I am very relieved that our beloved digital camera is back from the shop. Thankfully, it is back in time for Halloween, just in case the girls are cute. We used our 35mm camera while the digital camera was broken, but having to drop the film off somewhere and wait for the pictures was unpleasant.
To mark the occasion of the camera's return, I have posted the golf pictures that survived the camera's plunge to the concrete.
I had two events yesterday that reminded me that I'm getting old.
Firstly, since we have lots of leftover Halloween candy, it's my job to eat some of it. You know that Bottle Caps candy that tastes like sodas? I used to love them, but now they taste hideous. I'm sure I'm the one that changed, and not the candy.
Secondly, I gave my daughters some spin rides: I picked them up and spun them around and around. They loved it, but I quickly started feeling very queasy. I actually thought I might throw up. Donna had to bring me a glass of water, and I still felt the effects 5 hours later!
I'm getting old.
I've had very good experiences with my webhost, JaguarPC. In fact, when I discovered that the current offers from Jaguar PC had more webspace for the same money as my plan, the sales reps were able to upgrade my accout immediately and at no charge. The support staff has also been quite responsive, and they are promptly addressing the missing EXIF support in PHP by recompiling PHP this weekend.
Once that's done, I can load up all my on-line pictures into my new project: a database-driven picture search facility. I'm writing it in PHP and using a MySQL database to hold the data. It's been a fun diversion, but it will also fulfill a deep need of mine to not be restricted to the static picture indexes my current pictures section provides.
I feel a little foolish at work today. I keep my prescription sunglasses in the car, so that I can use them while driving and riding the bus. But as I sat down on the bus today, I realized I still had my sunglasses on and did not have my regular glasses with me! So I'm at work wearing my sunglasses. I'm trying to lay low.
I played golf again last weekend, this time with Clay and his wife, Sheryl. I improved by 1 stroke from last time, but it was on a different course, so I don't know if that means anything. If I continue to play twice a year and improve by one stroke each time, I should break 100 in the year 2017. That's OK, I have fun regardless. I did make par on one hole (par 4!) and had a 25-yard putt.
I have completed my PHP/MySql search engine for my on-line pictures to the point where I can release it to the internet-at-large! I have added a search field to my main blog page as well as my picture page for easy access.
Right now, I have it loaded with 469 pictures. That should increase to more than 500 within a few weeks as I get more pictures from this year included.
It's been pretty slow at work this month. That's mainly because I've moved off of the project I had been working on for almost 5 years because the client wanted to reduce support staff as the entire project is winding down (sometime next year). So I rolled off the project and onto a new almost-ready project. It's the "almost-ready" part that's the problem. I really can't/don't have any work for the new project until the agreement is signed, so I'm preparing as much as I can. That does not fill my days, though.
The "awkward" part is that although I am going to be on the new project, most of my co-workers do not know if they will be or not. This is because the new project has not officially started yet and the current project is still ongoing and so still needs support people. I feel like I can't be too excited about the new project (although I am), since most everyone around me does not have their future position secured.
Forgive me for being so vague about the old and new project. I guess the recent news about a Microsoft contractor getting fired for what he put on his private blog has me nervous to mention the clients' names.
At least while it's been slow, I've had some time to select my benefits options for next year and tweak my picture search page. Once of my favorite tweaks is that whenever a picture of the twins is selected, their age at the time of the picture will be computed! It's neat to be able to see that Amanda first stood up when she was 6 months and 8 days old. Cool!
Today marks the first day in 16 years that I am no longer in the "key demographic": males aged 18-34. Now, marketing executives will no longer target my opinion when crafting new movies, sitcoms, or reality shows.
Actually, that sounds like a compliment.
My pager was taken away at work today. I had not needed it since I moved off of my old project, but I still hung on to it, assuming that eventually I'd need a pager on my new project and it would be easier to keep my same service and number. As it turns out, we had a billing fracas with Skytel, who we lease the pagers and service from, so we got rid of as many pagers as we could.
