Simple and Outward Facing

I thought today was an interesting day and as I sit here near the end of it I am not really sure what made it more interesting than any other day.  Still, it was interesting.  I woke in the still hours before dawn and lingered in bed to watch the sunrise/  A good call with TR set the day in the right mood. 

A shower, then breakfast, then off to see the new Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington movie "2 Guns".  It was very entertaining in a bit chaotic, plot-wise. I'd recommend it as a popcorn movie on the strength of the two lead actors. 

From there I stopped and got the car washed, then came home and watch an episode of Dexter with Tony.  (Tony is in pay-cable exile right now).  I followed that up with a long and lingering nap. 

So, amid all that, what made the day interesting? The pure simplicity of it. 

I just called in an order for pizza and I'm watched the end of the Woody Harrelson, Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek movie "After the Sunset" (2004).

 I have no other plan for the evening.  There is a Sinbad marathon on SyFy, so I might watch that or I might watch something down off the DVR. I've also been promising myself an evening spent almost entirely in reading and tonight might be that evening. 

I am finishing up "Red Seas under Red Skies" by Scott Lynch, the second book in his Gentleman Bastards sequence. It has been a good read and looks to end strong.

A Quiet Night At Home

I'm home for the evening and I happen to be watching a very good movie with Woody Harrelson called "The Walker".  It is a solid little drama about politics and character.  I'd highly recommend it. A masterful performance by Mr. Harrelson, with a great supporting cast. I am not sure how this movie slipped by me when it was in theatrical release.

It was a mostly productive day at work.  Actually, it was pretty good for a Monday when I stop to think about it. Through the strangeness of the universe I only had one meeting today.  That does not happen very often, so I took advantage of it by working through my backlog of tasks.

One of the things that happens in the project world is your dance card fills up with many small tasks you never have time to work, so it seems like you're constantly running behind. This week I am going to try and get most of them cleared off my plate.  I am not sure how successful I am going to be, but it is going to be worth the try.

60 Email on the Transsiberian

I spent the evening watching the movie "Transsiberian" with Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, and Ben Kingsley while I was working my way through my email backlog.  I managed to read, delete, sort and respond to about sixty email this evening, which made for a long, but mostly productive workday.

The movie was pretty good, it's a film noir set on the Transsiberian railway in Russia.  It is dark, intense, and well acted.  I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it. Emily Mortimer is very powerful in the film.

Work was long today, so I won't dwell on that - another day ahead of me.  The project is struggling and people are coming apart at the seams.  Yet another sign of bad management - a well managed team pulls together when it comes under stress, a poorly managed team falls apart.  It's amusing to me that part of our team is pulling together (the part under my direct manager), while the rest of it has started to fall apart.

My main concern is that the whole thing is going to implode and innocent people are going to catch the blame for our incompetent director, whose already casting about for ways to blame the problems on other people.  Dang, it is tough being under bad management.

It's been a stressful fall, that is for sure.  I wanted to go back to South Dakota for Christmas, but I am going to postpone that trip. All that is going to do is ratchet my stress level even higher - trying to travel in that most challenging season.  Running full speed up to Christmas, then stressful travel, then coming back to work and hitting it at full speed. That would definitely take all of the fun out of the vacation.  I think I will sit tight and aim at a more leisurely vacation after the holiday, somewhere in the early spring.  It would be nice to get two weeks or more completely off the work grid.