"Murphy was an optimist!"
Looking to return to the womb? January 24, 2008 11:10 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Of Interest, Sex, Touchy SubjectsThen a $600 Vagina Couch may be your next purchase! The listing does note some "stains."
2commentsI’m an uncle! January 24, 2008 9:21 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, FamilyCongratulations to Danny and Lucy on the healthy birth of their baby! It is healthy and I am told he/she/it is not the hermaphrodite I had bet on. Throughout the pregnancy, they artistically kept us guessing as to the gender of the child. I personally guessed it would be born gender neutral ergo I will forever call it Pat. However, apparently it was not born gender neutral and they have given the child a wonderful name derived of family names which implies a particular gender. Good job to all 3 of you!
1 comment so farOf Grasshoppers January 23, 2008 9:07 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Grasshoppers, PhilosophyStudent: When did I die?
Master: Do tears drop from a lifeless man’s nose?
Off the wagon..100 cups here I come! January 23, 2008 8:06 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeSo I decided to detox. I quit coffee. For roughly a week and a half. My mind calmed. My productivity increased. I had a brief period of headaches but that could have had something to do with last week’s dreaded cold.
Tonight I have officially rejoined the land of the living. Pumping some French Roast into my veins right now! Let’s stay up for a few days shall we?
add a commentToo much overhead January 23, 2008 6:48 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeToday needs to be a fast and furious day of highly focused coding. First monkey wrench, Knox County Schools are opening 2 hours late. Second monkey wrench, I have a couple of hours of phone calls and paperwork to do. Effectively my day is cut in half which means that I’ll be programming into the wee hours of the night. I wonder if I shouldn’t outsource my life. Tim Ferriss has outsourced everything including dating.
add a commentDad’s are perfect January 22, 2008 8:19 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Of Being DadWhich makes it extra painful when we make mistakes particularly when you can’t seem to back out of the mistake.
2commentsAnd works goes on! January 22, 2008 11:30 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeAfter too much deliberation and mediating a temper tantrum, the 2nd sales call is done. Now onto productive work!
add a commentNew Location for Asperger Support Group (tonight!) January 22, 2008 10:43 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Aspergers, Of InterestUPDATE! Due to the icy conditions, Lake Shore has canceled meetings tonight! They have moved the Asperger Support Group meeting to next Tuesday, January 29th. Starting in February, the meeting will return to the 4th Tuesday of each month.
The Knoxville Asperger Support Group has a new location and date!
1 comment so farWe meet the fourth Tuesday of every month Next meeting:
Tuesday, January22nd29th from 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Lakeshore’s Peach Cottage
Corner of Northshore & Lyons ViewLiving with or caring for someone with Asperger’s Syndrome can be challenging. The primary objective of the group will be to provide support for each other through discussion and the sharing of experiences at the monthly meetings. Please join us for an exchange of information, ideas and resources.
The clock ticks January 22, 2008 10:30 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeMy projects cry out to me like hungry babies but sales calls have to be handled first. One down. One to go.
add a commentWork from home and forced holidays January 22, 2008 8:58 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeI am a strong advocate of telecommuting. I think we should rapidly transition our workforce to their houses. The results would be less fuel burned, less infrastructure for companies to maintain, less coal burned, less hydrocarbons released into the air, reduced traffic on the roads, reduced pollution, better relations within families, etc. Many types of jobs such as customer service (over the phone), accounting, technical support, quality assurance, … most office jobs, could be done from the house. Maybe once a week they staff comes into the corporate office for a few hours of face to face. Everything else can be Skype, instant messengers, webex, and other online tools.
All that said, working from home is hard! It is a huge exercise in self-discipline. You have to fight the urge to just lay in bed, or play with kids, or fix that hole in the roof. Finding your work groove can talk a long time. For me, my best performance is when I wake at 4am and get a couple of hours of work done before the kids rise for school. Those hours allow me a few distractions in morning or afternoon without hurting my productivity. My most stressful times are when I have not given myself a buffer for distraction. Fortunately, 4 out of the 5 children are in school so school acts as a natural buffer. School holidays are tough!
When the schools take breaks, the children are wild. A holiday messes with their OCD, their karma, their routine and they get a little charged up. Of course, they also assume that since they are on break, so is the rest of the world which makes it difficult for the work-at-home parent. Of course, when that parent works around the globe and we have a US holiday like Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday and only some of the US celebrates and none of the world recognizes it then the schools tack on an in-service day to make it a 4 day weekend, my stress sky rockets since I feel I’m being torn multiple directions. Many times I have thought about declaring my work scheduled to be the same as the Knox County School’s calendar.
Yesterday was actually a productive day. It did not get quantity checked off my list but killed off a technical hurdle that was driving me nuts. A CSS issue was causing a webpage to render far differently in Internet Explorer 7 than in Firefox. The goal was to have a box of text with a large green border be partially underneath a photograph that had a large yellow border. Naturally the green border underneath the picture should not show. The text could not slide under the picture instead it had to wrap along th edge of the picture. Got it to work for any size photo and any length of text!
All that said, its back to work for me!
add a commentSick Setback January 21, 2008 11:48 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeBeing sick last week has totally knocked me out of whack. Schedules have slipped, my head is unclear (clouded with stress and a headache that never left from the sickness), and the room is so blasted cold it is difficult to move. Incense is lit and the music is on. Attempting to focus on a single subject and move forward!
add a commentAnother wonderful Blogfest! January 20, 2008 11:19 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeFriday night, Rich of Shots Across the Bow pulled together another blogfest. It was at Bailey’s which unfortunately has turned 21 and older only to circumvent Tennessee’s smoking ban. I had planned on spending 20 minutes at Bailey’s then getting Noah from karate practice and bringing him to the party. Barry, of Inn of the Last Home, brought the whole family only to leave them in the car at the same time I was running Noah back to the house. La Fonero had sent me a second wireless router to give to a friend. I was considering either using it to extend the range of the first router they sent me or hacking it. After getting a Seesmic invite to pass along to someone, I thought I’d give the router away too (which went to Barry). Rich and Eric got the Seesmic invites. And for grins I grabbed some Allaire swag and gave away some tshirts and a mouse pad. The Allaire swag is leftovers from when I was supposed to be putting together the Knoxville ColdFusion User’s Group. Others are planning on cleaning out their basements during the next Blogfest.
In attendance, Johnny-Oh of Closet Extremist, Eric of Straight White Guy (who has the coolest calling cards! that is, poker chips for his blog), Cathy of Domestic Psychology, myself, Lissa Kay of Oh Really, Rich of Shots Across the Bow, Craig Thomas of The Roundtable, Tam of View from the Porch and friend, Les Jones, and Barry of Inn of the Last Home (with family in car)!
I had a blast but fear I monopolized Eric. Certainly was nice seeing some new faces!
5comments(cell phone joke) January 18, 2008 10:38 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : UncategorizedWhoops. That last post blocked reality me. I will blog again after the movie tomorrow night.
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Cloverfield Filter On January 18, 2008 10:36 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeSo, I don’t get to see the movie until 8:20pm so I’ve set my router up to not let any website showing the word "cloverfield" or "clover field" into the house. Don’t tell me about it! I don’t want to know.
add a commentBlogfest Tonight January 18, 2008 11:52 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Blog, Communications, Of Interest, Publishing, TechnologyAre you going to blogfest tonight? If my coughing is under control, I’ll be there giving away a Seesmic invite and a wireless router.
7commentsBlogfest.
This Friday.
6:30PM
Baileys in West Knoxville.
[Source, Shots Across The Bow]
