No Time To Waste

In this month, we are faced with two massive projects nearing deadlines. The character adventure Gamer Mom, which we are creating in collaboration with Kyler Kelly, has a deadline of March 5th to be finished, and less than a third of it is complete. And the play The Tenth Man opens on the 19th, in which I have a starring role which is a significant departure from my previous performances, and am receiving very little direction. (There's no time for improving my performance when everyone else is doing so much worse.) Either of these tasks would be a challenge to excel at in what little time we have. To attempt both is ludicrous, and yet that is our aim for the month.

Only four characters will be called upon: the Addict, the Worker, the Person and the Programmer. These personalities have been selected because I believe they are capable of focusing on the tasks at hand and not wavering. It will be difficult for all four, each in his own way, but the projects are also guaranteed to prevent countless delights for those who take them seriously. We will begin the year with a daring display of reckless time management. Let no one doubt that we will pull it off.

First activity:	Playing through what the current state of Gamer Mom a few times	0:04
This is the start of a new model of adventure game, the character adventure. A lot of people have been waiting for this game; they just don't know it yet.
Time allocation:	Gamer Mom	9:21
Mundane activities	1:08
Working with Kyler was such a pleasure, I totally forgot it was a fast day. We stayed in contact via IM as we worked, so that if he didn't understand a certain node or if I didn't like something he had done it could be dealt with immediately. And as soon as he finished an image, I was able to immediately put it in the code so he could see how it worked in practice. And then while he worked on the next file, I'd look through the later nodes to see if the image he'd just completed could be reused in other places. Working together, we were racing through development: 127 nodes are ready to publish, and 168 nodes are fully-programmed and designed (but possibly lacking some art). I was (and am) very thankful to have someone as serious as Kyler on my side for this very important project.
Performance review:	Bravo! A word to whoever comes next: don't think that just because the Addict pulled this off, that your job is going to be easy. We have no time for characters who don't pull their weight.
Score:

First activity:

Playing through what the current state of Gamer Mom a few times

0:04

This is the start of a new model of adventure game, the character adventure. A lot of people have been waiting for this game; they just don't know it yet.

Time allocation:

Gamer Mom

9:21

Mundane activities

1:08

Working with Kyler was such a pleasure, I totally forgot it was a fast day. We stayed in contact via IM as we worked, so that if he didn't understand a certain node or if I didn't like something he had done it could be dealt with immediately. And as soon as he finished an image, I was able to immediately put it in the code so he could see how it worked in practice. And then while he worked on the next file, I'd look through the later nodes to see if the image he'd just completed could be reused in other places. Working together, we were racing through development: 127 nodes are ready to publish, and 168 nodes are fully-programmed and designed (but possibly lacking some art). I was (and am) very thankful to have someone as serious as Kyler on my side for this very important project.

Performance review:

Bravo! A word to whoever comes next: don't think that just because the Addict pulled this off, that your job is going to be easy. We have no time for characters who don't pull their weight.

Score:

First activity:	Writing down a plan for my performance in Trial By Jury, so that I should not forget it	0:18
This will be a new type of challenge for me. Generally I deal with coding and logic; today I deal with resolving two contradictory interpretations of a fictional character. In a nutshell, the challenge is that he needs to be both disturbed and relatable. So I need to find moments in which I can reveal a hidden edge, while otherwise seeming fairly normal.
Time allocation:	The Tenth Man	1:35
Mundane activities	1:31
Blog maintenance	0:11
Programming a backup script	0:07
What a clever little puzzle this was. You see, it was a trick question. I will explain. The nature of the character is understood to me, and it will come out in little details during the character's monologues and in other moments of stress. These details have been practiced and are being done consistently in the rehearsals. But those details are not going to make the character seem normal. And in fact, any plans at all which I can write down and perform on cue are not going to make the character relatable to the audience because the audience does not think of their lives as being staged. The way forward, is that little aphorism which Batsheva Garnett kept reciting back in 1776: "Don't act.". I can't come in thinking I know what I'm going to do, and preparing to do it and keeping it all straight in my head. The harder I work to convey the character to the audience like that, the less of an everyman he will be. The solution is to go against my nature and not plan, but instead listen to everyone else on stage, be as weary as Arthur Brooks is, and stop worrying. What will make the "hidden edge" effective is that in the rest of the performance I will be completely unassuming. So when I start acting, it will blow the audience away. They won't expect the amount of energy that I am putting into these monologues from this everyman of a character. It's perfect, and it requires little effort from me outside of the rehearsals, which will occupy many hours this month. And with this tidy little answer, the Thinker's plan for the month is revealed to be misguided. The Addict, who is biased by definition, said he would need tens of hours to work on the play aside from the rehearsals. And the Thinker concluded that we would need to work on the game and the play in equal measure. But if I take the right attitude in the rehearsals -that I am Arthur Brooks observing the other characters' nonsense- then we will not need any extra time. So I would instead recommend that we focus on the game when at home, and focus on the play when away.
Performance review:	A short and apparently easy day, but an illuminating one nonetheless. Thank you, Programmer. We will of course continue this discussion in private.
Score:

First activity:

Writing down a plan for my performance in Trial By Jury, so that I should not forget it

0:18

This will be a new type of challenge for me. Generally I deal with coding and logic; today I deal with resolving two contradictory interpretations of a fictional character. In a nutshell, the challenge is that he needs to be both disturbed and relatable. So I need to find moments in which I can reveal a hidden edge, while otherwise seeming fairly normal.

