Blogger.
Blogging.
Right.
Today we went for a good river run. Down to Western Ave, back to Julia's. A solid 3.2.
Once in the office, I figured out two of the remaining barriers to my completing my current project at work. Not too shabby. I'm still moving along at a lovely rate, far as I'm concerned, despite other, various, unexpected-yet-high-priority drains on my time the past few days. Yay!
I left work tonight at around 7:00 PM and walked to Central Square, talking to my brother on the phone. He says he (and the family) are planning on going to London next summer. I'm so in. Apparently Aleksandra's choir will be singing there, somewhere. The Harry Potter cathedral (Hogwarts). Sounds good to me.
From Central I took the T back up to Porter, got home, and proceeded to stir-fry up some goodness:
1. Tofu
2. Baby Corn
3. Broccoli
4. Water Chestnuts
5. Yellow Pepper
6. Portabella Mushrooms
Chop up vegetables. Saute tofu in hot chili oil until browned. Add veggies. Let sizzle. Add spicy Szechwan sauce. Let sizzle. Eat. Wondrous.
After that, I proceeded to clean up my office.
And start my taxes.
And then play guitar for 10 minutes.
Not a bad day - I even did productive things with my evening.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday the Rainieth of March
Woke up this morning at 6:30 AM for a run. Julia appeared promptly at 7:00 AM, and we went for a run down Mass. Ave., across to Oxford Street, and back up to my place near Porter. Apparently around 2.85 miles. It was pouring rain. Awesome.
After that, we bummed around for a few minutes drying out, brought her bike up and stashed it in my apartment, and then I gave her a ride back to her place.
I had a lovely breakfast of bagel, yogurt, and granola (with craisins!) whilst catching up on a few things for work, then got out the door and off to the office. It was wet. It was really wet.
Work today was disjointed, but I figured a few things out, and finished up some stuff. Worked out okay. I didn't really bother with lunch - I just kinda snacked on a few things here and there.
I left the office at approximately 6:00 PM, I think. I went home, had a bite to eat (cheese and crackers for the win!), and then headed over to Justin and Ali's for LOST around 7:45 PM. Seemed like a pretty good episode.
Oh, and prior to leaving, I noticed we have a leak in our roof, in the kitchen. Argh. Two of them, I think, against the wall. Bugger.
After LOST, I came home and played a little guitar, then climbed into le beddie bye. Yes, that's a technical term. Eric came home and we chatted for a few about the Large Hadron Collider and miscellaneous other things. His girlfriend Nikki just got on a plane for Japan. For a two year Master's program in linguistics. Whoah.
After that, we bummed around for a few minutes drying out, brought her bike up and stashed it in my apartment, and then I gave her a ride back to her place.
I had a lovely breakfast of bagel, yogurt, and granola (with craisins!) whilst catching up on a few things for work, then got out the door and off to the office. It was wet. It was really wet.
Work today was disjointed, but I figured a few things out, and finished up some stuff. Worked out okay. I didn't really bother with lunch - I just kinda snacked on a few things here and there.
I left the office at approximately 6:00 PM, I think. I went home, had a bite to eat (cheese and crackers for the win!), and then headed over to Justin and Ali's for LOST around 7:45 PM. Seemed like a pretty good episode.
Oh, and prior to leaving, I noticed we have a leak in our roof, in the kitchen. Argh. Two of them, I think, against the wall. Bugger.
After LOST, I came home and played a little guitar, then climbed into le beddie bye. Yes, that's a technical term. Eric came home and we chatted for a few about the Large Hadron Collider and miscellaneous other things. His girlfriend Nikki just got on a plane for Japan. For a two year Master's program in linguistics. Whoah.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The annual trip to Shaw's. Or something like that.
Rain makes for lousy motivation.
Julia called around 6:35 AM this morning, and we agreed that our levels of motivation were similar, and that in their similarity, they were both quite low. So we slept in. I slept in way too long. I think I missed re-setting my alarm at one point, and woke up at 9:15 AM. Argh.
I was at work by 10:30 or so, shoes soaked through, socks kinda wet.
Yay.
But that's okay, cause it was a fairly good day, if somewhat disjointed. I worked through lunch; big thanks to Erik for grabbing me some soup from 2nd Street on his way there.
I think, at this point, that I've hashed out pretty much everything we need to do for my current project. Time to just dive into the rest of it, I think. I've already gotten some parts done, but there's still a lot to do. Supposedly I have another four weeks or so. Something like that.
I left work around 5:30 PM and shuffled my way over to NEC for class. Joel got held up, apparently, and we started Theory about 15 minutes late, at least. We talked about minor 2-5-1's. They're weird.
Ear Training went well - I was feeling pretty good by the end of it. I could hear most things pretty well. Spiffy.
After I got home from class, I headed over to Shaw's around 10:00 PM and got some supplies. By 11:00 PM, I spent some time cleaning the kitchen and living room a bit. And then sat down to tell you wonderful people about the mundanity of my day. Damn, y'all, mundanity is a word? Sweet.
Julia called around 6:35 AM this morning, and we agreed that our levels of motivation were similar, and that in their similarity, they were both quite low. So we slept in. I slept in way too long. I think I missed re-setting my alarm at one point, and woke up at 9:15 AM. Argh.
I was at work by 10:30 or so, shoes soaked through, socks kinda wet.
Yay.
But that's okay, cause it was a fairly good day, if somewhat disjointed. I worked through lunch; big thanks to Erik for grabbing me some soup from 2nd Street on his way there.
I think, at this point, that I've hashed out pretty much everything we need to do for my current project. Time to just dive into the rest of it, I think. I've already gotten some parts done, but there's still a lot to do. Supposedly I have another four weeks or so. Something like that.
I left work around 5:30 PM and shuffled my way over to NEC for class. Joel got held up, apparently, and we started Theory about 15 minutes late, at least. We talked about minor 2-5-1's. They're weird.
Ear Training went well - I was feeling pretty good by the end of it. I could hear most things pretty well. Spiffy.
After I got home from class, I headed over to Shaw's around 10:00 PM and got some supplies. By 11:00 PM, I spent some time cleaning the kitchen and living room a bit. And then sat down to tell you wonderful people about the mundanity of my day. Damn, y'all, mundanity is a word? Sweet.
De-overcommitment
I think I need to work on de-overcommitting myself. This is kinda crazy. That was a pretty good exercise the other day, though certainly of questionable accuracy. But I think it's clear that I just need less stuff, material and otherwise.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Weekend
Hi.
So this is an entry for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm going to see if I can't remember everything that happened. It's a bit of a big, happy blur.
Friday work went well. Working independently is sometimes rather nice. It's a pleasure to define your own tasks and work through it all. I'm just making an effort to document what's going on, though, just so someone else could come on board if necessary.
Friday night, I went home after work and tested Noteflight for a few hours. Such a cool site. Around 9:00 or so, I went out for drinks/a bite to eat with Dave FR, Julia, Meredith, and some of Meredith's friends (Steve and Bree). We decided to meet at Cambridge Common, though we weren't really sure we were going to go there. I got there approximately 20 minutes earlier than everyone else, which was only somewhat frustrating.
Within the first 5 minutes, I put our name down for a table just in case we wanted to stay. Within 2 minutes of putting my name down, they called it out, after telling me it was going to be 15 minute wait (which sounded perfect). I grudgingly told them no one else had shown up yet, so they gave the table away. And probably many other tables after that.
Eventually, everyone showed up at once and informed me that they were thinking of going to Charlie's instead. I cancelled the table request, and we walked over to H^2, went into Charlie's, and headed up the stairs. The place was packed. Eventually, after about a half hour of standing around, we finally got a little table. Then we got a bigger table. Then we relaxed. Everyone was doing well. Eventually, Dave FR and Meredith decided they needed to get up in the morning and took their leave. That left Steve, Bree, Julia and me. We sat around and chatted for a while, and then Steve suggested we head to his place up on Broadway in Cambridge, play some Tekken Tag, and drink Maker's Mark.
This struck me as a splendid idea.
So we grabbed a cab and went out that way. While Steve was fetching drinks, I fired up the PS2 only to find a disc of Planet Earth in it.
So we sat, watched Planet Earth, and drank Maker's Mark. Awesome. Eventually, after a while, Julia and I just decided to crash at their place rather than find a cab back. Comfy futon, and all. This was approximately... something something AM. I'm not sure.
Anyway, the next day, Saturday, around 11:00 AM, Julia and I found ourselves walking back to Central from Broadway. We stopped at Carberry's for some coffee and something to eat. After that we went back to our respective apartments, and then (to be a nice guy, and all) I gave her a ride out to Arlington where she was doing some modeling in the afternoon.
Then, I home, took a nap, and then went to PAX.
PAX was pretty crazy. Supposedly there were like... 65,000 people there? Is that possible? That's what was quoted to me. It was packed, like frickin' Charlie's. We saw a panel from the creators of Red vs. Blue, including 20 something minutes of new episode. Pretty cool. Hilarious guys.
We then walked around the exhibition hall a bit, Jason/Mike bought a few games, and then, eventually, around 6;30 or so, we took our leave. Jason, Mike, Ria, Olivia, and I all went back to Mike and Ria's place to hang out for a while.
We watched The Princess And The Frog, which was surprisingly well done. I rather enjoyed it. We also ordered some pizza, which was great.
Around 9:30 or so, I talked to Julia briefly, and remembered that Mr. Eric Fields was planning on seeing Hot Tub Time Machine in H^2 at 10:00 PM.
How could I miss that?
So I said goodbye to Mike, Ria, and Olivia, (Jason had already left by that point), and headed down to Harvard to the theater. There I found Mr. Fields waiting for Julia, surprised to see me. Sup, dude!
Julia and Alex came walking down the street a few minutes later, and we all got our tickets and went in.
Spectacular movie. Extremely fine cinema. Oh, yes. Oscar worthy. Definitely. Classy. John Cusack for the win.
After that, Eric and I headed over to Cambridge Common for a drink. After a few, Julia joined us - I think Alex had gone home. We hung around for a bit (until last call, truthfully), and then went to Eric's for quesadillas and jazz.
Fuck yeah.
Not bad.
Eventually, around 3:00 AM, Julia and I left and went home. An excellent night was had by all.
Sunday morning, I woke up pretty late and bummed around through the afternoon Julia and I had lunch/dinner at Christopher's around 4:00 PM, which was pretty good, though the atmosphere that time of day is weird. There's just not enough people. The place felt kinda empty.
Around 6:00 PM, after a little nap, I shuffled my way on over to Sudbury. Jason brought our Mirrodin cards that we bought. I didn't get a great box, but it wasn't terrible either. It's funny how many of the uncommons in Mirrodin are better than the rares. We did our Ars thing until around 10:30 or so, when I requested that we adjourn. I'm exhausted - the above sleeping schedule was mostly just... Whoa.
So this is an entry for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm going to see if I can't remember everything that happened. It's a bit of a big, happy blur.
Friday work went well. Working independently is sometimes rather nice. It's a pleasure to define your own tasks and work through it all. I'm just making an effort to document what's going on, though, just so someone else could come on board if necessary.
Friday night, I went home after work and tested Noteflight for a few hours. Such a cool site. Around 9:00 or so, I went out for drinks/a bite to eat with Dave FR, Julia, Meredith, and some of Meredith's friends (Steve and Bree). We decided to meet at Cambridge Common, though we weren't really sure we were going to go there. I got there approximately 20 minutes earlier than everyone else, which was only somewhat frustrating.
Within the first 5 minutes, I put our name down for a table just in case we wanted to stay. Within 2 minutes of putting my name down, they called it out, after telling me it was going to be 15 minute wait (which sounded perfect). I grudgingly told them no one else had shown up yet, so they gave the table away. And probably many other tables after that.
Eventually, everyone showed up at once and informed me that they were thinking of going to Charlie's instead. I cancelled the table request, and we walked over to H^2, went into Charlie's, and headed up the stairs. The place was packed. Eventually, after about a half hour of standing around, we finally got a little table. Then we got a bigger table. Then we relaxed. Everyone was doing well. Eventually, Dave FR and Meredith decided they needed to get up in the morning and took their leave. That left Steve, Bree, Julia and me. We sat around and chatted for a while, and then Steve suggested we head to his place up on Broadway in Cambridge, play some Tekken Tag, and drink Maker's Mark.
This struck me as a splendid idea.
So we grabbed a cab and went out that way. While Steve was fetching drinks, I fired up the PS2 only to find a disc of Planet Earth in it.
So we sat, watched Planet Earth, and drank Maker's Mark. Awesome. Eventually, after a while, Julia and I just decided to crash at their place rather than find a cab back. Comfy futon, and all. This was approximately... something something AM. I'm not sure.
Anyway, the next day, Saturday, around 11:00 AM, Julia and I found ourselves walking back to Central from Broadway. We stopped at Carberry's for some coffee and something to eat. After that we went back to our respective apartments, and then (to be a nice guy, and all) I gave her a ride out to Arlington where she was doing some modeling in the afternoon.
Then, I home, took a nap, and then went to PAX.
PAX was pretty crazy. Supposedly there were like... 65,000 people there? Is that possible? That's what was quoted to me. It was packed, like frickin' Charlie's. We saw a panel from the creators of Red vs. Blue, including 20 something minutes of new episode. Pretty cool. Hilarious guys.
We then walked around the exhibition hall a bit, Jason/Mike bought a few games, and then, eventually, around 6;30 or so, we took our leave. Jason, Mike, Ria, Olivia, and I all went back to Mike and Ria's place to hang out for a while.
We watched The Princess And The Frog, which was surprisingly well done. I rather enjoyed it. We also ordered some pizza, which was great.
