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I'm sure it was here in this bookshelf somewhere. I said I'd mail it to a bookmooch member today and I'll be damned if I know where it went, is what I was approximately thinking. A little frustrated with the dog and the kid, who will have to work things out on their own, I guess. Pretty good energy and a wicked headache.
Looks like a nice day. I am thinking about how screwed up the signage and traffic-handling mechanisms are in much of New England but particularly Lowell, Massachusetts. Just the route to this spot from my house throws you into a roundabout with two lanes (unmarked), a street that narrows into only one lane with a warning sign about 15 feet ahead of the narrowing, and at least three turn-only lanes that may have once been marked. With the son right now, who has his nose in a book and periodically tells me jokes (What kind of a street do ghosts like the most? A dead end.) or quizzes me (what's the biggest arthropod?). Pretty good energy, but not particularly happy.
I should have taken a picture inside the restaurant, but I was with others and didn't want them to be self-conscious. Inside the ceilings are almost exactly two meters tall and painted the same yellow as some of the outside here. Unfortunately, there are beams and pipes all around it at strategic intervals. My lunch was pretty good, a Pamplona Special, with ham, pork, provalone, and little slices of pickle on Italian bread sort of heated and squished. The other two ordered bean soup, which is usually substantial fare, but this looked as if someone smashed up some black beans and then strained the mixture through a coffee filter. You could see about half-way through it until the sour cream melted.
Had a very pleasant lunch. I always learn a lot from listening to the bosses. Still tired at the end of it all, though.
In Cambridge with the boss and assistant boss. This is a place near Arrow Street and Mass Ave. When I took this shot we had just concluded a meeting and were stuffing their parking meters with quarters so they could have lunch before going back. I was kinda drained from the previous meeting and low energy. I asked where we should eat. I was thinking at the time that the meeting went pretty well and wondering what to do the rest of the day.
Mmmmm, with bacon and red onions and green beans. Kid's outside and lovely wife running a meeting of some sort on campus. Lots of energy and feeling pretty satisfied, and a little suprised at that.
Yep, that's one long empty hallway. I'm kinda low on energy today (at work). Probably 'cause I played tennis last night. Playing at night seems to throw me off even when I am home by 8:30. I do much better when I play in the morning. I am tired but relatively solid, I guess. I was thinking about a coworker who just asked me a question in the hall. He didn't wait for an answer, though, because he is one of those people who don't think that that sort of thing is integral to small-talk. Degree of social interaction: superficial.
Trying to do too much at once and not really succeeding. I am thinking about this proposal I am trying to help with, and it is just not coming together because I am also thinking about a bunch of other stuff, including energy waste (thus the calculator and the chart at left from Lawrence Livermore). I fear that the proposal is not going to go anywhere, because it doesn't yet make much sense. So I guess I am procrastinating by being distracted-prostractionation.
Not much social interaction today. But my energy level is fairly good. I was pretty happy coming into work today, despite a frustrating morning.
Too early in the morning for anything but making breakfast. And we don't have any butter or cereal. I am crabby but not overtly so. And it was 40 degrees (f) when I took the dog out, which was a little chilling. The kid is not up yet, so I'm alone with Margaret, who is biting her feet again for some reason.
I am mostly thinking about what to make for breakfast, but a small part of me is being weirded out by the Boston Globe article about O'Malley. "Lol!" indeed. Any cliche like that distills into denotation alone. It is pathetic in a way that reminds me of Nancy Reagan's appearance on the TV show "Different Strokes" in the 1980s. Perhaps O'Malley will singlehandedly ensure that the shark of emoticons and texting abbreviations will finally jump.
And another part of me is jealous about O'Malley getting 9,000 hits on his blog. Well, if this was advertised in the globe maybe it would get more hits. Or perhaps all bloggers should have someone following them around taking "candid" digital pictures of them while they travel through Europe. I am sort of low on energy this morning, but the anger and bile is helping a bit.
Not my favorite chore, I guess. It is amazing how many dishes three people can use in an average day. I'm reasonably happy, with pretty good energy. Just finished having dinner with the family and I have to go upstairs and read to the kid in a few minutes. What was I thinking about? I'm not sure.
Have been working on a proposal for most of the day and am frustrated, I guess, because it is in MS Word and the formatting is so weird and slippery. I bought some templates a couple of years ago and they are pretty good, most of them. But for some reason weird stuff will happen to the formatting. Page numbers sometimes push the text around. Sometimes the act of formatting can change a style without warning. The pictures I import without background acquire them on the page. So all the time I spent getting rid of a background this afternoon was wasted. I should point out that I am a complete amature at this stuff, except in the sense that I get paid for it. Low energy and feeling frustrated. Not much social contact.
Well, this camera-phone really has some shortcomings. This looked like a really pretty picture. On the positive side, you can't really see the garbage can lid laying on the ground behind the Subaru. Pretty good energy, although the dog is trying to wear me down. I'm alone other than her and she won't let me get anything done. I suppose in retrospect (I'm writing this from notes a day later) I could have taken more control over the situation. I was distracted.
