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No Water, No Cry    May 02, 2010
OK, I should probably be shot for bastardizing the great Fugees song like that, I think I may have it out of context. And yes, I know it was Marley. Anyhow, I digress.

We're in the midst of a little water situation out here in Boston. Some would like to call it a catastrophe and while it doesn't feel like such to me I think they would be right.

I heard about it via Twitter Saturday afternoon shortly before taking off to a Kentucky Derby party. I paid no mind as the party was in an unaffected suburb and I expected it would be resolved within a few hours. At the party I realized the water was essentially off for the evening so we stopped at a 7-11 on the way home and found we were more than a few hours late to that party, all the water had long since been sold out. Luckily I had a Nalgene bottle on reserve at Jen's place and she had a few bottles in her fridge, enough to rehydrate each of us after some Mint Juleps and beer.

I woke up well before Jen and as is our unspoken agreement I quietly left her apt. to run some errands until it was late enough for her to wake up as well. I headed to Target for some potting soil and had little intent to get any water even though NPR was talking about the disaster and saying it may be over by Tuesday or may last over a week. When I arrived at Target at 8:15 and saw 2 pallets of water just inside the entrance and at least 2 cases in each cart it dawned on me the magnitude of the disaster. I picked up a case of bottles and 4 gallons, thinking it was just for the two of us and not wanting to take more than a 2-3 day supply of petroleum-based bottles. I made a game-time decision at the checkout and realized it was a situation where it was OK to overbuy and went for a 2nd case.

Anyhow, I've been trying to figure out what, if anything, will be the takeaway from this disaster. On one hand, it may aid in people not taking water for granted and allow them to appreciate how fortunate we are to have clean water so readily available. It's a nice thought but American's have shown to have a short memory so I kind of doubt that will be the case. It could get people back into the habit of buying bottled water instead of drinking from the tap. It is a trend which has gone down recently, either as a result of ecological concerns or people cutting back on their spending. I could see some in the Boston area feeling concern for the safety of tap water and going instead for bottled water (though it is usually just tap water from someone elses reservoir). And finally, I could see it having no effect whatsoever, which really is the most likely.

For the moment at least, I am certainly more mindful and appreciative of water. I've been boiling it to wash dishes, for coffee, and to brush my teeth. I haven't touched the bottled water yet, I am using that only when necessary, like tomorrow when they have suggested we bring our own water to work. We'll see how long it takes me to forget.

Dirty Office    Aug 12, 2009
I emerged from my cube this afternoon to the kitchenette and found a puddle of coffee eight inches long by four inches wide sitting between the sink and coffee maker. I then looked down to realize there was a trail of coffee drips on the floor from the sink to where the fake tile meets the carpet of the office area. I kind of wanted to sigh and really wanted to leave a note asking if the guilty party was waiting for his/her mom to come along and clean up after him/her. But instead I grabbed a paper towel and cleaned it up. I just can't figure out how an office full of adults in a professional (ok, sometimes semi-professional) environment can make such a mess and then just walk away.

I headed next to the men's room and when I opened the door the floor was littered with five or six paper towels. I had a similar thought and then grabbed a paper towel to pick up the others which had been left by others. Then I saw something that cracked me up, something which was well overdue.

The soap in the men's room is never full. We have three sinks and a soap dispenser at each, the kind where the nozzle is above the counter top while the soap receptacle is fastened below. If you pump hard enough for eight times or so you can get a sufficient amount to wash your hands...sometimes. This afternoon two of the three empty bottles were sitting on the counter top essentially saying "Fill Me!!". Out of some dumb sense of curiosity I have I peered under the counter top and found that the soap dispenser on the right didn't have a tube running from the dispenser to the bottom of the tub which holds the soap. No wonder that one never works, it isn't even connected! It just amazes me that between my fortune 500 company and the very large firm which manages our building we can't get a reasonable amount of soap in the restroom.

I've never been more excited to return to work. I can't wait to see the soap status tomorrow. Obviously that is sarcasm but I admit there is a bit of a curiosity in seeing if we will finally have a reasonable amount of soap.

Plastic Utensils    May 19, 2009
Life has been pretty busy around here but things have been good. This last weekend was no exception, when I plopped down Sunday night I realized I had barely been home but felt wholly relaxed, the perfect way to look back on a weekend.