Around 9:30 or so, I talked to Julia briefly, and remembered that Mr. Eric Fields was planning on seeing Hot Tub Time Machine in H^2 at 10:00 PM.
How could I miss that?
So I said goodbye to Mike, Ria, and Olivia, (Jason had already left by that point), and headed down to Harvard to the theater. There I found Mr. Fields waiting for Julia, surprised to see me. Sup, dude!
Julia and Alex came walking down the street a few minutes later, and we all got our tickets and went in.
Spectacular movie. Extremely fine cinema. Oh, yes. Oscar worthy. Definitely. Classy. John Cusack for the win.
After that, Eric and I headed over to Cambridge Common for a drink. After a few, Julia joined us - I think Alex had gone home. We hung around for a bit (until last call, truthfully), and then went to Eric's for quesadillas and jazz.
Fuck yeah.
Not bad.
Eventually, around 3:00 AM, Julia and I left and went home. An excellent night was had by all.
Sunday morning, I woke up pretty late and bummed around through the afternoon Julia and I had lunch/dinner at Christopher's around 4:00 PM, which was pretty good, though the atmosphere that time of day is weird. There's just not enough people. The place felt kinda empty.
Around 6:00 PM, after a little nap, I shuffled my way on over to Sudbury. Jason brought our Mirrodin cards that we bought. I didn't get a great box, but it wasn't terrible either. It's funny how many of the uncommons in Mirrodin are better than the rares. We did our Ars thing until around 10:30 or so, when I requested that we adjourn. I'm exhausted - the above sleeping schedule was mostly just... Whoa.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Mathematicals
Got up at 6:40 AM this morning to go running, but I think Julia missed her alarm. So I used the time to get to work a bit early, instead, so I could leave early, so I could get some practice in before my lesson.
The days usually stack up like that.
I find myself being a rather busy guy, I think.
Let's see how this goes, ideally:
Monday: run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM. Work until 5:00 PM. Travel across town to NEC for class by 6:00 PM. Sit in class until 8:30 PM or so. Spend an hour getting home. Home by 9:30 at the earliest. Eat dinner, done by 9:45, at the earliest. Stare at a screen for 45 minutes with my mouth hanging open. Get ready to go to sleep by 10:30 PM. Sleep at 11:00 PM, at best.
Tuesday: Run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM. In reality, because I have nowhere to be on Tuesdays, make that 9:30 AM. Work until 6:00 or 6:30 PM. Get home by 7:00 PM. Dinner by 7:30 PM. From 7:30 PM until 10:30 PM, have three hours free. Asleep by 11:00 PM.
Wednesday: Run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM or 9:30 AM. Unless something comes up in the morning, in which case half the time I'm in by 10:00 AM. Work until 6:00 or 6:30 PM. Get home by 7:00 PM. Dinner by 7:30 PM. From 7:30 PM until 10:30 PM, have three hours free. Asleep at 11:00 PM.
Thursday: Run at 7:00 AM, supposedly, at work by 9:00 AM, hopefully. Work until 5:00 PM so I can get home to get some practice in before my lesson. Home by 6:00 PM. Today, 6:30 PM, cause, you know, life is never that efficient. Practice and eat a quick dinner until 7:30 PM. Drive to Brookline. Lesson from 8:00 PM to 9:15 PM, usually. Sometimes 9:30 PM. Occasionally 10:00 PM. Hurry home. Home and sitting here to write this by 9:45 PM. Spend 45 minutes staring at a screen with my mouth hanging open. Get ready for bed at 10:30 PM. Asleep by 11:00 PM.
Friday: Run at 7:00 AM, mostly, at work by 9:30 AM at best. Work until 6:00 PM. Sometimes later, because things always come up on Fridays. Home by 7:00 PM, often. Dinner by 7:30 PM. Technically free time until perhaps midnight, if I intend to sleep decently. Regardless, I always get at least 8 hours of sleep on weekend nights. Therefore, perhaps 4 and a half hours of free time. Wooo, best so far this week.
Saturday: Wake up and be ready for life sometime around 10:00 AM. Perhaps hit up Dado until 3:00 PM or so to get something done. Spend 30 minutes of that eating something. Have a generally free evening. Another 30 minutes of fooding, perhaps. Again, perhaps until midnight, or the way things have been going lately, 7:00 effing AM. Go to sleep at midnight again, for sake of argument.
Sunday: Wake up and be prepared for the day by around 10:00 AM again, in all likelihood. From 10:00 AM until 3:30 PM, have some free time. Spend 30 minutes eating in there somewhere. 4:00 PM, drive to Sudbury. 5:00 PM until midnight, play Ars (yeah, we're serious). Asleep by 1:00 AM Monday morning. Yes, I'm supposed to go for a run on Monday morning at 7:00 AM.
SO.
The free time. Let's count, shall we?
Monday, 45 minutes.
Tuesday, 3 hours.
Wednesday, 3 hours.
Thursday, 45 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 30 minutes (woohoo!)
Saturday, 13 hours.
Sunday, 5 hours.
So, now. Monday and Thursday just don't count. Nothing happens in that 45 minutes except writing the sort of thing I'm writing now. So there goes 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Every other day, subtract 15 minutes for blogging.
New totals:
Monday, 0 minutes.
Tuesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Wednesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Thursday, 0 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 15 minutes.
Saturday, 12 hours 45 minutes.
Sunday, 4 hours 45 minutes.
Presumably, most days, some activity will be happening on Saturday. Call that from 8:00 PM until midnight, sleep time. Most every week, something also happens on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Either friends getting together, or a meeting of some sort, a social dinner with friends, or something. So take 2 hours for that, perhaps. For the sake of argument, say it happens on Tuesday. And lets say that to have a balanced life, I clean something or do laundry at least once a week. Call that 2 hours. We'll fill that in on Sunday, just to spread things out. I spend at least another 2 hours on Sunday preparing for Ars, lately, since I'm running it.
New totals:
Monday, 0 minutes.
Tuesday, 45 minutes.
Wednesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Thursday, 0 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 15 minutes.
Saturday, 8 hours 45 minutes.
Sunday, 45 minutes.
So Saturday remains an excellent day to get things done. Truthfully, nothing productive ever happens on Friday night.
So, essentially, we're talking 11 and a half hours a week to do anything else in my life that hasn't been covered above. Assuming there isn't anything happening during the day on Saturday, in which case that starts looking more like 5 hours a week.
Guitar practice? Ought to be at least 5 hours a week.
Writing? Would preferably be at least 3 hours a week.
Grocery store? 1 hour a week.
More thorough apartment cleaning? 1 hour
Homework? 4 hours would be smart.
Side programming projects? 4 hours?
What's that, 18 hours?
God forbid I visit my family some weekend. Or get sick. Or have PAX come to town, like this weekend.
Rough. I think I'm trying to do too much.
Hmm, it's 10:26. Four minutes to go before it's time to get ready to sleep.
The days usually stack up like that.
I find myself being a rather busy guy, I think.
Let's see how this goes, ideally:
Monday: run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM. Work until 5:00 PM. Travel across town to NEC for class by 6:00 PM. Sit in class until 8:30 PM or so. Spend an hour getting home. Home by 9:30 at the earliest. Eat dinner, done by 9:45, at the earliest. Stare at a screen for 45 minutes with my mouth hanging open. Get ready to go to sleep by 10:30 PM. Sleep at 11:00 PM, at best.
Tuesday: Run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM. In reality, because I have nowhere to be on Tuesdays, make that 9:30 AM. Work until 6:00 or 6:30 PM. Get home by 7:00 PM. Dinner by 7:30 PM. From 7:30 PM until 10:30 PM, have three hours free. Asleep by 11:00 PM.
Wednesday: Run at 7:00 AM, at work by 9:00 AM or 9:30 AM. Unless something comes up in the morning, in which case half the time I'm in by 10:00 AM. Work until 6:00 or 6:30 PM. Get home by 7:00 PM. Dinner by 7:30 PM. From 7:30 PM until 10:30 PM, have three hours free. Asleep at 11:00 PM.
Thursday: Run at 7:00 AM, supposedly, at work by 9:00 AM, hopefully. Work until 5:00 PM so I can get home to get some practice in before my lesson. Home by 6:00 PM. Today, 6:30 PM, cause, you know, life is never that efficient. Practice and eat a quick dinner until 7:30 PM. Drive to Brookline. Lesson from 8:00 PM to 9:15 PM, usually. Sometimes 9:30 PM. Occasionally 10:00 PM. Hurry home. Home and sitting here to write this by 9:45 PM. Spend 45 minutes staring at a screen with my mouth hanging open. Get ready for bed at 10:30 PM. Asleep by 11:00 PM.
Friday: Run at 7:00 AM, mostly, at work by 9:30 AM at best. Work until 6:00 PM. Sometimes later, because things always come up on Fridays. Home by 7:00 PM, often. Dinner by 7:30 PM. Technically free time until perhaps midnight, if I intend to sleep decently. Regardless, I always get at least 8 hours of sleep on weekend nights. Therefore, perhaps 4 and a half hours of free time. Wooo, best so far this week.
Saturday: Wake up and be ready for life sometime around 10:00 AM. Perhaps hit up Dado until 3:00 PM or so to get something done. Spend 30 minutes of that eating something. Have a generally free evening. Another 30 minutes of fooding, perhaps. Again, perhaps until midnight, or the way things have been going lately, 7:00 effing AM. Go to sleep at midnight again, for sake of argument.
Sunday: Wake up and be prepared for the day by around 10:00 AM again, in all likelihood. From 10:00 AM until 3:30 PM, have some free time. Spend 30 minutes eating in there somewhere. 4:00 PM, drive to Sudbury. 5:00 PM until midnight, play Ars (yeah, we're serious). Asleep by 1:00 AM Monday morning. Yes, I'm supposed to go for a run on Monday morning at 7:00 AM.
SO.
The free time. Let's count, shall we?
Monday, 45 minutes.
Tuesday, 3 hours.
Wednesday, 3 hours.
Thursday, 45 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 30 minutes (woohoo!)
Saturday, 13 hours.
Sunday, 5 hours.
So, now. Monday and Thursday just don't count. Nothing happens in that 45 minutes except writing the sort of thing I'm writing now. So there goes 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Every other day, subtract 15 minutes for blogging.
New totals:
Monday, 0 minutes.
Tuesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Wednesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Thursday, 0 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 15 minutes.
Saturday, 12 hours 45 minutes.
Sunday, 4 hours 45 minutes.
Presumably, most days, some activity will be happening on Saturday. Call that from 8:00 PM until midnight, sleep time. Most every week, something also happens on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Either friends getting together, or a meeting of some sort, a social dinner with friends, or something. So take 2 hours for that, perhaps. For the sake of argument, say it happens on Tuesday. And lets say that to have a balanced life, I clean something or do laundry at least once a week. Call that 2 hours. We'll fill that in on Sunday, just to spread things out. I spend at least another 2 hours on Sunday preparing for Ars, lately, since I'm running it.
New totals:
Monday, 0 minutes.
Tuesday, 45 minutes.
Wednesday, 2 hours 45 minutes.
Thursday, 0 minutes.
Friday, 4 hours 15 minutes.
Saturday, 8 hours 45 minutes.
Sunday, 45 minutes.
So Saturday remains an excellent day to get things done. Truthfully, nothing productive ever happens on Friday night.
So, essentially, we're talking 11 and a half hours a week to do anything else in my life that hasn't been covered above. Assuming there isn't anything happening during the day on Saturday, in which case that starts looking more like 5 hours a week.
Guitar practice? Ought to be at least 5 hours a week.
Writing? Would preferably be at least 3 hours a week.
Grocery store? 1 hour a week.
More thorough apartment cleaning? 1 hour
Homework? 4 hours would be smart.
Side programming projects? 4 hours?
What's that, 18 hours?
God forbid I visit my family some weekend. Or get sick. Or have PAX come to town, like this weekend.
Rough. I think I'm trying to do too much.
Hmm, it's 10:26. Four minutes to go before it's time to get ready to sleep.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Party Out
Today started with a bike ride at 7:15 AM.
Julia and I, in lieu of our usual run, decided to bike around Cambridge a bit in the morning. She had things to get done, and I just had things to get outside - namely, myself. We started by hitting up the Shaw's in Porter for bananas.
You heard right: bananas. Lots of bananas. Like... $15 worth of bananas. If you know anything about banana cost per pound, you know that's a shiznit ton of bananas. Like a huge backpack full.
Girl likes bananas.
... But not that much. They were for after school kids. Smoothie day, apparently. So we tried to go to Shaw's for bananas, but found that they didn't have enough ripe ones - they just had a wicked ton of green ones. Not good. So we cleaned them out of ripe bananas, then headed over to the Gourmet Express to fill out the backpack.
After that, we biked down Mass Ave. to Harvard Square, where I realized that I wasn't going to be able to make it all the way to her school to drop them off, as it would have taken me until like... 8:30 or so, which might be a tad too late. So I went home via the back way (Garden/Raymond, etc.). After that, having started the day on a bike, I opted to ride to work as well. I found a nice spot for my bike next to Mr. Daniel's (safety in numbers, don't you know). The day went alright, I got a few things done. Not as much as yesterday, I think, but it generally involved a few more random things than yesterday as well.
For lunch, Erik, M'Lord and I ordered Thai. They got drunken noodles. I got yellow curry. All tofu, all the time. It was delicious.
After work, we hosted the Brightcove Developer Group Meeting thingy. Daniel and Eric gave little presentations, along with folks from a few other companies in the area that use Brightcove. Good times. There was pizza and beer. Also good times.
