“The world is not a prison house, but a kind of spiritual kindergarten where bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks.”
— Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet
Beautiful
And what is stress, anyway?
Father and Daughter, Sunset at Centennial Park Sydney Australia by Alex E. Proimos on Flickr
I have the best job in the world.
Yesterday, I walked through a NASA building, looking at mockups and presentations about the Curiosity rover. I snapped pictures of the actual SAM module that will sit on Mars a year from now. I returned to my office just in time for a teleconference with a large consumer electronics firm about a Goddard technology that they want to license. Just another day at the office.
Ironically, at lunch I attended a
Fortunately, the workplace stress reduction presentation agreed with my approach: stress (a maddeningly vague term, by the way) simply exists, and we must develop approaches to handle it. The advice ranged from taking breaks to reading poetry aloud.
Stress is the price I pay for an interesting job. Won’t complain.
And my stress is actually decreasing. Now that I’m down to two classes per week–and this upcoming week is a holiday week, meaning no classes at all–I now have a reasonable amount of time for both personal projects and decompression at home. Last night, for the first time in several weeks, I was able to read for pleasure.
Today: maintenance projects at work, and
StreamSuki
Yesterday, I launched StreamSuki, an index of free, legal,
I spent many long hours building it, and I’m not sure why. I was downright obsessed with the technical implementation. I wanted to get it right, and to launch it. I did so at the expense of other, more pressing matters (like, er, keeping my house clean).
It turned into a pretty big project. It automatically indexes 9 different sites, parsing thousands of lines of code for the
I wrote code and I tested and I rewrote code and I restructured the database until eventually it really, really worked. This just consumed hours and hours of my time, but I was absolutely captivated by it. Sucked in. I’d lay in bed, trying to go to sleep, and go over parsing problems in my head.
For better or worse, the outcome is a complete, working site that I think will be of use to people. I’m glad for that, but I have to wonder a bit at my behavior. Why was I so obsessed?
Tired
As I mentioned on Twitter, I’m pushing through a punishing schedule. I teach on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings, and I was out supporting a conference for work last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Combine this with a few social obligations, and for the past week I’ve been home almost exclusively to sleep. I leave the house at 7:00am and return at 9:00pm.
One perverse advantage: the dishes don’t pile up, because I never eat at home.
Granted, I signed up for all of this on some level. Nobody’s forcing me to teach. But I’ve been on a treadmill for the past week and a half. I’m also trying to keep up with Otaku, No Video, which means three videos a week plus the
So. Yes. I’m tired. If I’ve been negligent in replying to an email or returning a phone call, my apologies. I’m doing my best to keep up.
Autumn Depth
Autumn is finally here! Much as I’ve enjoyed the Indian Summer, I wondered how long it would last. Now, we have brisk days, a low sun, and beautiful fall colors.
I listened to Career Tools (a podcast about professional behavior) as I drove in to work this morning; I’ve been catching up on early episodes I either missed or skimmed. This morning’s episode focused on early layoff advice–what to do when you hear rumors of layoffs or an actual announcement of impending layoffs.
Their advice: keep doing your work, look for another job quietly (in a way that doesn’t impact your current responsibilities), and listen to rumors (but don’t pass them on). In their section on looking for another job, they recommend reaching out to one’s business contacts.
It reminded me of one of the books I’m currently reading, Well Connected. It offers the unconventional suggestion that one should connect deeply rather than broadly. Instead of broadcasting out to dozens of people, focus on trying to connect with one or two. Build up a campaign, essentially, of trying to reach the best person (and that campaign doesn’t mean trying to contact that best person immediately).
The Iron Man Anime: Comic Book Silliness
© Marvel, Madhouse
I’m two episodes into the recent Iron Man anime, and I’m having trouble.
The story builds slowly, so I’m reserving judgment there. My main problems with the show are
There are only two major characters: Tony and the nervous female reporter Nanami. Pepper has only appeared once to my memory, and that was on a video phone call. That is one of the interesting elements of the show: Tony is cut off from his normal support network as he visits Japan, and the Japanese have their own opinions of his antics.
But the lack of characters mean that I have to enjoy Tony’s arrogance or Nanami’s worrying. They both make for interesting characters, but not as the sole focus for 30 or 60 minutes, especially when Tony’s still in relative control.
The action sequences are also, well, accurate to the comic book (what little I know of the comic book, that is). The battles are relatively short and brutal, as befits large, complex machines blasting away at each other.
Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of time with Tony and Nanami. And this show features typical modern Madhouse character animation: perfectly serviceable, but dull. This just just isn’t very interesting to look at most of the time.
I’m still watching it, but mostly because I want to see if the story develops in interesting directions. Considering that Warren Ellis provided the story, I have high hopes. And the characters are accurate; Tony is arrogant and smart, with a bias for action.
It’s just not very entertaining, at this point.
GigaOM
Theree are so many sites and services out there that I feel Ike I’m always late to the party.
