Craig Cooper Photography

Bar…

First a short note for my new readers. Sometimes I don’t post for a couple of days. Importing and post processing the photos, writing, uploading - that takes a lot of time. Sometimes I am too tired to do that late at night, or I don’t have the time or I’m on tour. That doesn’t mean anything. I will always shoot my POTD and post it. Always, that’s an absolute certainty. Don’t get to 6940 if you don’t make it a certainty.

Today was hard. I had some very unpleasant things I had to take care of, things I don’t even want to mention. Some tough problems ahead - like Titanic’s iceberg. Hope it will not sink me.

Maybe I’ll talk about it when it’s all over. I will need a lot of strength to handle this.

This morning I got an SMS from Sabina, well actually it was from yesterday night, she told me how nice it was to hang out with me and wished me good night. It is very tempting to do some fooling around with Sabina, I have to admit it. But I am not sure if it is a good thing. Firstly, I don’t feel like going back, secondly, I’d rather concentrate on my self development, and thirdly it doesn’t feel right. The only thing I am really interested in is fooling around after a rather long time of total abstinence.

Is that a good reason? Or should I say there’s nothing wrong with that, have some fun, bloke?

GTD is a blessing. It has forced me to take care of things I would have postponed for sure. And it frees my mind for other things, like composing. I am composing steadily, and it’s a good feeling. Small steps every day. Like the snail. It’s not that I come up with the greatest ideas, but I am working on it, and this is the most important thing. Inspiration is hard work. Took me a while to figure that out. Inspiration comes after all the crap has been sorted out in endless hours of frustrating work… Well actually, what I still have to learn is not to get frustrated when nothing happens, but to see it as a positive process that will eventually trigger inspiration. That’s a hard lesson to learn. At least it is for me.

Later: I went to town with Matthew and we spent a great evening together. He’s become a real friend.

When I got back at around 11:30 I got an SMS from Sabina. She came over for a beer, and then we had sex all night… Errh - felt great after a year of no sex. What the heck, life’s too short. I went to sleep after she left, that was around 5 AM. Didn’t really have the energy to post then, you understand…

Jack…

A really great day. I slept all night, and woke up on schedule. Then I started my day with vigor. I had a list I’ve written the evening before, and the first thing on my list was to get back into my old action management method: “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. Here’s a short overview of GTD.

For some strange reason I had stopped doing it, and I was amazed today at how great and efficient GTD is. Of course everything was ready to use, because I had been doing it in the past.

I had a huge list of things I thought I would never be able to finish, but at 3 PM everything was done and it was a great feeling, indeed. This is what I did today:

- opened and read 6 weeks worth of mail that had been bugging me
- organized all the mail
- answered several letters
- paid all my bills
- Went to the post office
- Organized and cleaned my workspace
- Vacuumed the whole apartment
- Studied 1h of Japanese
- Did some laundry and changed the linen on my bed
- Organized GTD including all the tasks for the week
- Called several people
- Went to the gym
- did 2 months of book-keeping for our band
- wired the money from the last concerts to the musicians

- and now I have to compose for one hour and cook my dinner and I’m done for the day.

Not bad, ey?

I really feel great today. I have become active again, and my upcoming days are planned and structured. Finally! Sometimes you just need a date to get started, today was that day. Things don’t look that bad anymore. I am ready to rock!

If chaos reigns your world, and you’re constantly overwhelmed by mail, things to do, and have a pile of stuff on your desk - check out GTD, it will change your life!

Sabina called me and wanted to go for a walk with Jack. She did while I was at the gym and we had coffee together when we both returned. It was OK.

Due to several requests, I shot a pic of Jack today. That’s his “so what we gonna do next?…” look. What can I say - a typical Dachshound.

I will continue working until 9-ish and will go to sleep at 12, determined to get a good night’s sleep again.

Hold your horses, hold your horses!

I am on Paris time, the watch in the middle, and Paris is 6 hours ahead of NYC, but 8 hours behind Tokyo.

It is 1700 hours as I write this, and I am preparing food for tonight.

I hit 100,000 views today at 1600 hours, which I find amazing:

I wish you all a wonderful, succesful, fantastic 2008!

I’ll be back when our party has ended.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, to get into some festive mood, please give a warm welcome to “Ella Fitzgerald”! You’ve been a wonderful audience!

Cheers

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