Soup for lunch wasn't enough. And the stupid vending machine upstairs ate my dollar and basically ignored my request. No change, no potato chips, nothing. Oh, well, I'm rolling with it--I got a slice. Good energy, I've been working alone most of the day but just had a nice chat with a friend.
I just realized that the alarm has not gone off all day. There was something weird about it on Saturday. I was disconnecting it from the car-charger and a bunch (like 15) of alarms went off all-at-once. So I'll have to watch out for that, I guess. Consequently all of the alarms have to be reset for at least this whole week (although I just did Monday's so I could forget them during the day.)
Feeling drained. Lovely wife has been sick all weekend and I'm attempting to pick up the slack and finding it a little too much to bear. But I'm trying to keep it all together. Social interaction, good, I guess.
I'm thinking about taking the dog to the pet store to get more food and maybe a new nylabone. If I hurry I can get back before her naptime. Feeling pretty good with lots of energy and have been with people all day, pretty much.
I was playing tennis, apparently, when the alarm went off. Feeling good, lots of energy. Triples, yeah!
Downloading some meeting notes onto cassette tape to free up the digital recorder. It is pretty late at night for me to be doing any productive thinking about anything. Pretty low energy, but suited to the task. I was thinking that I really should clean up this workbench. I'm pretty relaxed, just came down after talking to lovely wife about work and watching the Colbert Report.
Waiting for another meeting to start, one for which I have little energy left. Tough time of the day for me in general, I suppose. But I'm happy enough. Probably too much social interaction. I've been in meetings for four solid hours now. I don't know if I was really thinking, per se. . . .
Pretty cool outside, like in the upper-fourties. I have clipped Maggie to my beltloop with a D-ring and I'm just letting her wander around the yard a little, because she does not seem to want to just sit on the porch. Anyway, I'm entering random dates and times into my phone alarm to let me know when to send these electronic postcards. I'm feeling pretty good with the way I handled a difficult day at work and have quite a bit of energy really. Not as much as Maggie, of course.
And not the happy kind of management research. I've never had to let anybody go before and it is not something I'm looking forward to. Pretty good energy, mostly. Spent a lot of time today so-far with people and it has been a nice day so far, pleasant. I was eating lunch (some chicken soup) in my office and looking up how to do this thing. I was thinking about how some of these websites are mostly about how to avoid violence and legal issues. . . .
I am re-reading The Diamond Age, which is indeed an old book, more than a decade now and still steeped in postmodern insights and the promise of nanotechnology. Having a nice time but still feeling quite ill though not ill enough to keep from feeling guilty that wife has had the dog and the kid the entire day.
Sick as a dog I'm staying home from work today.
Was dreaming about a book I recently got through Bookmooch. Sometimes you get bookmarks left in the books people send. I dreamed that this one contained a plastic bag with two very thin rings, a brass-colored one and a silver one, and some sort of explanation about why it did not contain two sets of two. I thought about contacting the person who sent the book and decided that when I awakened I would send them to her. I decided that I couldn't simply send them in an envelope, it would have to be one of those padded ones.
I was actually folding a letter using this new method I just found on the net but am having difficulty coming out in a size that can be mailed. Happy and alone, although significant interaction today with people in the office. Good energy. Thinking about what to write in the letter, having just finished with the postcard on the left (the green blob).
I shouldn't do this during working hours, but I suppose I could justify it given the nebulous nature of my job. At any rate, I was reading a post on the coal thread and wondering if I should respond. I guess physically I feel pretty good, except for a wicked headache and that same residual neverending cough. It has felled two more of my coworkers and the office is looking pretty empty. Lots of interaction this morning despite that, although I was alone reading this. Good energy, and I'm in the office, obviously. And I have not begun to empty that coffee container on the right.
I had just picked up my cell-phone and it went off in my hand, which always freaks me out a little. I take the kid to school now on the way to work, so I was trying to remember to bring the tuner (he starts music lessons today and will bring home a viola, which he will need to know how to tune.) Not feeling well this morning, so what's new. Couldn't take a picture of the bedroom because it is such a mess.
Made a nice stir-fry with Kohlrabi, bok-choy, carrots, peppers, crook-neck squash, etc. And a nice frid rice to go with it. Pretty good energy level, all-in-all. And having a nice meal with the family. It is easier when we put the dog in her crate to have an uninterrupted (albeit short) meal.
Just after breakfast. Attempting to keep the dog busy so spouse can sleep a little longer. Not the best time in the morning for me to be engaged in anything that taxing, I guess. Enough energy, but not focused on anything in particular.
Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. Book number 10 (if I remember correctly) The Grim Grotto. It is amazing how much I enjoy reading to others, considering that I absolutely detest acting. I mean, I do the voices and such, what's the difference between that and acting. Lots of energy.
Saw Rachael Ray's show on the food channel while I was watching the dog last night and she was making something she called "Spanikopizza," thus the kalamata olives and the chicken. I was going to make dinner so that Professor Spouse could go on with her academizing. It calls for spinach, but frozen spinach, which I think has avoided the e-coli problems. I should probably make sure, though I don't know how to do that. Is there an FDA website about this sort of stuff. I seem to remember checking something that told about meat-born pathogens a few years back.
