Retiring Stuff

Remember how I talked about retiring my wallet?  Well, new year, new stuff!  Out with the old, in with the new!  Around the new year I was in a "trashy" mood, so I decided to retire a few oldies but goodies.

For example, this shirt.  I bought it in my second or third year of college at the RCC Western Store - "a touch of western class - a look that's made to last".  And last it did.  This shirt has been a staple in my work wardrobe, and I also like it for airplane travel because it was long sleeved and helped keep out the airplane drafts, but it was light enough that if you flew to a warm destination you didn't feel like you were sweltering when you exited the plane.  It hasn't gone in the trash, but I officially removed it from its hanger.  It may need to make a farewell trip to a warm destination in a little over a month and stay there forever.

Next up:  my Lego man key chain.  I got him a year or two after I started working.  He experienced several dismemberments and his face kind of came off.  Now the lady at the Y will have to identify my keys by some other memorable item.

And the wallet.  It's 10 or 11 years old.  I really hated to give it up.  I thought I might have to retire it about 2.5 years ago when it got drenched, but it held together after it dried.  However, I think the time had come. My credit card corners were nearly starting to come through the leather, and the stitching was hanging by a thread, so I retired it.  It seemed appropriate to do it on New Years Eve.  There may have been a small ceremony that included a eulogy.

This week I got lots of practice at throwing stuff out as I prepared to move cubicles.

Small New Year Celebration

Due to weather and the awkwardness of it falling on Wednesday, the New Year celebration that I had planned to have at my house turned into a party of two.  Uncle Bex still braved the roads, but the other guests decided to stay home.  But don't worry, we made the best of it even though we did have to play two-person games.  We managed to stay up until midnight, but just barely. The highlights:

1. Rice Krispie bars (with various toppings of Nutella or peanut butter or both)
2. Sledding
3. Kinda-sorta went snowboarding (the hill wasn't quite steep enough, and the snow was a bit sticky)
4. Playing games - Bex beat the pants off me when we played Boggle, I beat the pants off Bex when we played Scrabble, and it was nearly a draw playing Stratego
5. Checked out the lighthouse in all its icy glory
6. Went to Target and T.J. Maxx
7. Shoveled snow
8. Retired my wallet (more on that in a later post)
9. Harassed others about not coming to the party
10. Delicious meals (if I do say so myself) that included ribs, roasted potatoes, fancy salads, chicken curry, guacamole, bacon, and smoothies.  Not all in the same meal....duh!

Some pictures:

Out with the old and in with the new (tear)

  

A mean game of Stratego

Goofing around while sledding

Uncle Bex goofed around too

Almost looks like Colorado, doesn't it?

Icy pier

Contemplating a polar plunge

Good breakfast food

One of our delicious suppers

Potato Christmas

For Christmas I went to the state famous for potatoes.  It was good, but not a super long trip.  Even though when I arrived I felt like I would have plenty of time to chill out, the time flew by.  Here are the highlights.

1. Seeing Ananias, Pops, and Ma
2. Time with Bethro and some good talks with her
3. Playing games with some smart older people - Cranium, Take Two, Trivial Pursuit
4. Seeing many of my aunts and uncles (J&E, Geneva, Marie, and even Alice)
5. Snowboarding one day - not the best snow, but we did find a crazy tree adventure
6. Computer shopping for Pops - we had some success there.
7. Playing the Game of Things - super funny when you have a lot of people to play it, and especially if many of the people playing have similar senses of humor.
8. We did a little reliving of last year's Christmas highlights:  limeade, chips, and salsa
9. Delicious homemade gingerbread
10. Delicious Christmas dinner
11. I am now the (somewhat) proud owner of a scarf.  The price was right, and some people were very persuasive.  :-)
12. A visit to REI - I got a new sweater and a new belt.  You can never go wrong with a visit to REI.
13. Indian buffet for lunch one day

Let's end on a good number, shall we?  Here are a couple pictures - I didn't really take very many.  And don't tell my boss, but I may have skipped working a couple hours that week....but probably one of my 60 hour weeks in October makes up for it.

Myself and Bethro playing some Cranium - this is also proof that I do sometimes wear my new clothes purchased at Thanksgiving time.

