It’s Tempting

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Theoretically, I can look online this morning at this week’s paycheck to see my bonus and raise. My boss was supposed to meet with me first to tell me the numbers and go through an annual review, but he still hasn’t done that yet. So it’s very tempting to just look it up and find out for myself, but I think I’ll wait until the end of the day. Maybe I’ll have my review by then, who knows.

We’re in the middle of planning a big event right now, and for my boss, it’s right in the middle of a huge international deal that may or may not go through in the end.

Could Use A Little Assistance

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My plans currently call for traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth area this spring for Bryan and Lyn’s wedding and being there April 10 through 17. This is only if some kind soul(s) in the area is(are) willing to have a houseguest for some (or even all!) of that time. I don’t know if this website has more than one DFW reader, but if someone is willing to host me I’ll buy dinner, cook, or do whatever the person would like. I plan on renting a car so transportation won’t be an issue, I can find my own entertainment, and I won’t get in the way.

Another A+

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I better not get used to this. I had another great weekend over the past few days. Barb came up to visit and we walked around New York City a bunch. We had lunch at Hakata and caught great seats for Fiddler on the Roof (TKTS didn’t have anything interesting). Afterwards, we walked up to Ellen’s Stardust Diner and enjoyed the entertainment provided by singing waiters and waitresses.

It’s going to be dangerous if I get used to having great weekends.

Unfortunately, I went into work today for about four hours. It was convenient though, as I needed to drop my father and his girlfriend off at the airport so they could catch a flight to Paris and London.

Dreamhost Sucks In February

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It must be a February thing. Last year, around the same time, Dreamhost, the company where I house all of my websites, started giving its users major problems with its mail system. Here we go again. If you sent me email today, you can pretty much assume I didn’t get it. This is particularly disturbing because I’ve been expecting some important emails, and I shouldn’t have to find a new email provider for February every year. I don’t want to have to start couting ass points again.

Update: Here’s Dreamhost’s reply, and it was quick:

A spammer initiated a huge attack on the cluster of mail servers that hosts at least one of your
domains’ mail. We’ve blocked the spammer and are clearing out the tens of thousands of messages
left by the attack. It’s made mail slow on this group of machines, and has exacerbated the high
load due to MyDoom, the latest Windows virus. All mail will be delivered, just slowly. We’re
working to ensure that a similar attack won’t slow mail down so badly in the future.

Solution For Workaholics

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Are you addicted to workahol? Maybe you need a life coach. Make sure you get your company to pay the $1,000 per month fee, though.

Interesting quote seen today: “Ideas rot if you don’t do something with them” (source). I have probably a hundred various ideas formed or half-formed in my head, in various stages of development. I have many domain names registered, sort of in the hopes that my thoughts will eventually progress past the most basic stages.

Beta to Alpha to Theta to Delta

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You would think that with only two hours of sleep the night before, I’d be out as soon as my head hits the pillow. But no, that doesn’t seem to be how my body works lately. It seems to want to shuffle around in the bed for at least an hour, trying to find a comfortable position. Even worse is my mind as it shuffles around from thing to other thing, trying to find a comfortable topic to reduce my beta brain waves.

What I Learned

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Here’s a quick update to my weekend review, with some things I learned this weekend.

  • A semi-drunk stranger on the train can make you feel like crap for the rest of the weekend by saying, “You’re pretty smart. You should be doing something more than xyz.”
  • Same semi-drunk stranger can be clueless when he suggests I go into politics due to my ability to use “doublespeak.”
  • I need to discover a more regular sleep pattern.
  • The golden ratio (Φ) is a constant (not a variable) with a value of approximately 1.61803399, and its value is neat because Φ – 1 = 1 / Φ ; and Φ + 1 = Φ2. A rectangle with the aspect ratio of Φ is the one people find most pleasing and approximates the ratio of anamorphic wide-screen film. It also appears in nature a whole lot and is tied directly into the Fibonacci (Leonardo, Filius Bonacci of Pisa) series. That’s just an overview and I’m sure some mathemticians would split (intersect?) hairs. Here’s some really detailed information.
  • This doesn’t really count as something I learned this weekend. It is more something I did when I should have been sleeping. I rearranged my photograph album again. I think I’ve found a format I like, but I still need to tweak it.
  • Let me go back to the “most pleasing rectangle” thing. People have actually done surveys on this, asking a wide variety of subjects to point out “the best rectangle” from a number of options. When the results are graphed, there’s a huge peak as you get close to Φ. By the way, this can all be related to music, too, but that’s another story for another day.
  • Oh, almost forgot. In fact, I did forget, so I’m adding this several hours later. Georgia Tech invented (or first utilized) the forward pass. That’s football. That’s American football. And I’m not sure if this information is true, but it was the opinion of a very obstinate train passenger.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

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It’s the future, future, future! This weekend I decided to take a trip to New York City to meet Amy and catch an improv show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. The group we saw is called Mother, and they did two sets. The first was a “Harold” long form and the second was a series of scenes based on music brought in by the audience. The CD I contributed was a Marine Drum and Bugle Corps CD of which, for some reason, I had two free copies.

It was fun, and now I’m considering taking classes at the UCBT Improv School. It’s only $300 for eight weeks of classes. I seriously doubt my employer will reimburse me for these expenses the way they do for my MBA degree, though.

Up

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I had the opportunity to nap yesterday. I should have set the alarm; I managed a nice long rest between 5:00 and 10:00 pm. I took care of some classwork and eventually headed back to sleep. I woke up several times throughout the night, and in doing so I was able to remember at least one dream.

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