I don't remember what my original topic was going to be for this edition of Ye Olde Blogge, but it had something to do with our whiteboard. Someday, it may come back to me, but until that fateful day arrives, I will need to move along.
The reason I'd forgotten what the whiteboard idea was about was because I had just finished working thirteen consecutive days. Yep, October 27 was my first day off in fourteen days. Please note, I'm not complaining about working- especially in this wacky economy. It's just that in those thirteen days, I also had a significant amount of overtime- twenty-one hours the first week, and eleven the second week.
The upside to all of this is that there is a lot of work, and I am getting a good amount of training, programming time and experience. And, the money is nice as well.
The downside is... well, after family time and shopping and other sundry bits of life, there's precious little time left for my I.T. projects.
However, as I'm not a huge fan of the downside, there's another side to this: it is just a season. Prior to writing this blog entry, I was unaware that Pete Seeger was the writer of the Byrds' hit Turn! Turn! Turn!. Well, I suppose arranger is a better description, as the lyrics are nearly straight out of the Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes. The idea of the song, though fits really well here: this is just a season, and this is a new week- and, in my perspective, a new season.
So, as a differently-spelled Seger (Bob) suggested, its time to Turn the Page.
I moved a few of my I.T. reference books into the office last night and downloaded and installed Steam onto another computer. I did a quick test on a PC and found out that I need a sound card, so I need to order an inexpensive one this week. And, get back to database work... and maybe a bit of dev work, if time allows.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
Let's hear it for autumn!
I think autumn is Jennifer's and my favorite season, followed by winter, spring and then summer. Its sweatshirt and jeans weather, and that suits us just fine. There's a certain crispness in the air, aromas seem to be enriched and linger longer than they do in the busy summertime air, and the colors of leaves and flowers are just plain magnificent as they stand in sharp contrast to the browns and fading greens of surrounding foliage and the somber greyness of the sky. Even the compost seems perkier, sometimes giving off a bit of steam in the morning as if it were enjoying a cup of coffee or tea with us. If there is a downside to the early part of autumn, its this: the grass still needs to be mowed.Yes, grass is truly the party-pooper of the autumn parade. Now, don't get me wrong- grass mowing is one of those homeowner tasks which I truly enjoy. I don't pay someone else to do this for me, and I'm not one of those suburbanites who revels in a superior lawn: I merely enjoy the task of getting out the mower and cutting the grass. It is 30-45 minutes of tranquility for me. Its a bit of exercise as well (*yardio- look it up in the Urban Dictionary- its my term!) It also makes the compost happy- during the winter, the compost does get some additions on a fairly regular basis, but they are no substitute for the weekly feedings of grass that happen during the growing season.
I just realized its been a while since I've included a picture in a blog. All of the pictures featured are mine, and I think all are taken with my phone by me. They're pretty nice, I think, which is why I include them. However, I grew up in the 35mm era, and have owned a few SLRs- one of these years I'd like to acquire a DSLR. While cell phones can do amazing things (like the photo above), when it comes to photos, I believe a dedicated camera really is the way to go.
Data- I know there are a few readers who are wondering when the data will return to the blog. The short answer is this: it will be back when I have the opportunity to bring it back. I started writing this blog entry right after I had published the previous one, hoping to get back on track of publishing something every two-three days (Hey! It's a goal- everyone's gotta have goals, right?). I believe I've mentioned that I'm currently a contractor, and lately, business has been booming. In fact, its been so busy that I've worked seven days straight, and this pay period has twenty-one hours of overtime. I'm not complaining about the hours- they are a blessing. I'm just saying that when one works seven days a week, something has got to give. In my case, its my projects. My projects currently are my nonexistent website, my database, my training spreadsheet and this blog. As the blog is featured on my resume, this is the only project that receives ANY attention while I'm putting in crazy hours. The website still needs a domain and hosting, the database gets updated occasionally and data is still accumulating for my training spreadsheet. And adding insult to injury, I have a Win7 box that won't give me any audio.
