One of the main things about Kanban is the limits on how many open tickets are allowed in any stage of the workflow. I’m planning on using this to improve the situation of my reading list.

My (very long) reading list is just like a long backlog. I also keep starting to read books – and never seem to finish most of them. I’ve usually got at least a dozen books in progress at any given point in time. Which means my throughput (when measured by how many books I read every month, say) is very low.

So – I’m now going to impose limits. I’m only ever going to have say 3 books in my “next-in-line” stage, and only 2 books in the “currently-reading” stage.

I feel like this should improve the situation. I will report back on this in a few weeks…

Superb direction, great acting – one of the reasons why I liked the movie so much is the way it captures the spirit of being Indian. It’s sort of this – yes, we know we are a poor country, we know there are many social problems, yet we all have these dreams, and we do what we can to try and achieve them… we struggle against reality and luck, we believe in destiny and fate, we understand things about each other (maybe too well!), and we’re all trying to make ends meet, and to make things happen.

And when we see one of us getting there, we all wish them luck, together… just like that unknown old lady on the streets of Mumbai who caught sight of Jamal inside the police van, “my prayers are with you son, go and win!”.

That’s India.

- Monsters, Inc. – One of Pixar’s best!

- Ratatouille – Pixar’s best. So far.

- Gattaca – A sci-fi classic, one of the top 100 for sure!

- Aladdin – An old one – a throwback to being in school and watching Disney cartoons on the weekends.

- A Scanner Darkly – Another of Richard Linklater’s kick-ass movies – similar to Waking Life.

- Blade Runner – Another sci-fi classic, and also on the top 100.

- Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 – Can’t decide if this series makes it into the list or not – still, a good watch.

- Bender’s Game – a funny one, especially if you like Futurama. Lots of references to popular movies, poking fun at them all

I’m sorry to see the holidays come to an end… but hey, 2009 promises to be a lot of fun too! Happy new year, everyone!

Catching the big fish

This book is a short one – basically a bunch of one or two page long essays. Almost like a printed blog. He talks about meditation and creativity and his movie-making process. Very cool bunch of articles.

If you are into David Lynch’s movies, then I really recommend this book. Meanwhile, I’ve really gotten interested in the whole transcendental meditation thing. Guess I need to pick up a couple of books on the topic.

I had been eyeing the Kindle as soon as I first read about it on scattered blogs… back in August 2007. And the moment it was released on Nov 19th, I just had to 1-click order it. What a great idea that turned out to be! (Thanks again, Deepthi!)

First of all, it has been unavailable since. They sold out of it in about six hours, so it appears I was one of the lucky few to get my hands on one. And second, it absolutely rocks! I put in a 2GB card in it, and I already have about a hundred books in it. It can hold about two thousand.

I can read from the device very comfortably – there have been multiple occasions when I forgot I wasn’t holding a real book, and tried to turn a physical page. Speaking of which, the two large buttons to turn pages are perfect… some people have complained that the design is such that you can’t hold the device properly without touching one of them… but with the jacket that it comes with the design is just right. Very comfortable indeed.

The search works really nicely, and the experimental features are cool as well… especially the basic web-browser. It comes with built-in EVDO wireless from Sprint, so if you get bored with what content is on the device, you can buy more from the Kindle store. Instantly. It can also be used for blog subscription updates (a service I don’t use), and also for automatic delivery of electronic newspapers. Really cool.

The coolest thing is that since it’s all software, it can be upgraded! I can’t wait for the next version, I bet it will pack even more fun and useful stuff. Anyway… the Amazon Kindle… super-highly-recommended!

In the meantime, what I did end up buying was iLife ’08 and iWork ’08. Bwaahahaha!

They rock – each piece of software on those two DVDs is excellent. More details to follow as I get into using them in more depth.

It also lets you set wallpapers on the home screen, and things like that… and the installation of new applications is super-easy! Just like a package manager on a linux system (for instance, Synaptic on Ubuntu). And the home-screen is now scrollable, so I can add as many apps as I want!

Awesome stuff!

Other things in Balboa Park were nice as well… it incidently has a very Spanish feel to it… I do believe it was meant as the motif of the place.

I don’t know when I’ll find the time though – I have a mile long list of things do get done…

Should the need arise, so to speak.

This picture is from about 30 minutes south of where I lived in Monterey in 2004. Deepthi and I went back there to visit in 2006.