tour de france?

Apparently, the Tour de France ended yesterday. Evidently it's as unpopular as ever, especially when you don't own a television.

hurricane? pshaw

So, that Hurricane Dolly wasn't that impressive. In fact, I think it rained more in Houston than here since some of the major bands swept well north of Victoria. All we ended up with was a few gusts in the 30-40 mph range and a few inches of rain. However, I'm told the hurricane made some strong inroads and managed to dump a lot of rain on Laredo while our Mission district shut down and moved equipment to a safer locale. I am glad we didn't have to go into full 'batten down the hatches' mode since it would involve a lot of really aggravating work and then more work to undo everything we had done.

identifying headlights

When I drive at night, I like to play a little game where I attempt to identify the vehicle that is driving behind me. Size and shape certainly help identify the class of the vehicle (ie: sedan versus SUV/truck) but headlights can be surprisingly distinct.

One of the easiest vehicles to identify is the previous generation Ford Explorer. It has a two by two headlight arrangement with the turn signal lights diagonally across from each other. Of course, when the turn signal is on, it's a dead giveaway, but they are still partially illuminated when jsut the main headlight is on.

Another easy to identify vehicle is a Chevy pick-up, both Silverados and Colorados. They sport similar headlight arrangements with a bar (chrome on the Silverado) that splits the assembly into upper and lower halves. Obviously, the bar isn't lit at night, but there's usually enough reflected light to see the distinct separation between the two sections.

Most cars, principally due to their generic looks, are more difficult to identify. However, a couple of nights ago, I correctly guessed an older Toyota Camry while I was waiting at stoplight. However, until I can parlay this into a meaningful skill, it remains un-monetized.

enormous sunglasses

What's up with big sunglasses? They're everywhere. Why do I suspect that they'll go out of style in a couple of years?

argh, the e-mails!

I am finding that I am fighting an incresingly losing battle with e-mail both at work and home which really means I'm fighting an increasingly losing battle with my own time management. (I may also be fighting increasingly losing battles with laundry, errands, and personal grooming.)

Regarding e-mail, I have a rather specific system at work and yet it's not specific enough. I sort all client-related e-mails pretty quickly into their respective folders since I'll always know where to find them. However, most other current business I leave in my in box until I have responded to it or otherwise dealt with whatever the matter is. When done with it, I try to sort them into categories, though there's a great deal that sort of blurs the lines and I have trouble keeping my own system straight. Either way, current busiess becomes past due business becomes I'm running way behind business. This all makes for more and more e-mails that are not fully dealt with in the in box.

i've been around

I suppose I need to say something relevant and witty before I break my old record. However, all I have right now is that Hermione was in town for the last week and a bit more and I decided I had much better things to do than blog with our limited time.

games in business

My last serious post (as in the one that was neither about corn, airline fees nor frogs) got me thinking about the games people play. Work and various aspects of work is so often referred to as a "game" or "playing the game". It is nothing of the sort. Work is serious and it certainly isn't a game. I would say that it's for keeps, but that would it sound like we're offing people over here. However, it is for peoples' jobs, careers, their very livelihoods. Work is work and it is no game. In the realm of games though, I cannot stand people who act like this is a game with their petty power struggles, ridiculous rules and decrees, and general idiot-mongering.

The thing that I've realized though is that the people who have the time and resources for such games are those who don't have better things to do with their time and resources. Those who fall into this category tend to be involved in non-direct functions of the company. Basically, the people grinding it out in the field where the money is really made are busy making money and not scheming up BS. It seems like it's only at higher levels where ego-stroking is important and support functions where people have a need to create importance for what they do that the BS quotient approaches the most absurd levels.

My realization of this is quite positive. It comes as I'm figuring out more about people as well as understanding that there are ways to circumvent the crap that people put out there. It's not that I didn't believe some people weren't blow hards and generally aggravating self-promoters. I'm much too cynical to believe that people are nothing but inherently good. However, the extent to which people behave in ways that are not really beneficial is a bit disheartening. It's not even that there is a lot of it, but what little there is is still far too much.