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Mediocre Friday

Today was one of those days that didn't suck, but was just a general bla day. It was only partly related to the weather. It started out with promise (like all days i guess) but went downhill quickly. Work wasn't horrible but was just a stressful day that was full of working issues that shouldn't have been issues. That is all I really will say but it was just a frustrating day. Thankfully these days are in the minority.

The evening was also a general let down. On top of that it was freezing, and I had to navigate the large amount of snow. I am looking forward for the weekend, even if I am traveling on Sunday.

6+ Hours of Work on a Sunday

An issue at work tore me away from my relaxing today. I had to work on an issue from like 5:30 to almost 11:30PM today. It was not fun but in the end everything is ok. I just can't stand when a weekend is interrupted like that. I know it goes with the job, but I still can get upset by it. Now I resume my regularly scheduled 3 day weekend.

Back To Work

It is back to work after a very light December. I had more time off in December than I worked. That is what I get for not using my vacation before the end of the year. it was nice to relax and travel, but this year I plan on using the time more wisely. I am anticipating a ton of catching up to do but a brief glance at my black berry says I don't have too bad an amount of email to go through. I think the physiological impact of being back at work will be tougher than the catching up.

Its Vacation Again

I am finished with work for the year. I am not traveling as far as I did earlier this month but I am glad to be off for another week and a half. I went into the office yesterday and today and wrapped up a bunch of stuff. Unfortunately some other things just couldn't be finished because of other peoples vacation schedules. I kinda knew that was going to be the case but I tried to cram as much stuff into the 3 days I was working this week as I could.

Now I am off to focus on what to do this vacation. I still have a few days of nothing planned. Right now that is good and bad! I am going try to get some relaxing in this week.

Back To Work

I am back at work for the first time since the 10th. I spent most of the day catching up on the 667 emails that had piled up. I was actually surprised there wasn't more mail. I was also pleasantly surprised that it only took me the 1 day to catch up. It is hard getting back into the work mode since I am only working till Wednesday and then I am off again until the 4th of January.

Thankfully after lunch RCN came and fixed my Cable Modem. It took the guy 5 minutes to come in and look at it and say you need a new modem. 5 more minutes later I had a new one and it was working fine. I am glad it was something simple, and that my VPN is working much faster now.

A Weekend of Doing Nothing

This weekend I was a total lazy bum and did nothiing. I was exhausted. OK, for clarification I did go out Friday night for a little while to meet up with friends, but then there was a problem with a release at work. I didn't get that involved in it Friday, but did get woken up at 1:30AM. I was up again at 11 working with engineers for a few hours. By 2 we were fine but the day was already shot and I was drained from the events. It was enough to get me to want to just relax the rest of the weekend. Since I didn't have any firm plans, that is exactly what I did.

Friday Work From Home Day

Today was a work from home day. I was thankful for that since I had a conference call at lunch time and then a 2 hour technical review right afterward. Lots of technical talk. it was interesting but a lot to take in. Thankfully my noon meeting ended early and I was able to make something for food. All the calls and the icky weather took its tole and I started to get a migraine in the afternoon. I was hoping to go out and meet up with Mike and probably a few other friends tonight but I wasn't feeling up for it. Well there was that and the fact that Mike left early and couldn't meet up either. We will reschedule for two weeks since he is out of town next week.

Overall I didn't get a chance to get very many work tasks done since I was pre-occupied with calls. I am aiming to take Monday off so I am going to try to stay away from doing work this weekend. That means tons to catch up on Tuesday!

Noise Canceling Headphones

I have wanted to buy a pair of noise canceling headphones for a few years now. They are fantastic. I fell in love when I flew to Paris with Redcats and got a pair to use in Business Class. The reasons that have caused me to be hesitant are their cost, size, and I really don't want to miss an announcement on the train while commuting since the headphones really do work that well.

First the Bose headphones that are probably the gold standard for noise canceling headphones costs $350. I have done some research but haven't yet found a pair as good as the Bose but significantly cheaper. I heard they are out there but haven't found them yet.

Second issue is their size. The storage case for the Bose headphones is small but I am still not sure if it will fit into my relatively small Tumi bag I use to go back and forth to work. Other cheaper brands don't all offer cases and I know I will break my new headphones if they are just thrown into that bag.

My third issue is probably just me worrying but those headphones really do drown out most noise. I don't want to walk into traffic or miss a train warning so I have held off on a purchase.

What has changed recently is the fact that I got a seat in a new office. It is a desk in a wide open floor vs my old 2 person office. The odd thing about the new seat is it is quiet (I know I said the Q word) like a library half the time and the other half it has enough background chatter that I want to drown it out. My neighbors are actually pretty good (I am afraid I might be the noisy one nearby since I am on the phone a lot) but noise is noise.

If I get a new pair of headphones I can leave them in my desk at work now since I am regularly going to the same office and not roaming from office to office and desk to desk every day. I need to find some time to read a few more reviews. I just have a feeling I will end up with the Bose after all my work anyway, but I want to be an informed consumer!

Bose, Headphones

Friday Off

I took today and Monday off. I needed to relax and burn some days off after a hectic month. I tried to avoid work but I had to make 2 calls in the afternoon. I also will admit i checked email a few times durring the day. It was hard not to since I know a lot was going on. It took every bit of self control I had to not reply to most of the messages. I am on vacation so I needed to act like it a little.

I slept in, but got woken up by a caller ID unknown person at around 11. That was not fun, but it wasn't too early so I can't really complain.

I meet up with Danny by Union Square for dinner and drinks. I called it a night early. I am thankful for that since I started drinking early. I wasn't too bad, but lets just say I didn't follow my self imposed 2 drink maximum that I almost never follow! Overall it was a nice relaxing day.

The Vegetative Weekend

After 12 days of work, and several late nights I got this weekend off. One of the project's I was on has a deadline today and we had lots to do. Thankfully I am now about to catch up on sleep for now. There was a few really late nights plus the weekend work. The funny thing is even with all the work I put in over the past two weeks it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I have lived through. I am not trying to jinx myself or anything. I just noticed even with lots to do the management is aware of the toll it takes on people and tries to alleviate the pain when possible. I like that. For reasons I have gone into many times I don't go into details of my work on this site, but one of the reasons I love my current job is in a lot of ways how people are treated. It isn't perfect, but it is a far cry from where I was for years at Partsearch for example.

With work over late Friday I took the opportunity to relax and do not much of anything this weekend. Friday night I meet up with Mike, Luke, Stanley and others for a few drinks. Saturday consisted of sleeping late, TV watching, and some apartment cleaning. Today consisted of sleeping late (a theme for the weekend) more TV watching, work on this site, writing, and general lounging around.

Now the weekend is gone all to fast. I am back to work tomorrow, even if it is working from home. I am thinking of taking Friday off to burn off some vacation time. I will see towards the end of the week if that will be possible. Right now I want to finish up some writing and then I am off to bed.