Dead on my feet. Being married to a midwife means the phone is never on vibrate. Because she's got a practice with two different EHRs and a ridiculously complex failover phone system (designed and implemented by moi) there's - texts - EHR notifications - Phone calls - Urgent pages - Non-urgent pages - What'sApp notifications (HIPAA-compliant group texts! Who knew!) ...all of which have their own sounds. Which means if my wife has a pregnant mom with insomnia who decides to fill out her forms at 2am, I get the sound of a screeching parrot or some shit. Apparently the bellowing elephant is the "urgent page." So that was midnight. Which means 1am to get to bed. Then the kid wakes up at 4am to see if mommy's home. Then I have to get up to go to school at 5:30. Which goes until 4pm, and then traffic until 5. Meanwhile, the wife has been gone since 11pm last night. I guess baby number 2 just got delivered. That leaves eight for the month. Things haven't been restful, either. Today was split between "try not to crash a Haas VF-3 you weren't expecting to drive" And slapping another hundred or so 1.25mm CZs in that pave ring. I draw some comfort from the fact that there aren't many people who do both of those in one day. My buddy Kyle texted me from New York because he's trying to decide between treating himself to an $80k MB&F HM-1 in steel (1 of 20) or a $111k MB&F HM-1 in titanium (1 of 33). It's good to be Kyle.
https://www.discogs.com/user/broganator/collection?sort_by=median&facets=folder%255D%253A%255BThe%2520Rolling%2520Stones%2520Collection I've had a kickass year. Tomorrow I have 3 back-to-back interviews for a position I really want and have been encouraged to apply for from almost every angle. I'll find out if I get it within another week. Sounds like a number of people have applied. Sounds like, regardless of my encouragement, that competition will be real -- even if I am the favorite of the hiring manager(s) (which is an IF, not a CERTAIN) I can't fuck around on this; I gotta keep bringing it. I had a good long talk with my sister last night. One thing we touched on was how I've been trying to change my life over the past year. She told me, "it's like you went to a therapist, except you just did it yourself." I showed her my gratitude journal and talked about how making minimal steps, minimal requirements to achievement, got me so far it was perceivable with a year's distance. 29, and nearly 30, and I think finally basically have come to terms with the last serious break-up. It took two years of thought and effort besides. I'm going on dates now. I have one I'm really excited about on Sunday, actually. Even my sister thinks he's cute. We don't have each other's numbers -- I told him I'd meet him to watch the Dallas/Eagles rivalry game go down, at the same pub where we met earlier this week when a friend of mine turned wingman. I found him on facebook, though, and I know his full name. I know how he feels about guns (when asked if he was carrying in the bar, he reacted with the very appropriate and appreciated shocked face -- yes, we have confirmed, it appears this one is sane). And various random other stuff besides. There's a temptation to only reward oneself when there's a tangible success you can pin on it. "I can buy whatever I want with my bonus" or "I got a raise so I deserve a big fancy dinner" or "I'm promoted so I can really party wild" or "I lost 20 pounds so I can buy whatever clothes I want" or etc etc. While in the big picture I support the idea that rewards should be merited... I f*n love the Rolling Stones. And I've wanted to see them for years. And pretty soon, at least one of them is going to die. And regardless of whether I get that job or not, of whether I get that promotion this year or not, of whether I lose those last 5 pounds before 2019 or not...I have worked hard this year. I have changed so much, most importantly my mentality. I've grown a sense of ownership and accountability and responsibility for myself, like I finally understand I can control my actions. Most if not all of them. I don't need to achieve a specific, not-entirely-within-my-control goalpost to deserve these tickets. I deserve to treat myself with love and kindness and I deserve this crazy, ridiculous, over-the-top, once in a lifetime reward. I've got two tickets that cost more than discogs appraises my whole Stones collections at (well, on average at least). I don't need to know who's coming with me. All I need to know is, whoever I ask, they're out of their goddamn fucking mind if they don't feed blessed and immediately agree to accompany me. Fuck yeah, rolling stones. When else am I going to see them. They ain't getting any goddamn younger.
dude, like, cheer up hubski. i had my 1 1/2 hours of interviews today. i said i felt i'd need to be humble in this new role, that i'd be out of my area of expertise and would need to recognize that. i said i really wanted the job. i said that i'm really interested in change lately, that i'm embracing and seeking out change in my life. i'll find out in one week approximately
I have talked further with Cute Guy and remain intolerably enthused for this first date. Let it be noted. If Dallas scores first in the first half then he will change my brakes for me. If the Eagles score first in the second half I will cook him short rib. If both happen he will pay the check. This is the first guy I’ve met who wasn’t the kind of idiot who would try to get a kiss out of that bet in oh well I don’t know it doesn’t matter — the point is that this guy made some smart bets, people. I remain interested, which is quite the feat
Please tell me you are aware of Things I Won't Work With. It is an organic chemist's blog of ... insanity. And great writing, too. An excerpt: "If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic. I ran out of vulgar expletives after the second page. A. G. Streng, folks, absolutely takes the corrosive exploding cake, and I have to tip my asbestos-lined titanium hat to him."
