Group Hug allows people to make anonymous online confessions. Post Secret lets you mail in anonymous postcard confessions. Kleenex's new ad campaign allows you to post anonymously your confessions. I know that the internet is just a tool, neither good nor bad, and its up to us to determine what we do with it. Still, why are these here, and why are these necessary?
I'm not going to pretend to be above it. Part of the reason I go by my initials is so I don't get anyone in trouble, but part of it is so I can confess, and to most of the world, it's anonymous. Some of you know me, and thankfully, none of you have ever really confronted me on the more serious confessions.
What does it say about the state of our society that (ostensibly) these confessions are made online, as opposed to people you trust? I think it sticks with me, mostly because I'd like to think that people aren't truly that isolated, that there are people there for them, and that fairies really do exist, and we need to clap to give them their wings.
***
On a related note, my stress tic returned for about a week. I have a few theories: people, places, things. More to the point, I think it returned because I had to go deal with a lot of strangers, and wasn't reacting well to it in the leadup. It went fine, in the end, not nearly as bad as I'd feared. However, it's kind of funny that such a simple thing as strangers make me twitch, isn't it?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Race Update
Wednesday, February 20, 2008. 2213 EST. Apartment in Virginia. Cold, cloudy, can't find the lunar eclipse.
Training for the five kilometer race continues. If I have not mentioned it here, I have been training for a five kilometer race. This week, I've started the interval training, a hellish concept of sprinting as fast as I can for short bursts. I don't remember the theory, but this continued sprinting actually makes you faster overall, thereby allowing you to run further in the same amount of time, or something. Its asinine.
What is my goal for this race? I don't know. In high school, when I ran cross country, my best ever time for a race was around twenty-nine minutes. It was roughly an average nine minute mile. For this race, under twenty-five minutes would be amazing, seeing as how that would be a (roughly) eight minute average mile. If training continues at this rate, twenty-five minutes is entirely possible. I just need the internal fortitude to keep up.
Training for the five kilometer race continues. If I have not mentioned it here, I have been training for a five kilometer race. This week, I've started the interval training, a hellish concept of sprinting as fast as I can for short bursts. I don't remember the theory, but this continued sprinting actually makes you faster overall, thereby allowing you to run further in the same amount of time, or something. Its asinine.
What is my goal for this race? I don't know. In high school, when I ran cross country, my best ever time for a race was around twenty-nine minutes. It was roughly an average nine minute mile. For this race, under twenty-five minutes would be amazing, seeing as how that would be a (roughly) eight minute average mile. If training continues at this rate, twenty-five minutes is entirely possible. I just need the internal fortitude to keep up.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Too Early
Sunday, February 17, 2008. 0514 EST. Apartment in Virginia. Dark, cold.
I can either go to sleep and automatically wake up in a couple of hours or stay up. Haven't decided yet, but boy do I hate my circadian rhythms.
***
An ice storm travailed through Virginia, coating everything in a cold-shiny rind. This happened to also shut down the Mixing Bowl for seven hours (the intersection between Interstates 95, 395 and 495). It made my personal travels hell. At a slight dip in the road, two cars had spun out at least 180 degrees, as both were facing me. Another car spun out towards the median and ended up backwards. A fourth car tripped right into the grassy median, speckled with snow and ice. I slowed down to about five miles per hour and made it through straight. The sports utility vehicle behind me also spun out onto the median. Behind that, the sedan dropped to five miles an hour. Since I was just half a mile from my apartment, I went five miles per hour for the rest of the trip. Not a single car attempted to pass me.
***
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Heaven only knows. Dick's famous story served as the basis for Blade Runner, a movie I have yet to see. It's not bad, but not great, this story. His prose is fairly utilitarian, doesn't detract, but doesn't really add to the story either. The dialogue is clunky at times, with a lot of repetition being more annoying than emphatic. His ideas are unique, especially for the time, and the theme of artifice versus realism really strikes at you from several angles, especially with the empathy boxes and dialing up emotions that, though the humans feel, are nothing more than a fake. Meanwhile, the androids that cannot use these empathy boxes actually show some emotion (and some sociopathic behavior). Raises a lot of questions about what really is human. There were a couple of plot points that, at first, seemed to raise the question about whether Deckard, the android bounty hunter, was himself an android. Upon second thought, they were just absurd plot points, and even within the context of the story, unbelievable. Would probably not read again.
