Prod

This is going to be one hell of a nice weekend in Portland. The temperature is supposed to hover in the 80's. Methinks I'll get responsibilities out of the way on Saturday morning before it gets too warm. It will be like the days as a child when we were up at 7:00am every day in the summer and had our chores done by 10:00am.

If I'm done by 10:00am, you realize, it will be a goddamn miracle.

Gregsta'

Fun at Work

Top 10 Things I would do at Work if I wasn't in Upper Management

10. Throw a paper airplanes over the divider wall between departments.

9. Post pictures on the company Intranet of drunk, half-naked co-workers found on Facebook and Myspace.

8. Visit the basement wine and beer storage locker daily to "check stock."

7. Rollerskate from one end of the office to the other. Use airhorn to alert people in my way.

6. Page myself over the intercom.

5. Fill the kitchen sink with clean dishes. Hey, the sign doesn't say anything about not putting CLEAN dishes in the sink.

4. Leave container of rotten eggs in back of the fridge. Label it with someone elses name.

3. Connect a PS3 to the gigantic TV in the Video Conferencing room. Play GTA with the sound up really loud during business hours.

2. Strike up a conversation with someone in a stall in the Mens Room.

1. Eat lunch at the owners desk when he/she isn't around. Make sure to leave lots of crumbs behind.

RIP Mo

I'm still not even convinced this is real. But, enough folks around me are, so until I have confirmed with the county coroner, I suppose I'm left no choice but to believe it.

A good friend of mine, Mo (Melissa) Simmons, passed on today. She committed suicide, alegedly shooting herself (she was an avid gun fanatic).

I still don't understand it. Mo was tough as nails. Not much got to her. Even when it did, she shook it off like nothing ever happened. What led her to take her life? It makes so little sense.

Everyone who knew Mo loved her. She was the kind of person would give you the shirt off her back one minute if you were freezing and inform you how annoying you were being the next. Brutal honesty was the M-O for Mo.

We all loved her for it.

Mo was more than a bartender. When her shift was over, she came to our side of the bar and was our friend, our sis'.

I've never lost anyone to suicide. I've never lost a friend that I was that close to. It's difficult to say the least. I can only hope that she's found peace, peace we didn't realize she lacked here on earth.

Gregsta'

On the Rails again..

On my way to Seattle again. This time, for the entire weekend. To work. Oh joy.

The train is the best way to travel north. I'm convinced that driving is just a waste of time and liability. I mean, if I fall asleep on the train - no problem! If I fall asleep driving up here, I'll be going home in an Ambulance or Hearse.

I'm ready for next week. I intend to take a day or two off of the grind to get things taken care of at home.

Maybe I'll take a vacation in a few weeks. The beach sounds nice.

Gregsta'

Signs you are becoming a slave to Technology

1. When your text message indicator goes off, you sit up, tilt your head to one side and quickly retrieve your text message.
2. Any sound your computer makes is justification to get up from the dinner table to investigate.
3. After spending a long day at work in front of your computer, all you want to do is update your blog about how you hate sitting in front of a computer all day.
4. Your voicemail message says "Don't leave a message here, text or email me."
5. You can't find your way to the grocery store without GPS guidance.
6. Your iPhone is full of apps, not music.
7. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn each have their own monitor.
8. You judge a person's cool-factor by how many friends they have on Facebook.
   

Ketchup

It's 12:30am. My day is just finishing up.

I thought it might be helpful for folks to understand the type of typical day I have:

• .5 Hours - Commuting to Day Job
  
• 10.5 Hours - Office/Day Job
  
• .5 Hours - Commuting Home
  
• .75 Hours - New house site documentation
• 1 Hour - Shopping
• .75 Hours - Make Dinner
• 1 Hour - Clean kitchen, mop floor
• .5 hour - Clean litter box, bathroom and put away some clothes
  
• 3 hours - Home office - Finances, Day Job stuff, Blog updates, Email Scrubbing, Research

Total: 18.5 hour day

I'm going to bed.

Gregsta': Out... Snore....

The Schiller House

Betsy and I are building a house.

You can follow our progress at: http://schillerhouse.blogspot.com/

Gregsta'

Sunnnnnnn!

It's a sunny day. I just love it.

Off to figure out an easy way to post a website for the progress on the house we're having built...

Gregsta'!

Breaker Breaker

I'll admit it, I have an addictive personality. I've been spending too much time on the Facebook/Twitter fad. I'm done for now. I've changed my security settings so that only friends can communicate with me on the two social networking sites.

My take: I'm not convinced this is valuable.

Social networking to me is more a way to waste time as a voyeur. I'm not really that into knowing about what everyone is up to. Why should I? I can barely keep up posting arguably interesting material to all the different (read: 2) blogs that I maintain (ahem, neglect).

So, I'm going back to the old way of things.

1. I will have things to catch-up on at dinner. I won't know what you've been up to since the last time we talked.

2. Conversations will not start with "Did you see that tweet I did the other day about my cat?" or "What was Billy thinking on that Facebook post?"

3. I will fill my time with intellectual pursuits and adventures instead of trying to make my life sound interesting. Other people (like Gooch) have interesting lives and funny things to talk about. I do not. My life isn't about being exciting. It's about living a full life.

4. I will be calling people - it's more successful than texting/emailing. Anyone who only emails/texts may find themselves not hearing from me as much (and sometimes taking a very long time to respond). I can have a meaningful conversation on the phone in a short period of time. I cannot do the same in email or a 160 character text (let along a 140 character 'tweet').

5. My time in front of the computer will be productive, occasionally entertaining. Entertainment comes from experiences. I think it's important to seek diversity in sourcing entertainment. For instance - Going out and spending time with friends, watching a TV program now and then, reading an entertaining book, seeing a movie in the theater - it's a great way to diversify what would otherwise is a frustrating web of mostly mediocre entertainment options online.

6. Email will be limited to just the communications that demand it - where a record of the communication is desirable or the detailed content of which will serve as a "To-Do" list item for the recipient.

That's my stand on things. I should come back to this list after a few weeks and see if I'm living up to what I feel like are a fairly balanced set of principals.

Gregsta': Ought

Quote of the Day

Idealism runs rampant amongst IT Pro's. Trouble is, each IT Pro has a very different idealistic world. Confounding that further - in everyone's vision, opinions and methods that differ from their own are considered invalid. Thus the nature of IT professionals is rarely collaborative and always defensive.

-Me