It should feel freeing that I have no electronic leash now, but it did provide a certain amount of security in an emergency. I've never needed my pager for a personal emergency yet, so I guess I just have to accept that small risk of not being able to be contacted when I am away from a phone.
In looking at my web site statistics today, I noticed that a West Grove page was the entry page for several hits on my web site. Looking at that external page, it has several links to the picture pages from my trips to West Grove.
I can't figure out how those links got there. Were they added by some automated search engine? Did someone do a manual search and add them? There isn't much organization to the links on that page, and several links are duplicated, so it makes me think it was automatic. Still, it's really weird.
This short holiday week was "jeans day" at work. I like wearing jeans, but I only have one pair of work-appropriate jeans. All my other jeans have a hole in the left knee. I have not been able to figure out why my jeans always wear out so asymmetrically. My right knee was the one that had multiple arthroscopic operations (torn cartilage), so maybe I am moving in such a way that causes more stress on the fabric of my jeans over the left knee. Or maybe it's all the times I'm using the clutch in my Saturn's fading transmission.
If I figure it out, I'll let you know. In the mean time, I'd love to find a way to protect that knee somehow that would let my jeans last longer, while still being able to wear them to work.
I've furiously been trying to update my web site by integrating a database where I can. After successfully incorporating my pictures into a database, I was insipred to expand on that, including:
My recent efforts have broken the image rollovers on my home page, but I've been meaning to update that, anyway, so hopefully it won't be broken for long.
My tasks at work are starting to pick up, and soon I will be very, very busy. So any PHP stuff on my web page will have to be done at home. That's the way it should be, but I've really been able to make excellent progress with it at work. I'll just be trading in that productivity for productivity that will actually help keep me employed.
Wow. We went to see the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy - The Return of the King - and it was every bit as good as all the hype I had heard. At a running time of 3:10 (the movie was not longer than that if you don't count the previews or credits), it did not feel long. It was beautifully done.
The four-disc extended version is already on my birthday list for 2004.
One of the statistics I can access about my website are pages or files that were requested from a visitor to my web site but did not exist. I'm sure you've seen the "404 File Not Found" error messages before. Looking at a list of these failed requests can help me identify if there are any problems with my web pages that are referring to nonexistent files.
Unfortunately, the list of these requests is cluttered with things like:
/scripts/..%c0%2f../winnt/system32/cmd.exe
/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc
These file references appear nowhere in links on my website, so I know they are artificial external requests that I do not want being made, since most of them are probing my website's defenses.
Who converts a 4th-and-26 play with less than 2 minutes to go in a playoff game? The Eagles did yesterday, which enabled them to continue a drive that tied the game with 5 seconds left. They won the game in overtime by intercepting a horrendously awful pass from Brett Farve and returning it deep into Green Bay territory; this led to a short field goal and an Eagles victory. They will be in the NFC championship game for the third year in a row.
Yesterday's game was hard to bear as an Eagles fan. They won, so I am happy about that, but for most of the game it looked as if they should not deserve to win. That is how much of the season has gone, though. I wonder if they will have the worst-ranked offense (18th out of 32 teams) and defense (20th) for any team ever having gone to the Superbowl.
Yes, I think they are going to the Superbowl this year. They still have to beat the Carolina Panthers next week, but I think that Green Bay was the tougher team between the two. The Eagles will find a way to make that game gut-wrenchingly close, I'm sure, but I expect them to win.
I do not see how they can beat either of the two remaining AFC teams: the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots. I will be happy with them just getting to the Superbowl and having a decent showing.
Then maybe they can win it all next year!
For the third consecutive year, the Eagles lost the NFC championship game. They became the first team in history to lose consecutive championship games at home (AFC or NFC).
It was fun being in Pennsylvania for a few days this past week (I tagged along on one of Donna's business trips, which she will be blogging about extensively), since the whole city was Eagles-crazy. Being an Eagles fan in Houston, that was an energizing experience.
