Few days back (Friday to be exact), after successfully simplifying the desk at work, I turned my attention to the 50 hours planned marathon for simplifying the environment at home. Here is a little update on the same.

On Saturday, I received two books that made me take a step back and rethink the vision and goals. The first book "The 25 best time management tools and techniques" and "Getting things Done". Both incredible books! I had a choice to make, either continue down the path of marathon cleansing or take the time and figure out what these books are saying. Learning something new took precedence.

So, this Monday, I find myself abstracted away from the home into the wonderful starbucks cafe in my town. Fortified with a Grande Gautemalan slow roast coffee with skim milk, I studied the 25 best time management tools and techniques.  As I read and did all the exercises, what struck me immensely is that, this in not the book for "do this- and -you will better manage x time". It would be indeed comical, if the book said that! As I read, I found myself really asking myself what is my vision for life and work? what do I want to achieve? what are the essential focus items for me? This is not a to-do list, but a living breathing statement, that will evolve and mature (as I hope to too!).

Great! So, I have a vision and mission statement! The 25 tools and tips talks about distilling a focus (inline with my values and vision) and then setting goals, planning, organizing, taking action, reviewing the goals and then redo the cycle. All this is really good read! Now what! here is when I think Getting Things Done is an awesome book. I just started to read the book and it talks about the five stages to go about getting it really done! Not just talking about do this and don't do that! More about this when I get down to it.

Away from the maddening crowd and into the home clutter. That is exactly what I will be doing for the next 96 hours. Er... no. considering that it is four days, and I need to catch up on sleep, so minus 32 hours. Also I have my weekend 6-8 hour second job, so minus 8 hours. I have the weekly wine education and tasting to attend, so minus 4-6 hours (roughly). So really I have 96 hrs - 46 hrs = 50 hours.

I have 50 hours (Sat-Tue) to get my house spring cleaned and contribute to the life simplified- home blog archive. I have a plan and the challenge is to keep to the plan. I think it is doable, but four days from now we will know.

The focused zones for the four days:

1. Work Room and Filing sections.
2. One (of the many) bedrooms.
3. Kitchen...... ah! ouch! don't know about this one.... may be I need two days just for this. I think it is relatively organized. But, I think it needs a little more TLC.
4. Living and Dining rooms.... piece of cake! There is very little and very Zen already. Now, what do i do with all those TV and electronic wires! Everything should be wireless! Godsake we are in year 2008!
5. Porch and bookshelves... another simple task! Not much attention needed. Loads of spring work from caulking, painting and finishing to do here, but is already in Zen space.

I will blog as I go! But for now, a fantastic red wine, and the movie hitman with incredibly gorgeous Tim (Give me a break! Its Friday!). ;)

Only a week late! But it is Friday, and it was a perfect day (with the weather being all messy and raw), to complete the spring clean that was started eight days ago.

Several accomplishments (and I highly recommend this too all) to report from the clean up:

1. Like I said previously, orchids stay where they are. And they are with simple rearrangment and all is well. Also, Sunday, I am going to drive back to work to transport all personal items (all those that managed to sneak into the office and make themselves home there), and some of the orchids are coming home too.
2. Next tackled the three drawers full of stuff.
   1. No idea, what stuff, so I took the opportunity to re-acquaint myself with the stuff hiding in there. This needed the recycling bin next to me. Whatever I have not used, read, written over or required to refer got tossed into the recycling bin. Felt really relieved to get rid of items that were printed and outdated.
   2. I found two scotch tapes, two staple pin removers, old business cards, paper clips about a 100, 15 cents in change, a pair of warm socks (there they are!), wonderful black sandles (oh! there they are!), four spoons (clean, for heavens sake!), old rotting-instant-coffee granule pack (yuk!), old tea packs, clean (thankfully) plastic containers, file holders, plastic folders empty, employee manuals, travel (outdated) manuals, expense reports (old and all paid out), budgets for contractors and zillion little nick-nacks. Each of the items got 10-15 second consideration and it landed one of the four piles:
      1. Keep
      2. Take Home
      3. Send back to Mail room
      4. Toss in trash.
   3. Funnily... actually not funnily, interestingly and happily most of them were in either 3 or 4. :) I am  glad that the trash is not simply being moved from one place to another (namely work to home).
3. Stuff that stayed on the table are of course, laptop, monitor (actually two of them), mouse, keyboard, stapler, three-punch hole machine, and hmmm.. orchids! :) I am pleased with the outcome.
4. Additionally, happy to report that the stuff I thought I was going to move into the drawer space to keep the desktop clean, either made it to a mail room or the trash.

