September 26, 2007
~ efficiency of motion ~
I would like to dwell for a moment on what I feel is an important issue that has been largely ignored in the literature of what facilitates human accomplishments. I call this the principle of efficiency in motion and it rests on the notion that in order for people to accomplish a given purpose, they must be able to arrive at a certain destination without wasted time and effort. After all, in order to accomplish most anything, the first step involves transporting one's person to the location in which the accomplishment is intended to occur. On pretty much a daily basis, I find that my ability to get to my destination is hindered by some person getting in my way, being unconcerned or unaware that they are in my way, and failing to get out of my way in a timely manner. I do not insist that anyone speed, I merely wish that some people would be more aware of themselves in their surroundings and engage in a degree of efficiency of motion to facilitate the smooth flow of human beings.
The most recent example that comes to mind was over the weekend when I was at the grocery store. Josh and I were driving back into town and we decided to stop by the grocery store for the purpose of quickly acquiring groceries and then continuing on with our enjoyable evening. After we had loaded up the groceries into the car, I proceeded to navigate my shopping cart over to the shopping cart holder dealie, when this woman (who apparently had a prior history of getting in Josh's way in the store), rushed her cart over, clearly cutting off my shopping cart right of way, and then proceeded to spend several moments adjusting the way that her cart fit with the other carts in the rack, and I was standing there, flabbergasted that someone would feel the need to circumvent the normal flow of shopping cart return, and then proceed to obstruct the ability of those she cut off from returning their shopping carts. After I was finally able to return my cart and make my way back to the car, Josh had this look of horror on his face and said, "I can't believe she just did that!" I would never had thought twice about the incident if she had simply cut off my shopping cart, but the fact that she had the gall to then dawdle and linger, thereby delaying my ability to return the shopping cart...it was frustrating. It's these sorts of breakdowns in order and efficiency that, on a larger scale, can disrupt the entire flow of human beings. I don't understand why people don't seem to understand that their dawdling affects others. We are not islands, and when we linger and take our sweet time moving around, not worrying about whether or not we are in someone else's way, this can cause a chain reaction of a lot of people being delayed in what they are trying to accomplish. It really bugs me! I don't insist that anyone speed, but I would appreciate it if everyone made a more concerted effort to reduce the extent to which they linger and dawdle without concern for other people.
In other news, I went to a wine bar with some classmates last night. One of the members of the class had devised a way to relate the class material to wine tasting, in particular, how the quality of the wine glass shapes the way that the wine is perceived. It blew me away! Blindfolded, we sampled wines in different types of glasses, and the same wine tasted completely different depending on the glass. It was so incredible. Afterwards, I met up with Josh at another bar where one of his friends was to play some music with a band. Today I am nursing a bit of a hangover.
September 24, 2007
~ free at last! ~
There are no words to convey how happy I am that it is now this week and no longer last week. Last week was the most stressful and busy week of the last several years of my existence. I could tell you all about it, but I would prefer to move on and never think about it again.
I will mention that my nutrition last week was crap. I was usually eating on the fly and it usually included something incredibly unhealthy such as...gasp!...fast food. I greatly shocked my coworkers when I ran into the office one day carrying a bag of fries and a large soda. Last night, I treated myself to a new moosewood and made the squash and mushroom soup, for which the adjective "amazing" would be an understatement. After all, well made and nutritious food can be so comforting and good for the soul.
At work last week, I was also incredibly busy with a lot of things, including being involved in the interview process for my position which I will be vacating in a few weeks. That was very interesting, being on the other side of the interview. I am starting to realize, however, that I don't feel that I am manager material...for one, I have little interest in dealing with personnel issues, and for two, it was very difficult for me to be objective during the interview process. In particular, there were three candidates that I would like to see in my position and I know that if the deicision were mine, that I would be agonizing about it. What is entirely non-objective about my viewpoint is that I cannot seem to refrain from focusing on the external variables of these candidates as individuals, my human empathy is getting in the way of being able to asertain who would be the best for the position. If it were up to me, I would try to hire all three of them. So, me...manager...no bueno.
In a sadist twist, the intellectual stimulation that I have experienced lately, especially during this past stressful week, ALMOST makes up for the total lack of fun and joy in my life. Though, intellectual stimulation isn't everything, and at present, I am needing a big infusion of fun and joy.
September 14, 2007
~ professional tip of the day ~
The other day, I was explaining to one of my less-experienced colleagues that it's more professional to make fun of clients behind their backs than to call them liars to the face.
