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This is my old weblog archive and is no longer actively updated. Please visit this link for my current blog.
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Michael's Diary -- 2001-2003 Archive
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2.17.2001
Taking a weekend off from diarizing while I ponder a few things relevant to it. Probably will post more on this tomorrow night.
3:59 PM
2.16.2001
Arrgh, a frustrating morning even though I got to sleep late because I didn't have to be at the support job until 10:30. (A little later, as it turned out). Got that done, got down to work around 2:30 and lunched on a Healthy Choice ham sandwich. Got a call from the Prospective Customer who wants a formal proposal, yippee. So I'll be working on that tomorrow. G was visiting her old site today, down on the South Side, so it was convenient for her to pick me up. I had some chairs that work was giving away so it worked out well (we've been needing some chairs). Got home, guitarred for a while and gave G a ride to meet her friends for their night out. I stopped at the Radio Shack to pick up some cables I neede to rewire the stereo (a long boring story) and at the Vietnamese take out down the street for a large order of beef Pho soup, which was light, fragrant and absolutely delicious. Immeresed myself in rewiring for a while. Got myself thoroughly confused when I mistook one set of cables for another. Aggravating. Just then G came home, feeling fine, from her night out with friends. She got to bed and I finsihed up, watched a bit of an absolutely horrible movie called The Color of Night with Bruce Willis. Just incredibly awful! Foul and stinking and to think it was directed by Richard Rush, who filmed the wonderful The Stunt Man so many years ago. Horribly shot, with these incredibly pretentious angles mixed with the most banal setups, and the editing! Ye gods! I had to turn it off after laughing out loud during a sex scene, which I think was scored with old music from an animal adventure movie.
So, now, I was just saying, sheesh, it's late, and I'm not sleepy. When suddenly, I became sleepy. SO I will go to bed now. But not before observing that I gave some though to where I am at with my commitments and such during my walk today. I have to think it through a bit before writing anything here. Over the weekend, I will post some thoughts, updates, etc. If anybody cares.
1:00 AM
2.15.2001
This morning began with darkness, fog, and a pissing little misty rain that failed utterly to put me in the motivated state I needed to be in today. Strike that: I failed to put myself in that state, and the rain pissing in my face didn't help any.
When I was a single guy I used to positively detest Valentine's Day. Certainly in grade school, it was a miserable humiliation. Probably as much for the other kids -- whom perceived to be more popular -- as it was for myself. As a perennially single guy it was always a grim day. No matter how my pathetic love life had been going -- if it had shown some faint glimmer of promise any or all the other 364 days of the year -- come Valentine's Day it was always me, a couple of buddies, some beer and heapin' helpin's of self-pity. But come to think if it there's a analogy to the grade school days there -- we were probably having more fun than a hell of a lot of people going through the motions. In fact, I have never liked the whole month of February very much, in part because Valentine's Day is right in the middle of it.
But now, I am fortunate beyond words to be married to a swell gal that I really love and for whom it is my delight to do nice little things. Even on Valentine's Day, that Hallmarkiest of Hallmark Holidays. Well, maybe it's not. This creation of "Sweetest Day" by the greeting card conglomerates of America ranks as perhaps the most nauseating made-up holiday. Grandparents' Day, OK, sure, I can buy that; Secretaries' Day, why not? But "Sweetest Day?" What? Huh? Someone has a lot of explaining to do -- as did the first person who mentioned "Sweetest Day" to me; I heard "Swedish Day" and was perplexed, but hey, even that would be better. Swedes are pretty cool. At least they make some good meatballs at the IKEA.
Anyway. Rambling now because I am tired. Got in to the office and fumbled about for a bit, then called Prospective Customer to offer the latest version of what we might propose to them. I think it is a good idea if done right, and in any case it is the last round of ideas I have on offer to these folks. Worked on writing this up for the P.C. during the afternoon. Set up a web site for Teige's friends and his bachelor party doings -- hope we can get a good turnout. A last-minute support job came in for tomorrow morning, with very little info and typically poor planning. Aggravated me extremely especially because it meant I had to head uptown and lug about 50 pounds of gear in my backpack to take to the work site tomorrow AM. With all that crap on my back, and with not enough time to make going home a valid proposition, I hit the pub for a few Guinness -- G and I were planning to go to Eli's for Valentine's cheesecake to celebrate the day, after her class got out at 9. I had two hours to kill downtown, so I drank my pints and read some more of the absolutely fascinating Disney biography I've been absorbed in. Then I walked down to G's school and met her and we cabbed it up to Elis', the temperature having dropped precipitously. Had some lovely cheesecake and conversation. A real treasure to be able to spend some nice moments with one's wife after an annoying and grating day. We headed home and I dined on a (really crappy) frozen pizza for my dinner. Watched, coincidentally, a documentary by Disney himself on the history of animation, which featured many of the very milestones discussed in the early chapters of the book I have been reading. Checked email. Seems Siobhan and Brian have finally found a way out of Kansas. Good for them, I know it's been dreadful.
Note to self: another day of reportage. Commitments, anyone?
Yawn. Now bed.
1:46 AM
2.14.2001
Yesterday's news today: Blogger was down last night and much of today -- at least for me; they make no mention of it on their pages, although upgrades have been going on. Anyway, here is last night's entry.
