It’s Friday with a long holiday weekend coming up and a cyclone heading our way, so motivation to do any work is low. I hate sitting around doing nothing so it’s a day to do little things and try to achieve something.

Well its Friday….. and motivation to do any work is low.  When I worked in an office in the past, no one did any work on a Friday. They say never buy a car built on a Monday or a Friday, as there is a higher risk of something being wrong with it.

Tuesday next week is the national Australia Day holiday, so three quarters of the country is taking a sick day on Monday to make it a 4 day long weekend, despite pleas from the Prime Minister who claims it will damage the economy.

I normally go for a dive when I get in this type of mood. However, ex-cyclone Neville is heading this way and sturring things up. Dive visibility has gone from 16m to 6 m overnight, the wind is picking up to 35 knots, and the clouds are dumping the occasional amounts of heavy rain.

I hate sitting around, so in an effort to achieve something, I have busied myself with the following:-

1. Cleared my email inbox:- Some of those emails have been sitting in there for weeks.
2. Checked the cyclone forecast.
3. Listened to the latest lensflare35 podcast:- Today’s podcast was a round table about  Social and New Media Marketing for photographers. One of the things discussed was the use of profile photos, so……
4. Updated my Flickr, Twitter and Facebook profile photos:- The new photo is not the greatest photo of me (with one friend saying I look like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now), but what do you expect when I am wet from diving and covered in suntan lotion. In any case it is still better than the last photo.
5. Checked the cyclone forecast.
6. Checked up on the latest shots from my Flickr contacts:- While doing this I happened to browse my favorites from other photographers page. Interestingly the selection above indicates I am drawn to the use of strong colors. Colour is also one of the things I enjoy about living in tropical Far North Queensland….. the strong greens of the foliage, strong blues of the water and sky, and strong reds of the flowers….. What does your favorites selection say about you?
7. Called the dentist to setup an appointment for a checkup, but they tell me the first available is mid February…. I guess the global recession has not affected their business.
8. Went to lunch at a local restaurant and read the paper:- There was an article about  Forty Mile Scrub National Park near Cairns, just north of the Undara lava tubes. Apparently at this time of year, thousands of butterflies hatch, and the rain forces the Macropanesthia rhinoceras cockroaches (the world largest cockroach that at 8 cm long are the size of a mouse) out of their burrows….. I need to put this one in the planner for a photography trip.
9. Checked the cyclone forecast.
10. Called cellular operator Telstra to complain about billing me for a service I had not requested.
11. Trimmed my selection of photos on Flickr and other galleries: – There was an interesting blog post from Scott Kelby in December called  How To Become Known As a Better Photographer, which talked about using a smaller number of images in portfolios to improve the overall quality.  Taking the message to heart, I went into several galleries and ruthlessly cut the number of images.
12. Updated my website listings and sitemaps on Google Webmaster Central, Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmasters.
13. Backed up the computer.
14. Checked the cyclone forecast.

The one day cricket match between Australia and Pakistan has just started on television, so I guess my achievements for the day will have to stop there….