The never getting things done
Published on 10 February 2011 in Life, computers, television programmes, video, web development
I have a slight worry that I’m turning in to one of those people who starts projects and then never finishes them. You know the kind. You start with lofty ambitions, kick it all off and then, somewhere down the line, get distracted and never finish.
So worried am I about all this that I decided to do a list of all my outstanding projects. Maybe it would give me some motivation to finish them off. Maybe it would make me feel better about how little I’d actually got on. Who knew? But I was determined to make the list.
(At this point it would be most amusing to write that I started writing that list three weeks ago, and never finished it. Such a post would then end abruptly. However it isn’t going to happen that way.)
So anyway, here goes and in no particular order.
Implementing redesign of The F-Word
Started some point in December 2010
This is a biggy and to be fair, huge substantial chunks are done bar the testing. What’s outstanding is lots of of nigglingly small bits, testing and so on. Work has slowed, although if I’m honest, that’s mostly due to me being ill recently.
Likely completion: oh I don’t know? March? April?
Creating Rambling Man
Started December 2012
Rambling Man is to be my new archive of long distance walking blog posts, and a home to my various e-books. Originally quite slow in progress, things really started kicking off last week whilst ill, when I started the tedious task of getting the content ready. Now the reality is that most of the site is ready, bar a few small bits like, oh I don’t know, actually getting the e-book sales integrated… Hmm…
Likely completion: please don’t let it drag on too long? Shall we say, May?
Digitising VHS tapes
Started in 2008, probably
Like many people I’ve got a raft of VHS tapes. And like many people, I haven’t played them in years. Now if I was a normal person, I’d just junk them because the programmes I’ve either got elsewhere, or don’t care about. However I have this absurd notion that the stuff in between the programmes is actually quite interesting. As such, I started a project to digitise the stuff and then put the most interesting trailers online somewhere.
And I have done something like half the tapes. I’ve even edited some of them down and put clips on YouTube. Well for two promos anyway – one for the BBC and one for Channel 4.
Yet in my back bedroom forlornly sit about 30 odd tapes ready to be digitised and on my hard drive sit more than a few files waiting to be sorted through and edited, mostly untouched for months on end.
To be fair, TV capture card problems and Windows XP issues stopped the game here, but replacement hardware has been purchased. The whole thing could kick off again at any minute… It just hasn’t…
Likely completion: at this rate, 2020… By which time it will be time to do the same for the DVDs probably.
Sort and upload all my remaining photos from 2010
Started in October 2010
I took far too many photographs last year and as such ended up with a huge backlog to sort out. Still waiting on my hard drive, a pile of photos from a walk in November, a trip to Edinburgh in October and some lovely ones from St Ives in December.
I mean, it’s not like this one is even hard. It’s just that the TV seems to keep calling…
Likely completion: hmm. It needs to be soon… Cos I’ll only take more photos…
Conversion of all of Planet Bods in to the current look and file, and powered by Movable Type
Started in 2006 probably – in part anyway
Many years ago I used to write this website using software called Hitop. Hitop was lovely, but then something called PHP came along and swept the marked. Development on Hitop ceased, and I slowly started migrating the site to PHP instead.
There was no urgency until 2009 when I ended up moving the hosting. I moved it to a virtual server so I could continue to run Hitop on it. However having had no development for several years, getting it installed on a modern Linux server was a right pain in the backside. Suddenly it became important to finally complete the switch the pages to PHP.
At the same time I started building new sites in Movable Type where my blog also sits, using far less PHP and using MT’s inbuilt functions instead. It was then I realised that I had now ended up running sites with three different technologies and the whole thing was a mess. I decided to power everything through Movable Type – there was no reason to do otherwise.
Slowly but surely I’ve been migrating content, and radically simplifying the site structure at the same time. But there’s quite a few bits and pieces still sat there in Hitop. And I’m just hoping that the server doesn’t die. Cos if it does, I might be stuck…
Likely completion: ha! I’m making no predictions on this one
Digitising the cassette tapes of my student radio shows
Started… well… errr… never actually…
See if I started – and finished – this one, I could finally do that “best of” podcast I keep thinking about… I mean, there’s only about five C90s…
Implementation of Transdiffusion website redesign
Started some point in 2009 I think…
Do you get this feeling most of my projects involve the web?
Actually to be fair, this one’s not my fault. Mostly. I just need Russ who is designing it, to do some new assets and things. Quite a lot actually. Then I could write off a huge chunk of the redesign very quickly. So it’s his fault it’s not done.
Although I guess it’s also mine as I’ve not asked him for the assets yet…
Likely completion: some point in 2010? Please?
Digitise all my all CDs
Started in 2006 or something.
And stuff it. This one’s DONE. I finished before Christmas. Well bar the new CDs recently bought. Well why buy downloads? CDs are almost always cheaper…
Rather worryingly, this is about the only project I can think of that I’ve managed to complete…
Edit: after writing this I realised I probably should have included something along the lines of “Get a new job, given I won’t have one beyond the summer”. But frankly it was too depressing to think about…