Bonne Chance @ DAHplaytime

Monkey Memory Matters

Monkey:  You know, I can hear you muttering from way over here.

DAH:  Sorry.

Monkey:  For what? Disturbing my slumbers?

DAH:  Were you sleeping?

Monkey:  No.

DAH:  You think you're pretty funny, don't you?

Monkey:  I am pretty funny. Don't forget, I'm the funniest part of you.

DAH:  I won't forget. I promise.

Monkey:  So, what are you muttering about? Sounded like "detox hero dismember the elk."

DAH:  Well, that's certainly funnier than what I was muttering. I was repeating "inbox zero, remember the milk."

Monkey:  Which also sounds pretty weird. Monkey says, "Stay inside today, or you may be arrested."

DAH:  I'm trying to establish new habits. I've tried both these things before, and I couldn't make them work or stick.

Monkey:  You got some 'splainin' to do, DAH-boy.

DAH:  "Inbox Zero" is this idea promulgated by Merlin Mann. Pretty much, he's suggesting that you should end every day with an empty email inbox. Sort of the digital parallel to handling each piece of incoming paper only once - take action or discard or file.

Monkey:  You're just trying to impress me by using the word "promulgated" aren't you? Thought you'd get me running for my dictionary.

DAH:  You don't have a dictionary. Besides, it's quicker to just do a web search for "define: promulgate."

Monkey:  Monkeys don't web. And I don't think you're using that word correctly. Are you sure you don't mean propagate?

DAH:  I'm sure.

Monkey:  OK. So, what's this "dismember the elk" thing?

DAH:  "Remember The Milk." It's an online to-do list program I started checking out last year, but I never quite clicked with it.

Monkey:  Why bother?

DAH:  I have a mix of things I have to remember to do, some on a regular schedule. But it's a mix of personal and work stuff, and I could never figure out how to do it all in one place. Remember The Milk let's me keep separate task lists for personal and work stuff, but consolidates them in a single task list schedule for me to work off of.

Monkey:  You're emptying your email inbox and organizing your tasks, is that it?

DAH:  That's it.

Monkey:  Why?

DAH:  Because I used to finish each week dissatisfied with what I'd accomplished, and over-anxious about being behind. If I empty my inbox and organize my tasks, I think I'll be happier and healthier.

Monkey:  So we can take more trips to the seaside, always with a light and merry heart?

DAH:  That's right, little buddy.

Monkey:  I'm not your little buddy. I'm a monkey!

DAH:  Sorry.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at DAHplaytime.com. Chaussette de Singe has a photo included in this post, just for the heck of it.

Bonne Chance: Make Your Own Luck Tip'O'The'Week!

"BE A MOMENTUM PLAYER. Wherever there are people, there are opportunities. Whether you choose to engage those people or not is up to you. To keep the opportunities coming, you can't be shy. If you can't be outgoing in person, work the phones. If you can't work the phones, write. Whatever it takes, you have to stay in touch with as many people as possible if you want to parlay one opportunity into the next. Keep a month-at-a-glance planner just for names of luck-makers with whom you should touch base. Then push for lunch and talk about what the other person is up to."

(from "How to Make Luck" by Marc Myers, Renaissance Books 1999)

Monkey has nothing to do with this tip. Monkey just wanted a new picture taken.

DAH is David Anthony Hance at dahplaytime.com

AMP's September Monkey

FINDING DAH ...

Email me at dah@pacific.net

For friends and friending, find me on Facebook

For professional linkage, find me on LinkedIn

For theater, and random frolicsome fun , find me on Tumblr

For 140 character (max) mini-posts, find me on Twitter

For photos, find me on Flickr

For wine business stuff, read me at Vin Create

For Zinfandel, read me at Zinsite

For old vine wines, read me at Steampunk Wines

Saturday In The Park (well, Plaza)

DAH's Serendipitous September Saturday Survey of the Scene in SLO Mission Plaza. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY.

S. Monkey & Chaussette de Singe Get Beaching

Monkeys went to the beach on Labor Day 2010. Outdoorsy. See five more images here: http://picasaweb.google.com/101645986274035771415/MonkeysAtTheBeach?feat=directlink

Monkey Al Fresco

Monkey: Al Fresco! Al Fresco! Al Fresco!

DAH: What on earth are you shouting about?

Monkey: Al Fresco! I'm thinking of changing my name.

DAH: Now you sound like me.

Monkey: Nah … my voice is way lower.

DAH: That's interesting, in my mind it sounds higher.

Monkey: Better reboot your imagination, recalibrate your monkey-monitor.

DAH: I'll be sure and set aside some special time for that project. So, what's this al fresco business?

Monkey: I'm feeling all outdoorsy.

DAH: I guess you are almost always indoors. What do you want? Like camping, or a picnic?

Monkey: Let's go see a play! Or a concert! Al Fresco!

DAH: It really feels like you're inside my head sometimes, you know? I've been thinking a lot about outdoor entertainments recently.

Monkey: That's a shocker.

DAH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I have been thinking a lot about al fresco entertainments. I went to the Brickyard Theatre production of "Quilters" in Atascadero on Friday.

Monkey: That's the show CHance is in, right?

DAH: Right. It's a delightful show, and CHance is great in it. All the women in the cast are great.

Monkey: What about the men?

DAH: No men in "Quilters."

Monkey: What about the monkeys?

DAH: No monkeys in "Quilters."

Monkey: Yet you enjoyed it? Even sans simian?

DAH: Even sans simian, disappointing as that must be to you. Here's my point, though: "Quilters" at the Brickyard Theatre is outdoors, on a patio. We sit at little four-top tables, we get served dinner, and the stage is right there.

Monkey: You performed outdoors this summer, too, didn't you, DAH?

DAH: Yeah. More outdoors than "Quilters," which had come containment from the house walls … did I mention that the Brickyard Theatre is just a private home that has a play produced there once a year?

Monkey: Somehow I kinda knew that. Monkey mind meld or something.

DAH: There's distraction outdoors, competition for audience attention. Like being at the drive-in instead of in the movie theater.

Monkey: Everybody's making out in the back seat?

DAH: Not exactly. It's that the entertainers or entertainment have to be especially compelling and insistent to hold attention and make meaning.

Monkey: And you like that?

DAH: I really like that. It raises the stakes, and makes the actors really work it, really bring it, because it is so much easier for their work to be lost of diffused on its way to the audience.

Monkey: And there's magic outside.

DAH: Oh, yes. There's magic outside.

Monkey: Let's go to the beach.

DAH: Wow. That's a non-sequitor.

Monkey: The beach is outside.

DAH: That was my plan for last weekend. I was going to take you to the beach and write about negative ions.

Monkey: Screw that. You've already written this al fresco entertainment thing. Let's just go have fun.

DAH: Good idea.

Monkey: Al Fresco! Al Fresco! Al Fresco!

DAH is David Anthony Hance. Monkey is somewhere inside snapping synapses.