Category Archives: Work

Ah, do I have to go back to work?

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I’m finishing up a week long vacation from work and to be honest, I have mixed emotions about going back. The primary event this week was taking the family (including my mother-in-law) to Kernville to go white-water rafting. Becky has always wanted to do it and since she got her eyes done in January, she didn’t have to worry about either loosing glasses or trying to enjoy it all blurry.

The trip was a blast and we’ve all decided that we will need to do it again. We may put it off a bit, though, so Brian will be old enough to go on a two or three-day outing.

A meeting is good, but at what cost?

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I had the occasion to make a business trip yesterday at the last minute. I don’t mind so much and, in fact, kinda like traveling. Becky, on the otherhand, is less comfortable with last minute changes so wasn’t overly enthusiastic. Oh, wait, did I mention changes? Well, you see, I was travelling with my manager and we had the same outgoing flight from San Diego at 7:14 AM. Unfortunately, it was cancelled along with another from the same airline headed to Chicago. Needless to say, there were quite a few people trying to find alternatives and after almost two hours of standing in line, I was able to get a seat on a later flight. My boss wasn’t as lucky and ended up buying a ticket on another airline to Oakland (I was flying into SFO).

The meeting happened and my boss and I were only about 60 and 30 minutes late, respectively.

That afternoon, we headed back to the airport to take the original return flight home only to find that the 6:32 PM flight was now leaving at 9:00. We tried briefly to get switched to an 8:00 flight, but didn’t want to stand in any more lines for only a one hour gain.

We boarded at 8:30 in advance of the pilots who arrived just before 9:00 (they were coming in from another airport). The plane took off about 9:30, landed at 11:00 and then I had to drive home.

From home back to home was 19 hours. All for a four hour meeting. Ugh.

What a nice gesture

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My “roomate” at work, Kristin, was straightening her desk yesterday and commented that she couldn’t stop. I joked with her that I’d ask her to work on mine, but I wouldn’t knowing that she probably would.

I come in this morning to find that my desk has been completely tidied up. Books put away, papers stacked and everything looking much nicer.

I hope you have the fortune to work with people who are as kind and generous as she.

Thanks, Kristin.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again

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Last night, I was trying to finish up 24: The Game which I had borrowed from work and while I was almost done with only one "hour" (of 24) left (maybe 30-45 minutes of gameplay) it was late and I had a little headache so I went to bed.

About 90 minutes later, I woke up with a very uncomfortable headache. You know, the kind where it feels like your entire head is in a rather large vice. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so I took two Tylenol and got back in bed. Unfortunately, it was too uncomfortable and my tossing and turning woke Becky up so I decided to go downstairs and wait for them to kick in.

It really was miserable. Even after 30 minutes, I could barely sit still. I passed the time by installing Ubuntu Linux in Parallels and paced the floor sipping water while it was doing it’s thing. Becky checked on me once to make sure I wasn’t dead from an aneurysm and went back up after I told her it was unecessary for both of us to loose sleep.

Long story short, I started feeling good enough to get back in bed around 4 AM. I slept until 8 and then took a nap during the day since I was still feeling a bit wiped out.

If that is what a migraine is, my heart and prayers to anyone who suffers. I’ll presume it was just some one-time thing (maybe a reaction to the sulfites from the wine I had that evening).

My wrists hurt

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I have poor posture when I work. When I’m at my desk, I tend to hold the mouse with the weight of my arm resting on the desk at the base of my wrist. The problem is that after a while, my wrists get sore (I do the same with my left at the keyboard).

It’s been a problem for years, but it seems to get bad sooner in the day. What I need to do is just learn better posture. I need to hold my arms up when I’m at the computer. It’ll take some time to build up my muscles but I’m sure it will be worth it in the long run.

Carry on.

Thanks, Kristin!

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My friend at work, Kristin, tipped me on to an album she thought the kids would enjoy. It’s by a group called They Might Be Giants and the album is No! The group has been around since the 80’s but No! is a kids album they made in 2002 and dang it, the thing is horribly addicting. Every song is fun, creative, and agrivatingly memorable. In the month or so we have had the album, we’ve listened to it about 20 times.

Think of it as musical versions of Shel Silverstein poems. You can listen to samples of the songs at the iTunes Music Store if you’re so inclined.

BTW, if you become addicted, I apologize.

Hippo, hippo. Mop!

Thanks, Kristin.

Finally, some information about PlayStation 3

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Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., made some information public about the upcoming launch of PS3.

Worldwide launch (North America, Asia, and European territories) will be in November consisting of approximately 2 million units with 1 million a month additional each month for the remainder of the fiscal year (March 2007). It will come with a 60G hard drive, full Blu-ray support, and be 100% backward compatible (upscaling to HD). An online service will also be freely available providing lobby matching, voice chat, and commerce features.

Pricing hasn’t been officially announced but is expected to be in the $400-450 range.

Not too bad. The real question is if SCEA employees will get one gratis (employees were all given a PS2 at launch). Personally, I doubt it. If it duplicates the PSP launch, we won’t even be able to buy one until the channel is filled (about 3-4 weeks after launch) and even then, since the hardware is sold at a lost the emplyee "discount" will be minimal.