Personal

The Last Few Weeks ….

No Comments

Caught in a titanic struggle between “busy” and “sick,” the last few weeks have been somewhat less than enjoyable. Nevertheless, a few items of note are worth passing along.

  • Malaise.  Last weekend was unhappy; by Friday afternoon I got clobbered by some sort of stomach ailment that didn’t clear up until Sunday night, although it came back for a mini-encore on Wednesday. I ended up missing Mega 80s and the TGIO party last weekend (sadness) and scrubbed a planned site visit to Zeeland on Wednesday.
  • Cigar Night. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I hosted another monthly cigar night. Tony, Rob and Brad attended. We shared Tony-supplied Gispert robustos and I made bison grass martinis. A pleasant way to unwind before Turkey Day madness, even if Tony’s intervention led to a few of the martinis being more olive than alcohol. Next event is planned for this coming Tuesday, at Chop House.
  • Thanksgiving. This year’s holiday was fun … the festivities started the Friday prior, with an office potluck. My sausage jambalaya went over well — cutting back on cayenne and adding more red curry and chili powder led to a more flavorful but less intense spice profile. On Thursday, the family assembled at my mom’s house. Brian, grandma, and Sue/Robert/kids attended for a lovely meal.
  • NaNoWriMo. I didn’t “win” but I learned a ton about novel-writing, and had a blast at the twice-weekly write-ins. Kudos to everyone who made it so enjoyable, especially Duane, Jennifer, Adrianne, Liz, Nicole and Mary. This year, I discovered that it’s a bad idea to try to force-fit a character story on top of a genre template. Next year, I’ll be more ready. At Duane’s suggestion, I bought a Kindle copy of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The book is a largely unstructured and informal reflection by this popular Japanese novelist about his lifelong loves of running and writing, and how the two intertwine throughout his career. I’m up to the third chapter.
  • Interface Rejections. My team at the hospital grew by one member and one huge pile of work. We are now cleaning up all the daily rejections between two of the hospital’s primary systems — the facility clinical environment, and the facility billing system. Yay us.
  • Walking. I’ve driven along Butterworth Avenue often enough that I decided it was time to start exploring all the trails in Millennium Park. From the trail head near the Coke plant at Butterworth and O’Brien, I walked along the trail that hugged Butterworth, crossed the new elevated pedestrian bridge over Maynard and then skirted the lake along the park proper before looping back to the trail head by means of the Grand River path. It turned out to be a nearly 6 mile circuit — quite refreshing. I’ll have to walk (or cycle) this more often.
  • TV. I don’t watch too much television, but based on Sondra’s recommendation, I watched both seasons of Better Off Ted on Netflix. The show featured a deliciously sociopathic Portia de Rossi and the suave Jay Harrington as two of the main characters. If you seek a TV show that mixes over-the-top satire with wickedly funny dialog, you’ll love this program. It’s what The Office should have been.
  • Phone.  This week I managed to drop my phone into a sink full of hot soapy water. Although it took a few days to completely dry out, the HTC HD7 survived with no apparent problems. Yay. And even better — last week I received a Windows Phone upgrade that, inter alia, included a new Wi-Fi hotspot feature. Which works really well, although it is a bit of a battery drain.

All for now.

Personal

In Search of the Elusive Adjective, and Sundry Other Observations

No Comments

When you meet someone socially for the first time and your new interlocutor asks you to describe yourself, what do you say? Do you identify by tribal affiliation (religion, ideology, ethnicity)? By career? By rattling off a string of descriptors? With a flippant aside, hoping to change the subject?

If someone were to ask me who I am, I have to admit to a degree of conflict. Not in a emo-angst way, mind you, but in a more phenomenological sense. For, you see, I like to think of myself in terms of skills and accomplishments rather than OMB-approved check marks, but I realize that lately I’ve not been sharpening the saw with sufficient diligence to make my string of adjectives sound convincing.

I used to be a scuba diver, until I stopped. I used to study martial arts, until I stopped. I used to be a cyclist, until I sold my bike. I used to be a runner, until I got sick and got horribly out of shape. I used, I used, I used. But now? Now, those adjectives are more elusive.

I suppose it’s a good kick in the pants, a form of motivation to get back into gear. But still, to reflect on the last few years, I can’t help but feel a sense of lost opportunity.

