October 2, 2013

Dark.

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So I’ve been trying to workout in the morning again. Last week I worked out after supper and it didn’t, well, work out well for me (god that’s awful syntax) because I ended up feeling all hyped up and therefore I didn’t sleep very well. Plus, my scale couldn’t care less that I had done any sort of exercise.

On Monday morning I awoke and headed to the gym at oh-dark-early, where a bunch of chipper elders did their thing on the various machines as I did the same. Did I mention that I’m not really a fan of the gym? I think I would be much more content if I could just work out in the basement and do things on our own equipment, but it’s not in the budget, so we haul off to the gym across town. At oh-dark-early.

Yesterday morning I was up before the sun again but I made the determination that I wasn’t going to go to the gym, after all, the weather is still enjoyable and even though it was dark, it was plenty warm enough to go for a bike ride.

So I rode the area roads in the dark, dependent on the white light of a single headlight and the red light of a single taillight. I wore a reflective vest on top of my cycling gear to complete my ensemble.

When I’m out for a relatively short ride I usually enjoy riding along the nearby paved Canal Trail, but when it’s dark I fear the presence of skunks. I’m not really afraid of the skunk as much as I’m afraid that I’ll make them afraid and then there’ll be an unfortunate Skunk Incident and I’ll end up spending the next three weeks in the garage as I air out. So I avoided the Canal Trail and any suggestion of skunks and rode around town a bit before heading out towards the open country, doing a lovely loop (horizontal, not vertical), and heading back home. Once I was away from the street lights I was able to see a beautifully clear, starlit sky that was accented by just a hint of moon.

It was exercise perfection. I’m hoping I can do it again before the end of the week.

Lync.

So at work we have this internal communications tool called Microsoft Lync. It’s an Instant Messaging platform offered through the company’s Office 365 subscription and has replaced the multiple and makeshift platforms we were using before (some of us were on AOL, some on Yahoo, some on an internal Jabber server, etc.)

As a telecommuter I feel that it’s important to have Lync up and running at all times. This keeps me connected to my peers and it lets people know my current status: whether I’m at my computer or not, whether I’m in a meeting or not, etc.

While Lync is wonderful for impromptu and quick conversations, I have to admit that I often feel like this as more and more Lync windows open up on my MacBook screen. (Video may be loud and contain salty language).