After the meeting, around 8:00 PM or so, I biked home, sat down, had some tea, and then bust out the guitar for a few. I'm not feeling particularly prepared for my lesson tomorrow. This week (and the last one, I think), I've been mostly exhausted at night after work. I thought exercise was s'posed to energize you? As it gets warmer I'm getting more, but I'm just feeling a bit worn out! It feels good, in a way, but I just wish I didn't have so much to do in my spare time.
Sitting here, listening to the Beastie Boys.
And that's how it is.
Julia and I, in lieu of our usual run, decided to bike around Cambridge a bit in the morning. She had things to get done, and I just had things to get outside - namely, myself. We started by hitting up the Shaw's in Porter for bananas.
You heard right: bananas. Lots of bananas. Like... $15 worth of bananas. If you know anything about banana cost per pound, you know that's a shiznit ton of bananas. Like a huge backpack full.
Girl likes bananas.
... But not that much. They were for after school kids. Smoothie day, apparently. So we tried to go to Shaw's for bananas, but found that they didn't have enough ripe ones - they just had a wicked ton of green ones. Not good. So we cleaned them out of ripe bananas, then headed over to the Gourmet Express to fill out the backpack.
After that, we biked down Mass Ave. to Harvard Square, where I realized that I wasn't going to be able to make it all the way to her school to drop them off, as it would have taken me until like... 8:30 or so, which might be a tad too late. So I went home via the back way (Garden/Raymond, etc.). After that, having started the day on a bike, I opted to ride to work as well. I found a nice spot for my bike next to Mr. Daniel's (safety in numbers, don't you know). The day went alright, I got a few things done. Not as much as yesterday, I think, but it generally involved a few more random things than yesterday as well.
For lunch, Erik, M'Lord and I ordered Thai. They got drunken noodles. I got yellow curry. All tofu, all the time. It was delicious.
After work, we hosted the Brightcove Developer Group Meeting thingy. Daniel and Eric gave little presentations, along with folks from a few other companies in the area that use Brightcove. Good times. There was pizza and beer. Also good times.
After the meeting, around 8:00 PM or so, I biked home, sat down, had some tea, and then bust out the guitar for a few. I'm not feeling particularly prepared for my lesson tomorrow. This week (and the last one, I think), I've been mostly exhausted at night after work. I thought exercise was s'posed to energize you? As it gets warmer I'm getting more, but I'm just feeling a bit worn out! It feels good, in a way, but I just wish I didn't have so much to do in my spare time.
Sitting here, listening to the Beastie Boys.
And that's how it is.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wet but productive
So I woke up and got out of the apartment later than expected this morning, and had to rush into work for a 9:30 meeting with like... everyone on the invite. Dah. I had to call ahead and ask if we could push it back 15 minutes. Luckily, most people didn't come anyway, and those that did didn't really seem to mind, so... yay.
It was pouring rain this morning, and by the time I got to the office, my poor feets were all wet. Bugger. I eventually put them in front of a heater in the conference room to dry out.
Work today was rather productive, I think. I got several things done, wrote a bunch of documentation, and did proof of concepts for a few others. Not bad. I stayed at work from approximately 9:45 AM until 7:00 PM, with some falafel for lunch in between.
And snacks. We got new snacks. I had fruit snacks. And animal crackers. And some Chex. Mmm... chex.
Once home, I chilled out for a bit, played some Braid, and then helped Eric do some research into some consumer goods he was thinking of purchasing. And... Oh! And I did laundry. It's currently drying. Yay, domesticity! Holy crap, that's a word? Wow!
It was pouring rain this morning, and by the time I got to the office, my poor feets were all wet. Bugger. I eventually put them in front of a heater in the conference room to dry out.
Work today was rather productive, I think. I got several things done, wrote a bunch of documentation, and did proof of concepts for a few others. Not bad. I stayed at work from approximately 9:45 AM until 7:00 PM, with some falafel for lunch in between.
And snacks. We got new snacks. I had fruit snacks. And animal crackers. And some Chex. Mmm... chex.
Once home, I chilled out for a bit, played some Braid, and then helped Eric do some research into some consumer goods he was thinking of purchasing. And... Oh! And I did laundry. It's currently drying. Yay, domesticity! Holy crap, that's a word? Wow!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Trains, Braids, News, Notes in Flight, and a smidge of running
Argh. I should remember to do this earlier.
I woke up at 6:30 AM this morning and biked over to Julia's. We went for a 3.2 mile run around the river, down to Western Ave., and back to her place. Not bad. It felt pretty good, even if it was a tad cold outside.
Today, on my way into work, the train was delayed at Porter. There was apparently a medical emergency at Charles (whoever you are, I hope you're okay). I waited around for about ten minutes before the conductor came on over the intercom saying there'd be another fifteen minute wait.
To me, that means it's time to walk to Harvard Square.
So I did.
Got into Dado, sat for a few, started checking work e-mail, chatted with Karin for a bit, then figured it was safe enough to hit up the train and get to the office.
It was, indeed!
So I got to the office.
I spent most of the day working on this integration thingy about adding things to peoples shopping cart. I got it working! This is exciting to me.
I don't seem capable of writing a substantial paragraph tonight. This is maybe because my hands are cold.
In other news: I'm getting a copy of Windows 7 for my Mac, for Bootcamp! Yay! Then I may be able to play Starcraft II.
After work, Erik, Victoria, and I walked down to the T. Erik went towards Porter, Victoria and I went towards Park. Good conversation. I got to class five minutes late, but it was okay because Joel wasn't there either. Theory went well, I think. Ear Training went pretty well too. I feel vaguely like I'm slowly getting trained. I can hear the difference between minor, dominant, and major chords now, when I sing the chord tones. It's pretty cool.
I came home and tried to play Braid. It kept crashing. I downloaded an update to it while trying to watch The Daily Show on Hulu. The show kept pausing for buffering. Very annoying. I also tried to register for Noteflight, and they never sent me an e-mail. Very sad. Eventually, Braid downloaded and stopped crashing once I reinstalled it. Hulu got its act together. But Noteflight never e-mailed me. Sad panda.
Just talked to Julia - we're pre-emptively canceling our run in the morning, given that it looks like it's going to be all rainy-crazy. We'll pick up again on Wednesday.
And now, sleep.
I woke up at 6:30 AM this morning and biked over to Julia's. We went for a 3.2 mile run around the river, down to Western Ave., and back to her place. Not bad. It felt pretty good, even if it was a tad cold outside.
Today, on my way into work, the train was delayed at Porter. There was apparently a medical emergency at Charles (whoever you are, I hope you're okay). I waited around for about ten minutes before the conductor came on over the intercom saying there'd be another fifteen minute wait.
To me, that means it's time to walk to Harvard Square.
So I did.
Got into Dado, sat for a few, started checking work e-mail, chatted with Karin for a bit, then figured it was safe enough to hit up the train and get to the office.
It was, indeed!
So I got to the office.
I spent most of the day working on this integration thingy about adding things to peoples shopping cart. I got it working! This is exciting to me.
I don't seem capable of writing a substantial paragraph tonight. This is maybe because my hands are cold.
In other news: I'm getting a copy of Windows 7 for my Mac, for Bootcamp! Yay! Then I may be able to play Starcraft II.
After work, Erik, Victoria, and I walked down to the T. Erik went towards Porter, Victoria and I went towards Park. Good conversation. I got to class five minutes late, but it was okay because Joel wasn't there either. Theory went well, I think. Ear Training went pretty well too. I feel vaguely like I'm slowly getting trained. I can hear the difference between minor, dominant, and major chords now, when I sing the chord tones. It's pretty cool.
I came home and tried to play Braid. It kept crashing. I downloaded an update to it while trying to watch The Daily Show on Hulu. The show kept pausing for buffering. Very annoying. I also tried to register for Noteflight, and they never sent me an e-mail. Very sad. Eventually, Braid downloaded and stopped crashing once I reinstalled it. Hulu got its act together. But Noteflight never e-mailed me. Sad panda.
Just talked to Julia - we're pre-emptively canceling our run in the morning, given that it looks like it's going to be all rainy-crazy. We'll pick up again on Wednesday.
And now, sleep.
A really straightforward day.
It sounds like we passed some health care reform tonight.
I can't say I'm upset by this.
I woke up today at 11:30 or so, got my stuff together, and rode my bike down to Harvard Square. I sat in Dado from around 1:00 PM until about 4:00 PM, planning for tonight's Ars game. I had a scone, some coffee, and eventually a delicious bagel/hummus/swiss/veggie sandwich. Eventually, I rolled my way back home and then out to Sudbury for the evening.
Dave brought some scotch. YEAH DAVE!
We had a pretty okay session, I think. A bit slow, at times, but sometimes that happens. It tends to happen more when the characters kinda go their separate ways and do separate things for a bit. Wasn't really any way around it.
We left off with a slight cliff hanger - Jason's character just got visited by a dragon, in human form, dressed as a fine gentleman, named Iurdicialus (which roughly translates from some bastardized Latin as "Justice"). Good times.
And... I think that's all I've got. Back to work and class tomorrow. It'll probably be a looong day.
Oh, and I tried out my NPR iPhone app for the first time today. It's wicked awesome to be able to just listen to whatever whenever you want. Coolness.
I can't say I'm upset by this.
I woke up today at 11:30 or so, got my stuff together, and rode my bike down to Harvard Square. I sat in Dado from around 1:00 PM until about 4:00 PM, planning for tonight's Ars game. I had a scone, some coffee, and eventually a delicious bagel/hummus/swiss/veggie sandwich. Eventually, I rolled my way back home and then out to Sudbury for the evening.
Dave brought some scotch. YEAH DAVE!
We had a pretty okay session, I think. A bit slow, at times, but sometimes that happens. It tends to happen more when the characters kinda go their separate ways and do separate things for a bit. Wasn't really any way around it.
We left off with a slight cliff hanger - Jason's character just got visited by a dragon, in human form, dressed as a fine gentleman, named Iurdicialus (which roughly translates from some bastardized Latin as "Justice"). Good times.
And... I think that's all I've got. Back to work and class tomorrow. It'll probably be a looong day.
Oh, and I tried out my NPR iPhone app for the first time today. It's wicked awesome to be able to just listen to whatever whenever you want. Coolness.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Music in the park
Today I woke up at noon.
Julia and I were planning on heading down to JP for an Arternoon at Ian and Sarah's place at 2:00 PM.
So we did that.
By 1:00 or so, I found myself walking down Mass. Ave towards Harvard Square, guitar in tow. I stopped at Simon's Cafe for a scone (Carberry's) and some coffee. Julia and I met at the Church St. T entrance at around 1:30 or so. We took the red line to Downtown Crossing, then Orange down to Green St.
Eventually, we ended up down by the Pond, sitting on a blanket, hanging out. There was this couple playing mandolin/guitar there, and after a few moments of wondering whether I should interrupt the air with my own noises, decided to get my guitar out and enjoy myself regardless. I went there to play, after all.
It was such a nice day.
We stayed at the pond until 4:30 or so, I think. It was really nice to sit there, with other people around doing something musical, and actually feel like I was vaguely holding my own. For almost the first time, I think, I kinda felt like I had a right to be there playing music. That is a wonderful feeling. I'm by no means great, and my repertoire is still pretty small, but I do actually have some ability. Whew.
After that, Julia and I took the T back to Harvard Square, and walked back to our respective apartments.
I then proceeded to take a 45 minute nap.
Eric and I bummed around in the living room for a while before deciding to go to Christopher's around 11:00 PM. In the meantime, I started downloading Starcraft II.
That download has finished. We'll see how well this runs in a VM. Gulp.
Here goes!
Julia and I were planning on heading down to JP for an Arternoon at Ian and Sarah's place at 2:00 PM.
So we did that.
By 1:00 or so, I found myself walking down Mass. Ave towards Harvard Square, guitar in tow. I stopped at Simon's Cafe for a scone (Carberry's) and some coffee. Julia and I met at the Church St. T entrance at around 1:30 or so. We took the red line to Downtown Crossing, then Orange down to Green St.
Eventually, we ended up down by the Pond, sitting on a blanket, hanging out. There was this couple playing mandolin/guitar there, and after a few moments of wondering whether I should interrupt the air with my own noises, decided to get my guitar out and enjoy myself regardless. I went there to play, after all.
It was such a nice day.
We stayed at the pond until 4:30 or so, I think. It was really nice to sit there, with other people around doing something musical, and actually feel like I was vaguely holding my own. For almost the first time, I think, I kinda felt like I had a right to be there playing music. That is a wonderful feeling. I'm by no means great, and my repertoire is still pretty small, but I do actually have some ability. Whew.
After that, Julia and I took the T back to Harvard Square, and walked back to our respective apartments.
I then proceeded to take a 45 minute nap.
Eric and I bummed around in the living room for a while before deciding to go to Christopher's around 11:00 PM. In the meantime, I started downloading Starcraft II.
That download has finished. We'll see how well this runs in a VM. Gulp.
Here goes!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Mad Mirrodin Mir Men. Mir man! Mir MAN!
Today, I woke up wicked late (See post regarding Thursday). This was annoying, though somewhat amusing.
Thank goodness for jobs where no one cares if you occasionally show up at noon without a terribly good reason beyond, "Umm... I'm hung over?" Ahh, the modern workplace. It's a pretty cool thing - being granted the flexibility to occasionally act like an irresponsible adult just makes me all the more determined to be responsible the rest of the time.
Anyway, so I woke up wicked late. After getting my act together, I walked down to Harvard Sq. from Porter (because it was gorgeous out!), grabbed some coffee, and then got lunch for Daniel, Hillary, and myself at Veggie Planet. Marty missed out because he didn't read my e-mail. He just saw the title, "In by noon" and left it at that, apparently.
