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[23 Mar 2007|12:04am] |
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mood |
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referenced from here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3716/ebookebook-16-things-it-takes-most-of-us-50-years-to-learn
Things It Takes Most Of Us 50 years to learn:
1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it.
2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time.
3. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.
5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11.
6. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and he decides to deliver a message to humanity, he will NOT use as his messenger a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle or in some cases, really bad make-up too.
11. You should not confuse your career with your life.
12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter/janitor, is not a nice person.
13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
15. Your true friends love you, anyway.
16. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
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| St. Patrick's Day |
[18 Mar 2007|12:34am] |
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mood |
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 hung-over |
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well, two years in a row, I guess you can call it a tradition now...
last year, I bought a new bottle of Tullamore Dew and brought it over to jim's and we polished it off in a matter of hours between the two of us. Then, the night gets hazy - some reports have us at a video store chatting up the customers and owners for 3 hours...
anyhoo...
this year, we felt we needed to do it again, but with help. so, I bought a new one again, went over to his, and we finished it off between the two of us save for a sip his significant other had. more people would have helped, but we polished off most of the remaining whiskey in the house before the invited guests arrived.
okay, enough typing... this keyboard is really loud this morning.
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| am I alone? |
[12 Mar 2007|11:32pm] |
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mood |
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 curious |
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I am hoping there is someone else out there that has the same gripe as I.
When I hear someone utter the following phrase, it just grates on me like nails-on-a-particularly-fresh-blackboard-of-an-excuse that they really don't know.
...loosely translated...
as anyone who has spent any time learning at least one language besides their mother tongue will probably agree, idioms or phrases fall into three categories:
1. exact
2. associative
3. orphan
exact: meaning that the idiom or phrase is shared and common to both languages (e.g. english and german share and/or have adopted a few idioms of each other)
associative: meaning that the idiom or phrase is not quite shared, but the sentiment is the same (some might call this a legitimate use of the phrase ...loosely translated... but it's not... even though it is an associative reference, you can't convert the inference without making it your own - let the recipient do that, it isn't your job)
orphan: meaning that the idiom or phrase does not make sense if translated and/or is most likely regionally based. (e.g. in english we don't really care if someone's bowel movements aren't regular, however, merely implying the question is an insult in some areas of the germanic speaking world. some might say this also is associative, but it isn't, as I am not aware of any english idioms where making accusations as to the frequency tables of another's bowels is an insult... feel free to prove me wrong, as I would love to start accusing all sorts of things in english that they are not regular when they are grumpy or acting up. -soda machine ate my 2 EUR coin... "have you pooped recently?"
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| Potential Employers of the Geeky and/or Intelligent... please read: |
[12 Mar 2007|10:43pm] |
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mood |
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cheerful |
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music |
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whirr of my new 12TB Array for HD Video Editing |
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There are many reasons to let geeks work the way they want to work. Today they work in every industry. They are the knowledge base, blood and sweat equity of many businesses. They work harder than most. They work longer than most. Their job isn’t a separate “thing they do” while they look forward to going home and relaxing. Geeks *live* what they do. They eat, sleep and breathe it. They are your systems administrators, your IT team, your programmers, your web developers, your designers… and sometimes even your customer service and sales people. Anyone who understands how to leverage todays technology to increase intelligence, productivity and efficiency; anyone who stays up nights working to get better at what they do; anyone whose job is their life - is a geek. These are the most important asset your company has. For this reason, its important to give geeks what they want. Best part is, if you do, they most likely will not leave your company to work for someone who will.
#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.
#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.
#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.
#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.
#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.
#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.
#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.
#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.
I hope this summary helps employers further understand the world of geeks, and how to keep them happy. I also hope this helps other geeks out there approach their employers with a list of what they need to work happy.
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[12 Mar 2007|06:03am] |
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2 Kilo down - 33 to go.
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[06 Mar 2007|07:30am] |
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[04 Mar 2007|11:32pm] |
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mood |
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 listless |
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Well, another weekend of work... a couple of slip ups with the diet, but things are back on track again... other than that, things just appear to be on auto-pilot.
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[21 Feb 2007|12:00am] |
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mood |
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chipper |
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Best of Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/66795671.html
text from the entry:
In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.
1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.
2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.
3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.
4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.
5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?
6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.
7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.
8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?
9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”
10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.
11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).
12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.
13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...
14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...
15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.
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[17 Feb 2007|05:06pm] |
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mood |
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curious |
] |
iiiiinteresting...
http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Stu/pip/
not sure it's a real story or not (cnn on the top, yet not in the URL...)
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[15 Feb 2007|10:27am] |
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mood |
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content |
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Additional:
oh, point of interest, or not, if you will...
the Austrian health care system (or at least the doctor I went to) makes it a point to know a good baseline for every new patient he has. This includes many tests that normally aren't done automatically.
Long story short, after being felt up, poked, prodded, and had the inside of my Urethra scraped repeatedly, I am free of all known STD's, Hepatitis A, B, C and HIV types 1 and 2.
Woot!.
now, I pretty much knew already what the result would be, but he wouldn't take my answer of (I had these tests done a little over a year ago and my status hasn't changed since then) as adequate proof.
It's kinda nice to know he's thorough. Or just really likes Urethrae. *shiver*
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| What's been going on... |
[15 Feb 2007|09:43am] |
Well, Monday, I went to see a doctor for a general checkup for the first time in 13 years. Now, I have seen specialists and have been to the emergency room due to an accident about 7 years ago... but I thought I would give a good start and get a checkup.