***
If this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw4Bhmm22xo is correct… Go watch it. It's plausible and compelling, though the sample size is admittedly tiny. We're inundated with the current state of matters, but if we had more samples from ten years ago, and all were of similar quality as that displayed in the video, well.
***
One of the side effects of being in Law School was that it shot my professional self-confidence all to hell. I stopped caring, and my work suffered. I probably could've cared, and it wouldn't have made a difference, I don't think. It was never the right fit.
I got a couple of compliments on my work at work, and didn't know how to take it. It's been a long time since I felt competent in a work setting. I did feel that way occasionally at L.M., but how hard is it to take notes, something I've been doing for ever and ever?
***
I have to read this article http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html once every few weeks to keep myself grounded and remind myself that some misery is good.
I can either go to sleep and automatically wake up in a couple of hours or stay up. Haven't decided yet, but boy do I hate my circadian rhythms.
***
An ice storm travailed through Virginia, coating everything in a cold-shiny rind. This happened to also shut down the Mixing Bowl for seven hours (the intersection between Interstates 95, 395 and 495). It made my personal travels hell. At a slight dip in the road, two cars had spun out at least 180 degrees, as both were facing me. Another car spun out towards the median and ended up backwards. A fourth car tripped right into the grassy median, speckled with snow and ice. I slowed down to about five miles per hour and made it through straight. The sports utility vehicle behind me also spun out onto the median. Behind that, the sedan dropped to five miles an hour. Since I was just half a mile from my apartment, I went five miles per hour for the rest of the trip. Not a single car attempted to pass me.
***
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Heaven only knows. Dick's famous story served as the basis for Blade Runner, a movie I have yet to see. It's not bad, but not great, this story. His prose is fairly utilitarian, doesn't detract, but doesn't really add to the story either. The dialogue is clunky at times, with a lot of repetition being more annoying than emphatic. His ideas are unique, especially for the time, and the theme of artifice versus realism really strikes at you from several angles, especially with the empathy boxes and dialing up emotions that, though the humans feel, are nothing more than a fake. Meanwhile, the androids that cannot use these empathy boxes actually show some emotion (and some sociopathic behavior). Raises a lot of questions about what really is human. There were a couple of plot points that, at first, seemed to raise the question about whether Deckard, the android bounty hunter, was himself an android. Upon second thought, they were just absurd plot points, and even within the context of the story, unbelievable. Would probably not read again.
***
If this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw4Bhmm22xo is correct… Go watch it. It's plausible and compelling, though the sample size is admittedly tiny. We're inundated with the current state of matters, but if we had more samples from ten years ago, and all were of similar quality as that displayed in the video, well.
***
One of the side effects of being in Law School was that it shot my professional self-confidence all to hell. I stopped caring, and my work suffered. I probably could've cared, and it wouldn't have made a difference, I don't think. It was never the right fit.
I got a couple of compliments on my work at work, and didn't know how to take it. It's been a long time since I felt competent in a work setting. I did feel that way occasionally at L.M., but how hard is it to take notes, something I've been doing for ever and ever?
***
I have to read this article http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html once every few weeks to keep myself grounded and remind myself that some misery is good.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Mercurial Mood
Monday, February 11, 2008. 2022 EST. Apartment in Virginia. Dark, cold enough to raise goosepimples on my legs as I walked inside in shorts and a t-shirt.
I've been tetchy all day long. I cursed every single driver on the road to and from work for being on the road. I've been coughing all day due to my allergies hitting hard. Q.L. stole my whoopie cushion at work (though I deserved it because I left it inflated on her chair). I ate too much for lunch and felt really sick for most of the afternoon. The drive home took almost an hour because of a car accident. I came back to a five-day warning/eviction notice, even though I paid my rent five days before the due date, and have the bank statement online showing the check cancelled by my apartment complex.
At the same time, I had a great morning. Nice bowl of cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Calm morning, calm day really. Met the deadline and submitted something for the client at work. Started organizing an impending Popeye's fried chicken eating contest. I ran four miles for the first time in a very long time. Made it home safe, and was able to prove that I paid the rent bill. And now, I get to watch the train wreck embarrassment that is American Gladiators. There's even a preliminary plan for me to start a work-only blog, which would let me separate Writ in twain.