Now, however, I am again reminded how hard it is to be a fan of the Eagles. They have been pretty good for so long, which means they make the playoffs, but always end their season with a loss. It's fun to root for the expansion Houston Texans, since they aren't really expected to win, so every win is exciting, and every loss is not too tragic. I imagine it would be fun to root for a team that gets to the Super Bowl, since that is such an event just to get there is a success for most teams. But to be on the edge year after year, never really improving, but still teasing the fans with flashes of greatness is exasperating.
But I'll continue to be a long-suffering Eagles fan. After all, the longer the wait, the sweeter the victory. At least I imagine that would be the case.
I've decided my favorite kind of weather is wind. A big, strong wind. Winds when it's cold are not much fun, but I can feel so much power in a strong wind. I love leaning into the wind, feeling it whip my pants legs behind me as I walk against it.
"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." -John Ruskin
My new project at work has still not been advertised at the client, so I still have to be careful about who I tell about my new project's client.
I actually wanted to go to the Galleria this past weekend. I have always opposed trips to the Galleria in the past because the traffic in the area and parking have always been very unpleasant. I even hate to go on that part of I-610 because of all the slow traffic.
But now it has a redeeming quality: an Apple store. So we went there to get a copy of iLife, and we stayed to get me some new dress shoes at Foley's and to eat lunch. We got there early (10:00) so the traffic and parking challenges were actually very mild.
I was so adamant about avoiding the Galleria in the past that Donna thought my remarkable change in attitude is worthy of a blog entry. So this one's for her.
I intended to take my umbrella into work yesterday (rain was in the forecast), but I arrived without it. Did I leave it on the bus, or did I never take it out of my car? It didn't take me long to convince myself that it was still in my car, and indeed it was there when I got to my car that evening.
But it made me realize how much I treasure my DuPont Merck golf umbrella. It's big so that I can walk comfortably in the rain with it, but more importantly it's a link to my time in Delaware when I worked for a company that no longer exists. I enjoyed my work there and it was my first real job after college. It was then that I established my career as a software support developer. I discovered HTML programming and developed an HTML-based software manual on my group's network long before I had ever heard the word "intranet". I worked with statisticians, who helped me see why data presentation was so important and the joy of hitting upon the perfect way to accurately reflect the results. I even got to attend an FDA pre-review jury for a new indication of one of our drugs. I have good memories of those 5 years.
And since the company was later bought out by Bristol-Myers Squibb, there is no way to replace my unique, one-of-a-kind DuPont Merck souvenir. I'm glad I didn't lose it.
I ride the bus into work, and the bus will not stop at every dropoff point unless someone wants to get off. You can pull a cord that makes a sound and (usually) lights up a sign before the next stop if you want to get off.
I prefer not to pull the cord. I just let someone else who is getting off at my stop do it for me. But there are rare times when no one, or very few people, are getting off at my stop. So how long do I wait until I can't stand it anymore and I have to pull the cord? I usually can last longer than most people, so it is rare I have to pull it. Of course, I don't want to wait so long that it makes it hard on the bus driver (like if he is in the wrong lane).
I think it would be an interesting psychological measure to see when a person tends to pull the cord. Someone should do a study. Not me. I'm too busy resisting the urge to pull the cord.
I'm starting to use Instant Messaging for work, since it's the cheapest way to communicate real-time with the folks in India. One of the capabilities of most instant messengers is associating a "buddy icon" with your account. This is just a small image that represents you when you are chatting with someone.
Of course, I had to make my own:
Now it may appear to be egotistical to have your own floating head as a buddy icon, but it seemed to me to be the only sensible option. Since I'll be using this for work to chat with people I rarely get to meet, it seems like it would be easiest on them to see who they are chatting with.
And yet, nowhere on the internet have I seen a buddy icon that is an image of the chatter. Perhaps that is because all the buddy icon sites provide icons that would be of use to more than one person. Perhaps it is because people don't bother (or don't have the means) to make one themselves. Or perhaps people feel uncomfortable providing a picture of themselves to everyone they chat with. The buddy icons of my boss, and two other managers I'm working with on my project are an angel, the Texas A&M logo, and an American flag.
Am I the only one who has an image of their head as their buddy icon?