So work went pretty well. I got a few things done, including updating a wiki page with a list of all of our customers/widgets. After work, I stopped over in H^2 again, grabbed a scone, some taro bubble tea (very girly looking, but that's okay), and an apple, and then walked back home up Mass Ave. Twenty minutes later saw me at home, helping my neighbor Elizabeth pull some outdoor patio furniture out of the basement. And a few minutes after that saw me driving out of the city towards Sudbury for a night of Magic. MAGIC!
Route 20 was flooded over where it crossed route 27. Crazy. I guess we really did have a ton of rain. Magic went well. I cleaned up, all told. Both in games and in the cards I got out of our sealed deck. We bought two boxes of Mirrodin and split them up. Great stuff.
I also brought my guitar with me for in-between-game jams. While playing, Gwen sent me a text asking if I wanted to hang out with her and Eric. She said they were listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and watching Mad Men. I mentally arranged to check out of Sudbury at a reasonable hour.
After leaving Sudbury, I got back to the city around 11:00 PM. I sent Eric and Gwen some text messages to see what they were up to. They were at her place, watching Mad Men. So I hopped on my bike and headed over to Inman. It was a beautiful ride. We sat and watched more Mad Men, and then, following that, The Breakfast Club. I don't think I've ever seen that. So full of teen angst! Crazy.
After all that, I rode home. And here I am.
Thank goodness for jobs where no one cares if you occasionally show up at noon without a terribly good reason beyond, "Umm... I'm hung over?" Ahh, the modern workplace. It's a pretty cool thing - being granted the flexibility to occasionally act like an irresponsible adult just makes me all the more determined to be responsible the rest of the time.
Anyway, so I woke up wicked late. After getting my act together, I walked down to Harvard Sq. from Porter (because it was gorgeous out!), grabbed some coffee, and then got lunch for Daniel, Hillary, and myself at Veggie Planet. Marty missed out because he didn't read my e-mail. He just saw the title, "In by noon" and left it at that, apparently.
So work went pretty well. I got a few things done, including updating a wiki page with a list of all of our customers/widgets. After work, I stopped over in H^2 again, grabbed a scone, some taro bubble tea (very girly looking, but that's okay), and an apple, and then walked back home up Mass Ave. Twenty minutes later saw me at home, helping my neighbor Elizabeth pull some outdoor patio furniture out of the basement. And a few minutes after that saw me driving out of the city towards Sudbury for a night of Magic. MAGIC!
Route 20 was flooded over where it crossed route 27. Crazy. I guess we really did have a ton of rain. Magic went well. I cleaned up, all told. Both in games and in the cards I got out of our sealed deck. We bought two boxes of Mirrodin and split them up. Great stuff.
I also brought my guitar with me for in-between-game jams. While playing, Gwen sent me a text asking if I wanted to hang out with her and Eric. She said they were listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and watching Mad Men. I mentally arranged to check out of Sudbury at a reasonable hour.
After leaving Sudbury, I got back to the city around 11:00 PM. I sent Eric and Gwen some text messages to see what they were up to. They were at her place, watching Mad Men. So I hopped on my bike and headed over to Inman. It was a beautiful ride. We sat and watched more Mad Men, and then, following that, The Breakfast Club. I don't think I've ever seen that. So full of teen angst! Crazy.
After all that, I rode home. And here I am.
Unexpected late nights
This is a post for Thursday.
I didn't bring home my laptop on Thursday, and thus, couldn't write anything. At least, it would have been incredibly awkward to do anything substantial on an iPhone. Granted, it's currently 4:23 AM, so I may not be able to do anything substantial anyway.
Anyway.
I woke up at an average time on Thursday, and gathered up my guitar and computer and shipped myself off to work. I had a lesson scheduled at 6:00 PM out in Brookline, so I wasn't able to go home prior to heading out.
After the lesson, I took the D train up to Kenmore and walked down to Landsdowne St. for Jessi and Julia's joint birthday party thing. I met a lot of cool people, and got to stand and watch a live karaoke band enjoy themselves despite the generally average singers.
Eventually, Julia, Alex, and Eric decided to go to some 80s night thing in Allston. Given that I had my guitar with me, I decided to stay at the spot. We ended up staying there until closing, whenever that was. At the end, it was Jessi, her friend Holly, Holly's boyfriend Alex, and, I'm terribly sorry to admit, one other friend of Jessi's whose name I've been unable to retain.
Anyway, at the end of the night, we somehow got it in our head that we wanted IHOP.
I don't think I ever really bothered to look at or care about the time at this point in the night. So, after a bit of investigation, we discovered that the IHOP in Harvard Sq. is open until 4:00 AM. We took that as a sign, and hopped a cab across the river to H^2. I had some eggs and pancakes. They were wonderful.
After that, we all said our goodbyes, and I walked home from Harvard (given that it was 4:00 in the morning). I got to sleep at around 5:00 AM. Similar to tonight, in fact!
I didn't bring home my laptop on Thursday, and thus, couldn't write anything. At least, it would have been incredibly awkward to do anything substantial on an iPhone. Granted, it's currently 4:23 AM, so I may not be able to do anything substantial anyway.
Anyway.
I woke up at an average time on Thursday, and gathered up my guitar and computer and shipped myself off to work. I had a lesson scheduled at 6:00 PM out in Brookline, so I wasn't able to go home prior to heading out.
After the lesson, I took the D train up to Kenmore and walked down to Landsdowne St. for Jessi and Julia's joint birthday party thing. I met a lot of cool people, and got to stand and watch a live karaoke band enjoy themselves despite the generally average singers.
Eventually, Julia, Alex, and Eric decided to go to some 80s night thing in Allston. Given that I had my guitar with me, I decided to stay at the spot. We ended up staying there until closing, whenever that was. At the end, it was Jessi, her friend Holly, Holly's boyfriend Alex, and, I'm terribly sorry to admit, one other friend of Jessi's whose name I've been unable to retain.
Anyway, at the end of the night, we somehow got it in our head that we wanted IHOP.
I don't think I ever really bothered to look at or care about the time at this point in the night. So, after a bit of investigation, we discovered that the IHOP in Harvard Sq. is open until 4:00 AM. We took that as a sign, and hopped a cab across the river to H^2. I had some eggs and pancakes. They were wonderful.
After that, we all said our goodbyes, and I walked home from Harvard (given that it was 4:00 in the morning). I got to sleep at around 5:00 AM. Similar to tonight, in fact!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Completely Beautiful
Today was, I think, the first completely beautiful day of the year.
I rolled out of bed a tad late and wandered over to work without a real jacket. It was glorious. I finally remembered to bring my pho from the other night with me to work, which proved to be... interesting... to try to heat up at the office.
The morning consisted of mostly independent work, trying to work through how I'm supposed to do stuff for my current integration project. I made some headway. I also had a few random meetings during the day. Around 2:30 or so, Erik and I decided to take a walk out in the sunshine over and around Cambridgeside, just to get out. It was great. We took a look through Borders for a moment of relaxation. After coming back to the office (and resisting the urge to get a cookie), I continued on my way, spending most of the rest of the day in one big meeting. I eventually left a little after 5:00 PM to get back for a run.
Unfortunately, Julia had a project to do for her classes, and we canceled the run. Ah, well. I gladly used the time to practice a bit more.
Oh!
And when I got home, I ripped all the winterizing plastic stuff out of the windows and opened them all up. It was great, even though the first thing I heard afterward was some child crying across the street. I don't mind, though. The fresh air and breeze was really welcome.
I spent quite a while practicing, and then eventually stopped around 9:30 or so, I think, and decided to check on my finances instead.
I believe Matt has been placing my mail in the wrong box in our little inbox - I found all sorts of mail today... not in my thingy at all. I'm glad I bothered to look before someone just threw it all out or something. It had a new debit card, my 3-day pass for PAX, the Cambridge census, some junk mail, and my Commemorative Presidential White House Print for 2010. Joy of joys - I didn't ask for a cheaply printed stylization of the White House, thanks. I wish they'd stop wasting my money on crap I don't need or want. It's basically an excuse for the Democratic National Committee to hit me up for money, as far as I can tell. Whoop-di-doo.
Aaaanyway, maybe I'll head to sleep and read for a bit. I kinda feel like I have a headache. Overall, a good day.
I rolled out of bed a tad late and wandered over to work without a real jacket. It was glorious. I finally remembered to bring my pho from the other night with me to work, which proved to be... interesting... to try to heat up at the office.
The morning consisted of mostly independent work, trying to work through how I'm supposed to do stuff for my current integration project. I made some headway. I also had a few random meetings during the day. Around 2:30 or so, Erik and I decided to take a walk out in the sunshine over and around Cambridgeside, just to get out. It was great. We took a look through Borders for a moment of relaxation. After coming back to the office (and resisting the urge to get a cookie), I continued on my way, spending most of the rest of the day in one big meeting. I eventually left a little after 5:00 PM to get back for a run.
Unfortunately, Julia had a project to do for her classes, and we canceled the run. Ah, well. I gladly used the time to practice a bit more.
Oh!
And when I got home, I ripped all the winterizing plastic stuff out of the windows and opened them all up. It was great, even though the first thing I heard afterward was some child crying across the street. I don't mind, though. The fresh air and breeze was really welcome.
I spent quite a while practicing, and then eventually stopped around 9:30 or so, I think, and decided to check on my finances instead.
I believe Matt has been placing my mail in the wrong box in our little inbox - I found all sorts of mail today... not in my thingy at all. I'm glad I bothered to look before someone just threw it all out or something. It had a new debit card, my 3-day pass for PAX, the Cambridge census, some junk mail, and my Commemorative Presidential White House Print for 2010. Joy of joys - I didn't ask for a cheaply printed stylization of the White House, thanks. I wish they'd stop wasting my money on crap I don't need or want. It's basically an excuse for the Democratic National Committee to hit me up for money, as far as I can tell. Whoop-di-doo.
Aaaanyway, maybe I'll head to sleep and read for a bit. I kinda feel like I have a headache. Overall, a good day.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sunnnnnny.
I didn't sleep very well last night. Or, at least, I didn't sleep until 1:30 AM or so. I think my crazy weekend finally caught up with me. Unfortunately, as a result, I wasn't really in much shape for a run at 6:00 AM this morning. It's weird calling someone at 6:00 AM and having them not be mad at you - but I gave Julia a call and we agreed to just leave it for the day. It was dark. We both didn't sleep spectacularly. A good day to go back to bed.
So I went back to bed and set my alarm for 8:00 AM.
And got up at 8:00 AM, feeling much better as a result.
At work, I finished up this documentation I'd been trying to complete, and started on The Next Big Thing. I'm currently at the point where I know where to look to start, but don't know where to actually start. It's a weird time, when you're just getting into something at the very beginning, and have scarcely a clue where to begin. You hope that it'll start making sense as you go along. You dread that it won't for whatever reason.
Around 2:30 or so, I took a little break, went out on the office roof deck, and called Mom. Yay, Mom! It was lovely to talk to her, standing in the sunshine. We talked about Ocean Grove, and when I'll be coming home next (Easter?), and the race I ran on Sunday, and condos. And I can't remember what else. Eventually I went back inside, feeling fairly refreshed.
I stayed at work until 7:15 for a code review with Mahk. (Yes, that's how I'll spell your name - ha hah!) Got home around 8:00-ish, and set out for Justin and Ali's for LOST.
Got there around 8:45 PM or so, after having to backtrack because the po po's had blocked off route 60 (or whatever it is) where I'd normally take the over-land route through Belmont. Proceeded to watch LOST and code for Dave Z. Less ambitious projects are good.
I picked up my jacket! I'd left it at Justin and Ali's last week. Oh, sweet, sweet jacket. How I missed you.
Once I got home around 11:00 PM or so, I played guitar for a bit (West Coast Bluuuues), and then... sat down to write this. And that's about it.
Whew. Seriously glad today was a beautiful day.
Monday, March 15, 2010
We'd collect things, and we could argue where to put them
First of all, My Brightest Diamond is amazing.
Just throwing that out there. I've been listening to A Thousand Shark's Teeth for hours now, and it keeps getting better.
So, with that out of the way, I dreaded waking up this morning.
I am, so, so, so, looking forward to waking up tomorrow to not rain. Please let that happen.
I woke up this morning and grumbled my way through my morning routine, eventually made it in to work, half soaking wet, and set about my business.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish what I needed to get done this last weekend. It's driving me insane. I wasn't able to finish it today, either, and hope it'll be done in the morning. There has got to be a better way to document widgets. This way is crazy, and I can see how the design group hated writing "functional specifications" back in the day. They're incredibly tedious. Useful, I think, once created, but there's so much work that goes into them.
I started working on it this morning, and, as I've noticed in the past, after six hours straight of working on it I hit a wall. This reinforces my belief that I'm not capable of working on documentation for more than six hours straight. After that, I just can't do it anymore. So I came home around six or so, ordered some food from Le's to make myself feel better, and settled in for a bit to read before continuing on the doc.
I read a good chunk of The Gathering Storm. And wow. That was some of the best Wheel Of Time I've ever read. It was amazing. Just fucking amazing. Brandon Sanderson, you can write about Egwene any time as far as I'm concerned. I'm not entirely thrilled with your Rand, but... Wow. Those were some good chapters. I've had goosebumps most of the night, and couldn't keep myself from practically squealing with glee through most of it.
I'm planning to wake up in the morning feeling great. With extra italics.
Just throwing that out there. I've been listening to A Thousand Shark's Teeth for hours now, and it keeps getting better.
So, with that out of the way, I dreaded waking up this morning.
I am, so, so, so, looking forward to waking up tomorrow to not rain. Please let that happen.
