Otherwise occupied...

Writing is an act of self-revelation. Unfortunately, I’m at a bit of a point where I’m not positioned to reveal much of what’s going on behind the scenes just now. Perhaps someday it will come out in the special edition “unreleased blogs,” but for the time being mum’s the word. I don’t like being this quiet for this long, particularly on issues that are impacting everything else that I do… and I certainly don’t like how much it impacts my ability to find something to write about other than the issue that’s embargoed. For the time being, I’m going to try to be content with getting my thoughts together in other venues and preparing as best I can with as much information as I can get together. Suffice to say for the moment that other concerns are monopolizing my time. It will be a happy thing when this is no longer the case. I want swift resolution and to get the issue behind me as quickly as possible. In the interim, I’ll keep posting as the spirit moves me, but keep your expectations under control, as I don’t think there will be an epic rant posted any time in the near future. Here’s hoping January will be a better month than December has been.

Changing plans...

One of the great aspects of my job is it has allowed me to see places and things I would have never seen otherwise. The down side of that, of course, is that you sometimes have very little control over where you go or when you go there. I had already planned on being back on the greater DC/Maryland area for the better part of a week for Christmas. Now, thanks to Uncle Sam, I'll be spending next week in Northern Virginia as well. It's not that I have any problem with being there, but it would just be nice if I weren't going to be making two 1800 mile round-trips in the next three weeks.

The good news is that I've got a posh hotel in Old Town within a block-and-a-half radius of two of my favorite Irish pubs. I guess life could be worse. If anyone's looking for me, there's a fair chance you'll find me at Pat Troy's! I might even manage to get some work done while I'm in town.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Getting back at it...

Now that I’ve had a few days off, I’m really of two minds when it comes to getting back to work tomorrow. The giant slacker part of me doesn’t have any interest in any of it and wants to put it off as long as possible. The more career minded part of me remembers that I’ve got projects running that need attention and that I’m still scheduled to be off two weeks in December and if I don’t want them to crap out then, I need to get on the stick now and get them squared away. While the practical part of my brain is going to make sure I get up at 4:30 tomorrow, the slacker part isn’t going to like it at all.

I can see now that it’s going to take a feat of strength to keep my focus during the next couple of weeks. I can’t point to exactly what combination of forces have conspired to steal my give-a-shit, but they got away clean. Late fall and winter have never been my favorite time of year and this seasonal lack of motivation is nothing new. This year, though, it came on strong and faster than usual. I’ve had the better part of a week off and I don’t feel any more rested than I did the week before. At this rate, it’s going to be a long road to spring. So tomorrow, I’m going to get back at it. If I’m going to be tired, it might as well be from doing something semi-productive.

Surviving Friday...

I’m happy to say that I officially survived Black Friday here in Memphis and managed to pick up a few things without beating people to death with their own 40-inch flat screen televisions. Every year people are surprised that I would show up anywhere on this day, but like everything else I do, I have my reasons. Black Friday is essentially everything I hate about people all wrapped up in one day. And while I basically have no use for people, my weakness in this case is that I like to watch them interact with one another. It’s like my very own retail-baited Petri dish. The draw of watching stupid people in large groups simply overcomes my aversion to being in close proximity to them. Mostly, though, I went out this Friday morning to be a human shield and for whatever lifting or toting might have been necessary.

I’d love to say that I went out Friday with great goals of finding perfect Christmas, but what I actually ended up coming home with was a new Bluetooth keyboard and a 1TB Time Capsule. I’m just starting use to the keyboard and it’s definitely different than the wired version that I have been using. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll miss the number pad and full-sized arrow keys yet or not. The bottom line is that it’s one more device that lets me cut the wire and adds a surprising amount of space on the desk. Less clutter = good. The Time Capsule is a horse of a different color. I know I’m probably more paranoid about backups than most, but there is something reassuring in knowing that every file on my computer is being backed up multiple times a day. My backup files should never really be more than an hour or two old now… and that kind of instant restoration makes me happy.

Big plans...

The last working day of the week is wrapped up and I’m looking forward to my favorite food holiday of the year and seven days of basically having nothing that I really have to do. Of course there’s plenty that actually needs done and I’ll probably even do some of them, but hanging out at the house is exactly what I’m looking forward to doing. For now, I’ll sit here happy in the knowledge that I can be as unreachable as I want to be for the next week. The last semblance of “must do” activities is picking up the turkey from Honeybaked tomorrow evening. After that, it’s mainly about hanging around the kitchen and playing gopher while the cook is hard at work on the rest of the meal. How’s that for good times?

Ol' Jim...

Through most of college my drinks of choice were whiskey sours (when the budget allowed buying liquor instead of Red Dog or Beast). I've had all the right mixers in the house for a week and just poured myself a tall one with Jim Beam black. Boy-o-boy, now that's a tasty drink. And I'm super-glad that the budget can now sustain buying bettter materials than Old Grandad or Old Crow. Now all that's left to do is mix another one and hope that the Flat Tire ales I had at the Saucer tonight don't want to pick a fight with ol' Jim later this evening.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Deficit spending...

To say I'm running a sleep deficit might be the understatement of the decade. Once upon a time, four hours of sleep was good enough to get up and do it all over again. Those days are probably fading faster than I want to admit. Still, I like to think I've got one or two more good runs left in me. I've got five working days out of the next two weeks and with the proper application of coffee and raw determination, I might just be able to hang on for the ride.

Of course just now it's off to bed... Tomorrow's wake up is about two hours earlier than usual. God help me.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]