Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Heat.

There has been a decree from our budgeting department that the 16th of September is entirely too early in the season to turn on the heat.

Someone needs to tell Miss Mother Nature because it’s damn chilly today. We had a freeze warning last night and while it didn’t freeze, it did get down to 34ºF in our neck of the woods.

Someone needs to take a gander at the calendar and remember that it is still summer for a couple of days.

Lack of heat in the house aside, I’m starting to feel good about autumn, which is my favorite season of the year. The crispness of the air, the lack of oppressive heat and humidity, the crunchiness and colors of the leaves and the mystical vibe the world seems to have at this time of year are all wonderful things.

Plus, the budgeting department came home and doubled up as the nutrition department and started a soup for supper. Said soup involves red wine and it’s cooking in the dutch oven. Whenever the dutch oven is involved you know it’s going to be good.

Plus, I can use the simmering pot as a heat source.

Taking a look at the forecast it looks like it’s going to warm back up into the mid 70s starting tomorrow, so maybe the budgeting department is correct in having us skip the whole “Wheel of Fortune” spin of the thermostats.

Yay for saving money!

17 September 2013 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 2

Block.

So I’ve had a case of writer’s block for the past couple of days and I really don’t know why I’ve been feeling this way. Life is good. The weekend was enjoyable. I guess I haven’t felt fired up or over elated or anything; we’ve just been enjoying life.

I’m sure this will pass within the next couple of days and then I’ll write a bunch of stuff.

I did have a little bit of a rant on Twitter this morning. I fail to understand why people see the letters A-S-K and pronounce that word as “AXE”. I don’t get it. I interpret the use of “AXE” in lieu of “ASK” as a sign of laziness. The speaker isn’t even motivated enough to say a three letter word correctly. It grates on my nerves more than “I could care less” and the wearing of hats whilst eating a meal.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned.

16 September 2013 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Sunday Night Dance Party.

Ok, this song wasn’t huge on Top 40 radio in 1988 but I think it’s still pretty recognizable. While working I used to bop around in the ARC van with my friend Dawn to this track.

Here’s The Cover Girls with “Because of You (the 12″ remix)” from 1988. Look ma, no auto tune!

15 September 2013 by J.P. DJ 0

Different.

So today I am in New York for a work-related seminar. I am currently sitting at JFK Airport, my flight scheduled to depart at 5:30 p.m. was canceled and I was rescheduled for tomorrow morning at 10:35 a.m. I had a nice conversation with a JetBlue representative and now I’m on a flight that is departing at 10:45 p.m., though it has been delayed until 11:18 p.m. We’ll see how it goes.

After the seminar this morning, the vendor treated us to something I had never done before. Instead of going to a restaurant and having a sit down meal for lunch, the vendor contracted a tour guide who took us on a walking food tour of Manhattan. Bruce the tour guide was a very nice guy and the change of pace was very refreshing.

Our food included:
Indian Food from a place that I think was called The Kati Roll Company.
Cheesecake from Junior’s
Pizza from Napoli(?) Pizza
And pastrami on rye from Carnegie Deli.

We walked to each of those restaurants and ate on the sidewalk outside of the front door or in an adjacent park. It gave us the opportunity to mingle and talk and learn a little bit about Manhattan. Though we had to hide from the rain for a little while, it was otherwise a different way to enjoy a nifty lunch.

By the way, we experienced the food listed above in the order I have it listed. That was a little odd but the quirkiness kept it interesting.

And now I’m going to find a place to take a nap here at JFK.

12 September 2013 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 2

Courage.

When I wrote this blog post nearly 12 years ago, I don’t think I fully comprehended how much our lives would change as the result of the attacks on September 11, 2001. I knew that there would be fighting, I knew more lives would be lost, but I don’t think I realized how much the United States would change as a result of what we had all just experienced. The 21st century, which represented a new age to many of us, was off to a rocky start and everything that we had hoped and dreamed it would be was apparently still off in the distant future.

But I don’t want to focus on that. I want to focus on the courage.

* The courage of those that refused to be scared

* The courage of the airline passengers that fought back on United Flight 93 and curtailed the terrorists from completing their mission

* The courage of those that ran through the flames, down the stairs, wherever through the chaos to safety

* The courage of the emergency responders that went running in the opposite direction of everyone else and went head first into chaos that we had never seen before

* The courage of the families that lost loved ones on 9/11 and in everything that has happened as a result of 9/11

* The courage of those that have volunteered for battle and have helped fight wars ever since that day

* The courage of the men and women who made the choice to leap from a place in those two towers of which there was no means of escape

* The courage of those who fought back against the flames and the destruction until their very last breath

* The courage of those who remember what the United States of America is really about and work everyday to defend her ideals

Courage is the foundation of the building of a hero. And in my book, you’re all heroes.

Thank you.

11 September 2013 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Sleep?

I went to bed at 10:00 p.m. Since trying to go to sleep:

1. The air conditioner spazzed out and tried to flood the bedroom again. Yay for LG air conditioners on an oak floor!

2. Some guy named Norman in the 347 area code keeps texting me “Hey Baby”. When he called and I answered he hung up and texted me again. I told him that he had the wrong number. He asked if I was a dude. I said yes. He said, “wrong number”. I said, “Peace”.