I must be busy at work, as evidenced by my lack of entries in my blog last week. I got to talk with some people at our new client for the first time, and it's been tough trying to schedule all those meetings and then collect all the documentation.
So just a teaser update for today.
In other news, my great uncle "Put-Put" died last night after being in the hospital for several weeks. In some respects, I considered him a relative I had the most in common with. He was introverted, thoughtful, and had a witty sense of humor if you could get him to show it. I can't leave for Pennsylvania right away because of work stuff, but I'll go up there this coming weekend to help my family cope.
So after hinting around I can finally say what my new project at work is, because it has been announced to the affected users at the client. I am part of a team that will be supporting some of our client's applications from Bangalore, India.
Note: due to the politically sensitive nature of outsourcing jobs to offshore locations, especially India, I will never mention the name of my client in this forum. I think it's a real possibility that if any of the people at my client read this blog in which I announce that they are in the process of sending US jobs to India, I could be removed from this project. I'd rather be able to talk openly about my experiences in this blog, so I will not name my client. Sorry.
Some random, short, and unrelated notes:
Delaware: Home of Tax Free Shopping. When a Pepsi says it costs $1.25, you actually pay $1.25. My brief taste of that this past weekend reminded me how nice that is.
Quote of the day: "I feel calm. I feel ready. I can only conclude it's because I don't have a full grasp of the situation." - Mark Adler, deputy mission manager at NASA for the Mars Sprirt rover
Donna is now an official "author" on this blog. She will add entries from time to time. This way, she'll be able to blog about our family (as opposed to her CFG blog) if I neglect to mention something cute the girls did.
I had some errands to run today, but completed them all 30 minutes before my hair appointment. I decided I wanted a Pepsi, so I went looking for a Pepsi bottle that had an iTunes cap on it.
Diamond Shamrock didn't have any regular Pepsis with the iTunes cap. Target didn't have any Pepsis. Stop N Go didn't have any Pepsis with the iTunes caps. Eckerds wasn't open yet. Walgreens didn't have any iTunes caps. Neither did Amoco or Randalls. Finally, I went into a H.E.B. where I found one lone Pepsi (warm) with an iTunes cap.
I have heard about how you can cheat and ensure you don't select a losing Pepsi bottle. I usually look under the cap only to the extent that I don't feel conspicuous. I cheated. It was a winner. I bought it. I might have bought it anyway, but, honestly, I might not have.
I now have 4 song credits in iTunes. I'm hoping to build that up to about 10 or so I could get an entire album if I wanted. As it is, I am most interested in Dido and Radio K.A.O.S.. I have to convert my credits to songs by mid-April, since I'll be in India when the contest ends.
I was just informed (by a non-Rice gradutate) that it's a tradition for students to sit in the lap of the William Marsh Rice statue. She heard this from a tour guide when she was visiting the campus one day.
As a Rice graduate, I have never heard mention of such a tradition. Did I miss out on some valuable part of the Rice experience? If so, I could rush over to the campus during lunch and take care of that. Well, maybe tomorrow - it's been raining here quite a bit.
I can see that the world is flat. I have never seen the curvature of the Earth that I know is there.
But I'm about to leave for India. That's about at the opposite end of the world (by longitude, not latitude). I'll have flown 20 hours in the air, and I'll end up 11 time zones away. My Monday will be shortened by 10.5 hours.
Wish me luck!
I just sat down in my seat on flight 441 on Lufthansa from Houston to Frankfurt. It's drizzling, but the sun is shining - Houston.
We are now traveling NNE at 26,000 feet and 560 mph. I know this because that's what the video monitor shows me.
We took off at 5:30, one hour and forty minutes after my ticket said we were supposed to depart. But as Frankfurt is only 7 hours ahead of Houston, our scheduled arrival time of 8:50 AM would make it a 10 hour flight (I miscalculated earlier). I'm pretty sure they announced that this is a 9 hour flight, though, so maybe we'll only be 40 minutes late. Perhaps they build an hour delay into the flight times just in case.
Oops! Dinner is getting prepared! Maybe I can sleep after the meal.
