Frosty FRIDAY!
The week is over! Yay! It was also payday this week. Double yay!
Frosty
It was 27 degrees this morning when my alarm clock went off. It got much warmer during the day (up somewhere in the 60s), but there was a heavy coat of frost on everything this morning. It didn't take much to scrape the car windows clean though. I really should get my garage cleaned up so I can park inside this winter. Perhaps I'll move the mower to the yard barn. I hope the mantis didn't freeze to death. I didn't see her in the rose bush or on the fence. I didn't look to hard for her on the ground at the bottom of the fence or bushes. Some things you just don't want to know. I hope I have a yard mantis next year.
Philosophizing....
I realized something this week. Well, re-remembered it, at least. I am happiest when busy. I *need* to have stuff to do. I cannot work at half speed, just as I cannot do a half-assed job of something. I must work at a good pace for me (which may vary with the task at hand, but is generally faster than the pace of those around me) and must do an excellent job. I just can't help it. It's how I'm wired. I also can't be at work and not do work. That's a completely unacceptable work ethic. I'm being paid to do work, so I should be doing work.
Earlier this week I got really frustrated at work. I really didn't have anything to do. I answered a couple of questions about some ongoing investigations, but other than that I mostly looked for new information to share via the newsletter or to add to my own mental library. I kept busy, but it was busywork that I found for myself. Nothing which was at all intellectually strenuous or challenging or anything that would give me a sense of accomplishment. I realized partway through the week that the reason I had been having a thoroughly dissatisfying week was due to not having enough to do. The thought that went through my head at several points was "Is this it?" Although I was secretly tickled to have amazed everybody with the development of a syndromic surveillance program in under two weeks, it had a downside. In two weeks of actual work (or less than two months since starting my job), I accomplished everything I was hired to do. Yes, you heard me. I did everything they wanted. In two weeks.
Today I sent e-mail out to my bosses asking "what next?". I got some suggestions. I also got told that I'm an excellent resource and addition to the office, as well as a pleasure to work with. I said thanks for the suggestions and said that I like to keep busy. We'll see how long it takes for me to drive everybody nuts with requests for finding things to do and "excessive" productivity. :o)
Weekend Plans
On Saturday, there is a historical arts festival within a day's drive from here. They are supposed to have demos of knitting, spinning, weaving, making soap, tatting and that sort of thing. The festival is at a plantation which is part of the state extension/ag experiment stations. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go. It would be fun, but I really want to get my home office re-organized and start on the guest room.
Sunday I'm going to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Monday. I'll also make chocolate chip cookies for the office. I'm kinda feeling like baking something tonight, but I don't know what I'll make. I've got recipes picked for the next week already and I don't need to buy anything for groceries either. This has cleared up half a day to play or work.
So, what to do? There is always knitting. Movies on TV. Unpacking. Laundry. Learning Linux. All sorts of options. Right now my brain is mooshy, though in a good way. I had a couple of rants/essays percolating earlier today, but I can't remember any of them now. For the moment, I'll watch my two hours of CSI re-runs and maybe play StarCraft for an hour before bed. I'm about 1/3 of the way through reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry is about to start the first challenge of the TriWizard Championship.
Dining Plans:
I had a Cedar Lane foccacia stuffed with tomatoes and cheese. It was not very appetizing. The cheese ended up with the texture of a combination of white paste and rubber cement. I cut the foccacia into 4 pieces. I ate two of them, just to be sure that my initial assessment of "Yuck!" was correct. I'm not going to eat the rest of it and I won't be buying that particular product again. So now I'm about to eat a bowl of oatmeal with raisins for dinner. It's probably better for me than the foccacia anyway. Certainly lower fat and it'll help lower my cholesterol. (on a related note, I wonder if there is a point beyond which consumption of whole oat products and oat bran will no longer lower cholesterol levels. I'm sure there is. I have no idea what it is.)
Frosty
It was 27 degrees this morning when my alarm clock went off. It got much warmer during the day (up somewhere in the 60s), but there was a heavy coat of frost on everything this morning. It didn't take much to scrape the car windows clean though. I really should get my garage cleaned up so I can park inside this winter. Perhaps I'll move the mower to the yard barn. I hope the mantis didn't freeze to death. I didn't see her in the rose bush or on the fence. I didn't look to hard for her on the ground at the bottom of the fence or bushes. Some things you just don't want to know. I hope I have a yard mantis next year.
Philosophizing....
I realized something this week. Well, re-remembered it, at least. I am happiest when busy. I *need* to have stuff to do. I cannot work at half speed, just as I cannot do a half-assed job of something. I must work at a good pace for me (which may vary with the task at hand, but is generally faster than the pace of those around me) and must do an excellent job. I just can't help it. It's how I'm wired. I also can't be at work and not do work. That's a completely unacceptable work ethic. I'm being paid to do work, so I should be doing work.
Earlier this week I got really frustrated at work. I really didn't have anything to do. I answered a couple of questions about some ongoing investigations, but other than that I mostly looked for new information to share via the newsletter or to add to my own mental library. I kept busy, but it was busywork that I found for myself. Nothing which was at all intellectually strenuous or challenging or anything that would give me a sense of accomplishment. I realized partway through the week that the reason I had been having a thoroughly dissatisfying week was due to not having enough to do. The thought that went through my head at several points was "Is this it?" Although I was secretly tickled to have amazed everybody with the development of a syndromic surveillance program in under two weeks, it had a downside. In two weeks of actual work (or less than two months since starting my job), I accomplished everything I was hired to do. Yes, you heard me. I did everything they wanted. In two weeks.
Today I sent e-mail out to my bosses asking "what next?". I got some suggestions. I also got told that I'm an excellent resource and addition to the office, as well as a pleasure to work with. I said thanks for the suggestions and said that I like to keep busy. We'll see how long it takes for me to drive everybody nuts with requests for finding things to do and "excessive" productivity. :o)
Weekend Plans
On Saturday, there is a historical arts festival within a day's drive from here. They are supposed to have demos of knitting, spinning, weaving, making soap, tatting and that sort of thing. The festival is at a plantation which is part of the state extension/ag experiment stations. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go. It would be fun, but I really want to get my home office re-organized and start on the guest room.
Sunday I'm going to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Monday. I'll also make chocolate chip cookies for the office. I'm kinda feeling like baking something tonight, but I don't know what I'll make. I've got recipes picked for the next week already and I don't need to buy anything for groceries either. This has cleared up half a day to play or work.
So, what to do? There is always knitting. Movies on TV. Unpacking. Laundry. Learning Linux. All sorts of options. Right now my brain is mooshy, though in a good way. I had a couple of rants/essays percolating earlier today, but I can't remember any of them now. For the moment, I'll watch my two hours of CSI re-runs and maybe play StarCraft for an hour before bed. I'm about 1/3 of the way through reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry is about to start the first challenge of the TriWizard Championship.
Dining Plans:
I had a Cedar Lane foccacia stuffed with tomatoes and cheese. It was not very appetizing. The cheese ended up with the texture of a combination of white paste and rubber cement. I cut the foccacia into 4 pieces. I ate two of them, just to be sure that my initial assessment of "Yuck!" was correct. I'm not going to eat the rest of it and I won't be buying that particular product again. So now I'm about to eat a bowl of oatmeal with raisins for dinner. It's probably better for me than the foccacia anyway. Certainly lower fat and it'll help lower my cholesterol. (on a related note, I wonder if there is a point beyond which consumption of whole oat products and oat bran will no longer lower cholesterol levels. I'm sure there is. I have no idea what it is.)
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