Daily Update

So I didn't get to work on time. Very upset by that, but I am not going to let it affect the other good things I am going to do today. I had a good salad for lunch, with the chicken breast I grilled yesterday and the veggies I brought in (carrots, broccoli, pea pods). This reduced my bill by about 3 bucks, since I also didn't get coke. I am going to try to go the entire day with no coke. We shall see. So far, no major problems.

Sunday evening

This has been an interesting weekend. I actually did a lot to take of myself this weekend. I didn't go to the gym yesterday like I should have. Let me rephrase that, I slept through my team weight loss session like a punk ass bitch. I was quite upset with myself and decided that I needed to start living my life for what needs to be done and not on the indulgances. So, I did I a number of things that needed to be done. I raked and mowed the loan, I bought new workout shoes and rain golf gear, started laundry, went to an IIA dinner event at Second City (quite funny, I would recommend the show and the dinner was great). Sunday was shopping, finish laundry and cooked good dinner and a few extra chicken breasts for salad this week. I am quite proud of myself. And I watched a number of things on my DVR. It's almost below 80% full now.

So my new running shoes and myself will be working hard tomorrow, after a good day of getting to work on time, accomplishing a number of things, eating a good lunch and snacks. After that good workout, a little time in the hot tub, an energy bar and a sirloin patty with rice and asparagus for dinner and an early bedtime. This is going to be my Monday.

One of my new favorite quotes - "11.50 for a hamburger? Y'all must be crazy!" From the Miller High Life commercial.

Later.

Daily Thoughts

Hi, I know it has been a while, but I have been trying to catch back up to my life - it's a fast one you know - and haven't had a lot of time to think. In fact, my week has looked like this:
Sunday - golf, playoffs, sleep, laundry
Monday - got to work late, tried to catch up at work, Team Weight Loss class, sleep
Tuesday - worked in Auburn Hills, go to therapy in Farmington Hills, then work in Livonia, then golf, got home about 10:30, sleep
Wednesday - got to work late, tried to get some stuff done, had Team Weight Loss class, work at home, sleep
Thursday - dr appt in morning, meetings in afternoon, stay at work (being productive) until 7, then went to sleep therapy session.
Friday - meeting in morning, trying to stay awake, probably leaving early for co-worker retirement party.

Not saying that I am anything special, but just tired and unable to catch up on my stuff. Too much stuff on the DVR to watch and read and work. And my mailbox door finally completely fell off, so that needs to be replaced this weekend, along with buying new workout shoes. I am tired of my leg going numb during my workout. I am going to try Running Fit in Livonia, since I need to go to Golfsmith anyway.

Did I mention the 9 am workout Saturday morning? Do I look happy about that?

Sean

Daily Thoughts

Not paying attention during my Certified Data Analyst class, so I thought I would get out here and blog a little. This conference (ACL Connections 2007) has been a great time, I have met many people who are as fascinated about data analysis as I am, and learned many things, and found that many people share the same concerns about promoting ACL use in their organizations. Plus, during these conferences I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can use whatever I happen to be learning to improve my organization. I usually come back with a large number of questions I need to investigate, but finding the appropriate people to ask can be tough. I still think that makes the exercise valuable, even if it is not obvious. As I am listening to the various presentations, especially when it is business based, not detailed how to based, my mind usually kicks in with many insights into our company.

I have to take the test tomorrow, so that means, unlike every other night, tonight I will be staying in and not drinking stronger Canadian beer. I found a new beer Kokanee, really good stuff. I have had a lot of it in the last few days.

I have found a restaurant I like, Earl's; there were more beautiful waitresses there than I have ever seen, and the tv's were everywhere. And the burger I had was really, really flavorful. We hope to head back there after just destroying this exam tomorrow.

I should be listening. Later

From Vancouver

I am on break of my conference (ACL Connections 2007) and so I thought I would do a quick post about Vancouver. This seems like a great town and I could see living here. The downtown area is pretty cool and has a neat vibe to the city. Our hotel is right downtown and I think I could really appreciate city living. One of the introductory speakers said in Vancouver you can ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon and sail at night, everything is right here. The only bad thing is that all the games start three hours earlier, which is kind of a pain for noon games, although good for 7 pm games, since you can watch the game over dinner and then go out for the evening.

Yesterday, as I was wondering around downtown to find someplace that served breakfast and had the Wings game on, I watched part of the Sun Run, apparently Canada's largest 10k run. There was 50,000 people there and bands every few blocks new the starting area. Seemed like a lot of fun. It hurt my legs just watching it. Maybe I should do that some day, who knows.

Daily Thoughts

Well, I can't exactly say I am in a good mood, but better than I was yesterday. I think I was worried all day about the weigh-in last night at TWL, since it was my final night. Also worried about packing and getting stuff done and not getting to work on time and money and everything else, but this is not about that. So, I went into the workout not in the best mood anyway, and my legs hurt, but I couldn't finish the workout. My leg started going numb, my calves hurt too much, I had to stop. I didn't do any of the interval workout like the rest of the class and was pretty ashamed.

