Previously in my past life at Regina Public Schools I was a really busy guy. I needed to be organized or run the risk of missing something important. During my first year I used a paper agenda. I didn’t like my paper agenda. Simply put, it didn’t keep me that well organized. My home-school principle used to use a palm pilot. This pilot was out-of-date according to him. According to me it was big and clunky. So I went to Future Shop out of dire necessity to buy a palm pilot. I needed to organize myself. I bought the $119 model. 
No internet connection, mac software included, extremely plain palm pilot. ( I had to make sure not to distract myself while staying organized) Now at first everybody joked that I was the principle’s little henchman with a matching palm pilot to boot. The joke eventually wore-off. I did however remain amazingly up-to-date on everthing happening in my professional life. (The palm pilot was not invited into my personal life) The palm pilot was great because it kept me organized but it didn’t allow me to get distracted with online access. (or spend too much money… if $119 for an electronic agenda isn’t)
Then the house fire happened this summer. The palm pilot is dead. Well, actually it was melted to the office floor. I couldn’t slip! I wanted to stay organized in my personal life!
After the fire I bought my own Macbook. (Regina Public offers a Macbook to each elementary teacher employed. When I left that school division, I had to buy my own or go without. Please do note that I did plead for the Macbook as a parting gift.) In hopes of staying as organized as possible, I used iCal for my professional work and the house insurance stuff. (which is anything but a walk in the park) iCal was helping keeping me organized, however, to check my schedule it went from a tiny hand-held device that could be powered on and off in a single second to booting up my laptop and loading software. Not really that convenient…
It gets better. Now that I have replaced the iMac that was burnt in the fir
e, I am trying to run one calender on two computers. Do they sync? NO! Not unless you pay a monthly fee to Apple for their Mobile Me service. I guess it really is too much to ask to have a piece of software that syncs on multiple owned devices without having to pay a subscription fee. I have found several tips as to how to get around this dilemma although they seem overly complicated to get one calendar on more then one device.
I went to Future Shop to try and circumvent these frustrations but now you can’t get a plain Palm Pilot. It was explained to me that they are never available and forever out of stock. So now I feel and am as unorganized as previous years. 
I have a very comprehensive calendar set up at home on my iMac where everything gets noted. I also have a paper agenda, (that I especially don’t like because of it’s size) that was given to me by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation that I carry around.
My wish this season is that syncing iCal between owned devices becomes a no-cost issue. I already own the tool and the software. Let me use it effectively!