I've been on some dates lately and as a part of one I got to play dog owner with a woman who was dog sitting for a friend. It left me with the same feeling as babysitting. It was great to 'play' the role as a parent but know you could give up the life shortly. I think it would be a bit different if I had a close personal relationship with the dog (or child) but after being the good guy and taking it out in the rain I was ready to give up the pretend role, at least temporarily.

The most interesting story from the weekend came while meeting a friend for a late brunch at IHOP on Sunday. As we were dining I noticed that the couple at the table next to us was eating with plastic utensils as their silverware sat in the middle of the table. I was, and still am, a bit baffled by this. Why was the reason for using plastic utensils?

It seems unlikely that it would be for fear of the cleanliness of the silverware. While it may be a valid concern at IHOP they were drinking from standard coffee mugs and juice cups as well as using standard plates. If they were worried about cleanliness I think they would want disposable everything, especially since the cups come to their lips as silverware would go in. Perhaps it was for religious reasons (Jewish or Muslim law) but again, even if their silverware was kosher, etc. the plates they ate from were not, I would imagine. Maybe IHOP keeps kosher but I highly doubt it, I have never seen or heard of that.

I am at a loss for any other reasons. Does anyone have a good guess as to what the reasoning may be?

News and Notes    Sep 29, 2008
Drivers in California may not use cell phones while driving. However, they may drive with dogs (yes, plural) on their laps. So put your call on speaker phone and slide it under the dog's collar. Talk away. Ridiculous.

Kocher was in town this weekend for a funeral. It was a rather low-key weekend with us going our separate ways for a good part of both Saturday and Sunday as she studied and I lived a productive weekend in Boston. The heart of our time together was good conversation about life, politics, and religion. All very good stuff but I'll not get into it here. I did go for my first five-mile run since that fateful train accident 50 weeks ago. It was a jump from my irregularly spaced 2-3 mile runs but my time was pretty good despite the layoff, just a shade over 8 minute miles. My quads were sore as hell today so I might swim tomorrow before trying an AM run on Wednesday. I really want to get in the habit of morning workouts before it gets downright cold and it is 100 times more difficult to get out of bed.

Volunteering was interesting today. I just felt a bit 'off'. I can't pinpoint it 100% but there were a few factors. First off, I was craving a change. I'm actually not sure if that is a symptom of being off or a cause of it. I just wanted something new. It is less strong now, but at the time it was pretty overpowering.

One of the regulars in the kitchen was out so we had a replacement. He was a really nice guy but talked and sang (intentionally) off-key incessantly. Jim, the other regular in the kitchen, had a feeling the new guy might irritate me. Over the course of the 2 hours it went from bearable to beyond irritating to so far beyond irritating that I had to laugh due to how ridiculous it was. I think that started when he sang a song about farting.

At some other point I was taking clean glasses out to the juice bar and a member who is known for giving hugs asked me for a hug. I've been volunteering 18 months and had avoided the experience, this was the first time one had even been solicited of me. He's a very nice man, always has a smile on his face, a joy to be around. However, he is 6' 2" and stocky and his definition of a hug is to give a bear hug and lift the recipient off the ground. I've had limited conversations with him ("Hi" in passing) and frankly I am not big on having a man who is relatively a stranger hug me in such a manner. I think he was a bit surprised at my reaction but so be it.

Anyhow, on to the economy. If I had $50k to gamble away I would buy a lot of stock at 9:30 tomorrow morning. I think a correction is coming. Actually, I probably need much less than that but since I've never bought stock directly I don't feel this is the best time to start. Clearly things are not good but I do think there is an overreaction at this moment. In retrospect, I still generally support the bailout. However, I have major concerns with how it is coming about.

I should mention that all I know about today's events is that it was the Dow's largest 1 day drop in points (but not percent) ever. I have read no more than that. So while I still believe the government should step in I also have major reservations with the government borrowing $700 billion it doesn't have on a plan that was hatched in a week. Something HAS to be done but let's make sure we don't just throw money at it but invest it in a smart way.

Defining My Work Self    Aug 01, 2008
This may come across as a down post but I promise, that is not how I feel as I am writing it. Maybe I need to work on expressing myself a bit better. We'll see.

Our new department admin wrote today and asked us to provide our time off for the month of July in an Excel spreadsheet which was different from the Word doc we had been providing previously. Christine, being ever diligent, had already sent it along to the old administrative assistant in the old format. She forwarded that document to the new admin and received a note back that she would like it in Excel next time.