A perfect example is GigaOm, a tech blog that I’d always ignored under the assumption that it was another Techcrunch–breathless articles about new smart phones or social networks. I then saw GigaOm’s founder on This Week in Tech, and he impressed me with his knowledge and deep thought. So I checked it out.
GigaOm’s articles provide perspective. A recent article about an outsourcing service pointed out its potential applications and impacts, along with a healthy dose of skepticism about the service’s practicality.
It’s exactly what I want out of a tech blog: information and analysis.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m broke. Almost literally. Lots of assets, no cash.
This was driven home to me yesterday evening, after work. I stopped by a gas station on my way home to fill up my truck with gas. My debit card didn’t work, and neither did any of my credit cards. All denied.
To be fair, several of those cards I paid over the weekend just as their due date came up, so I think they’re just locked until those payments go through.
Still. Embarrassing. I called my Dad, and he suggested that I run back to work and see if I could borrow some cash. Brilliant! I did, and all was well.
Then I returned home to check my bank account balance.
Gulp.
I’m fine, really. I transferred some cash from savings, and my paycheck comes through this Friday. I just have to live frugally for a little while, and use a spare credit card for this week’s expenses.
I’m just shocked, to be honest. I knew I was low on funds, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. I’m usually good at keeping my finances in shape.
To be brutally honest with myself, I haven’t been paying enough attention. I ignored a few bills. I kept ordering anime and manga online even when I was low on funds, justifying that I needed it to keep up with Otaku, No Video. I’ve been foolish.
So, I’m facing up to it. I’ve stopped making any entertainment purchases. I’m eating frugally (inexpensive meals at home and leftovers at work; no restaurant meals). I’ve identified a paid service I can cancel and a few gadgets I can sell.
And I’m
Come to think of it, I should also establish an entertainment purchasing plan: what books/movies/etc. I plan to buy each month. Hmmmmm.
Status
Well. I’m back from South Africa, and my finances are my new worry.
I’m tapped out. There’s simply no way I can afford a new home, even with a minimal down payment or closing costs. I’ve decided to wait for a while, despite having found the (almost) perfect house. It’s just immature to put myself into more debt right now.
But it’s all right. My Halloween party will happen this Saturday, at which I’ll
I’m a tad embarrassed to mention this, but my anime/manga YouTube channel, Otaku, No Video, continues to do well. I have over 1,300 subscribers, and my videos have been viewed a total of 200,000 times. My weekly live news shows are getting steadily more popular. I’m quite simply enjoying that experience, of making videos and building that audience.
So. That’s where I am right now. Um. How ’bout you?
South Africa, Day Five: Safari
This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set.
This was my full day of safaris. The itinerary:
- 5:00am Wake-up call
- 5:30am Gather in the dining area for snacks (hot coffee, iced coffee, hot tea, iced tea, water, milk, cake, scones, etc.)
- 5:45am Head out on morning safari
- 7:30am Stop for snacks (water, smoothies, wine, muffins, scones, etc.)
- 9:00am Return from safari
- 1:30pm Lunch. I had the sweet potato orange soup and grilled kudu (a game animal) with fries. Everything comes with freshly-baked bread, sweet butter, iced tea, water, etc.
- 4:00pm High tea, including cakes, cookies, breads, etc.
- 4:30pm Head out on afternoon safari
- 6:00pm Stop for snacks as the sun sets
- 7:00pm Return from safari for a dinner by firelight
As you can see, they fed us extremely well. All the food was excellent, too.
Fortunately, a storm had blown in the night before, cooling down the air and clouding the skies, so it never got above 80 degrees. Perfect weather for sitting in an open-top jeep and taking photos.
Now I face a problem: how to describe the excitement of seeing a giraffe or cape buffalo up close. There’s little stunning about these animals; the excitement comes from knowing that I’ll probably never see one again. The photos don’t do the experience justice.
So I spent the day eating and watching animals in their natural habitat. Nothing beyond that, and I’ll never forget it.
Dinner topped even the prior meals: rack of lamb, beef, chicken kebabs, potatoes, mixed vegetables, creamy soups, apple crumble, lime tart. We ate and chatted, and listened to the rangers’ “war stories.”
We were then escorted back to our rooms–a detail I should explain. Since the resort is in the middle of a national park, and there’s only an electric fence to keep out large animals, smaller animals can easily get in (particularly baboons and small ruminants). They even had a leopard take up quasi-permanent residence for a while. So you can’t roam the resort at night; you have to find a security guard who’ll escort you from the main rooms to your own.
I felt comforted by this. We were in the middle of nature, not some human-cleansed zoo. We were forced to respect it.
The next day isn’t really worth blogging about; I got up, was taken to the airport, and flew home. Other than the chatty van driver and the prop plane from Kruger-Mpumalanga Airport to Johannesburg, there was nothing remarkable.
An ad described its product as meant for people who measure their wealth not in dollars, but in experiences. I’m fully content with this experience and the memories I’ve made. I feel more rounded-out as a person.
Africa changed me for the better.