I just finished breakfast - a tomato frittata. It was fine, but the sliced fruit (honeydew, watermelon, and pineapple) was better.
We just passed over Great Britain and are headed toward the Netherlands as we clip the North Sea.
I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. I think maybe the eye mask I was wearing was keeping me up. I feel a little slow, but I should be fine getting on our connecting flight in Frankfurt. I already have my boarding pass.
Our connecting flight is scheduled to leave at 10:55. That seems like it will give us about an hour between landing and taking off again. That could cut things pretty close, depending on what sorts of customs processing we have to go through and how far away our connection is.
I'm sitting on the Bangalore flight now. Our connecting flight was almost 2 hours late, but we were very efficiently taken off the plane (on the tarmac!), loaded onto a bus, and taken to Terminal 1. Our gate (B44) was a short walk away.
I just did some more work on my Thursday presentation - now I think I can finish it off in one hour. Which is good, because I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I'll take a little nap, which hopefully will not be so long to make it hard to go to sleep when we get to the hotel
I got another two hours of sleep I would guess, and now we are about 40 minutes away from landing. I feel pretty good, considering I've spent over 20 hours in a plane while getting about 4 hours of sleep.
I am now in my spacious hotel room (1712) at the Taj West End.
I am feeling very refreshed. I'm sure that's part of the effects of the jet lag, since this would just be a late night in Houston after a good 5 hour nap.
I'm back at the hotel after a long day at the Accenture office. It wasn't a hard day - just long. I made it through the day without feeling seriously groggy, but I can feel my body needing some sleep.
I am exhausted. I don't think it's jet lag; rather, it was just a busy day. That's good, though. An expensive trip like this ought to be busy and productive.
Another busy day draws to a close. I actually realized that I'll miss leaving the team today. I always figured that the time away from my family would make me eager to get home (which I am), but it's been great to be a part of the India team for a week.
We have an early start to the day tomorrow, so it will be a challenge to make sure I wake up in time to complete my packing and take some pictures of the hotel grounds.
There is no work agenda for me today. We have a big team lunch from 12:00 to 3:00, and we'll be leaving from lunch to do some quick shopping and then leave for the airport. I mostly plan on taking pictures of the team and building in the morning.
Here's a quick rundown of the items I bought:
Wow! I knew I was tired, but I didn't realize I'd sleep six hours straight on the plane!
We've been on our return flight aircraft now for more than two hours, but we have yet to leave the ground. There is a problem with the weather radar that they have not been able to resolve. They're now trying to replace the entire radar system. If that works, we should be in the air in about an hour. If not, we'll all have to get on another plane which would add at least another hour delay.
Thankfully, we have no connection to miss, this being our last leg. As long as I get home before the twins go to bed, I'll be happy.
We did finally get off the ground just at 1:00 PM GST - a full three hours late.
My trip to India was last week, and I intend to add some details about the trip here - but later. I fell ill upon my return, and am still working on getting better. On top of that, it is very busy at the office, so I haven't had any time to myself for a couple weeks.
I will take the time to say that it was a good trip, both on a professional and personal level. Several people have asked me how it compared to what I expected. Honestly, I didn't have any preconceptions and therefore no expectations. I think that helped me enjoy the trip since I just tried to soak it all in.
I have finally been able to record the notes I took during my recent trip to Bangalore, India. It was my first overseas trip, so I wanted to keep notes so I could capture the sights and feelings of the visit.
I have put the correct date and time on the entries (all Central Daylight Time), although I entered them after the fact. Below is a list of the entries so that you don't have to wade through the rest of the blog to find them.
I guess my 1992 Saturn SL is worth at least $1000 dollars now. The clutch was failing on it, and we seriously debated whether or not to fix it. The dealer quoted $1600 to fix the clutch, and that was just too much to spend on the aging car. But most other options to replace the car were much more expensive.
So we decided to drop it off at a local mechanic, whose wife works at the school my wife used to work at, and his shop fixed it for $999.44. It can now take me back and forth to the bus stop, as well as the occasional trip all the way into work. But since it does not have any air conditioning, that is something I don't like to do between May and October here in Houston.