How much of our perception of the events around us is colored by our moods? Probably significantly. This day had its up and downs, just like any other day. I made it home safe, and I'm healthy for another day, and I want to see tomorrow.
Wow, it's been a long time since I could say that, honestly. I want to see tomorrow.
Weird. Is my life where I thought it would be ten years ago? No. Is it where I'd love it to be right now? No. Am I good to go for at least one more day? Yes. Well, this has been a hell of a day. Ah, to be bi-polar.
I've been tetchy all day long. I cursed every single driver on the road to and from work for being on the road. I've been coughing all day due to my allergies hitting hard. Q.L. stole my whoopie cushion at work (though I deserved it because I left it inflated on her chair). I ate too much for lunch and felt really sick for most of the afternoon. The drive home took almost an hour because of a car accident. I came back to a five-day warning/eviction notice, even though I paid my rent five days before the due date, and have the bank statement online showing the check cancelled by my apartment complex.
At the same time, I had a great morning. Nice bowl of cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Calm morning, calm day really. Met the deadline and submitted something for the client at work. Started organizing an impending Popeye's fried chicken eating contest. I ran four miles for the first time in a very long time. Made it home safe, and was able to prove that I paid the rent bill. And now, I get to watch the train wreck embarrassment that is American Gladiators. There's even a preliminary plan for me to start a work-only blog, which would let me separate Writ in twain.
How much of our perception of the events around us is colored by our moods? Probably significantly. This day had its up and downs, just like any other day. I made it home safe, and I'm healthy for another day, and I want to see tomorrow.
Wow, it's been a long time since I could say that, honestly. I want to see tomorrow.
Weird. Is my life where I thought it would be ten years ago? No. Is it where I'd love it to be right now? No. Am I good to go for at least one more day? Yes. Well, this has been a hell of a day. Ah, to be bi-polar.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Book Nook
Sunday, February 10, 2008. 1659 EST. Apartment in Virginia. Sunny, chilly but bearable.
Inspired by my semi-annual living space cleaning, a book check:
Currently reading: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
Books on the shelf not yet read (by myself, at least)*:
Code Complete by Steve McConnell
Next by Michael Crichton
Unconventional Success by David F. Swensen
Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s (The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik)
The Bridge by Iain Banks
Beyond Tells by James A. McKenna
Escape from China by Zhang Boli
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Atonement by Ian McEwen
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
*This list is probably not complete. There are likely books hiding somewhere in the piles that I have yet to unearth.
I'll be done with A Feast for Crows in a few days, week tops. Then, the problem is which book do I want to read the most. These all are interesting me, now that I look at the list, and have them on my shelf lined up in a row according to height, more or less.
Heavens, I'm such a geek. I'd go join a monastery and cloister myself away from humanity, but for the fact that I couldn't own books. Everything else, I would be OK with giving up.
***
Good heaven, was last week busy. At the company meeting, I actually broke out my laptop, not to dick around, but to continue working. There's something wrong with that, but I'm not sure what.
I've already left my mark on T.S., if the meeting was any indicator. As the "[T.S.] Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence" were handed out, we saw a parade of the usual suspects in the Info-tech discipline. Best project management, best developer, best business analyst, best salesperson, general excellence. And then, the ultimate award, entitled "Work Hard Eat Harder." Yes, gentle folk, the founders of T.S. created an award lauding the gustatory efforts of A.C. He even received the actual plaque, crystal slab supported in wooden frame. Yes, it said "2007 Work Hard Eat Harder."
This has two ramifications for me. One, I have to get off my ass and start planning more eating contests. But two, perhaps more important, despite my unintentional efforts to murder my coworkers with elevated cholesterol counts, I have actually had a tangible effect on team morale. Now, if only I could make such an effect with my work, but I guess we'll have to give that more time.
***
I broke my only cereal bowl a while back (OK, months back). It didn't stop me from eating cereal, but I was eating it out of a lot of Tupperware. That was kind of sad, so today, while procuring cleaning supplies, I went to the food storage section. Almost picked up a Tupperware bowl (again), when I looked over to the pyrex section, and picked up a pyrex bowl.
