Connect the Dots

For the past couple of days, due to my work location, I have had much less access to the internet. Of course, I still have my Blackberry and can get to anything I really need to view during the day but this is a huge change from my normal working environment. I am usually online for 10 – 12 hours a day so this short break from that is nice. It really changes my daily routine as I can not jump over to some website every time I feel the urge for a distraction. And what I have been doing instead of those web distractions has been a lot more satisfying.

What I have been doing in the absence of the distractions is simply talking. Talking to coworkers, clients, management and anyone else around. Some of my teammates have even commented on how much more conversation is occurring between us. The conversations range from serious to silly. We have discussed politics, music, food, vacations and just about everything else you could think of. From all of this we really see that our perceived differences are just that, perceptions but not facts. After nearly a week of being disconnected I am more connected to the people I work with than ever before. So, this raises the question of whether or not our unlimited access is really helping or hurting us?

Travelling, testing, and that summer camp feeling

I promised to write more but work always seems to get in the way of doing just that. I’d much rather it be the other way around but I’ve got bills to pay so I think for now this is the way its going to stay. My project is actually extremely chaotic right now, most of us have been working long hours or straight through weekends. I am looking at two weeks straight as of this coming Friday. But, right now it is not bothering me so much. Mainly because where I am feels so much like summer camp.

Summer camp, you say, how can work feel like summer camp? Well, for starters myself and about a dozen other team members have all checked into the same hotel near our client site. At night we go to meals together, we drink together, and in the morning we all meet up for breakfast together before carpooling into work. Work that just so happens to be located on an army base. Now most people wouldn’t equate an army base with summer camp but I spent most of my summers at a camp that was previously a military base. So, when I get on Post I get the feel of that camp. From the style of the buildings to the look and feel of the grounds it is all very familiar and welcoming. And thankfully we are only here for a few more days.

Over the next fews days my coworkers and I will be testing our system in hopes of having it ready to go live next month. Work, of course, is not all we will be doing. We already have trips planned to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. Field trips? See this really is more like summer camp than work, right down to the very summer-like weather. And possibly the best part of this little trip is that when we return to our local office it is 4th of July week and no one will be in the office anyway. July is already shaping up to be a good month.

My morning routine

I think mornings are such an important time that most people overlook. For years and years I overlooked it myself. Going as far back as high school I was always a big time snoozer. Back then I went to a school that started very late compared to others (I also lived across the street) and I became used to being able to sleep in. When I went to college I scheduled my first class after noon, this didn’t help my ability to take advantage of early mornings. Through out the rest of college I would always work my schedule so that I never started a class before 3^rd period. Because of all this I had become conditioned to late nights and late mornings, 10 am was really early for me. When I entered the working world it was a real struggle to get up early and at times being a work from home employee hid that fact. I was able to simply wake up and turn on work, after being work from home I landed on a project that allowed me to stroll in at 10 am, again hiding the fact that I was not an early riser. However, for the past 6 months or so I have been on a project that requires a normal 9 am arrival time. So, I really had to revamp how I prepared for my days.

 

The problem isn’t just that I have a hard time waking up; it’s that I also take a long time to get ready in the mornings. From the time I wake up until I walk out my door it is close to two hours. When I first had to be here early instead of trying to get up earlier I moved some of my morning tasks to the evening. However, that did not last long since I do not get home until late after the gym I was usually tired and wanted nothing to do with food preparation. So, the only logical solution was to begin getting up earlier and becoming better about not snoozing for hours. At first I set my alarm to an hour earlier, but after still being late most days I set it another hour earlier. Needless to say this did not work at all and I would adjust by snoozing over and over until I was ready to get up. Finally, after much trial and error I began getting into bed at a decent time and setting the alarm for about 8 hours later. I still snoozed a little but I am continuously getting better at it. I have decided instead of pushing my alarm to an hour earlier each time I would move back by 15 minutes or so after being able to not snooze and getting sufficient sleep at a later time.

 

So, after months of trying and readjusting I am finally getting in my entire morning routine with time to spare. My alarm goes off at 6:45 am and I rarely snooze, and if I do it is only one time. From there, I usually weigh myself (yes, everyday), then go make my coffee. While the coffee is brewing I will make all my meals for the day at work and hopefully I can finish that by the time the coffee is done. Once, my lunches are packed and ready to go I grab my coffee and begin making breakfast. I do make breakfast every morning and usually sit in the kitchen to eat it with my coffee and something to read. If my computer is on I will read the paper online, if it isn’t I will check baseball scores or the weather on my phone, but most likely I will grab a book. After all of this, usually an hour has past and I will begin getting ready for work. This takes me about 20 – 30 minutes depending on how fast I am moving and how decisive I can be on which combination of work clothes I feel like wearing for that day. This routine usually gets me into the office about 2 hours after I wake up which for me is perfect. Since, most of my tasks get done in the morning when I get home in the evening I have very little to do, so I get all of my unwinding time from 7-10 or whenever I fall asleep. Waking up earlier has literally removed small stresses from my life and even though some mornings it is hard, I can not be happier with the results.