The adventure through the trees.  If you look very  closely, you can see Devon.  If it looks like more scrub brush than snow for snowboarding, you would be correct.  We probably spent more than 30 minutes trying to navigate through here.

Scenery from the Bogus Basin ski hill.

Observation and Cubicles

This is another observation about my cube mate Kadmium.  I have noticed in the past that when he's feeling stressed he tends to talk more during the day, and often he seems to spend more time obsessing/worrying about little problems or potential problems at work.  My theory is this may be his coping mechanism.

Anyway, I think he's been feeling stressed the last week or so because I've been noticing this behavior more.  I think part of it is that Rickshaw (one of my other cubies) now has a different manager and has moved to a different group and thus was required to move to a different cubicle in a different building.  They were good friends and usually spent several minutes in a day chatting about stuff.  I'm not sure how life is at home for Kadmium, but there is also stress in the form of all of us moving cubicles and buildings about a week from now.

Right now we sit in a quad of cubicles with six foot walls around the quad.  Our new desks are from the "open workspace" concept where the highest walls are maybe four feet, and there will probably be 50-100 people in a big room.  As one might expect, many employees are not huge fans of this.  When we went from the dual cubes to the quad cubes there was a big uproar about distractions, loss of storage space, etc.  Now we're moving to the open workspace concept, and there is an even bigger uproar and bigger concerns about noise and distractions.  There is a lot of cynicism going on.  There are worries (many of them valid) about noise levels, visual distractions, privacy, storage space, etc.  What further rubs people the wrong way is that they asked for our input on what we did or didn't want for cubicles and then proceeded to ignore most of our input.

We even had a meeting this week where they had a "change management" consultant talk to us about how to handle change and the four stages of change that people go through.  They also had us list all our concerns and said they would address them, and then they pretty much went on to kinda-sorta cover a couple of our concerns and questions, but mostly they didn't address them and just told us we needed to learn to adapt and find what works for us.  Yeah.  Thanks for the advice.  Now let me go find the cheese that someone moved.  This is pretty much what the diagram looked like.  We were encouraged to work through all the steps and get to the commitment stage.  Don't get stuck in a stage!  We must have been one of the less polite groups because one of the people in our group was pulled aside at the end and asked why our group was so hostile toward change.  One guy's thought on that was to ask, "why are you imposing this hostile change on normal people?"

How do I feel about this?  I do have some of the same concerns about noise, distractions, and storage space.  But I think I will learn to deal with them.  I kind of like the building I work in, but a different building might keep things interesting.  The building we're moving to does not have a cafeteria, which I will definitely miss.  I am looking forward to sitting in the same building as the software engineers again.  I also get a window seat!  Hooray for sunlight!  A new cube is also a new opportunity to try to do some more ergonomic things with my desk arrangement to help keep my neck tension at a lower level.  I get a new wireless phone headset.  The furniture is new.  I will be sitting next to my boss.  Like someone said, I may end up hearing more things than I want to sitting that close to him.  The drive to work will be about the same distance but in the opposite direction.  This is a bit of a bummer because the road is much busier, so it may make it more difficult to ride my bicycle to work in the summer.  Not that I did that all that much last summer anyway.

I have been surprised by Kadmium's reaction to all of this.  I figured he might take all of this in stride because he's worked for several companies in his career and has probably seen it all.  But he seems to be very opposed to the open workspace concept.  In fact, many of the older people in the group are - possibly because they already saw it fail in the past.  One of Kadmium's most recent comments was, "it makes me feel a little less valued to move into a space like that."  He's probably been working as an engineer for close to 30 years, and at one company he even had his own office with walls and a door.  And he's probably had his own individual cubicle.  And now he's reduced to an open office workspace.  It all depends on where you started from, huh?  I've always sat in a cubicle, so this open workspace doesn't seem like it's that big of a change or downgrade for me.  I'm slightly optimistic that I might like sitting in a place with new furniture and sitting next to a window.

Look for an update on January 27th......or maybe some time that week.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 1 & 2

Checked off the list:  #13 - Go ice skating.

M&M had a gtg at their house on January 3, so I went over there, and we skated on their frozen over pond.  Skating outside in the open air is so much cooler (literally and figuratively) than skating in a rink.  Especially when the temperatures are near zero.