Form follows function. F*ck traditional dinnerware. I'm going to now assemble a plate/bowl set of nothing but pyrex. Doubles as food storage, hard to break (already dropped it once), but still an understated effect. This stuff will match pretty much anything I ever get, because it's clear. As you all know, I've got zero style, so need as much help as possible, or the opportunity to minimize style choices.
A quick search on the internets reveals it will be harder than I thought to purchase. Damn you, porcelain. Damn you.
***
Finally had time to decompress. Much needed; I slept so, so much. It makes me want to organize another tackle football game, or go back to sleep.
Inspired by my semi-annual living space cleaning, a book check:
Currently reading: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
Books on the shelf not yet read (by myself, at least)*:
Code Complete by Steve McConnell
Next by Michael Crichton
Unconventional Success by David F. Swensen
Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s (The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik)
The Bridge by Iain Banks
Beyond Tells by James A. McKenna
Escape from China by Zhang Boli
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Atonement by Ian McEwen
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
*This list is probably not complete. There are likely books hiding somewhere in the piles that I have yet to unearth.
I'll be done with A Feast for Crows in a few days, week tops. Then, the problem is which book do I want to read the most. These all are interesting me, now that I look at the list, and have them on my shelf lined up in a row according to height, more or less.
Heavens, I'm such a geek. I'd go join a monastery and cloister myself away from humanity, but for the fact that I couldn't own books. Everything else, I would be OK with giving up.
***
Good heaven, was last week busy. At the company meeting, I actually broke out my laptop, not to dick around, but to continue working. There's something wrong with that, but I'm not sure what.
I've already left my mark on T.S., if the meeting was any indicator. As the "[T.S.] Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence" were handed out, we saw a parade of the usual suspects in the Info-tech discipline. Best project management, best developer, best business analyst, best salesperson, general excellence. And then, the ultimate award, entitled "Work Hard Eat Harder." Yes, gentle folk, the founders of T.S. created an award lauding the gustatory efforts of A.C. He even received the actual plaque, crystal slab supported in wooden frame. Yes, it said "2007 Work Hard Eat Harder."
This has two ramifications for me. One, I have to get off my ass and start planning more eating contests. But two, perhaps more important, despite my unintentional efforts to murder my coworkers with elevated cholesterol counts, I have actually had a tangible effect on team morale. Now, if only I could make such an effect with my work, but I guess we'll have to give that more time.
***
I broke my only cereal bowl a while back (OK, months back). It didn't stop me from eating cereal, but I was eating it out of a lot of Tupperware. That was kind of sad, so today, while procuring cleaning supplies, I went to the food storage section. Almost picked up a Tupperware bowl (again), when I looked over to the pyrex section, and picked up a pyrex bowl.
Form follows function. F*ck traditional dinnerware. I'm going to now assemble a plate/bowl set of nothing but pyrex. Doubles as food storage, hard to break (already dropped it once), but still an understated effect. This stuff will match pretty much anything I ever get, because it's clear. As you all know, I've got zero style, so need as much help as possible, or the opportunity to minimize style choices.
A quick search on the internets reveals it will be harder than I thought to purchase. Damn you, porcelain. Damn you.
***
Finally had time to decompress. Much needed; I slept so, so much. It makes me want to organize another tackle football game, or go back to sleep.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Midweek Recap
Wednesday, February 6, 2008. 2332. Back in the apartment in Virginia. Dark, but I'm guessing it is surprisingly warm outside, as it was the entirety of today.
I got to listen to 107.5, The River, while en route to the client site. One morning, they went absolutely nuts that someone cursed on the air, which finally justified their time-delay airing. On and on they bragged about having to use the bleeper, and this was only the second time in ten years they'd been given the chance to do so. Twice in ten years. In the D.C. metro area, we're lucky it's not more frequent than twice an hour that someone gets bleeped.
***
The struggle for a project name continues. Since it incorporates Queues, several client employees refer to the project as the "Queue Thang." Not "Queue Thing," "Queue Thang." This may stick, but boy, I hope it don't. Have you heard me affect a southern accent? It not pretty.
