Personal

Observations

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With forlorn heaviness, my eyes absorb the tranquility of Plaster Creek as I sip my coffee and lament the untimely passing of a five-day holiday weekend. On the bright side, though — I have stuff to share.

In no particular order:

  • I’ve pretty much finished the consolidation of my social/Web platform. When I started Gillikin Consulting nearly a decade ago, I split my personal and professional social media and Web into separate properties. I’m now healing the divide. This blog has everything, as does my Twitter account and my still-mostly-dormant Google Plus page. I’m putting professional stuff on LinkedIn and my Facebook fan page; personal stuff will go to my normal Facebook page for the usual friends-only audience. And although I have a buttload of email accounts that all go to the same place, I’m streaming them into this domain. In fact, “jegillikin” is pretty much my handle everywhere, now. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, blah, blah ….
  • My experiment in self-publishing has been realllly interesting. About three weeks ago, I uploaded a novella (roughly 23k-ish words) to Amazon. This project, which I started in February, was designed to validate a specific hypothesis that I encountered while reading Jane Friedman’s Publishing 101 — basically, that genre trumps platform in terms of sales generation. So after doing some careful research, I picked a niche genre of erotica, I wrote the novella, then I uploaded it. (Of course, I used a pseudonym; the story can’t be tracked back to me.) The results so far have been intriguing. I’ve managed to sell 16 copies of the Amazon e-book with literally no promotional activities and with a totally made-up author name that has no built-in readership. In addition, through the Kindle Direct Publishing program, I’ve made the novella free to read for Amazon Unlimited subscribers. I see that as of this morning, I’ve had 4,962 normalized page reads. Given that the novella clocks in at 128 normalized pages, I’ve had the equivalent of 38.77 additional readers. My royalties payable so far are $22.67 + £3.54 + €1.72. It’s difficult to infer the compensation off the Kindle Unlimited program — Amazon puts X dollars into a monthly pool, then it’s divided by total page reads, which becomes your multiplier — but if the rates today are similar to what I’ve seen published about a year ago, then on top of sales royalties I should see between $25 and $30 additional in KU revenue. Not bad, really. And it puts into perspective the amount of time and effort we’re putting into promoting literary fiction and poetry, at Caffeinated Press. I am toying with the idea of expanding the experiment by writing five more, similar novellas — but then creating a social platform de novo for the author pseudonym and seeing if it makes a material difference. And after that, collecting all six novellas into a Createspace print volume. The chance for passive residual income, even if it’s just a couple hundred bucks per month over the long run, is too tempting to pass up.
  • This past week, Scott, Richard, Tony and I met for a cigar night at Grand River Cigar. Tony had to get home early, but the rest of us went back to Scott’s condo at Riverhouse. He has a to-die-for view, as evidenced by a brief video of the evening G.R. skyline I shot from his balcony:
  • Speaking of Tony, he and I were able to knock through a whopping six back-to-back-to-back episodes of Vice Lounge Online last week. Talk about a marathon! At one point we took a cigar break on my front porch. Then we noticed the ginormous swarm of bees in the tree line on the other side of the street. See this video? Those little dots aren’t pixilation.
  • Whilst cleaning out the living-room closet yesterday, I discovered I have a Snuggie. Huh.
  • The feline overlords have been mostly content to let me write in peace from the living room, instead of demanding to sit on my arms or chest every time they see me approach a keyboard. It helps that they have soft places to rest:
    IMG_0021

OK, all for now. Chores await.

Vices

VLO Podcast (E-270) — FDA regs, Tincup whiskey, daily fantasy sports

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Podcast 270, 5/8/16 … For a second week, we’ve had scheduling difficulties, so it’s Jason’s turn to get back into the saddle again with a solo podcast. Jason shares the high-level damage of the FDA’s newly announced cigar regulations, but Duane from Oklahoma swoops in with a call to review the Oliva Serie O. After the review, Jason gives the Tincup Colorado whiskey a spin to lubricate the discussion about the ongoing legal woes for the daily fantasy sports industry.

Don’t forget — you have until May 15 to leave a positive (text) review on iTunes to be included in our Maker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve give-away!

Click HERE to download the MP3, or use the audio control below to listen in your Web browser:

Cross-posted from Vice Lounge Online.

Personal

Recap: Near-Death Experience; NASCAR; Smoking Jacket; Fairness

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Whew. What a week it’s been.