Another Experiment

January 13th - it's muffin time!  This year I'm testing Krix's theory that the muffin will mold if it's put in an enclosed space.  So we'll see.  Oh, and check out the muffin that has been on test here at home for a year.  It's pretty much the same results as the ones at work.

New muffin on test in a Ziploc bag.

The home test 2013 muffin survived until 2014.

This video is really tiny, but look what SIL-Lan sent me today.  Doesn't that just melt your heart?

Marriage Contemplation

As you may or may not know, I sit next to Kadmium at work.  He's a middle-aged guy with a wife and grown kids.  He's a pretty good-natured guy.  He likes to laugh and joke most days.  He has a serious side too (most engineers do), but in general he's pleasant.  It's also not a secret that his wife is a bit of an invalid.  She has some kind of auto-immune disorder where she gets sick easily, and because of that she's not able to work very much.  Related to that or perhaps because of that or maybe totally unrelated, she can also tend to be depressed.  According to Kadmium, his wife is also not very logical, which is probably one of the things he loves about her and one of the things that annoys him I think.

I would say on average, at least once a week he'll get a phone call from her during the day.  This week it was in the middle of the day when it was really cold here, and their furnace had quit working for some reason.  He seemed to know why and had some suggestions on what she could do in the mean time to stay warm until he got home to fix it, but apparently she wasn't receptive to the suggestions.  I could tell by his tone of voice that he was getting frustrated, but I usually admire his composure and compassion when he's talking to her.  I expect he's probably had some practice in being patient.

She often likes to call him right as he's shutting his computer down before he leaves for the day.  He's trying to get out of work quickly, and then she wants to spend time discussing what they should eat for supper.  He'll suggest something, and apparently that's not what she feels like eating, so then I'll hear him say something like, "Well, if that's what you want to do, then let's just eat that.  I'm sorry, but I have to go now.  The car pool guys are waiting."  Kadmium has commented once or twice in the 2 or 3 years I've sat next to him that it's a rare thing that his wife is in a good mood when he arrives home.

All of these events (plus some other recent observations and stories) started me wondering how people end up in situations and marriages like those.  Before they got married, did Kadmium truly know what his wife was like?  Was it less pronounced because she was healthier?  Was she perfectly healthy and then suddently became ill?  Did he see the signs of her personality but think they could be improved?  I wondered for a long time until recently I overheard him telling Rickshaw that "She can be a lot of fun.  The only problem is that's only about 10% or 20% of the time.  Before we got married I could kind of see how she was, but I thought it was situational and that if she got out of the situation she was in, she would change and improve."

I'm sure that statement I overheard over-simplifies things, and I just caught the tail end of the conversation.  But it just makes me realize again how serious the vow "in sickness and in health" is.  And how serious it is to really know the person you marry.  And how you will still need the strength of God in your marriage even if you do know them because things will happen that you couldn't even imagine.  Or maybe it's not a serious thing to truly know the person you marry because some things will be a surprise anyway!  Just kidding....I really do think it is important, but I suppose one shouldn't expect they will know everything about their spouse.

Those are your serious thoughts from an amateur for a Thursday.

Goings On

I've gotten a little bit negligent on the posts here.  There has been a fair amount going on, but at the same time I've also been super motivated with other projects and didn't get around to posting.  And now I'm almost overwhelmed with all my post ideas, I don't know where to start.

Here's one place I can start:  robotics.  That's right - the season started on Saturday.  This year's game is called aerial assist.  Here's the link to the game this year.  The first couple days of meeting has been hampered by the weather, but I think we'll still have a good season.

Speaking of weather, we had snow on Sunday accompanied by high winds on Monday and Tuesday.  Allegedly the building at work was open on Monday, although employees were strongly encouraged to work from home.  And on Monday there were no cafeteria, reception, or mail services.  And most of the doors were blown shut with snow, and the parking lots were partially cleared.  So were the buildings really open?  No, but this way they can say it is and make their mobile workforce work from home.  And thus the death of the working person's "snow day" was complete.  At least for office people.  Teachers still get snow days.  Around here, they've had three snow days so far this week.  Luckily I could go to the office today before cabin fever completely took hold.

Even though it has been kind of cold, I'll take 0 or 10 degrees over 32 degrees any day.  Especially if the sun is shining when it's 0 degrees.  Thirty-two degrees is usually so dreary and damp and bone-chillingly cold.