Habits learned (or rather plan to work on):

1. Clean desk before leaving for the day.
2. Store items back and clean up for the day before leaving.
3. ah!... don't collect crap and don't bring stuff from home. If stuff-gathering is unavoidable, then keep in transient file. So, toss out when done. :)

Lofty habits, but worth trying them. :)

Duh! No camera, will take a picture on Sunday when I swing by.

Totally mindless, great heart thumping music, couple of hits, swordplay, one hot lead actor (Timothy Olyphant)..... just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes I wonder why I am watching this mindless crapshoot! Sometimes it is just what the mind needs.

Pst: I watched this three times.... er... for the music and one hot bald guy! tsk! tsk! Pathetic.

Okay, I admit, I cannot take credit for looking into this show in more details.  I recollect (or like to think that I recollect) seeing some previews for the same. I also remember categorizing it as something to catch up when I have time or not (if I have forgotten about it).

Currently on Fox channel on Mondays at 9:00 PM (after House), the show is all about police work. Right! Right! Another Law and Order thing! Ah! HA! not exactly! The detective is actually 400 years old and has seen new Amsterdam become New York. Ignoring the whole premise of police work et. al. (I will watch Law & Order, thank you very much), it is really interesting to see how John (the 400-year old detective), connects the past with present. It is the history that interests me and holds my attention and is incredible. Along the way there is a murder (or murders) and some love story in there too.

All in all, cool concept and fun to watch.... at least for now.

Few weeks ago, I kicked off Life Simplified. Somehow, with the whole Las Vegas trip, the simplification went on the backburner. However, my Tackle Chart (Vision Board) stayed up and right in front of my face, so re-focusing attention to it was much easier.

Towards checking off items from the list and considering that we are few hours away from 2008 Spring Equinox, the office space has been on the receiving end for cleaning and de-cluttering. Also, two of resources I have been reading (thanks to one of the presentations at work) have inspired me to take action; Zen Habits and Unclutterer. I might not go completely the route of getting rid of everything that is on the desk, but at least non-essentials are either getting placed back in the drawer (or trash if I really don't need) or (better yet) moved it back to the office mail-supply room.

Some rules:

1. Orchids are staying right where they are (I have my priorities in correct order (hee hee)!).... or moved around just for variety. Some of them are coming home with me. :)
2. Why print? Save paper! Make it electronic! Ah! Somethings still need printed paper, such as expense reports, employee manuals, employee updates, possible (or probable reviews), reading material for the bus-ride to and from work and what? Dunno, there may be more in here.
3. The three-hole punch, stapler, lined postit and couple of pencils/pen will stay on the desk. Interestingly, these are all accessories to do with paper. If I don't need paper as much then do I need these accessories? Hm! Food for thought. Perhaps when I clean out the drawers, then I can place them in there and off the desk space.
4. Ok! I have to have the phone on my desk.
5. Box of tissues.... I cannot live without.
6. Rest is all history! :)

Now that the grand utopian desk is set, I am going to tackle the three drawers of complete chaos on Friday. :)

Twelve years ago on twelfth day of the third month of the year I stepped off British Airways flight with two suitcases and an oversized carryon to be welcomed by my sister and cousin at Boston's Logan Airport. 

Wow! Twelve years! Twelve tumultuous and terrific years! This calls for a celebration of some sorts and a recap of some sorts too.....

Twelve highlights for the twelve years (no particular order, except perhaps the 12th is exactly where I want it)......

1. Completed Masters in Computer Science... resisted the urge to continue to do PhD.
2. Travelled more in the last twelve, than the previous twelve years. Mostly within US, Asia and one in Europe.
3. Held a job or two concurrently.
4. Gained weight... lost weight... and finally learned live a healthy lifestyle.
5. Made friends... lost friends... and finally learned to not get too close.
6. Owned a house and a terrifically growing yard with flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs. Shared it with two cats (literally).
7. Killed one orchid... meticulously cared for seven others... and finally had three orchids rebloom.
8. Owned a car... had some mishaps... one warning ticket... and several scratches and one bump on the car.
9. Found a renewed passion for crafts like  knitting, crocheting, stain glass, board games, movies and wine.
10. Worked on varied technology platforms... and finally got sold on Microsoft technologies.
11. Invested in the market, rode the wave of a successful IPO and its subsequent bust.
12. and... finally... yes... lived my life my way!