  1. Yesterday provided an object lesson in defensive driving. On my way back from an errand, I was cruising at about 50 mph — same speed as the other road traffic — along Wilson Avenue between Walker and Grandville. That stretch, long and sparse, is notorious for tripping up unwary drivers; people routinely travel 70 or faster but given the icy road conditions, speeds last night were more prudent. Just past O’Brien, a teenage girl lost control of her Jeep Wrangler and started spinning out of control; she was doing 360s and she drifted into the oncoming traffic lane. Which, in this case, was me. Because she was headed toward my side of the road at an angle, I couldn’t aim for my shoulder without risking a head-on collision or at least getting clipped. So I “threaded the needle” — I swerved into her lane and back into mine before the cars behind her caught up to us. My maneuver worked, although the icy roads put me into a spin. I did at least one 360 before settling in the ditch facing the wrong direction. I felt bad for the Wrangler driver: She was clearly a newly licensed operator who had no real clue about winter driving. And to make it worse, a few passersby stopped (three of us were in the ditch) and the poor girl had to deal with three middle-aged men shouting instructions to her about how to rock her Jeep out of the ditch. Which she did. Then she stopped in her lane, oblivious to traffic, and sent one more car into the ditch and nearly made three trucks rear-end each other. By the time everything got straightened out, there were no injuries and no apparent property damage. For my part, I just hit the 4-High button on my 4WD control and drove away as if nothing had happened. A good outcome for a scary incident.
  2. Other driving-related news: While I was at the cigar shop yesterday, the big-screen TVs played the NASCAR race at Daytona. I’ve never really been a huge fan of racing — or any other spectator sport, for that matter — but the last 10 laps took my breath away. With six to go, there was an 13-car crash that caused a red flag. No one was seriously injured, although news reports later indicated that driver Michael Annett went to a local hospital for evaluation. Then, on the final turn of the final lap, there was a massive crash that tore off the entire front end of Kyle Larson’s car and threw wheels, debris and even the car’s engine block into the grandstand. Dozens of fans went to local hospitals and at least two were in critical but stable condition. I must applaud ESPN for not airing endless repeats of the crash while bystander casualties were still unknown, and I really tip my hat to the NASCAR drivers. The race winner, Tony Stewart, delivered perhaps the must humane and moving victory speech I’ve ever seen from a professional athlete — his concern wasn’t for the winning or the race but for the fans, and his team downplayed any celebration of their victory. And that same sentiment, a somber focus on the safety and well-being of the fans, dominated every single interview ESPN conducted with the drivers. If only all pro athletes had their heads screwed on as straight as NASCAR drivers.
  3. Other cigar-shop news: Last week’s cigar and cocktail evening went well. We had me, Tony, Alaric, Rob, Jim and Johnny. Good times. On Friday I picked up a tacky red blazer from Goodwill that now serves as my official smoking jacket at the cigar shop. Several of the regulars have grabbed secondhand jackets and re-purposed them as smoking jackets. It’s more fun than anything, and I’m only out the $5 I paid for the jacket.
  4. I’ve started reading a fascinating new book called Against Fairness by Stephen Asma. I’m not too far into it yet, but the premise is intriguing. He’s trying to articulate a coherent differentiation among fairness, egalitarianism and meritocracy as a critique of both Western and Chinese philosophy. The TL;DR version as I’ve seen it so far? That much of the sloganeering about what’s fair and what’s not fair are off-base, and that accepting that uniformly equal treatment is incoherent (e.g., in light of preferences for family) helps frame a more intelligent discussion about what’s fair.
  5. Speaking of reading, I picked up the final volume of the Wheel of Time series the same week it was released but I haven’t yet cracked the cover. I think I’m resisting the end of a series that I’ve known since Aaron lent me his copy of The Eye of the World in 1994.

All for now. Have a lovely week.

Personal

The First Week of September

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Goodness, gracious. What a week it’s been.

  1. My poor little truck, the ugly-as-sin 1990 Ford Ranger, finally gave up the ghost. She served me well, but an emergency acceleration to avoid an out-of-control cyclist provided the final bit of torque that snapped one of the linkages in the truck’s transmission; I had to have it towed home from the employee ramp at the hospital. The old girl is now permanently decommissioned and will soon be listed in Craigslist for sale for parts. I bought the truck in August 2010 for a whopping $750 and got a full 25 months’ service with very little real trouble — a total cost of ownership of roughly $1 per day, with the only extra expenses beyond ordinary fuel and fluids being a new alternator, new light bulbs and routine tire replacement. Excellent first experience with Ford.
  2. The work of dismantling my department at the hospital continues; everyone keeps a job, but what the job is and what it entails isn’t yet carved into stone. Alaric and I met with the folks in Information Services with whom we’re supposed to work — nice people.
  3. I hosted some creative professionals on Friday night. Eight guests, tasty pizza and delicious chocolate cake (thanks, Brittany!) capped off the meeting; to celebrate the “other” Jason’s birthday, in whose honor the cake was baked, most of the group went to Celebration Rivertown for the 11 p.m. showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  4. Spent a fair amount of time that should have been engaged in productive work in the evenings this week watching back episodes of Supernatural instead. Just started season 3 last night.  I was so engrossed that I even missed the new episode of Doctor Who last night. Heavens to Murgatroyd!
  5. I’m sooooo looking forward to the late October release of Windows 8, Win8 tablets and Windows Phone 8. Here’s hoping that T-Mobile doesn’t cheap out on its initial WP8 offerings … I’d offer up Tony’s firstborn child to get a Lumia 920.
  6. The next cigar/cocktail evening is planned for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Grand River Cigar. Anyone interesting in attending who didn’t already see an invitation — let me know. The more, the merrier, and self-invites are not only welcome but encouraged.