On a more chippy note:

  • As of yesterday I’ve hit the “lost 20 pounds” mark since returning from Tony and Jen’s wedding in late April. Not bad, considering that most of June was flat. I have a goal for my birthday in September (below 200), and another goal (my target weight of 160)  for the end of the calendar year. Both are eminently achievable.
  • Next week I’ll be in Miami Beach to attend (and present at) the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings. Should be interesting.
  • Lots of changes at work — I have a new boss, same as the boss before the old boss. And the Wheel of Time turns ….
  • The Great Heat Wave of 2011 was much less enjoyable given that the house isn’t properly wired for the electric load of an air conditioner. I may pick up a freestanding portable unit, though.
  • I managed to sunburn the sole of my left foot by letting my foot soak up the rays while I was smoking a cigar on the back porch.

Ciao!

Personal

Half Way to Half Way at the Half Way

No Comments

Today marks the exact midpoint of my journey between my 34th and 35th birthdays. Age 35 is the midpoint of my journey between 30 and 40. And 35 also plops me in the middle of the cycle between birth and age 70, after which — decline is inevitable.

So I”m approaching the middle of everything. God willing, I will live to a ripe old age, healthy and virile. But until then, I must make the most of the time I have. Although some may snigger, the whole “half way to half way at the half way” issue weighs upon my mind. I’m aware of the successes and failures of the past, as well as the goals I’ve set for my future. When you’re young, everything seems possible and there’s really no sense of urgency to get a-cracking. As the months slip into years, and the years into decades, urgency’s fires begin to burn with ever greater intensity.

Last weekend, I pulled together a list of short-term goals. Some of them were merely carry-forwards of things I’ve been working on but slow to achieve, and others are a bit more foundational. For example, by September 15, I will match the fitness level I enjoyed at age 30. Others are things I’ve thought about but have been a bit more whimsical and thus more optional — like getting my certification as a parliamentarian.

More to come.

Anyway, here are some tidbits of the month gone by:

  1. The evening of cigars and cocktails in mid-February went well. I was joined by Tony, Rick, Chris and Rob as we sampled a Sazerac and smoked cigars on the back porch. Very relaxing. We will hold a repeat session later this month.
  2. Dinner with [redacted] was a joy; we met at Bistro Bella Vita a few weeks ago and talked about work and stuff. And not long before that, I was also at BBV with Ken for a delightful meal as well.
  3. I’ve decided to go paperless: I acquired a Brother MFC-J630W wireless multifunction printer with 15-sheet document scanner. Slowly but surely, all the accumulated papers I’ve been hauling around for 20 years will be digitized then burned.
  4. Life at the hospital has been fun. We finally got another person in, and I was told I’m going to be promoted into management, but the devil is in the details (and the budget).
  5. I continue to settle in the new place. A few weeks ago I assembled an entertainment center, so the living room looks a bit more presentable. I’ve also rearranged the office and installed a cork board and a white board. The new setup is much more conducive to productivity.
  6. Tony and I have done more podcasting — check us out at http://www.viceloungeonline.com. We’re even on iTunes!
  7. I’ve also been doing more blogging for Gillikin Consulting, and I updated my Facebook fan page. Please consider clicking the “like” button, and imbibing from the vast wisdom of my business blogs.

Other than the seven points noted above, not much worthy of remark has happened of late. Just plugging away — half way to somewhere.

Personal

Firewood, Music, Mead: Essential Survival Supplies for Ye Olde Blizzard of '11

No Comments

You know you’re in for a colossal let-down when a local radio station pre-empts a major syndicated talk show to share an hour-long “storm crisis center” with interviews of second-tier meteorologists, suburban mayors and mid-level functionaries in the county bureaucracy. All that build up inevitably leads to underwhelming results. I did, however, realize that almost all of my food at home requires a microwave, so I stopped by the Meijer store in Standale and acquired a .75-cubic-foot bundle of wood, some soup and a bottle of mead, on the theory that having non-microwaveable food will thereby protect me from a power failure. The lines were worse than Christmas — the self-checkout lanes by the produce section were snaked back down the grocery center aisle as far as the frozen foods. Because all the lemmings went into the long line, however, I was able to get in the No. 3 slot on the queue for the express lanes near the jewelry counter. Hooray for scouting ahead.
So apparently I’m writing this from the center of a blizzard. The weather so far has been depressingly sedate; we have perhaps 8 in. of accumulation as of this morning, and some occasionally nasty winds, but nothing that screams “OMG I’m going to die.” I told my department yesterday that I expected that everyone would work from home, and apparently they needed no further inducement to avoid getting out of bed.
Last night, I built a roaring fire and stretched out upon the couch, sipping some mead and enjoying the complex harmony of crackling logs and howling winds. Quite peaceful. I suspect that I will survive Mother Nature’s latest attempt to squelch my Constitutional right to travel freely.