As regards celebrations, I have not given it too much thought. But I am sure wine will be involved.

The entire conference was fantastic! I learned a lot, ate a lot, drank in moderation (er...most nights), and gambled nothing!

I thought I would be able to blog each night about the experiences that day at the conference and also the city, but it did not land up happening. Not that I was not inspired to write but the internet connection the hotel was incredibly slow and nothing like a slow connection to destroy creative blogging.

Anyways a short recap of the sessions. All the sessions are available online (you will need to get Silverlight.. few seconds to install), and they are all (well... most anyways) awesome.

Day 1: Keynote, Silverlight, and Champagne at Tao!

Day 2: IE8, Silverlight (cont.), Steve Ballmer & Guy Kawasaki, More Silverlight, Non-code Information Architecture, humble and usable User Interfaces, Buffet at Bellagio!  Want more?

Day 3: Microsoft Surface, Silverlight, some dopey presentation, some Silverlight coding at last, Bellagio Fountains.....(yawn!) need some sleep!~ 

Day 3: What will you bring me today!

• At breakfast table, I debated on what session I wanted to go to and found absolutely nothing for the first set, and found three for the second time slot. Argh! So, rather than beat myself up in a session, where I would hate it. I spent time one on one with Microsoft Surface. I have only three words for this..... I WANT IT! hmmm... No! Maybe four words... I WANT IT NOW!. Take a gander folks! and be jazzed with what is coming down the Pike! Literally! (I mean, I-90 does start (or end) in Seattle). There were two sets shown and while I was playing with one set, on the other was Donna, the Documentation Manager of Silverlight 2.0.
  
• I didn't want the playtime to end, but it did. Donna and I chatted about MSDN Online documentation and what is coming new for support et. al. Albeit documentation is important, and all techies agree to it, it really does not happen unless there is a dedicated team for it. It is the techies way of saying... 'don't make me document!' very nicely and 'correctly' request the need a specialized team to do it.... :) So, it is a win-win situation from Donna's and my perspective. Donna wants to document, and I ..... well.... have skills better suited for technology architect. (hee hee! read as: I don't have time to do document.... I am too busy developing stuff)
  
• The last session.... I thought we would go out with a bang! Alas no! We thought it was going to be a bit more on WPF... but it wasn't. This is where I realized I am a techie... really, give me code..... and code speak..... and I am a happy code junkie! Don't just show me a jazzy presentation.....show me how to build it. Tell me why a particular design worked for you and what didn't.
  
• We needed to code as we never needed before! Such code-junkies! We huddled in one of the colleagues room (swanky room at the Venetian) and for the next couple of hours tried different animations and fun stuff with Silverlight and Expression Blend. So utterly cool! Couple of times we had to turn away the room-cleaning woman, because we were working, and finally just gave up and let her in to make the bed and clean the space.
  
• My friends needed some time with the casinos.... So, after coding, take a short break we all met up for the last evening in Las Vegas (for this year at least). Dinner was grilled Salmon, Gaucomole and Chips with Riesling at a Mexican place right on the stripe. After dinner, I spent some time looking over my friends shoulders on craps table, but I found it boring quite quickly. It just does not hold my interest, which is interesting to most people. Afterawhile, I was watching the dealers and pit boss. It was incredible to see how much they have an eye on continously. Much later.... I was ready to get out.... I said my goodbyes and walked down......Along the way! Bellagio Lake held my attention for 10 mins with all the sound and water show! Loved it. I rather be out here in front of the spectacular show, than in a casino. Awesome pictures coming soon.

Day 2: Too many great sessions! No clones! WAH!

• Post breakfast headed to learn about IE8 - Webslices & Activities (how to build them and how to subscribe to them). Now, I am used to having an action-packed (spoiled by Day 1 sessions) tech-heavy presentations, and this one did not deliver. I learned about Webslices and Activities, but just felt that the presentation needed more. But perhaps, it was the first (early) morning session from the night before partying, so people were not really awake!
  
• My blood-stream needed more techy stuff! So, headed into Creating Rich Dynamic User Interfaces with Silverlight 2 Controls. Another awesome speaker Karen Corby. She is a Program Manager and was present at both the Day 1 sessions and helping out the presenters when they needed. I remember remarking then (Day 1), I got to go to her sessions.
  
• Post Lunch, the Keynote with Steven Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki was not what I expected it to be. It was Guy Kawasaki interviewing Steve Ballmer. It was awesome to see both of them, and no blog will really do it any justice! So, go see it for yourself on the mix08 site.
  
