Two guys where I work left to go on their smoke break. I have come to terms with the fact that smokers get more of an opportunity to slack off. But I had to run to the next floor and intercepted them both in the elevator returning from the lobby. I think I smoked a full cigarette myself over those next few minutes. Of course, they didn't smell anything - not to mention that they can hardly taste anything either. What I don't get is why addition to tobacco has remained so socially acceptable.
We visited our friends' church when we moved to Colorado. We continued attending for a while, even when we didn't go with our friends. One time, Kyndall and I sat behind this young couple and their child daughters. Into the worship time, I caught the eye of the mother as she secretly looked over her shoulder at her daughter, who was standing on the pew beside her father, singing the chorus with all her might. I could appreciate the feeling that mother must have felt observing her daughter in praise. When I noticed her tears as she watched, I understood that, too.
There's a lot of snow in Colorado, but the cold is offset by the humidity. Humidity makes Texas seem hotter in the summer, and the lack of it makes Colorado seem warmer in the winter. It's hard to beat - and explain. Sitting in my office one day, I looked out to see a clearing in the snow where a crew was digging conduit for some public wiring--all in wife-beater t-shirts and cut-offs. Watching anyone in real labor makes me glad I stuck out college.
My company laid people off a while back, not so long after I joined. I suppose I was unduly confident that nothing would happen to me. Fortunately, nothing did. But I felt a connection with management as I ran through the list and asked myself, "Stay or go?" More often than not, I agreed with their decision - and even began to expand the list to other employees (yikes). It was pretty harmless in my position, but I cut the exercise to an end when I got to my own name. (yikes, yikes)
When we began to approach Colorado for the first time, I was driving the moving van - pulling the car on trailer - Kyndall was driving the Camry. It was dark, but we could see the lights up on the mountains where too many had built their homes. I had a Sony Music Clip--a groovy MP3 player. I quickly found the track and played Rocky Mountain High, by John Denver. Then I realized the lyrics, "he was born in the summer of his 27th year, coming home to a place he'd never been before." That made me smile. I am/was 27 and I had never lived anyplace like this before.
One of the follies of web development is the unending desire to change. Seriously, you can hardly get finished with a project or web site before you utterly hate it and want to change everything about it almost completely. I don't know if our minds are tuned to the ever-changing nature of our culture, but nothing seems to stand the tests of time or short time anymore. To punish my tendencies, I usually spend more time reverting the "new" design back to the original.
It is somewhat trendy for people involved in technology to disclaim it from their lives. For example, I used to work with a guy who actually claims that he hated computers, and didn't have a computer or TV in his house. I have a feeling his claims were somewhat exaggerated, but the fact remains - kids and technology are funny, they super absorb it, but when you are part of it in your life and profession, and as you get older, the tendency to remove yourself from it - the tendency to start to use pen and paper again - the tendency to go "analog" is undeniable. Maybe it's a defense mechanism to not get too swept away.
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