I mean, she wasn't into you and you weren't into her. That's fine. Don't take it personally. As to the idiot? There's a nice guy in my class. He hangs out with me a lot. They kicked him off his machine today so I could get some stuff done. I didn't ask. I had four hours of work on that machine. I'll be done tomorrow morning. He had four hours of work on that machine. He's been on it since mid-October. He told me during break that he wasn't sure if they'd let him fail three times in a row. And he's a nice guy. And he's a total fuckup. But I have no doubts that if I were sharing a space with him and toxic chemicals that my ability to be polite would be strained.
::::WARNING OLD PEOPLE PERSPECTIVE INCOMING:::: Dating when you're young sucks because you have both decided you'd like to rub your genitals together, it's just a matter of whether you can stand to listen to each other blather for long enough for it to be culturally appropriate. As you can barely stand listening to yourself blather when you're young, things are awkward more often than not. The more at peace you can be with yourself, the less anyone else sees of you spazzing out over how irritating the situation is. This makes them calmer, too. By the time you've got a job and a career and hobbies and stuff to center your ass, you can skip to the genital-rubbing quite quickly and then figure out whether or not it's worth hanging out. I recognize that this is just another trite rehashing of "confidence is attractive" but when we say "confidence" we also mean "the patience to put up with other people's bullshit because we just can't be sussed to care about it anymore." Really, confidence is apathy with a smile.
Back at the helm of the ship that's my life. Have been swimming more lately, which is now a lot nicer with my new Tim Ferriss-approved swim goggles. Started to read more, as an experiment I'm reading with my eyes again instead of reading solely audiobooks. Love the way I easily highlight things and hop them over to my notes system easily on my iPad. It did make me realize what an impatient reader I am with ebooks; as soon as there's some parable, or a paragraph that's easily predictable, I jump over or skim almost as a reflex. On the other hand it's not just me: the type of books I've been reading (self-help & business) are unbearable otherwise. Gotta dig through a lot of ground to find the gems. Almost forgot: the academic paper I'm writing based on my thesis is now in 1.0 phase. One round of serious internal reviews by the co-authors and we'll probably submit it to an international journal. (If it survives the review round.) Regardless of where it goes from here, I'm happy with what I've accomplished.
Which swim goggles did you get? What tinting (if any)? I have some clear Speedo goggles I like fine. They're prescription and amazing for someone who wears glasses. I can see fine!
I have a hate/love thing with Tim Ferriss, but he often knows his gear well. I got the Aqua Sphere Kaiman goggles. I found my Speedo Futura Plus goggles a solid meh; the straps would always slip up during each swim session, so it was always a hassle to get them not too tight and not too loose. Recently the straps started to slip during my swimming, slowly starting to leak more. The Kaiman are great so far, they have a much better system for making sure the strap stays exactly the way I like it, and they're noticably nicer to wear.
Hi Pubski. Life is good, and I am good. On Sunday I tore all the crappy 1970's wood paneling off the walls of my bedroom/man cave downstairs, and found very little insulation between the dingy wood panels and the concrete house foundation. So I tore it all out, and bought new insulation and wood tongue-in-groove flooring to put up on the walls. "Honey Oak" colored. Gonna be really pretty. I also got to buy a pancake compressor and set of air-powered tools, so I can get the job done quickly and easily. That was Sunday. Monday I got the supplies. Tuesday I had a team dinner after work, with the rest of the team who are in from out of town. No remodeling got done. Last night I started work, but then had to help my wife with a couple of projects. No remodeling got done. Tonight I have my weekly dinner with my dad. No remodeling will get done. Tomorrow night is my company Christmas party. No remodeling will get done. Saturday I have about an hour of time, between three other commitments. No remodeling will get done. Sunday I have our monthly rugby fan club get-together, and then am going to see the Mongolian heavy metal band, Tengger Calvary with kleinbl00 and another friend. Monday I have a training in the evening. No remodeling will get done. Tuesday I may have time. Last night the temperature dropped into the 20's. I may not have planned this project out very well. x-( But hey... when I get to it, I get to play with new tools! Woo!
When spring time rolls around I should be about 9 months behind on my backyard project. It's not like nothings gotten done, I've got a new covered deck, a new fence and removed a big dying tree. These projects always take way more time than you wish they did but it's damn satisfying when you get them done.
