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.
Monday, March 15, 2010
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.
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