Category: Work

From treadmills to tzatziki

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

S’been a long day. Up at 6, run, work until 8, dinner at C’est What and home around 9. Ran about 2.5 miles this morning, so that’s getting better already. May go again tomorrow, or I may take a break until Saturday…not sure yet. That falafel ain’t gonna burn itself though.

.:.

I think I took on more work today, and I have to accelerate my MBA “side-project” work plan (interim paper’s due Aug 1), but on the plus side I have a few vacation days coming up in a few weeks and Nellie’s away this weekend. Not that I don’t want her around, of course, but I can get a lot of stuff done when I’m on my own schedule. Besides, we introverts need alone time to recharge every now and then.

.:.

Nellie picked up a new adaptor and wide-angle lens for our camera today. That’ll be terribly exciting for us when we’re actually on vacation some day.

[tags]c’est what, fatblogging[/tags]

Kind of makes "purple monkey dishwasher" seem logical

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Everyone else was exhausted after their 3-day session. Me, I’m energized. I like being around lots of smart people and trading big ideas.

.:.

Some days I get some weird search engine hits wind up on my blog. Some days I get a really weird one. Today was special: I got two of the weirdest keyword hits ever…”people inserting thermometers in their ass “& “monkey turnip outsourced”. I have no idea how those ended up on my blog, but there you go. The magic of Google, everybody.

[tags]keyword searches[/tags]

Working full time

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just submitted the term paper. What a steaming pile of crap. I’m almost embarassed to put my name on it, but time just didn’t permit a stellar offering this time, so I’ll happily take a 9/15.

.:.

If you haven’t heard the 2005 album Tournament Of Hearts by The Constantines, go find it. You owe it to yourself.

.:.

Today was an interesting day at work. One of our senior executives has taken ~40 people and locked us all in a bunch of conference rooms with some strategy consultants. Most of the people in the room are fairly senior, and we’re all meant to be pretty smart, so some interesting ideas came up. You can tell they’re driving us toward something bigger (we’re there for two more days); hopefully my brain’s still in it come Friday at 5PM.

The most amazing thing is that they managed to get all these senior managers, directors and VPs to focus. No one was running off to take phone calls or dash back to the office. No one’s Blackberry went off in the sessions. It was like we were all teleported back to 1992 when attention spans were in vogue. Crazy.

[tags]strategy paper, constantines[/tags]

"Ow! My tailbone!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Not much to post tonight. Too tired. It was a long day at work. When the cleaning staff is waiting for you to clear out it’s time to go home. Clearly I didn’t play basketball tonight (it was cancelled anyway on account of how fracking cold it got outside), and clearly I didn’t finish my paper when I got home either. Guess I’ll have to do it all tomorrow night or else I’m out 15 marks. All I had the energy to do tonight was eat something, read a few feeds and watch the penultimate episode* of The Sopranos.

OK, need some sleep. It’s gonna be another long one tomorrow.

Is it July yet? If I paid someone enough, could we make it July??

*holy crap, by the way.

[tags]sopranos[/tags]

McLovin

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s a good thing I was super-productive for the early part of this day ’cause around 2:00 I got one badass mofo headache. I assume it’s because of the cold I’m still trying to fight through, but man…it took somethin’ out of me. I managed to do about two more hours of good work, but then it got even worse so I left for home. Now that I have some Advil in me and I can look in the general direction daylight again, I should be able to get some studying and some heavy thinking done tonight.

.:.

I won some tickets today for Severance (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which, according to the TIFF website, is a cross between The Office and Deliverance. I wanted to see it at last year’s festival, but the timing didn’t work out; I guess I’ll still get a sneek preview. Thanks for the tickets, Eye Weekly.

.:.

I cannot wait for August 17th. Why? Because that’s the day Superbad comes out. Watch the trailer. I will watch anything that has Michael Cera and Seth Rogen in it.*

.:.

Also funny: this Dr. Tran clip that my brother sent me. I almost broke my damn elbow falling off my chair. If you have 7 minutes to spare (and are not easily shocked by cartoon violence), watch this one too.

OK, on a serious note…WHY in the Sam Hill has no one told me about Dr. Tran before?

[tags]headache, severance, eye weekly, superbad, michael cera, seth rogen, dr. tran, lonesausage[/tags]

* Except porn, should any exist.

Just like Mel Lastman was Canada's mayor

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s warm today. Very warm. But it’s good; I think the sticky, humid weather is good for my cold. Feels like I’m in a sauna, kind of.

Another plus to being up this high, this close to the water: even on really warm days we get a cool breeze up here.

.:.

I left work just after 1:00 today. Got home, ate, caught up on a little work and just rested. I can’t bring myself to take sick days anymore — I’d have to pretty damn sick to not be able to look at a laptop — but today was a good rest for me. We’re going away for the weekend, so I don’t want to be snotty and hacky around my friends.

.:.

Apparently there’s a new poll out that says the Toronto Maple Leafs are who most would call “Canada’s Team”.

Overall, 24 per cent of the just over 1,000 people surveyed between May 17 and 20 named Toronto as Canada’s team, while 22 per cent picked the Habs and just 15 per cent chose the Senators.

This surprises me a little bit. Not because the Leafs got the most votes, but because they won by so little. Given the population of the GTA and the surrounding area, I would have expected the Leafs to have more support, but there’s Montreal right behind them. While that should be a little embarassing for Toronto, this is worse: what the poll doesn’t capture is that the 76% nationwide who didn’t vote for Toronto probably despise the Leafs, whereas — apart from in Toronto — the Canadiens have plenty of fans nationwide. If you were to do a net promoter score, I don’t think Toronto’d do so well.

[tags]toronto weather, humidity, leafs, canadiens, canada’s team[/tags]

Working for the weekend

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

OK…just barely awake at this point. Got up at 6, got to work by 7, had hectic-ass day, and left work at 8…didn’t feel tired until I got to the Auld Spot, where Nellie & CBGB were waiting for me, and around 1/4 of the way through my second beer (and following a very good veggie burger) I hit the wall. Sleeeeeeeeepy. I finished my drink (I’m not dead, after all), got the bill and then got a cab. I wouldn’t have stayed awake for the subway ride home.

Now…must try to stay awake long enough to watch the end of the Spurs-Suns game 6…Icandoit…

Note to self: remember to write paper (which is due Tuesday) this weekend.

[tags]auld spot[/tags]

Paradox

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

When work gets crazy — as it is right now — I get torn between desperately craving downtime and enjoying myself.

If I had time, I’d make myself a Venn disgram. Jessica Hagy, where are you when I need you?

[tags]workload, jessica hagy[/tags]

Is April over yet?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The tiredness isn’t going away. Had a pretty hectic day, and tomorrow looks to be about the same as I get ready to leave for a week. Took a break tonight to eat some dinner (pizza…I skipped lunch and we got home late, so it was the best…pizza…ever!), watch The Office and 30 Rock, and unpack the DVDs. Tomorrow’ll be another late one but I hope to get lots more unpacking done while I watch the Raptors game.

That cat better shut up tonight or he’ll be getting a shoe in the head.

[tags]office, 30 rock, pizza[/tags]