Code Blog

I didn't make a post regarding this or provide a link, but I separated my tech/geek stuff out into another blog and am using this blog for journal type entries. Here's a link to my tech centered blog.

Working Late as an Early Bird

I just woke up at 8:20 AM and I feel like utter crap. The reason why this is that I was up until 2:20 AM yesterday morning helping support another staging launch for some stuff that's going out into production on Wednesday night at 10PM. The duration of this launch sequence is going to be something like 8 hours, so essentially on Wednesday night, my work day is going to be from 10PM to 6AM Thursday morning - and potentially beyond if stuff goes awry (and it always does in some fashion).

So not only am I trying to support the testing work we are doing right now. I'm also trying to brace my body for the all-nighter. Staying up into the wee hours of the morning for work is not something this body is accustomed to. I'm the kind of guy who's up at 7:00 AM every morning and in bed by 10 PM. So now I have to get my body trained to do nearly the opposite.

Normal observers might just suggest I drink a ton of coffee. The problem however is that I believe I can already tolerate the affects of caffeine - I can drink three small cups of coffee at approximately 7PM and still fall asleep by 10PM. Such a strategy involving the hot and black magical potion won't work.

Instead I'm just trying to ease myself into it. Last night I was up until 2AM. Tonight, I may force myself to stay up until 4AM. By tomorrow night, I might be able to pull it off and still maintain some semblance of mental acumen.

Wish me luck!

George Carlin Passed Away

Carlin was easily my favorite comedian of all time. I'll miss his stuff. I guess it's cliche to do a tribute, but here's my two favorite skits of his taken from You're All Diseased:

On Children:



On Religion:

Smiley Faces

I have many problems. Here's two of them:

1. I sometimes get in a foul mood for no apparent reason
2. I really dislike signing those point of sale credit card swipes using the little fake pen and the small screen which renders my already porous handwriting completely discernible.

Being the problem solving individual that I would like to think that I am, I came up with something today while at Trader Joe's to help with both problems; from this day forward, instead of signing with my signature on any POS screen, I'm now going to sign with just a simple smiley face, as I did today. Unfortunately the clerk wasn't very amused. However, I was very amused and felt much better afterwards.

:)

Texas Tea

I woke up a bit early this morning, and decided to actually read some news... something I do not really do much any longer. I found a quick article over at CNN Money on today's (6/19) oil prices.

Two observations:

1. Probably no matter what we do now with regards to our own oil consumption, the United States is no longer the sole consumer of the world's oil and cannot single-handedly drive the price through its demand of oil. A bit ironic that this is one negative that has come about by the rise of the other global economies, which we thought would indirect positive effects on our economy. This is one case where it seems to have a negative indirect effect.
2. In roughly 2004, I recall stories on NPR news that were reporting the phenomenon of $50 a barrel for oil as remarkable and spelled doom for us all. the current price as of today, roughly 4 years later, is $134.