I totally see both their points and am on the fence about it all. It isn't like Christine will have to fill it out in duplicate every month from now on and the new admin accepted it this month but requested the new format going forward. So it really didn't hurt either person much this month, there is a common understanding moving forward. The reason I told you all that is because Christine had a great quote that kind of went along with a thought I have been having for a while. "man, we gotta get out of corporate life. when i'm on my deathbed i don't want to think back proudly on all of the forms i filled out."

Like I said, that probably sounds more bleak than it is intended. But it is an interesting perspective on how I could be defined by my job. "Oh there's carl, he's a great worker, his spreadsheets are flawless!" OK, that is hyperbole. But how far is it from "Carl did a great job at cutting 4 hours off the process of changing the color of our links in a course?" Or "Carl provided the insight we needed to create an authoring tool which saved us 12 man-hours and a few thousand dollars per course"? Obviously there is value in the latter two but is it how I want to define the accomplishments of my life?

Each night I've been reading a few stories from What Should I Do with My Life by Po Bronson. I want to feel fulfilled and am trying to figure out what that means in less abstract terms. I've refined myself a lot in the last 8-10 months and I don't know what that means for my current position/career. I have seen progress in my job as of late and am optimistic the job will develop into something for which I truly have passion once again, something which has been lacking of late. I have identified the problem, addressed it with my manager, and now we are working towards 'fixing' it, so really, I am pretty optimistic.

Another factor is that a fellow volunteer at the BLC is leaving to work for the Clinton Foundation (Bill, not George) in Africa, where he will estimate the number of HIV and malaria doses needed for the population so they can get a better price for them. It kind of makes my job seem worthless, though I know there is genuine good to what I do.

Maybe this is just who I have been and will always be, optimistic but not satisfied. Which isn't a necessarily bad way to be. I've learned to make it work for me in other areas of my life so maybe this is the next extension. That thought made me smile! So anyhow. Again, I don't feel bad about any of this, they are just the thoughts which rattle around in my mind. I have a good job and do good work but am I making the most out of my abilities?

The Doughnut    Jul 10, 2008
I have a semi-eccentric coworker. He's actually pretty awesome, if not a bit weird. I may have trouble saying that except I know he would embrace it.

I rarely walk into his office but this morning I was in quite early and so was he so I said hello. How is he eccentric? Well, he has lacquered a dinner roll from Bertucci's and made it into a pencil holder. He has a yogurt he bought nearly 6 years ago which has been sitting in his office since and he is waiting for the pressure to cause it to implode. (He has even put wings on it to give the appearance of a missile.) There is the orange (or so he says) that isn't so much moldy as wholly brown and dried out. And the red grape which was hit against his office window in a pickup game of baseball, which he has since made into the nose of a drawing of a face on the window.

But I had not been told of any of those things. I was told of the donut. He placed a donut on a sheet of paper on May 29 and has left it since...though I guess he hung it up so only the bottom remains. Regardless, each week he has marked the progress of the grease ring. And still, 6 weeks later and missing most of its mass, it continues to grow. Behold the doughnut and you may never eat one again. (I promptly returned to my cube and ate an apple.)

Firefox Bookmark Management    Feb 25, 2008
I've recently started collecting links to photo galleries where friends post pictures of their children. For easy (and frequent) access I like to have the links on my bookmarks toolbar.

I only have three at this point (the Bunn triplets, Kaera Fritz, and Kate Masbruch) but plan to continue adding to it. Unfortunately, they are taking up a fair amount of landscape along my bookmarks toolbar, which I use religiously for frequented sites. Therefore I went searching and found a quick and easy way to open the links all at once which requires only one toolbar link.

Open in tabs the links you wish to include. Click "Bookmarks" -> "Bookmark All Tabs" and specify a name for the group (I named it 'kids'). It will create a folder in your bookmarks. Open "Bookmarks" -> "Organize Bookmarks" and drag the folder that was created to the appropriate position in the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder." Close the bookmarks manager and then click the folder which is now in your bookmarks toolbar and select "Open All in Tabs". Viola, all three sites open in separate tabs.

I'm not going to pretend this is anything earth shattering but I'm tickled at the find. I'll be applying it to many other sets of links which can be similarly grouped.

Please email me privately if you have a similar site for your kids so I can include it as well!