Chez

What a great week, huh? 100+ degree temps outside, broken AC, one party after another.

It's great, for awhile.

Working hard to stay awake at the office. Might have to work from home tomorrow.

Gregsta'

Born to be Vile

I'm in a good mood today, but only because it's Friday. I have a long weekend ahead of me - building a deck for my folks (something I started awhile ago and am just now getting back to finishing), Birthday party for my favorite 3-year-old (Duncan!) and it's Date night!

The house is coming along nicely. New pics should be posted later today at the blog: http://schillerhouse.blogspot.com.

We're missing the Camry Hybrid. The gas attendant isn't. I think my truck technically qualifies for a "Clunker" credit on the purchase of a more efficient vehicle... Sad, really. I'm lucky if I get 15mpg. 6 cylinders are great for get-up-and-go, but SUCK for efficiency. I knew this going in. I have little room to complain.

Dinner was served to a crowd of about 12 last night. I made a huge batch of my chicken Marsala. It was a hit. My brother-in-law damn near ate 3 servings.

Gregsta'

Happy Birthday, Selah!

Congrats to my Brother-in-Law, Clarke and his wonderful wife Sumin on the arrival of their first child, Selah (pronounced Say-Lah). She was born last night at 6:00pm. 6 lbs 14.5 oz, 19" long.

Your weakness: Wasting your life away.

This is messed up. Do people really spend 9 hours a day on this BS? I barely spend 2 house most days, and I feel like I'm overdoing it! Please tell me that this graphic is a joke!?

WTF, people!?

What is happening to society? We're crumbling into a blog, twitter, facebook, cnn feeding frenzy. Consume, consume, consume.

Gresta': Flustered

Ay! See!?

Gregster at work, as reenacted by Fido the Dog. Overzealous Executive played by Fido's tail.

We thought for a minute we had lost our air conditioner here at the house. Came home to a 78 degree, muggy house and a running A/C unit not kicking out a thing. Betsy started to panic. I shut the whole system down, cleaned the drain line and condenser unit and let it sit for 15 minutes. Fired right back up. Amazing.

When we get into the new place, I'm putting one of those window rattler units in first thing in the bedroom. I can't live without my A/C.

Gregsta'

Victory

Another weekend is coming to an end. We had a great time this weekend and are gearing up for the week ahead.

I found a buyer for our Camry Hybrid. They are picking that up sometime early this week. We'll be without a huge car payment and have just one car in the family. It's only temporary. At some point, we'll look at a second car again - just not for a little while.

I'm excited about having just one car and a little nervous at the same time. What happens when we both need wheels? Who's going to take the bus/borrow someones car and who takes the truck? We'll figure it out. We always do. The whole reason for making this sacrifice is to help pay for our new house and save money for the future. Big picture goals sometimes take short-term sacrifices.

Gregsta'

Get 'er Done

I love the train station. I'm sitting here waiting to get on the Cascades train to Seattle (as the faithful followers will recall I do quite often) and working on a number of things without interruption. It's a brilliant thing.

Here's my deal. I like to get things done. I also like to strategize. The two don't mix well.

So, at the office during the day, I'm expected (and like to) to be the CIO that whomps up a strategy and innovates solutions. That I can do. I've also got a TON of work to do as a result of previous brainstorming sessions.

The manager in the middle? That's me, too. That part of me is going nuts trying to balance it all out.

So you see, these trips to Seattle on the train are like mini vacations from interruption and unsolicited support and project requests. I have a moment to breathe, work and strategize all at the same time.

Why, you ask, am I updating my personal blog when there are work-related things to do?

Work/Personal - the lines blurred a long time ago. I so no lines anymore.

Gregsta': Borgin'

Weekend w/Friends

It was a great holiday weekend, filled with drinking, eating and claming. The latter was not all that successful.

I'm tired and will find myself on a train to Seattle tomorrow. Perhaps I shall blog whileth on the train, for I will have a Verizon cellular modem with me. Bwahahaha.

Gregsta': OUT

D-Life

I oft question my digital life. There's too much to humanly maintain. Blogs (3, to be exact), Facebook (ahem, FaceCRACK), Twitter (now abandoned), client websites, work websites, Text messaging, voicemails - it just never ends.

I know I've ranted on this subject before. I've studied high and low to discover the secrets of zen-master organizational gurus. How do these modern day Digital-scripture-writing masters keep it all in check? You know what I've learned?

It's all a farse.

Zen masters of the organization are actually freaks who wear trendy clothes around cameras, suffer from OCD, are completely addicted to Provigil and have an assistant that does most of the work. All this digital presence and status updating are just a huge fucking waste of everyone's time.

What the fuck?

Being a fast paced robot of digital society is loosing it's alure really fast. And why? So everyone I know can get up-to-date worthless information about me?

Gregster (12:32pm): I've stepped into the hallway to make a phone call.

Gregster (12:33pm): Phone call completed. I don't know who I called. I just needed to hear a human voice.

Gregster (12:40pm): The staff is looking for me. They need help. I need help. Somebody save me.

You can see why Twitter was the first thing I abandoned.

I miss having things to talk about with friends. We all see what each other has been up to on Facebook. People know what I'm livid about by reading this website. We just sit at the bar now and stare at the bottles with nothing to talk about. Some people start making shit up just to sound interesting. I'm tired of being a social experiment statistic.

Okay, I'm done now. I've got to go check my Facebook news feed...

Crackingly,
Gregsta'