Very very busy

The fact that I haven't written anything for the past week (and more) reflects that I have been too busy to even consider writing anything. Here is a list of tasks which I have to perform outside of my daily job, along with their priority

1. Prepare for exam in Strategic Planning (7 June)
2. Prepare for holiday (14 June)
3. Support the occupational psychologist
4. Continue sequencing and recording my versions of Van der Graaf Generator songs
5. Work for LaTet

Hopefully that's all.

Apart from attending lectures and preparing exercises, I've also commenced rereading all the theoretical material necessary for the Strategic Planning course. The exam consists of three questions; the first requires examining all the financial data given in a structured manner, which is not hard, but one has to remember all the items in the structure. At the end, one has to make some form of comment. The second question is similar to the first, but here there are no financial figures, only comments about how the company is faring, what problems it is facing, etc. The third question seems to be entirely open, but we have been warned that it is often about the 'agency' problem, which boils down to how two people in the same organisation see things differently. I'm not worried about the exam and feel that my revision is on schedule.

Most of the preparation for the holiday has already been done: I've booked flights, accommodation and excursions. I've even bought video cassettes. Hopefully there's very little left to be done, and what has to be done will be done after the exam.

Fridays I devote to the OP; this schedule seems to be working fine at the moment.

On Saturdays, when I can't read any more about Strategic Planning, I work on the songs. I completed a version of 'Refugees' very quickly; the sequencing took only a few hours, but the vocal (and more to the point, processing the vocal) took longer. I completed an arrangement of 'Pilgrims' but had great difficulty in singing it so I have yet to record a vocal. In the mean time, I discovered that sheet music of this song had appeared on the web; I printed out the staves and compared it to my version - I would say that there was about 95% correspondence, so the alterations needed to my version were minor. For the first time, I have created a guide music track, along with a clarinet playing the tune. Unless things drastically improve, it looks like I am going to record the vocals against the guide track and then mix them with the 'proper' arrangement. This way I should be able to sing the tune properly.

I donated a few more hours to charity yesterday afternoon/evening. The previous week we had talked about a report which monitors the effectiveness of the telephone staff (who call people in order to obtain donations). In a few spare moments at work, I prepared a skeleton version of the report; yesterday I completed the report and debugged it against the real data of the charity. My opposite number was very effusive in her praise; apparently the two hours which the report took me to write will save them innumerable hours and make them more effective. Probably the next task which I will tackle will be recording data about the 6,400 volunteers - I have to define the framework, they'll enter the data - but I won't have much time before my holiday.

And of course, there is always work. The past few weeks have been very intense; I have been occupied with several projects, instead of just turning up and helping people with their latest problems. Well, of course, it's always better to be busy than idle, but I do wish that there were fewer concurrent projects.