Personal

Misk-uh-LANE-us Observations

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It’s been a while since I’ve done some general-purpose updates, so here you go:

  1. Life on the home front is progressing smoothly. I’ve added a few extra things to the apartment, including a pair of lovely oak bookcases from my mother and a self-built chalkboard with magnetic primer in my office. Not bad, although I may sand the chalkboard and repaint it just to smooth it out a bit more.
  2. Two recent neighborhood additions: A new person in Apt. 3 — a “mid-20s guy” as my landlord put it — and a 1-year-old German Shepherd puppy. The latter belongs to my neighbor, a police officer, who has now joined the K9 unit with his new little bundle of black furry yipping. Which isn’t bad, actually, and I give Todd credit for bringing me cigars to defray the dog’s occasional noise. He’s more bothered by it than I am, I think.
  3. The writing group seems to be flowing well. They’re a fun(ky) bunch and although we don’t do a whole lot of writing, we do socialize and pass witticisms in lieu of generating work product. So it works out in the end. Plus there’s pizza.
  4. Time flies. It wasn’t that long ago that I sat down and thought out what I wanted to accomplish in the spring/summer seasons … and now we’re in mid-May. I won’t hit a few goals as soon as I had planned, but others are actually ahead of schedule. For example, in a few weeks I’m heading to Kalamazoo for FCC amateur radio license testing.
  5. Saw The Avengers yesterday, in 3D. It was a fun movie. The brief scene with Hulk and Loki at Stark Tower was, all by itself, worth the admission price. From a cast perspective, I have cautious optimism that Chris Hemsworth could be more than just another brainless beefcake actor and I rejoice that Robert Downey Jr. found his way again after a rough spot a decade ago.
  6. Last week I met my old college friend Matt for cigars at Grand River Cigar, but because the smoke shop was hosting a Xicar event the place was packed with more than 30 people, including a local priest, a biker with a home humidor the size of my office and several upstanding citizens engaged in local GOP politics. I lingered for more than four hours and had a couple of cigars, a few drams of Dalwhinnie and so much great conversation that I ended up a bit hoarse.
  7. A few weeks ago I attended a fun and oh-so-nerdy game night in DeWitt with a group of guys. Picture it: Three rounds of a game focused on the Constitutional Convention, with three lawyers and me. Woohoo.
  8. In a week or so Rob is hosting the next cigar night; we’ll have grilled steaks and Brad is tentatively scheduled to bring his homebrew. Should be a grand old time.
  9. Work has been crazy — I’ve had so much contract stuff crossing my desk that it’s a challenge keeping up. Nice problem to have.
  10. So … Barack Obama was outed by Joe Biden. Cute.
  11. The Vegas trip is coming up. I’m excited. We’ll start the week on the Strip and end up downtown — on Freemont Street, I hope, instead of the hoosegow.
  12. It’s still not clear where I’ll be in early August — I’ve been invited to an Italy trip with my church choir, but I’m also required to chair a session at this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings in San Diego. Of course, the two events overlap. I thought I might be able to get out of the JSM commitment, but now it appears I will be presenting a new Web strategery for our section at the executive committee meeting, so … ugh.

I’ve been reading a really rather unexpectedly snarly book about English use and abuse, but the contents leave me scratching my head. In all my years in West Michigan, for example, I can’t recall ever hearing miscellaneous enunciated as misk-uh-LANE-us.

All for now.

Personal

Grab Bag O’Goodies: Miscellaneous Personal Updates from the First Half of February

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Phwew. February has been eventful.

