One of the habits I have I dislike the most is that I will fixate on something I don't want to do and just don't do it.  It could be something I should do, and would benefit by doing, but it becomes the little hard nut of neurotic worry that I don't do. And it festers.

But one of the habits I have that I like about myself is when this little hard festering nut of worry gets acute enough, I have a change of heart. I decide the only way to make myself feel better is to attack and finish and resolve this issue that I have been avoiding and make it go away through working on it.

I've just spent 2.5 hours on one of those little hard nuts, one that has been driving me crazy for the past 4 months, much to my shame.  Only--in just 2.5 hours--I fixed it.

I timed it so I could show myself that this chore I've avoided for weeks didn't take any time at all once I decided to do just it.

And that is the lesson I want to remember--not only to jump on things I need to do, but to realize that worry can take much more time than  taking action.

As one of the founders of Code for Oakland, and a member of the committee that planned the event that just happened on July 21st, seeing posts like this: “Code For Oakland: The Most Diverse Hackathon Ever” | Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog http://bit.ly/NmrfOi  make me happy beyond measure and this one: Code For Oakland: The Most Diverse Hackathon Ever - Forbes http://onforb.es/O43dYZ
I moved to Oakland in 2008, after a short start-up stint in Boulder and many years in Silicon Valley, and immediately started to wonder where the tech community was, how we could build more tech community and why a city like Oakland with good infrastructure and cheap commercial real estate didn’t have more of a start-up scene. 
Fast forward 4 years and we’ve got alot more traction on all these issues—but we need to keep hammering on diversity and opportunity for everyone—and not re-create the old school view of what an entrepreneur, programmer, coder, or product developer is (and you probably know exactly what I am talking about.)
So we’re looking for ways to keep Code for Oakland going, and expand and build on it and get more partners and supporters. We’re also sharing our process with people from other cities who have made inquiries—if you’d like to do a civic hackathon a la CFO in your city—let us know.
Some photos from the event here:

It's been almost a month since I moved, and I am still loving it. Some changes I am noticing

• Sleeping better--those blackout blinds really help
• Eating less--fewer big meals
• Healthier eating--I only buy what I am going to eat and I follow my friend Michele's advice to Buy treats for the week---and go without when they're done.
• More exercise: My resolve is an hour a day or more, which I did not do today, but which I have Done for the last 6 days and hope to continue the rest of the week.
• Feeling better: More aware of muscles in my body and feeling pretty energetic.
• Not lonely., My life and work are so full of people, the silence of living alone is a HUGE pleasure right now.
• Writing more and responding to work more efficiently.  This was a huge driver in wanting to make a change, and I am seeing the results already--I wrote 2,000 works of the social media and news project, as well as chunks of an e-learning module for another project and lots of planning for a Oakland Local project we're about to kick off.

I'm also moving into a mode, which I love, of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, a good fit with my personal natural rhythm.  Oh yes, and it's so uncluttered. Love that.

This is my writing weekend. I have an exciting project to work on that also scares me--I want to do a good job. And I am at the moment when I have created the outlines, gathered up the materials, organized some of the information--and now I have to get to work.  And I'm feeling scared.

Can I really dive into this pool once more? How do I get myself to the place where I am inside the work and feeling one with it so that there's a strong, compelling flow? That's my goal for today. 

Like the canoeist pushing off into the river, the diver on the board, this is the moment to engage--with both my intent and my material.

By this time tomorrow, I would like to be a third of the way down the river--but I will only get there by writing, not by talking about my need to write. And so this is the moment I take a deep breath, strive for calm, and turn to the piece I need to write.

It looks like the soil in my yard may be toxic--or just industrial--enough that weeds don't grow. It's so dusty and filled with little rocks and glass.  I'm thinking about experimenting with soil remediation techniques to improve it and make it less toxic before I plan and landscape.
Ideas:
Test the soil
Plant sunflowers, bonset, goldenrod, yarrow for the year and see if they can improve the soil--maybe make a path around them but plan some big beds of them--have no idea what it takes to grow any of these
Talk to this fellow who's in Detroit and doing soil remediation of his yard--Soil Remediation: Detroit Experiments Explore Urban Farming's Next Frontier http://huff.to/R9w1mm

Share on Oakland Local?