That's it for now.  Many summary posts and a couple thought-provoking posts coming soon (hopefully).

2014 Bushel Basket List

Since Avis started me on doing some kind of blog project every year since 2011, I've been kind of liking that.  I have decided upon the 2014 project.  I have created a 2014 bushel basket list.  For you non-farmers, you might call it a bucket list.  There are 26 items, which nicely results in documenting an activity on a bi-weekly basis.  Bi-weekly is a very annoying word, by the way.....because it can mean once every two weeks or twice a week.  I'll let you do the math and figure out which one I'm referring to.

Uncle Bex says I should reveal my list now so that I don't get all squirrelly at the end of the year and try to change my bucket items on the fly.  So here it is, not in order of importance and not in order of planned execution:

1. Go kayaking on a river or lake I’ve never been on before
2. Go cross country skiing
3. Go snowboarding
4. Visit a foreign country
5. Go to a 'vention I’ve never been to before
6. Play volleyball
7. Play softball
8. Play a new board game or card game
9. Go on a hike longer than 5 miles
10. Visit TJ in SC (or wherever she's living)
11. Go scuba diving at least once
12. Go to Cedar Point
13. Go ice skating
14. Run in a 5K event
15. Go to GR Art Prize
16. Go to a concert
17. See a musical
18. Invite my work friends over for a game night
19. Have a “girls weekend” at my house.
20. Invite DEA over for a meal
21. Learn Portuguese (to a basic level at least)
22. Make homemade granola bars
23. Start and finish a scrapbook for an overseas trip.
24. Read the bible chronologically.
25. Make beef brisket.
26. Make and grow a portable vegetable garden.

I know there are a few "bunnies" in the list, but you need a few of those for the ordinary weeks, right?  Oh, and it is allowable to "get ahead" on the list and then save the pictures until I have a slow week.  Just sayin'.  It's my posts and my list, so I guess I get to make the rules.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #52

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Time with extended family - we relived a little bit of Mexico by drinking some limeade and eating chips and salsa.

2.  My aunts - they're more than twice as old as me, but they can still whip my butt in a game of "Draw Two / Take Two / Fast Scrabble."

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #51

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Unexpected Memories - This line in this song reminded me of how Ananias signed up for the Columbia record club when we were in high school.  I'm sure my parents weren't impressed with the bill, but we thought getting all that music was great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dJxMAiRGg98#t=440

2.  Visitors - This one is a tad bit late, but still valid.  I had some woikas visit for supeer and the night two weeks ago.  And, Uncle Bex came to visit for the weekend as well.

Christmas Time At Work

This year seemed more festive at work for some reason.  I think part of it was because I was convinced to play in the traveling Christmas Band, and the other part is because my boss is trying to make a conscious effort to do more fun things at work, and that involved Christmas as well.

So first, the traveling Christmas Band.  That occurred a week ago Friday.  It has been in existence for more than 50 years now I believe.  Basically about 15 employees in the company get together, practice twice in the week beforehand, and travel around to about 7 different buildings the company owns in the area.  The band plays about a 30 minute set in each place.  It plays some of the traditional ones like Silver Bells, Silent Night, Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bell Rock, Feliz Navidad, etc.  And then we do a couple ones that are only marginally related to Christmas like Linus and Lucy and one called Just Because.

Just Because is Charlie's favorite.  Let's talk about Charlie.  Charlie is a company retiree who comes back once a year to play in the Christmas Band.  He's been in it since about one year after it started.  We estimate his age to be somewhere between 70 and 90.  If you ask him he'll tell you, but we forgot to ask him.  Anyway, Charlie is a fixture, and he stars in the song "Just Because".  When I gave him a ride to lunch, he told me the way to keep your lips from dying (for a saxophone player) is to soak your reeds in whiskey and then let them dry.  Then you use them later to play, and the whiskey numbs your lips so you can play longer.  I think he was serious, but it was somewhat difficult to tell.


The band had about 3 trumpet players, 1 trombonist, 2 saxophones (including Charlie), a flutist, a clarinetist, a bass guitarist, two lead guitarists, a drummer, three singers, and an elf.  Some members (not me) also participate in some imbibing throughout the day, particularly at lunch.  So it's a little bit goofy, but kind of fun.  As one person said to whom I described this, they said it was old working people playing their high school instruments.  That's right.  Except the drummer and guitarists.  They actually play in obscure local bands that sometimes do real gigs and stuff.

