Me Time, We Time, and Famwe Time

Making time has never been more of a problem. Work, school, kids, family, holidays, events… it all eventually adds up sometime in your 30’s and you suddenly realize you have filled all of your available time slots with responsibilities. You start to question how important sleep really is just so you might be able to scratch out a single hour of precious me time. Your life passes by in months now; compared to being 8 years old when a single minute would seem to take forever and the night before Christmas was simply unbearable.

So, now its not just about finding me time. You also have to find we time with your significant other and combine that with Famwe time; the time dedicated to your family as a group. Of course, you enjoy every minute of we time and Famwe time but it doesn’t count towards your daily required me time. Neither does work that you enjoy, school, driving alone on a highway…. no, none of that counts as me time. The only time that counts is time that you and your brain know as dedicated me time.

Dedicated me time is time spent alone doing irresponsible things simply for the sake of providing relaxation, enjoyment, and well needed stress relief. It’s irresponsible in the sense of activities that provide no value, intrinsic or derived… like video games, web surfing, hobbies, drinking beer, and just vegging out in front of the TV. That’s time that matters more than you think, and it’s time that must be taken or you risk losing touch with reality.

Normally this would be an appropriate Rant of the Day for me, but its more of a life lesson and a huge sign that things need to change soon. Sure, it’s a non-topical and relatively personal lame ass blog entry, but hey, it’s cheaper than a therapist.

Eco Vandals Trash Hummer

This is one of the top stories of today (Trashed Hummer Article) that is about vandals in Washington D.C. that trashed a new Hummer. Since I’ve been on my high horse lately about people needlessly driving enormous trucks just to get to work or pick up the kids I thought I would comment on this today.

I cannot condone violence in any form, but this does make a very bold statement to the citizens of our country and auto manufacturers. People have been silently pissed off at the excess we continue to see years after 9/11 and the never ending Iraq war for oil. Now some people are voicing their opinions in a very negative and violent way. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t go around kicking white man ass because he knew that would defeat the purpose and set a bad example. If these eco terrorists want to make a point they should invite the poor owner of the Hummer out for a beer and have an open debate where he might be educated and persuaded to change his mind and actions instead.

Let’s face it… the guy is just ignorant. He’s 32 years old and still lives with his mother. He could afford to move out or even go back to college had he not been such an idiot and purchased a $40k + gas guzzling, environment killing monstrosity. To make it worse, he immediately sent it into the shop to spend thousands more on new tires, wheels and a lift kit so that he could intentionally reduce the vehicles efficiency all for the sake of vanity. What a f$%&ing moron!

So, while he’s certainly deserving, violence was not the right way to tell this man he’s a member of the genetic cesspool. Cultural change requires education of the masses and that simply takes time. If you want to make an impact you should be an example to others by making the correct decisions for you and your family. Besides, this idiot is already paying for his bad decisions… remember? He lives with his mother at 32, just wasted all his earnings on a rapidly depreciable asset, he probably has no insurance, and without a girlfriend he gets off on still shots of Uncle Kracker in the back of his Hummer. No eco vandals necessary.

Professionals Are Just That…

I never hire anyone for anything I can do myself… pending I have the time and energy to actually do it.

We recently attended a wedding and a roaming photographer took this great shot. We look so happy and vibrant that It’s like we’re on a homepage for Viagra showing another satisfied customer!

The photography company posted the wedding pics online for all invited to see. When I found this I clicked on the button to “purchase now” and was taken to another 3rd party where I had to dive through another 100+ images only to find pictures of the bride and groom. So, since I tried to buy it and couldn’t I had no choice but to screen shot it. So, I’ll never have it full size, but I do have it.

It goes to show you that professionals are only considered as such when it relates to their primary focus. The ability to ensure their website works to increase revenues from attendees and prospective customers is obviously not priority.

As my step-father once told me “Do one thing… and do it well”. He was a doctor so he only had time to do one thing anyway. As much as I would like to live by that motto my inherent curiosity will always ensure that I am a jack of all and master of none. That’s OK. There’s some interesting benefits and synergies to being a programmer and a mechanic.

Why are we still buying trucks?

The news headline today is “trucks continue to dominate U.S. auto sales”.

1. Ford F-Series 355,438
2. Chevrolet Silverado 310,896

The two top spots go to large, wasteful, poorly engineered, U.S. made monstrosities that are being purchased by eighteen wheeler wannabes that don’t have enough sense to know that vehicles are the biggest waste of money that you can buy and are even more damaging to our environment. What’s worse is that the buyers are often the same gun toting redneck a-holes that backed the war in Iraq from the beginning and fell for all the lies and deception that really point to a long standing war for oil that is only being exacerbated by their poor financial and ecological decisions.

Are you not listening? Al Gore has been bulking up and he’s coming over to kick your ass.

It’s time for change.

If you don’t need a pickup truck on a regular basis, don’t buy one! Do you really need a Ford Excursion to haul around your two kids and groceries? Do you need an F-350 to occasionally pick up some crap at home Depot? Do you get 8 miles to the gallon on your drive to work? Did you pay in excess of $40k for that beastmaster of a vehicle that won’t even fit in your garage? Did you offset putting money into your kids’ 529 college savings plan because you “had” to buy your truck?

Well then, you are an a-hole. Welcome to America. It doesn’t surprise me why other countries have such a bad impression of us.

My Rant of The Day

…I’m So Exhausted

Why am I so exhausted? I guess it’s because I’m a morning person, over achiever, workaholic… Type A, the call us. But what does that really mean I start to wonder? I mean, you hear that term often but have you ever looked it up?

As I’m writing this I go on a tangent to find out. Wikipedia has a great writeup on Type A personality but it makes me look like a complete nut case. In my defense I think I’m more of an AB Type. I prefer the simple description I found online at International Journal of Epidemiology:

“Type A behavior pattern (TAB), an action-emotion complex observed in people who are aggressively involved in a chronic struggle with life to achieve more and more in less and less time.”¹

That pretty much sums up my life; always seeking out efficiencies in everything and sometimes paying the price for moving too fast. Eventually, you reach a point of diminishing returns when you can no longer achieve more and more in less time because there is simply no time left.

That time came for me when I had a child and, like a fool, went back to college too. Don’t get me wrong, having my daughter was the best thing that’s ever happened and finishing my degree is finally within reach, but sometimes it just becomes overwhelming to keep pushing so hard.

I’m so exhausted. I have no time for myself anymore, and just like the Sims video game “motives” scale (similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), I am in the negative on social and fun and need a break soon.

 

Summer semester is chock full of double sessions of Calculus (hate it, and I have NEVER used it in my 13 year career, but it’s required…) and web development (which is, of course, easy and lots of fun but it takes 6-10 hours a week). I can’t seem to study enough to keep up. It will all be over in just 14 more days…

My 33rd birthday is also coming up at the end of the month. That also means Blackhat and Defcon Information Security conference in Las Vegas that I attend every year and usually serves as a nice mid-year break and an excellent birthday party. This year my contracting employer won’t approve training or even just a paid day off or two to go. Now I’m wondering if I should just go anyway and juice up my social and fun scales before I lose it completely and go out Falling Down style.

1 International Journal of Epidemiology 2001;30:369-370
© International Epidemiological Association 2001