being inside an air conditioned recording studio.  The show keeps rolling right along.  More and more people discover our brand of silliness each week.  One day we may be fabulous enough to be media guests at something major like Comic Con in Dan Diego or DragonCon in Atlanta.  One can dream.

The Fix It Up Show continues to overflow its cup every week.  The number of fans tuning in every Saturday morning is growing exponentially.  The fun of doing a live call-in show is the fact that you have no idea what is going to happen when you put that caller on the air.  Happily, the callers are learning to call in early and wait in the holding queue.  Don’t wait until the last 7 minutes of the show to call in with the 7 part question.  Three of four callers sitting in the queue right out of the gate makes the show move so much faster.  I do like the suggestions that we up the show to two hours.  Yes, I am sure we have more than enough content for two hours.  Personally, I would just really love it if the show started an hour later.  I am just not a great morning person.  If you know me, that ain’t a news flash.

I am happy to have my computers all back up and working.  The mundane world more or less went super nova over the last 6 weeks leaving very little opportunity for my quality time at The Desk of Endless Tasks.  A couple of weeks ago, I was attempting to sneak in a quick hour or two when my trusty monitor of several years reached the end of its tenure on my desk.  The poor thing simply gave out.  No worries I think, next time I have some time I will just swap it out for my back up monitor.  A few days later and the swap is made only to have the back up work fine for about 30 minutes before it made a high-pitched whine and died.  I finally have a new monitor purchased and in place.  It is nice to feel back to together and at one with the Desk.

Just a personal reminder to forgive minor mistakes in your life and find joy in the things you do.  You just don’t know when the living time will end for you or those around you.  While I have lost a few close friends and family this year, I have also lost a lot of people who impact your life from the edges.  People and their families that may not deal with you directly , but their presence is felt everyday.   Find a way to keep each and every day just a bit sweeter and richer.

A

http://www.darkoakpress.com/allanstory.html
http://www.darkoakpress.com
https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-fix-it-up-show
http://www.geektankradio.com 
http://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZeqwiRmndPqhU_ifBYuvfg

 

Full Moon Motivation …

It has been a wonderful full moon weekend.  The weather has been pretty good and the night sky has been spectacular. The best part is that I can watch the moon rise from my desk chair.

I am prepping for another convention appearance next weekend in Tupelo, MS. at Tupelo Titan Con ( http://tupelotitancon.com/ ).  Not only do I get to be a writer/radio host I also get to be there with Pyrate Blades.  Yes, there will some live sword fighting.  I am very excited.  This is going to a lot of fun.

This weekend a lot of video rendering and editing also got done.  The Desk of Endless Tasks has had a steady stream of projects coming and going.  I just love the sounds of productivity in the evening.

Geek Tank Radio ( http://www.geektankradio.com ) has continued to grow.  If you have been keeping with the show, you already know all about geek eats, science news, and shower thoughts.  If not, dive in and catch the madness 🙂

This weekend would not have been complete without the annual first yard beat down.  It is shocking just how rough the yard gets over the winter.  Now, the yard is beat into submission for a few days, the beds have been cleared and planted, and the blueberries are already blooming.  No bad at all.

http://www.darkoakpress.com 
http://www.geektankradio.com 
http://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZeqwiRmndPqhU_ifBYuvfg

Hello media editing …

Somehow or another, it always seems to be pushing midnight when I finally get to start wrapping up my day.  It has been another overly full week.  I keep telling myself the same lie that sooner or later things will calm down.  If I tell myself this enough, I might even delude myself into believing me.  We all know that is not always the best idea, but one does have to dream.

Geek Tank Radio was a massive show this morning, but we managed to get through it all pretty darn well.  The new show should post by Monday.

After wandering through a few YouTube videos, I bought the brine shrimp/sea monkeys some spirulina.  It is a lovely blue-green algae in powered form so the little devils should enjoy it.

I got a full edit done on the next Dark Oak Press release.  More wonderful mayhem in on the way from the infamous Malice in Memphis mystery writers group.

Pirate Fight Club is rolling along nicely.  Had a small group this week, so we all got in a bit of a sweat working on basics.

MidSouthCon (www.midsouthcon.org) is coming up the weekend of March 9th.  This is my very first convention I attended 36 years ago.  I have attended 34 out of the 35 conventions so far.  Not a bad track record.

And just for fun, I finally finished the format for the Question X research show.  You can check out the first episode here:

http://www.darkoakpress.com 
http://www.geektankradio.com 
http://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise

Inch by Inch

Inch by Inch, I am clearing the backlog on The Desk of Endless Tasks.  With all the bad weather over the last few weeks, I have gotten just a little behind.  The Desk and I still have to sit down and pick out new merchandise.  Happily, I have a little time to find some new stuff. https://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise/14488659

Editing is going well.  Several books are now in various stages of the process.  Yes, please keep buying books and we can afford to make more.