It does shift nicely now. It was almost comic how I had to shift it before, since I often had to use a great deal of force to get it into any gear. Once when Donna drove it, it actually got stuck in second gear, so she drove it in second home from the store.
This is too funny! Here is an excerpt from an email I got from the client team I am working with on my new project:
Well, with the rousing conclusion of 1 transition project and subsequent announcement of another... in the same week.... is anyone up for a drink?If so, let's head to Teala's on W. Dallas this Friday after work. (If we all mentally commit to leaving here at 4:00, we can be there by no later than 4:10.....)
That was awfully nice of them to invite me, but I declined because I have other plans that evening. But almost simultaneously, I got the following email from my HR representative at Accenture:
Join us to wish Jose well on his relocation to Austin.What: Happy Hour
When: Friday, June 4
Time: 4:00 p.m. til ???
Where: Teala’s, 3210 W. Dallas
Notice that it's at the same time at the same location! That is hysterical! It makes me really want to go, now, but I don't think I can manage it.
I am the only common person between the two groups, but I can just imagine the client group talking about the outsourcing project I have been a part of right next to a group from my company! Do you think they'll realize the connection? Of course, what would I do if I were there? Not that it would be a dramatic scene, but this was just a highly amusing coincidence.
I am not what you would consider a handyman. In fact, I am one of the least handy guys I know, which probably frustrates my father, since he is extremely handy (he built a 37-foot trimaran from the plans). I have done some simple things: installing shelves, installing a garbage disposal, replacing electrical switches. Anything that is related to plumbing or actually building something I do not attempt.
But every time I go into Home Depot, whatever kernel of handyman-ness is in me comes to the surface. "We really need a new toilet seat," "I would love to replace our faucets," and "I think we need to replace our wooden gate outside with some glass blocks" were some of the thoughts I had while visiting Home Depot this weekend. Those were amusing thoughts to have considering I was trying to find an item whose name I did not know (it was a "hose clamp", but at least I was able to describe it well and I ended up in the row where the hose clamps were before I asked someone).
Pepsi Edge still tastes like a diet soda to me. Blech. I'll stick with the full-sugared version for now.
The hottest day of the year hit Houston on Tuesday. The official high reached 100°. That also happened to be the day I needed my car for an offsite meeting just after lunch. The problem is that my car has no air conditioning. If it's 100° outside, then the coolest I can get in my car is when 100° air blows onto my face from my open window.
I came up with what I thought was a clever solution. We have a casserole dish that has pads that can be heated up in the microwave and placed in the carrier with the casserole to help keep it hot. We also have one you put in the freezer that will keep the dish cool. So I took the cool pad to work with me, keeping it in the freezer in the lunch area. When I left for my meeting (right after lunch), I took the cool pad to the car and put it between my back and the car seat.
It actually worked quite well! I could feel the heat in the car, but that square foot of my back stayed cool enough that my whole body never got sweaty and gross. It started losing some effectiveness after 20 minutes or so, but I wasn't in the car too much more than that. The only other problem was remembering to take it with me (from freezer to freezer) as I traveled from office to office. I'll definitely use that technique again if I have to stay cool in my car.
I finally got around to entering all of the data collected from every gas fillup our Honda Accord has ever had. Here are the gas mileage results:
Click on the chart to see a detailed graph of our gas mileage history.
The graph shows a few interesting things:
Being the data junkie I am, I look forward to seeing what this graph looks like in a few years.
Donna injured her back this weekend. Actually, it was Friday when she hurt it lifting Amanda out of the stroller, but she reinjured it on Sunday getting Elena out of the car seat. She was pretty much incapacitated yesterday. I hope she is able to both keep her back and the girls cared for today until I can get home.
One upside of this is that I got to take the fancy car into work today. OK, it's not really that fancy, but it has air conditioning! I was going to have to take my hot car into work until Donna became incapable of driving yesterday.
