Well, today is my last full day of work this year. I say "full day" becuase it turns out I'll need to do a few hours here and there over the holidays, though I'll be able to do those from home.
As of the end of today, I will have worked 573 hours of overtime, making over 31% overtime for me this year. I've taken 7 vacation days, three of them connected to the house, and 12 sick days.
I attended two weddings, and was invited to two others.
I bought a house, and moved into it.
I paid off my car.
I recieved a patent (for work done several years ago).
I recieved a promotion at work.
I started this blog.
I recieved the Golden Ribbon, and passed it on.
I took a trip out of state just to visit a friend.
I read dozens of new books, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I bought another sword (and matching dagger).
I attended two RenFaires, and a bunch of SCA events.
A few of these things were expected; most were not.
I wonder what 2008 will bring.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Recovery
Well, the co-"worker" from hell is gone, perhaps back to the middle tier where they belong.
The christmas... tree? shrub? dwarf pine with delusions of elfhood? is up and decorated.
The lines at the department of licenesing weren't bad.
Cable modems are FAST.
The army of boxes continues to suffer casualties.
Christmas cards are pretty!
The christmas... tree? shrub? dwarf pine with delusions of elfhood? is up and decorated.
The lines at the department of licenesing weren't bad.
Cable modems are FAST.
The army of boxes continues to suffer casualties.
Christmas cards are pretty!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Unpacking
While I've done a little unpacking, the computer is still on the floor, and when sitting at it I'm in a little corner surrounded by boxes piled higher than my head.
This reminded me...
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051206.html
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051207.html
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051208.html
And, though I hate to admit it...
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051209.html
The first thing I set up was the TV/DVD player. :-}
This reminded me...
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051206.html
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051207.html
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051208.html
And, though I hate to admit it...
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/051209.html
The first thing I set up was the TV/DVD player. :-}
Monday, December 17, 2007
Not just the weekend
OK, did I piss off a witch? Is the house on an indian burial ground?
Today:
I have a net connections! Which won't work if I'm running any of my anti-virus or anti-spyware software.
Injured myself again.
The usual fun and frivolity of work.
A box of oranges came in the mail! Or rather, a box of moldy oranges came in the mail.
Look, whatever I did, let me know what it was and I'll try to make up for it.
Today:
I have a net connections! Which won't work if I'm running any of my anti-virus or anti-spyware software.
Injured myself again.
The usual fun and frivolity of work.
A box of oranges came in the mail! Or rather, a box of moldy oranges came in the mail.
Look, whatever I did, let me know what it was and I'll try to make up for it.
The Weekend of Minor Annoyances
Four self-inflicted minor injuries. Including managing to cut myself on an inflatable ground pad. I mean, come on!! Whacking myself with the hammer was kindof predictable, but a ground pad shouldn't be hazardous.
30 minutes spent making wrong turns in downtown Seattle. If they hadn't started the Nutcracker late I would have missed the curtain. The number of times I turned onto Mercer street alone...
Speaking of the Nutcracker, how do you do a production of that show where the Russian Dance has no Russians and the Dance of the Sugarplum Faeries has no Faeries? It was a good show, but that really threw me.
Again, having one of the people I was going to the Nutcracker with be too sick to go. Worse for him than me, of course.
Where the heck are my nail clippers? The good ones. I found the bad ones, and a set I didn't know I had, but where are the good ones?
Two days without a net connection (cutoff at the apartment, not yet up at the house). I never notice how much time I spend on line (or at least how often I check something online) until I don't have access for a day or two.
Look, if you're going to make adjustable shelves, the pins that make them adjustable should be able to be removed without needing to lever them out with pliers.
Why couldn't I sleep last night?
How does Target run out of Christmas lights? Nine days before Christmas?
The apartmnet complex office, at which I now have two packages waiting... wasn't open Sunday.
The movers managed to break the set of slats on one side of the master bed. Thank Azel for Duct Tape.
Melt, microwave pizza cheese, melt already!
