Posted on January 2nd, 2010
As is usual, I find myself sitting in front of a computer in the late evening. This evening is, of course, different than most. It is January 1, 2010, the first day of a new year, and the first day of a new decade. (In reality it is January 2, 2010, because it’s after midnight, but in my world the day doesn’t change until I go to sleep, which is often well after midnight.)
With an empty beer bottle in front of me, I find myself thinking back on the year that ended, and the highlights and lowlights it brought me…
Not changing jobs in the course of a calendar year for the first time since 2004. It’s hard to believe to most people, but it is true: 2009 was the first time in the past five years that I didn’t change jobs during the calendar year. As of today, I have been employed by the same . . .
→ Read More: 2009: A personal retrospective
Posted on December 29th, 2009
From “Al Qaeda Takes Credit for Plot” in today’s Wall Street Journal (emphasis added):
“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Mr. Obama said in remarks broadcast on television from Hawaii, where he is on vacation.
OK, I know, the President of the United States is never really on vacation, but it is funny nonetheless.
. . .
→ Read More: We will not rest [once our vacation is over]
Posted on December 14th, 2009
From the essay Computer Productivity: Why it is Important that Software Projects Fail by Dr. Anthony Berglas:
The boundless creativity of politicians and bureaucrats to develop new and more complex regulation is bounded only by the bureaucracy’s inability to implement them.
Considering the 2008 Federal Register is 80,700 pages, and that it grows every year, it’s safe to say that there appears to be no upper limit to scope of the problem.
Incredibly, the Federal government actually believes that people should, or could, read the Federal Register. It even answers the question, “Why should I read the Federal Register?”. The only real reason should be to cure insomnia.
Metrics on reading the Federal Register
Let’s presume you had to read the Federal Register, taking the following assumptions:
The document, as of its final 2008 version, is 80,700 pages.
You sleep eight hours a day.
You have a full-time job, five days a week, eight hours a . . .
→ Read More: Bureaucracy’s insatiable appetite: The Federal Register
Posted on December 10th, 2009
This is the third in a series of posts about my past life as an amateur musician. Other posts include A brief history of an amateur musician, Part I: The Early Years, and A brief history of an amateur musician, Part II: The Hardcore Years and Kulturkampf.
Both during and after my time with the hardcore punk band Kulturkampf, I spent a fair amount of time writing music. In the beginning, both the lyrics and music were woefully amateurish. However, I was maturing quickly as a musician, studying classical guitar under Ed Brown, and maturing quickly as a young adult; as a result, the music I wrote quickly improved.
The Home Recordings
As is common with me, most of the songs I wrote were never completed. What few I did finish writing, I recorded in my makeshift home studio, playing guitar, bass guitar, and keyboards; scripting simple drum tracks (on an Alesis HR-16 drum machine); and recording it . . .
→ Read More: A brief history of an amateur musician, Part III: Assorted Recordings and Dirt Man’s King
Posted on December 9th, 2009
From Productivity501.com:
Personally, I am not interested in working more. I am very interested in accomplishing more. Trying to accomplish more just by working more is the brute force “assembly line” method. It doesn’t scale. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can’t do any more without having harmful side effects.
Honorable mention to Mark Shead’s comment on that statement:
There are a lot of things in business (and government) that could be simplified if people would simply ask “what would happen if we just stopped doing this?”
Thinking of that, I wonder what would happen if I just stopped writing on my blog? Hmm…
. . .
→ Read More: Quote: Work less, accomplish more
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