***
I'd always considered myself fairly easy to comprehend, accent-wise. Yes, this despite most peoples' inability to comprehend me because I mumble, talk really fast, and use language on occasion which was a better fit for the sixteenth century (but I'm getting better on that last one, I swear). Then, I get down to Tennessee.
There's just something about my Yankee accent that was off-putting. At the same time, I think I mentioned it before, I couldn't understand their Southern drawl unless I was looking directly at them and concentrating. It's basically all the same, and apparently, it's not at all the same. I wonder what this says about our brains and our pattern recognition? A big part of language is just pattern recognition, hearing what someone said before, linking it up to a meaning. It's also why language falls apart when I talk to little kids and animals. They don't understand what the hell I'm saying at some times. The patterns are unfamiliar.
Despite my horrendous ability to adopt an accent, I had toyed with trying to make myself more a southerner. Given that most people took me for Hispanic, wouldn't a Spanish accent have been more appropriate? Damned if I know. Still, perhaps there's a need to watch more reruns of Hee-Haw before I take this on.
***
For the women out there: During one meeting, we were talking with a vendor. T.K., a woman, and J.M., another woman, and the vendor representative, discussed about ninety percent of all the relevant issues, while the rest of us (men) sat there like lumps on a log, with nothing relevant to add. Boy, the world has changed.
***
For the developers out there: I hate virtual machines. Instability, thy name is VMWare. Great in theory, questionable in practice. Granted, it might just be about my level of familiarity with technology. If I didn't read all the time, books would probably scare and confuse me in much the same manner. There are so many of them, and all of them so different, but they're useful somehow?
***
So tired.
I got to listen to 107.5, The River, while en route to the client site. One morning, they went absolutely nuts that someone cursed on the air, which finally justified their time-delay airing. On and on they bragged about having to use the bleeper, and this was only the second time in ten years they'd been given the chance to do so. Twice in ten years. In the D.C. metro area, we're lucky it's not more frequent than twice an hour that someone gets bleeped.
***
The struggle for a project name continues. Since it incorporates Queues, several client employees refer to the project as the "Queue Thang." Not "Queue Thing," "Queue Thang." This may stick, but boy, I hope it don't. Have you heard me affect a southern accent? It not pretty.
***
I'd always considered myself fairly easy to comprehend, accent-wise. Yes, this despite most peoples' inability to comprehend me because I mumble, talk really fast, and use language on occasion which was a better fit for the sixteenth century (but I'm getting better on that last one, I swear). Then, I get down to Tennessee.
There's just something about my Yankee accent that was off-putting. At the same time, I think I mentioned it before, I couldn't understand their Southern drawl unless I was looking directly at them and concentrating. It's basically all the same, and apparently, it's not at all the same. I wonder what this says about our brains and our pattern recognition? A big part of language is just pattern recognition, hearing what someone said before, linking it up to a meaning. It's also why language falls apart when I talk to little kids and animals. They don't understand what the hell I'm saying at some times. The patterns are unfamiliar.
Despite my horrendous ability to adopt an accent, I had toyed with trying to make myself more a southerner. Given that most people took me for Hispanic, wouldn't a Spanish accent have been more appropriate? Damned if I know. Still, perhaps there's a need to watch more reruns of Hee-Haw before I take this on.
***
For the women out there: During one meeting, we were talking with a vendor. T.K., a woman, and J.M., another woman, and the vendor representative, discussed about ninety percent of all the relevant issues, while the rest of us (men) sat there like lumps on a log, with nothing relevant to add. Boy, the world has changed.
***
For the developers out there: I hate virtual machines. Instability, thy name is VMWare. Great in theory, questionable in practice. Granted, it might just be about my level of familiarity with technology. If I didn't read all the time, books would probably scare and confuse me in much the same manner. There are so many of them, and all of them so different, but they're useful somehow?
***
So tired.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Travel's End
For now, my incessant travel cessated (ceased?). So long semi-regular posting, until I travel again. I still have a few leftover points to post, but will do those later. Kind of tired right now, what with it being 0420 and all.
***
Thursday, January 31, 2008. 1815 EST. Nashville International Airport, awaiting flight back to Baltimore. Rainy, dreary. It's sheeting down the window panes, and would be almost beautiful if I didn't have to go out in the middle of it in about an hour.
