Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack go under limbo stick
I am still in limbo in reference to my project. It may not be either of the options earlier presented, and I may be working remotely next week, which would be the ideal situation. Only time will tell.
I saw a link today where one of the groups that Mrs. Kerry donates money had posted a link to the story about Pat Tillman who I was talking about two days ago. They posted the story with the reference to him in the title being "dumb jock". The commentary below on the message board was talking about how he is a stupid rich guy who deserved to die. Very dissappointing that anyone would say things like that, and also dissappointing that Mrs. Kerry would finacially support an organization that would do that.
I try to leave work before or after rush hour, so I hate it when my work ends right in the middle of rush hour. What a pain. I plan my whole day around avoiding traffic. It just seems like a waste to have a longer commute when changing your timing by an hour that it can take half as long.
OK - speaking of traffic, I'm going to try and brave it out!
Jack go under limbo stick
I am still in limbo in reference to my project. It may not be either of the options earlier presented, and I may be working remotely next week, which would be the ideal situation. Only time will tell.
I saw a link today where one of the groups that Mrs. Kerry donates money had posted a link to the story about Pat Tillman who I was talking about two days ago. They posted the story with the reference to him in the title being "dumb jock". The commentary below on the message board was talking about how he is a stupid rich guy who deserved to die. Very dissappointing that anyone would say things like that, and also dissappointing that Mrs. Kerry would finacially support an organization that would do that.
I try to leave work before or after rush hour, so I hate it when my work ends right in the middle of rush hour. What a pain. I plan my whole day around avoiding traffic. It just seems like a waste to have a longer commute when changing your timing by an hour that it can take half as long.
OK - speaking of traffic, I'm going to try and brave it out!
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind...
I am in project limbo. Monday I could be in ATL, D.C. or Chicago. You've gotta love that. So Kent or Christina, I may come visit soon! There are fun project people in Chicago, but the role in D.C. seems better for me and I would get to be home more often. To quote Master and Commander, (which I watched last night) it's picking the "lesser of two weavils."
Random subject change: One thing I don't fully understand is radio traffic reports. It's like they have a competition to see who can have the most reports, but it generally makes me change the channel unless it is really short. Perhaps I am unique that there are not too many options in my driving pattern. But if I hear the highway ahead is slow, I am going to keep driving on it, b/c taking an alternate route is almost always going to be longer. Unless I hear a highway is virtually shutdown, or stopped for a long time I will drive the same. But generally the side streets are so clogged on a traffic nightmare day that advance notice won't help. I think some people just want to know for the sake of knowing. Traffic is not interesting to know/hear about unless it will allow you to change you route, which seems is almost never the case. And don't even get me started about the ajc column that talks about the traffic mishaps from the day before.
Anyway, while I'm waiting for my fate, I am also writing an article for a work newsletter about blogging. It seems random, but I'll do that today and likely post some or all of it after I'm done.
I am in project limbo. Monday I could be in ATL, D.C. or Chicago. You've gotta love that. So Kent or Christina, I may come visit soon! There are fun project people in Chicago, but the role in D.C. seems better for me and I would get to be home more often. To quote Master and Commander, (which I watched last night) it's picking the "lesser of two weavils."
Random subject change: One thing I don't fully understand is radio traffic reports. It's like they have a competition to see who can have the most reports, but it generally makes me change the channel unless it is really short. Perhaps I am unique that there are not too many options in my driving pattern. But if I hear the highway ahead is slow, I am going to keep driving on it, b/c taking an alternate route is almost always going to be longer. Unless I hear a highway is virtually shutdown, or stopped for a long time I will drive the same. But generally the side streets are so clogged on a traffic nightmare day that advance notice won't help. I think some people just want to know for the sake of knowing. Traffic is not interesting to know/hear about unless it will allow you to change you route, which seems is almost never the case. And don't even get me started about the ajc column that talks about the traffic mishaps from the day before.
Anyway, while I'm waiting for my fate, I am also writing an article for a work newsletter about blogging. It seems random, but I'll do that today and likely post some or all of it after I'm done.
