Has anything of interest happened to you recently?

Also, expect a bunch of new invoices.

One hundred quatloos that said friendlike clients know you "can't" say that to them, and therefore take advantage of that. They're clients acting in a predictable manner because they're receiving positive reinforcement (you end up underbilling, you end up reprioritizing things on their behest in the very moment they talk at you, etc) of exaggerating the urgency of their stated needs. (If people got painful but not health-threatening electric shocks every time they exaggerated whatever "emergency" they're on about, most people in any business would have permanently vandegraafed hair and would be twitching all over the place.) They may not (indeed, probably don't) do this with conscious steepled-fingered scheming, but still, they do it It's not their fault, really--if you get a puppy, and give it a treat when it poops on your rug, that dog's going to keep pooping on your rug even though the dog's really fond of you.

But the joining-the-pile-on thing is, setting boundaries won't make the dog any less fond of you, if you're digging the not-at-all-strained perfection of this analogy. In many ways, it'll improve the relationship and reduce the stress of both the dog and the owner once past the short term.

Back when I was freelancing I used a program called Task Coach (it's free) to track time spent on various stuff for various clients. I never used the real time tracking, just filled out a new "effort" on tasks (for me it was usually one client = one task) and it would spit out daily/weekly/monthly stats of time spend doing stuff. Quick and painless if you bring yourself to do a little each day.

Well, marijuana is a much safer drug to be on when driving than alcohol. If your friend is a good driver when not stoned, he should be alright if he is. I trust you know how to safely open the door and jump out of a vehicle at 45mph should his driving ability suddenly take a turn for the worst? If not, it's useful to learn.

Not really. Pot, sleep deprivation, being distracted by a phone or the radio and just being old all decrease your reaction time and increase the risk of accidents. Alcohol is just the one that's easy to test for.

It was a minor derail troll, because I know you can quickly and easily look up how much less dangerous it is. I was just telling Nerys that he/she was not necessarily in a dangerous situation.

Yeah, he's generally a good driver, and I got home fine. It was just kind of uncomfortable and I'd rather avoid it in the future.

guys GUYS i went to work with my mom and i acted as a ta because her ta only stays for half the day and OH MY GOD GUYS I FUCKING LOVED IT. My mom was like "can you see why i'm grumpy when I come home" and I was like "NO I DON'T UNDERSTAND" and went back to screeching with joy and i just oh my god i love it
i love kids
i love

hhh <3

My ~35 weeks pregnant spouse and I decided to host a weekend of legos, kung-fu movies and D&D with our friends as a small break from all the baby planning. We've still got a month till the due date, after all.

Long and messy story short: the universe considers itself hilarious and we've discovered the summoning ritual for a 6 pound healthy baby geek.

hoooly shit

MAZELTOV!

Awwww! Mazel tov indeed! :D

She relaxed TOO much.

Congratulations! Hope you got most of your gaming/sleep/barhopping/leisure time out of your system.

Babies DO make good stand-ins for the tarrasque...

Congrats coldcontrol!

Wheeeee!!! Babies!

Mazel Mazel! Good things.

All those likes are contingent upon baby photos. Consider yourself warned.

Congrats, coldcontrol! In a few years you might get to sleep some. Good luck with that.

Sleep study, tl;dr version -- holy crap I want a CPAP machine RIGHT NOW. Once I got used to it, that thing is fucking awesome.

I'll write it up on my blog later. Right now, donuts!

babies
all of these babies everywhere

I saw an ad to participate in a sleep study to get paid for research purposes and found out they were looking for people for the control group in a CPAP study. I'd have to shave off my facial hair to participate, it'd take 4-5 nights of study, but it paid almost $200 per session. I'm half-tempted to do it if they call back and say I meet the criteria, because with my wife out of work right now, the extra money couldn't hurt.

I know I have a didgeridoo somewhere...

That's awesome. I know a few people who say it changed their lives. Welcome to the land of unbroken sleep.

It definitely changed my SO's life. He was struggling at work, always sleepy, unable to concentrate, and he was finally diagnosed with apnea and once he got his machine it changed everything.

