I get asked that a lot. Lately I haven’t known what to say. I know there is a lot that is new, but how interesting do others find it? I’m still working on my project, although it has been a slow week coming up to the holiday. I had a seminar end this week, and the other didn’t meet. So I’m off to live in my now quiet head.

I have my costume for Tahitian competition. Well, all but the flower. I have to decide on a flower, and it has to be real. So that means it has to last all day (from 7 am to about 6 pm).

Last weekend I was busy meeting up with friends–even after a long day at the garage sale. It seems that most people are out of town this weekend or have other plans, but perhaps something will come up spur of the moment. A friend is supposed to have a party either Friday or Saturday, but I haven’t heard anything further.

Oh, I finally got a Nintendo Wii, which is supposed to be for my son. I have been playing. It’s a lot of fun. I ended up with a sore arm from playing tennis.

Work? Well, it’s still the same, although it seems that some new interest could provide more immediate funding. Just have to see.

The cats are pretty much the same. So is the dog. I have one cat with an immune disorder, and he’s not looking so good right now. Not much I can do about it other than keep him comfortable. It’s kind of icky to watch him waste away.

Some experiments should never happen.

Ever seen a refrigerator like this? Even workplace refrigerators can get this disgusting.

Whose rules do you play by? Yours? Others? How do you figure out others’ rules without asking directly? Doesn’t everyone play according to their own rules?

I began thinking about this a week ago when someone told me that I play my games by my rules (considered good) and I play others’ games by my rules (considered bad). I do know enough about myself to know that if I don’t like the rules, I don’t play.
The intensive thinking came about from a discussion last night about the games we play in life. Everything can be reduced to a game. My biggest concern is how to keep a game going for a long time. Games start out pretty good. Things go well. Everyone is happy. Then stuff happens–could be anything. Arguments. Petty personality issues (often happens at work). Then the game isn’t as much fun so then it dies a slow death. I’ve seen this in just about every area of my life. Doing something new is great for awhile. Then I become disillusioned. Sometimes I quit after that. If I don’t leave, I’ve left anyway because I’m not really there.

It has been cat week here, so it’s time for something different. I have been working on my project these past couple of weeks, but mainly this week. A little bit every day. It’s going to go well. Coming up this weekend I have several choices of things to do: tahitian dancing, going out with friends or be an extra in a movie. Sunday I have an audition. How weird is that? Honestly, I don’t even know what to do.

I’m writing this before the people get here to repair the back fence. Yesterday they didn’t show because it rained a little. Very little. For a few hours. Silly workers. I’m waiting for this morning’s excuse to be that it’s too wet. So I’m waiting to see if they show. I need them to finish the fence as promised in one day, so my dog can go out and not get out. She’s pretty lazy now, but she used to love to get loose and run…and run…and run.

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Anyone have a rejection letter? It’s a writing exercise. I don’t keep any around. They are generally too generic and too stupid to keep.

My out-of-office email… if I had an office to be out of.

“I am out of the office. I will not be reading email. You may continue to send email while I’m out. I plan to enjoy every minute of my vacation and that means no email will be read until I get back. I may or may not respond when I get back. In fact, after seeing that my email box contains 1000 emails, I will delete them all without reading a single one. You will know that I have returned to the office, when you receive a reply.”

Do you think I could get away with that message? At least it’s honest. I really hate the standard out-of-office automated replies.

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Monday I went up to San Francisco. I forgot how busy the city can be on a weekday. I much prefer the weekends. I even went late (after 11 am), and there were lots of people walking around. I went up there to go to a casting agency for free photos. The agency posts casting for extra work. I think most people would be surprised by the number of movies and commercials that are shot here. Even I am surprised. I’m sure you wonder how I found out about this. Well, I can thank Mr. O for the information. It sounded interesting, so really on a whim, I signed up. Why not? It might be fun.
I’m not very fond of the photos on the site, so I will get some other ones at some point. Right now I ‘m working on finding a photographer who is willing to trade for a CD. I would really like to get photos taken at the studio where my son and I had photos taken a few years ago, but he’s a bit on the expensive side. Well worth the money, but spending $500 on photos isn’t in my budget.

So SF on a Monday… I saw a guy walking a large, hairy black cat on a leash. Now, I see dogs all over, but this is the first time I saw a cat. The cat didn’t even seem spooked by the cars. My cats freak out over cars and sirens. I also drove by the place where I have to take my son to a seminar at the end of the month. I didn’t see any parking even though the map shows parking nearby. I couldn’t find any parking this morning except on the street (which probably was sheer dumb luck). I really hate driving in SF because you can never make a right or left turn because of all the pedestrians. They can be pretty aggressive too, if–god forbid–your car sticks out into the crosswalk.