OK, attention all Seattle-area drivers. It is called rain. It happens, like, four times a week or something here. You really don't need to drive like you're on black ice. Really, just go, say, the speed limit, and we'll all get where we're going.
AND STOP SLOWING DOWN TO GAWK AT ACCIDENTS. Yeah, I do it sometimes, but I'm checking accidents where there isn't an ambulance in attendance to see if there are apparent injuries. Because if there are, I'll stop to assist. I've actually done that more than once. What's your excuse?
Ah, "nibbled to death by ducks"; that's the phrase.
30 minutes spent making wrong turns in downtown Seattle. If they hadn't started the Nutcracker late I would have missed the curtain. The number of times I turned onto Mercer street alone...
Speaking of the Nutcracker, how do you do a production of that show where the Russian Dance has no Russians and the Dance of the Sugarplum Faeries has no Faeries? It was a good show, but that really threw me.
Again, having one of the people I was going to the Nutcracker with be too sick to go. Worse for him than me, of course.
Where the heck are my nail clippers? The good ones. I found the bad ones, and a set I didn't know I had, but where are the good ones?
Two days without a net connection (cutoff at the apartment, not yet up at the house). I never notice how much time I spend on line (or at least how often I check something online) until I don't have access for a day or two.
Look, if you're going to make adjustable shelves, the pins that make them adjustable should be able to be removed without needing to lever them out with pliers.
Why couldn't I sleep last night?
How does Target run out of Christmas lights? Nine days before Christmas?
The apartmnet complex office, at which I now have two packages waiting... wasn't open Sunday.
The movers managed to break the set of slats on one side of the master bed. Thank Azel for Duct Tape.
Melt, microwave pizza cheese, melt already!
OK, attention all Seattle-area drivers. It is called rain. It happens, like, four times a week or something here. You really don't need to drive like you're on black ice. Really, just go, say, the speed limit, and we'll all get where we're going.
AND STOP SLOWING DOWN TO GAWK AT ACCIDENTS. Yeah, I do it sometimes, but I'm checking accidents where there isn't an ambulance in attendance to see if there are apparent injuries. Because if there are, I'll stop to assist. I've actually done that more than once. What's your excuse?
Ah, "nibbled to death by ducks"; that's the phrase.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Moved!
OK, I now officially live in a house again.
Murphy, however, had to prove once again that he rules the world.
I carefully put my Boeing name badge in a small box along with my alarm clock and a few other things and put it to one side so the movers wouldn't put it in a box.
Of course, while I wasn't looking, the movers put it in a box.
I spent over an hour trying to find it, with help, last night.
Murphy, however, had to prove once again that he rules the world.
I carefully put my Boeing name badge in a small box along with my alarm clock and a few other things and put it to one side so the movers wouldn't put it in a box.
Of course, while I wasn't looking, the movers put it in a box.
I spent over an hour trying to find it, with help, last night.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
What's on your desk?
Here's whats on mine:
A dish of mints, for general consumption.
A plant that I'm taking care of for a co-worker who's on vacation.
A small container of granola as part of an experiment (how long before someone takes it?).
Some seals I'm going to use for a fit check.
A picture of Cricket (the wolf I'm a sponsor for).
A box of "WypAll" paper towels, along with a spare box.
My phone.
"To do" list on post-its.
Computer (laptop & docking station), keyboard, Evoluent mouse, monitor, cables, etc.
Several bolts, a rivnut, an E-nut, and some washers accumulated from various part searches.
My water bottle.
A pencil holder with half a dozen pens, some sharpies, highlighters, and a lonely pencil.
An origami phoenix.
A box of tissues.
A portable chess board (actually belongs to a co-worker).
A tab and slot test coupon.
My empty lunch bag.
A rendering of the ISS.
My nametag/status/assignment thing.
A 2007 calender.
A 2007-2010 M-Day calender.
A couple of cheat sheets.
A napkin with a US flag on it.
My evacuation assembly area card.
A crystal (on loan from the same person as the plant), which has markedly improved my computer's performance.
