this morning i’m in the cafeteria gettin some coff-ay and two of the other engineers ask me when i usually leave, and i tell them.. between 5 and 5:30 usually. i come in between 8:30 and 9am usually, so i work 40 to 45 hours a week (i don’t usually take lunch). now during the first couple years i was working in the dot com industry, i would work my 40 hours before wednesday noon sometimes, (no, seriously). and an 80 or 90 hour week was not particularly uncommon. i had some conversations with a friend of mine who’s a very wise man, he was the director of systems engineering at a large company, and he said to me (paraphrased, since it’s been a while) “tom, you can work and work, and there will always be more work, but your daughter and wife are going to grow and change every day – don’t miss it.” so when i took my current job (2 years ago) i told my boss that i wasn’t looking to work 50 or 60 hours a week. don’t get me wrong, when there’s a deadline, i often work late, or weekends, but by and large i do my 9-to-5 and then go home and spend time with my family. i read books and hear people say that they wish they had done it – and so i’m determined not to miss this time in my life. my daughter is 18 months old and every day that i don’t get to see her is awful. why would i possibly want to work an extra couple of hours when i have her at home waiting for me? why would i want to work on saturday when i could be with my wife? stumped? me too. a lot of people might think “but what about your job, if you don’t work extra hard you might get fired etc etc.” i know that. i also know that if i stay true to what is really important, then god will take care of me. in 20 years, i would rather have gone through 10 jobs and spent lots of time with my family, live in a tiny apartment than have the same job, a big house, and not know who they are anymore. you may think i’m being drastic in my portrayal, but you wouldn’t believe how many people i know personally that have lost their families because of work. the aforementioned wise friend is to be much thanked for having been there, and sharing his wisdom with me. i wish that more people could learn from hearing others relate their knowledge, rather than having to piss on the electric fence themselves. cheers :)

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i’m a big movie watcher – at least i used to be.. i would watch movies while i did other stuff.. cleaning, homework, programming etc.. i’m mostly into comedies, but whatever.. so i downloaded a clockwork orange a couple weeks ago and it’s been sitting on my server since then, and i’m really wondering if i want to watch it… i started one day at work and shut it off after like 10 minutes. i started thinking about some other movies that i haven’t watched, purposely.. like schindler’s list, and natural born killers. i had a discussion with some peeps about it recently, and i was kind of like “i don’t want to watch a movie where i come out and feel totally drained, like it’s work to get through it.” i don’t want to be depressed after watching a movie, and i’m not against movies that make me think, but i don’t want to exit a theatre and feel like i’ve just been beaten fiercely around the head and neck area. dig what i’m saying? and i wouldn’t even say i’m picky about the movies i watch. “stupid comedy? sounds good. jim carrey in his 3rd grade play? sounds good. funky midget softcore on tbs? i’ll give it a look-see. excessively moral pseudo-drama? i’m up for it. 3 hour black and white holocaust drama? hmmm.. i think i’ll pass.” anyone else have any movies that they’ve been purposely avoiding? why?

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so, like, whenever i hit the head for a bit of sit-down time with my porcelian buddy, i like to take a little somethin to read.. a newsletter, article, book, magazine, whatever. it’s not that my white friend isn’t a good conversationalist, but i just like to take my time, make sure nothing is rushed, relax a bit, have a little read while i’m there. no problem at work, tons of stalls, lots of bathrooms, and a fiction library on my floor that i can visit whenever i need something new. no people coming in, knocking on the door, saying “you done yet?”. sure, the tp is a little thin, and a little harsh, but these are small prices to pay for my privacy & relaxed time limits. flash-sideways to home, 3 people, one bathroom. of course the bean doesn’t use the bathroom, she’s got a portable one that she wears, but my wife has a bladder the size of a snow pea. (no pun intended). guarantee that if i need to go.. so does she. that means no reading, relaxing.. you get the picture. now, i’m not saying i never get to have some quality print time in my personal stink chamber. it does happen, but not with the *reliablity* that i come to expect of the facilities at work. maybe i need to get on some kind of special diet that allows me to estimate when i’m gonna need to go, so that i can schedule it at work. anyways, enough about me. today’s topic: reading in the bathroom, weird? ok? sucks? talk amongst yourselves.

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so last week i’m driving to work, and i pass some guy in a black sedan, a lexus or mercedes.. whatever. and i look over and his license plate says ‘irl33t’ – which for those of you who are not hardcore internet addicts might not find amusing. i, however laughed out loud in my car, and then thought ‘damn, why do so many larts have to live here?’ i guess i’ve got this superiority thing.. and a lot of my friends do too. if someone calls themselves ‘leet’ or ‘elite’ or whatever.. they’re not worth the time it would take to flip them off. so i get to work and log on, fire up the ssh client and attach to my irc process, and proceed to tell the gang about my close encounter with the kiddie kind… and they all get a good chuckle, until one of them says “you should have ran him off the road and started screaming ‘i haxx0red joo’ or ‘1 0wnz j00! all your base are belong to us!’ and then i really lost it, i was laughing so loud that other people were staring at me in my cube. so i guess that these peeps are good for something.. nothing technical, mind you, but they can make me laugh :)

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