But at the end of the workout, I had an official weigh-in and was down another 4 pounds, for a total of 12 lost. I was pretty surprised, but assumed I had tricked the machine or something. I haven't embraced the entire program, or it hasn't become ingrained enough yet, so I feel like I could do better. The good thing is I have signed up for the next class and have 12 weeks for everything to sink in.

See you later.

Starting to panic

Ok, I have done nothing to prepare for my trip on Saturday, so I am starting to panic a little bit. I don't know much of anything about the town, I have done no packing or even laundry, I am not even sure what terminal I have to go to Saturday.

I suppose I should start working tonight.

But I should probably start working now. Busy.

Sean

Imus and the Rutgers Basketball Team

This story is all over the place and Imus is simply an idiot, but I think we knew that. But I question the reaction of the Rutgers players, who came out and said they would meet with Imus "To express our great hurt." I am not saying he should not be suspended, or chastised and what he said was ridiculus, but isn't there a point where you say, if you are the Rutgers team, he's an idiot and I don't care? Why should they spend more than 10 seconds of their lives caring what Imus says. It was a stupid few statements that got him suspended (I am assuming without pay), has everyone saying it was stupid and these people are not as he characterized him, but let it end! Yes, wrong and bad. Fine, get on with our lives. I mean, they just announced the father of Anna Nicole's baby. These kinds of statements from the vicitims about their great hurt, by being mis-characterized by a blowhard radio shock jock, dilutes progress of race relations. The other people involved, well-meaning, seem to be taking only the low hanging fruit instead of working on tougher issues that still exist within race relations.

This is my problem right now with crusaders and politicians is that they come charging out against any perceived injustice or for the cause that is really kind of meaningless when there are larger, less obviously solved problems out there being ignored. Sharpton comes out and demands Imus be fired (big deal, he will be hired again in a moment) and it all sounds like politicing for their own name instead of fighting deeper causes. They may be working on them (although I doubt politicians are) but you can't see that.

I am not even going to apologize for any of this. I could be wrong, but I don't mean anything. Neither does Imus.

Sean

Anticipations

Anticipations I am dealing with now:

Gym appointment - 7:00 pm tonight
Dinner with friend I haven't seen in a while - 6 pm Friday
Fly to Vancouver, BC for ACL conference - 9:30 am Saturday
Heroes returns to NBC - 9 pm, Monday, April 23rd

Somebody chips in some money to my Vegas trip - hopefully soon.

Sean

Money Making Update

So, I think it is going to be a little difficult to use my Access or ACL skills to make some additional money. There are a lot of freelance developers out there and there are a lot of freelance sites to make the connection to people who need some kind of help. I think I am going to simply put my Monopoly boards up for sale on Ebay and keep begging.

Also, like I said, if anyone wanted to stake me, I figured out a plan. Any money contributed as a stake in my gambling trip will be put into a pool. That money will form the stake that will be gambled first and winnings from that will be maintained separately from other moneys (I have a great program to do that - Gambletrac - which nobody ever bought). The deal is this, money that is lost, is lost, it will not be paid back. If there is anything left of that stake, it will be paid back in accordance to the percentage each person contributed. If I break even, all stake money will be returned. If I win, stake money will be returned, plus each person will receive a percentage of the return pool, which will be 50% of winnings (myself keeping the other 50%). So it works like this:

10 people kick in $100 each. That creates a stake of $1000 and each have 10% of the results. Each scenario looks like this:
If I take that $1000 and lose it all, everyone gets paid 0.
If I take that $1000 and lose $500, everyone gets back $50.
If I take that $1000 and come back with $1000, everyone gets back their $100.
If I take that $1000 and come back with $2000, each person gets back $100. The profit of $1000 will be split by me and the stake pool, with each person getting $50 of that (10% of $500). So each person gets back $150.

So throw some money in the Chip In widget to the right.

Thanks for playing.

Daily Thoughts

Hello. It's past Easter, and the traffic downtown was almost nothing. It was great and I actually got to work on time.

I tried playing golf on Friday. Yes, when it was 35 degrees with a 15 degree wind chill or whatever. All I know is that I was damn cold and we quit after 10 holes and went to the bar. Then drank the afternoon away and had a great time. I was surprised at how I was hitting the ball though, and I hit the flagstick with my last chip. Possibly the best decision I made that day was buying the 4.99 pair long underwear. So glad I did that. Would have lost the use of a few things without it.

Going back to work.

Sean

Daily Thoughts

I was very bad last night, I didn't wear my mask to sleep, so I ended up not getting up until 10:30 this morning. Since golf season hasn't started yet, I dont have to leave at 4:00 today, so I can get some work done.

Song - Well, album - The Who - Live at Leeds

I wish I had something more interesting to talk about, but thought I would mention the new widget to the right -> that is an easy way to donate to my Vegas trip fund if you were interested. Please do. I really want to go to Vegas soon. Thanks

Today is TWL day, so I am looking forward to that. Wait, I just re-read that, I am looking forward to getting my butt kicked on the treadmill, what has happened to me.

Sean

BTW - was that a real boring game last night or was it just me? I mean, there were some good plays, but once Florida got ahead, I didn't see Ohio State fight enough to keep me interested. I didn't watch much, lost interest.