End of the Month Grab Bag

There's been a lot of things I've wanted to blog on, but time has been at a premium. So to tune of "Flight of the Bumblebee":

The Keener Pill a.k.a.
Be Careful What You Ask For

For years I've wished I could extract the keenness from my more energetic friends and incorporate it into a pill. Looks like it's been done:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/11/procrastinating.monkeys.reut/

Does this mean if my ass gets fired for laziness I can claim medical disability?

The Visit

The sister and family were over for a visit. 5 of us in my apartment worked way better than I thought. Once again, notebook with wireless helped. When they were sleeping I was doing what I normally do late, late Friday and Saturday night, only from the comfort of my bedroom instead of the comfort of my living room couch or comfort of my dining room table. I really like visiting family or having them over. I feel connected afterwards. It's also good motivation for getting the place clean.

The Promotion

*sigh*, I've been promoted. It nice to be thought of this way, but it wasn't the kind of promotion I was looking for. Someday I'll find the thing I'm really good at so I'm promoted from my technical excellence. As far as the management track goes, been there, thanks.

Health & Welfare

Started running 3 weeks ago. Week 4 and I'm still at it. The workout is a run/walk interval program. You start out at 30 seconds of running every 5 minutes. Every week 30 seconds of walking is converted to running. There was only one day where I had to motivate myself out the door. After a lot of walking, running is such a nature progression. My body simply wants to go faster than walking will allow. I've really noticed an improvement in my sleep. My resting heart rate, measured when I wake up, has dropped, too.

Writing

I continue to write, though it's slowed down a bit because of other things. If I'd been in this state when I was laid off at my last job I might actually be a free lance writer now.

Broken Heat Wave

The weather has gotten cooler, hussah! Don't get me wrong, I like summer as much as anyone. I just like it a lot better when my bedroom isn't 80 degrees at 4am. Oddly, it was around the same temperature during the day, too. It didn't have to rain on my account, though I'll gladly take a bit of moisture in exchange for a good nights sleep and not running fans 24x7.

Books:
The Wolf King - Alice Borchardt
Worlds of Honor #4: The Service of the Sword - Various
On Writing Well - William Zinsser
The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancey

Movies:
The Manchurian Candidate
Hero

Things Forgotten, then Remembered, or is it Re-Learned?

After thinking about it for a long time I finally moved my ass and started doing more exercise. It's still only walking, but it's got a big hill component and I'm pushing myself. I actually come back soaked in sweat. No surprise, I've been sleeping and feeling better. I've been here before. I knew this. What the hell didn't I remember it?

The impetus, as silly as it sounds, was the free pedometer you get in Special K cereal. I shit you not. Who can resist a gadget for almost free. Ok, I have a box of Special K to eat, but I don't mind Special K. These things are great for giving you an idea of activity level. I have a hard time bullshitting myself out of going out when I look at the pedometer and see I've barely walked 1000 steps. Actually, that's low. A typical work day is more like 2500 to 3500 steps. A 40 to 50 minute walk adds around 5000 more steps. Throw in a serious hill for half of that and I figure I'm doing ok. My sleep tells me I am.

Walking at 3 in the morning can be interesting, sometimes. As I was walking down the street the other night my eye was drawn to an apartment balcony light flashing off and on. A faulty bulb perhaps, but it almost looked like Morse code and I know Morse code, so I started to decode it. I'm not sure, it was either sending "a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y", or "you are such a geek".

July saw an unprecedented burst of writing. That's probably related to the exercise, too. An easier to update website and a notebook computer don't hurt, either. I can't believe how much writing I've done in the last month or so.

July also saw another writing first. I did my first interview of people I didn't know. It's for a newsletter article. Damn, this couple was interesting! I only hope I do the interview justice in the article, which does add a bit of pressure. I have a quote stuck to my computer for just these occasions, "Dare to be bad!". It's like "No guts, no glory" but you know you'll suck before you excel. I like it because of the irony, it makes me laugh and I remember to take things a little less seriously.

Now, if I could just remember if I've forgotten any cool time management stuff I learned.

Movies:
The Chronicles of Riddick - Pitch Black II
I, Robot
The Bourne Supremacy
Thunderbirds

Books:
Something M.Y.T.H. INC. - Robert Asprin