The band's last place to play was one of the nursing home / assisted living places in the area.  It kind of reminded me of this.  There's something uplifting about playing music and watching some of the older people sitting there singing along and enjoying it.  It's also amusing to watch them all turn down their hearing aids.  I laughed as I watched one lady sing along with "Just Because".  Here are a couple pictures.

The brass and woodwind section.

The drummer and the infamous Charlie.  Rumor has it Charlie even came to play one year when he had Bell's Palsy.  He taped the paralyzed half of his mouth shut.  Oh, and the drummer's T-shirt that looked like a Santa suit had a button on it that said, "Does this suit make me look fat?"

On to the department festivities.  The department lunch activity yesterday included an ugly sweater contest and a Secret Santa activity.  Both were voluntary, but I figured I'd participate in the spirit of keeping work fun.  There was a $10 limit, so the engineer's name that I drew got two children's coloring books and a large box of crayons (gag gifts were allowed).  He seemed kind of pleased with that.  I was given two dish towels.  Very useful.

And the ugly sweaters.....maybe one third of the engineers participated.  I made an attempt, but it wasn't super great.  And everybody's first reaction (typical of engineers) when we were told about it was, "I don't have an ugly sweater."  Some convincing was done about how you could make an ugly sweater or find one at a thrift store.  And we were also given a how-to guide, which helped.  Work this week and next week will be very quiet.  I'm looking forward to it.  Oh, and I did not win the ugly sweater contest.

Guide to making an ugly sweater.

My attempt at an ugly sweater.

You Might Be A Nerd If.....

.....you're excited because the fund-raiser LED light bulbs your robotics team is selling are based on Cree LED die, which are the "good" kind.

Speaking of robotics, I would like to tell you a lesson that was reinforced again this evening.  If you have a mentor or a coach or a teacher that you really appreciate, take the time to sincerely thank them every once in a while.  They may not be getting paid at all, or what they do get paid isn't enough compared to the value they provide, and it helps to keep them motivated to get a very simple and genuine "thank you".  It can be in the form of a written note or just a simple handshake and a thank you.

A month or so ago when I was feeling in a slight funk from stress at work, I went to a potluck, and one of the ladies there thanked me for being a robotics mentor and being an example.  I don't feel like I hardly talk to that many of the girls on the team because they work on different stuff, but she assured me that sometimes just having a presence there helps and motivates people.  That helped make my day.  You never know who is watching or who you might be helping with your example.  That's both a natural and a spiritual lesson there, folks.

Farm out, man.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #50

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Sunrise - the good thing about it getting light so late is that I sometimes see the sun rise on the way to work.  One day this week was particularly spectacular.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

2.  Mom's banana bread recipe - most delicious slightly warm from the oven or with some Nutella on it.

High 85

Last week the circuit board that we had been slaving over for the last couple months showed up.  The first ten pieces arrived.  Woo-hoo!  I would show you a picture, but it's against company policy to show you confidential stuff that's in development.

This is how I felt!  High 85, peeps!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #49

I only took one picture this week (maybe I had a case of the after Thanksgiving doldrums).  So it's a little bit lame this week, but here it is.

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  My Socks - this pair is just begging for an international trip.

2.  This Guy - and his name isn't even Bob.

Giving of Thanks 2013

Hello there!  Did you miss me?  Like many of you last week, I took a break from blogging and spent time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I returned from the holiday to disconnected internet due to my plan to switch my home phone to voice over IP.  However, when they disconnected my phone, they also disconnected my internet.  Voice over IP doesn't work so well when you don't have an IP address.  Just a little tip for you.

