Oasis

Various family members have commented upon the simililarity between me and my 9-year-old nephew (Nico). This Christmas vacation has been a fun period to discover them. He has acquired the same taste for books and reading - also preferring to stay at home and read, rather than leave the house to go swimming or whatever. I've taught him Monopoly, and the game appeals to him - I see the beginnings of intermediate game concepts (like denying a color strip to an opponent) in his game. He uses the same manner of teasing his sister as I used to: basically lay claim to something of little importance ("Hey, *I'm* sitting between Uncle and Auntie"), then keep asserting/lording it. He's also acquired an interest in Xenogears, and so we've taken to playing it together. It's been a lot of fun, and has provided me with a small taste of raising a child. It's probably a one-sided experience: few of the responsibilities fall on me - I wouldn't mind if he missed a bath, but my sister (Nico's mom) seems to. The one big issue I see is how much it consumes free time: it's difficult to get some work done while trying to play a game of "Opposite Day". I can only blog because he decided to sleep with his mom instead of with me for a change.

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Me (aloud; to myself): Where does strength come from?
Nico: From within, I think.

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Still not as productive as I want to be. Has www.dexterity.com/articles/get-more-done.htm helped? A little. My work style consists of a lot of reflection and pondering - and so I tend to eat up a lot of time on any non-trivial task (in contrast to my gaming style, where snap decisions and battle instincts rule the day). I think the efficiency loss comes from a failure to keep focus during the entire work duration. This probably goes against the concepts being presented in the article.