Monday, April 26, 2004
I got a new laptop on Friday, and it is pretty slick. It starts up a lot faster, and I haven't "lost control" yet, when you click something then you freeze up for ten seconds or so. It also has a DVD player, but it does have a new negative. Chrissy got me a new mouse very recently, but this new laptop does not have a port for my PS/2 mouse. I'll likely have to get a new mouse that can plug into the USB port. Also it has XP, to which I have used a good bit but haven' t really warmed up to yet. It's fine though, and overall I am pleased.
On a more somber note, I keep thinking about this guy Pat Tillman. He was a NFL player being paid millions, and after 9/11 he passed up another multimillion dollar contract in the NFL and joined the Army Rangers to support his country. He was just killed in Afghanistan - quite sad, but what a heroic story. This guy has everything he wants, but wants to go and fight the terrorism groups that caused 9/11. If you haven't read up on this story you really should.
On a side note, I think an incredible aspect of our military is that they are all volunteers. There are a bunch of Democrats (and one or two Republicans) who are trying to re-instate the draft right now. Note that I feel we should draft if we need people to defend our country and don't have enough volunteers, but after 9/11 we have had an amble supply of volunteers such as Pat Tillman. These legislators are unhappy that the military doesn't have as many volunteers from the upper class as they would like, so they want a wider sampling of the population through a draft. They also feel there would be more public outrage at going to war if there was a chance someone you know could be pulled against their will. This is stupid to me, as we have no need for additional people to be drafted. If we really needed people then this would be fine, but doing this when there is no need is just politicizing the troops in Iraq now. If more poor people want to join the military just to get their education paid for, I think that is admirable and don't have a problem with it.
Anyway, on this rainy morning, my thoughts go out to Pat Tillman. Rest in Peace, because you have served your country and have been an inspiration to us all.
On a more somber note, I keep thinking about this guy Pat Tillman. He was a NFL player being paid millions, and after 9/11 he passed up another multimillion dollar contract in the NFL and joined the Army Rangers to support his country. He was just killed in Afghanistan - quite sad, but what a heroic story. This guy has everything he wants, but wants to go and fight the terrorism groups that caused 9/11. If you haven't read up on this story you really should.
On a side note, I think an incredible aspect of our military is that they are all volunteers. There are a bunch of Democrats (and one or two Republicans) who are trying to re-instate the draft right now. Note that I feel we should draft if we need people to defend our country and don't have enough volunteers, but after 9/11 we have had an amble supply of volunteers such as Pat Tillman. These legislators are unhappy that the military doesn't have as many volunteers from the upper class as they would like, so they want a wider sampling of the population through a draft. They also feel there would be more public outrage at going to war if there was a chance someone you know could be pulled against their will. This is stupid to me, as we have no need for additional people to be drafted. If we really needed people then this would be fine, but doing this when there is no need is just politicizing the troops in Iraq now. If more poor people want to join the military just to get their education paid for, I think that is admirable and don't have a problem with it.
Anyway, on this rainy morning, my thoughts go out to Pat Tillman. Rest in Peace, because you have served your country and have been an inspiration to us all.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
It has been a good, varied weekend. I didn't post yesterday because I slept a lot of the day after staying out on Friday not. Not really late, but enough that I was still tired. The party was good. They had an even guy girl ratio, which doesn't even seem strange anymore since I haven't been by Tech as often. It was the Pharmacy fraternity, and they had bamboo up everywhere. People were playing beer pong. I hadn't seen that in years, and you almost forget there are people still playing it. They had plenty of Jello shots, which I was insisted to try. They also had live music. Chrissy and I were some of the oldest people there, but I didn't think we stood out that much. We probably stood out by being married more than being old. Chrissy's friends thinks she never drinks, because she doesn't go out drinking with them so they were surprised to hear she wasn't drinking due to drinking a good bit the night before. Funny.
So Saturday was sleeping in an bumming around. Chrissy and I also looked for last minute vacation deals throughout the afternoon. We want to go visit JR and Claire in Eastern Europe, but the flight are quite expensive. And we have to figure out transportation as we may want to visit more than Hungary an Slovenia. We are also looking at a cruise through the Gulf, which would be fun as Chrissy has never been on a cruise. But her parents LOVE cruising.
