One Hour Per Day

Dig into Blender. Get Cinelerra to compile on the MacBook. Read Domain-Driven Design. Write my build-management app. Find more pictures to delete. Take more pictures.

…or…

Spend time with my wife.

I get (or should only use) one hour of time for myself every evening. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but after chores that’s usually what is left. And yet I’ve got all these great things that I would like to get done:

I want to dig into Blender because a) it’s a great tool, and b) I really want to generate a first-rate virtual walkthrough of the new building. Even if I just settle for rendering photorealistic interiors, there’s a lot of time to be spent learning the tool, modeling, texturing, lighting, etc.

I want Cinelerra to compile because it’s probably the best video editor I’ll own for under $300 (if you can ignore the file format problem). That it costs no money at all is even better. However, it certainly isn’t free. I’ve already spent a HUGE amount of time trying to get it to work, so far without success. By the time I finally get it working, I’ll be able to spend $100 for Adobe Premiere Elements for Mac and be done with it, anyway.

I want to read <b>Domain-Driven Design</b> to a) help with my build-management app, but mostly b) to help with my career. It looks like the kind of design book I’ve been needing to read. And after that, there’s the Fowler book. Then LINQ. And I can always practice by developing a tool that will help at work – my build-management app.

And photography is probably my life hobby. Even when I “stored” the camera in the bedroom, it came back out after a week. I just can’t leave it alone.

But, of course, I am married to a beautiful girl. I really enjoy spending time with her: talking with her, laughing about the day, planning for the next, and all the other things that husbands and wives do.

One hour per day.

It is kinda funny, but also infinitely wise that God provided two great ways for us to reveal,.judge, and improve our character – money and time.

We get as much money as the world thinks we’re worth, and each person is (rightly or wrongly) valued differently. How we spend our money, however, is a function of character, not income. Both upper and lower economic classes have people with both good and bad character. And their checkbooks usually tell the tale.

But God gave each of us the same number of hours in a day. Twenty-four of them. None is richer, none is poorer; we all have the same amount of time in a day. Sure, you could say that some have more days than others. But no one knows how many days they have left. So we’re stuck with the time we have today.

When the better priority sleeps next to me every night, why do I feel so driven to get it wrong?