I spent the internet-disconnected week finishing the book I started on the plane and doing other non-internet stuff.  Since that is over, here's a little run-down of the Thanksgiving trip to ND:

1. Thanksgiving meal preparation with Mom, Muggles, SIL-Lan, and the nieces (all except the littlest one).  Even the three year old wanted to help out, so I had her collect and dump the sliced apples.
2. Counting calories at the Thanksgiving meal.  Some of us had heard conflicting statistics about how many calories the average person eats for their Thanksgiving meal.  The number was 3500-4500 calories.  I thought that was a little high.  So we counted my calories.  I barely made it to 3000, and that was after a fairly light breakfast and the main meal not starting until about 12:45 PM.  I may have eaten a little more than usual because of peer pressure to get over 3000. And, then I barely ate any supper too.  My stomach doesn't process as fast as it used to.
3. Delicious Thanksgiving stuff:  Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, Mom's homemade stuffing, squash, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, black olives, pickles, pies, homemade apple cider and applesauce, sparkling juices, etc.  There was also homemade egg nog for those who wanted it.
4. Playing kickball with the kids.
5. Playing games:  Scattergories, Acquire, Chutes and Ladders, and Memory.
6. Like Daddy Long Legs said:  I did what I did best and screwed up the plywood.
7. Marathon private shopping session with Mom and Muggles.  I spent so much on clothes that I'll probably have to take a break from shopping for about three years now.
8. Getting some exercise with Mom and SIL-Lan while listening to an exercise record.  Yeah.  We went old school - they even had some exercises to help get rid of some of that extra "girth".
9. Seeing other extended family:  Geneva, Palt and Whirl, Pour it On Jon and his family, Vonnie and Curtis, and many more.
10. Thanksgiving meal leftovers:  More pie, turkey and gravy on mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey noodle soup.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I figured I would maybe list a few of the "big" things I'm thankful for this year:

1. My youngest niece being happy and healthy (mostly - except for getting the stomach flu) - she had a scary entrance into the world at the beginning of the year.
2. Loving and supportive family - not everyone has one of these.  Having a loving family can make life so much easier and enjoyable.
3. Good friends - not everyone has these either, and good friends enrich my life so much.
4. Good health - not everyone has this either, and it can be taken away so quickly.
5. Personal growth - I feel like I've learned some things this year, which is a good thing.  It's not good to remain stagnant or regress.
6. A good job that I enjoy - Because some people don't have a job, and many who have a job don't enjoy their job.

All right, now to the really interesting stuff:  the pictures.

Thanksgiving prep with Muggles and Bugsy.

Tea with Pops.

Counting calories on my Thanksgiving dinner.  Not pictured:  One glass of homemade apple cider that I drank.  I don't waste critical space and calories on bread rolls and pie.  I saved that for supper.

The big spread and some of the people.

The first half of Geneva.

The other half of Geneva with Muggles.

Thanksgiving afternoon games and snacks.

Pour it On Jon with his cute daughter.

The plywood I screwed up.

A ND kind of big rig.

After the kids went to bed, we got wild the crazy:  the DJ "spinning" the tunes.

A true redneck ND Thanksgiving weekend:  Sitting around the record player playing some Charley Pride while sipping from the bottle of the sparkling grape juice.

Reviewing the correct form for doing some "ankle slimmers".

Cutie pie showing off her birthday present from Pops and Gma

 I hope your Thanksgiving was as good or better than mine!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #48

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Giving Thanks (for so many things)

 
2.  Nieces

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #47

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Spaciousness - it's so much easier to get into my car and to take out the trash without a kayak sticking out into the walkway!

That's it for the week.  Not a lot of amazing things going on - just some "ordinary days".  And I'm thankful for those kind sometimes.

Hardship

A week or two ago at BS one of the older men in meeting talked about growing up in the 30's when things were very tough and a lot of people lived hand-to-mouth, particularly his family since there were 10 kids or something like that.  His dad got sick for a couple weeks, and they wondered what they were going to do.  Other people pitched in and brought food, some contributed some of their paychecks, etc.  That was before the days of Medicaid and Social Security.

This got me thinking about how easy we have it physically these days.  Most people can afford to buy groceries, and we have an unbelievable selection of food at the grocery store.  We can buy fresh fruit and vegetables any time we want.  Maybe some don't have the money to buy all the newest fancy toys and clothes, but most have enough money to eat.  For those who don't have many funds, there is welfare and the Salvation Army and United Way and all kinds of organizations that are willing to feed starving people.  In the U.S. anyway.  Some people still have physically demanding jobs, but there is a growing number of people who work at a computer all day.  It sounds like an easy life, right?

