I have a terrible habit of spending what little free I have surfing the web rather than writing for it. I just spent the last couple of hours messing with some new Safari extensions (Instapaper Beyond, Firebug for Safari), which led to various excursions into fonts, bookmarking tools (why do I need Zootool when Pinboard works just fine?) and other corners of the web.

Learning about web design and (very poorly) trying to apply some those things here is my hobby, especially with all the new-fangled things going on with HTML5 and CSS3. I have a laundry list of things I would like to accomplish here, from small (use Typekit) to long (complete redesign and move to a new CMS).

I also spend an inordinate amount of time looking for shiny new software toys and not nearly enough time using them to do anything, you know, productive with them. So here is a random rundown of about a week’s worth of time wasting:

• Tried to get smart on version control - moved my development files to a repo on beanstalk and connected it to Coda and Cornerstone.
• Got an account on GitHub and connected my trial copy of Tower to it.
• Read an online book about git.
• Used MAMP to reinstall local copies of WordPress and ExpressionEngine in my search for a new CMS. And then read up on both of them.
• Tried to do the same with Melody, but couldn’t get it to install. Which is kind of ironic since I was able to install local versions of Movable Type from version 5 all the way back to 2.66long-ass-time-ago.
• Purchased the ProductiveMacs bundle. Then messed around with HoudahSpot and Mail Act-On. Yet to install Keyboard Maestro.
• Purchased Codebox from the App Store.
• Messed around with Fantastical…pretty sharp.
• And Alfred…also neat.
• Read through the documentation for HTML5 Boilerplate
• Downloaded trial version of Omnigraffle. Jury still out if it’s worth $99.
• Looked at pretty fonts, too many to link.
• Used OmniFocus to outline short and long term web design projects.
• Looked around for inspiration (color, type, layout) and put the winners into Little Snapper.
• Then tried to figure out what to use Evernote for.
• Downloaded Drupal and Textpattern See above.
• Messed around with Textmate (meh). Then read all kinds of folks bitch about where version 2.0 is.
• In the middle of writing this, I saved the link to the Pinboard extension for Firefox. Gimme credit, though. I didn’t install it.
• Read too much Twitter, but I did unfollow some folks to pare things down.
• Same with NetNewsWire.

Bottom line: More doing. Less looking.