After two weeks, I don't think I did a great job, but I think I've done a somewhat competent job. Lots of improvement possible. Going to have to work on it in the coming weeks and months.
***
I went and got breakfast at Jack in the Box. The lady actually said "Go ahead and have a seat. I'll bring you your food." She did. That would never happen in Baltimore.
At Chick-fil-A, all of the workers were around sixteen years of age. This makes sense, as I'd gone a few hours after school let out, and you gotta make your money somewhere. Still, that happens more and more where everyone around me is younger than me. I see it at work also, and it sort of makes me feel decrepit. Well, no sort of about it. I do feel decrepit.
I had the opportunity to go to a Sonic fast food restaurant. Near D.C., you see commercials for them all the time. I'd never figured out if there was one nearby, though. Also found out they had tater tots. Tots!
Went to a Thai restaurant, and the woman at the front automatically assumed I'd come there to pick up some food. As she was also Asian, I've determined that I just need to go to the right places to find Asians in Tennessee, such as Asian restaurants.
Had a nice breakfast this morning at Waffle (Awful?) House. Their All-Star Special breakfast consists of a waffle (to which I added butter and syrup), three slices of bacon, two slices of buttered toast (plus multi fruit jelly), scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Washed it down with three diet cokes. Lunch was at Stroud's Restaurant, a barbecue beef sandwich with slaw and pickles, along with a large diet coke.
Yes, I'm not missing the irony of getting diet cokes all day.
I also ended up dragging all day, and felt really stupid and useless.
You'll notice that I ate a hell of a lot of junk food this week, which definitely can't be conducive to mens corpore sans corpora. Now, I think that means "healthy mind in a healthy body", but I'll bet you if you translated that, it probably comes closer to something like "have a mind without the body." The point is it was quick and easy and I think I ended up suffering mentally and physically because of it.
Hence, my wack job idea: from now on, when I travel, I'm going vegetarian. I'm already on the run, in unfamiliar environs, and probably not exercising as much because I'm busy. The temptation, since food is expensed to the client, is too great to get whatever, and so I'll end up getting the worst food known to man. Plus, it'll probably be embarrassing if I have to show up without a belt because I got too fat for my clothing in a week.
***
One morning, as I drove to the client site, I got stuck behind a remarkable individual, weaving in and out of our one lane on a two lane road. At eight in the morning (nine EST). Yes, this individual came within about twenty-five feet of slamming headfirst into an oncoming tractor trailer, or veering off the road into a ditch. I had my phone out, and dialed nine, one, and was waiting on the one.
Drunk at eight in the morning and driving. This is something you also don't see in Baltimore, though it's because people are drunk and inside sleeping it off that early.
***
There was a half-price book store without a science fiction section, though it had several rows chock full of religious texts and devotionals.
***
My conceptualization of time zones are so screwed up. I keep thinking that I'm one hour behind EST (which I am), but I look at my watch and laptop (still on EST) and add one hour to get the current time for CST (when I should be subtracting; this act puts me in the Atlantic Ocean, time wise). This is also why I can't schedule flights correctly, and why I end up flying at screwed up times, because my math was all off.
***
This Wednesday, there was one moment at which I felt like it was law school all over again. There was so much information in such a small amount of time, and my mind felt melted down. The feeling passed in about five minutes, but still. Not a bad thing, but something to watch.
The bad food may also have had something to do with all this. It also contributed to my feeling of ineptitude today, when nothing was sticking in my mind.
***
What we have here is a failure to communicate. My yankee accent confuses them, their southern accent confuses me. It turns out if I'm not actively talking to someone, and they just ask me a question when I'm not paying attention to them, I cannot decipher what they said.
***
Such a culture shock from New York to Tennessee. Everyone is so polite down here. My nonscientific theory on why (which J.L. has backed me up on)? Space. In New York, everyone is crammed together. If you expend the energy to be polite to everyone, it would drive you crazy. You need to carve out some space of your own to survive. In Tennessee, on the other hand, there is space. You can afford to expend the energy to make your life better, by being polite to others. It's all just a matter of space.
