Neal was here

9:00am. I win.

And with a lot of late nights this week. If I can get myself to bed earlier, I should be golden.

9:49. Off by 20 minutes.

It’s because I was up too late watching Monk. DVR may be my downfall.

Score: 1 for 2.

On the up side, my morning attitude, while still one of bitterness at the morning, was more prone to recognize the need for alertness. A few more mornings of that and I might be able to will myself from slumber regardless of circumstance.

It is 9:29. Because of daylight savings time, that is a win for me.

I made a poor start to my progress by staying out way too late last night, so I am pleased that I was able to get up this morning. I really feel I should blame the Diety for this, because I didn’t do anything special.

So day 1 : success. I need some coffee.

I’ve got a series of habits that I’d like to cancel / change / improve / start. Doing a fair amount of reading has revealed that putting it out there is a key aspect to making it happen. So I’m going to attempt with my online journal. It’s out there, and it’s easy.

First habit: Mornings – getting up at a consistently early time.

I am not a morning person. I am grouchy. I am tired. I have to drudge my lackadaisical human body from within the comfortable confines of my covers and into the bare air where responsibility and stress reside. This is not a joy for me, most days.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is it better to go depth-first or breadth-first when building groups of friends?

In true nerd fashion, I decided it was time to convert one of the old laptops I had to a digital photo frame, and to use Christmas as the catalyst to motivate me. So at Christmas, I gave my parents this thing:

It wasn’t the simplest process ever, but it was fun. I wussed out and just ran Win95 which was already on the old Toshiba, but it gets the job done. I put a couple extra pictures of the process on Flickr.

Life can plod on uneventfully sometimes, can’t it. Bleh. BORING. It’s 12:45 and I’m required to sleep, but my day feels unfilled.

[this is me being awesome]

IBM has launched a new campaign to promote the IDP:

The IDP (or Individual Development Plan, for those non-acronym savvy) is merely a sheet of paper that outlines your personal development goals (like “win an emmy”) and how you plan on doing that (like “make a tv show”). Usually, these only get filled out by managerial request (requirement). But the new campaign makes me feel all blue and fuzzy inside to fill out my IDP!

Another photo trip, this time to the Sierra Vista Hot Air Balloon Festival. Here’s a short selection of some of the better photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/8811797@N04/sets/72157602951844952/

Examine, if you will, the pure and utter genius that is the Mute Math drummer. Last 45 seconds are arguably the best of the clip. Examine the reaction from Letterman. Classic.

[don't gasp]

We’re finding out as a culture that all of our sexual ‘liberty’ is not necessarily making us happier or more progressive. Turns out we’re just getting more distant, less satisfied, and more depressed.

Men less hungry for real sex due to pr0n.
“Not Tonight, Honey. I’m Logging On.”

What better argument can you make? God knew what he was doing when he set up the moral principles we know and [as a society] seem to despise occassionally.

On the slightly more humorous side, Smarter kids do it less. If I remember right, it’s these kids who wish they were dumb enough to indulge. Or, again proof of the Idiocracy principle.