September 13, 2007
~ star trek connections ~
I doubt that I will induce the sensation of surprise into any of my readers when I assert that I am not exactly technically savvy. Sure, I am not a complete ignoramous, but I have found that my interest in understanding how technical dealies work is directly related to my need to know. For example, I have actively sought to understand some of the basic functions of my bicycles in order that I might be able to perform some basic bicycle maintenance when they are not functioning at optimal levels. Most recently, I spent several hours trying to learn all about the derailleurs in order that I might adjust the shifting independently from a mechanic. On the other hand, when it comes to, say, computers, I have not had much of a need to understand how they work. Suffice it to say that I operate two computers in my life: my personal computer and my work computer. Aside from the recent disaster with my laptop becoming an alcoholic, I have not had any hardware difficulties with it. And with regards to my work computer...I would probably be fired if I was caught trying to fix its hardware myself. Which all implies that my NEED to understand how computers function is virtually non-existent.
Which brings me to those individuals who have an active personal interest in understanding how stuff works. I remember, way back when I was a kid going to school, and in science class we had to learn about how electricity is conducted through a variety of dealiebobs. And there would be the display board with a battery at one end and a lightbulb at the other end, and a variety of circuitry dealies in between, and our task was to figure out how to connect it together to make the light bulb light up. And wow, I cannot even begin to explain how absolutely BORING I found that activity But I distinctly remember that there were a few members of my class who seemed to find that activity interesting, and they went about it with a certain level of enthusiasm, as though it were a cool mind teaser puzzle that they had to figure out, while I stood back being bored out of my mind.
This other sort of individual, who has an interest in understanding how stuff works, is the sort of person who I entrusted with the care of my alcoholic laptop. In the past several days, I have had quite a number of interactions with him. And I have come to think of him as a bit of a dweeb. I have found his interpersonal communication skills somewhat awkward, to say the least, if not a bit odd. For example, yesterday when I telephoned him to inquire about the status of the computer, we were talking along, when all of a sudden, he shouts out, "I HAVE TO GO NOW, BYE!" click. I wasn't sure if he had a bathroom emergency or if another human being had entered the room and he couldn't handle more than one life form entity, or I have no idea. But it was several hours later when he called me back and acted like we hadn't even talked that day, repeating all of the same information he had said in the earlier conversation.
Then again, I'm not sure what he must have thought of me. During the process of reinstalling my operating system, he felt that I would benefit from having a bit more memory. As we were discussing this, he indicated that he did not have the memory in stock right at that moment and that it would take a few days to get it in. As I am in the middle of a whole big load of graduate school, I am kind of needing to have my computer. So, I suggested that he tell me exactly what kind of memory it is, and I would go buy it and deliver it to him to install. I gathered from the way that he SLOWLY repeated all of the specifications that he did not have much confidence in my ability to select the correct product. After I delivered the memory dealie to him, he said that he woud call me that afternoon when the computer was ready to be picked up.
It was several hours later, almost time for me to leave work for the day, and he had not called me. So I called him and asked how the computer was doing. As a tangent, I should mention that in my panic of spilling beer all over my computer, I completely forgot that I had left a disc of Star Trek: the Next Generation in it. So it came as a surprise when he said to me over the phone, "Your computer is working quite well. I'm actually enjoying watching your episodes of Star Trek at the moment, quite refreshing compared to some of the stuff I find on people's computers." And it was after that connection over Star Trek, that we had our first normal interaction. When I went to pick up the computer, he was telling me all about how he used to watch it when he lived in New York. I asked him about New York, and he described living on the Lower West Side. We talked about Deep Space Nine and the original Star Trek. ...
So, all in all, I may or may not have been able to fix my computer myself, but I am glad that I did not try and that I paid someone with expertise on laptop hardware to fix it for me. His verbal communication skills were not able to articulate to me how much the operation would ultimately cost me, so I have spent these past several days wondering how much I would be spending on his expertise. I felt that it would be reasonable to assume that it would be cheaper than buying a new laptop. And I was pleasantly surprised when he presented me with the final bill and it was roughly half of my absolute highest reasonable expectations.
September 10, 2007
~ some cycling related adventures ~
The weekend before last, I had the opportunity to go on two very awesome road cycling rides. The first one was that Saturday, when I rode out to Hidden Springs and back. This is one of my favorite road cycling routes...sure, the hill up to Hidden Springs can have a bit of traffic danger, but it's scenic and I absolutely LOVE the hill climb. I enjoy climbing the hill and then descending into Hidden Springs, and then I like to turn around and do it in reverse back into Boise. Anyway, on that Saturday when I did this ride, I was feeling so amazing...so amazing that my amazing-feeling is worth writing about. I even passed five people on the hill climb - - sure, two were mountain bikes, but two others were road cyclists (a male and a female) and the final one was a fit-looking dude on a cross bike. Also, no one passed me, which is a feat in and of itself, especially considering the phenomenal numbers of road cyclists out on that day. By the end of it, that is exactly a 20 mile ride which I averaged about 15mph on - - which is pretty good considering the hill climbs.
