Tag Archives: Life

Poor things…

So I guess I shouldn’t complain about life too much. Things could certainly be worse.

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Although, that’s not really true, one of the things I learned from volunteering at the shelter (and/or the crisis hotline) is that if you’ve got problems, it doesn’t matter if someone else has it worse, they’re still your problems (and you’ve got to work them out). Although, sometimes, diagrams like the above sometimes help to put them into perspective…Indexed Jessica Hagy

Jessica Nagy does these great diagrams on index cards on a great site called “Indexed” and she’s got a book or two (or three) out with similar types of content.

Literally, I could live life more literally

I think it would drive many of you all cRaZy but I think I could handle it.

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Wouldn’t live be easier, if you did everything literally? Eventually things would get better after the crazy parts but I think it could be a good place to be.

Let’s not worry about the underlying themes, bring them to the top or don’t bring them at all….

Relating Legos to Life…

I love xkcd, a cartoon about life, tech, love, science and other abstract concepts. I’ve referenced a few xkcd cartoons before, looking now I see I haven’t even mentioned a few of my favorites. I’ll have to remedy that…xkcd-659.png

You’ll have to click to see the other four frames of the cartoon.

FYI, hovering your mouse over the actual cartoon usually adds a little more to the cartoon’s story (or explains some of the geeky concepts concepts).

Whoever said technology would simplify my life?

I use tech to complicate my life and make it better. Not simpler. I’ve never felt that it simplifies my life. Tech gives me information, organizes me and entertains me.

If I used just a few tech tools, it could simplify my life. An answering machine simplified it. And a fax machine. But those are very 1/2 duplex technologies, more like Web -3.0

Other basic tools like a calendar and address book help to organize my life, and make it so I don’t need to remember things which makes my life a little easier.

Much of what unsimplifies life are the more interactive technologies, the ones that require a response, especially the ones that require a response quickly. E-mail is my biggest interactive technology, I’ve tried so many of the others and while I enjoy them they just take up so much time… Twitter, IM, and other chat-type services. I really like Seesmic, but it’s hard to get a feel for what’s going on with just a glance, you’ve got to watch the video’s to see what they’re about; there just isn’t enough of a description to know what the conversation is about (or what it’s become after multiple responses).

And then there are all the interactive ones that you’re just exploring, there is so much out there and it’s so time consuming it’s un-simplifying my life in that it’s taking away time from the rest of it.

With it I can do more than without it. Do I need to be doing more? Probably not, but some of what I’m able to explore and experience makes it worth it to me.

There’s (not) a reason for everything. At least I don’t think so…

“There’s a reason for everything”, I’ve heard this a lot lately but I don’t know if I believe this. I like to think the universe and everything in it is in some kind of strange harmony but it’s times like this when it doesn’t make any sense that makes me think there is no rhyme nor reason.

In case you don’t know, I’m in charge of a very small department at work, there’s only four of us (including myself). Two of us meticulously manipulate lots of data & records, the genius ‘computer guy’ works on all 1000 computers and the network, I do the audio/video, paperwork, meetings, and a little of the computer stuff. Last month was really busy, it was the start of the school year so it’s always cRaZy but the only part that’s important to this story is that the computer guy was off for a few weeks since they were having their second baby his wife works elsewhere in the district so we all know her. I probably mentioned to you how insane it was at that time (plus that’s when I was sick which made it even more insane). I don’t know how we made it without him for those few weeks, it seemed like everything that went wrong were all in the areas that I had the least expertise, the few weeks he was back were wonderful!

If you haven’t figured it out by now this story isn’t about me, it’s about the ‘computer guy’ and to move this story along we unfortunately just have to rip off the band-aid to get to the next part –

Early this Monday morning, completely and utterly out of the blue he just died. He was unconscious, they don’t know why and they couldn’t revive him and I don’t know if they’ll ever even figure out what happened. I’d have said he was a pretty healthy guy, he was 37 and he could have easily passed for thirty, so it’s just bizarre…

To me, this makes no sense. There is no reason. Everyone keeps talking about it different ways. I know I’ll hear it all again and they’ll probably say something like that at the funeral. But it just makes no sense to me. He had a wife he was in love with and two babies; to me, there is nothing more important than that. It’s just hard for me to be convinced there is some reason, some higher purpose that I don’t understand that’s suppose to make it all make sense in the end.