I woke up this morning and grumbled my way through my morning routine, eventually made it in to work, half soaking wet, and set about my business.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish what I needed to get done this last weekend. It's driving me insane. I wasn't able to finish it today, either, and hope it'll be done in the morning. There has got to be a better way to document widgets. This way is crazy, and I can see how the design group hated writing "functional specifications" back in the day. They're incredibly tedious. Useful, I think, once created, but there's so much work that goes into them.
I started working on it this morning, and, as I've noticed in the past, after six hours straight of working on it I hit a wall. This reinforces my belief that I'm not capable of working on documentation for more than six hours straight. After that, I just can't do it anymore. So I came home around six or so, ordered some food from Le's to make myself feel better, and settled in for a bit to read before continuing on the doc.
I read a good chunk of The Gathering Storm. And wow. That was some of the best Wheel Of Time I've ever read. It was amazing. Just fucking amazing. Brandon Sanderson, you can write about Egwene any time as far as I'm concerned. I'm not entirely thrilled with your Rand, but... Wow. Those were some good chapters. I've had goosebumps most of the night, and couldn't keep myself from practically squealing with glee through most of it.
I'm planning to wake up in the morning feeling great. With extra italics.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Rain, rain, go away
So... yeah.
Wow.
Today was, as I just told Facebook, epically wet.
I woke up at 9:00 AM. It was a downpour outside. At some point in my puttering around, Ria left me a voicemail to say that she'd picked up my stuff for the race (my number, shoe-timing thingy, and t-shirt). Ria, thank you so, so much. That made all the difference in my morning, as I had no idea where to go to pick it all up.
Anyway, yeah, so there was a race today at 11:00 AM. Ras na hEireann. Around 10:30 I started walking over to Mike and Ria's place, which is a block from the race's starting point. I got there, changed into runnin' stuuuff, and then stood around for a few minutes waiting for Eric. He got there, got changed, and we went running off down the street to try to get to the race before it started.
As we're walking, we see a pack fly by. Doh. We ran backwards a few blocks to get to the beginning, joined the crew, and started running in the correct direction.
Ye Olde Irish Race had begun.
It was a great, enthusiastic crowd. Lots of green, outrageous clothes. There was a bagpipes-and-drums corps playing along the street as we ran. It was pouring rain. The runners cheered them like crazy.
The race was, otherwise, excellent. I was feeling great, despite the rain. I found myself passing a great deal of people, which is a wonderful, somewhat competitive feeling. Apparently I'm not half bad at this. The race went up to Teele Square, across Somerville to the east, and then back down to Davis. (5K, if I didn't say it already). I picked up the pace a bit in the last quarter mile or so, and found myself crossing the finish line as the little clock thingy read 26:10. I believe I crossed the start line a few minutes late, though. So... maybe 24 minutes? I'll take that for 3.1 miles. Not bad!
After the race, I walked back to Mike and Ria's to find Mike, Bonnie, and Drew hanging out. I was soaked to the bone, except my lower torso, which was protected by my waterproof jacket thing. The rest of me, totally sopping wet. My shoes are still, even now, totally soaked.
A few minutes later, Eric came back, and then Ria and Jess after that. We sat around, got dry and warm, and watched the History Channel talking about great battles and military campaigns from history. They talked about how the intelligent decisions the generals were making coincided with Sun Tsu's ideas. Good for them, those generals!
After a while, we ordered some pizzas and wings from some place around Somerville. There was an hour wait. We got a delicious spinnocoli (something like that), which I hate 3/4 of. (Oof.)
Eventually, we played a bit of rock band, and I went home. I think around 3-4 PM. Something like that.
Jessi and I started talking about going shoe shopping at some point, and then getting together for a little study/work session somewhere. We eventually met at Park St. downtown, as we are apt to do, and walked over to DSW. I got these rockin' shoes there. We also hit up a City Sports, and I found a pair of new running shoes. (Not because mine were wet, but because they're old!)
Good deal.
We then got on the Red Line and took it up to Harvard for a little Dado action. Tea/Maple Scones were consumed. I worked on some stuff for work, Jessi studied some papers. We attempted to inform each other what it was we were doing, with middling success, I think. (but that's okay!)
After a few hours, we got ahold of Julia, who suggested we show up at her place around 8:00 PM or so for birthday cake and ice cream. This seemed an excellent idea - so we obliged. We hung out there for a few hours, watched some Sunday TV (The Simpsons, Family Guy), and eventually all said our goodbyes. I offered Jessi a ride home, figuring it'd be more pleasant than sitting on the T for over an hour.
We walked back to my place, I got my keys and a more reasonable pair of shoes, and we drove down to Roxbury Crossing to her apartment. I then took a meandering path up Huntington Ave. to Mass. Ave, and took that all the way home.
And, as is often the case, here I am.
Ow. I got myself soaked at least four separate times today. I've had quite enough of rainy weather.
Wow.
Today was, as I just told Facebook, epically wet.
I woke up at 9:00 AM. It was a downpour outside. At some point in my puttering around, Ria left me a voicemail to say that she'd picked up my stuff for the race (my number, shoe-timing thingy, and t-shirt). Ria, thank you so, so much. That made all the difference in my morning, as I had no idea where to go to pick it all up.
Anyway, yeah, so there was a race today at 11:00 AM. Ras na hEireann. Around 10:30 I started walking over to Mike and Ria's place, which is a block from the race's starting point. I got there, changed into runnin' stuuuff, and then stood around for a few minutes waiting for Eric. He got there, got changed, and we went running off down the street to try to get to the race before it started.
As we're walking, we see a pack fly by. Doh. We ran backwards a few blocks to get to the beginning, joined the crew, and started running in the correct direction.
Ye Olde Irish Race had begun.
It was a great, enthusiastic crowd. Lots of green, outrageous clothes. There was a bagpipes-and-drums corps playing along the street as we ran. It was pouring rain. The runners cheered them like crazy.
The race was, otherwise, excellent. I was feeling great, despite the rain. I found myself passing a great deal of people, which is a wonderful, somewhat competitive feeling. Apparently I'm not half bad at this. The race went up to Teele Square, across Somerville to the east, and then back down to Davis. (5K, if I didn't say it already). I picked up the pace a bit in the last quarter mile or so, and found myself crossing the finish line as the little clock thingy read 26:10. I believe I crossed the start line a few minutes late, though. So... maybe 24 minutes? I'll take that for 3.1 miles. Not bad!
After the race, I walked back to Mike and Ria's to find Mike, Bonnie, and Drew hanging out. I was soaked to the bone, except my lower torso, which was protected by my waterproof jacket thing. The rest of me, totally sopping wet. My shoes are still, even now, totally soaked.
A few minutes later, Eric came back, and then Ria and Jess after that. We sat around, got dry and warm, and watched the History Channel talking about great battles and military campaigns from history. They talked about how the intelligent decisions the generals were making coincided with Sun Tsu's ideas. Good for them, those generals!
After a while, we ordered some pizzas and wings from some place around Somerville. There was an hour wait. We got a delicious spinnocoli (something like that), which I hate 3/4 of. (Oof.)
Eventually, we played a bit of rock band, and I went home. I think around 3-4 PM. Something like that.
Jessi and I started talking about going shoe shopping at some point, and then getting together for a little study/work session somewhere. We eventually met at Park St. downtown, as we are apt to do, and walked over to DSW. I got these rockin' shoes there. We also hit up a City Sports, and I found a pair of new running shoes. (Not because mine were wet, but because they're old!)
Good deal.
We then got on the Red Line and took it up to Harvard for a little Dado action. Tea/Maple Scones were consumed. I worked on some stuff for work, Jessi studied some papers. We attempted to inform each other what it was we were doing, with middling success, I think. (but that's okay!)
After a few hours, we got ahold of Julia, who suggested we show up at her place around 8:00 PM or so for birthday cake and ice cream. This seemed an excellent idea - so we obliged. We hung out there for a few hours, watched some Sunday TV (The Simpsons, Family Guy), and eventually all said our goodbyes. I offered Jessi a ride home, figuring it'd be more pleasant than sitting on the T for over an hour.
We walked back to my place, I got my keys and a more reasonable pair of shoes, and we drove down to Roxbury Crossing to her apartment. I then took a meandering path up Huntington Ave. to Mass. Ave, and took that all the way home.
And, as is often the case, here I am.
Ow. I got myself soaked at least four separate times today. I've had quite enough of rainy weather.
Wicked Short
Today has been exceptionally short.
Since waking up at 3:00 PM, I've managed to go get dinner at Legal Sea Foods with Eric, Bonnie, Drew, Mike, and Ria, and then come home and read. Dinner was pretty tasty, at least. Kinda a stir fry sorta thing - I also had an avocado, tortilla, and goat cheese salad before that.
I didn't accomplish much between waking up and dinner, however. Now, I think I may read a little more and then try to crash.
It's been a very, very rainy, miserable day outside. I'm really hoping tomorrow turns out better - it won't be any fun at all to run in the rain for this race.
... Yeah. A short post, for a short day. Goodnight, world!
Since waking up at 3:00 PM, I've managed to go get dinner at Legal Sea Foods with Eric, Bonnie, Drew, Mike, and Ria, and then come home and read. Dinner was pretty tasty, at least. Kinda a stir fry sorta thing - I also had an avocado, tortilla, and goat cheese salad before that.
I didn't accomplish much between waking up and dinner, however. Now, I think I may read a little more and then try to crash.
It's been a very, very rainy, miserable day outside. I'm really hoping tomorrow turns out better - it won't be any fun at all to run in the rain for this race.
... Yeah. A short post, for a short day. Goodnight, world!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Marathon
This post is for Friday, March 12th.
Yes, it is currently 3:45 PM on March 13th. There is a reason for this. I'll get to that.
Friday was Julia's birthday. Happy birthday! I woke up at 6:00 AM and drove us down to the Deluxe Town Diner for breakfast at 7:00 AM. It was vaguely crappy weather, and we didn't feel like riding. Excellent breakfast. The only other attendee that could make it was Alex, so we were a small crew. I had, surprise of surprises, a short stack of flapjacks. Afterwards, I drove home, got my stuff together, and headed out the door. I made it to work before 9:00 AM. Not a bad start to the morning!
So work yesterday involved a lot of documenting. All day. And a few meetings. This crap is time consuming, I've discovered. In general, things moved along yesterday, just slower than I (or my project manager, I imagine) would have preferred. After work, I left with yet more stuff to do. Hillary and I left at around the same time, took the T to Harvard Square, where I proceeded to continue working in Dado for a while.
Around 7:00 PM or so, Gwen and I started discussing the evening, and how/where we were going to manage to properly watch Ghostbusters. Oh yeah, it's on. We decided to grab something to eat at Bukowski's in Inman, then find ourselves a video store where we could rent it. Oh, the old days of video stores. Wacky. So I got my bike out and rode it down Beacon to Prospect, then walked up a block to Cambridge St. Parked the bike in Gwen's like... backyard, place, thing, and then headed over for food.
Bukowski's was pretty good. Hairy Eyeball, Clown Shoes, and a Wee Heavy were tried. They had a pretty nice vegan veggie burger, as well. With fries. Delicious. Lovely conversation.
After Bukowski's, we grabbed bicycles again and went down to Central's Olde Time Blockbuster Video. Gwen ran in, snagged the film, I guarded our rides. I've still never set foot in that Blockbuster, despite living a block away from it for a year. Oh well!
A ride back to Inman saw us watching that fine, fine specimen of 1984 film making. Gwen's fun to watch movies with - it's like MST3k. We both sit there and make fun of the movie the whole time.
So, we watched Ghostbusters. Excellent. And this is where it starts to make sense that I posted at 3:something PM the next day.
Then we watched Killer Klowns From Outer Space - apparently an old favorite. A meteor hits Earth. Some people go to investigate - they find a big top tent. There are killer clowns inside who shoot people with ray guns that turn them into cotton candy. They then hang up the cotton candy for later. Ladies and gentlemen, this is cinema.
... Then we decided to finish the job and watch Ghostbusters 2. I fell asleep and missed the ending, so we rewound it to watch again. This should have been a sign of, if anything, at least the hour.
... Then, craziness of craziness, we just casually decided to turn on The Princess Bride, cause it was on her Netflix queue.
I think I missed the second half of that one. Somewhere after they make it through the fire swamp, I was toast. I woke up as the credits were rolling... and light was streaming through the window.
The time was 6:00 AM. Ooooow.
7:00 AM saw me back at home, getting into bed. At least I had my bike to speedify the trip. I woke up this "morning" at 3:00 PM.
Whew. So. Fun Friday!
Yes, it is currently 3:45 PM on March 13th. There is a reason for this. I'll get to that.
Friday was Julia's birthday. Happy birthday! I woke up at 6:00 AM and drove us down to the Deluxe Town Diner for breakfast at 7:00 AM. It was vaguely crappy weather, and we didn't feel like riding. Excellent breakfast. The only other attendee that could make it was Alex, so we were a small crew. I had, surprise of surprises, a short stack of flapjacks. Afterwards, I drove home, got my stuff together, and headed out the door. I made it to work before 9:00 AM. Not a bad start to the morning!
So work yesterday involved a lot of documenting. All day. And a few meetings. This crap is time consuming, I've discovered. In general, things moved along yesterday, just slower than I (or my project manager, I imagine) would have preferred. After work, I left with yet more stuff to do. Hillary and I left at around the same time, took the T to Harvard Square, where I proceeded to continue working in Dado for a while.
Around 7:00 PM or so, Gwen and I started discussing the evening, and how/where we were going to manage to properly watch Ghostbusters. Oh yeah, it's on. We decided to grab something to eat at Bukowski's in Inman, then find ourselves a video store where we could rent it. Oh, the old days of video stores. Wacky. So I got my bike out and rode it down Beacon to Prospect, then walked up a block to Cambridge St. Parked the bike in Gwen's like... backyard, place, thing, and then headed over for food.
