Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Wednesday Comment
A little late today. No BB on the train and no time at work.
Terren
"Norm, couple things:
1) Go crazy?
2) Laptop on your lap for an hour will fry your nuts, multiply that by 8-10 times a week
3) I've got mad wireless router skillz, if you need a hand with that"
1) Don't mind if I do!
2) It's not so bad as the old laptops but I think long term you're likely right. The boys would be girls before long.
3) I'll be calling you tomorrow almost surely.
I'm in the basement roasting coffee, blogging, and watching an NFL replay of Colts-Bears. How sweet is the power of technology if you know WTF you're doing?
Terren
"Norm, couple things:
1) Go crazy?
2) Laptop on your lap for an hour will fry your nuts, multiply that by 8-10 times a week
3) I've got mad wireless router skillz, if you need a hand with that"
1) Don't mind if I do!
2) It's not so bad as the old laptops but I think long term you're likely right. The boys would be girls before long.
3) I'll be calling you tomorrow almost surely.
I'm in the basement roasting coffee, blogging, and watching an NFL replay of Colts-Bears. How sweet is the power of technology if you know WTF you're doing?
Labels: comments
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
No TV and No BB Make Norm Something Something
Tuesday evening, sitting on the train and writing this with my laptop. I may have mentioned that my work laptop STB last week which sorta left me in a lurch in the whole WFH thing. Well I brought it in yesterday and the hard drive was bad. They replaced it and I have a laptop in my bag on the way home. This is fortunate, because I forgot my BB at work. I feel somewhat aimless without it. I prefer to keep on top of things especially with the erratic nature of some of the groups we work with. I know when I get home I'm going to have 50 emails or more to read/delete. Hopefully nothing pressing has come down the pipe - not that I could do anything about it. It's not like I can actually work on the BB and the laptop does not have a Verizon card so I'm not connected on the train, just typing.
If I had a better book to read I wouldn't care but I'm reading Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards! which is ok but the shine on Pratchett has worn off. His first book was great but they're just aimless prose collections that have silly little Douglass Adams' type lines all over. It gets old, especially as you get older.
I have nothing really to say but I need something to do other than to read a book that is moderately ok or stare out the window and watch the scenery go by. I ate my carrots and sent a text message to Nat and took a picture with my camera phone and that about got me out of the tunnel. Then I read a little bit but meh, it just can't get me to the other side of the train ride. I wonder if I should consider the Verizon card. Work will apparently pay for it but then they will have tabs on me all the time, in a way. OTOH, the train ride will be productive and easier, I think.
You know, I hope nobody steals the BB. Random food items have disappeared before from my desk. But then, they'll never take the money I leave out. I always have change there and it's never been touched. Maybe they know to take the things that won't get them caught? I think it's sad that you can't leave a granola bar on your desk and not have it stolen. We work for Wall Street people, what gives?
Finally going to get into the modern computer era as I ordered 2 PCI cards for the laptops so we can finally go wireless. So that will give us 2 wireless laptops and 1 with a cable still. I should have gone ahead and gotten 3 cards, really no idea why I didn't. Maybe it has something to do with admitting that 2 people don't need 3 computers. I'm sure we could count Julia and then we could say 3 for 3, but then she's content with Mickey Mouse and really doesn't care about the computer. Yet. So before long I'll likely have my work PC sitting on the kitchen table most of the time - much to Nat's dismay, until she wants to check her email of course.
You know, having this on my lap really isn't that bad. Maybe I should consider the Verizon card after all. It sure would be yet another big step forward in the Modern Computer Era that I hope to be stepping in soon. But of course, who knows if I'll be able to figure out the wireless router. Apparently it has some sort of key (a wep key?) printed on it somewhere which protects the network from people stealing free Internet. I wouldn't know. It's not like I deal with computers all day.
If I had a better book to read I wouldn't care but I'm reading Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards! which is ok but the shine on Pratchett has worn off. His first book was great but they're just aimless prose collections that have silly little Douglass Adams' type lines all over. It gets old, especially as you get older.
I have nothing really to say but I need something to do other than to read a book that is moderately ok or stare out the window and watch the scenery go by. I ate my carrots and sent a text message to Nat and took a picture with my camera phone and that about got me out of the tunnel. Then I read a little bit but meh, it just can't get me to the other side of the train ride. I wonder if I should consider the Verizon card. Work will apparently pay for it but then they will have tabs on me all the time, in a way. OTOH, the train ride will be productive and easier, I think.
You know, I hope nobody steals the BB. Random food items have disappeared before from my desk. But then, they'll never take the money I leave out. I always have change there and it's never been touched. Maybe they know to take the things that won't get them caught? I think it's sad that you can't leave a granola bar on your desk and not have it stolen. We work for Wall Street people, what gives?
Finally going to get into the modern computer era as I ordered 2 PCI cards for the laptops so we can finally go wireless. So that will give us 2 wireless laptops and 1 with a cable still. I should have gone ahead and gotten 3 cards, really no idea why I didn't. Maybe it has something to do with admitting that 2 people don't need 3 computers. I'm sure we could count Julia and then we could say 3 for 3, but then she's content with Mickey Mouse and really doesn't care about the computer. Yet. So before long I'll likely have my work PC sitting on the kitchen table most of the time - much to Nat's dismay, until she wants to check her email of course.
You know, having this on my lap really isn't that bad. Maybe I should consider the Verizon card after all. It sure would be yet another big step forward in the Modern Computer Era that I hope to be stepping in soon. But of course, who knows if I'll be able to figure out the wireless router. Apparently it has some sort of key (a wep key?) printed on it somewhere which protects the network from people stealing free Internet. I wouldn't know. It's not like I deal with computers all day.