In other news …

  • Life at the new place continues to be pleasant. I acquired a major bargain last week — a solid wood dinette set for six, including a sturdy captain’s chair, for the low, low price of $35. It’s in gorgeous condition: Old, with some of the wood stain rubbing off high-traffic areas, but sturdy, and at a 4×6 oval, I have ample space to entertain. It perfectly matches my dining room. I would have paid 10x the cost for this set. And all of this is in addition the sofa, love seat and large end table that Alaric and Sondra donated because they needed the space in their storage unit.
  • I have convened the first of hopefully many cigar and cocktail evenings, planned for mid-February.
  • Hospital life continues to be interesting. Lots of changes. Pays to think strategically.
  • I was recently accepted by Demand Media to edit copy for a specialty publication: DMS calls it the “Tech Beta” but it’s basically a content-sharing arrangement for technology-related articles with Salon.com. So far, the writing in the Tech Beta has been very, very good. And at $4.50 per edited article, I can breeze through them like butter.
  • I finally bought a scale last week. The results of my first weigh-in were far more horrifying than any “blizzard of the century.” So, its back to eating like a rabbit and pedaling like a stationary cyclist on amphetamines until the BMI falls into saner territory.
  • I did enjoy a few social activities of note in January, including dinner with Ken at Bistro Bella Vita and coffee with Charlie a few times downtown. Other than that, though, the last month has been quiet.

All for now.

Personal

Firewood, Music, Mead: Essential Survival Supplies for Ye Olde Blizzard of ’11

No Comments

You know you’re in for a colossal let-down when a local radio station pre-empts a major syndicated talk show to share an hour-long “storm crisis center” with interviews of second-tier meteorologists, suburban mayors and mid-level functionaries in the county bureaucracy. All that build up inevitably leads to underwhelming results. I did, however, realize that almost all of my food at home requires a microwave, so I stopped by the Meijer store in Standale and acquired a .75-cubic-foot bundle of wood, some soup and a bottle of mead, on the theory that having non-microwaveable food will thereby protect me from a power failure. The lines were worse than Christmas — the self-checkout lanes by the produce section were snaked back down the grocery center aisle as far as the frozen foods. Because all the lemmings went into the long line, however, I was able to get in the No. 3 slot on the queue for the express lanes near the jewelry counter. Hooray for scouting ahead.

So apparently I’m writing this from the center of a blizzard. The weather so far has been depressingly sedate; we have perhaps 8 in. of accumulation as of this morning, and some occasionally nasty winds, but nothing that screams “OMG I’m going to die.” I told my department yesterday that I expected that everyone would work from home, and apparently they needed no further inducement to avoid getting out of bed.

Last night, I built a roaring fire and stretched out upon the couch, sipping some mead and enjoying the complex harmony of crackling logs and howling winds. Quite peaceful. I suspect that I will survive Mother Nature’s latest attempt to squelch my Constitutional right to travel freely.

***

In other news …

  • Life at the new place continues to be pleasant. I acquired a major bargain last week — a solid wood dinette set for six, including a sturdy captain’s chair, for the low, low price of $35. It’s in gorgeous condition: Old, with some of the wood stain rubbing off high-traffic areas, but sturdy, and at a 4×6 oval, I have ample space to entertain. It perfectly matches my dining room. I would have paid 10x the cost for this set. And all of this is in addition the sofa, love seat and large end table that Alaric and Sondra donated because they needed the space in their storage unit.
  • I have convened the first of hopefully many cigar and cocktail evenings, planned for mid-February.
  • Hospital life continues to be interesting. Lots of changes. Pays to think strategically.
  • I was recently accepted by Demand Media to edit copy for a specialty publication: DMS calls it the “Tech Beta” but it’s basically a content-sharing arrangement for technology-related articles with Salon.com. So far, the writing in the Tech Beta has been very, very good. And at $4.50 per edited article, I can breeze through them like butter.
  • I finally bought a scale last week. The results of my first weigh-in were far more horrifying than any “blizzard of the century.” So, its back to eating like a rabbit and pedaling like a stationary cyclist on amphetamines until the BMI falls into saner territory.
  • I did enjoy a few social activities of note in January, including dinner with Ken at Bistro Bella Vita and coffee with Charlie a few times downtown. Other than that, though, the last month has been quiet.

All for now.