Awesome. Yeah, it will change everything. I finally went in and did mine when I drove off the road from falling asleep on the way to work at around 10 in the morning after "sleeping" for 12 hours.

The other interesting thing is that I no longer "sleep in." I go to bed around midnight and get up around 8 every day no matter what. On the odd days when I have to stay up later (very rare), I sleep later, but it's always 7.5-8 hours of sleep, period. I haven't set my alarm clock in months.

Well, I am home from more medical stuff, so I wrote up my sleep lab experience along with the results of the ultrasound I had this morning. Blog post here for anyone interested in the details.

All caught up.

Went on a group ski trip to Maine this past weekend. The people in Maine sure are friendly. Too friendly for my dark heart.

Also, 10 hours on a bus if friggan long. There's a time dilation paradox that occurs and makes it feel more like a year.

So there is a girl that has a desk near me that I post about from time to time. Mostly based around absolute amazement about the statements that come out of her mouth. Today was no exception.

My daughter just called me- she is a freshman in high school. So far so good...:) Anyway she was over the top excited..."Dad guess what???!!! Uh, hmm, tell me. There is a girl in my math class that is pregnant!!" Ok so since there are only a few people here at lunch and said girl is on the phones I decided to tell my co-worker what my kid just told me. And these EXACT words came out of a 30 year old college educated woman's mouth..."Aren't there special schools for people like that?"

I could only say, uh No there are not. She never fails to amaze me.

There are way too many nameless "girls" in that story.

My school district had one, actually. The school day was on a different schedule from the rest of the high schools. It was for teens in who needed extra attention or were spending their days doing other things (raising children, working part-time, doing community service hours in relation to a crime conviction).

Probably not what your coworker was talking about though.

Continuation high schools is what they're usually called. Flexible scheduling for high school students that have irregular schedules due to either needing to work to support their family or their bastards or what have you.

Growing up, me and my dad had an odd and strained every-other-weekend relationship. My stepmother attempted to pretend we did not exist, I believe. I do not think either were cut out to have children and my Dad has since admitted he was not a good father and my mom told me he never really wanted kids. You should see him trying to hold a grandchild. And he is a minister. Relationships have gradually improved as I became an adult, but it is still really weird.

Anyways, I go to lunch with him today and I ask how my stepmother is, she is recovering from Ovarian Cancer surgery and chemotherapy. Her Mom died a few months ago. My Dad reaches into his pocket and pulls out a letter from my stepmother saying basically, "Here is some money. It would probably be good to use it for some 'long run' purpose, but it is yours and do with it as you please.". Included was a check for a not insignificant amount. Not a life changing amount or even a college loan pay-off amount, but substantially more than I would ever have guessed. I am a bit shocked and touched and confused, but mostly grateful because as, basically, a one income family with 2 girls, an aging, old house with a mortgage, a 10 year old and 15 year old car, college loan debt, credit card debt and home equity loan debt, any little bit of unexpected money is like a frigging lottery win.

Tyjenks family is weird-I have lots of oddities in mine and a similar stepmother. I will never figure it all out I think.

Ok sorry for the too many un-named girls- I realized it might be a bit confusing- fyi my daughter is the NON-pregnant one that doesn't work with me. As for what the co-worker meant, yeah when she said it I got the distinct impression that she was specifically referring to schools where they hid bad seeds and not places that actually cater to individuals with irregular schedules. (this would be totally fitting to her character)

You have been summoned! I have started a thread here.

So I spent the first half of the week offsite in a class for work to better hone my design skills. As a result, my recent work has been praised to the heavens by the boss. And it's become evident that out of us three coordinators and three assistant directors in the department, half the department (the Navy and Marine ADs and our admin assistant) are exempt from criticism, while the other three of us work on the rotating barrel system: every week, someone gets to stand on top of the barrel (gets praised for everything they do, "designer is credit to team", etc), someone gets to hide behind the barrel (the boss forgets you exist), and someone takes a turn in the barrel (everything is your fault, shape up or I will gouge out your eyes and skull-fuck you). And it changes every week.

Ah, office politics.

Is it as cramped inside as it looks?

I find it amusing that Nute would pick a barrel for his metaphor, given that he's compared himself to Donkey Kong before...

From the old Navy joke: