Random thoughts day...

In honor of the book Freakonomics, that great economics text that had no central point other than to express how economists think, here are a few random thoughts out of my own head.

1. My neck hurts.
2. I didn't start feeling better from my sickness until I went out with friends and threw back a couple of beers. Try to explain that Levitt!
3. It's hard to be creative on a daily basis.
4. I drink a whole lot of caffeine.
5. Tomorrow is Ride the Fire Eagle Danger Day. Thanks to Zefrank for posting an awesome video podcast!
6. My neck still hurts, probably from the way I type lying down in front of my lappy. I'm sure that Stephen and Steven have some statistics on that relating it to the Edo Period and literary development. To prevent them from writing another paper, I decided to sit up.
7. Microsoft's mistrust campaign with iTunes worked. Apple claims that it is compatible, but because I'm fighting the urge to struggle against it, my iTunes library still sits on my older XP machine.
8. I really love coding in Haskell. I hate reading Perl written by a coder who uses it as a fancy scripting language.
9. I LIKE the name Worse Than Failure! Even so, I still like the reaction from coworker's faces when they see my WTF mug at work. :D
10. For that matter, SELECT should be renamed GIMMIE. It seems that anyone asking me to use SELECT in my code is begging like a little child for something.
11. Right now I think that the two Stephens should write an article about Open Source.
12. I am now laying back down due to laziness.
13. I know that I can come up with twenty of these.
    
14. Doesn't Guinness give me hangovers? Isn't that what they say about dark beers?
15. It's really flipping cold outside. Just thinking about it made me fart.
16. I'm finally accepting the fact that I'll be living under my own power for the rest of my life.
    
17. Fashion sense is a total mystery to me. So is South Park, but at least I enjoy that. Crap, I missed Lost last night. At least I have a DVR.
18. I want to throw out half of all I own. Or at least give it away. I'm such a cluttered person, and I sure that the two Stephens would correlate that to my obesity.
19. Kohina means white noise in some Scandinavian language.
20. There is something cool about the glow of a black screen in a dark room.

There. I feel less creatively constipated now. Time to sleep.

Productively sick...

I've gotten over this unproductively sick mode I was in the last couple of days. I may still put off my karaoke for Thursday night, but oh well. I realized a few things today:

1. Accept that you are sick and that you need at least some rest.
   
2. Rearrange your living space when you are sick. This will make your body assume a different mindset and encourage healing. This includes being able to access necessary items from bed, such as water, food, communication.
   
3. If not completely bedridden or in the process of recovery, clean thoroughly. You don't want any lingering germs to make you sick again. This will also make you feel better.
4. Take off more time than your sickness. Make sure you are feeling okay before returning to work.
   

On other accounts: I wish I'd take my own advice more often. :) More in the morning.

Surprised there aren't more people...

...who are interested in doing karaoke??? It’s a blast and a great excuse to get drunk if you don’t mind making an ass of yourself, as well as a great excuse to make an ass of yourself if you’re planning on getting drunk. :) Seriously, we all need to blow off steam once in a while, and this is one way to do it.
In fact I plan to do some more on Wednesday.

See more progress on: do more karaoke

Never liked being sick...

Man, when you're trying your hardest to become re-motivated it pains you to be sick. Essentially all this forward motion you've been gathering has been dealt this impassible snowstorm, and you are forced to stand your ground. But, you shouldn't ruminate. You should march forward. So what if I can't exercise right now? I can sleep better, and that is one of my goals , or at least a derivation thereof.
Haven't listened to Kohina in a while, and I missed it. They have a bunch more tracks, and I just heard this most amazing track, Solomatic Fly by Orcan, which just took me a long time to get to play again. Thank god for emulators! Anywho... I must get some sleep, will write more in the morning.

Books I've read in the last two months...

Funny that this is one of the only resolutions that I’m doing really well about keeping. I’ve read the most amazing books in the last 2 months, including:
Getting Things Done—David Allen
This book is required reading for anyone who works a white-collar job. I can’t imagine getting organized and productive anymore without his guidance.
Mind Hacks, Mind Performance Hacks—Ron Hale-Evans
These two amazing books help explain the workings of the brain. An extremely interesting thing to read while also reading GTD.
The Road—Cormac McCarthy
This is the most prolific book of our time. Hands down. As depressing as the book was, I will end up rereading it at least two more times before I understand the two main characters in detail. I am more like the man but strive to be more like the boy. This thought scared me more than the landscape.
The World Inside—Robert Silverberg
Another dystopian novel, not nearly as prolific, but interesting in its own way. I only wish that you didn’t have to write a sexually shocking book in order to get published in the 70s, the free-love movement unfortunately vomiting over culture. The urbmon concept is really interesting though, and I do agree with the hypothesis that humans will evolve to mold into the constraints of their environment, be it biological, social, or political.
Also on audiobook I’m finishing Altered Carbok by Richard K. Morgan (thanking fate for Audible and iPods). Talk about dystopia. I still really don’t know what to think of the whole concept of sleeving.
I can say that I have accomplished restarting my reading bug again for the following reasons:
1. The only TV I watch anymore is whatever I can get from my iPod, South Park, or Lost. I’ve gone down from 20 hr/wk to 4.
2. I have 4 books on my plate now: The Illuminatus Trilogy (enjoyable reread), Them (interesting nonfiction about conspiracy theories), Freakonomics (wonderful way to learn economics), and David Allen’s sequel Ready For Anything.
3. I see no stop to reading in my foreseeable future.

See more progress on: Read more

David Allen knows...

I just finished reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. This is a very important book for anyone wanting to understand why you should get organized. I didn’t realize how much I was wasting by not doing so. It’s interesting that the book is about productivity and yet this is the first thing I thought to comment upon after reading it. Take it as a sign and check the book out; there are some really good hints there.

See more progress on: organize

Small thanks

Lately I've found myself doing a curious thing with my mail at work. I will label each email that has a thank you that is in whole or in part directed at me, and label it "gratuity". I then reread these emails at the end of the week, via an automatic Outlook search folder. This allows me to do two things:

1. It allows me to reflect on the good that I did during the week. Many times at work I may get the incorrect impression that I'm not doing a good enough job, or that I'm doing thankless tasks. This allows me to remember that I'm not.
2. It also lets me know who is most thankful of my work, and this is the person who has the best impression of me, implying that this person is one I don't ever want to let down.

Does this seem simple or trite? It's not to me; even if the person is saying thank you in an offhand manner, it still conveys some level of gratitude. It also reminds me to respond in kind. I used to be "that guy", the one who wouldn't send thank-you cards. I now understand the importance of them, because even though I do so in a methodical manner (as methodical as my lazy-ass can become) I now realize that all people do the same thing, just more commonly on a more subconscious level.
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I am typing this on my new laptop (thanks Mom and Dad!) and am now realizing that because of the small keyboard I end up typing across on my border letters again. I once broke that habit by only using split keyboards. Unfortunately I have redeveloped this habit. I can't complain too much though; the laptop kicks too much ass for me to begrudge it. :)
So, here's to breaking old habits, and hopefully forming new ones. Time for me to write a thank-you letter to my parents. They'll think that I've gone off my meds.