Bukowski's was pretty good. Hairy Eyeball, Clown Shoes, and a Wee Heavy were tried. They had a pretty nice vegan veggie burger, as well. With fries. Delicious. Lovely conversation.
After Bukowski's, we grabbed bicycles again and went down to Central's Olde Time Blockbuster Video. Gwen ran in, snagged the film, I guarded our rides. I've still never set foot in that Blockbuster, despite living a block away from it for a year. Oh well!
A ride back to Inman saw us watching that fine, fine specimen of 1984 film making. Gwen's fun to watch movies with - it's like MST3k. We both sit there and make fun of the movie the whole time.
So, we watched Ghostbusters. Excellent. And this is where it starts to make sense that I posted at 3:something PM the next day.
Then we watched Killer Klowns From Outer Space - apparently an old favorite. A meteor hits Earth. Some people go to investigate - they find a big top tent. There are killer clowns inside who shoot people with ray guns that turn them into cotton candy. They then hang up the cotton candy for later. Ladies and gentlemen, this is cinema.
... Then we decided to finish the job and watch Ghostbusters 2. I fell asleep and missed the ending, so we rewound it to watch again. This should have been a sign of, if anything, at least the hour.
... Then, craziness of craziness, we just casually decided to turn on The Princess Bride, cause it was on her Netflix queue.
I think I missed the second half of that one. Somewhere after they make it through the fire swamp, I was toast. I woke up as the credits were rolling... and light was streaming through the window.
The time was 6:00 AM. Ooooow.
7:00 AM saw me back at home, getting into bed. At least I had my bike to speedify the trip. I woke up this "morning" at 3:00 PM.
Whew. So. Fun Friday!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Running, productivity, and the blues
Went for a pretty solid run this morning at 6:45 AM. Down Mass Ave. to JFK Park, across the bridge on JFK Street, back up to the Elliot St. bridge, and back up through the neighborhoods to my place in Porter. Probably a couple miles. Thank goodness for running.
Work was... I think it was productive? There's a gap in my memory of it - I'm not sure what I did for part of the day. Must have been one of those days where time just sorta flies by. Regardless, I feel like progress was made, somewhere-or-another. Oh, that's right, we had a lunch time meeting about taxonomy. Ultimately I came up with a proposal afterward that I'm going to quietly pass around. I think when we get so many people in a room together talking about something like very abstract naming conventions, we're just bound to lose some focus; which is not to say it wasn't a productive meeting. I think we identified the parts we couldn't agree on. I'm hoping to have fixed that.
I went home around 5:00 PM or so, so that I could spend some time with West Coast Blues. I've got the melody down today - faster than "stripper tempo," finally. Still not like 120 bpm, but not bad. A few more days with it will get it right.
I spent about two hours at Dave's tonight. First we spent some time talking about software and programs he could use; about an hour. Then we eventually got around to a lesson from 9:00 - 10:00 PM or so. Not bad.
And now I need to get to sleep so I can wake up bright and early to get out to The Deluxe Town Diner for Julia's birthday breakfast. Good times and good food await.
Work was... I think it was productive? There's a gap in my memory of it - I'm not sure what I did for part of the day. Must have been one of those days where time just sorta flies by. Regardless, I feel like progress was made, somewhere-or-another. Oh, that's right, we had a lunch time meeting about taxonomy. Ultimately I came up with a proposal afterward that I'm going to quietly pass around. I think when we get so many people in a room together talking about something like very abstract naming conventions, we're just bound to lose some focus; which is not to say it wasn't a productive meeting. I think we identified the parts we couldn't agree on. I'm hoping to have fixed that.
I went home around 5:00 PM or so, so that I could spend some time with West Coast Blues. I've got the melody down today - faster than "stripper tempo," finally. Still not like 120 bpm, but not bad. A few more days with it will get it right.
I spent about two hours at Dave's tonight. First we spent some time talking about software and programs he could use; about an hour. Then we eventually got around to a lesson from 9:00 - 10:00 PM or so. Not bad.
And now I need to get to sleep so I can wake up bright and early to get out to The Deluxe Town Diner for Julia's birthday breakfast. Good times and good food await.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Short and semi-sweet
I woke up at 6:00 AM, figuring we'd go for a run. Then read my e-mail, found out that Julia wasn't going to be available, and went back to sleep. Until 7:50 or so. Sleep is such an annoying thing.
Work proceeded along, with little of note. There was a big gathering at the Dogpatch today, in our cafe area, so we all ate lunch in conference rooms. Before lunch, Mark, Mahmoud and I took a little walk over to the mall to hit up an ATM. Mahmoud did a little quick shopping. Mark and I stood around for a few. Then we went to Second Street, which was packed.
After work, I came home, had a little dinner of ravioli, then sat down and read The Gathering Storm. I really dislike being too tired to feel like I can get anything else done.
... Yeah, that's about it.
Work proceeded along, with little of note. There was a big gathering at the Dogpatch today, in our cafe area, so we all ate lunch in conference rooms. Before lunch, Mark, Mahmoud and I took a little walk over to the mall to hit up an ATM. Mahmoud did a little quick shopping. Mark and I stood around for a few. Then we went to Second Street, which was packed.
After work, I came home, had a little dinner of ravioli, then sat down and read The Gathering Storm. I really dislike being too tired to feel like I can get anything else done.
... Yeah, that's about it.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
An ambiguously productive day
Welcome to post one hundred!
Yes, at some point a few years ago, I started writing here. There are perhaps a few dozen posts from 2007-2009, but the rest is all 2010, baby! Here's to two hundred and beyond!
Julia and I went for a run this morning - the second of the week. This one, as opposed to yesterday's, was actually of decent mileage. It feels so good to be up, awake, and out in the morning at like 6:30 AM. Glorious. Changes my whole day. We went from her place, down to the river, down to the Western Ave bridge, and back again. Probably around 3 miles, give or take, I think.
After that, I wandered over to Dado for a breakfast of bagel, apple, and coffee. Soft, delicious bagel. Oh, yes. Because I was so enraptured with my bagel, I got to work around 9:30 AM. I think this was worth it, as practically no one was there anyway.
I'm a tad confused by what I'm trying to get done at work, and I'm slightly nervous about my productivity tomorrow. I think I need to just make a decision and run with it, even if it's a bit off. I'm trying to work out our documentation approach for all of our various widgetoids, and it's proving somewhat difficult. Ah well.
After work, I went home, started some laundry, did... something? I can't remember, and then left to head over to Justin and Ali's to watch LOST with a bunch of folks. Yes, I've missed like five episodes since the season started. (i.e., like, I saw the first and second, and haven't seen one since this one). It more or less made sense anyway. I finally gave Justin his birthday gift: a trio of Duke Ellington CDs. I'm hoping they're good, and that he actually enjoys them! It is Duke, after all.
I don't think Julia and I have decided where we're running from tomorrow. This might have to be figured out in the AM. Zonk.
Yes, at some point a few years ago, I started writing here. There are perhaps a few dozen posts from 2007-2009, but the rest is all 2010, baby! Here's to two hundred and beyond!
Julia and I went for a run this morning - the second of the week. This one, as opposed to yesterday's, was actually of decent mileage. It feels so good to be up, awake, and out in the morning at like 6:30 AM. Glorious. Changes my whole day. We went from her place, down to the river, down to the Western Ave bridge, and back again. Probably around 3 miles, give or take, I think.
After that, I wandered over to Dado for a breakfast of bagel, apple, and coffee. Soft, delicious bagel. Oh, yes. Because I was so enraptured with my bagel, I got to work around 9:30 AM. I think this was worth it, as practically no one was there anyway.
I'm a tad confused by what I'm trying to get done at work, and I'm slightly nervous about my productivity tomorrow. I think I need to just make a decision and run with it, even if it's a bit off. I'm trying to work out our documentation approach for all of our various widgetoids, and it's proving somewhat difficult. Ah well.
After work, I went home, started some laundry, did... something? I can't remember, and then left to head over to Justin and Ali's to watch LOST with a bunch of folks. Yes, I've missed like five episodes since the season started. (i.e., like, I saw the first and second, and haven't seen one since this one). It more or less made sense anyway. I finally gave Justin his birthday gift: a trio of Duke Ellington CDs. I'm hoping they're good, and that he actually enjoys them! It is Duke, after all.
I don't think Julia and I have decided where we're running from tomorrow. This might have to be figured out in the AM. Zonk.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Musical schleeping.
I did a great deal of musical things today.
And a bunch of other stuff too.
I woke up at 6:15 to go for a run with The Jules. We made it down to Harvard and back up Oxford St. a bit - short, but better than nothing. I was just happy to be out and about, early.
After that, I made it to work by a little before 9:00 AM. Perfect timing. Work was leisurely, as it can sometimes be after a project kinda wraps itself up. It was made even more leisurely by the fact that I had to leave around 3:00 PM for a guitar lesson in Brookline. The lesson started at 4:00 PM - we wrote last week off as a non-entity, and just kinda sat around playing the melody of West Coast Blues, talking about computer programs to manage schedules, and how whale song sounds like of like a Gregorian chant.
After that, at around 4:18 PM, I got back on the T inbound to Hynes, then walked down to Symphony for class. I could barely stay awake in Jazz Theory - not because of anything Joel did, but because I was just soooo tired. Sorry about that, Joel. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. The second half of class was decidedly better. Ear Training was fun as well, as usual.
... Then I went home, stopped at the Gourmet Express for some supplies, had a quick dinner, a beer, and now I'm going to bed.
Short, but I need to be asleep in 10 minutes, lest tomorrow be similarly sleepy.
And a bunch of other stuff too.
I woke up at 6:15 to go for a run with The Jules. We made it down to Harvard and back up Oxford St. a bit - short, but better than nothing. I was just happy to be out and about, early.
After that, I made it to work by a little before 9:00 AM. Perfect timing. Work was leisurely, as it can sometimes be after a project kinda wraps itself up. It was made even more leisurely by the fact that I had to leave around 3:00 PM for a guitar lesson in Brookline. The lesson started at 4:00 PM - we wrote last week off as a non-entity, and just kinda sat around playing the melody of West Coast Blues, talking about computer programs to manage schedules, and how whale song sounds like of like a Gregorian chant.
After that, at around 4:18 PM, I got back on the T inbound to Hynes, then walked down to Symphony for class. I could barely stay awake in Jazz Theory - not because of anything Joel did, but because I was just soooo tired. Sorry about that, Joel. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. The second half of class was decidedly better. Ear Training was fun as well, as usual.
... Then I went home, stopped at the Gourmet Express for some supplies, had a quick dinner, a beer, and now I'm going to bed.
Short, but I need to be asleep in 10 minutes, lest tomorrow be similarly sleepy.
A morning compressed into 20 minutes.
I need to wake up at 6:15 AM, so I'll make this quick.
Today, rather than 6:15, I woke up at 11:40 AM to a text message from Jason, inviting me to lunch (breakfast?) at The Diner. (The Deluxe Town Diner, for those who aren't in the know). Waking up at 11:40 was surprising, as it meant I got approximiately 9 hours and 40 minutes of sleep. I responded to the text with something akin to "YES!" and proceeded to get myself to said diner in about half an hour, including shower.
The Diner is important.
After breakfast, I hightailed it back home so I could get down to Boston Common. Jessi and I were planning on seeing Alice In Wonderland, since we didn't get a chance to see it last night. I bought tickets for the 2:40 showing. Unfortunately, I didn't get there until about 2:50 PM.
This was a mistake, as the theater was completely packed. We ended up sitting in the far front, left corner, which made watching a 3D movie rather difficult. Regardless, I really enjoyed it.
After that, we wandered over to DSW (I think that was it?), which I recognized the sign of once I saw it, but which I didn't realize was a massive, pretty cool shoe store. We wandered through, I considered what purchases I might make were I to come back, and then wandered back out to the Common. We said our goodbyes, waiting for the light to turn so I could get back to the T. After that, I went home (stopping for some trail mix/banana/juice on the way), planned out some stuff for Ars, and then headed out to Sudbury.
I feel like tonight's session went pretty well. We actually finished summer, which we've been working on for three sessions, I think. Not bad. Hopefully the guys are enjoying themselves.
And that's it! Sleep for me!
Today, rather than 6:15, I woke up at 11:40 AM to a text message from Jason, inviting me to lunch (breakfast?) at The Diner. (The Deluxe Town Diner, for those who aren't in the know). Waking up at 11:40 was surprising, as it meant I got approximiately 9 hours and 40 minutes of sleep. I responded to the text with something akin to "YES!" and proceeded to get myself to said diner in about half an hour, including shower.
The Diner is important.
After breakfast, I hightailed it back home so I could get down to Boston Common. Jessi and I were planning on seeing Alice In Wonderland, since we didn't get a chance to see it last night. I bought tickets for the 2:40 showing. Unfortunately, I didn't get there until about 2:50 PM.
This was a mistake, as the theater was completely packed. We ended up sitting in the far front, left corner, which made watching a 3D movie rather difficult. Regardless, I really enjoyed it.
After that, we wandered over to DSW (I think that was it?), which I recognized the sign of once I saw it, but which I didn't realize was a massive, pretty cool shoe store. We wandered through, I considered what purchases I might make were I to come back, and then wandered back out to the Common. We said our goodbyes, waiting for the light to turn so I could get back to the T. After that, I went home (stopping for some trail mix/banana/juice on the way), planned out some stuff for Ars, and then headed out to Sudbury.
