You know how, at the end of Lord of the Rings, the main characters did a whole bunch of exciting stuff and then they got to say “hey, we did a lot of stuff and now we can go home and do boring stuff!” and then they went home and then they had to do more exciting stuff?
This week has been like that.
I mean, when you work for a small company where everyone has a role to play, you know that going on vacation (or, heck, on a business trip) will mean that, when you get back, some stuff will be on fire.
Hey, that’s the way it is, sometimes. You do what you can to mitigate the most likely problems beforehand, you tell the people who are going to be covering for you about the stuff that is likely to pop up, and you confirm that they know to send a quick message to you in gmail chat if anything wacky happens and then hope for the best.
Anyway, we got back and everything was on fire. Even stuff that was underwater was on fire. By the time I left work yesterday, I had 120 hours on my (two week) timecard and there’s still a small handful of things that I need to do today and it’s better for me to do them today than for me to say “heck with it” and wait until Monday because Monday will have new fires.
That said, golly, we accomplished a whole lot this week, didn’t we? Whew.
As such, I’m hoping to work a half day today and get home and crash and crash *HARD*. Laundry. That’s what’s on the docket for tonight. Laundry. Maybe some light Batman work on the PS4.
This weekend proper will have a return to normalcy with the going to PetSmart and the good Costco and groceries and whatnot and the main thing I’m looking forward to there is the being at home and doing the boring stuff. Sweet, sweet boring stuff.
Maybe even train myself to wake up after 3:30 AM.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
The lady friend is going to DC Sat to protest.
I’m playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
I will have more fun. Thinking hard about texting my actress friend and asking her if she’s putting her money where her mouth is and going to the protest. Somehow I doubt it.Report
No politics.Report
It’s not politics, it’s fact dude. And it’s the reason why I’m gaming. 🙂Report
Local SABR chapter meeting. I’m giving a presentation on the evolution of the rules of baseball. I was even solicited to give it, which is gratifying.Report
Dude. That’s awesome.Report
That is very cool. I wish your “local” were my “local”.Report
That sounds fun. Sorry it’s not here. (Or I”m not there.)Report
follow-up: The presentation went fine, as did the meeting as a whole. They have a table of donated books, and sell raffle tickets as a fund raiser. I picked up a copy of The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, which in turn is the novel that Damned Yankees is based on. I have no idea of the book is any good.
The attendance was a bit lower than anticipated. It was explained that several people who would ordinary attend were instead marching in Washington.Report
I recall it as being a lot of fun, though I was probably in middle school at the time.Report
Today is a bad day. So, no plans for the weekend. See what comes, see if it’s a bad day just for some, or for us all.Report
Heads up, old girl.
Better days ahead.
This is sure to make you feel better:
Start with two paper plates. If you do the rest of the recipe right, you’re going to need them.
Spread a bunch of corn chips all over the top paper plate.
I said “A bunch” dammit!
OK then.
For right now, don’t worry about the bottom paper plate. The bottom one will get plenty from the sympathetic vibrations of the corn chips on the top paper plate.
Now, take a can of your favorite chili. I always look for the turkey chili with beans, and go for the brand with the lowest sodium content. Dump the whole thing (excepting the can) all over your corn chips (the ones on the paper plates). Try to even it out some, but don’t spend too much time on it. It’s not like you’re frosting a cake or something.
Now, take a jar of the chunkiest salsa you can find and spoon the stuff all over the chili. Plaster the place with it.
Then, get you some shredded cheese, whatever cheese turns you on. Pack the thing with shredded cheese until you’re afraid the paper plates will fold when you try to pick it up.
Now, add more cheese.
Place the gawdawful mess into the microwave, and get it going for about 2:10.
Find yourself a good, sturdy fork, because you’re going to need it.
Scarf.
Repeat as necessary.
Works for me. YMMV.Report
Man, finally a recipe without “folding” or “sautéing”, or any of that foodie crap.Report
Dude, that “foodie crap” as you call it, is cooking technique. You can blame the enstupidation / uneducation of the consumer for that, not the “foodies”. I still remember when cake mixes came with real instructions like “fold in xyz”. They changed that to “stir” years ago. But “stir” and “fold” are two very different damn things.
“Foodie crap” is this: Waitress: “Soy free, glueten free, orgainic, ….” Dude: “It’s a pine cone”. Remember that commercial?Report
Mike,
Saute is just french for “stir-fry”
I have recipes that have three ingredients, and one of them’s water and another’s salt.
