Ears
May/080
On the landing into Manchester I felt intense sinus and ear pressure. I tried hard to yawn and clear the pressure. I was unable. I now cannot hear very well and especially in my right ear. It is annoying. I hope it clears soon.
AC
May/080
I went to Atlantic City on Friday to have an end of project celebration. It turned out to be a really good time. We had a nice dinner at this place named Red Square. We followed it up with a comedy show. I had never heard of the 3 comedians but they were all really entertaining. After that we went up to the rooms to have a couple of beers.
In terms of gambling, I had originally set a $100 limit for myself but increased it to $200 after a bet I lost with a coworker was forgiven. I took $25 and put it on red on a roulette table. I won. I found some game with a giant spinning wheel that had $2 minimum bets. I played that for a while and ended up coming out even. A little later two coworkers talked me through the process of playing craps. In order to get a better understanding they suggested that we pool some money so that we would have a better bankroll. We ended up losing a little bit of the money but it was a good educational experience.
The best part of the night came when I decided to play blackjack. Just as I sat down to a mostly empty table they raised the minimum bet to $25. I only had $55 in chips so I figured two hands was better than nothing. About 20 minutes later I had tripled my money. The most interesting hand came when I got dealt 2 aces. I split them. Face card and face card. Blackjack and blackjack. Sweet. Well, until the dealer hit blackjack as well for a push. That definitely would have been my last hand. I stuck around for one more winning hand before calling it quits.
I’m not much of a gambler, but this was a fun experience.
Just Like College
May/081
Today I got my official lifetime membership card for the Penn State Alumni Association. Hooray! I can now reap all of the great official benefits! Wait, what benefits? Yeah, I don’t think you really get anything special for being a member let alone a lifetime member but given that I bleed blue and white and all I almost have no choice but to pay my dues.
It is quite appropriate to have such a connection on a day like today. What a day it was. Definitely not especially interesting but there is a nice little connection to college that I’ll get to soon enough.
It started with me going to Dunkin Donuts to get my free iced coffee since they were supposed to give them away from free today. I walk up to the counter and look down at the sign for the promotion. It is 9:30 am and the promotion doesn’t start until 10 am. Oh well. I got one anyway and it was great.
I spent a few minutes being annoyed that someone hadn’t responded to my 20 emails about how the stupid SMS servers weren’t working correctly or something and I need it fixed ASAP because I had to deploy to 30 high priority machines and it should have been completed 3 days ago. I took a deep breathe and settled into a call with some UK guys to finalize some details for my trip. On the professional side, things sound pretty good. On the personal side I still need to book a hotel for Saturday night and figure out the train schedule. I’ve been warned that since it is a “holiday” weekend in the UK it may be hard to find a room. I better devote some time to that tomorrow.
After the call things improved as I got a response to my bombardment of emails. I was getting some cooperation. A short while later things appeared to be working correctly. I set up 3 more test cases and focused on the primary object for the day: develop a localized process flow for deploying Windows Vista to 11,000 seats across 3 countries while keeping in mind proven processes and a global approach.
The key was to find and empty room and hide from everyone else. This didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped. I think I got interrupted more today than any other day on this current project. I guess this is understandable given the fact that we are wrapping stuff up and there are a bunch of loose ends to tie up and I’m the one to explain which knot to use.
I avoided a lunch plan to eat a 20 ounce burgers (before cooking, 17 oz or so afterwards) and hacked away at the stuff despite the distractions. The worst came around 2pm when I got on IM for some stupid reason and ended up trying to coordinate a bunch of stuff that took my mind in a totally different direction. I knocked it out and got back to focusing.
By the time I had to leave for soccer I had completed 3 out of 18 level 1 process flows and the high level. Yes, lots to complete. Oh yeah, the goal was to have this done by 10 am on Friday.
I got right back at it once I got home from soccer. Then Derrick reminded me that it was Thursday and that meant Flat Rock night. Fair enough. Work can wait but Thursday night traditions cannot. Tonight was a Karibik Belgian pale ale and a Bell’s Java Stout. Both pretty tasty.