Most of the time I'm of the opinion that the times now aren't any harder or easier than they were 100 years ago or 1000 years ago.  The times are hard in different ways.  So what is the hardship of our time?   I think it's probably mental and emotional stress.  We sit all day at our computers and lose the health benefits of doing something physical all day and sleeping well because we're physically tired.  The government's assistance programs contribute to the loss of community because everybody expects the government to help the poor instead of relationships forming when we directly help those who are less fortunate.  We spend more of our time staring at computer screens forming shallow relationships rather than going out into the real world and talking to real people.  In fact, we probably are losing the skills we have to form meaningful relationships as we do that.

Our brains are working a mile a minute all day every day with no physical outlet for all that mental activity.  We also have too much time to worry about low priority things instead of worrying about big things like where our next meal is going to come from.  Because everything is so convenient and easy to get to immediately, I think we're also losing our capability to plan for the long term future.  Everybody is living longer, so we spend more time in our later years dealing with poor health.

This kind of goes along with a book I recently read.  More on that in a different post.  I'm not sure that I have a big point to this, it was just something I was thinking about and that we probably need to be more aware of.  Now quit surfing blogs and the internet and go live your real life!  :-)

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #46

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Snow - That's right, about 17" of snow on the twelfth of November.

2.  Melt - And it was all pretty much gone within 4 days.  Note the contrast between raked and unraked as well.

Taking A Breath

The last six or eight weeks have been very intense.  My project at work has been screaming along at a breakneck pace with some angst and strife with some of the people I work with.  We finally released the "build" files today, so I have a couple weeks now to get organized and catch up on stuff before the circuit boards arrive.  At the end of the work day today it felt a little bit like when you finish your last final for the semester in May and know you don't have to do any more school stuff until August.  FREEDOM!!!!!!  At work that feeling is much more rare, but it's still nice to experience it every once in a while.

This may also allow for some more consistent blogging.

Hopefully none of you were in the path of any tornadoes yesterday.  The daughter of a guy at work came within a couple blocks of having her house leveled.  It was interesting to see his pictures today.  No big trees came down in my yard yesterday, so that was good.

All for now.  The amazing post regarding last week will have to be tomorrow I guess.

Great America

Whew!  It has been a busy two months.  September and October always seem to fly by.  What with 'vention and then trying to fit in all the stuff I didn't get done during the summer.  And, work has been super busy as well.  It's nice to spend a weekend at home every once in a while.  One of the last weekend trips I chronicled was the yaking trip in the corny state in September.

After that I think I may have spent a weekend at home working on the patio stone stuff.  And then.....the first weekend of October came.  That Saturday was lots of fun.  I met Brudder Jeddles, Chumley, and Amanda R. at Six Flags Great America for a fun day of riding roller coasters.  The highlights from that:

1. At least 17 rides in less than 9 hours.  And, we rode Superman, Batman, and Raging Bull 3 times each I think.
2. Brudder Jeddles got a new nickname.  He is now Daddy Long Legs.
3. My brother and I may be related.  We both wore belts to Six Flags.  Not sure if that's normal for everybody, but apparently wearing a belt is normal for us.
4. Daddy Long Legs was also given a hard time for wearing a "dress shirt" to Six Flags.  It wasn't quite a dress shirt, but it was a fairly nice button-down shirt.  That may come from our up-bring too - one must dress nice when going into "town" for the day.
5. Only one person puked, and ironically it was the 17-year-old guy who did.  Us old and wise ones drank water to stay hydrated.  Chumley chose to down a large container of pop before we ate lunch and then he didn't eat lunch because he didn't feel so well.  That wasn't the best choice.  At least he puked before the next ride and still got to go on the ride and enjoy it.
6. I learned what the rage is with "the kids" these days - a song called "What Does The Fox Say."
7. There was rain for about an hour, but other than that the weather was beautiful with a very nice sunset as the rain clouds cleared out.
8. You know how people talk about their brother from another mother?  Will, I learned the complement to that phrase:  sister from another mister.

That's about all I have on that.  More on other weekends later.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #45

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Sky - both at night and in the daytime.  I saw an awesome moon and tried to take a picture, but the daytime picture turned out better.

2.  Photography - A picture of a picture taken somewhere in China.

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #44

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Teamwork - we all pitched in a little bit, and we won the prize for best decorated cubicle.  Of course, that didn't take much because engineers being who they are, not many cubicles accepted the decorating challenge.

The cool team - looking normal and in full costume regalia.

2.  Fall Colors - even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like these.