As much as I hate to admit it, Sting and I agree on one thing at this juncture: I want my MTV!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Friday, October 18, 2013
A digital dilemna of sorts
Last night turned into one of the nights where, once one's job is finished, one then proceeds to start another job. If you work at a particular task for any length of time, you have a pretty good feel for how long the task will take to complete. After training, QCing and programming throughout my work evening, midnight rolled around and I was done. Well, I was done with what I had been assigned to do that day. There was work that remained- work that I had managed to avoid on the previous evening (and on the previous evening, somehow I knew I'd be seeing it again).
Monday night, I was asked at 0100 to work on this job. As there were two programs involved, I knew it would take a minimum of three hours to complete. Tuesday night, however, the day's tasks were done by by midnight, and Chazbaby asked if I could take care of it. I agreed.
Four hours later, I was getting into my truck, shaking my head and wondering why, why, why? I suppose the real answer is simply because the job needed to be done, and done properly. So, I sucked it up and did it.
This, in turn, got me to thinking about time management on a grander scale- and in this case, grander means "in my life" . Whenever I decide to "take one for the team", I pay for it the next day in terms of lost time. I generally get enough sleep- although its generally not as much as I'd like. The payment comes in the realm of lost personal time, and here is where my digital dilemna lies.
Like many folks that I know, much of my waking day is spent on the computer. Education, entertainment, information- all occur for me at the PC. My problem is not with too much time on the PC; rather, my problem is not properly apportioning my time on the PC... and twelve (or even more) hour workdays complicate this even further. I consider myself to be a night owl, generally doing my best work when most civilized folks are fast asleep. Consequently, I work an evening shift. Problems arise when I work late, though, as in order to get enough sleep, I have to sleep later into the day. Many (if not most) sleep experts recommend arising and going to bed at approximately the same time every day. In my line of work and on the shift I work, this is almost never possible, so I attempt to compensate by at least getting a decent amount of sleep before rejoining the fray.
Postscript to sleep... I started writing this on Tuesday of this week. As of Thursday (actually, Friday morning), I had worked over forty hours, and I will also be back on Saturday.
No data news to report tonight, so until next time, I remain hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday night, I was asked at 0100 to work on this job. As there were two programs involved, I knew it would take a minimum of three hours to complete. Tuesday night, however, the day's tasks were done by by midnight, and Chazbaby asked if I could take care of it. I agreed.
Four hours later, I was getting into my truck, shaking my head and wondering why, why, why? I suppose the real answer is simply because the job needed to be done, and done properly. So, I sucked it up and did it.
This, in turn, got me to thinking about time management on a grander scale- and in this case, grander means "in my life" . Whenever I decide to "take one for the team", I pay for it the next day in terms of lost time. I generally get enough sleep- although its generally not as much as I'd like. The payment comes in the realm of lost personal time, and here is where my digital dilemna lies.
Like many folks that I know, much of my waking day is spent on the computer. Education, entertainment, information- all occur for me at the PC. My problem is not with too much time on the PC; rather, my problem is not properly apportioning my time on the PC... and twelve (or even more) hour workdays complicate this even further. I consider myself to be a night owl, generally doing my best work when most civilized folks are fast asleep. Consequently, I work an evening shift. Problems arise when I work late, though, as in order to get enough sleep, I have to sleep later into the day. Many (if not most) sleep experts recommend arising and going to bed at approximately the same time every day. In my line of work and on the shift I work, this is almost never possible, so I attempt to compensate by at least getting a decent amount of sleep before rejoining the fray.
Postscript to sleep... I started writing this on Tuesday of this week. As of Thursday (actually, Friday morning), I had worked over forty hours, and I will also be back on Saturday.
No data news to report tonight, so until next time, I remain hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Saying goodbye
After having a home delivery subscription to the local newspaper for several years, Jennifer and I decided today to cancel our subscription. It was a fairly easy decision to make, yet it is still a bit distasteful.
There's a bit of history to this. In the past year or so, the newspaper doubled its subscription price without warning. At that time, like many folks, I called to cancel my subscription. They must have had lots of calls, because after only a little bit of negotiating, I was able to renew my subscription at a much more reasonable rate. Today, we received a renewal notice in the mail, and decided to take a look at subscribing to the digital-only edition. We figured that this would be more cost effective. Jennifer did a bit of research online, and found out that the digital edition price was about 60% of the home delivery (which includes the digital edition). However, after the six-month "introductory" period, the price shoots up by about 50%, making it only slightly less (~15%) than home delivery. Then, we factor in our delivery person. We've never met this person, but every year around Christmas she puts a Christmas card in one of our December papers. The card does not have a note thanking us for being loyal subscribers, but rather is a note asking for a "gift". Maybe I'm missing something here, but a gift is generally given because of a special occasion, or because you want to help someone out, or as a reward for doing something special.