Anyway, shopping has always been a way to waste time for me. I used to spend hours a day wandering around with a toddler in a shopping cart, because I knew he would be interested, etc. Anyway, have energy enough to plan a dinner, so that's good. And I'm feeling pretty good about things in general. I am interacting minimally, but pleasantly. And I was thinking about . . . I'm not sure. . . .
101100001838 The back yard doesn't tilt that much. I must have been holding the phone a little sideways.
Just got back from picking up take-out food from Mama's (Dracut). Kid has a fever of 102.4 and lovely spouse had him and the puppy all day long, plus meetings and retrieving our share from the farm. I was thinking about going up there to tell him dinner was ready. Not really alone, or within seconds of not being alone, anyway.
Not unhappy, although considerable more deflated than before I came home. I confess I love the routine of work. When things are out of whack at home it is very difficult for me.
I was looking through my Bloglines account. To save the 25 cents of sending the picture through my phone I thought I'd simply shoot the desktop, 'cause that's where my eyes were anyway. Certainly my head wasn't all there, though. Low energy today, and I was thinking about the fact that I'm going to have to pare down the list a little so that it is only work-related stuff. Nobody here but me. And I'm a little distracted, I guess.
I am wondering what to make, 'cause my lovely wife is getting home kinda late to begin the process herself, and there is nothing in the cupboards that looks linke an obvious candidate. I am alone and my son is upstairs watching one of a series of endless retrospectives on the Crocodile Hunter, watching him get almost killed any number of times. It is rainy and Maggie wants me to make it stop.
Physically I feel O.K., although the cough, well, it is still a cough. Seems to help when I drink lots of water, and I mean lots.
At my desk and picking through the geographical origin of visitors to a festival for a report. I was pretty involved, particularly when reviewing the data. When it comes to the actual writing of the report I am not as interested. Haven't talked to anyone else in hours. Feeling pretty good physically, except for a cough that seems to have been with me for a month now. It has really only been three weeks today.
I just realized again that I'm probably going to have to start creating some sort of coding guide for the text portions of these posts to analyze them quantitatively. . . .
This one is not countable. I don't know what happened yesterday. It was the second day of the experiment and somehow I never got the second message to post. I don't blame emailthefuture. Is it possible I got the date wrong or something? Who knows. I'll just have to be more careful in the future. When you are entering a calling time it is easy to forget to change the date.
The "Tsongas for President" sticker is from the 1992 campaign. It is on a pedestrian crossing along the VFW Highway and Vandenberg Esplanade in Lowell. It is weathered but the color is pretty much the same as it has always been (I have been through the Tsongas archives and there is a box of these that is, if I recall correctly, the same minty green as this one.)
So, nobody in my office but me, but I'm feeling pretty good and have pretty good energy. I was thinking about blogging in general, about how I really should start to make these two blogs public soon if I am going to try to build a readership. When the phone rang I was actually publishing a change to the other blog.
11101110--See Data Key
Alone in my office. Feeling pretty good about things and I seem to have quite a bit of energy. I was writing a review of a book for my other blog and trying desperately to think of something to say.
I've got to admit, when that phone buzzes, it is hard to remember to remember what I was thinking just before that.
Just heard one of my favorite bloggers is extending her blogging hiatus indefinitely (that’s her last post on the screen). But I'm keeping my chin up. Still trying to think up a shorthand way of responding to these randomly generated questionnaire things, but I have not really solidified the questions I want to answer as of yet. And this is the first one.
So, this quote from Csikszentmihalyi:
"As our studies have suggested, the phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components. When people reflect on how it feels when their experience is most positive, they mention at least one, and often all, of the following. First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours."
So, responding to the above, we would have yes to #1, Yes, with difficulty (2), No(3), No (4), No (5), Yes (6), No (7), No (8).
See the notes in Sure as a Blog for a key to data.
I was working as a grantwriter for the University in the mill building in the distance of this photo. Someone heard about the first crash on the radio coming in to work, so we turned on the television in the conference room. We watched for a little while before people began to drift away to, mostly, pick children up from school. We had no idea how big the whole thing was going to get, so it seemed the best course of action. I spent much of the rest of the day just hanging out with my son, who was almost four at the time. He wanted to go to the park across the street from where we lived, which we did.
The sky looked almost exactly like in this photo, I think, because it was a very fall-like day. It seemed cool (the temperature).
Ditto.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
Feeling very good mentally, but these antibiotics are playing havoc with my digestion, which they always do. I am mostly working on the blogs right now, and pretty engaged in it.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
A nice day for a sail, all-in-all.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
To understand what all of this is about, you need to go to the first post. Subsequent modifications and elaborations are available on the first post of each month.
Sick and tired of data clean-up. But you may be thinking "hey, just because your job is sometimes boring is no reason to start a blog." And you may be right. But I have a cool idea, or at least I think it is cool. So I started this blog.
Here's the idea: A few years back this psychologist began to study happiness and did some innovative research, which he spun into a theory and a cottage industry centered around the concept of "Flow." This blog duplicates and expands upon this research with a couple of novel twists.
