Random Tidbits: May 26

I have come to the conclusion that going through CDs from high school is very depressing, and should not be done.  I came across The Offspring’s Conspiracy of One, a CD my girlfriend bought me for Christmas… just before we broke up.  I spent the entire holiday vacation moping around listening to it. Bleh.

I have also decided that I love talking with people from other countries.  They use vocabulary that I don’t often get to hear in my life, since my friends and I tend to fall into very similar patterns of speech.  I heard someone say with utter disdain the other day that he had made a “very RASH decision”!  I started thinking on it and realized I hadn’t heard someone use the word “rash” in months, and it’s a very awesome word.

On a related note: Please throw in new and awesome words into a few sentences every day.  It makes all our lives better.  For example, “this apple has lost it’s luster!”

I have become addicted to pastrami sandwiches.

 

Primary Day Rant

Today is May 20th.

This date is significant because it heralds the end of political ads blasting into my living room via the television.  Today, we vote.

I will state right from the start that I am already voting for Obama for the democratic candidate.  I have been attacked, begged, and pleaded with to vote for Hillary, mostly by members of the opposite sex.  I don’t think I am being sexist in voting for the candidate I like the most, and I think that a lot of women are approaching this the wrong way.  Don’t think you are betraying your feminist movement by not trying to get a woman into the White House.  I am also sick of hearing how Hillary “has won the popular vote”.  You do realize of course, that Obama didn’t even run in Michigan, nor did Edwards (who was still in the race at the time) because all the candidates KNEW it wouldn’t count?  If you only added Florida back into the mix, Obama still would have the popular vote lead. I also have a couple friends that sheepishly look at me and tell me they are voting for Hillary.  The reason, mostly, relates to the person they are currently dating.  It’s disgusting.

I don’t think Hillary would be a bad president.  I would still vote for her if she won the primary.  But I disagree with her on some items in her current platform, and I also have not been very happy with some of the things she supported before running for president (media censorship).

With Obama, it’s almost like people refuse to believe that we can actually run our government and country successfully, and we would rather shoot for a slight improvement with Hillary that we all think we can get, than a huge improvement with Obama that we aren’t as sure about.  That doesn’t make any sense to me, and thinking like that will only continue to hurt America in the long run.

Also please don’t tell me I should vote for Hillary because:

1. He can’t win the vote of “working class people”.  That is a bullshit term people use instead of “uneducated”, or “lower income”.  There are plenty of well-informed working class people out there too… I don’t think he has lost their vote just because they “work” way more intensely than the rest of the U.S.  So fine, he won’t get a ton of votes from the religious conservatives, the high school drop-outs, etc.  Am I supposed to be disappointed that Obamais supported by people I respect more? Am I in love with the general population of Kentucky? West Virginia? No.  Yes, I know I just made some blanket statements that will be incorrect in many cases.  But that’s not really any different than talking about the “black vote” or the “working class vote”.
2. There is a high risk of him being assassinated.  This just shows how screwed up the United States is right now.  At best, people that say this have been watching too much 24.  At worst, they are morons.  Given that I do not care about the opinion of morons, this can be discounted.
3. Obama has been unfairly attacking Clinton!  Seriously?  This only started coming up when it became evident she was actually losing the primary.  This is politics.  Bothsides are going to throw shit and hope some of it sticks.  It’s our jobs as voters to educate ourselves in the real issues so we can make an informed choice.  On that note, why do you think people with higher levels of education mostly vote for Obama? Hrmm.
4. Experience.  You can hire experience.  I don’t feel like going into a ton of detail on this since I have to get going soon, but the president lays out a general mission statement for what he wants to do, and how he wants to do it.  If he has a weakness, he can always hire someone with experience to help him with those issues.  His main goal is to steer the ship in the right direction, not worry about the proper stitching technique for sails (never a bad thing to know though).
5. Person XYZ is supporting Hillary.  Please, just make your own choice.

And honestly a lot of this can be applied in the other direction too.  If you feel that Hillary can turn America around, and do a better job of it.  Vote for her!  Don’t vote for Obama because your family/friends tell you to, or because people say you are being racist.  Just make an informed vote.

