Monday Always Makes It

Monday always makes it, sooner or later. 

Last week was pretty busy, work-wise, and this week is promising more of the same.  The weekend was fairly nice.  Saturday was productive around the apartment and out running errands.  I got all my marketing done and managed to slip out and see "Huntsman: Winters War" at AMC 14.  It is not a life changing movie, but it was enjoyable.  It has an excellent cast and it was visually very pretty, which made up for the rather simplistic plot.  What I would call a great little popcorn movie.  Besides, if you cast Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, and Jessica Chastain in anything - well, you'll pretty much guarantee I am going to see that one.

Sunday was pleasant as well - breakfast with Bob and Tyrone, then a trip to CVS with Bob so he could get a blood pressure cuff.  Bob is doing okay, all things considered.  Tyrone is Tyrone. After I ran a couple of errands I circled back and had lunch with Rick over at the Orchard City Kitchen, which is a little upscale for my tastes, borderline pretentious - but the food was excellent and the clientele was amusing, so I have to say I kind of liked the place.

Sunday evening was the return of Game of Thrones, which I was eagerly awaiting.  TR extended her trip through the weekend, so she should be home from NYC later today. Oh, and I didn't mention this but I went out and bought a new mattress - a Serta Elegant Plush, which is great.  It was delivered early last week and I have to say I've slept like a baby in the intervening days.  I've also got a pair of cast iron plants on order from Summerwinds Nursery to add a bit more greenery to the apartment. They were supposed to arrive at the end of last week, but they haven't made it yet.  The nursery is going to give me a call when they get in.  I'm going to double entry today, because there is something that I wanted to talk about in a little more detail on it's own and not bury it down in another post.

Wearing Cranky Pants Tonight

Whew.

That was a hard spin through cranky.

Been a busy two weeks. The week before I went to Minnesota for a work conference. This weeks been busy helping to scope out an ill-formed project that has the cart well ahead of the donkey.

A productive week, but a bit on the long side. TR is on work travel this week, so I've missed her and probably overcompensated by working too much. One more work day ahead, but I've got enough hours it will be a light day.

Tonight I knocked off work at four, then had a light and unsatisfactory dinner. I tried to take a short nap and couldn't due to assorted interruptions, both inside and outside, resulting in my crawling out of the nap and donning my cranky pants.

I had a second dinner - well, more of a snack, a bowl of soup. That helped. From there I went outside and wandered up and down the sidewalk picking up trash. That helped.

I often find that if I do something not focused on me, like picking up the flotsam and jetsam of the neighborhood it helps put me in a better mood. It helped. Though now my allergies have me sneezing.

So, the plan tonight is to watch a little something on the TV, then curl up and read myself to sleep. It should help me break through the cranky.

A Contemplative Evening

It's been a contemplative evening following a busy and analytical day. What does a contemplative evening look like here? Right now it's quiet (no TV, no music, just incidental sounds), soft light, the scent of rain and a bowl of miso soup. I may read a bit later or perhaps watch a movie. But for now it's just quiet simple contemplation to let the pendulum of my brain swing back from being so deeply analytical today.

Life Always Moves

Life always moves.

That's one of the amazing things about it. It is like a river constantly flowing from the source to the sea. We are carried with it.

Today was an indifferent day at the office. We discovered a configuration flaw in a recent project. Nothing major, just irksome. We will recover quick enough. The root cause was a misunderstanding in a requirement. It was a single one and a simple one but it was enough for us to pull the piece of software from production.

It illustrates one of the problems of communication. Though people can affirm they understand something we have no real way of knowing that they did. At some point it all comes down to trust. For myself I would rather extend that trust over and over than exist in a world without it. Even if the end result is bumps and bruises.

Life always moves. If you keep that in mind then the troubles and incidents of life - whether they are in your working life or in your personal life are revealed for what they are. Simply incidents. Simply troubles. We keep moving. We move over them, around them and sometimes through them.

Life always moves and we always move.

Tuesday's Start

It's a bright and beautiful Tuesday morning here in California. The bird symphony is in full song, the sky is blue and it's crisp and cool outside.  I started the work day with a morning meeting regarding feedback from some business research.  It's interesting, but I am not sure it's actionable - or at least not actionable by our current team constellation.

The weekend was nice and I took Monday off as an extra vacation day.  I am getting ready to start the project run for the June release, so I thought starting with a long weekend was a most excellent approach.  My plan for the day is to try and get things lined up so I know the path ahead. I find that is I start a project from a firm foundation it's far easier to make a smooth run of it.

I made a good dent in my ongoing efforts to minimize my life-style, but I have some room to go. Part of that particular journey is the ability to part with "stuff".  I did read a good little rule of thumb last week that I have been carrying with me.  The writer recommended that you use three categories to define the items that you choose to keep.  Need it. Use it. Love it.  It's a pretty good little toolset.

(Original Photo - California Poppies)

The Return

Well, when I set this aside for a while due to being incredibly busy in my personal and professional life I never imagined it would be a year plus before I came back.  Welcome back me!

Most of the craziness was in my professional life.  I had seven major projects coordinating the work between four different vendors and it pretty much ate all my free time.  By the time I reached the end of the day I was simply exhausted.  A whole ton of personal stuff got set aside and I am still just recovering from it, trying to work my way back to some resemblance of a rhythm or routine.

I am looking forward to getting back into the habit of writing here regularly!  Today has been a pretty quiet day.  I'm already a quarter into the new year and I have a much more reasonable four or five major projects, which is closer to my capacity (and still have a life).

I even managed to get out of town and go down to LA over the weekend for a sort of mini-vacation.