Time allocation:

The Tenth Man

1:35

Mundane activities

1:31

Blog maintenance

0:11

Programming a backup script

0:07

What a clever little puzzle this was. You see, it was a trick question. I will explain. The nature of the character is understood to me, and it will come out in little details during the character's monologues and in other moments of stress. These details have been practiced and are being done consistently in the rehearsals. But those details are not going to make the character seem normal. And in fact, any plans at all which I can write down and perform on cue are not going to make the character relatable to the audience because the audience does not think of their lives as being staged. The way forward, is that little aphorism which Batsheva Garnett kept reciting back in 1776: "Don't act.". I can't come in thinking I know what I'm going to do, and preparing to do it and keeping it all straight in my head. The harder I work to convey the character to the audience like that, the less of an everyman he will be. The solution is to go against my nature and not plan, but instead listen to everyone else on stage, be as weary as Arthur Brooks is, and stop worrying. What will make the "hidden edge" effective is that in the rest of the performance I will be completely unassuming. So when I start acting, it will blow the audience away. They won't expect the amount of energy that I am putting into these monologues from this everyman of a character. It's perfect, and it requires little effort from me outside of the rehearsals, which will occupy many hours this month.

And with this tidy little answer, the Thinker's plan for the month is revealed to be misguided. The Addict, who is biased by definition, said he would need tens of hours to work on the play aside from the rehearsals. And the Thinker concluded that we would need to work on the game and the play in equal measure. But if I take the right attitude in the rehearsals -that I am Arthur Brooks observing the other characters' nonsense- then we will not need any extra time. So I would instead recommend that we focus on the game when at home, and focus on the play when away.

Performance review:

A short and apparently easy day, but an illuminating one nonetheless. Thank you, Programmer. We will of course continue this discussion in private.

Score:

First activity:	Wasting time	1:11
19:41 - Gamer Mom 23:20 - fix up the conference room 00:30 - Practice lines for The Tenth Man 1:00 - Organize the "Spider-Island" comic book crossover 2:00 - Score. Today is going to be perfect.
Time allocation:	Gamer Mom	4:12
Mundane activities	1:40
The conference room	0:47
The Tenth Man	0:35
Kyler and I have Gamer Mom ready up to node 138. I mostly finished the code that will allow us to view The Rules directly from the conference room. I would have finished, if I had not run into a glitch which I don't understand. (I'm hoping the Programmer will figure it out.) I practiced the first half of the play. I took a break in the middle of Gamer Mom of 41 minutes -I forget why. Then Kyler was willing to work, so I decided it was worth going late so that I could spend some more time on the game with him. When we reached a good stopping point, I rescheduled, cutting the conference room time in half and removing the comics. I regret none of these decisions except for the break. I honestly don't remember what that was about, so it may be an error in my timekeeping.
Performance review:	Not bad at all, despite the lazy attitude you started from. I agree that your decisions in revising the schedule were sensible. I am also impressed that you were willing to lose the comics.
Score:

First activity:

Wasting time

1:11

19:41 - Gamer Mom
23:20 - fix up the conference room
00:30 - Practice lines for The Tenth Man
1:00 - Organize the "Spider-Island" comic book crossover
2:00 - Score.

Today is going to be perfect.

Time allocation:

Gamer Mom

4:12

Mundane activities

1:40

The conference room

0:47

The Tenth Man

0:35

Kyler and I have Gamer Mom ready up to node 138.
I mostly finished the code that will allow us to view The Rules directly from the conference room. I would have finished, if I had not run into a glitch which I don't understand. (I'm hoping the Programmer will figure it out.)
I practiced the first half of the play.

I took a break in the middle of Gamer Mom of 41 minutes -I forget why. Then Kyler was willing to work, so I decided it was worth going late so that I could spend some more time on the game with him. When we reached a good stopping point, I rescheduled, cutting the conference room time in half and removing the comics. I regret none of these decisions except for the break. I honestly don't remember what that was about, so it may be an error in my timekeeping.

Performance review:

Not bad at all, despite the lazy attitude you started from. I agree that your decisions in revising the schedule were sensible. I am also impressed that you were willing to lose the comics.