Is it the sunshine or the rain?

As the spring time weather is flowing on towards summer I find myself feeling extremely nostalgic for Florida. Odd that this weather would be what makes me miss Florida since summer was usually my least favorite season down there. At least as far as weather goes. But, here I am lying out in my yard in the suburbs wanting to be on the beach with my sister or at the pool with friends. Even when I am at work I find myself looking out the windows at stormy weather and looking back fondly on how it used to rain everyday in the summer. Of course when I was there the two hours of afternoon rain was just a huge pain. Being in Virginia however I can’t think of anything more enticing than an afternoon rain storm and the way the streets seem to steam up once the rains stop.

 

Considering the rain and the heat are the first things I will complain about the next time I am in Florida it is probably more than just the weather that I am missing. My mom and my sisters are all back in the same area for the first time since I went to college and I feel a little disconnected from them being the only one out of state. And while I am making arrangements to move even further away I find myself second guessing this decision. Maybe I should be going down the coast instead of up it. Perhaps I am just not ready to say goodbye to these southern skies just yet. The idea of a return to Florida, even for a short time, seems pretty enticing right now. I can see my family whenever I want instead of constantly having to research flights and plan ahead. I can shop at Publix, see old friends and of course enjoy the sunshine and the rain.

Shacking up

When I was in college, must have been sophomore year, one of my roommates had a girlfriend who spent so many nights at our place she affectionately became known as just Shaq. To this day I can not remember which roommate she was dating nor what her real name was. However, what I am getting at here is less about the girl than it is about the roommates. As someone on the wrong side of 25 I am starting to desire my own place, not that having roommates for the past 8 years or so has been a bad experience, but I would like to enjoy my own space for a little bit. And as I get older I am beginning to wonder if that will ever happen. The only time I can remember having my own space was one semester in college that I had my own room in the fraternity house. So now I see two paths I could take.

 

On one path I could continue doing what I have been doing, going from roommate to roommate and on the other I could find my own place for a little while. The thing is to afford my own place I would be limited in where I could actually live. So, if I continue with my plans to move to New York then I ultimately have no choice but continue with the roommates. Or, I can declare my independence, move to Florida and live alone for once. And if that is the path I should choose I won’t have to worry about who my roommates are dating or what their names really are, I can just remember that Shaq plays for the Miami Heat and that is the end of the story.

Read the book, ruin the movie

When I say I have been reading a lot lately I mean I have been reading the Harry Potter books at the request of my roommates. I am on book 4 and will not start book 5 until after I watch the movie this summer. Some people disagree with this method but to me it is the only way to fully enjoy the story in both mediums. I have my reasons for this, namely the Lord of the Rings experiment I did a few summers ago. The summer after The Two Towers came out I was working at a sleep away camp and decided to read the LOTR books figuring they would take me a long time to finish. However, I ended up having a ton of free time and reading something like 8 books over the 8 weeks I was there. I started the series with the Hobbit, flew through the Fellowship and Two Towers and then was left with a decision to make. Should I continue reading or wait for the movie? I kept reading, I loved the book, it was great but when I went to see the movie with my friends, none of whom had read the books, I felt that they enjoyed it a lot more than I did. In the movie I kept hoping to see things that were in the book, but so many things had been changed or removed that although I enjoyed the movie it was not my favorite of the series. On the other hand, when I read the books of the movies I had already seen I was pleasantly surprised whenever something took place that was new to me. I am currently experiencing very similar feelings with the Harry Potter books. I enjoyed all the movies I have seen so far and I am enjoying the books no less for having seen them. Actually, I may be enjoying the books more with preconceived images of the characters in my head. I know that many people will disagree with me and say that you lose something by watching the movie first and they have a point but I think you lose more the other way around. So, for me watching then reading equals the best net gain from both experiences.

Traveling at the speed of thought

Boy have I really sucked at this blog thing lately. Its not that I don’t want to write or have things to write, actually it is just the opposite. There is a lot of activity, I have very little down time and when I do I want it to be peaceful. Anyway, work has been chaotic, much more than normal anyway as my current project is winding down. Outside of work and my constant trips to the dentist life has been pretty normal for me, I work, go to the gym and head home most nights to watch movies. Occasionally, I will meet up with friends for falafel or drinks or to catch a baseball game. Still, even though mundane there should be things to write about and there are, as a matter of fact I have started numerous posts just to trash them. But, what is the point of doing this if I am not going to post? So, from here on I am going to try posting more. I have been reading a lot and listening to some good music as well as catching up on a ton of movies, so there are definitely things out there to discuss and I will get to them soon. One link I think I am going to add to my blog roll is Zen Habits, not sure how I came across it but its pretty interesting and I think people should check it out. For now that is all but hopefully if anyone is still stopping in here from time to time they will actually have new stuff to read soon.