Would you believe I’m actually getting married in less than two weeks? Also, the amount of stress and drama associated is ridiculous. There’s no need for that. Calm, control, and confidence will overcome any hurdle.
In other news, what is completely necessary is a moment of respectful contemplation about a friend’s father, who has passed. Although I did not know him well, he had my respect. And if his son is any indication, he was a damn good father and a damn good man. Here’s to that.
Today is one of those days.
dammit.
I really don’t understand the way my alertness cycles work. I also can’t decide if it is a question of interest…
I try to get up every weekday morning at 6am to shower and have breakfast before leaving a little past 7:30. This rarely happens anymore.
Work lasts from 9a to a little after 5:30p, most days. commuting by subway generally takes a little over an hour each way.
Recently, I’ve also tried to make it to the gym for at least 30mins every weekday evening, and I try to get some WoW on, as well as wedding details, and some website projects. very busy.
Recently, I’m awake and aware as soon as I get home, and can be up and doing things until 2 in the morning with little difficulty. Then I get to work the next day, and I’m tired, sluggish, and can’t focus all day, but as soon as I get home again I’m alert and ready to go.
What is going on? Maybe I’ll try to bring some work home and see how that goes. Would probably provide an answer to the alert-cycle vs. interest-cycle question…
I’m going to foreword this post with a note that I understand there’s a decent chance that I have no idea what I’m talking about. But, I need to express the ideas anyway, and here’s the right place!
A few thoughts on a potential economic stimulus package, inspired by a few articles like this from the New York Times, talking about potential problems with an infrastructure-based stimulus package.
According to the article,
Some have suggested that Mr. Obama should push for infrastructure spending, to repair roads and bridges and sewer systems, as a way to stimulate the economy and provide jobs while attacking long-term problems. …But an infrastructure bill could easily degenerate into a pork-laden measure that benefits regions with powerful lawmakers, rather than serious needs.
This is a major potential problem. However, it’s also one that Obama has specifically said he’s against. Recently there have been national surveys of infrastructure (especially roads and bridges in light of the recent Minnesota(?) collapse) needs. I think they were even ranked.
A stimulus program needs to be need-based. The data is already there, conducted by engineers during a process which, if there was any “powerful lawmaker”-based bias, would likely have trended towards making a need look not as severe. (Maybe. I’m actually not convinced of this.) With the announcement of a stimulus package, there would be no opportunity for the existing data to be modified by political influence, because the study (and ranking, hopefully) is done.
So, you announce $100 billion of infrastructure projects and associated jobs, and say that the projects will be determined by the existing infrastructure surveys, projects in worse condition first.
The stimulus will likely be weighted towards population centers, but could provide jobs for anyone willing to temporarily relocate to work, just as artisans from all over the place descended on Connecticut to build bridges for the Merritt Parkway during the New Deal.
As the NYTimes article says, investing in infrastructure is the perfect way to create jobs now while achieving significant, essential projects for the future.
This weekend, I finally hit level 70 in World of Warcraft. Mind you, I’ve been playing since launch of WoW classic, in November (?) 2004. Craziness.
You can check out my character: Zephys, Level 70 Draenei Paladin, Knight-Commander of the Knights of the Vale.
In other news, I managed to get a Mediatomb server up and running on my recently converted Xubuntu box. I even got it streaming media to my PS3, while using samba to share with all the other computers on the network. The hottest part: it live-transcodes media the PS3 couldn’t read, so I can now watch all my anime. Kickass!
I wonder if the world of blogging is all about carving out your own niche. I have a number of interests, and I imagine it would be really awesome to have my job be diving into one or multiple of those interests all day to find interesting nuggets and post about them.
Some of the blogs out there are definitely niche blogs for this purpose – lifehacker, gizmodo, actually, most of the gawker network. But it’s weird to think about some of those things as niches, like scanner – is writing about absurd parts of pop culture really a niche?
But then those posts are more about selling your editorial skills and spin, the way you present your points. I know that’s true in other arenas – regardless of what i think of her point of view, I enjoy reading Maureen Dowd’s NYTimes editorials every wednesday and saturday because she says interesting things in very interesting ways.
Now I just have to figure out how to be interesting.
An aside – is there a saturation of interesting people? How many people can the ‘public’ hold up as interesting at one time? I assume there’s a formula that could be derived for this, xkcd style, that’s dependent on population size (singular specialty develops a society once there are more people interested in that specialty), number of geographic identities (my circumstances are different from yours), and activities.
Is there a point to quantifying this saturation level? Also, is there a filter size (only social types with >5,000 active consuming members count)?
Things to ponder.
I think the final, most relevant question is one that I’ll think about many times, which by pausing to contemplate I may automatically answer – am I the self-starting, own the world type that will be a successful leader at what I choose to do, or will I be more content to sheepify and join the ranks, keeping my ambition and ideas and dreams internalized?
Some days, I spend most of my time trying to figure out what I need to do, and in what order. Those days are frustrating, and I am easily distracted.
Rarely, I actually figure out how the hell I’m going to use my time. Those days are productive.
Not as rarely as I’d like (I guess), I know exactly what I need to do because I’m behind schedule. Those days are both, productive and stressful as hell.
Then there’s the in between, where I’m doing something, having no conception if it’s the top item on the list, and there’s no urgency, so I’m easily distracted again.
Maybe I need a different work environment. Or a job where I get sucked in for hours on end (coding, haha).
Two things that definitely need to be added to my current workspace but won’t because no one else uses them here: Dual monitors, and music. Maybe I can swing the monitors. hmm… Damn, this POS box doesn’t have a second vga out. Screw that idea…
Just took a look at some old photos of myself and Yanessa to put up on the wedding site… there’s a way to make yourself feel old. I had short hair! It’s been a while.
Hopefully I’ll get some of those posted soon, at least on the wedding site.
Also makes me realize how much Both Yanessa and I have changed, physically, since we started dating… craziness.
I spend too much time fiddling with little settings to get a design ‘just right’.
Or, is it that I spend the right amount of time, and others are to harried to notice?