Video editing has finally managed to claw its way up the top of The Desk of Endless Tasks.  So much stuff to do and so little time.  Hopefully, this means I will have a lot more projects wrapped up.
Here is a peek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9ME5xWtuk4

Please go check out the Dark Oak Press – Vampires For Valentines selection.  I have a couple of books in the line up for those of you who haven’t read them yet.
https://darkoakpress.wordpress.com/

Writing events are booking up fast.  We have just about got a full year’s schedule laid out.  If you are in the Mid-South, come out and have a little fun with us.
https://darkoakpress.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/events-for-writers/

Last but certainly not least – the brine shrimp are doing fine.  They are getting bigger every day and starting to swim like tiny brine shrimp are supposed to.

The Amazing Order of Done

This past week which. by the way was the living embodiment of the the great Monty Python skit “The Spanish Inquisition” except they did not bring the “Comfy Chair”, has reminded me to get back to my deeper, darker business beliefs.  As a founding member of The Amazing Order of Done, I have been repeating to myself all week the basic mantra – Do Not Confuse Effort With Results.

Sometimes, getting so overwhelmed by what all you have to get done,  you drop all the trappings of “trying” or “attempting”.  All you have time for is the most streamlined way of getting to a solution.  The simple beauty of no-holds-barred brutality of just plain and simple getting a task done.  I have noticed that a lot of the trappings of normal society have been sneaking back into my personal processes.  If you are truly honest with yourself, you will have to admit that many of the things we are actually sub-consciously doing many steps due to “Legacy” processes.

desk2mousepadLegacy process – the best example I can give of how entrenched this can be comes from many years ago when I was an instructor at a technology teaching facility.  Because of our location all Saturday classes began at 8 am.  During the week, classes began at 9 am.  I taught numerous Saturday classes so the timing was no big deal to me, but the clients could get a bit testy about having to be up that early on a weekend.  A few months later, the entire facility moved into it’s own building.  Not long after the move, the general manager (GM) came to me and asked if I could do a Saturday class.  I said no problem and that I would see the class at 9 am.  The GM said no – class started at 8.  I asked him why and he responded that “They turn off the air at 4 pm.”  I said,”No, class started at 9.  The GM looked at me like I was an idiot.  Then I asked, “Who turns off the air in here.  We own the building and the thermostat.  Are you going to sneak in here of Sat and turn of the electricity?  The look on the GM’s face was beyond priceless when if hit him that he had mentally transferred the legacy way of doing business with the old location and our new building.  I told me to let those poor people sleep in a bit.

So, review how you do things and see if there are any “Legacy Methods” holding you back.

http://www.darkoakpress.com
http://www.geektankradio.com
http://www.cafepress.com/gtrmerchandise

News From The Desk of Endless Tasks

Well, we finally did it.  The first episode of Geek Tank Radio has aired and is now available on the Internet and with IHeartRadio.  It is a lot of fun playing with the control board and cutting up on my favorite topics with people that are fun to cut up with.  Of course, what you don’t see is the 30 phone calls about what we should do on the show, who should we have on the show, now what are we going to do …… in other words, the amount of work and small panics that go into producing the show.

Welcome to the behind the scenes – A one hour show that is generally recording in a single take (if you can believe that) takes hours of fiddling about in the studio just to get rolling.  Yes, there is a camera in there and, yes, you will get to see bits of the silliness that goes on as soon as I have a bit of time to get the edits done and get it the production right.

However, it is a lovely if a bit chilly Sunday night and there is much to do with my sweetheart, The Desk.  We have made great strides in wrapping up all of the outstanding 2014 projects and, very happily, we are into 2015 at this point.  With a little bit of luck, grit, lash oil, and elbow grease, we should have more goodies rolling out quickly.  I hope you are enjoying our efforts.

Hello Tuesday

It is a lovely Tuesday morning at The Desk of Endless Tasks.  The sun is shining for a change and it is even a normal temperature for this time of year.  New projects have already grown to take up the summer and there are already appearances as for out next January already booked.

Mostly, I have more book production immediately in front of me and a couple of stories to get written.  Of course, this weekend is MidSouthCon.  I have been attending this convention for over 3 decades.  It is a bit like returning to your hometown.  It is always great to see all friends, old and new.  This part is packing for the event.  Books – check, bookmarks – check, squirrels of mass distraction – check, magic wands – check, table drapes – check, werewolf beggin strips – check — you get the idea.