I feel like tonight's session went pretty well. We actually finished summer, which we've been working on for three sessions, I think. Not bad. Hopefully the guys are enjoying themselves.
And that's it! Sleep for me!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Epicocity
Wow. What an epic day.
I woke up at 9:00 AM.
I had breakfast, and bummed around for a chapter or two of The Gathering Storm. Following that, at around 11:00 AM, I pumped up my bicycle's tires, gathered up my laptop and rode down to Harvard Square to visit The Dado. The Dado was packed, but I found a seat. Karin was there, but we didn't get a chance to even talk until around 3:00 PM. I spent some time writing, and also a bit getting a PHP app together and installing XAMPP again. I set up a da5idjoy.dev virtual host. Good times.
After I left Dado around 3:00-ish, I rode through JFK park and then headed home via the back way up Concord/Garden/Raymond and all that. Once I got home, I sat and read more of The Gathering Storm. I think I've decided Egwene is my favorite character. She's just so incredibly cool. Like a thousand cucumbers.
Around 7:00 PM, I got ready to head out. I was supposed to meet Eric, Jessi, and Eric's friend Emily at Mare (Richmond St) in the North End for dinner. Jessi and I met at Park St. and walked over to the restaurant, getting there a few minutes early, and before Eric and Emily arrived. We took the table, and Eric and Emily showed up a few minutes later.
Delicious meal. I had some truffle/mushroom spaghetti which was delightful. That, and a glass of Pinot Noir. There were two plates of gnocchi between the women, and Eric had some tuna. It looked like jelly to me. Apparently not highly cooked, tuna looks like that? News to me.
After we left Mare, we walked up the street to a gelato place. I had three kinds - vanilla, espresso, and tiramisu. All delicious in their own, lovely little ways. Jessi had the same thing. I think there was also some tiramisu between Emily and Eric as well.
Once we finished with our ice cream-ish stuff, we walked back to the T at Haymarket (which was disgustingly dirty on our way into the North End), and took the train down to the Mass Ave. stop. A short walk saw us at Wally's Cafe. We were there from approximately 10:30 or so until 1:15 AM (fifteen minutes after closing). Excellent, excellent music. I recognized the trumpeter from NEC - he was playing at Rani's "Brownie Speaks" event a few months back. You're awesome, dude, if under some strange circumstances you happen to read this. Spectacular. The rest of the band was just as good. Wonderful.
Whilst there, Jessi and I had drinks bought for us by a gentleman named Jamal, from New York. He was in Boston picking up his car, as he'd bought a car, driven it to New York, taken the train back to Boston, and still needed to drive his original car back as well. I ended up buying him a Sam. Eric, Jessi and I all had a HopDevil from Victory - along with a few Fritos - it was delicious.
Around 1:00 AM, Wally's closed, but we stuck around for a few minutes chatting. Eventually, we walked out, and found a few cabs - Jessi in one towards her place, Eric, Emily and I in the other back towards Porter.
And then I walked home.
And now, seriously, I should crash, cause I think Jessi and I are planning on hitting up a matinee of Alice In Wonderland tomorrow.
I woke up at 9:00 AM.
I had breakfast, and bummed around for a chapter or two of The Gathering Storm. Following that, at around 11:00 AM, I pumped up my bicycle's tires, gathered up my laptop and rode down to Harvard Square to visit The Dado. The Dado was packed, but I found a seat. Karin was there, but we didn't get a chance to even talk until around 3:00 PM. I spent some time writing, and also a bit getting a PHP app together and installing XAMPP again. I set up a da5idjoy.dev virtual host. Good times.
After I left Dado around 3:00-ish, I rode through JFK park and then headed home via the back way up Concord/Garden/Raymond and all that. Once I got home, I sat and read more of The Gathering Storm. I think I've decided Egwene is my favorite character. She's just so incredibly cool. Like a thousand cucumbers.
Around 7:00 PM, I got ready to head out. I was supposed to meet Eric, Jessi, and Eric's friend Emily at Mare (Richmond St) in the North End for dinner. Jessi and I met at Park St. and walked over to the restaurant, getting there a few minutes early, and before Eric and Emily arrived. We took the table, and Eric and Emily showed up a few minutes later.
Delicious meal. I had some truffle/mushroom spaghetti which was delightful. That, and a glass of Pinot Noir. There were two plates of gnocchi between the women, and Eric had some tuna. It looked like jelly to me. Apparently not highly cooked, tuna looks like that? News to me.
After we left Mare, we walked up the street to a gelato place. I had three kinds - vanilla, espresso, and tiramisu. All delicious in their own, lovely little ways. Jessi had the same thing. I think there was also some tiramisu between Emily and Eric as well.
Once we finished with our ice cream-ish stuff, we walked back to the T at Haymarket (which was disgustingly dirty on our way into the North End), and took the train down to the Mass Ave. stop. A short walk saw us at Wally's Cafe. We were there from approximately 10:30 or so until 1:15 AM (fifteen minutes after closing). Excellent, excellent music. I recognized the trumpeter from NEC - he was playing at Rani's "Brownie Speaks" event a few months back. You're awesome, dude, if under some strange circumstances you happen to read this. Spectacular. The rest of the band was just as good. Wonderful.
Whilst there, Jessi and I had drinks bought for us by a gentleman named Jamal, from New York. He was in Boston picking up his car, as he'd bought a car, driven it to New York, taken the train back to Boston, and still needed to drive his original car back as well. I ended up buying him a Sam. Eric, Jessi and I all had a HopDevil from Victory - along with a few Fritos - it was delicious.
Around 1:00 AM, Wally's closed, but we stuck around for a few minutes chatting. Eventually, we walked out, and found a few cabs - Jessi in one towards her place, Eric, Emily and I in the other back towards Porter.
And then I walked home.
And now, seriously, I should crash, cause I think Jessi and I are planning on hitting up a matinee of Alice In Wonderland tomorrow.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
An increasingly gooder day
I woke up today promptly at 7:05 AM.
Yay me.
I got to work at approximately 8:15, I think, and set about preparing for a branding training session at 1:00 PM. There was a lot to do, but it turned out alright in the end. I was a bit... stressed... for a while, though. It was a frustrating morning.
After the meeting, Marty and I had a long talk about brands and what we need to do to feel more comfortable handing kits out. A good start, I think.
Around 3:15 PM, Jason came into the office to talk to George. Cool - sounds like it was a good meeting, from what both told me. Around 4:30 or so, Jason and I wandered outside and took a quick walk around East Cambridge, from the office up 2nd Street to Cambridge, and back down 3rd Street. Following that, I decided to take advantage of the free ride home, and we got outta there.
At home, I bummed around for a little while waiting for Mike to get back, and then the two of us (Mike and I) drove out to Dave FR's place in Sudbury for a night of Magic.
Oh yeah.
We did some sealed deck with a box of Worldwake. Jason and I both had nearly perfect records (I think I was like 6-1, and he was about the same). I made this lovely little green/red deck with a lot of instant speed buffs, Tims, and nasty little creatures. It worked well!
After all that, I came home. Now I'm sitting here reading. Go me!
Yay me.
I got to work at approximately 8:15, I think, and set about preparing for a branding training session at 1:00 PM. There was a lot to do, but it turned out alright in the end. I was a bit... stressed... for a while, though. It was a frustrating morning.
After the meeting, Marty and I had a long talk about brands and what we need to do to feel more comfortable handing kits out. A good start, I think.
Around 3:15 PM, Jason came into the office to talk to George. Cool - sounds like it was a good meeting, from what both told me. Around 4:30 or so, Jason and I wandered outside and took a quick walk around East Cambridge, from the office up 2nd Street to Cambridge, and back down 3rd Street. Following that, I decided to take advantage of the free ride home, and we got outta there.
At home, I bummed around for a little while waiting for Mike to get back, and then the two of us (Mike and I) drove out to Dave FR's place in Sudbury for a night of Magic.
Oh yeah.
We did some sealed deck with a box of Worldwake. Jason and I both had nearly perfect records (I think I was like 6-1, and he was about the same). I made this lovely little green/red deck with a lot of instant speed buffs, Tims, and nasty little creatures. It worked well!
After all that, I came home. Now I'm sitting here reading. Go me!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Business - the state of being busy
Today was... busy.
I didn't have enough time to get everything done that I wanted to get done. At 3:00 PM, I started on the tasks that I was hoping to spend the whole day on. Frustrating.
I went to Dado this morning, learned the name of the Nepalese girl who works there. At least, I think she is.
After work, I went home, fretted for a bit, and then decided to call up Dave and cancel my lesson today. I just... couldn't figure out how to take out the time to go do it, and still be able to get some work done. Instead, I sat and worked for two hours. Julia had told me, as I was leaving work, that she and Paul were going to go to The Cellar for dinner/a drink, so I decided that my fun for the day would be a little relaxation right at the end. So I went there and met them - getting there a bit later than they. They'd already, mostly, eaten. I ordered some tomato soup and a grilled cheese. It took forever to show up. I had some Guinness. It was Guinnessy.
After that, Julia and I walked home.
Once here, I read a chapter of The Gathering Storm. So far so good.
Now, I'm sleeping.
I didn't have enough time to get everything done that I wanted to get done. At 3:00 PM, I started on the tasks that I was hoping to spend the whole day on. Frustrating.
I went to Dado this morning, learned the name of the Nepalese girl who works there. At least, I think she is.
After work, I went home, fretted for a bit, and then decided to call up Dave and cancel my lesson today. I just... couldn't figure out how to take out the time to go do it, and still be able to get some work done. Instead, I sat and worked for two hours. Julia had told me, as I was leaving work, that she and Paul were going to go to The Cellar for dinner/a drink, so I decided that my fun for the day would be a little relaxation right at the end. So I went there and met them - getting there a bit later than they. They'd already, mostly, eaten. I ordered some tomato soup and a grilled cheese. It took forever to show up. I had some Guinness. It was Guinnessy.
After that, Julia and I walked home.
Once here, I read a chapter of The Gathering Storm. So far so good.
Now, I'm sleeping.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Junky days gone right, eventually
We're going to try a new thing tonight, boys and girls.
It's called "getting to sleep before midnight!" Exciting, isn't it!
Originally, we were going to try something a bit more difficult called "getting in bed at 10:00 PM and being asleep by 11:00 PM," but that proved to be a bit beyond our current capabilities. Its difficulty was compounded by the discovery that I could create the coolest, most dreamy textures ever by setting Garage Band to "Dream Pop" and then using a slide to play the first string on a guitar about a centimeter from the bridge. Stuff like that. Glorious. I think it needs to become part of a song.
The difficulty of the original plan was also exacerbated by the delicious, straight rye whiskey Eric brought me around 10:00 PM. I couldn't very well not drink it, nor could I not finish the beer I had already started.
Don't judge me.
But, here I am, 11:20 or so, and I've made it to bed. All that remains is to tell you fine people about my day.
I woke up very grumpy.
I hated the weather, I disliked my clothing choices for the day (and, indeed, ended up looking like a bum), and wasn't thrilled with my prospects for the day at work. Not a good start.
It didn't get much better throughout the day, though everyone else's cheery attitude certainly helped a bit. I did manage to get a lot of bugs fixed, which is good. Otherwise, Hillary and I camped out in Trinidad all day (the conference room, not the island). Marty figured we were hiding. I kinda was. Don't know about H. Just really wasn't feeling particularly social. Sometimes, there are emotional days, it seems. I do my best to get through them.
Eventually, Hillary and I left work around 7:00 PM. The place was empty except for Vita.
Upon returning home, I had a little something to eat (can you guess what it was?), then headed over to Jason's place for an hour or so. We talked about what Allurent does, mostly. Was cool. We also, briefly, played a Tetris game (on the Internets) where the whole screen rotates instead of the piece. Awesome spin (hah!) on the game.
After an hour or so there, I came home, got out my geetar, and practiced some West Coast Blues. Then, well, the Dream Pop stuff started, etc., and you've already heard about that.
Yeah. So, well, the day ended better than it started. And now, I should sleep! It's still before midnight!
It's called "getting to sleep before midnight!" Exciting, isn't it!
Originally, we were going to try something a bit more difficult called "getting in bed at 10:00 PM and being asleep by 11:00 PM," but that proved to be a bit beyond our current capabilities. Its difficulty was compounded by the discovery that I could create the coolest, most dreamy textures ever by setting Garage Band to "Dream Pop" and then using a slide to play the first string on a guitar about a centimeter from the bridge. Stuff like that. Glorious. I think it needs to become part of a song.
The difficulty of the original plan was also exacerbated by the delicious, straight rye whiskey Eric brought me around 10:00 PM. I couldn't very well not drink it, nor could I not finish the beer I had already started.
Don't judge me.
But, here I am, 11:20 or so, and I've made it to bed. All that remains is to tell you fine people about my day.
I woke up very grumpy.
I hated the weather, I disliked my clothing choices for the day (and, indeed, ended up looking like a bum), and wasn't thrilled with my prospects for the day at work. Not a good start.
It didn't get much better throughout the day, though everyone else's cheery attitude certainly helped a bit. I did manage to get a lot of bugs fixed, which is good. Otherwise, Hillary and I camped out in Trinidad all day (the conference room, not the island). Marty figured we were hiding. I kinda was. Don't know about H. Just really wasn't feeling particularly social. Sometimes, there are emotional days, it seems. I do my best to get through them.
Eventually, Hillary and I left work around 7:00 PM. The place was empty except for Vita.
Upon returning home, I had a little something to eat (can you guess what it was?), then headed over to Jason's place for an hour or so. We talked about what Allurent does, mostly. Was cool. We also, briefly, played a Tetris game (on the Internets) where the whole screen rotates instead of the piece. Awesome spin (hah!) on the game.