11/13/01 11:44 pm
Hmm, Blogger is down for the moment, so I decided to just make my entry in Outlook and post it tomorrow. So I opened my little diary task in Outlook and I found this little note I made:
"Looking where you're going rather than where you are"
I must have made this note at some point over the last several weeks. In fact I remember when I made it. I was walking from Capitol Hill to the Space Needle in Seattle. It was a long, long walk, and as so often happens, the Space Needle (being very tall, and atop a hill realtive to where I was) never seemed to get any closer. I kept walking, my feet really hurting, and walking and walking, all the time looking at the Space Needle and focusing on getting there. Meanwhile, I noticed that I had walekd blocks and blocks through this (to me) starnge and new section of town without really taking note of anything around me. Really low on the awareness scale at that moment. I happened to think what a metaphor this is for so many of us in our lives. We get so goal-oriented that the journey toward the goal takes place in a blur. And there are many interesting things along the way -- in fact, there may be some things that may be worth chucking the goal for altogether. Of course, setting goals and working toward them is really vital to a healthy life, but sometimes it can swallow everything else.
I guess this is a long way of saying: set the goal. Plan a course. Then, pay attention to the course, not the goal. Check on the goal periodically, to make sure you're on course. Don't obsess. Don't miss what's around you. Very hard to do! Difficult to bear the goal in mind while freeing yourself to be relaxed and observe and really participate in what happens along the way. Meditation and things like musical practice, I think, can be helpful in developing this skill.
Anyhow, all this from a little one-liner a month ago.
Today, a grumpy day. Feeling kind of blue about work. Hit a rough patch in trying to sort out an offering for a customer -- I think I have it licked now, but I need some feedback from colleagues tomorrow morning.
Had a bagel with light cream cheese for breakfast, with the customary cup of coffee and iced tea. A horrible, horrible "healthy" yet hideous "Tex-Mex Wrap" I bought at the grocery store for lunch. Apparently this was made from the pulverized remains of Pancho Villa, by the taste. Tortellini and small baguette for dinner. Then, a little guitar playing and sorting out how to work with Pro Tools on the computer. Soon, I will dedicate a day to recording. My reading this week has been Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas and it is a fascinating, enjoyable read.
2:35 PM
2.12.2001
I felt really off-the-beat today. Got into work a little late. Did a couple of things but had to split to go take care of a support job. That didn't take long; lunch break at CompUSA to get some CDR's and tax software, as well as some long-sought CD sleeves. Then a quick burrito at the Taco Fresco. Although the steak burrito was grilled I am afraid I overindulged on the fried chips. Then I stopped at our pro bono customer and straightened out a couple of things. Came home and downloaded some files, generated a cool mosaic of our trip to Orlando, and started refiling CD's in their new sleeves. Our CD filing has been a thorn in our sides for years and finally, I think we have hit on a sysem that works. G came home for a quick bit before class, then headed out to school. I spent the whole evening -- much longer than I had planned -- on the CDs (it takes a long time to alphabetize 300 CDs). Bah. A quick chicken sandwich and then it was time to pick G up from school so Boris and I headed downtown and got her and her friend Wendy. Stopped at the Osco for some orange sorbet (fat free, yum) and came home to finish the CD process (using the old CD binders for the mess of computer CDs around my desk area). Now, after a busy evening, it's time for bed.
Kind of a blah entry, I know -- they have been kind of blah lately. Well, whaddaya want, Samuel Pepys?
11:01 PM
2.11.2001
Slept way too late today, even given the late hour I stayed up until (2:00 or so). I find that with less than 7 and more than 9 hours of sleep, I do not function well and I am extremely prone to headahces and irritability, two exciting components of my day today. An early evening trip to the grocery store cleared my head somewhat. Bagel sandwiches and some light fried rice were the meals of the day. Changed Gill's water, as it was getting pretty scuzzy. G had a lot of homework and studying to do today. Planned on calling Mom & Dad but the day and evening just kind of slipped away (funny how that happens when you sleep and doze half the day). I suppose I needed the respite; I haven't had two straight days of r&r in a long while, or so it seems.
Had a chance to videoconference with Sean while his daughter Maeve wriggled and cooed in the background. It was fun and we made some tentative plans for Teige's bachelor party.
The day ended with popcorn and a big-screen presentation of the first half of Fantasia. The obsessive/compulsive aspect of my personality has grabbed onto the Disney organization. Our trip really fascinated me in the company, and I have been reading a lot about its history and evolution. That's the way I am: when I get an interest in something, I have to, have to, have to learn everything I can about it.
In the interest of the observations made on sleep above, I am going to do a little reading now, and then get some sleep.
11:47 PM
A day of enjoying hanging out around the house. Nice brunch of egg-white omelette with onions and parmesan cheese, and a bagel wih fat free cream cheese, coffee and iced earl grey tea. Then, a little tidying up of my office, webbsurfing, and some laundry while G studied. An evening meal of pasta with olive oil, wine, garlic, onions, baked with shredded paremsan and a nice crusty roll. Went over to Steph and Mark's to play guitar with Mark while S & G caught up. Home on the early side.
12:15 AM
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