Jimmy.Brainflush.com

So the thought occurs to me that Woody may have been on to something, as I sit alone  30 minutes after a meeting was supposed to start.  Thirrty minutes alone in a room with my laptop.  I for the most part have cherished this time of quiet, and have put it to good use.

This, though, while the thought was hot, is also a good use. 

 So much of what makes an organization whole and functioning boils down to basics like showing up.    Before moving on to the more demanding aspects of showing up, like having something to say, it’s often important to revisit these basic tenets of business.

Working with technology, and providing a service to clients is difficult to do when clients don’t show up.   It says nothing about the technology, and everything about the people in the organization, from the leadership down the chain.

As part of the chain, then, what can you or I for that matter do to fix these problems? 

Continue showing up.
Continue to care and work hard and dedicate yourself.
Sooner or later others will catch on, or, you’ll move on.

There are always miles and miles of improvement to be made in areas like self discipline, being the best and most knowledgeable in your field, so that when they DO show up, you’ll have intelligent, cohesive solutions to their problems - which most likely were never technology problems to begin with.

What normally by road is an 18 mile ride turned more like 21 this morning, while riding my bike into the office for the first time.   The longer route had more to do with the twisting and curving parts of the Des Plaines River trail, which help extend the scenic views of the area.

The weather was perfect. My decision to wear the pants and the hoodie were smart; the lower elevations by the river were a bit cooler, and the gnat sprays were kind of plentiful - so they were helpful from a protection standpoint.

The scenery was amazing.  4 deer crossed the trail ahead of me right before Independence Grove.   I’ll leave a little earlier on Tuesday to enjoy the ride more, and take some pictures.  I also need to find an alternative route to 120.   The gravel along the side of the road, while plentiful, is like quicksand.. and that was going downhill. 

Commuters were very accommodating.  Some guy in a Prius gave me two thumbs up as I made the left turn from 45 onto 120.

We’ll see how I feel after tonight’s commute.

I’m going to try biking the 17.6 miles to work tomorrow.  The trail and path I will be taking has been established.  The maps have been printed, and the forecast has been checked.

Let’s see where this takes us.  I’ll try to take some photos along the way.

 Jimy

Being sick is horrible.  When I was a kid, I used to envy adults who were home sick because they didn’t have homework due tomorrow.  They could just walk away from that job thing, and relax.. focusing on getting well.

My problem with being sick as with being on vacation, is that far too much time is available to haphazardly think about Life As it Is.  Considering the physical state of your body, this may not be the most appropriate time to examine where you may be in life right now.

It’s probably the fever that has you thinking that certain parts of life have passed you by, never to return.   The great thing about the past is that in the present we have the ability to transform it into something graceful and beautiful or horribly unforgiving.   The present and its reality nuances leave so much less open for interpretation.

Then the healing starts though, and a reminder that yes, there are some magical things left in the world, including the body’s ability to heal and repair itself over time.

So I’m feeling better anyway and back at work. If I can nail down one full night of sleep, I’ll be on the right road. 

I made the decision to have all business expenses from the new gig sent to my far away savings account during those first few optimistic days of employment. 

That decision’s seed netted a nice healthy ManageFusion check that I really could have used this pay period.   I’ll survive though without it, and this makes me happy.

My disaster recovery simulation’s almost completed, so I reckon I should get pack to focusing on the important stuff.

I’ll post over the weekend, hopefully with a complete bedroom and den wood floor.

My decision to travel out to Hampshire, a 45 minute drive from my house, turned out to be a good one.  In search of a toolbench for the garage, I had scoped this craigslist add during breakfast this morning.  The bench wouldn’t fit in the car, so I couldn’t buy it.    There was, however, a microwave for sale.  A GE Profile Spacemaker. 

The homeowner wanted to get rid of things. So she offered it to me for 5 bucks!  So I took it home. This proving law number 6:

Wait long enough, and you won’t have to do nasty job X.

In this case, nasty job X was cleaning the range hood in the kitchen of it’s greasy load. Instead, I just took it out today.

Problem 1 arose from the obvious: Wirey connection does not play well with power plug. It involved about 7 bucks in purchase from the home center. I’ll get the box wired up tomorrow.  

Problem 2: The microwave requires a set of mounting brackets. Kudos to GE for having their care line open 24 7 to help customers find and buy the parts they need for 8 year old microwave hardwaare.

The additional parts will set me back about 60 bucks.  Yes, that hurts, but this is a good microwave. A good, 6 year old microwave. I hope.

I ended up finding an open box workbench at ALDI, clearance priced at 59.99 (a bargain in its own right), FURTHER reduced to 29.99!

We tried getting the thing into my car, and failed miserably (of course, not before carving a hunk of rubber out of my poor back seat’s doorframe.

I ended up taking the thing apart into 7 pieces, right in front of ALDI.  For some reason, everyone walking into the store or leaving the store felt compelled to share some point or pearl of wisdom on the matter.    Most popular was the open-ended question “Didn’t fit, huh?”

Followed closely by the oft slipping inner monologue’s ”What’s this guy up to?”

My favorite line was “Shit, I thought this was a grocery store!”  Of course, the guy had to ruin my goodwill toward him by ashing his cigarette onto the damn box, which was more like a L shaped form of door and left wall.

Have you seen the dolly’s they have at Aldi?  They’re goofy, complex, and awesome.  They’ve got 4 sets of wheels that you can progressively rock back to until the final, ground-kissing hunchback angle.

I still love Aldi.  Despite the fact that my Garden salad bags have gone up to 99 cents.