Carter and Anit came up Saturday late afternoon - we were going to try to do Friday plans, but Carter, Anit and Chris could all not go due to work. How crazy is it that all three of them are held up by work! We invited everyone up to Athens for UGApolluza (spelling?), but Chris had already made plans for Sat. night. But our fearless foursome had fun going around Athens, and watching all the people out for Twilight - a yearly Athens biking tradition. We ate at Five Star Day, which hasn't wowed me as much the past few times, but at least Anit really enjoyed it.
The UGApolluza concert was awesome, which for those of you that don't know is totally without music - vocals only. It was a little long (3 hours or so) but it flies because there were so many different groups performing. I have decided that I don't really like the groups where they are trying to show off how vocally talented they are - like singing a "beautiful song you have never heard before". I like it when they sing entertaining songs, and especially songs that are surprising. Like songs that you would never expect to be sung a cappella. Random one's including Brittney Spears "Toxic", and one of Weird Al's polka remixes. You can't go wrong with Weird Al. The Emory group "Aural Pleasure" was likely the most energetic, and fun to watch. The "Bell Tower Boys" from Furman were also awesome - "Look at me, I'm a train".
All day today was strapping on the tool belt. We put in the Garage door opener, which took longer that we expected because we had to adjust the door itself a little bit. We probably worked 9 hours with Chrissy's parents on it. They are very handy, and come up to help us often. I'm glad I have a good relationship with my in-laws, since it seems so many people don't. We ended the night going out to Outback for Jimmy my brother-in-law's birthday, which was much tamer than when Chrissy and I took him out for his actual birthday on Thursday. Jimmy had a pitcher of beer, while Chrissy and I split a pitcher of quite strong Margaritas. Jimmy's girlfriend was our designated driver because she is not 21 yet. Funny.
I'm working from home tomorrow. That makes the weekend ending a lot less painful. Bon soir, tout le monde!
So Saturday was sleeping in an bumming around. Chrissy and I also looked for last minute vacation deals throughout the afternoon. We want to go visit JR and Claire in Eastern Europe, but the flight are quite expensive. And we have to figure out transportation as we may want to visit more than Hungary an Slovenia. We are also looking at a cruise through the Gulf, which would be fun as Chrissy has never been on a cruise. But her parents LOVE cruising.
Carter and Anit came up Saturday late afternoon - we were going to try to do Friday plans, but Carter, Anit and Chris could all not go due to work. How crazy is it that all three of them are held up by work! We invited everyone up to Athens for UGApolluza (spelling?), but Chris had already made plans for Sat. night. But our fearless foursome had fun going around Athens, and watching all the people out for Twilight - a yearly Athens biking tradition. We ate at Five Star Day, which hasn't wowed me as much the past few times, but at least Anit really enjoyed it.
The UGApolluza concert was awesome, which for those of you that don't know is totally without music - vocals only. It was a little long (3 hours or so) but it flies because there were so many different groups performing. I have decided that I don't really like the groups where they are trying to show off how vocally talented they are - like singing a "beautiful song you have never heard before". I like it when they sing entertaining songs, and especially songs that are surprising. Like songs that you would never expect to be sung a cappella. Random one's including Brittney Spears "Toxic", and one of Weird Al's polka remixes. You can't go wrong with Weird Al. The Emory group "Aural Pleasure" was likely the most energetic, and fun to watch. The "Bell Tower Boys" from Furman were also awesome - "Look at me, I'm a train".
All day today was strapping on the tool belt. We put in the Garage door opener, which took longer that we expected because we had to adjust the door itself a little bit. We probably worked 9 hours with Chrissy's parents on it. They are very handy, and come up to help us often. I'm glad I have a good relationship with my in-laws, since it seems so many people don't. We ended the night going out to Outback for Jimmy my brother-in-law's birthday, which was much tamer than when Chrissy and I took him out for his actual birthday on Thursday. Jimmy had a pitcher of beer, while Chrissy and I split a pitcher of quite strong Margaritas. Jimmy's girlfriend was our designated driver because she is not 21 yet. Funny.
