Random Thoughts: I'm hungry!

Why is it that when I wake up early, I am always ravenously hungry? Anyone else experience this? I should mention that I don't want to be awake, but I am. I guess the good thing about getting into work at 3:45 a.m. is that I can leave as early as 2:45 p.m. Can that really be considered a "good thing"?

For me, the answer is 'yes'. Any time I get to spend with the family is a good thing. In addition, I had a rough day with Laura yesterday due to her absolute refusal to take a nap. I tried everything in my arsenal but nothing worked. I even tried driving around, which I haven't done for several months. The problem was that she was using all her tricks to counter me and stay awake. Usually, I comply with her simple requests or otherwise placate her at nap time to make sure she is calm and relaxed, and that usually works. A few times, though, the hugs for her bear and moose and book reading and the going potty requests are just manipulation. When I finally put my foot down try to rock her, she throws a fit and ensures that she will be awake for another 20 minutes because of how amped up she gets.

From what I've heard, we have a pretty easygoing baby, so I'm not complaining. Well, I guess this is 'sort of' complaining, but not really. I love my baby and no amount of crankiness will change that.

Recreation: SNA 5k by the Bay Results

So I don't have a link to the official posted times yet, but they posted a print out on the wall at the post-race table. I finished 27th overall with a time of 20:49. I did much better than I though I was going to do given that I kept seeing people pass me throughout the race. Thinking back, I feel that about half the 27 passed me and the other half were ahead of me the whole time. I was 9 seconds behind a second place medal in my age group. I was about 5 feet behind that guy with about 1/3 of a mile to go. I started to put on some speed but I almost blew chunks.

Anyway, I'm happy with my results. I can't believe I did so well. It was a very warm 75 degrees. I know anyone who has been to the south would feel that 75 isn't that warm, but running sub-7 minutes per mile raises body temperature significantly. I don't even want to put on a t-shirt right now, let alone pants. Nope, it's the underwear post for me.

UPDATE:

Here are the official results:

Place No.       Name        Div/Tot   Div    Time    Pace
 27   88   WILLIAM GAUCH      4/19   M3039   20:49   6:42
 37   87    ERIN GAUCH        3/10   F1829   22:06   7:07

Baby Video: Slide

Children's Museum of Boston Slide Fun!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ifQ44lPJsm0" width="425" height="355"/]

Random Thoughts: I had a feeling

When I was first notified that my website would be migrated to a new "better" server, I had my doubts. Why would a company invest money in something that works well already. That said, it looks like this new server is slower (network wise) and less reliable than the old one. Other than the time that their whole server crashed and I pretty much lost my entire site, the old server served me well. At this point, it's just an annoyance to me, but if people start telling me that the site is inoperable or otherwise unusable, it will escalate in priority.

In running news, I had thought about running the Norman Bird Sanctuary 5k last weekend, but backed out at the last minute. Last night, I convinced my wife that we should run the SNA 5k by the Bay. I hope to set a new PR (better than 21:52), but realistically, I will probably be somewhere in the 22:00 to 24:00. Running-wise, though, I have been feeling pretty good lately. The weather could kill all that, though. If it is hot and sunny, I will probably do poorly. If it is raining, I would probably do better, but running with glasses in pouring rain sucks. In either case, I'm committed now. Wish me luck.

Baby Video: Spring-time fun

New videos are online. I will probably post a bunch more because they are too cute. Anyway, here are the first three:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vLLLJlj6fgU" width="425" height="355"/]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NAH0tN82DOI" width="425" height="355"/]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xrvoqxr9mbQ" width="425" height="355"/]

Random Thoughts: Do I believe the hype?

At work, there is this big push to make everyone "diverse." According to the company, "Diversity" is EEO, AA, and creating an inclusive environment, plus general career development and leadership development. "That's great," you say, "but, what does that mean?"

Well, realizing that the average age of the company is increasing, they want to hire and retain younger employees. Their way of doing that is by making everyone feel included. Everyone is supposed to accept the fact that others have different ideas and ideals even if they don't agree with the other's points of view. Even if we have a disagreement, as long as we both respect each other's opinions and communicate, we should be able to keep heated arguments to a minimum.

Sound like an unobtainable utopia? It is. The problem is that they focus on managers meeting their "diversity initiatives." Sure, I have had some small issues with managers, but my main issues have always been with coworkers. I've had numerous issues in the past with someone who asks questions makes statements in the form of questions. Any response on my part that is in anyway contrary to what he wants to hear typically evokes a defensive posture on his part. If this progresses, it turns into one of two things... Sometimes, he says something like, "If we just stopped wasting time talking about this, it would be done." Alternately, he starts talking over me, disregarding me or just plain ignoring me.

