Are you drunk if you still remember your 12 character password to login into your personal computer, which you only log into a couple days a week and has a different password than your work computer???
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
My team at work keeps an insane pace. Every member has a good sized work load and there does not seem like there will be any slow down in the pace in the near future. Thus, I feel it is a good time to remind myself of a few key things.
- I love my job – The pace keeps things exciting and challenging. I love a good challenge.
- I really enjoy the people I work with – My team is filled with talented individuals. Everyone has something unique to bring to the table and we can all learn something from one another.
- We are all working towards the same goals – While it may not seem like it all the time, we are all driving towards creating sustainable (not just maintainable) systems that provide what the business needs and grow with the business.
- We all need to unplug now and then – When you work long hours and demanding project time lines, it is important to turn off the blackberry and really relax for a few hours. Just make sure your not on-call when you unplug!
- Spend good time with your family – It can be all to easy to neglect or lash out at the people that support you the most when you are stressed. Make time for the most important people in your life and don’t make them suffer any stress that you feel.
- Leave work at work – We all have to work from home sometimes, but leave the stress and hurriedness of work in the office. If you must work from home, do it in a separate place from where you live. Make sure that you have a dedicated space so people know you are working and not to disturb you.
- Sleep in on the weekends – Unless you have to go into the office that is…
- Do something good for the soul – Go for a hike, a walk on the beach, to the gym, visit a museum, see a concert or a play… get the picture?
- Take a vacation – Make sure you leave the blackberry and cell phones at home, try not to take a computer too.
This is really a reminder to myself. Take it for what it is worth.
Ok, I get theme burnout too easily. So this time I decided on a really good looking basic theme. I don’t think it will change anytime soon. Maybe the header graphics will change, or get added to.
This is it for a while, possibly a very long time…
Found a couple interesting stories from the Detroit Auto Show. GM showed a plug-in hybrid concept. Ford showed a hydrogen fuel cell concept designed by Airstream. Interesting? I think so…
Since December 27th life has been topsy-turvy.
That was the day that Katie and I found out that we lost our baby. Technically, they call it a miscarriage because the baby died before the 20th week. The whole adventure started when we went in for a routing ultrasound on Wednesday, December 27. The major trauma ended at noon on Friday when I brought Katie home from the hospital.
The problem is, you don’t recover from this type of loss quickly. Or as it turns our easily. Neither Katie nor I are crying at the drop of a pin. We’ve finished with that, but our emotions are still quick to rise. Right now, they surface as anger, fear and other feelings.
Today, Katie and I got into a little spat. I could feel the emotion well up inside of me, and I didn’t want it to come out directed in anger at Katie. We got through it okay, we manage to work through our problems. I just want to avoid lashing out at Katie while we continue to work through the emotions that we are feeling with our loss.
My first week back to work was tough. It was difficult to maintain focus and the few days I missed made a significant impact to my workload. That coupled with the fact that it was a short week really threw me. Katie’s birthday was on the 5th, and she shares the day with her Mom. We went to Disneyland on Saturday. Vanessa got us in to Club 33 and the eight of us (Katie and me, Mom, Ben and Vanessa, Ron and Ginger, and Carolyn). Lunch was awesome. The rest of the day was very fun and very tiring. Katie and I ended up sleeping most of Sunday.
The second week back was much easier – I managed to get caught up with most of my work. I won’t get into details, especially since I make it a policy to not write about work directly, but I worked a few fairly long days last week. The pace at work is unreal, and doesn’t show any hint of slowing done. Really, it works for me. I’m an addictive personality and work is an addiction… in reality I like the pace.
Anyways, back to the world becoming unglued… it definitely feels like it is coming unglued. Not exactly sure why I feel that way, but I think things will be clearer (maybe better) over time…