Still some of the most awesome food you’ve ever had.
(Garden-fresh, “picked that minute” asparagus is to die for. So sweet, so vividly green!).Report
“It’s like a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie” – I’ve seen that aphorism applied to tenure (I am a college prof) but I think it fits in any career where being good at what you do means you get more of it to do.
My weekend plans are work. But I’m not sad or mad. I got invited to contribute a paper to a conference proceedings. I wasn’t planning to write the paper but the editor specifically asked me and flattery tends to work on me, so.
Also it counts as another publication on the CV, another little brick in the “it would be really dumb of you all to fire me” wall. (I have tenure but I am a worrier by nature, so….)
(I use Anne Lamott’s “S(redacted)ty first draft” method for writing. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a perfectionist)Report
Dude, I’m sure you’ve read the “Beethoven vs. Mozart method” essays out there and I’m a Mozart.
I have to write it in my head before I even think about putting it on the page.Report
For “creative” writing I am more of a Mozart, but for science writing, I am more Beethoven. I can “write” stuff like dialog in my head very easily but for factual stuff it is LABOR.
I’m not crazy about writing up results for publication, but I have to do it, so I do. At least in this case I have all the number-crunching done and it’s going to be based on a poster I presented at meetings, so at least I have a guideline of where it needs to go.
I also am a perfectionist about writing that lots of others will see, so it’s kind of agonizing for me and I spend a lot of time trying to rephrase things and then get hung up on “is THIS way better or is THAT way better.” The fact that there are time constraints on this (I have about six weeks) may actually, ironically, lead to it being a better paper because I will dither less.Report
I’m not familiar with either of those methods, but I’m more the type who writes like “the first draft is rough draft and final all in one.” I edit in my head as I go, or maybe the editing happens while the signals are on their way to my fingers. I presume that makes me more “lazy” than either “Mozart” or “Beethoven.”Report
Ballsy that. What does the copy editor have to say?
(hopefully not toilet paper).Report
Anymore, most of the stuff I write is technical in nature so it doesn’t require much editing anyway.Report
I found this and this and they cover the high notes.
I suppose I benefit from writing every day *HERE*, even if only in comments.
When I go back and read stuff I wrote in the 90’s? I wince. Ugh.Report
I get that feeling about code. I have a small program that I use all the time that I originally wrote back in the 80s. Occasionally it needs a change, which I usually put off for a lengthy time, because, “Geez, what was I thinking when I wrote that?”Report
Mike,
That’s better than the libraries that “oh, wait, you mean we can’t fix them? They’re everywhere?”Report
In the days before I had a word processor (through undergrad and the first half of my MA program) I was a Mozart. Ever since, because or at least coincident to the fact I’ve had a word processor, I’ve become more and more of a Beethoven.Report
I’ve used a word processor for more than half my life at this point and I STILL have to write “important” things (manuscripts of journal articles, grant proposals, some exams) out longhand on a legal pad first. I can’t think with a blank screen blinking at me.
(I’m also maybe a wee bit of a Luddite about some things)Report
In my pre-word processor days, I’d write everything out in longhand. (The big exceptions were one class during a very busy semester in which I typed my essays straight the night before they were due. But it took hours to do, because I had to plan my statements and evidence and phrasings ahead of time.) I think writing things our in longhand made me a much better writer, and the quality of my writing got worse when I became more of a Beethoven. But it improved in other ways, so it’s hard to say how much worse it got.Report
Let’s see…
After sixth grade, there was no more writing stuff out in longhand. Composed on the typewriter, which was much faster, although I did markup on the fly — roll the paper up and scratch out sentences or x-out paragraphs followed by the next version. Then there were text formatters with embedded commands, and editors that gave a one-line view into the file. (I don’t recommend having to learn to hold an image of the file in your head so you can navigate.) Then editors that gave a several line view. Then WYSIWYG to various degrees. As a semi-Beethovian, I would find going farther back than text editors, and the ability to pick up a paragraph and move it, painful.
From a different direction, if I’m in bulk “just get something down” mode, I still prefer a text editor with embedded markup commands. Eg, posts for this site I write as a flat text file with embedded HTML tags using vi*, then cut-and-paste into the WordPress tools. For me, there are three advantages: (1) I never have to take my hands off the home row on the keyboard; (2) I use the same editor for code, so my fingers know the key bindings for navigating around in the body of text — I don’t think about it, my fingers just put the cursor where I want it; and (3) years ago I developed the habit of using line breaks for phrasing purposes (eg, at the end of a sentence or where there would be a pause if it were spoken) and still like writing that way.