I'm in the new house and loving it. Still more to put away, but it's a terrific space for me and I am thrilled to be here--especially since I have a whole series of writing projects this summer. Among the things I will be working on:

• Some news ebooks funded by The Fund for Investigative Journalism--their grant will help Oakland Local make the lead to a new format.
• A series of e-learning modules
• Hack the Hood, a new economic development and youth training project we're going to pilot in East Oakland via OL
• Raising money and selling ads for Oakland Local

More to come on all this.

Columbia University Names Sree Sreenivasan First Chief Digital Officer - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD http://dthin.gs/MlOGFi

Way to go, dude!

I'm moving six blocks from my current spot, to a house I bought in Oakland, and I am super excited. It's been a long time since I owned a house, and renting felt right for so long for reasons like wanting flexibility, doing start-ups, etc.  But this house..in a part of North Oakland I love, on a street that seems filled with good neighbors...has me so jazzed.  It feels like the room of one's own--that, even with housemates--it will be a great place to write and work, as well as savor life.

Part of my world view right now is to seize the special moments. So when I finished a meeting in Dogpatch with a terrific Oakland Local client and realized I was hungry, I decided to find someplace to stop for a bite before I crossed the bridge and went to another meeting.  Back in the day, I'd spent a good amount of time at Technorati at 3rd and 22nd St so I thought there might be some good options, but I didn't see anything until I swung past The Ramp, a place I hadn't been since Steve Freund had a big event there many years ago.

Wow, was that fun! There's nothing as nice as taking an hour to relax in a spot you'd usually visit only on a weekend, or after work.  The Ramp's view of the Bay was great, the sky was clear and blue, and the buzz was happy. And I was happy. A hour of The Ramp and 6 more hours of work seemed not so bad.

I wasn't so hot on Pinterest when it first launched and, in fact, I made fun of it a bit.  Tumblr, on the other hand, I just loved--who wouldn't love a micro-blogging service that both clipped and quoted and allowed original content?

Over the course of the past 18 months, I've made and launched multiple Tumblrs, mostly for work (news/community/media/events) and a little for fun.  Pinterest, not so much.

But then, this month, I bought a house. A house that was bare of window treatments, furniture, rugs, and pretty much everything else. A house I was going to have to plan and organize. Suddenly, I was all about Pinterest.

What started as a series of boards about ideas for my yard repairs (backyard was a wreck), fence and patio turned into more boards about what the living room might look like, home offices, and wall decor, as in hanging photos.  3 weeks in, that's blossomed into additional boards on ceramics (a passion), textiles(another passion) and healthy eating.

Meanwhile, my tumblr is sitting kinda idle--and I am thrilled to have had a chance to learn more about the purpose of pinning.

So, what gives?

Pinterest really is great as a visual collection, mood board or organizer. This is true whether it's an idea board for a visual project or a list of data visualizations or info graphics. The ability to sort and categorize and tag is very powerful on Pinterest and lends itself both to projects and to virtual collections.

Tumblr, on the other hand, is much more in the river of news mode. Tumblrs are great accretations of interesting snips, posts, images around a sensibility or a topic, and, unlike Pinterest, they do a great job of offering words as well as images,

Both services offer types of community--Pinterest through tagging and commenting functions, and Tumblr through hashtags and comments/questions.

So where would I use each?
Pinterest has totally captures my interest for riffs on a theme. Whether it's a collection of Oakland cafes, vintage hankies, or photos of a newsmaker, Pinterest has a tremendous ability to catalog that is so appealing.

Tumblr, however, excels in presenting a sensibility or a theme in a more random, discovery-oriented fashion--and it's funnier. The hellyeah! and Ryan Goslings series are hysterical on tumblr, not so much on Pinterest.