Today’s www.toothpastefordinner.com entry: Early to bed, early to rise. I was in the office at IBM at 7:45 this morning, avoiding the morning rush hour. Yay! I had a 30-minute “Counseling Session” with the MoneySmart people today. MoneySmart is a most excellent new program being provided by IBM free of charge. It’s described as follows: … Read more
From the infamous indexed blog: Fitting in. and: Calling in sick. and, finally: Quite the showcase. I came across almost 150 shares of IBM stock today that I’d forgotten I even owned. Some of it’s two years old and some of it’s three years old—all of it old enough to be considered long term gains. … Read more
Controlling Electronics with Your Mind (2.08 Minutes) 27 years ago today, in 1980, on a Monday morning freshly graduated with my undergraduate degree, driving on NC-147 just off of I-40 West, I remember seeing the huge Alexander Drive exit ahead and thinking, “Wow. This is it. The big time.” It was my very first day … Read more
Cool ads: And a FedEx-Kinkos office products ad: And, finally, a clever quit smoking ad: I worked, basically, in an “on call” mode today, making myself available in case document-related bugs needed addressing during development’s “Defect Blitz,” going on yesterday and today. From 11:30–1:30, I met the Service-Learning team for our “Inaugural Lunch” in the new … Read more
I know I’m home now, but here are some final thoughts and tidbits about my trip to Minneapolis: Here I am alone (mostly) in one of the all-mirrored-sides elevators in the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis: In the context of “you might be gay if”: At another time when I was the only one in … Read more
I was up at 7:00, and after a quick SSS, and I was walking to Panera’s by 7:32. While there, I had a bagel and some apple juice, updated the STC newsletter with two corrections from Sarah, and then walked to the convention center for the 8:30–10:00 Keynote General Session. Before entering the ballroom, I … Read more
I went into the (IBM) office today. I had lunch with one of Kevin’s (zy1125) mentees, who reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger, except that she’s black and she’s a girl. She’s a programmer who thinks she’d rather be a writer. I think I helped her. I worked on Jim’s ITIM … Read more
You may recall the close-up picture of a snowflake, which didn’t look anything like a snowflake, in one of my recent blog entries. Well this is a close-up picture of a seahorse that is actually discernible as a seahorse.
It’s been one complete year now that I’ve only worked two days a week at IBM, and it’s been great. My biggest fear starting out last year was the effect that a 60% reduction in pay was going to have on my lifestyle, though I obviously thought it would be manageable or I wouldn’t have … Read more
Two cases in point: We went to Finch’s for breakfast, and our waitress brought my two extra pieces of toast to me, saying, “Here you go, baby; she didn’t know you had an extra order,” referring to the other waitress who had brought out our food in her stead. “Thanks,” I said, and then, “By … Read more