Well, the results are better now that all the tests are done, as at first it looked really bad... but now it looks like I just have borderline high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Both of which can be fixed with just a change in diet and more exercise.
:)
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[11 Feb 2007|01:29am] |
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mood |
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 complacent |
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Friday was a somewhat normal day at work... then went to the Drachengasse to watch the Late Night show. Jim, Kathy, Jacob, and Michael performed. It was an okay 4,3,2,1 (or Director's Cut) show. Sat with Julian and Nina (of whom I learned that Nina is not her real name but the evil genius she is has convinced the world that Nina is what she should be called...)
After the show I chatted a bit then took a cab back to the 9th district with Michael who was set to play some music at the Schauspielhaus and I continued home (all of a block away.)
Saturday morning I woke up early enough to let the housekeeper in, and work called during to help with some issues. I worked for a few hours on what I could help with, and then started work on some changes/additions to an app that I have been working on as a pet project for the last 3 years or so. It started so simple. Now, people credit it's ownership to someone else, but I don't really care... I just love seeing something grow and to be able to still work on it.
After a bit of work I got a call from a friend that I was to have helped to Westbahnhof, but they no longer required my assistance, as they were getting a ride from a friend nearby with a car. No problem... so I went out with Nina and Bianca for Italian in the 7th district and then declined an offer of continued partying with Nina and her friend at a club called Titanic.
Today, my alarm clock on the weekends (see work) called and I am presently waiting on a fix to another problem.
Just call me firefighter.
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[08 Feb 2007|12:30am] |
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mood |
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ambivalent |
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Work was okay yesterday... toward the end one cluster of db's was loading up the tempdb with a lot of activity and causing a huge disk-queue that was impacting users. This kind of thing is always fun in the last 30 minutes of one's shift.
after that I spent the night at home drinking beer (SKOL... a good beer canned in Linz, but it probably brewed in the Czech Republic. It's a good drinking beer that is also brewed in accordance with the German purity laws and therefore you can drink it until you are nice and buzzed, and still get up in the morning feeling good... anyway, back to the story:), watching Ocean's Eleven, and playing Civilization 4.
What an exciting life I lead.
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| Woah... where have I been? |
[07 Feb 2007|08:30am] |
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mood |
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 working |
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music |
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Digitally Imported Radio |
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Okay, update is way overdue... yikes...
let's see... the cliff's notes for now and more later...
Still in Austria... Still working for the same... Still doing the same... had a couple of good shows in December as a guest performer with the English-Lovers... that was nice... visited the U.S. for a friend's wedding and to a lesser extent the holidays... and the film projects are on the eve of starting with a bang...
2007 should be a good year professionally, and creatively.
as for the other... SSDD.
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[22 Nov 2006|02:14pm] |
And because I said I would post it, here it is. Comments will be screened and left as private unless you say it can be public. Enjoy!
1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite CURRENT movie/TV show:
5. Favorite CURRENT Song:
6. Favorite Bands/Artists:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. Whats your philosophy on life?
11. Would you have my back in a fight?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. Would you give me a kidney?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
19. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. Would you drive across country with me?
22. Do you think I'm attractive?
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
26. Would you go on a date with me if I asked you?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?
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| Way Way Way overdue |
[31 Oct 2006|08:31am] |
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mood |
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 contemplative |
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music |
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Snoring Crystal, washing machine spinning |
] |
So, back to front... just got back from paris, took crystal there with becky. They were staying with me for the last half of october for vacation and such, we were supposed to have gone to motogp in valencia, but sadly, we had the tickets, but no travel or accomodation there and by the time we looked in to that, it was way to expensive, so, we went to paris. in 4 weeks or so, I am off to slovenia for a week for a kickass festival. Maybe this is a sign of more frequent updates. Only in the future can we look back on the past and see if tomorrow will it be so.
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| Long overdue |
[11 Jul 2006|11:38am] |
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so, after a couple of months with no update, this is long overdue. the austrian improv team made it to the semi-finals but lost to canada... i have been trying to find time to work on the storyboards for a film project that needs to get going. it is hot... and vienna sees way more thunderstorms than seattle does... this makes me happy... even when I do the foolish thing and lay on one of my lounges on the terrace during one... letting the rain hit me... and enjoying the sight and sound of it all...
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[11 May 2006|10:03pm] |
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mood |
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 jubilant |
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music |
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BBC Prime playing in the other room |
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Week of reconciliation, realization, and epiphany.
This week has been a good growth week for me. Professionally, I am pretty set. Alas, this is something that usually 40 year olds don't have a handle on, but the only reason I have it licked is that I sacrificed the 10 years from 12-23 when I should have been working on my personal life, instead I focused on my professional life. In doing so, I gutted high school, my first two real relationships, and the last 3 years of my mum's life. Since then I have changed my life's edict to "It is better to regret the things you have done, than to regret the things you haven't..."
In doing so, I have mostly taken that to heart with professional matters. Today, however, and this week for that matter, after a string of events and conversations that oddly mixed, I realized my folly. In doing so, I will be focusing on making me a better person. I really think moving somewhere where it takes effort to have a social interaction as simple as when buying something at a supermarket as it is a relatively new language for you, actually helps with this, and is probably responsible for a good part of the realization.
In relationships, I have also figured out what was going on, and it took a friend of mine with a casual comment to reveal it to me... I had unfinished business. This week, I am happy to say, I have reconciled that business and have actually moved on. I now know what I want... what I don't want... and really what I don't need... and it's good.
Tomorrow is Friday, and this weekend will probably be spent with a good book on the terrace and plenty of me time. Then, next week will be clean-o-rama as I have company heading in to town the following week.
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