So now it is 12:46 am and I’ve got 8 out of the 18 things done. No worries. In reality this was just something I took on to be prepared for next week. Getting half of it done to talk by tomorrow morning is a huge bonus. I’ll still be a few steps ahead of the game.
However, this is where we get the connection with college. I can’t tell you how many times I waited until the last minute to put something together and it ended up being a pure masterpiece. Don’t ever let someone tell you procrastination is bad. Strike that, don’t let them tell you procrastination is bad when you’ve clearly proven that it is an effective tool in the battle to get stuff done. I’m going to keep hacking away at this and by tomorrow morning I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty proud of the final product.
Wish me luck.
Good Stuff
May/081
1) The keg of Golden Monkey has finally been kicked. I look forward to picking up something new and exciting on Wednesday or Thursday evening.
2) I’ve been playing a bunch of guitar in the past couple of days. My fingers almost move like they used to. If only I had the opportunity to make it a regular activity outside of my bedroom. Eventually, I will.
3) In two weekends I’m going to meet up with the guys from home to have a camping and adventures weekend. I very much look forward to that.
4) The pre-bike race party will be on Saturday June 7 this year. It should be a good time as always. There is the possibility of having some live music as well as the usual amenities (15-foot beerbong, endless cooking of burgers, beer pong, good people, etc). I really need to take some time tomorrow and make a facebook event and evite so that the people remember to block the calendar.
5) I booked my flight and hotel for my UK trip next week. I’ve decided to extend the trip two days and take advantage of not just one but two Real Ale festivals in the English countryside. I’m pretty excited. I’m also going to stay in a B&B for the first time in my life and I think that will be neat. While I really wanted to do something big and fly to Poland, I’m being very smart and going for the low-cost choice.
6) This past weekend I spent some time partying with that new group of people I met a couple weeks ago. What an interesting time. Part of the adventure involved a school bus and a keg. Yes, it is perfectly legal to do keg-stands on a charted school bus. Interestingly enough, when we were going to leave the one bar we came out to discover that a presumably drunk person had crashed into both our bus and cars parked along the street. I think that serves as an example of irony. This crew makes me feel very youthful. I like that. Almost as fun as walking over a mile home at 5am while the sun starts to rise and the birds chirp wildly.
7) I bought some filet mignon cuts tonight. I also made mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy. I first tried eating the steak medium rare. I did not really enjoy it. So, I cooked it up to medium and it was considerably more enjoyable. I’m really not a huge steak person.
8] There is an interesting race coming up in July. There are 3 options to it. Take a team of 5 people and see how many times you can do an 8.4 mile loop in 24 hours (1 person at a time). See how many loops you can make as an individual in 24 hours (6 laps and you’ve done 50 miles {equivalent of an ultra-marathon}). Do 1 loop at midnight in the dark. They all sound like pretty neat ideas. I’m a bit keen on the individual loops for 24 hours. I definitely could prepare myself but I’m not sure I’m willing to give up a weekend in July for such an event. At the least, I will definitely consider the 1 loop at midnight.
9) My Punta Cana vacation is nearly here. Just 4 weeks to go. I’m pretty excited. I’m also fairly satisfied with the progress I’ve made at getting in better shape. If I keep up my current, and very manageable, pace I will be feeling and looking pretty healthy as I gorge myself at the all-inclusive resort. Right now, there are 5 of us going. It should be fun.
10) Weezer’s new album has been moved up to a June 3rd release. I’m fairly excited. Although, last time I got excited about Weezer they let me down. I have a feeling this time will be different. Also related to music, stupid Wilco is playing a stupid show in Wilmington and of course I had no idea and it sold out stupidly fast. Tickets on stubhub start at about $300 a ticket. Someday I will see them again!
11) My buddy Nate found an interesting posting on Craigslist for a unit we should acquire for tailgating. It is only $2900. If I had half that amount just laying around I’d seriously consider it. Just picture it in blue and white. Beautiful.
11) Mike, my brother, if you are reading this stop being lazy and get a job.