I know I am not the easiest person to argue with.* I can even deal with people talking over me and ignoring me, to a degree. That said, I have 11.5 years of work experience plus 33.5 years of life experience which can not, should not, and will not be ignored. I do feel excluded. I do feel disrespected. I do feel unappreciated. And just like the training says, I have felt like finding a new job where I will be accepted, even if I won't be agreed with.

I have been give the advice countless times from different parties that I should involve my boss. I just can't help but feel like that makes me the tattle-tale, cry-baby. I don't need someone to fight my battles for me, damn it! I'm smart. I should be able to figure this out... except, I can't. I have no idea how to fight this battle and win, hence the "considering a new job" thoughts. The only thing I haven't tried that leaves me with my self respect intact is talking to my boss.  I just don't know how to do that.

* - I wouldn't be surprised to find out that my wife's head fell off nodding in agreement with this statement.

Random Thoughts: Smoke Detectors

So, I was wondering... Why is it that smoke detector batteries start to die during the early A.M. hours? If you do what "they" say, you won't ever have the problem because you will replace the batteries before they ever get weak. That said, most people only go far enough to install batteries and replace them when they get woken up.

You might think that I am telling you a story about my smoke detector waking us all up. If you thought that, you would be wrong. In this case, my neighbor seems to have a smoke detector in their garage. Due to the extreme heat, I had all the windows open. I jumped out of bed at 1:40 a.m. to kill the beeping before it woke Laura. After standing in the hallway for a couple minutes, I didn't hear anything so I chalked it up to a bad annoying dream. Thirty seconds after climbing back into bed, I hear the beep again. I watch the clock to time how long it is between beeps. Figuring out that it is a one-minute cycle, I walk downstairs and listen and watch the detectors. After three minutes, nothing happens so I again go back upstairs and climb into bed. Another thirty seconds later I hear another beep. After I kill the fan (which had been on low speed), I realize that it is coming from outside and it can't be heard in Laura's room. I clicked the fan back on, this time to medium speed and went back to sleep.

All told, I lost about twenty minutes of sleep to my neighbors. Of course, that isn't the worst "neighbor's smoke detector woke me up" story I have, but it is certainly the most current. I guess, much like their barking dogs, they only care about things that adversely affect them. With the windows shut and the A/C turned on, I'm sure they were snug and cozy in their beds. Must be nice, jerks.

Baby Gallery: May 2008

I posted a new gallery of Laura pictures. It covers a trip to Boston, the carnival, camping and some other miscellaneous things. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.therhodeislandreview.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=8860

Enjoy.

Random Thoughts: Westward Bound

OK, so it's not that far west, but we are going to Connecticut this weekend. It should be fun. Hopefully, the lake will be warm enough to encourage me to go swimming. The pond at the campground on Memorial Day weekend was warm enough, but it is quite a bit smaller than the lake. The air should be plenty warm to encourage a swim no matter how cold it is.

It's strange how different things can be with a small change in position to the North or West. I fully expect temperatures to be 10-15 degrees warmer. The other thing that may occur is a severe thundershower. That would be fun. Laura has experience a couple distant thunderstorms, but never a direct hit. Loud and frequent lightning strikes are always fun, assuming you aren't on a golf course or anything.

On another note, I was hoping to get my latest photos up to the web before this weekend, but it looks like I won't get a chance. I also have a bunch of videos to post to YouTube when I have the time, too. Of course, that all has to wait until Monday or later, because I have to go home, quickly pack, and hop in the car.

News: Mostly Restored

Due to a bug in the back-end (mySQL for those that care) of my website/server, all the posts were being displayed in numerical order, which happens to be approximately reverse chronological order. This is most useless as you might imagine. There is one fix to the problem and one improvement to the problem. The fix, which likely won't happen, is to upgrade mySQL. The reason I say it won't happen is because ipower would have to do it, and from posts I have seen elsewhere, they won't do it. The improvement, on the other hand, is to upgrade my blog software, which I have done. The unfortunate problem with this, though, is that I had to upgrade a plug-in, which required an upgrade to my gallery software, which failed which requires me to reinstall it and re-import all my photos.

The one thing that will make it slightly easier/faster is that I can direct import from the server, rather than uploading them all. Unfortunately, though, all the photos that were rotated on the site directly, are no longer rotated. That means many of the thumbnails will be sideways for the foreseeable future unless anyone is willing to rotate thousands* hundreds of photos one at a time.

* - There are, in fact, thousands of photos, but my guess is around 300-500 need to be rotated.

News: Test Post

Don't know exactly what the deal is, but ipower seems to have migrated my site. It doesn't seem to work quite right though. I just need to post this to see what happens.