Our delivery person seems to reward those who give the "gift" and punish those who don't. I'm guessing our neighbors give the "gift", because their paper is almost always in the same place on their driveway, while ours will be anywhere within a 20ft radius (approx. 6 meters). After many years, after "expressing our concerns" about our paper delivery, this year she finally started to properly put a second plastic bag on the newspaper when it was rainy or snowy. Prior to that, we probably had to call the newspaper around three-six times every summer and winter to get a replacement paper because the miswrapped one was water-logged from rain or melting snow. And, if you don't call before a certain time, you can't get your paper replaced- although your account does get credited. In fact, it seems as if you have to call them to do anything regarding your subscription.
And so, as of 14 October, 2013, we bid a fond and final adios to the Chicago Tribune. 20th century pricing, delivery and customer service no longer cut it with us.
Data-related news: my responsibilities at work have changed a bit, and now include programming. More on the situation as it develops.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
There's a bit of history to this. In the past year or so, the newspaper doubled its subscription price without warning. At that time, like many folks, I called to cancel my subscription. They must have had lots of calls, because after only a little bit of negotiating, I was able to renew my subscription at a much more reasonable rate. Today, we received a renewal notice in the mail, and decided to take a look at subscribing to the digital-only edition. We figured that this would be more cost effective. Jennifer did a bit of research online, and found out that the digital edition price was about 60% of the home delivery (which includes the digital edition). However, after the six-month "introductory" period, the price shoots up by about 50%, making it only slightly less (~15%) than home delivery. Then, we factor in our delivery person. We've never met this person, but every year around Christmas she puts a Christmas card in one of our December papers. The card does not have a note thanking us for being loyal subscribers, but rather is a note asking for a "gift". Maybe I'm missing something here, but a gift is generally given because of a special occasion, or because you want to help someone out, or as a reward for doing something special.
Our delivery person seems to reward those who give the "gift" and punish those who don't. I'm guessing our neighbors give the "gift", because their paper is almost always in the same place on their driveway, while ours will be anywhere within a 20ft radius (approx. 6 meters). After many years, after "expressing our concerns" about our paper delivery, this year she finally started to properly put a second plastic bag on the newspaper when it was rainy or snowy. Prior to that, we probably had to call the newspaper around three-six times every summer and winter to get a replacement paper because the miswrapped one was water-logged from rain or melting snow. And, if you don't call before a certain time, you can't get your paper replaced- although your account does get credited. In fact, it seems as if you have to call them to do anything regarding your subscription.
And so, as of 14 October, 2013, we bid a fond and final adios to the Chicago Tribune. 20th century pricing, delivery and customer service no longer cut it with us.
Data-related news: my responsibilities at work have changed a bit, and now include programming. More on the situation as it develops.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
George Romero, Michael Bay and Formula One
I had an epiphany a few days ago. There was a television commercial a few years ago which, for a bright shining moment, brought "epiphany" into the collective vocabulary of the day. Its one of those words which I savor using, and this is a good day to bring it out and use it. The epiphany involved George Romero. Sort of- it involved the what I can only was the inspiration for the zombies of Romero's classic "Dawn of the Dead", which in their turn, were parodies or paid homage to in the equally brilliant (but nowhere near as dark) fashion in "Shawn of the Dead".
Jennifer and I were at the gym. I had planned to do some shoulder work, and then spend the majority of my time on the indoor track. Lifting completed, I told Jennifer I was going to the track. I started the stopwatch app on my phone, and commenced walking. I had not gotten very far (maybe a quarter of a lap) when I was confronted with a classic Formula One racing dilemna: do I venture out onto the dirty part of the track and attempt a three-wide pass? Here's the quick F1 "backgrounder": oddly enough, in F1 racing, the dirty part of the track is the part where cars aren't normally driven. Because of this, debris (generally tire clag) collects there, whereas the clean part of the track remains clean because the cars are cruising along at speeds well in excess of 150mph (240kph). And, in my opinion, three cars side-by-side (three-wide) is visually a lot of fun, and fairly rare.