  1. This month marks the six-year anniversary of A Mild Voice of Reason.
  2. I’ve installed the Disqus system for comment management on this blog. The tool will allow my visitors to leave comments using logins from Disqus, Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. No personally identifiable information about any user is ever recorded or tracked by this site.
  3. February has been absolutely insane with contract work. Not only do I have a better-than-average chance of winning a four-figure contract with a local private client, but I’ve got $1,500 in open A/R with a national client for performing some fascinating special-project assignments. It’s nice having so much paid work that I don’t have time to do unpaid work. Not bad for a part-timer.
  4. Travel: It’s not just an adventure, it’s … OK, it’s an adventure. I’m planning on a June trip to Las Vegas to celebrate All Things Tony, then it looks like a GO to visit Italy in July for a tourist event with the St. Anthony choir. THEN, I’m apparently supposed to be in San Diego in August to attend this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings — I may or may not be chairing an SRMS session.
  5. Nerd alert! Last week I installed CM9 alpha 0.6 on my Touchpad. In plainer English: My HP Touchpad, acquired last year under firesale pricing, now dual-boots into the native webOS and CyanogenMod’s CM9 work-in-process release of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.” I’ve been running ICS almost exclusively for a week and love it compared to Android 2.x. There are a few bugs, but none that substantially affect me — CM9 0.6 doesn’t yet feature a working microphone or camera, but I use neither. Otherwise, it’s been remarkably stable and eminently usable. And the Feedly RSS reader is almost orgasmic in its elegance. That said, of all the mobile platforms, I’m still wildly in love with Windows Phone 7. I’ve used my WP7 phone since last September and have no complaints about the OS (only about companies that haven’t yet seen the wisdom of releasing a WP7 app). Unlike Blackberry and Android, which I loved for about three weeks until the platforms gave me reasons to kvetch, I don’t have any substantive qualms about WP7 and I’m excited as hell for the consumer beta of Windows 8 coming out in 10 days.
  6. Interesting news on the cigar front. First, on Wednesday Alaric and I went to Tony’s office in Lansing for a quick podcast followed by a trip to The Corona in Okemos to enjoy cigars in the lounge. Tony brought a bottle of The Macallan 18-year single-malt Scotch whisky. I purchased a Joya de Nicaragua maduro corona — the most full-flavored cigar I’ve ever enjoyed. Second, I have discovered two new things about the Grand Rapids tobacconists. Not only is Tuttle’s under new ownership as of the beginning of the month (the new owner introduced himself — nice fellow), but it seems that Buffalo Tobacco will soon open its own smoking lounge. On both counts, can I have a “hallelujah!?”
  7. Last Saturday I hosted a dinner party. Jon and Emilie came over from Novi and Tony and Jen came from Lansing. I prepared Pacific salmon fillets crusted with red pepper and pine nuts and steamed some reasonably fresh asparagus. The “salad” course was slow-cooked pasta jambalaya using some fabulous andouille sausage I picked up from Russo’s (and browned in olive oil); dessert was a chocolate-and-hazelnut cheesecake, also from Russo’s. I even offered a carefully planned appetizer platter — four different types of cheese, each selected to pair with the bottle of Sangiovese I picked up. We enjoyed conversation and appetizers and wine in the living room — with a nice fire, to boot — as soft Bach played. After dinner, we played a party game and knocked off a respectable number of additional bottles of wine. The evening’s festivities capped off the next morning with a group brunch at The Spinnaker.
  8. Sadness: I did buy an $80 bottle of port — casked in 1984, bottled in 1988, and aging ever since. Yet apparently the cork didn’t like this; much of it disintegrated into the bottle. I did strain some of the precious liquid into my decanter, but still.
  9. Elsewhere on the social front, I’m planning to have lunch and do some writing tomorrow with Duane. Last weekend, I had lunch with Charlie at The Winchester. Two weeks before that, I had a fabulous dinner with Stacie at The Green Well — highly recommended. It’s good to sit down with people for tasty food and tantalizing conversation. And let’s not forget the two writing events I attended this month. “The tentacles of love are like a bow metaphor” or something like that.
  10. I finally managed to finish my desk. Or rather, I decided I’m finished. It’s now a lovely U-shaped wooden contraption bolted to a large bookcase. I’m not entirely thrilled with one part, but I blame myself for not adequately thinking through the way I cut and assembled one segment of the frame. Still, everything’s off the floor and the wires are hidden and everything’s stained and the surfaces are stable, so I consider it a moral victory.
  11. I have the world’s most awesome landlord. Not only are he and his wife just a riot, but he’s very responsive — even to odd things. Last week, I noticed that I had a curious intermittent leak in the ceiling from my cigar room (the three-season porch). The fluid came directly from the kitchen sink area of the upstairs neighbor, and it was dark-colored and a bit greasy. I figured her J-trap came loose or something. But nope. It now appears that the fluid is raccoon urine, and the landlord is sparing no strategy — mothballs, live-bait traps, sealing the rafters — to fixing the problem. Yay me.