The Comfort of Movies

Today was better than yesterday. The hallmark of yesterday was a four hour nap. I was simply exhausted. Probably a little depressed. I went out had breakfast with Tony and Tyrone at the Hickory Pit. After breakfast I ran a few errands on the way home. Then I settled in and watched a little bit of TV and I couldn't really concentrate. About noon I laid back down and slept for about four hours. It did me a lot of good. Afterwards I got up and enjoy the quiet evening.

Today I met Tyrone for breakfast early, then stopped at the market on the way and refreshed the pantry for the week to come. I made a couple of family phone calls. Then, at noon, I went over to the cinema arts theater in Santana Row to see the movie Inherent Vice. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Joaquin Phoenix use it was enjoyable if strange and disjointed. I can see why it's been a darling of the festival circuit but I can't recommend it with a whole heart. It is a little too disjointed. Good performances by the cast but parts of it felt grafted on.

This evening has been relatively quiet. I talked with Tom for a while about the movie John Wick. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it. then I watched Casino, with Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci. That is also an excellent movie.

I spent a lot of time and thought today, just letting things rise and fall naturally. I am a long way short of resolution. I'll probably be a long way short of resolution for a while. There were a lot of things said in anger and I think the cooling off time is good for me. I have found, over the years, that a bit of quiet, that a bit of meditation, that a couple of long walks are good for the soul in difficult times.

Keep An Untroubled Spirit

There are times when life can be rough.

Being human can, at times, strike hard blows against us.

When I was a younger man I learned the importance of simply getting up and keeping going. There are times when that lesson has worked in my favor. There are times when it has worked against me. I haven't really decided what time this is. But I get up and I keep going. That is who I am.

The last week has been a emotional roller coaster. Peaks, valleys and a fair share of screaming.That is the right thing we call life. We wouldn't get the scars if we weren't in the game and I love the game. I'm deep in introspection right now. I'll probably stay there for while trying to make sense of things.

I'm sure I'll write about it in the coming days. For now it is simple enough that my health is good, that my spirit, though battered, is intact. I've been slow in writing because I did not want to write from anger. Anger does not become. I've been slow in writing because I did not want to write from pain. Pain happens, suffering is optional. I've been slow in writing because I did not want to write from sorrow. Sorrow rises when we mourn the past. The past is done, there's nothing we can do about it.

I think it is better to write from the moment. This moment I am sitting at home on a quiet Saturday night, about to call my parents, and watching a Knights Tale on TV. I am simply who I am. I'm guided in this moment by the words of Marcus Aurelius who told us, simply, to keep an untroubled spirit.

Our minds have time to dance

The week has flowed pretty smoothly. I finally made the decision to become a full-time telecommuter. I was telling my boss the other day but as much as I hate to admit it I'm simply more productive working virtually. Last year we moved in with another group. They're mostly good people, but since they are also our customer, they have a tendency to interrupt with questions fairly frequently throughout the day. Working from home there are just fewer distractions and I am able to concentrate on project work.

Outside of work things also moved fairly well. I've enjoyed it mostly creative week. I've been keeping notes in a variety of notebooks but not really writing anything either substantial or what I would consider to be finished. I'm hoping to change that trend this year and focus more on writing finished product. I'm hoping that my creative output this year is significantly larger than it has been the previous year. I've been kind of organizing things, internally and externally, to put myself in the best position to realize that ambition.

TR and I have had a good week, so that has been the frosting on the cake. As always with her I'm looking forward to more frosting. One of the things I love about her is her mind – her creativity, her imagination, and her ability to spin the story like a master. I think there is a lot about storytelling that is intuitive. Beyond that our craft is shaped by our lives. It is shaped by the things we read. It is shaped by the things we experience. It is shaped by what we think of those things. From there it is simply writing. At least, that is my theory.

I don't really have anything big planned this weekend. I want to sit tight and spend some time at home rearranging furniture. I've kind of got a new vision for my living room – simpler, more Zen, more conductive of creativity. It is so easy in this world to get cluttered, inside and outside, but the continuous stream of sensations we're subjected to. This year I'm going to try to moderate that continuous stream. Sometimes, I plan on deliberately stopping outside of it and just enjoying emptiness and quiet. Our minds have time to dance when they're quiet.

Into The New Year

The new year seems to be off to a brisk start. When I woke up Monday morning and my brain was racing as I tried to get ready to swing back into the working world. Things are fairly chaotic at work but I'm hoping to put the processes into place that will, if not smooth the edges completely, at least reduce some of the turmoil experienced.

If I were to sum up our challenges in a single statement it would be this – we are short resources and we have a relatively uncontrolled flow of work. That combination means that rather then doing a deep quality of work we are just moving things through as fast as we can. Quality suffers.

I think in a high percentage of the projects that get completed there are always unintended consequences. Those consequences lead to a lot of rework. There is an abiding sense that we are not reaching our potential, both in terms of personnel and in terms of quality. It is quite the challenge and I'm going to see if I can manage up, but his bandage my management, this year and make something of a difference.

On the personal front I got a new computer after my laptop started acting up. I could see the end of life cycle somewhere in the near future and decided to preemptively replace it. I didn't replace it with another laptop. I replaced it with a Lenovo desktop system, A very nice touch screen and a very modern system. I like the new system but it's probably going to take me a week or two to get it set up like I want it. I am looking forward to it though and I've been enjoying it so far.

With the quality of the iPad it can now, effectively, replace a laptop for travel. It's a pretty impressive system. I am dictating this on the iPad right now. If you haven't used as your personal secretary, you're missing out. I've also mentioned in the past that I am a huge fan of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It also is a pretty impressive piece of software. I plan on installing it on my new computer sometime later today.

Well, it is time to start swinging into the day. I'm going to finish my cup of coffee, run through the shower, and fire up my work computer. I hope your day is going well.