Score:

First activity:	Wasting time on the internet	1:25

Time allocation:	The Tenth Man	6:11
Mundane activities	6:00
Hanging out with Moshe	4:39

Notes:	Moshe came over, and we had a good time. We finished Uncharted 2, talked a lot, and I forced to watch a bit of Sherlock, which he didn't like at all. I showed him the conference room, which I'd told him about several times, but apparently he had misunderstood because he was under the impression it was going to be an artificial intelligence program where all my eight personalities would actually be programmed in. Sidestepping the fact that it needs to all be coming from myself to have value, artificial intelligence on that level (which can actually be engaging, rather than a gimmick) has never been invented by even the greatest minds of our generation. So I was taken aback when Moshe was disappointed - evidently he thinks I'm Willy Wonka. We parted ways so that I could head to my play rehearsal, which was an unmitigated disaster. I was standing on the side watching for some of it, and even those points where the actors were saying their lines at the right cues were not particularly entertaining. Maybe it will all turn around in the next few week, but I came home dejected. I then watched the latest Sherlock -or rather, I waited a few hours for the episode to be available and then to be downloaded, by which time it was too late according to the Rules to watch it and then I watched it anyway. Unfortunately, it was a bad episode.
Performance review:	I think you took advantage of whatever social opportunities you had. But then you kept going, without any social opportunities. You should have spoken to me, and I would have relieved you -but that is not your problem: I will have the Worker make the conference room inescapable for a few minutes, as was in the design for the program.
Score:

First activity:

Wasting time on the internet

1:25

Time allocation:

The Tenth Man

6:11

Mundane activities

6:00

Hanging out with Moshe

4:39

Notes:

Moshe came over, and we had a good time. We finished Uncharted 2, talked a lot, and I forced to watch a bit of Sherlock, which he didn't like at all. I showed him the conference room, which I'd told him about several times, but apparently he had misunderstood because he was under the impression it was going to be an artificial intelligence program where all my eight personalities would actually be programmed in. Sidestepping the fact that it needs to all be coming from myself to have value, artificial intelligence on that level (which can actually be engaging, rather than a gimmick) has never been invented by even the greatest minds of our generation. So I was taken aback when Moshe was disappointed - evidently he thinks I'm Willy Wonka. We parted ways so that I could head to my play rehearsal, which was an unmitigated disaster. I was standing on the side watching for some of it, and even those points where the actors were saying their lines at the right cues were not particularly entertaining. Maybe it will all turn around in the next few week, but I came home dejected. I then watched the latest Sherlock -or rather, I waited a few hours for the episode to be available and then to be downloaded, by which time it was too late according to the Rules to watch it and then I watched it anyway. Unfortunately, it was a bad episode.

Performance review:

I think you took advantage of whatever social opportunities you had. But then you kept going, without any social opportunities. You should have spoken to me, and I would have relieved you -but that is not your problem: I will have the Worker make the conference room inescapable for a few minutes, as was in the design for the program.

Score:

Notes:	The day was not written down, and it wasn't really any particular attitude either. There was music played, there was the game The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, there was a play rehearsal (which was more successful than I expected); and I forget what else I did. There was no use of the conference room, which is how this happened. (So far its use has been voluntary rather than mandatory. This will be corrected.)
Score:

Notes:

The day was not written down, and it wasn't really any particular attitude either. There was music played, there was the game The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, there was a play rehearsal (which was more successful than I expected); and I forget what else I did. There was no use of the conference room, which is how this happened. (So far its use has been voluntary rather than mandatory. This will be corrected.)

Score:

First activity:	Cleaning up the Person's messes	0:19
First activity (after rehearsal):	Making myself some tea	uncounted
12:05 - Dentist's appointment (yes, again.) 1:30 - The Tenth Man, especially final monologue 4:00 - Add timer and signature to conference room (Don't go to game night, there's not enough time.) 12:00 - write e-mail 1:30 - Comics 2:00 - score. I'm not good enough, but today is going to be perfect.
Time allocation:	The Tenth Man	2:20
Mundane activities	2:15
E-mail	2:09
Conference room	0:57
Dentist's appointment	0:44
Comics	0:37
Notes:	The day was paused for a rehearsal, which took 6:46.
I went over the lines for the second half of the play. I implemented the timer and lock-in for the conference room. I wrote a lengthy e-mail. I started organizing the "Spider-Island" comic book crossover. I got home from the rehearsal later than expected, so the Thinker allowed me to reschedule past 3:00. This led to some wasted time, but it let me get everything done.
Performance review:	In retrospect, I should have said you should cut out the e-mail. It could have been done at a later time. Regardless, this is solid work.
Score:

First activity:

Cleaning up the Person's messes

0:19

First activity (after rehearsal):

Making myself some tea

uncounted

12:05 - Dentist's appointment (yes, again.)
1:30 - The Tenth Man, especially final monologue
4:00 - Add timer and signature to conference room
(Don't go to game night, there's not enough time.)
12:00 - write e-mail
1:30 - Comics
2:00 - score.

I'm not good enough, but today is going to be perfect.

Time allocation:

The Tenth Man