Labels: pointless
Back to School
Back in the swing of things this week which means up early and on the bike a little after 5:00 am. Often I WFH on T/Th but after last week I need to get out of the house. Plus my computer setup is less than ideal with the old craptop so I'm going in. My work laptop, which died last week, should be fixed today.
So riding translates to being back on the later train and it's suddenly obvious school is back in session. This train is full of idiots right now. The parking lot is also chock full of cars. All I have to say is that I'm not looking forward to my daughter's teenage years.
Fantasy Football
I'm in 3 leagues this year, one primary one (Netmonkey with (Terren), a strong secondary one (ESPN), and a throwaway (Facebook). I won the throwaway game and lost the other 2. I drafted my own teams in the primary leagues and let the computer pick my Facebook league.
Translation: I don't know what I'm doing. Argh!
So riding translates to being back on the later train and it's suddenly obvious school is back in session. This train is full of idiots right now. The parking lot is also chock full of cars. All I have to say is that I'm not looking forward to my daughter's teenage years.
Fantasy Football
I'm in 3 leagues this year, one primary one (Netmonkey with (Terren), a strong secondary one (ESPN), and a throwaway (Facebook). I won the throwaway game and lost the other 2. I drafted my own teams in the primary leagues and let the computer pick my Facebook league.
Translation: I don't know what I'm doing. Argh!
Monday, September 08, 2008
Monday
It is with a tired self that I sit on this train and head back into the city this brisk Monday morning. I think it's accurate to say that I'm not really cut out for working from home. I fall into a rut way too fast. I should have gotten plenty of riding in and still be well rested. Yet somehow last week I rode less than normal and slept less than normal.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post a lot of it has to do with my getting used to being on-call. I need to work less and not be so hyper-proactive trying to make sure it all went well. They'll call me. I also have to make sure I get up early and get my riding in, at least while it's not too cold yet. Plus I drew a crap week so that is what it is.
No worries now. It's Monday morning which brings us to a new week. I'm ready to rock it. This coming weekend is the Jorba bike festival up at Waterloo where I'll be a volunteer. Right now I'm tabbed as a "floater" during setup and a Reserve Rider during the day. That means I help where needed when we setup, then when it's ride time I help lead/sweep/organize any extra rides that may be necessary due to a large turnout.
For now I go back to the box factory though.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post a lot of it has to do with my getting used to being on-call. I need to work less and not be so hyper-proactive trying to make sure it all went well. They'll call me. I also have to make sure I get up early and get my riding in, at least while it's not too cold yet. Plus I drew a crap week so that is what it is.
No worries now. It's Monday morning which brings us to a new week. I'm ready to rock it. This coming weekend is the Jorba bike festival up at Waterloo where I'll be a volunteer. Right now I'm tabbed as a "floater" during setup and a Reserve Rider during the day. That means I help where needed when we setup, then when it's ride time I help lead/sweep/organize any extra rides that may be necessary due to a large turnout.
For now I go back to the box factory though.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Ready for the Offic
Never thought I would say this but I'm so ready to go back to the office tomorrow. I'm not a WFH kinda guy, I just don't do it well. The week started off poorly with me being up until 1:30 then I just stayed up longer and slept later each day.
Like I said to Nat, I used to be able to get up and ride 40 miles and come home in time for the family to wake up. Friday and Saturday they woke me up. It's going to be a stretch waking up at 5:45 tomorrow and getting out the door in time. It's also going to be a shock to Julia when she wakes up and daddy isn't here. Ditto for Nat who will have to get up when Julia does.
On one hand, I played it wrong by staying up too late every night and watching the install logs roll in. This was my first week so I'm still getting my groove on. On top of this, I worked far too many hours during the day then ended up working another 2-4 at night, and thus the cycle goes. I should have let them call or email when something was wrong. Instead I was overly proactive, to my own detriment.
Next time I should have a better groove down but this was a good learning experience. One thing that kinda sucked was that I missed the race today because of this. I just so happened to get the weekend when there was a huge rollout that everyone was hoping would go out when someone else was on-call. Well I got it, so I was on a conference call most of yesterday morning and tied to the house all of yesterday.
As of this morning they weren't sure it was going to stick, and a rollback is the absolute nightmare scenario. So I was still on the clock as of this morning, and couldn't make the race today. No big deal I guess, life goes on.
I ended up on the road today, and got 4 flats. This on top of 2 Friday and 1 Thursday. I have a tire/tube problem of some sort right now. More on that tomorrow.
Like I said to Nat, I used to be able to get up and ride 40 miles and come home in time for the family to wake up. Friday and Saturday they woke me up. It's going to be a stretch waking up at 5:45 tomorrow and getting out the door in time. It's also going to be a shock to Julia when she wakes up and daddy isn't here. Ditto for Nat who will have to get up when Julia does.
On one hand, I played it wrong by staying up too late every night and watching the install logs roll in. This was my first week so I'm still getting my groove on. On top of this, I worked far too many hours during the day then ended up working another 2-4 at night, and thus the cycle goes. I should have let them call or email when something was wrong. Instead I was overly proactive, to my own detriment.
Next time I should have a better groove down but this was a good learning experience. One thing that kinda sucked was that I missed the race today because of this. I just so happened to get the weekend when there was a huge rollout that everyone was hoping would go out when someone else was on-call. Well I got it, so I was on a conference call most of yesterday morning and tied to the house all of yesterday.
As of this morning they weren't sure it was going to stick, and a rollback is the absolute nightmare scenario. So I was still on the clock as of this morning, and couldn't make the race today. No big deal I guess, life goes on.
I ended up on the road today, and got 4 flats. This on top of 2 Friday and 1 Thursday. I have a tire/tube problem of some sort right now. More on that tomorrow.
