My posts on here have obviously been spartan lately. There are basically two ways in which something gets done with me. It’s routine, or it makes me take care of it. Since a web site can’t really call me at night and complain about feeling neglected, it falls into the routine camp. And it’s a routine I haven’t got the hang of yet.

I’ve tried in the past to cross a routine item over into the alert me camp, by generating alerts and things. The only successful attempt is the same one most people have; the alarm clock. It’s routine to get up every morning, but the alarm clock makes me notice when to get up. Every other time I’ve tried something similar, usually an automatic page to remind me to do something, I invariably ignore the message so often that it becomes pointless to continue with the reminders.

The trick I suppose is to find the right place to insert it into the existing routine, as well as proper motivation to do so. Right now the motivation is to get my current blog idea out of my head, and sometimes that buffer gets awfully full.

The right time of the day is almost definitely at night, where my routine after the kids bedtime is fairly flexible. The biggest problem is sitting down for the night, just for a moment to watch something for a second, of course. But as soon as I make contact my ass becomes 10,000 tons of iron and the couch an electromagnet tapped right into the earth’s core.

Some of the routine things I have (or have had) to be notified of: animals whining because they need food; kids whining because they need food; grass you can hide in; sending any kind of birthday or holiday card; paying bills; waking up; changing diapers; any schoolwork; taking out the trash; today’s date.

Some of the things that have managed to creep into my routine: going to sleep; reading my email; showering; brushing my teeth; cleaning out my ears; reading my email; eating breakfast; reading my email; working; reading my email; visiting some websites; reading my email; eating; reading my email; doing the dishes; reading my email; reading my email.