From a completely different direction, I have heard enough good things about Scrivener that I think I’ll buy a copy to try for my next project.
* No vi vs. emacs cracks, Schilling. I used both, depending on which one was available on all the machines I had to use for a given job. I was in vi-mode when the world reached the point that both were available everywhere.Report
I’ve never learned emacs. I used a handful of line-oriented editors, depending on the OS, then full-screen EDT on PDP-11s and Vaxes, then a customized EDT-like editor written in TPU on Vaxes (still my all-time favorite.) Once entering the Unix worked, I learned vi, and it’s been my default ever since.Report
Never learned TECO either, which is probably a good thing. From Wiki:
Report
I didn’t start typing my papers until I was a senior in high school, and then only for a couple of classes. Before that, it was all longhand.Report
Yeah, I have students with that attitude.
I confess, mine is more “You should spend at least 2x as much time revising as you spent writing the thing in the first place.” Experience seems to bear me out. (Also, I can tell the written-at-the-last-minute ones: oh Bob the typos.Report
A similar thing you tell new coders: take your time and make the code well-organized and readable, because you are going to spend way more time debugging it and fixing it that you did writing it. Also, future you is going to be making changes to it after having mostly forgotten all the “clever” tricks you’ve used; it’s smart to make things easy on him.Report
I’m in Ashland, OR this weekend visiting friends and family. A friend from high school is having her baby shower tomorrow, but I haven’t decided if I’ll attend. I’m taking junior on a tour of Southern Oregon University where I attended. My hotel bed is heavenly and I want to spend lots of time in it. So basically I don’t have any big plans. Just R&R.Report
Work on finding a new job.
(good lord i hate it here.)Report
That *SUCKS*.
Good luck. You’ll get through this.Report
Good luck, hope something interesting opens up.Report
Not remembering where ‘here’ is, but good luck!Report
I think I’m buying a couch this weekend. My lovely wife left it to me since I have a stronger opinion about it than she does. No pressure there! 🙂 Maybe some gaming tonight and tomorrow? And I definitely need to restock the beer fridge and see about maybe something for the crock pot for Saturday’s dinner. Oh! And Boy the Older’s gaming group is meeting at our house tomorrow.Report
If neither Feldan The Wise nor Human Hireling offers up their house, gaming tomorrow goes from “slim” to “none”.
Which may be for the best because as much as I suck at staying up late, I’m going to be positively Dysonian tomorrow.Report
I am turning 46 on Monday, but have a cold right now. Wired my garage for 120 over the last week, so knocked one thing off my list, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
Wife is an only child, used to having lots of alone time, so she is asking me to leave the house for at least a few hours tomorrow, so I might head up to Portland, not sure yet.Report
Happy Birthday!Report
Happy birthday!Report
Squash is already up and growing. Lost a few cactus in the last cold snap. Tomatoes should be up any day now. Maybe a walk and see if the dozens of live oak are sprouting (planted two weeks ago). Laundry. Cook some piping hot chili, and bake some hardtack.Report
Tomatoes up any day now?!?!? Where do you live?!?!?Report
South Texas, we have had a grand total of eight winterish days so far. Other than a single 20F day we wont be having a winter this year. Forecast shows 88F for tuesday.Report
Man, you believe in this global warming shit. I figure we’re going to get back to normalish (still warm) in about a week or two.Report
Kind of a scattershot weekend for moe. Restarting my swimming routine tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to doing. I have a friend who’s performing in town Saturday night before she heads to New York to perform there, and I am looking forward to that.
Otherwise I might try to get some rest, and might see if I can’t get to see Rogue One. I think Sunday I might hang out in the kitchen and make a batch of pozole — something I can’t believe I’ve never done before.
Maybe read some?Report
And apparently, there will also be much marching in the rain.Report
COSine is this weekend. Excited that Jo Walton is the GoH both because she’s my favorite living author (most days) AND because I just like her and like being around her and it doesn’t happen very often. Maybe once every year or two. Hoping my body will let me attend as much of the con as I’d like to, reconciled to the idea that it won’t totally cooperate.
That’s the big thing.
Otherwise a lot of recuperating and laundry and reading and napping on the horizon. Monday is the start of the spring semester for us.Report
Lots of music this weekend. Rehearsing for a show I’ll be doing in a couple of weeks. You should hear our stripped down Nights in White Satin! Going to a Johnny Cash night fundraiser for a local little league.Report