***
Thursday, January 31, 2008. 1815 EST. Nashville International Airport, awaiting flight back to Baltimore. Rainy, dreary. It's sheeting down the window panes, and would be almost beautiful if I didn't have to go out in the middle of it in about an hour.
After two weeks, I don't think I did a great job, but I think I've done a somewhat competent job. Lots of improvement possible. Going to have to work on it in the coming weeks and months.
***
I went and got breakfast at Jack in the Box. The lady actually said "Go ahead and have a seat. I'll bring you your food." She did. That would never happen in Baltimore.
At Chick-fil-A, all of the workers were around sixteen years of age. This makes sense, as I'd gone a few hours after school let out, and you gotta make your money somewhere. Still, that happens more and more where everyone around me is younger than me. I see it at work also, and it sort of makes me feel decrepit. Well, no sort of about it. I do feel decrepit.
I had the opportunity to go to a Sonic fast food restaurant. Near D.C., you see commercials for them all the time. I'd never figured out if there was one nearby, though. Also found out they had tater tots. Tots!
Went to a Thai restaurant, and the woman at the front automatically assumed I'd come there to pick up some food. As she was also Asian, I've determined that I just need to go to the right places to find Asians in Tennessee, such as Asian restaurants.
Had a nice breakfast this morning at Waffle (Awful?) House. Their All-Star Special breakfast consists of a waffle (to which I added butter and syrup), three slices of bacon, two slices of buttered toast (plus multi fruit jelly), scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Washed it down with three diet cokes. Lunch was at Stroud's Restaurant, a barbecue beef sandwich with slaw and pickles, along with a large diet coke.
Yes, I'm not missing the irony of getting diet cokes all day.
I also ended up dragging all day, and felt really stupid and useless.
You'll notice that I ate a hell of a lot of junk food this week, which definitely can't be conducive to mens corpore sans corpora. Now, I think that means "healthy mind in a healthy body", but I'll bet you if you translated that, it probably comes closer to something like "have a mind without the body." The point is it was quick and easy and I think I ended up suffering mentally and physically because of it.
Hence, my wack job idea: from now on, when I travel, I'm going vegetarian. I'm already on the run, in unfamiliar environs, and probably not exercising as much because I'm busy. The temptation, since food is expensed to the client, is too great to get whatever, and so I'll end up getting the worst food known to man. Plus, it'll probably be embarrassing if I have to show up without a belt because I got too fat for my clothing in a week.
***
One morning, as I drove to the client site, I got stuck behind a remarkable individual, weaving in and out of our one lane on a two lane road. At eight in the morning (nine EST). Yes, this individual came within about twenty-five feet of slamming headfirst into an oncoming tractor trailer, or veering off the road into a ditch. I had my phone out, and dialed nine, one, and was waiting on the one.
Drunk at eight in the morning and driving. This is something you also don't see in Baltimore, though it's because people are drunk and inside sleeping it off that early.
***
There was a half-price book store without a science fiction section, though it had several rows chock full of religious texts and devotionals.
***
My conceptualization of time zones are so screwed up. I keep thinking that I'm one hour behind EST (which I am), but I look at my watch and laptop (still on EST) and add one hour to get the current time for CST (when I should be subtracting; this act puts me in the Atlantic Ocean, time wise). This is also why I can't schedule flights correctly, and why I end up flying at screwed up times, because my math was all off.
***
This Wednesday, there was one moment at which I felt like it was law school all over again. There was so much information in such a small amount of time, and my mind felt melted down. The feeling passed in about five minutes, but still. Not a bad thing, but something to watch.
The bad food may also have had something to do with all this. It also contributed to my feeling of ineptitude today, when nothing was sticking in my mind.
***
What we have here is a failure to communicate. My yankee accent confuses them, their southern accent confuses me. It turns out if I'm not actively talking to someone, and they just ask me a question when I'm not paying attention to them, I cannot decipher what they said.
***
Such a culture shock from New York to Tennessee. Everyone is so polite down here. My nonscientific theory on why (which J.L. has backed me up on)? Space. In New York, everyone is crammed together. If you expend the energy to be polite to everyone, it would drive you crazy. You need to carve out some space of your own to survive. In Tennessee, on the other hand, there is space. You can afford to expend the energy to make your life better, by being polite to others. It's all just a matter of space.
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