Two pictures of people (I'm in one of them).
What's on yours?
A dish of mints, for general consumption.
A plant that I'm taking care of for a co-worker who's on vacation.
A small container of granola as part of an experiment (how long before someone takes it?).
Some seals I'm going to use for a fit check.
A picture of Cricket (the wolf I'm a sponsor for).
A box of "WypAll" paper towels, along with a spare box.
My phone.
"To do" list on post-its.
Computer (laptop & docking station), keyboard, Evoluent mouse, monitor, cables, etc.
Several bolts, a rivnut, an E-nut, and some washers accumulated from various part searches.
My water bottle.
A pencil holder with half a dozen pens, some sharpies, highlighters, and a lonely pencil.
An origami phoenix.
A box of tissues.
A portable chess board (actually belongs to a co-worker).
A tab and slot test coupon.
My empty lunch bag.
A rendering of the ISS.
My nametag/status/assignment thing.
A 2007 calender.
A 2007-2010 M-Day calender.
A couple of cheat sheets.
A napkin with a US flag on it.
My evacuation assembly area card.
A crystal (on loan from the same person as the plant), which has markedly improved my computer's performance.
Two pictures of people (I'm in one of them).
What's on yours?
Monday, December 10, 2007
The End is Near!
A variety of things (reading online, playing Nuclear Proliferation yesterday) have made me once again wonder why so many people take such pleasure in predicting the end of the world/civilization/universe/etc.
What really gets me is that, in the end, the only way they can be vindicated would also involve having no one around to acknowledge that they had been right.
Perhaps it comes down to the long view I take, and that despite my surface pressimism, I'm not a pessimist at heart.
If the world does end, if the human race never gets beyond the heliopause of this one star, what was the point? Our sun will eventually go nova, leaving no trace of our existance but some fading radio-frequency radiation.
I see human history as a march forward. There have been setbacks along the way, but sometimes they've turned out to merely be the pause you take to prepare yourself for a jump forward. Think about it sometime - look at human history from a distance.
The curse of Babel didn't stop us. The Black Death didn't stop us. World War II didn't stop us. We've lived under the threat of NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, for those of you who didn't know) warfare that could all but wipe out the human race for half a century... yet we're still here.
People delight in claiming that nuclear weapons are unsafe... but there's never been an accidental detonation. People delight in claiming that a supervirus is coming that will wipe out humanity... but we're still here. People delight in telling me that global warming will destory the Earth... but its been hotter than the worst-case predictions call for it to get, and these models are the same ones that can't tell me whether it will rain tomorrow with more than 70% accuracy.
So perhaps I'm just a skeptic. I see human history as a river, flowing onward. You can damn a river, you can put up walls to try to channel it, but in the end it will escape your control. The Earth, the solar system, the universe is a lot bigger, and our effect on it a lot smaller, than we think, yet our own momentum, by our scale, is very large indeed compared to the things most people are afraid of. I think that we'll continue to react, adapt, and overcome for as long as we think we can, and perhaps a little longer.
What really gets me is that, in the end, the only way they can be vindicated would also involve having no one around to acknowledge that they had been right.
Perhaps it comes down to the long view I take, and that despite my surface pressimism, I'm not a pessimist at heart.
If the world does end, if the human race never gets beyond the heliopause of this one star, what was the point? Our sun will eventually go nova, leaving no trace of our existance but some fading radio-frequency radiation.
I see human history as a march forward. There have been setbacks along the way, but sometimes they've turned out to merely be the pause you take to prepare yourself for a jump forward. Think about it sometime - look at human history from a distance.
The curse of Babel didn't stop us. The Black Death didn't stop us. World War II didn't stop us. We've lived under the threat of NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, for those of you who didn't know) warfare that could all but wipe out the human race for half a century... yet we're still here.
People delight in claiming that nuclear weapons are unsafe... but there's never been an accidental detonation. People delight in claiming that a supervirus is coming that will wipe out humanity... but we're still here. People delight in telling me that global warming will destory the Earth... but its been hotter than the worst-case predictions call for it to get, and these models are the same ones that can't tell me whether it will rain tomorrow with more than 70% accuracy.