So, there I was, approaching the corner when I came up on a man I would guess to be in his lower seventies and a lady in her sixties. She was on the inside lane- recognized everywhere and mandated at our track as the slow lane- walking at a robust pace with her right arm swinging wide to the right with every stride. In the middle lane was the gentleman. He was slower, but I had to admire the fellow for being on the track- and he was putting forth a great effort, even with about a fifteen degree list to the right and being very hunched over. She was slowly but surely passing the gent, but his listing gait concerned me a bit. The good news was that even though he was effectively in the passing lane with his turn signal on, he was staying in the lane.
I had seen enough- I hit my afterburners, and my orange New Balance MT610v2's responded beautifully, providing traction and lateral stability as I passed my trackmates before they even knew I was overtaking. During my session, I passed the lady four times and lost track of how many times I passed the gent.
In personal I.T.-related news, at my contract job I've started to do some programming, which is a lot more fun that just quality control. My database project has moved forward a bit, with a new table waiting in the wings, and some physical reorganization of digital media in the Secret Underground Lair. Finally, I almost pulled the trigger and bought a domain name, but then I heard that ICANN is supposed to be releasing some new TLDs (Top Level Domains). One of these would be perfect for the site I'm planning, but I may just go with a different site name just to get online.
Lastly, inquiring folks might be wondering what Michael Bay is doing in the title. Its pretty simple, really: as I passed the two walkers, I didn't look to the side or back. For a brief moment, I imagined myself piloting an F1 car and passing the other two at Monza, the sudden blast of dirty air from my wing causing the other two to momentarily lose control and slowing to avoid colliding into each other. I could see the checkered flag....
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Jennifer and I were at the gym. I had planned to do some shoulder work, and then spend the majority of my time on the indoor track. Lifting completed, I told Jennifer I was going to the track. I started the stopwatch app on my phone, and commenced walking. I had not gotten very far (maybe a quarter of a lap) when I was confronted with a classic Formula One racing dilemna: do I venture out onto the dirty part of the track and attempt a three-wide pass? Here's the quick F1 "backgrounder": oddly enough, in F1 racing, the dirty part of the track is the part where cars aren't normally driven. Because of this, debris (generally tire clag) collects there, whereas the clean part of the track remains clean because the cars are cruising along at speeds well in excess of 150mph (240kph). And, in my opinion, three cars side-by-side (three-wide) is visually a lot of fun, and fairly rare.
So, there I was, approaching the corner when I came up on a man I would guess to be in his lower seventies and a lady in her sixties. She was on the inside lane- recognized everywhere and mandated at our track as the slow lane- walking at a robust pace with her right arm swinging wide to the right with every stride. In the middle lane was the gentleman. He was slower, but I had to admire the fellow for being on the track- and he was putting forth a great effort, even with about a fifteen degree list to the right and being very hunched over. She was slowly but surely passing the gent, but his listing gait concerned me a bit. The good news was that even though he was effectively in the passing lane with his turn signal on, he was staying in the lane.
I had seen enough- I hit my afterburners, and my orange New Balance MT610v2's responded beautifully, providing traction and lateral stability as I passed my trackmates before they even knew I was overtaking. During my session, I passed the lady four times and lost track of how many times I passed the gent.
In personal I.T.-related news, at my contract job I've started to do some programming, which is a lot more fun that just quality control. My database project has moved forward a bit, with a new table waiting in the wings, and some physical reorganization of digital media in the Secret Underground Lair. Finally, I almost pulled the trigger and bought a domain name, but then I heard that ICANN is supposed to be releasing some new TLDs (Top Level Domains). One of these would be perfect for the site I'm planning, but I may just go with a different site name just to get online.
Lastly, inquiring folks might be wondering what Michael Bay is doing in the title. Its pretty simple, really: as I passed the two walkers, I didn't look to the side or back. For a brief moment, I imagined myself piloting an F1 car and passing the other two at Monza, the sudden blast of dirty air from my wing causing the other two to momentarily lose control and slowing to avoid colliding into each other. I could see the checkered flag....
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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