Legs Trashed, Nose Plugged

I feel like I've overdone it a little this last week. From Monday through Sunday, I logged in around 40 miles of running, the most I've done in a very, very long time. If you count yesterday, I'm at 47 in 8 days! The closest I have to this type of output was August of last year. It feels good, and sore, and tiring, and awesome.

I'm also fighting another bout with rhinovirus, which gifted me with a freaky, haunted nightmare last night. We're currently trying to fix up our house in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul for sale, and we're looking to move into the Woodbury or Cottage Grove neighborhoods. Apparently it's stressing me out a little, because I dreamt of being pinned down in bed by a ghostly figure without a face, silently screaming at me from a gaping, undefined maw. What the hell?!

Legal Discrimination? Smokers Need Not Apply!

Although I probably shouldn't be surprised, I learned something new today: employers can legally discriminate against smokers in the work force - at least in 20 States of the Union. They're not required to provide "Equal Opportunity" for open positions to this subset of the workforce. I do not condone habitual smoking nor would I any such behavior, but there is something fundamentally wrong about allowing employers to exclude you from consideration based upon a personal decision.

I'm not currently looking for new employment, nor am I a smoker. I'm simply too lazy to unsubscribe from the Twin Cities Linux Users Jobs List, and when I saw the following post, I was incensed. I needed to know more.

I stopped in to the HR office to ask if it was possible in the state of Minnesota to post a job under these restrictions, and I was surprised to find out that smokers do not belong to a "protected class" of workers. From Law.com:

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have enacted smoker protection laws that limit that practice, according to the American Lung Association. But despite laws prohibiting the discrimination against smokers in the hiring process, Banzhaf hasn’t “found a single case where there’s been a holding in favor of a smoker” in such a case.

Interesting. Even if the law is on your side, you're not going to get the job. Being a smoker today is a rough, discriminatory life. I hope you're able to quit, if that's your desire, or able to find employment if you still enjoy smoking. In the very least, I would suggest you keep it low key. (Or vote Libertarian!)

Social Not-working

"I don't even like Facebook."

I shake my head in disbelief and stare at the screen. Once again, proof illustrated via an "unfriend" action on Facebook that friendships are best kept up close and in person or at a distance. It's the fuzzy in-between world of internet social networking that ruins us, social not-working.

"Was this person ever interested in me?" you ask yourself about a twice-remove classmate of a sibling who has just requested a "friend" or "link".

You find out quickly that Friend A, although close to you at one point in your past, has drastically different political or religious viewpoint than you. Maybe Friend A was best kept as a study partner in College. Friend B was your best friend for a period of time, and now to find that B's memory of you is less than favorable via a comment on someone else's "wall."

Social not-working brings us too close and yet keeps us far away. It becomes a soapbox, a podium, a platform that you would never stand on in close company. Friend C was always so mellow and easy going, but you've discovered C's on-line personality  makes "timelines" less enjoyable, tedious, draining.

You discover what you have in common, or rather where you differ and ask, "Is it really worth spending my time reading about topics that interest me about as much as having my teeth pulled without anesthesia?"

Over the last few months, I've asked myself, "Why would I want to post anything topical anywhere other than a forum where other people want to participate?" Is Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ really a good fit for what people are trying to use it as, myself included? The answer is an emphatic, "No!"

I started this blog because I felt that the Social Not-working platforms were poor platforms for thoughtful introspection or longer works (and I missed posting to my ~/.plan file). I post about running, my family, and gaming. Periodically, I've posted things about Buddhism, but I've avoided politics. When I do post, I try to place labels on them so if you are a reader, you can select the ones most interesting to you via the RSS feed filter options.

I participate in sites like DailyMile because there is value in a focused, topical forum for fitness in its many forms. Reddit has had me as a regular visitor again after years of using other sites because I value the ability to focus in on interesting tidbits of information about a specific topic. I've been using my Twitter account for those short, light hearted conversations, updates about running, and I'm starting to really like the idea of having separate accounts for separate interests and focuses.

With how ridiculously easy it is to make new blog, twitter, and social accounts, perhaps anonymity should be considered a viable way of focusing one's energy. It might even save a friendship or two.

Migrating old .plan entries to Blogger

You're probably going to be seeing a bit of activity on this blog as I pull over my old ~/.plan files. The server I'm running in my basement is getting old, and it's time to find another home for some of my old posts. Hopefully, I'll be able to publish this stuff in such a way that you won't see them as "New" stories.

Happy Labor Day, folks!

Potholes

The sun was just extending its arms into the sky when I got up this morning.  Early!  With triathlon swim lessons scheduled for Thursdays at 6:45 in the morning starting next week, I figure this week is a good time to program my body for this new early schedule.  It is less likely that I'll skip the lesson if I get up at the crack-o-stupid every day.

Yesterday was my first day on the new schedule, and I started out punching the keyboard shortly after seven in the morning.  Wow!  It was quite nice being able to get some focus-specific work done without anyone there.  No interruptions lent to some good productivity.  When 11:45 rolled around, I was more than ready to take my lunch.  As life would have it, I didn't leave until almost 12:45.  So be it.  I still managed to get in a great swim, get back to work, and solve problems.  The evening found me cooking again, but I threw in a twist: chicken breasts with a side salad, croissants, and croissant-covered, baked Brie.  Yum!  All in all a great day!

From Drop Box

Although I didn't get to bed until close to midnight last night, I was still confident that getting up early would pay off.  The morning started out fine.  I steamed along at work, attending emails and trying to move forward on a long-standing task.  I didn't get as far along as I wanted, and the dreaded Tuesday meetings started.  Soon enough, it was noon, and I was stuck in a 90+ minute meeting.  We did get lunch, but I wasn't knocking off tasks as I would have liked.  Right after the meeting, Jesse and I spent time with co-workers explaining some of the more interesting and confusing characteristics of HTML-based email.  Not a half hour later, I was in another hour-long meeting.

Four thirty was staring at me, and a high-priority fix consumed another hour.  Conspicuously missing: my workout!  My run!  It didn't happen.  In fact, I didn't get out of the office until 18:00!  Arg!  I started out early hoping to carve out time in the afternoon or leave early and neither happened.

"Block out time, at the same time of day, every day, and people will schedule around you." This was the advice given me by my boss about a month or so ago.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  Life, and all that comes with it, sometimes shuffles priorities and timelines around you.  I said I wanted to complain, and if I left the post here, it might qualify.

In fact, I headed home in a sour mood, forewarning Meghan before I got there.  I wanted to order supper, deliver, and then run while everyone ate.  That's when I learned that our back door was stuck.  Connor had slammed the door once too many times.  The hinges had loosened in the old frame, and the doorknob bolt was stuck in the extended position.  I couldn't have a fire hazard in the house over night, so back to work I went.

It just so happened that I had a set of new door locks awaiting installation from last August or September.  After cutting out the old slide with a saws-all and remounting the door, I picked up dinner at McDonalds and finished up the lock installation by around 20:45.  All in all, I've had approximately 30 minutes of down-time today.

The whole day today has been about dealing with the pot holes on the road that life takes you. One after another I dodged, swerved, or jumped over them. I'm not always graceful, and I don't always land on my feet, but I always get up and keep moving.

Tomorrow?  Another early day.  In fact, it's time to turn in.  I have a plan, and this one involves a morning run while dropping off the car to get an oil change.  I know I'll make this one, since there won't be any interruptions from work to deal with -- lesson learned.  Still, who knows what's going to happen.

From Drop Box

I've finished my favorite night-cap, so it's time to say good night!  Here's to a pothole-filled day!

Chad