Archive for July, 2008

New Meaning For Working Outside

Friday, July 25th, 2008

So I have to finish writing up my business commitments for the new year. The first draft is due today. Yes I am taking a break. I’ve been working on it most of the day so far. After the last several very rainy days I felt like I needed some fresh air and some sun. So I moved out to my back yard. I am under a sort of awning I guess you could call it and sitting on a hammock. Occasionally I lay down but I’m pretty much working on the laptop except when I am going through printouts (I still need paper some times). It’s a relaxing environment.
There is a rill with babbling water running through it about 40 yards behind me. I hear birds singing and there is a squarel eating some food I left out for him about 30 yards away. He just chased a chipmonk away. Occasionally of course a car goes by and that is less calming but since the road is freshly paved it is not so jarring as it was.
Technology makes this possible of course. The wi-fi reaches hear easily. I have both my cell phone and a portable landline for my business number sitting on a chair beside me. I can easily send things to the printer inside as it is on the network. I have all the benefits of an office but a whole lot more. It would be very hard to have to work in a regular office on a regular basis again. I could do it if the job was right but honestly there would have to be more than just money involved.
Is this the way of the future? A year ago I would have said yes but the price of gas may change things. Oh sure one saves money going to work but if it become to expensive to live outside of cities because any other travel is too expensive people may not be in such a hurry to adopt the idea that they can live and work anywhere. City life causes its own troubles though. Without good mass transit travel in the city is no fun at all.
Well for the time being I can afford to live where I do. And I can work from anywhere. So life, for now, is good.

Scheme – not the language

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

For the longest time I have associated the word “scheme” with something bad people do. In the movies, TV and in many books the word “scheme” has been associated with some sort of evil plot. And in fact if you look up the word at Dictionary.com you will find one of the 11 meanings is “an underhand plot; intrigue.” But in the last couple of years I keep running into people for whom its meaning is basically another word for plan. In the UK the word scheme is used where I would use plan on a very regular basis. This has caused a bit of cognitive dissonance for me. Everytime I hear the word used it makes me think about the meaning of the work rather than about the scheme that is being discussed. I expect that will wear off some time but so far it hasn’t happened.

I wonder if this is also part of why I have so much trouble being open minded about Scheme the functional language while I find it easy to be open about F#? Although it may also have something to do with the people who introduced me to each of those langauages. But that is a discussion for another time.

Hello Kitty Hell

Monday, July 21st, 2008

So I just found out that there is a blog that posts a lot of wierd stuff about Hello Kitty. Some of it is pretty wierd indeed – Hello Kitty pasties?? Anyway it is called Hello Kitty Hell and is by a man whose wife is seriously into Hello Kitty.

His wife didn’t believe that a lot of people read his blog so there is a bet on about number of comments. If he gets 1000 comments on this post by unique people he a) gets his wife to donate 200 Hello Kitty items to an orphanage and b) gets to avoid a Hello Kitty themed trip. So go leave a comment – its the only humane thing to do.

Travel Casual Goes Too Far

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Once upon a time people dressed up to travel. This was actually true for years with air travel. I can remember getting all dressed up as if to some place special to get on an airplane. Today air travel is taken for granted. I think I’ve taken 5 trips this year for about 20,000 total miles. Ho hum. So the focus has moved to comfort in travel.

I don’t get dressed up. I frequently travel in jeans for example. But I do wear a nice shirt, usually a button down shirt and only occasionally a polo shirt. I don’t feel comfortable being in public looking too shabby. But apparently that is not a unanimous opinion. On this last trip a lot of people  were in shorts (ok fine but gym shorts?) sandals (ok easier to take on and off at security but why not socks?) and sleeveless t-shirts. I really draw the line at sleeveless T-shirts. Seriously those do not belong outside a sports activity or maybe the beach.

I really think that some people take travel casual too far. I know someone who wears sweat pants and a t-shirt when he flies. Ok they are neat and clean but call me an old foggy if you must but gym clothing belongs at the gym. It’s not just the airport where it bugs me of course. I am tired of seeing people in all sorts of public places in gym shorts, sweats and other recreational clothing. Stopping on ones way to or from an athletic event I can see it. But you’d better look like you were participating in sports.

Yeah this is a rant and probably (actually definitely) a lot of people disagree with me but I really needed to vent.

Deep Zoom Obama

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Even if you are not an Obama fan this is cool.