• The keynote really energized me (or it was the endless cups of coffee) to get to the afternoon sessions. To mix it up, I wanted to go to non-coding session. I did go to Creating Better User Experiences: Information Architecture. In this session we got to 'architect' as a group, the attributes for small boutique hotels in california. It was interesting exercise to do. There were other related sessions with the Creation of better User Experiences, and I definitely will read them... ah... post conference.
  
• Gaming sounds fun, and online gaming sounds fun too... so, how can Silverlight help as a gaming platform? I could not resist this one. So, while my friends dashed to hear Scott Hanselman, I headed to check this out. It was interesting to see what gaming design concepts to keep in mind, what works, what doesn't etc.
  
• Like I said at the start of the day, too many sessions happening at the same time, and not enough clones of me going all these places. Fortunately, the organizers realized that, and they repeated sessions after the day was done. Yeah! I really wanted to get to Crossing the Usability Chasm - Advanced and Adaptive User Interfaces. Anything that says "Advanced and Adaptive" kind of catches my eye. I was tired at the end of the day, yet, the presenter Dr. Gil Hupert-Graff held my attention with the simplest of the concepts of what is usable and what is not. Before this session, I was all ready to develop a really snazzy-blog application with flyouts, and flyins, expand and collapse and loads of Silverlight's Light up the web concepts. But, after this sessions, the realization hit home (yet again!) we shouldn't be doing something, just because we can. I am pretty sure (my friends agree), after this conference, there are going to be a host of really ugly, non-user friendly and downright hideous applications. I vow, that mine will be at the edge of cool. :)
  
• By 7:30 PM..... we were ready for .... er.... fresh air. We wandered around.... to different casinos. Finally the Bellagio Buffet looked great! Because it catered to one of my colleague's and my need for Japanese and the other who wouldn't touch fish with a ten-foot pole, had italian, american, chinese, salads, fruits, and a whole dessert section. I was happy with Salmon and Tuna Poke for dinner and dessert!

Okay, this should stay in Las Vegas....but Lent is out the window! After the first minute of feeling guilty..... I was over it and done.

Notes of Day 1:

• Las Vegas is in Pacific time, I live in East Coast time. So, I am wake at my normal 5AM (EST) and by 6AM (EST) clamoring for coffee! I know that Treasure Island has a Starbucks (the reason that this hotel gets 4 stars!). So, I grab some money and head down to the hotel-lobby. Of course, I don't know where it is located, so catch hold of a security fella and ask. He gives me directions to get to Starbucks and proceeds to tell me that they don't open till 6 in the morning. With a perfectly honest horrified look, I mention that is way past 6 AM. It is few minutes.... for me to register the fact that it is really just around 3 AM! Too damn early for coffee! What a perfect start.
  
• Breakfast was served with Eggs.... hmm.... I was hungry! and the Eggs looked so yummy! Lent was out the window!
  
• Kick off and Keynote by Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie and Dean Hachamovitch, talking about the latest, greatest and whats new in the web-technologies.
  • It was fantastic to see Silverlight apps in some incredible applications such as Hard Rock Cafe - Memorabilia (the Deep Zoom technology).
  • The keynote also declared the release of Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1, IE 8.0, and Expression Studio with Blend 2.5. Whee! Woohoo! Right, Right!
  • At this point, I am simply happy to be here to listen to all these release proclamations! Also, these bits were readily available for downloads!
    
• After pigging out on a good lunch, I couldn't wait to get my paws on learning Silverlight 2.0. So, rest of the afternoon was spent, listening to Eugene Osovetsky (Working with Data and Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 2), then Joe Stegman and Mike Harsh (Building Rich Internet Applications Using Microsoft Silverlight 2). These two gave a really good kick start into the development of Silverlight applications. Of them all, Joe Stegman is an awesome speaker!
  
• By the end of the day, my fingers were itching to start twittering about Silverlight and developing something. Instead we head to Tao for a fantastic party. Now there is a party! Open bar with Champagne (Yeah! Lent is so out the window! Thank God I am not Christian, so breaking Lent was not too bad! I might still go to hell, but I hope I am forgiven! :))
  

This year the MIX08 at Las Vegas is a treat with the latest and coolest stuff from Microsoft .NET 3.5 and Silverlight. Everyone is talking about it and I find myself happily attending the conference to learn more. More about this in next few blogs.