But this small change in routine had some adverse side effects. Firstly, I keep my bag-o-change in the hot car, so when I arrived downtown ready to pay cash for my parking space, I didn't have the change. I drove around until I found a parking lot for $3 (which is how much in dollar bills I had on me). Secondly, the key to my desk is on my other keychain. Thankfully, I keep a spare in my wallet; otherwise, I would have been computerless for a while since I keep my laptop locked up in my desk.
It's sometimes annoying how poorly I type. I took typing in high school, but I didn't practice enough to realize the benefits. So I still only use five fingers to type. Funny thing is, people are sometimes impressed when they see me type. My fingers fly around the keyboard (they have to, since I only use 5 of them), and sometimes I can get on a roll that does look rather impressive. But that's only until you check my accuracy.
My most common errors are transposing two characters. I type "coudl" far more than "could" on the first try. "Woudl" and "shoudl" are also very frequent typos. Sometimes, I'll get out of synch and type a word with two or three consecutive transposition errors. That probably tells me something about either the mechanics of how I press the keys, or how my brain tells my fingers to press them. When I'm independently wealthy, I'll commission a study on myself.
At least these errors almost always produce non-words, so as long as I spell-check my text, they are caught and corrected. This blog, however, does not have a spell-check built-in, so unless I catch my mistake, you might see an occasional error slip by.
I work at a large, unnamed petroleum company. I noticed yesterday that there was a security guard standing at the top of the escalator in the lobby that leads down to the cafeteria. It's a nice cafeteria, and other downtown workers come there to eat lunch on occasion.
That afternoon, a site-wide email was sent saying that a Greenpeace van was spotted in the parking lot across the street the previous day. For that reason, security was tightened and no one who does not work for the company will be allowed to go downstairs to the cafeteria.
This sounded ridiculous to me when I first read it. Nothing indicated that a direct (or indirect) threat was received or that the van's proximity to the building was anything other than coincidence. So all of a sudden we're in a "heightened security state"? But as I thought about it, I realized that the company has been a target of Greenpeace's activism in the past. Although I still think it's overreacting a little bit, I can understand their desire to be cautious.
I wonder how long of a "heightened security level" one van sighting warrants? Maybe they were here doing some reconnaissance to plan some future activism event. The company should probably proactively shutdown the group, by any means necessary, regardless of support of other companies or agencies. Then the company executives can state over and over about how the group is directly linked to terrorist organizations. Eventually, if they say it enough times, the shareholders will believe it and re-elect the board members for another four-year term.
Oops - I think I mixed up my story lines there. Sorry about that. I'm going to go have lunch in the secured cafeteria.
I'm continuing to be very busy recently. It was really stressing me out a few weeks ago, to the point where I was having trouble sleeping and eating. I'm over that now, not because I'm necessarily having less to do, but because I've decided to not let it get to me.
It's also been nice to look forward to my new computer. It's only a couple weeks away now, and in fact should be on its way here next week. Before it arrives, I'm trying to get the office in shape. It's such a stylish computer, I'd hate to sentence it to exist in the most cluttered room in our house. Not only would that detract from its look, but also I'll probably be dragging people back to the office to look at it whenever anyone stops by.
Another nice thing is that I recently got promoted. No sudden change in role or responsibilities is going along with it, but it's more of an acknowledgement of the work I have been doing recently. That takes a bit of the sting off of having way too much to do.
Busy, busy. I have several posts to make to this blog, so I'll try to catch up this week. I'll start off with an amusing story...
Continue reading "What is that noise coming from my pants?" »
No new pictures in 3 months... no new blog entry in over 1 month... What is going on?
The short answer: I have been very busy at work, and it has sapped by energy and drive to work on my website. It's getting better at work (slowly) and I'm also trying to make a better effort to make sure I do take the time to add to my blog from time to time.
You can track my progress here to see how I do. Starting tomorrow...
Meetings at work are an important way to share information with a group of people all at once. They can also be rather intrusive if you have other things to accomplish.
Today was by biggest meeting day of my professional career. 10 (almost) straight hours of 9 different meetings left me wondering how I am going to make up for all my regular work I didn't get a chance to do.