It seems like a pretty simple process to me – if the universe needs someone for ‘some other purpose’ you leave the happy couple with the newborn babies alone and you grab someone else. Unfortunately, if I were creating the formula it would weigh heavily against me – the single people who hadn’t managed to get married and didn’t have any kids should go before the couple with the babies. It just seems like a pretty simple concept to me and if we all understood the formula we could all be fruitful and multiply and live happily ever after… Continue reading

Free NBC Fall Previews

ChuckjourneymanYou can see Journeyman, Chuck, Life and Bionic Woman for Free with Amazon UnBox. This means you can download them straight to your TiVo and watch them on the big screen (or you can download them to a PC, but I’ve never done that) for a limited time. I haven’t seen Life yet, but I’ve seen the other three: Chuck is awesome, Journeyman is excellent, Bionic Woman is luke-warm but I’ll give it a chance (and you can see for yourself!).

On a side note, this ties to NBC cutting ties or getting pissed at the iTunes music store (I can’t remember why) and are now partnering with Amazon. I have no idea how long this offer might last or if the link will last but this is a permanent (I think) link to Amazon Unbox.Lifebionic

Amazon Unbox is an interesting service, more so for your TiVo than your PC (IMHO). You can rent high-quality movies for about $3.99 each, but each weekend they offer a half-dozen 99 cent ones (some are new and some are old), so keep your eyes open for those. Rentals are on your machine for 30 days but once you start to watch you only have 24 hours to finish (or re-watch it). Personally, I think 24 hours is too short, it needs to be about 36 hours; if I start to watch a movie Sunday afternoon at 4 and don’t finish it, I’m probably not going to be home from work in time the next day to finish it. I really think they need to extend the 24 hours (which is starting to be an industry standard) to about 36 hours (48?) or figure out some way to get another $1 out of me so that I can keep it for another day). It’s just more consumer friendly, it’s not like I’ve got the media and they need it to rent to another person. Continue reading

All over the place

So I’ve been all over the place lately. Geographically and just a lot of stuff going on (all things are good). I’ve been up north, done a variety of odd things to my car, seen movies, been reading, found some good sites and I’ve got a whole lot of “stuff” to blog about. I’ve got lots of photos too. I’ve also had a bit Internet connectivity withdrawal, I’ve either been too busy to surf or on a island (literally) but I’m all better now…

I just need a little down town to catch up with it. Hopefully in the next day or so (or at least by the weekend) I’ll get caught up.

So So Busy Lately…

It’s been extra cRaZy lately:

  • We’re nearing the end of the school year and it just plain gets hectic around then (even though I work year-round).
  • The superintendent just retired, he’s been in the district 44 years(!!!), so there has been work to wrap up and a variety of celebratory events (admin building, district-wide, just administrators, etc.). He sure knew a lot of people, many whom came back for some of the celebrations.
  • I just starting teaching a class at a local university and getting everything started always takes time (even though I’ve done this same class before); plus I’m trying to do more on-line with this group.
  • Life in general has been a little busier lately from Mother’s day to days off and other things.
  • I think I’ve missed at least an extra day a week at work for some meeting and/or conference every week since before Easter and had to take a few vacation days here and there too so it’s been busy for those reasons too.
  • I’ve got a new boss, which is great(!), but it’s stressful figuring out how they want things (what things I should ask about and what things to just do) there’s no problems, it’s just I figured all that out with the old boss and had a good grip on these things.
  • I’ve been having sleep problems too, but I bet that’s partially due to the above and the crazy weather changes affecting my allergies.

    Hmm… Putting them all in a list I realize there are more work related items than life in general, have to think about that…

    I go have good stuff going on, most (all?) of the busy personal stuff has been good, it’s just been making life busier. I haven’t spent as much “fun” time on the computer as usual, certainly not much time blogging lately, but I think things will calm down soon, but we are still getting into the end of the year crunches at work. That’s all for now, just a life in general update, not too exciting but you know I’m alive…