Got my motorcycle out of storage after like 3 months. Bought it around then and haven't been able to find time to ride it much. Gonna try my hand at making a new seat for it this weekend. Does anyone have an experience with leatherworking? Not gonna mess around with tooling this time around but nervous about sewing and doing an overlapping seem/marking holes correctly. Comvinced work to take my off the schedule for 3 weeks. I have been traveling m-f pretty consistently for about 6 months now and am completely burnt out on it. Im tired of trying to build hobbies in a hotel room and I'm more tired of eating like shit. Gonna look for something with at least 50/50 travel/home balance or just something at a fixed location. If i cant find anything ill be back on the road in January. Lastly, been playing with the idea of a photo series of "Hands at Work". Would be what it sounds like, hands in action earning their income. I want to to focus on people between 20-30. I cant decide if i want to focus on an entrepenuership angle or go for the more bleak angle that includes retail/fast food and other shit jobs. I'm leaning towards the later. The goal would be to try to convey an encompassing look at what people from 20-30 do and the opportunities available. Doing something like Name (maybe leave that out) Job Rate of pay Benitiets Next to the photos would help with what im getting at.
Motorcycle lover: Yes. Leather lover: Yes. Degree in Fashion Design: Yes. Making a leather motorcycle seat: Absolutely not. Leatherworking is materials science, engineering, and magic. Try just making a simple belt. From a kit. You can do that in an afternoon. Now try making a faced leather belt (a fabric-backed belt, so your nice dress pants don't get stained). It'll take you a year. Making anything out of leather is more machining than sewing. You drill holes. You use "thread" that is closer to metal wire than fabric. But the leather stretches and deforms. And seams are INCREDIBLY difficult... and that is where ALL of your weight transfers to immediately, snapping the thread holding the seam together, and opening up a hole... that instantly expands and causes the two parts to come apart. Leather is a PITA. And a good motorcycle seat is a difficult thing to nail down...
Ayy, I'm following a guide that says about the thing when it comes to working with leather. Ive made a knife sheath before. Might try some smaller projects first though like you said to get properly prepared, got like 4 more months of cold weather so theres no rush. Gonna follow this guide for the seat which is pretty begginer friendly and in depth
Last week a coworker sent a group email about a computer glitch some people were seeing and how to fix it. Yesterday he mentioned it to the group again. Today a different coworker asked me for help because they were having that problem. They said they didn't pay attention before because they weren't having the problem then. It really annoys me, first because understanding the glitch was an opportunity to learn something even if it never affected them, and second because they wasted my time because of their apathy. It feels selfish. "This doesn't affect me so I don't care, and if I need to care later I'll just ask."
"I wasn't told I should run from the zombies" with a shrug meant to gather sympathy over the flaw of someone else not giving them a step-by-step instruction is totally something they'd do. It's disappointing because I know they're capable. I think some of it comes from a fear of making a mistake, so they put blinders on to anything not immediately pertinent and focus on just the task at hand.
ROFL. There is an odd passivity to the upcoming generation(s). "Nobody told me (not) to..." is seen as a perfectly reasonable response to failure to execute on something, or self-harming actions. It seems like this is a new thing, and not just me with my old-man glasses on...
Here's a free joke, you must be over 18 to read it: A male whale and a female whale were swimming off the coast of Japan when they noticed a whaling ship. The male whale recognized it as the same ship that had harpooned his father many years earlier. He said to the female whale, "Lets both swim under the ship and blow out of our air holes at the same time and it should cause the ship to turn over and sink." They tried it and sure enough, the ship turned over and quickly sank. Soon however, the whales realized the sailors had jumped overboard and were swimming to the safety of shore. The male was enraged that they were going to get away and told the female, "Let's swim after them and gobble them up before they reach the shore." At this point, he realized the female was becoming reluctant to follow him. "Look," she said, "I went along with the blow job, but I absolutely refuse to swallow the seamen."
Alternate version: A male whale and a female whale were swimming off the coast of Japan when they noticed a whaling ship. The male whale recognized it as the same ship that had harpooned his father many years earlier. He said to the female whale, "WooooooOOOOOOoooooOOOooooOOOOOOOoooooooo"
It's that time of year where I am supposed to go on a retreat, but my skin is acting up because of genetics. So... I'm looking into different light therapy treatments. I got a biopsy earlier last week. I'm just using the opportunity to write, I suppose. Design. Research. I can't model in this state. I feel really self conscious and don't want to go to parties. Instead, I'm just writing... I suppose. It's a constant cadence in my head because of the rain lately. I can't believe it is the last month of the year... it really is the time to study. I hope everyone is having a comfortable day.
i have HALF A PAGE LEFT TO WRITE before hitting the page count recommendation on my LAST THING TO DO BEFORE FINALS and i have absolutely nothing of value to say and no time to add in separate new shit to talk about so imma see if i can think of anything tomorrow (due before Friday) i'm tired and i've been eating extraordinarily poorly over the last week or so so i guess i really am a cowl itch stew didn't