Taking the train up to SF isn’t necessarily convenient. I can say I’m not looking forward to Friday morning traffic to SF. I wonder how long it will take. I will have to keep you posted if I get any film, commercial or print work. Keep your fingers crossed.

Why do we celebrate people who work more than 40 hours a week? Why is it mentioned that someone works 70 hours a week in an article? I saw this in an article about and executive at eBay. I see this a lot with executives. Why can’t all that work be done in 40 hours or less?

My ideal would be to work about 6 hours a day and get paid the regular salary for 8 hours a day. There is so much else to do besides work. I quit a job where I was bored and unhappy to spend the time with my son. I don’t have a lot of time with him, and it was more important to me to spend his summer vacation with him. I know it meant a lot to him too.

So are these people happy? Most of them–probably not. I’m sure their families aren’t happy. I would much rather have a fulfilling, happy life than all the money that these executives make. although I’m poised to become one myself. I need to find the proper balance for me between work and everything else I wish to do.

I liked this particular cartoon from phdcomics. It reminds me of our lab, and it works for other workplaces as well. Click the comic to see it larger.

Beginning with the red square, my grad school lab could be freezing cold, so I’d put a zero there. Since I worked with lasers, I worked in the dark as well. It could be rather difficult to stay awake if you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. “Not enough sleep” is a permanent condition in grad school. My advisor (for workplace, insert manager here) was probably a “1″. He was quite calm most of the time. Although he had this really annoying habit of not answering your question if he didn’t think you did enough thinking and research on your own. You had to ask the question in the manner that told him you had thought things out a bit first and done quite a bit of journal searching and reading.

As for the white square, for years I’d say it was more “VOR,” but the past couple of years before I left it changed to “BIO”. We had one particularly grad student who smelled. He didn’t just bother those of us int he group. We shared offices with other graduate students from other groups. The stink bothered them too. They wanted me to acquaint the guy with soap before I left. None of them wanted to be the one to tell him that he stunk. It was gross. If you were lucky, keeping about four feet away meant your nose wasn’t stinging. I never got around to the anonymous letter, soap and deodorant instruction before I left. I had better things to do, and I thought they should handle it themselves.

I’d say that the blue square should have a “3″. Productivity could be sucked out of you almost as soon as you walked in the door. It shouldn’t have been that way, but it was. When I taaobutbut productivity, I’m talking about getting the stuff done necessary for the thesis. I spent a year working on hardware and software just to obtain data. That year was useless when it came to advancing my thesis. Only the data mattered. We also moved the lab at one point. Moving a laser lab means six months of downtime. More time lost.

Now my last job, I’d put a “4″ in the red square because pump alleys are notoriously loud, but climate is completely erratic (unbearably hot to unbearable cold). I’d put a “3″ in the yellow square. For the white box: “COR”. I’d give the blue box a “4″. I think several of my coworkers would agree since when I left someone suggested not returning because there was no advancement.

I would like to hear about others’ hazard rating of their workplaces. Hopefully, yours is better than mine was.

I don’t have just one thing that I will remember most from this past year. I imagine that in the future the one thing I remember most about this year is meeting Mr. O. Oh, the things we did! Oh, the places we went! Oh, the people we met! What I will remember most is that I met someone as strange as myself. See, I’m not so strange after all. I hope that the upcoming year brings as much fun or more with O. Let’s make a few more memories.

There are other things that happened this year that I might remember, but it’s doubtful. I might remember that this is the year that the startup got funded, but since I haven’t seen a check for me…probably not. It will be more important once I see some money.

I may remember that I quit my job because it was just too painful to keep going. I do remember crying or nearly crying every morning before I left or while driving for weeks on end, wishing I didn’t have to be there. Yes, it was THAT difficult to be there all day. I could never quite put my finger on the reason, but I had a huge sense of relief when I quit. It was the right thing to do.

I will remember blogging again. I began writing here this summer. I will remember all of the commenters and loyal readers. You are few but great bloggers. Thank you for all your comments and stopping by. I’ve even gained some friends by blogging, and some day I will have to meet you in person.

Many little things happened through the year that changed my views and outlook. One hardly remembers the series of small things that effect the rest of your life. We only remember the big things.

I will probably remember catching my son with some of my lingerie catalogs. I knew that he’d grow up and be interested in girls. I just wasn’t expecting it this past summer.

It was quite a year. Busy. Boredom. Change. Pain. Joy. Amazement. I’m looking forward to what next year will bring.

It’s time to get back to getting something done. I feel a bit lost. Novel writing month is over, but my novel is nowhere near complete. I will have new work to do, but not quite yet. I still have a bit of shopping to do, which I’m not too happy about. I wish I had gotten it done a long time ago.

On the other hand, I am happy to see the John Bolton is out as UN ambassador. I think things are looking up all around.

Today will probably be a day of regrouping…finding my groove again.