They’re remodeling the store next week. I’m excited - aren’t you?  I’m looking forward to the fresh, updated look in my local Aldi store that will be completed in hours outside of normal peak shopping hours.   

If you don’t hear from me, it’s probably because I forgot to turn off the electricity before playing with the wires dangling from where the range hood was.

-Jimmy

that my ATM card wasn’t being accepted by the company credit union ATM at the office this afternoon, which for the record, has NEVER happened in my life, today and this week actually ended on a productive note.

I know I didn’t post Wednesday; by the time I got home it was so late that I ate and crashed.  Last night was Wii tournament night, and I didn’t get home until 11 o’clock - pretty late for a school night.

My fitness age actually worsened!  45 years old!  I blame the patching stress that Microsoft thrust upon us.   In case you don’t have Dell 610 or 410 Latitude laptops and aren’t in the know,  Patch KB.blahblah338’s kernel update causes Dell 610 and 410’s to blue screen!  

I must say incorporating two kernel updates into one patch month is pure genius on the part of Microsoft.  In their defense, they do instruct you to reboot between patches, but 2 reboots?  Come on, what year is this actually?  1997?

In other, God, Microsoft is making me angry news:  After forcefully making PC makers package Vista with their new hardware, vendors are finding that people don’t really want to buy Vista boxes.  They want XP - something reliable and happy.

So this week Dell announced it was starting to ship Windows XP, which will continue to be supported, I might add, until 2010. It was funny to see that on their site.

I’m heading to Ikea tonight to buy some flooring for my den. I will be installing said flooring and installing some screens on the hizzouse this weekend.

From the Once a desktop guy, always a desktop guy Dept:

Theoretically, my involvement with this patch fiasco outside of the delivery mechanism is outside of my job scope.  At the end of the day, however, these kinds of issues are all hands on deck issues.   If users cannot do their job, I feel it is the responsibility of all capable persons in our department to facilitate and assist in any way possible. 

We all should, at times when needed, wear the operations hat.

Supposed to hit 80 on Sunday.. glad to see spring’s back.

 Get out of the house and stop reading blogs,

 Jimmy

My decision to move all of my worldly things out of the upper level of the house, it turns out, was the final nail in the insanity coffin.   I now sleep under the dimmable-switched lamps of my dining room on the trusty air mattress that I bought at the Canadian KMart during a road trip far too many years back.   Speaking of backs, I think mine may be irreperably damaged by this latest foray.

Since arriving home from Vegas on Sunday, I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep.  Maybe it’s not having carpet and sleeping in a paint-fumed hole?

But I digress.  I’m getting older. I turned 30 on Easter. I spent it at the Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana.  It ended up being a good focus for health on such a big day.   I was really fascinated with everything about the exhibit.   Did you know, for example, that you’re the tallest in the morning?   

That assumes you’re using some 20th century bedding technology on which to lay your weary body. 

How sad is it that the highlight of my Vegas trip was carpet, and frolicking around in my socks and bare feet? 

 I woke up yesterday morning with a rash and thought right away that I had skin cancer.  That’s a sign I’m getting older, I think.  So, it turns out it was probably the new detergent I’m using.

  On Moving..

Dave moved the blog today to Wordpress.  I’m in heaven.  Dave’s consistently the man.  I haven’t seen him in almost two years. 

I’m glad I was in Vegas on my birthday.  Most of the people I’d honestly like to party with live in Ohio anyways.  It’s a legacy of my move west.  Deal and move on.   We make choices in life.

Speaking of which, I’ve gone through my third boss in as many months.  This has had zero impact on my day to day work productivity.  I don’t know what that means, but there it is. 

It’s going to rain.    There’s a precursory humidity in the air that tells you these things if you’re aware enough to listen.  It’s spring.  The world is waking up. 

Maybe I am too. 

I’m back, kids.   The ride resumes.

You, me, the blades of grass.   It’s all so Whitmanesque.  

See you tomorrow.

I should be inhaling paint fumes right now..
..but instead I’m here.. reading through my past.

Funny how quickly we can bring ourselves back. Thanks a lot Google Earth. I blame you entirely. Secondary blame credit to DiggNation.

Blah.

I’m angry with myself for slacking around the house over the last few weeks. It’s not like I haven’t enjoyed it. Shopping at HOBO was fun.
The new Gateway is fun.

My hope is that the new podcast will be fun.

In other news..
I’m closer to home, but still away. I realized that today. I also know exactly where I’ve majorly slacked:

A. Bills
B. Budget
C. Goal Setting
D. Taking Action

Today is a fine example:

Up at 10-ish?
Breakfast til 10:30
Starbucks - yippee……
Drove around and looked at a model in Alleghany Trail… got a few design ideas:

A. Never enough of trim.
B. I’m not missing much at the core of my home. It WILL be Awesome. This was a nice realization.

Dunkin Donuts for more coffee.. yeay..
Aldi’s - I think I bought four things mik, cereal, Fruit20 (that shit rocks) and .. apples. Seriously.
Off next .. zoom zoom to ..

Some other models off the River’s Edge - very pricey 350K.. good for my home values.

Conclusions reached: Berber Carpet.. yeah. Need to find a way to get light emitter deal in MBR and mid-BR.
In the ceiling lights are a must.

Oh.. and HOBO, my final destination of the day, rocks.

For the week -

Milwaukee on Tuesday for Microsoft. Should be fun.

Goals for the week -

Try to be a bit more proactive.
Get Budget Done.

Be nice to everyone.