After an hour or so there, I came home, got out my geetar, and practiced some West Coast Blues. Then, well, the Dream Pop stuff started, etc., and you've already heard about that.
Yeah. So, well, the day ended better than it started. And now, I should sleep! It's still before midnight!
Not at all what I originally planned.
Things were going well today until I decided I needed to do a merge.
Well, kinda well.
I started out this morning kinda down. I don't know why, exactly, it was the sort of down where it just felt like how I wanted to feel. I felt like being slow, and methodical, and un-lively. I was thinking about people I used to know, and how weird it'd be if they showed up in my life again.
But, well, the day went better after that. That is, until I decided to do that merge.
What a mess.
I've never seen such a completely conflicted merge. I hardly know where to start. I think I need a full compliment of faculties just to get through it. Daniel was kind enough to sit with me and try to work through it, but we both eventually just kinda gave up in disgust. I'm not entirely sure how we got the branch into this situation, but it's not pretty. We'll get it all squared away tomorrow, certainly, but it's a bummer. I was hoping it'd be straightforward.
After work, which ended at 7:00 PM or so, I T-ed it over to Harvard Square with Hillary, and met Jessi at Dado. We had originally planned to have coffee/tea or something, but after deciding we were both hungry, we opted for Japanese instead. She had some sushi (avocado and tuna, I believe), I had some bi bim bap in a stone pot, which was awesome. We also had a huge scallion pancake. Awesome.
I had originally planned to head over to Justin and Ali's tonight to watch LOST. It being, though, that by the time we were finished with dinner it was 9:00 PM, I decided I was pretty unlikely to get there at a useful time. Unfortunately, I was supposed to give Mike a ride home. Argh! Sorry about that, Mike.
All of this being the case, Jessi and I wandered over to John Harvard's for a drink. Delightful conversation ensued for a few hours. I had a stout of some sort, and a frostbite ale, or something like that. Both pretty good, though I could have done with something a bit more hoppy and a bit less flavorful. Was feeling the hoppitude tonight.
Around 11:somethin we went in opposite directions on the T at Harvard, and maybe midnight or so saw me back home, chilling on the couch with Eric, watching Letterman.
And now, I need to crash.
Well, kinda well.
I started out this morning kinda down. I don't know why, exactly, it was the sort of down where it just felt like how I wanted to feel. I felt like being slow, and methodical, and un-lively. I was thinking about people I used to know, and how weird it'd be if they showed up in my life again.
But, well, the day went better after that. That is, until I decided to do that merge.
What a mess.
I've never seen such a completely conflicted merge. I hardly know where to start. I think I need a full compliment of faculties just to get through it. Daniel was kind enough to sit with me and try to work through it, but we both eventually just kinda gave up in disgust. I'm not entirely sure how we got the branch into this situation, but it's not pretty. We'll get it all squared away tomorrow, certainly, but it's a bummer. I was hoping it'd be straightforward.
After work, which ended at 7:00 PM or so, I T-ed it over to Harvard Square with Hillary, and met Jessi at Dado. We had originally planned to have coffee/tea or something, but after deciding we were both hungry, we opted for Japanese instead. She had some sushi (avocado and tuna, I believe), I had some bi bim bap in a stone pot, which was awesome. We also had a huge scallion pancake. Awesome.
I had originally planned to head over to Justin and Ali's tonight to watch LOST. It being, though, that by the time we were finished with dinner it was 9:00 PM, I decided I was pretty unlikely to get there at a useful time. Unfortunately, I was supposed to give Mike a ride home. Argh! Sorry about that, Mike.
All of this being the case, Jessi and I wandered over to John Harvard's for a drink. Delightful conversation ensued for a few hours. I had a stout of some sort, and a frostbite ale, or something like that. Both pretty good, though I could have done with something a bit more hoppy and a bit less flavorful. Was feeling the hoppitude tonight.
Around 11:somethin we went in opposite directions on the T at Harvard, and maybe midnight or so saw me back home, chilling on the couch with Eric, watching Letterman.
And now, I need to crash.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
And after that...
Wow, I almost forgot to write.
Lets see... I think I'll start with yesterday.
I made the mistake of having a Pepsi last night at around 8:00 PM. This caused me to be so entirely caffeinated that I had issues sleeping last night. Argh.
There, now, on to today with the proper context.
So I woke up later than I would have preferred, couldn't get in the shower because I was too late, and thus became later, and if it wasn't a vicious circle, it was at least a vicious series of unfortunate events. Eventually, I got to work and proceeded to start Getting Stuff Done (GSD). Today was 50% taken up by meetings. The other 50% involved a bit of code.
After work, Mr. Erik and I took the T to Park St. together, because he happened to be going into the city himself. Me, I was on my way to class. 6:00 PM saw me over at NEC, sitting down for Jazz Theory. Class went pretty well, all told. Ear Training was a lot of fun. We spent a good 10 minutes going around the room scat singing to Tune Up (Miles Davis). It was pretty cool. First, someone would make up a line, the next person would repeat it, the third would modify the end of it, and the fourth would just do whatever they wanted (Which mirrors the form of Tune Up). We had 7 people, so it went around the room unevenly, so everyone got a chance to do each part. We then did the same thing, but each person did a set of two phrases, each of which was four bars, instead of each person doing a single four bar phrase. It was really cool.
After class, I found an empty classroom and bummed around for about half an hour playing guitar. I brought it with me for Jazz Theory, but we barely used our instruments, so I figured I had to get some sort of use out of it. Also cool. I'd been itching to play all day at work. I can't wait for it to get warm again so I can actually go out on the deck and do that.
After said bit of practice, I left the school, walked back to the Green Line at Hynes and started the trek home. After a few stops of standing on the train, lookin' around at the tired, 9:15 PM commuters, I somehow looked down the car towards the front. And who do I see sitting there, minding his own business?
Erik.
How's that for a coincidence? I walked up, planted my guitar in front of him, scowled, and said, "Hi!"
Or, well, the scowling might be an exaggeration.
Turns out he was on his way home, too. This, I would hardly scowl about.
So we both took the Green Line to Park, and the Red Line to our respective stops. It's always pleasant to have good company!
... And here we are. I took a spare couch cushion and shoved it under my desk for a kind of thingy to prop my feet on. So far so good! I ran out of soup, so dinner consisted of some milk (Ahh! Delicious!), cheese, crackers, and hummus. Doesn't get much simpler, or better, than that. I would have preferred an apple to go with it, though.
... And it's now past my bed time. That is all.
Lets see... I think I'll start with yesterday.
I made the mistake of having a Pepsi last night at around 8:00 PM. This caused me to be so entirely caffeinated that I had issues sleeping last night. Argh.
There, now, on to today with the proper context.
So I woke up later than I would have preferred, couldn't get in the shower because I was too late, and thus became later, and if it wasn't a vicious circle, it was at least a vicious series of unfortunate events. Eventually, I got to work and proceeded to start Getting Stuff Done (GSD). Today was 50% taken up by meetings. The other 50% involved a bit of code.
After work, Mr. Erik and I took the T to Park St. together, because he happened to be going into the city himself. Me, I was on my way to class. 6:00 PM saw me over at NEC, sitting down for Jazz Theory. Class went pretty well, all told. Ear Training was a lot of fun. We spent a good 10 minutes going around the room scat singing to Tune Up (Miles Davis). It was pretty cool. First, someone would make up a line, the next person would repeat it, the third would modify the end of it, and the fourth would just do whatever they wanted (Which mirrors the form of Tune Up). We had 7 people, so it went around the room unevenly, so everyone got a chance to do each part. We then did the same thing, but each person did a set of two phrases, each of which was four bars, instead of each person doing a single four bar phrase. It was really cool.
After class, I found an empty classroom and bummed around for about half an hour playing guitar. I brought it with me for Jazz Theory, but we barely used our instruments, so I figured I had to get some sort of use out of it. Also cool. I'd been itching to play all day at work. I can't wait for it to get warm again so I can actually go out on the deck and do that.
After said bit of practice, I left the school, walked back to the Green Line at Hynes and started the trek home. After a few stops of standing on the train, lookin' around at the tired, 9:15 PM commuters, I somehow looked down the car towards the front. And who do I see sitting there, minding his own business?
Erik.
How's that for a coincidence? I walked up, planted my guitar in front of him, scowled, and said, "Hi!"
Or, well, the scowling might be an exaggeration.
Turns out he was on his way home, too. This, I would hardly scowl about.
So we both took the Green Line to Park, and the Red Line to our respective stops. It's always pleasant to have good company!
... And here we are. I took a spare couch cushion and shoved it under my desk for a kind of thingy to prop my feet on. So far so good! I ran out of soup, so dinner consisted of some milk (Ahh! Delicious!), cheese, crackers, and hummus. Doesn't get much simpler, or better, than that. I would have preferred an apple to go with it, though.
... And it's now past my bed time. That is all.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Repaid
I came to the conclusion this morning that there are things you can't do in an unscripted, collaborative story. Generally. The aesthetic of "The Wanting Comes In Waves / Repaid", off of the Decemberists album The Hazards of Love, made me think of it. It's just not the sort of story you can tell when everyone has a vested interest in some character being a hero. A boy, pleading with his mother for mercy and freedom. She, elegant and powerful as a queen, furious that he could even ask such a thing, lords her power over him, mocking his love for Margaret, forcing him to repay her for the slightest courtesy. Players would never stand for it.
This is why there will always be a place for despotic, planned, fiction from a single author. There's just things you can't do, otherwise. I see no particular reason why it was ever in danger of dying out, but it firms my respect for the form.
This is why there will always be a place for despotic, planned, fiction from a single author. There's just things you can't do, otherwise. I see no particular reason why it was ever in danger of dying out, but it firms my respect for the form.
A day of tasks and rewards
I got a number of tasks done today.
First was waking up before 11:00 AM. In fact, I recall waking up before 10:30, too! Good for me, on the weekend. After waking up, I realized I had no food in the house and a list of things I needed to get done before 3:00 PM when Julia and I were scheduled to go for a run.
Said list:
1. Some stuff for work.
2. Two Jazz Theory assignments which I've been having issues with.
3. Prepping for this evening's Ars game.
I couldn't see myself eating bread and peanut butter for another meal (ooof.), so I resolved to get myself ready and go down to Dado for the late morning/early afternoon to get some stuff done.
So I did that. And arrived there around 11:45 AM. The work stuff went quick enough, and I then spent an hour or two on the Jazz. It always feels a bit weird to be sitting in a cafe surrounded by parchment paper and with a bunch of staves (I assume that's the plural of a musical staff as well as one you hold?) all over your computer screen. If I saw somebody in there doing that, anyway, I'd be curious what was up. It went relatively well, anyway. Converting chords to slash chords and poly chords confuses me a bit, though. Some of the examples didn't really make sense.
Around 2:45 PM, I decided to head back home in preparation for our run. As I was on my way out, Julia called, and suggested that perhaps she make some scones instead of running. And that we should eat them.
Sadly, I am easily swayed when I'm being baited with scones. So I went over to her place and hung out with Paul while she cooked. This is when I got #3 done. At least, done enough. Then there were scones, and they were delicious and crumbly.
Julia had asked if she could sit in on our Ars Magica session - something we arranged several weeks ago. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to bask in the funny light of supreme geekdom, but, hey, I won't complain about having excellent company. So we decided we'd head out around 5:00 PM to get out to Sudbury. On the way, we stopped for gas, my car almost stalled, and then wandered through Hannafords looking for, 1) chips, and 2) beer. We came away with #1.
Ars went well, I think. Julia was a champ, and put up with our wackiness well. Here's hoping she enjoyed herself. She didn't participate - just hung out. Good stuff.
Aaaand here I am. Not half bad.
First was waking up before 11:00 AM. In fact, I recall waking up before 10:30, too! Good for me, on the weekend. After waking up, I realized I had no food in the house and a list of things I needed to get done before 3:00 PM when Julia and I were scheduled to go for a run.
Said list:
1. Some stuff for work.
2. Two Jazz Theory assignments which I've been having issues with.
3. Prepping for this evening's Ars game.
I couldn't see myself eating bread and peanut butter for another meal (ooof.), so I resolved to get myself ready and go down to Dado for the late morning/early afternoon to get some stuff done.
So I did that. And arrived there around 11:45 AM. The work stuff went quick enough, and I then spent an hour or two on the Jazz. It always feels a bit weird to be sitting in a cafe surrounded by parchment paper and with a bunch of staves (I assume that's the plural of a musical staff as well as one you hold?) all over your computer screen. If I saw somebody in there doing that, anyway, I'd be curious what was up. It went relatively well, anyway. Converting chords to slash chords and poly chords confuses me a bit, though. Some of the examples didn't really make sense.
Around 2:45 PM, I decided to head back home in preparation for our run. As I was on my way out, Julia called, and suggested that perhaps she make some scones instead of running. And that we should eat them.
Sadly, I am easily swayed when I'm being baited with scones. So I went over to her place and hung out with Paul while she cooked. This is when I got #3 done. At least, done enough. Then there were scones, and they were delicious and crumbly.
Julia had asked if she could sit in on our Ars Magica session - something we arranged several weeks ago. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to bask in the funny light of supreme geekdom, but, hey, I won't complain about having excellent company. So we decided we'd head out around 5:00 PM to get out to Sudbury. On the way, we stopped for gas, my car almost stalled, and then wandered through Hannafords looking for, 1) chips, and 2) beer. We came away with #1.
Ars went well, I think. Julia was a champ, and put up with our wackiness well. Here's hoping she enjoyed herself. She didn't participate - just hung out. Good stuff.
Aaaand here I am. Not half bad.
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