6:00 - 7:00 - bi-weekly teleconference status call
7:00 - 8:00 - weekly teleconference status call
8:00 - 9:00 - server maintenance (canceled)
9:00 - 10:00 - client meeting
10:00 - 11:30 - weekly client status meeting
11:30 - 12:00 - HR meeting
12:00 - 1:00 - unit goal setting
1:00 - 2:00 - enhancement specification discussions
2:00 - 3:00 - enhancement specification discussions
3:00 - 4:00 - client meeting
I was able to get some other work done before I went home at 6:00. No status meetings at home!
So it's officially the NFL playoffs now. The regular season has ended, with my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, having clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs several weeks ago. Since they clinched, the Eagles have performed poorly, dropping to 13-3 (still 2 wins better than any other NFC team), mostly due to playing their second string and giving their starters a rest.
I really didn't want to see that happen. It's great that the Eagles clinched so early and that their starters could rest for a few weeks, but psychologically other NFC teams are now looking at the Eagles as vulnerable. At 13-1, they looked nearly invincible. No so, now.
I understand it's important to keep everyone as injury-free as possible going into the playoffs. After all - in the 2003 playoffs, Donovan McNabb was injured and just came back for the NFC championship game (which they lost). In 2004, Brian Westbrook was out and they lost the NFC Championship game. Now, in 2005, both McNabb and Westbrook are healthy and should be well-rested, but Terrell Owens, arguably the biggest difference-maker on the Eagles team, is out for the playoffs (although there is an outside chance he could return for the Superbowl if the Eagles make it that far).
But having two consecutive losses going into the playoffs, regardless of the circumstances, is not a positive situation. Will the Eagles be rusty after nearly one month of resting their starters? Will they have lost the psychological edge against the rest of the league? Will they be unable to match the intensity of teams who have had to fight their way into and through the playoffs?
I don't know. I just hope they can actually make it to the Superbowl this year. Three consecutive NFC Championship game losses are enough for me.
I just got back from my trip to Boston with Donna - it was the first time both of us had been away from our daughters overnight. Donna's parents stayed at our house while we were away to take care of them. Everyone did just great! The grandparents appeared to weather the experience just fine, and the girls were happy and playful. Even Donna and I did pretty well, although we were ready to get home after being away for 4 nights.
The "work" part of my trip went well. I assisted Donna with a presentation about using blogs as a tool for teacher reflection. She did the part about how a blog helped her with this, and I covered the technical aspects of getting a blog up and running. I think it went well, and I hope the participants who appeared to show a genuine interest in it follow through and get as much out of having a blog as Donna has.
There was good news in three other interests of mine during the trip
I have surprised myself by the lack of entries recently in my blog. That belies the excitement I am feeling over tomorrow's Superbowl game. My Eagles are finally in it.
Almost every sportswriter is saying the Patriots are going to win in a blowout. I guess because they have won two of the last three Superbowls and have gone something like 33-3 during the past few years. That's pretty good. But the Eagles have not been shabby either. They only lost one game in games where their starters played, and the playoff games haven't been all that close.
I admit that the Eagles are in the NFC, and the NFC has been beaten up pretty good by the AFC this year. The Eagles are also handicapped by the fact that Terrell Owens will not be 100% for the game, although he still could be well enough to make some plays. The Eagles do not have Superbowl experience, except for a few select players. It will have to be seen if that will affect their play.
So what do I think? I am troubled by the fact that I'm having a hard time separating my opinion as an Eagles fan from my opinion as a well-informed football fan. I really think the Eagles have a legitimate shot. Their defense is solid, their secondary superb, and McNabb can make plays that other quarterbacks cannot. Turnovers will be the key. The team that has the most turnovers will lose.
It's only a game. I'll be fine no matter what the outcome. But I really hope the Eagles win. And if they don't, my next wish would be for a close game. And if it isn't, then I would like to see them back in the Superbowl soon so that they can try again.
It's halftime in the Superbowl. My impressions: the Eagles are darn lucky to be tied with the Patriots 7-7. The offense has been inconsistent, although a few big plays allowed them to score the touchdown. Thei