So perhaps I'm just a skeptic. I see human history as a river, flowing onward. You can damn a river, you can put up walls to try to channel it, but in the end it will escape your control. The Earth, the solar system, the universe is a lot bigger, and our effect on it a lot smaller, than we think, yet our own momentum, by our scale, is very large indeed compared to the things most people are afraid of. I think that we'll continue to react, adapt, and overcome for as long as we think we can, and perhaps a little longer.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Maybe
I think maybe is the most evil word in the english language.
Maybe means uncertainty. When you're uncertain, you start to use humanity's greatest blessing and worst curse - imagination.
Imagination leads you to the many things that might, maybe, happen. But only one of them will. There is only one future you will experiance, just as there is only one past.
Maybe it is different for other people.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm insane.
Maybe I'm just too tired.
But maybe we get closer to ourselves when we're tired. Not "a long day" tired. Not running a marathon tired. When we're worn down by weeks and months and years of maybes.
Do or do not, there is no try. I've never liked that phrase, but now I do see its appeal - it takes a way the may be. It WILL be or WILL NOT be, but not MAY be.
Whatever will be, will be. Whether it is what we want or not, whether it is what we need or not.
So it is time for certainty. It is time for forward motion, even if leaving the past is painful.
This I will say - thank you for not saying maybe. Thank you for making me say what I needed to say to you, what I should have said to you a long time ago, and not saying "maybe it will happen."
I jammed myself up in the maybes, but I will move on.
Maybes are freedom, and too much freedom too quickly is dangerous. We need to be eased into it, or we spend ten years as wanderers, jacks of all trades, never really finishing anything.
Some people thrive in the chaos, even love it. I am not one of them. It is not my nature. I am not a fan of maybes. They are seductive, but they're just... not real. They're at best there to cushion your fall.
I am a creature of law. Of duty. Of responsibility. It is dangerous to give us freedom - we don't know how to use it safely. We will, in the end, tie ourselves back down safely, and get to work, but on the way we can hurt a lot of people.
Maybe more than we help in the long run.
I hope not. As engineers, we kill people too. We tell ourselves we help more than we hurt.
I hope to everything in the universe that's true.
Maybe it is.
Maybe means uncertainty. When you're uncertain, you start to use humanity's greatest blessing and worst curse - imagination.
Imagination leads you to the many things that might, maybe, happen. But only one of them will. There is only one future you will experiance, just as there is only one past.
Maybe it is different for other people.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm insane.
Maybe I'm just too tired.
But maybe we get closer to ourselves when we're tired. Not "a long day" tired. Not running a marathon tired. When we're worn down by weeks and months and years of maybes.
Do or do not, there is no try. I've never liked that phrase, but now I do see its appeal - it takes a way the may be. It WILL be or WILL NOT be, but not MAY be.
Whatever will be, will be. Whether it is what we want or not, whether it is what we need or not.
So it is time for certainty. It is time for forward motion, even if leaving the past is painful.
This I will say - thank you for not saying maybe. Thank you for making me say what I needed to say to you, what I should have said to you a long time ago, and not saying "maybe it will happen."
I jammed myself up in the maybes, but I will move on.
Maybes are freedom, and too much freedom too quickly is dangerous. We need to be eased into it, or we spend ten years as wanderers, jacks of all trades, never really finishing anything.
Some people thrive in the chaos, even love it. I am not one of them. It is not my nature. I am not a fan of maybes. They are seductive, but they're just... not real. They're at best there to cushion your fall.
I am a creature of law. Of duty. Of responsibility. It is dangerous to give us freedom - we don't know how to use it safely. We will, in the end, tie ourselves back down safely, and get to work, but on the way we can hurt a lot of people.
Maybe more than we help in the long run.
I hope not. As engineers, we kill people too. We tell ourselves we help more than we hurt.
I hope to everything in the universe that's true.
Maybe it is.
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