Thoughts.

I have not been able to get fully into the groove of work after returning from a most excellent vacation. Part of my brain is still in “Mickey Mode”, which is actually a good thing because it helps make each day a zippity-doo-dah day. In that respect, I’ve been smiling a lot. But the biggest obstacle to getting back into the work mindset has been the fact that I have been in training since Monday morning. I didn’t get to go anywhere exotic for this round of training; for seven hours a day this week I’ve had my headset on and I’ve been staring at a computer screen as the trainer goes through another assault of information. Luckily, this is the last bit of training for a while.

When you’re sitting in an office, staring at a screen, listening to someone talk and then doing the occasional exercise, your mind can wander, especially since there’s nothing to make you go “SQUIRREL” every once in a while. The squirrels hide behind the corporate firewall. So this makes my brain just go into daydream mode and the like and I start thinking about a whole range of topics. This isn’t a bad thing, in fact, it’s a good way to get things sorted out in my head. Luckily, the training wrapped up early and I will be able to get work sorted out this afternoon and hopefully get some things done. Incomplete items on my to-do list distracts me.

So what have I been thinking about? Lots of things: politics, better ways to use my blog, my growing disappointment with tech journalists, the simplification of my life, the reassessment of who is important to me and who is not, all sorts of stuff. Deep stuff. I tend to think deep when I get into a pondering mode.

I was happy to see all of the red avatars in support of Marriage Equality on Facebook on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was also happy to see quite a few people wearing red. Marriage equality is obviously a topic that is near and dear to my heart, so it’s always encouraging to see the support. There might be hope for the populace after all. For the life of me I can’t figure out why some segments of the population feel the need to spend millions and millions of dollars to try to force their personal beliefs on the entire country through a constitutional amendment that would be contrary in spirit to every other piece of the Constitution. Many equate this behavior to the GOP, but that’s only because the whack-jobs have hijacked the GOP because the Republicans have become such a mess. It’s not the Republicans per se as much as it is a segment of the Republicans, much like it’s not all Democrats that go on television spewing that they voted for President Obama because they got a free phone. There is a tendency to divide everything into two distinct camps. It’s black or it’s white. It’s negative or it’s positive. People need to realize there’s lots of gray.

I’ve decided that as I get older I must be getting a touch more cranky because my patience of basic asshattery is quickly dwindling. When I see two cars nearly smashing into each other because both drivers are jockeying for the closest parking spot to the door, putting nearby pedestrians in danger whilst doing so, I want to pull them both out of their vehicles and smack them upside the head. Especially since they’re parking at the gym. But then I realize that they’re not going to the gym to workout, they’re going to use the tanning services the gym provides, which is stupid in itself. Get outside and get some sun. I don’t even know why I go to the gym. Well, I know why I go to the gym, it’s because I sit in front of a computer all day and I need exercise. I’m counting the moments until I can get on my bike and ride on a lonely country road, enjoying the smell of “fresh country air”.

I’ve pretty much divested myself of any interest in what most tech journalists have to say about anything. The latest trend is to just bash Apple to death and make broad proclamations as to why said journalists are switching to whatever platform is the soup du jour. I’m happy with my Apple gear and I have no intention of switching to something else just because it’s the hip thing to do. The closest thing I’m getting to being hip is the handlebar mustache, and that’s still a few months down the road. My “tech reading” has been focused on productivity stuff lately. I’m becoming a productivity geek and for me, what I have on my Macs and my iDevices is what works best. I’m in the process of building my own “cloud” anyways and trying to get off of as many ad-supported services as possible. This helps me keep my brain exercised.

I have o many thoughts going through my head. This blog entry has probably been very rambly and all over the place, but that’s the kind of week I’ve had. Not bad, not good, just rambly.

I’m looking forward to the weekend.