I Finished Leviathan Wakes

I finished reading "Leviathan Wakes" and I would definitely recommend it if you are a science fiction fan.  I am going to read the next book in the series - "Caliban's War".  Between here and there though I am reading "Many Lives, Many Masters" and a biography of Julius Caesar.

It was a beautiful evening.  I worked a full day at the office, then stopped at Santa Clara Billiards to shoot some practice games on the way home.  I am recovering my mojo when it comes to pool.  I am almost completely recovered from changing up my game - I would guess another five hours or so of practice will get me there.  I am running at a pretty consist .62 in straight pool.  My current goal is to drive that up to .75.

This week has been relatively pleasant.  T.R. is off to Kure Island with her friends for a week or so. My parents are both home at the ranch and doing well enough, with my nephew Tom in the mix.  Work has been busy but relatively sane.  I lost some time this week trouble shooting a bug that a code change introduced in a vendor product, but they found the root cause today, so it is now just a matter of cleaning up the damage and moving forward.

I lost a spot of time on one of my projects, but I am making up for it later here in the week.  The time spent trouble-shooting had to come out of somewhere and unfortunately, it came out of project time.  That is an equation that upper management fails to grasp.

I am looking forward to the three day weekend.  My plan is, on Saturday, I am going to the San Jose Museum of Art to see an Annie Leibowitz exhibit and then probably grab some lunch downtown.  Part of my renewal of  membership in the museum was a coupon that is worth 10.00 off at 17 different restaurants and cafes.  I think that I will see if I can go to all of them this year.  That might be a worthwhile little eating adventure.

The End of the Week

The week moved pretty quickly. Because of the nuances of the holiday and my 9/80 schedule it was a three day work week, which was very nice. It also helped that, at work, the load was light since so many people were out on vacation. In the aftermath of the project, I can feel myself relaxing.  My subconscious has been spinning, throwing up strange dream images each and every night, most of which are directly related back to work.  There will be plenty of headaches in the months to come - but it does appear as if there will be plenty of work.  My boss is going to be hiring another analyst and today, in our one on one, she assigned me two more projects.

In some ways, this is one of the challenges I face at work.  I am particularly good at taking projects that are tangled up and troubles and getting them straightened out and back on track - mostly through the process of simply lining things up and then executing with discipline.  So, naturally, two of the projects that are being assigned to me are projects that have been running - in both cases for several years, and have never been effective.  One has had their go-live delayed for over a year and the other went live, but with a pale shadow of the promise of the program.  So, my immediate future will be working to get my brain around them and then get them moving forward again.

In the Corporate Game of Thrones, the investigation into my complaint continues - on average, they say it takes about thirty-five days to complete the investigation portion - so that means that portion of it should wrap up in late June.  I am perfectly fine with that - as far as karma goes, my responsibility is to report the behavior. What happens from that point is up to them.

Things are going a well as can be expected with my aging parents and my sick nephew.  Life continues at it's own pace along with all those other things we cannot control and can barely influence. But, smooth is good, so I am going with that.  The process of aging is an ordinary thing and is part of life that we are all going to experience, sooner or later. The best we can do is make that trip as gracefully as we can.

Other than that, I am slowly healing from my separation, which is also part of the process of life.  Now that I think about it, life is always a process of adjustment or readjustment and learning to not be attached to outcomes is so crucial. Be in the moment and when the moment goes away, be in the moment.  So, in that sense, I am going to settle into the moment and watch some Archer, then curl back up with Leviathan Wakes.

Finding My Way To Sleep

I was in bed early last night and I am tempted to head there again tonight.  Last night I curled up a little after 7:00 PM with "Leviathan Wakes", intending to read myself to sleep and I was very successful/  I managed to read a paragraph or two before I curled up and called it a night.  I've been blaming allergies mostly, but I have been feeling the need to sleep a little more than usual and when I have followed that lead it has been a deep and successful sleep.  So, that is, once again, my half-way plan for the evening.  I might tinker around the house a bit more, but then it is curling up with a book and finding my way to sleep.

A Paragraph to End the Day

The rest of the day was as simple as the morning. I met Don up at Edgies and shot about two hours worth of pool. I mostly lost.  I decided two weeks ago that it was time to work on the technical aspects of  my pool game, so one of the first things I did was change my grip - which of course through the rest of my game off, in a good way. The new grip allows me to shot truer shots, but since my mind had been trained to compensate for the fact that I tended to pull to the left, now, since I am shooting a straighter line, I am pulling about a degree or two to the right.  Enough to make a visible difference. I figure I need about ten hours of practice to hone in the new grip. In the step beyond that I've started working on cue ball control, through spin and English, to set up the next shot.  That part has been working pretty good.  I think that once I hone my aim back in I'll make a measurable improvement in my over all game. After Edgies, we grabbed dinner at a seafood place, and then I came home, took a short nap, and watched an episode Longmire.  From here, I plan on curling up in bed with Leviathan Wakes.

Safety Razor Adventures

I've been contemplating getting a safety razor for a while and finally decided to do it.  With my new found piece of classic technology in my hand I shaved with it last night.  It has been years since I shaved with a safety razor, but most of it was buried deep in my muscle memory and came back quick enough.  It all went moothly. It was a beautifully close shave.  I managed to nick myself once - didn't actually feel anything, but drew a spot of blood, and I managed to give myself twin spots of razor burn, both in the same spot on the lower portion of my throat.  All said though, it was a great shave and as close as I remember.

Work went fairly smoothly - it was a bit chaotic and a bit busy, but productive. I think everyone at work is pushing things off there desks so they can take off for the weekend, so I am looking forward to a quiet end of the week as people flood out to enjoy that three day weekend.  I would both Thursday and Friday, so I am hoping for a pair of very productive days.  As for tonight, I think I am going to curl up and read some more in Leviathan Wakes.