This is my first visit to Sin City, and so far the descriptors (at various times) I have used are: Unreal, Gaudy, Loud, Nutty, Annoyingly-bright, Eye-sore, Technologically impressive, Slick, and Excessive. The airport is right next to the stripe, however, to get to the stripe the cab ride takes a roundabout way to get there. That alone sets the stage for me for unnecessary excessiveness. A cab ride which should be not more than $10 is more than $30!

I am staying at the Treasure Island my room overlooks The Stripe. From the 29th floor the view of the Pirate ship, the Palazzo, the Venetian and quite a bit of the Stripe does not fail to impress. There are lights and then there are lights and then there is Las Vegas (a sensory assault!). The city is a like a gaudy-Christmas tree with all hotels as little ornaments, each trying to outdo each other, with more lights, with more glitter and with more excess. The room itself is moderately comfortable, and I missing some amenities that I have gotten used to such as the coffee machine! You thought, I was going to say mini-bar, but nah, I don't care too much about the crap they usually have in minibars. I rather be lounging at a decent restaurant with a decent wine in hand, than open a bottle or two from the mini-bar of some non-descript wine. As far as munchies go, they are readily available at a drop of a hat pin. Besides, why would I eat something that has been sitting in a mini-bar or vending machine, when I am right in the middle of some of the best possible restaurants? I don't think the intention of these hotels is to have people in their rooms. If the guest is holed up in the room then there is no way they can play on the zillion slot machines or poker tables and send their 'contribution' to the house vaults! So, bare minimum in the room and get the guest going on the casino floor seems to be the motto.

At 10pm at night the Treasure Island lives up to its promise and has a pirate ship (actually two) showing all abound with cannon fire, gold bullion and pirates!

The first evening after registration gods were appeased and badge procured, my colleagues and me participated in a Treasure Hunt. Alright! Scavenger Hunt! I just like to call it Treasure Hunt..... for me X did mark the spot.... or multiple spots where we took photos! We were part of the group of five called Blanchefleur (apparantly a pirate ship). So, the team of three from Massachusetts and two  from Jersey, were off wandering a city of Nevada (Las Vegas) with the a rule list, clue list, a sign that read "Silver", and one of the worst digital camera I have ever seen. The idea was to get 14 pictures around the neighborhood and we had two hours to do this. For me the allure was to be walking around, exploring the new city (or at least some sections of it). The Treasure Hunt took up wandering in The Venetian, The Fashion Mall next to it, The Mirage, and back to Treasure Island. The sense of the space being expansive really took root as we crossed over The Stripe on bridges and the walk ways. At some point I had imagined the Stripe to be... well.. not that expansive. Along the route of the hunting we found, talked and photographed Scott Hanselman. All he wanted to do was to get registered, poor man, and we got him to pose for us. Thanks Scott! At the end of the Treasure Hunt the idea was to load it up into a Silverlight application, but try as much as did we failed.... hmm..... no! the application failed.... ah! no! we did not have all the bits needed for the application in the first places. So, there, after couple of hours fighting with it.... I gave up. I still do have the application and at some point I will try to get to work..... I think! Or just write my own thing.

The flight, travel, new (overwhelming glittery) city, new friends, treasure hunt, and application that didn't have all the bits was enough excitment for the day. I couldn't wait for the conference to begin and hear what Steven Ballmer, Guy Kawasaki, Scott Guthrie had to say...... but for now, my head and a pillow needed to make contact!

A bunch of us from work decided to attend this years MIX08. Finally a conference where I was not working as a staff but attending as an attendee. Awesome! MIX08, is a great conference where developers and designers can learn cutting edge technology, mingle with others, and engage in conversations some of the Program Managers from Microsoft, displaying the new tools, and what is upcoming in the technology, creative and business world. See More

Why I am going?
Because I want to.... and of course, Siliverlight has captured my imagination.

This conference is in Las Vegas... yes.... where else you can convince developers and designers to mix and mingle, learn and..... for the gambling sort.... try their hand at whatever glittering place they chose to hand over their money.  They say whatever happens in Las Vegas stays there....... or perhaps not...... more to come in this space.

NOTE: I am actually writing these on the last day of the conference, just because, I am having way too much of a good time with Silverlight downloads, play and reading up.....yes, that is true! You see.....as a matter of fact..... casinos hold absolutely no attraction for me, unless we are talking food and wine. The concept of 'feeding money to the house' is not my cup of tea, unless it is a good cause of fine dining and wine...... anyways more in next few posts which will come over the next few hours as sit back and absorb all the experience of the conference and city.