Ninja Break Tactics in an Office

Here are some various ideas for stretching the legs or taking your mind off your work, while not appearing to be lazy:

1. Eat breakfast at work!  I used to bring an instant oatmeal packet and an apple to work every day to eat for breakfast.  Not only to I get to walk to the break room to get hot water for my meal, I get a good 5-10 minutes of mindless snacking while staring at the computer.
2. Plan out “long distance” trips when you can.  This can be a meeting with someone over in another building, a trip to the technical library to get or return a reference book, walking to your car because you forgot something important… whatever.  Nothing like stretching your legs or even getting outside for a couple minutes to clear the mind.
3. Time your bathroom trips.  I know this may sound strange since people tend to take these small breaks whenever they need to rather than want to, but usually your body adjusts it’s schedule quite easily. Try utilize times between 10-11am and 2:30-3:30pm to break up the work day even more.
4. Go to meetings.  Sure some might be voluntary, and some might even be a waste of time, but these can be good breaks from whatever work you are doing.  Even better, you can block off the time on your calendar or leave a little note saying where you are so everyone knows you are doing something work related.  This also lets you network with fellow employees and can really help you in the future.
5. Bring an mp3 player.  Work can be a very distracting place, especially if you work in a cubicle and can hear the person next to you talking about his son’s baseball team lineup every damn day.  If I can drown out a lot of the background noise at work, it helps me stay stress-free while working and alleviates my need for breaks.  I can also just sit back for a few minutes and listen to music while trying to think things out in my head.

Remember to use these tactics in moderation.  The whole point for me is to take small breaks from my work so I can actually perform better in the long run, while not blatantly seeming to be sleeping on the job.  Most of being a successful employee at a company is accomplishing things that create value, and making sure people know you accomplish things.  It doesn’t help your cause if you are doing a lot of work and people think you are some lazy guy/girl that vanishes at random times during the day and things their office is a lunch room.

It should also be noted that the culture at your office may be completely different, and these tactics may not work in that culture.  Software companies can be a little… different.

New York Napkins

I had to move again recently, and was sorting through a bunch of boxes when I came across a napkin from a deli in New York.  I had scrawled something on it during a visit there quite some time ago (I was still in high school).  I thought I would copy it here before it drifted back into oblivion. I absolutely hated NYC.

Feet planted on the street corner
a concrete worf, jutting into a sea of humanity
The currents shift. Ebb and flow
Skin taut against chill and prying eyes

A friendly smile, a smokey glance
Set actions, to get appropriate reactions
The traffic throbs
a hand runs down jutting ribs

So tired, the weight of life brings slumped shoulders
Time washes away even hardened resolve

The world crumbles away
Shadows reaching out to snatch up warmth, hope, light
Sulfur lights flicker into existence
You stand at the corner, on an island of faded yellow

another drag, embers illuminating black pools
wisps of chemical vapor fill your lungs
A tear meanders down, revealing the scars below
As you step off the edge

A General Note

I’ve had a few people mention to me places where some of my posts could use improvement.  Trust me, I am aware that I do not use proper grammar in certain areas, used too many commas, or could have worded a sentence in a better way.  Yes, there are times when I am thinking of something else and write sentences that don’t even make any sense. Sure, there are mistakes that I probably wouldn’t even catch if I went over the stuff I write anyway.

To those of you that are bothered by this, I apologize.  I don’t mean to do it, really!  I even try and use paragraphs to organize things!

The main goal of everything on here is a way to relax and (somewhat) creatively output whatever is on my mind at the time.  I made the horrible mistake of getting involved in software engineering when starting off college, and the worse mistake of not changing my major when I had the chance.  Working in software feels like a fucking lobotomy from 8-5.  This isn’t to say that you cannot code creatively, but you really can’t within a work environment about 85% of the time.  This gives me a way to write something in english that isn’t a functional spec.

So if you see places that have mentally scarred you with their horrible word misuse, an improper semicolon, or anything else, feel free to tell me! Just don’t make feel like I just kicked my dog.