I'm working from home tomorrow. That makes the weekend ending a lot less painful. Bon soir, tout le monde!
Friday, April 23, 2004
And all you fellas leave your girl at a friends
cause it's 11:30 and the club is jumping jumping!
It's 11:30 and the club is jumping, jumping, but I am taking my fly girl with me. I'm kind of tired from an early morning, but there is a party going on here in A-town so we're there.
See, I'm hip, I'm cool. Dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka. (Said while doing the macarena.) Going out with the kids is kind of a blast from the past, even though I didn't really do the party scene that much in college. It kind of makes feel older to see them all so young.
Good news of the day: I didn't get sent to the project I wanted to avoid.
Dissappointment of the day: When I realized that the 25,000 Skymiles for flights to Europe deal was only for flights starting and ending in Europe. Flights from the US are 50,000. I knew it was too good to be true, but I got a deal that was too good to be true on my last ticket to Canada.
Anyway, I've got to go shake it like a Polaroid picture. (btw, Polaroid came out with a statement that you shouldn't shake their pictures while developing them. In a related story, Bacardi said that you should not "sip Bacardi like it's your birthday.") Ciao!
cause it's 11:30 and the club is jumping jumping!
It's 11:30 and the club is jumping, jumping, but I am taking my fly girl with me. I'm kind of tired from an early morning, but there is a party going on here in A-town so we're there.
See, I'm hip, I'm cool. Dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka. (Said while doing the macarena.) Going out with the kids is kind of a blast from the past, even though I didn't really do the party scene that much in college. It kind of makes feel older to see them all so young.
Good news of the day: I didn't get sent to the project I wanted to avoid.
Dissappointment of the day: When I realized that the 25,000 Skymiles for flights to Europe deal was only for flights starting and ending in Europe. Flights from the US are 50,000. I knew it was too good to be true, but I got a deal that was too good to be true on my last ticket to Canada.
Anyway, I've got to go shake it like a Polaroid picture. (btw, Polaroid came out with a statement that you shouldn't shake their pictures while developing them. In a related story, Bacardi said that you should not "sip Bacardi like it's your birthday.") Ciao!
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Sometimes, I wish that I was the weather.
You'd bring me up in conversation forever,
and when it rained... I'd be the talk all day.
I'm working from home today, and it's a beautiful day. I enjoy seeing the sunlight glisten off our lawn as it begins to green. (The fertailizer I put down must be kicking in... to you non home owners a lawn is a serious business.) As stated many times before, listening to music while I work is really nice. I enjoy the lazy casual days, and it actually is good for getting work done. Also great because I can have lunch with my wife or sisters who are all close by.
In fact I went to lunch with my wife while writing this message to a new Italian place that was good. Chrissy's much older classmate has a son who is the head chef, so we all got free cheesecake. Not the real creamy cheesecake that I don't like, but a more cakelike cheesecake that was good! Of course since I liked the cheesecake much better than typical cheesecake - my wife didn't like it. :-)
Tonight we're going out for my brother-in-law's birthday - should be fun! He got his letter than he was waitlisted for Pharmacy school on the day of his birthday. Not much of a gift... We will buy him mucho food and beer tonight to make him forget about. Maybe not enough beer to really forget about it - the guy is a tank and can drink like a fish. But I digress.
I still don't know where I'm working Monday. I may need to go buy a new suit or two on Friday for a business formal client. Ah the exciting world of consulting!
You'd bring me up in conversation forever,
and when it rained... I'd be the talk all day.
I'm working from home today, and it's a beautiful day. I enjoy seeing the sunlight glisten off our lawn as it begins to green. (The fertailizer I put down must be kicking in... to you non home owners a lawn is a serious business.) As stated many times before, listening to music while I work is really nice. I enjoy the lazy casual days, and it actually is good for getting work done. Also great because I can have lunch with my wife or sisters who are all close by.