The next day, Josh and I went on a road cycling ride. We rode out to Hidden Springs, but instead of turning around or of continuing on and doing the Dump Loop, we took a left at Hidden Springs and rode on a gravel road several miles out to the highway. Once at the highway, we rode south for a bit to Beacon Light and then rode north on Eagle road through all of these horse pastures. It is also worth writing about how amazing I felt. There were quite a few hill climbs, followed by fast descents, and I had such an amazing amount of energy and felt so good. I even passed Josh a few times, whether or not he 'let' me pass I do not know, but regardless, I was a rockin' and a rollin'. After we got to the end of the pavement, we went a bit further, until I decided that I was done with road biking on gravel, and then we turned around and did some more hill intervals on one of the side streets. The whole ride was about 40 miles, but I think that it should 'count' as a longer ride because of all the hills. On the way back, at about mile 30, I suddenly went from feeling amazing and riding fast to feeling utterly crapped out and riding about half the earlier pace. I did not initially recognize that I was having a massive low-blood sugar attack, which is why I delayed eating an energy bar. But a few minutes after I got some more calories into my person, I was feeling pretty good again.
Yesterday was my first opportunity to have fun and go for a bike ride since then (been pretty busy since), so Josh and I loaded up the mountain bikes and drove out to the Owyhees and spent the whole day exploring. We initially went out to the area behind Barking Spider and spent about three hours riding all around. It's such a neat area - - there's so many little rocky canyons and ravines, buttes and plateaus. It's a designated off-road recreational area, so all of the hundreds and hundreds of ATVs and dirt bikes have done a good job of tearing apart the landscape (which I feel rather sick to my stomach about) but they have also carved some fun trails to ride a mountain bike over. After our Barking Spider adventure, we got some lunch at a gas station, and then went out to the Wilson Creek area to find its alleged singletrack. All in all, it was a fantastic ride. The terrain was completely different than the Boise foothills. Whereas I have all of the trails in the foothills memorized, I had to ride in a much more alert and agile way in the Owyhees because I never knew what was going to be around a corner or over a hills. And it was great! I think that if I rode in the Owyhees more often, there would be a dramatic increase in my skill set. If only because there was a much greater offering of technical aspects to the trails that is just not to be found in the Boise foothills. Some people have made the point that the Boise foothills are too well maintained and that they are only good for exercise. And while I think the foothills are loads of fun, I also understand how having access to unmaintained, rough and rugged trails with all kinds of technical obsticals can be a great time as well. There were a few points on the ride in the Owyhees that I weenied out on, but overall, I am quite enthused about how much I did not weenie out on. One section, in particular, was when the trail became crazy rocky (and not just small rocks, but big rocks across the trail) winding through this rocky ravine area, and I rode right on though it. By the end of the ride, I could not stop exclaiming about how much fun I had. It was wonderful.
September 6, 2007
~ my laptop is a bit intoxicated ~
I've had a bit of stress recently. On Tuesday, I was scheduled to give a big presentation on some boring French theorist who's been dead for almost a century. Like I give a crap what some dead person thought! Anyway, so because I'm something of an introvert, and blah, blah, blah, I was a bit nervous for my presentation. Also, I found the ideas of afore-eluded to theorist to be rather boring. I suppose that in his time, his ideas may have been new and innovative (you know, BRILLIANT ideas such as paying employees a satisfactory wage for their work), but no one cares about labor issues like that anymore and who cares what someone thought who lived so long ago. Therefore, because history is SO COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to the modern day, I attempted to infuse an organic metaphor into my presentation in order to (1) make it more interesting and (2) demonstrate why we should care about what long-ago dead people thought.
So there I was, on Monday night, the night before my presentation, fine-tuning my presentation and practicing it in front of my mirror, when all of a sudden!, my laptop decided to try some of my beer. I suppose that because I have never let it get anywhere near my beverages before that it's been under the impression that it's been missing out on an important facet of life. This is why maybe paternalism isn't so bad after all - - I mean, sure, so I've been restricting the freedom of my laptop as an individual, but I truly know what's best for my laptop, and beverages being not on the same surface as my laptop is definately in it's best interest. Well, as you might imagine, I went into something of a panic as my amber ale was seeping into the keyboard. I managed to save my presentation to a jump drive, but I was aware of a constant beeping noise and I do not have a good feeling about this. I turned the laptop over, removed the battery, and unplugged it, and had absolutely no idea what else to do in this situation, what with my total lack of previous experience in this matter. Yesterday, I finally had the opportunity to take it to a laptop hardware fixer dude, and wow, I have never before encountered someone as geeky before in my entire existence. And he said that it'll be about five whole entire days before he'll know anything. Five whole entire days! Ugh...
In other news, my presentation was a success.
