I’ve been struggling for a while to quantify something I’m taking issue with lately, and I finally think I hit the nail on the head.

Imagine, if you will, that you work with someone in a standard American corporate environment. Let’s call her Jane. (Jane’s a good, strong name. Speaks to her background.)

Now, you totally get that Jane’s probably a good person outside your work environment (yeah, sure), but at work, she’s a total loser. Can’t do her job, whines all the time, and really just gets in the way of progress. You’re there to get a job done, and Jane’s clearly just killing time and collecting a paycheck.

She’s absolutely worthless, and then has the gall to dislike you for being good at your job. Not your fault she sucks and you had to fix her mistakes.

I’ve seen this scenario played out a hundred different ways, and am not immune to it myself. Keep reading >>

On a whim this Saturday, my running partner and I decided to take razors to our heads and finish what we started when we cut our hair down short. The result was genu-wine baldness.

My biggest fear in shaving bald was razor bumps–with curly/kinky hair, that’s kinda the way it goes. It wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it would be; a few bumps and some discomfort, but nothing to write home about. I used a single-bladed disposable razor instead of a double-bladed, which I think helped.

Being hairless itself, though? Strange. My scalp was strangely rubbery-feeling and very high-friction. It was also a very striking look–far more so than my normal super-short look. Just skin, all the way back.

The shaving itself was too much work for it to be a regular occurrence. Deana and I pipelined our shaving (since we started with clippers), and the whole shebang took about 45 minutes. And I’d have to do close to that much work weekly. Meh. I think I will experiment with shorter looks (guard-free on the clippers, for instance), but nothing that requires shaving foam.

Keep reading >>

I ran a blitz Tri-Stat dX one-shot with my coworkers a few weeks ago, and they decided they wanted something more “traditional”, and with combat.

So this past weekend, we did a D&D one-shot.

It was far less successful than the Tri-Stat game (unsurprising in retrospect), but folks still had fun and got to hang out in the context of roleplaying.

Keep reading >>

Just a few links and a vibeo as I get back into the swing of things.

• The Complete Rules For Games | Rock, Paper, Shotgun – How can one not like do's and don't's for games? Especially when so many ring true?
• Lots of people can’t fire their insurance companies | The Incidental Economist – "[L]et’s unpack the idea that if individuals have their own insurance, the “insurance company will have an incentive to keep [them] healthy”. That’s totally backwards. The idea that people might fire their insurance companies is exactly why they don’t have an incentive to keep you healthy."

This guy's pretty damn good. The De Niro impression got me, as I was just watching Ronin a few days ago.
Keep reading >>

Back in December, I ran across and fell in love with the idea of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. After my weights arrived, I wasted no time crafting up a plan spreadsheet and getting rolling.

Again, wow.

As a refresher, the program focuses on four main lifts–military press, deadlift, bench press, and squat–one per day. Add assistance exercises around those to complete the workout.

Core Lifts

I’ve had to make some interesting adaptations over the month. I have no bench and no squat rack, so those are the two exercises I’ve had to be the most careful with. I hunted for a way to avoid learning how to do a power clean in order to do the squat, but I haven’t found a good way around it. And really, it’s not that bad (scary picture aside), although I still worry when the weights come off my chest a bit in the process of doing a front squat. I think my elbows aren’t high enough, resulting in a lower and less stable bar.

Keep reading >>

With the arrival of R’lyeh last week (my very first Luftpost!), I was super-crunk to redecorate my living room.

The pretty blue frame Verena/Jonas sent the picture in didn’t survive the Luftposting, but a quick trip to Ikea (where the original frame was from) would fix that. The picture was A4 size, though, and Ikea in the U.S. was like, “Here, have letter size.” No, I’m not going to cut a damn inch off the picture. “But, but, we have letter size!” Fine, then, a bigger frame it is. Add a black fabric backdrop, and I think it turned out quite well.

Keep reading >>

Okay, not “already”. 2011 was long as hell and busy.

I resumed going to church fairly regularly. Had my perspective on interpersonal communications majorly shifted. Got married to a great fellow. Got a running partner. Made good progress on my novel. Learned how to incorporate a business. Paid off my student loans (!!!). Lost some weight. Got stronger, more fit, and resumed dancing. Made and held to some good financial plans. Blogged pretty regularly.

Still feel like I only did about half of what I “should have”, of course, but I’m happy with the year, overall. I succeeded at most of what I wanted,

I’m going to finish my last sliver of debt. I’m going to finish not having a long-term financial plan. I’m going to get married. I’m going to finish my novel. I’m going to finish not being happy enough,

and made good headway on what I didn’t finish.

Regardless, 2012 shall be a more adventurous year, featuring new employment, two trips/vacations, and a plethora of writing, coding, financial management, and gettin’ fizzit.

Keep reading >>