In fact I went to lunch with my wife while writing this message to a new Italian place that was good. Chrissy's much older classmate has a son who is the head chef, so we all got free cheesecake. Not the real creamy cheesecake that I don't like, but a more cakelike cheesecake that was good! Of course since I liked the cheesecake much better than typical cheesecake - my wife didn't like it. :-)
Tonight we're going out for my brother-in-law's birthday - should be fun! He got his letter than he was waitlisted for Pharmacy school on the day of his birthday. Not much of a gift... We will buy him mucho food and beer tonight to make him forget about. Maybe not enough beer to really forget about it - the guy is a tank and can drink like a fish. But I digress.
I still don't know where I'm working Monday. I may need to go buy a new suit or two on Friday for a business formal client. Ah the exciting world of consulting!
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
The last six months have begin the beginning of another chapter in my life. I'm happy with my life, but will anyone want to read this chapter? OK Sarah and Carter - I know you'll at least want to read about it. :-) I got married six months ago, and it has been fantastic. Have you ever noticed that everyone always wants to know all about your dating relationship, but then when you're married suddenly no one is interested?
People want to hear all about your first dates - and ooooh we kissed there in the moonlight for the first time. But if I told someone I took my wife out and described us having a big old kiss that no one would want to hear about it. It doesn't bother me one bit, but it's an interesting commentary on society. Virtually every romance movie is about a couple first getting together - how many movies are centered on a relationship where the couple keeps falling in love for many years after their marriage? Not many - but that's true romance.
Why did I wait until now to start blogging again? Perhaps it's the Perfect Storm when my emersion in Tech basketball has subsided with a lull in my project at work that allows me to work at home and have a little more free time. I'm hoping this easier to use blogging format will make it easier for me to update my blog a little more regularly. We shall see. I'll probably make a few posts before I even tell anyone about it, just to make sure I can even commit to posting. :-)
What else is happening in life? Work - like many of my friends, deciding what I want out of my career. I'm happy with my job, but due to a restructuring everyone in my realm of consulting was moved to a different area. I don't mind being assigned to my area, as long as I don't have to do projects from that area. It doesn't make sense unless you are in my shoes - but essentially before I had more flexibility to move to different areas.
They subdivided my area, and added in a lot of work that I have no interest in. I can continue working in the area and do the same thing that I'm doing, but it will make me slowly gravitate towards work I'm not interested in doing. Is that confusing enough? I don't want to come out of consulting and say, "I want to continue doing this particular technical skill, hire me for that" or I want to continue doing this particular business work, hire me for that." So I need to do a little thinking about my exit strategy. You always need an exit strategy.
People want to hear all about your first dates - and ooooh we kissed there in the moonlight for the first time. But if I told someone I took my wife out and described us having a big old kiss that no one would want to hear about it. It doesn't bother me one bit, but it's an interesting commentary on society. Virtually every romance movie is about a couple first getting together - how many movies are centered on a relationship where the couple keeps falling in love for many years after their marriage? Not many - but that's true romance.
Why did I wait until now to start blogging again? Perhaps it's the Perfect Storm when my emersion in Tech basketball has subsided with a lull in my project at work that allows me to work at home and have a little more free time. I'm hoping this easier to use blogging format will make it easier for me to update my blog a little more regularly. We shall see. I'll probably make a few posts before I even tell anyone about it, just to make sure I can even commit to posting. :-)
What else is happening in life? Work - like many of my friends, deciding what I want out of my career. I'm happy with my job, but due to a restructuring everyone in my realm of consulting was moved to a different area. I don't mind being assigned to my area, as long as I don't have to do projects from that area. It doesn't make sense unless you are in my shoes - but essentially before I had more flexibility to move to different areas.
They subdivided my area, and added in a lot of work that I have no interest in. I can continue working in the area and do the same thing that I'm doing, but it will make me slowly gravitate towards work I'm not interested in doing. Is that confusing enough? I don't want to come out of consulting and say, "I want to continue doing this particular technical skill, hire me for that" or I want to continue doing this particular business work, hire me for that." So I need to do a little thinking about my exit strategy. You always need an exit strategy.