3. The nearby decommissioned Air Force Base’s jet repair facility is apparently testing some repairs because what I think is a 747 (it’s close enough to see both decks of windows) has buzzed the house twice and I can hear it approaching for a third go around. This started about 30 minutes ago. (It is currently 11:18 p.m.). Lawd knows I love me some airplanes, but the rule from my childhood applies, if you’re going to buzz the house with a plane, you’re going to take me for a ride.

I’m going to try to go to sleep again.

10 September 2013 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

w00t!

Guess who’s excited about the Apple event that is starting in less than 30 minutes as of the writing of this blog entry?

The media has been chattering about the imminent release of the iPhone 5S and it’s new, less expensive sibling the iPhone 5C for weeks. While I am not due for an upgrade of my phone (I’m on the non-“S” cycle and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with my iPhone 5), I am excited to see what Apple brings to the party today. Will there be a surprise? Will there be some new, nifty feature that’ll show that Apple can still innovate?

I’m also excited about the release of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. As an Apple developer I’ve had iOS 7 on my iPhone for a few weeks and as of the latest beta I have had very few issues with it. And while at first I did not like the new “flat UI”, I’ve actually grown to love it. It took me a little while, but it feels “airy” (for lack of a better word) and modern. If you visit directly, you’ll notice that I’ve switched to a flat UI theme for my blog.

I’m really hoping Apple gives us “one more thing” and talks about something completely unexpected. Let’s see what happens today.

10 September 2013 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Restoration Project.

This clock has shown the time as 8:27 for many years. I’m thinking of letting a local school know about my clock geek skills and offering to get this outside clock working again. It seems like it would be a fun little project as long as I don’t have to play with any mice or anything. I’m curious if this stopped clock is something that only I notice or if anyone else in the school district would be interested in seeing the clock work again.

I think I’ll reach out to the district this week.

9 September 2013 by J.P. Geek 1

Distractionless.

So as I was sitting at my desk this morning, getting ready to jump feet first into this experience we lovingly call Monday, I was about to fire up Microsoft Lync on my work Mac. Now, there is nothing unusual about this, being a WFH guy (work from home guy) or telecommuter, it is important to use as many tools possible to remain connected with your co-workers. When you can’t collaborate in person you must do so electronically. It’s all logical.

The downside to Lync and Facebook and Google+ and Twitter and text messaging and Instagram and all that stuff is that it is really a boatload of distraction. Whether these tools are used for work or play, when not managed properly they can take you out of the moment. Your “here and now” is actually elsewhere. At work, a Lync popup can pull me out of my coding zen space because when I hear that “message!” sound I feel compelled to see what’s up. When I try to get back to my coding I think I had started where I left off, when in reality, all lines of code start to look alike and I didn’t really leave off at the particular point. I then think that I’m being productive when in reality I’m just breaking something because I have left some unfinished code lingering where I really left off.

I hate it when I do that.

When a message pops up on our phones or whatever, it takes us away from the moment. I noticed that I checked my phone on a couple of occasions between courses at dinner the other night. That was rude of me and I am publicly apologizing to my husband right here and now for that. I don’t know that he noticed because he was checking his phone at the time. By the way, we’re not awful, we don’t check our phones during a meal or in lieu of a conversation, only in lulls of activity, but still, I guess I was being a little rude and I don’t like that. My I should strive to be less lulling. I think it’s important to set a good example. Maybe one in a million will notice and do the same.

Another thing that has kind of been getting on my nerves lately is the number of people taking selfies in front of important things, like visiting the Queen of England or sitting between Abraham Lincoln’s legs.

Well I do take my share of selfies and I share them via Instagram and all things connected to that, it’s not something that I want to do. The analytical side of me wants to know why I’m doing this. What need does posting yet another photo of myself fulfill? I have no idea.

So in an effort to be a little less distracted I made a couple of adjustments to my iPhone this morning. First of all, I deleted Google+ and Facebook right off of my phone. If anyone needs me immediately they can send me a text message; they know how to get a hold of me. Now, I’m not committing to this forever, I am going to try to go FB and G+ free for a week. I still have Instagram and I still have Twitter because well, truth be known, Twitter is my favorite of the the social networks and I do like looking at all kinds of photos on Instagram. As a quick aside, if Facebook gets ad crazy with Instagram, I will dump it like a hot potato in an instant and go back to Flickr.

I can’t do much about Lync at work, I just need to train myself better in not being distracted when that awful “new message!” Lync sound rings out from my MacBook. But I can be vigilant about making sure my status is up to date and sharing with the world when I’m in that zen worker bee space.

I think the most important thing that I’d like to figure out this FB and G+ free week is how to be in the moment with the people I’m in the moment with. I think I might have lost touch with that a little bit. If it’s worth sharing, I’ll share it when it’s appropriate and most likely via my blog.

Let’s see how this goes.

9 September 2013 by J.P. Geek 1

Bragging.

I’m totally bragging here, but my husband left me this little salad for lunch.

I’m one lucky man.

9 September 2013 by J.P. Love. 1

Heat.

Block.

Sunday Night Dance Party.

Different.

Courage.

Sleep?

w00t!

Restoration Project.

Distractionless.

Bragging.

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