All for now. Ciao.

Personal

Grab Bag O'Goodies: Miscellaneous Personal Updates from the First Half of February

No Comments

Phwew. February has been eventful.

  1. This month marks the six-year anniversary of A Mild Voice of Reason.
  2. I’ve installed the Disqus system for comment management on this blog. The tool will allow my visitors to leave comments using logins from Disqus, Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. No personally identifiable information about any user is ever recorded or tracked by this site.
  3. February has been absolutely insane with contract work. Not only do I have a better-than-average chance of winning a four-figure contract with a local private client, but I’ve got $1,500 in open A/R with a national client for performing some fascinating special-project assignments. It’s nice having so much paid work that I don’t have time to do unpaid work. Not bad for a part-timer.
  4. Travel: It’s not just an adventure, it’s … OK, it’s an adventure. I’m planning on a June trip to Las Vegas to celebrate All Things Tony, then it looks like a GO to visit Italy in July for a tourist event with the St. Anthony choir. THEN, I’m apparently supposed to be in San Diego in August to attend this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings — I may or may not be chairing an SRMS session.
  5. Nerd alert! Last week I installed CM9 alpha 0.6 on my Touchpad. In plainer English: My HP Touchpad, acquired last year under firesale pricing, now dual-boots into the native webOS and CyanogenMod’s CM9 work-in-process release of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.” I’ve been running ICS almost exclusively for a week and love it compared to Android 2.x. There are a few bugs, but none that substantially affect me — CM9 0.6 doesn’t yet feature a working microphone or camera, but I use neither. Otherwise, it’s been remarkably stable and eminently usable. And the Feedly RSS reader is almost orgasmic in its elegance. That said, of all the mobile platforms, I’m still wildly in love with Windows Phone 7. I’ve used my WP7 phone since last September and have no complaints about the OS (only about companies that haven’t yet seen the wisdom of releasing a WP7 app). Unlike Blackberry and Android, which I loved for about three weeks until the platforms gave me reasons to kvetch, I don’t have any substantive qualms about WP7 and I’m excited as hell for the consumer beta of Windows 8 coming out in 10 days.
  6. Interesting news on the cigar front. First, on Wednesday Alaric and I went to Tony’s office in Lansing for a quick podcast followed by a trip to The Corona in Okemos to enjoy cigars in the lounge. Tony brought a bottle of The Macallan 18-year single-malt Scotch whisky. I purchased a Joya de Nicaragua maduro corona — the most full-flavored cigar I’ve ever enjoyed. Second, I have discovered two new things about the Grand Rapids tobacconists. Not only is Tuttle’s under new ownership as of the beginning of the month (the new owner introduced himself — nice fellow), but it seems that Buffalo Tobacco will soon open its own smoking lounge. On both counts, can I have a “hallelujah!?”
  7. Last Saturday I hosted a dinner party. Jon and Emilie came over from Novi and Tony and Jen came from Lansing. I prepared Pacific salmon fillets crusted with red pepper and pine nuts and steamed some reasonably fresh asparagus. The “salad” course was slow-cooked pasta jambalaya using some fabulous andouille sausage I picked up from Russo’s (and browned in olive oil); dessert was a chocolate-and-hazelnut cheesecake, also from Russo’s. I even offered a carefully planned appetizer platter — four different types of cheese, each selected to pair with the bottle of Sangiovese I picked up. We enjoyed conversation and appetizers and wine in the living room — with a nice fire, to boot — as soft Bach played. After dinner, we played a party game and knocked off a respectable number of additional bottles of wine. The evening’s festivities capped off the next morning with a group brunch at The Spinnaker.
  8. Sadness: I did buy an $80 bottle of port — casked in 1984, bottled in 1988, and aging ever since. Yet apparently the cork didn’t like this; much of it disintegrated into the bottle. I did strain some of the precious liquid into my decanter, but still.
  9. Elsewhere on the social front, I’m planning to have lunch and do some writing tomorrow with Duane. Last weekend, I had lunch with Charlie at The Winchester. Two weeks before that, I had a fabulous dinner with Stacie at The Green Well — highly recommended. It’s good to sit down with people for tasty food and tantalizing conversation. And let’s not forget the two writing events I attended this month. “The tentacles of love are like a bow metaphor” or something like that.
  10. I finally managed to finish my desk. Or rather, I decided I’m finished. It’s now a lovely U-shaped wooden contraption bolted to a large bookcase. I’m not entirely thrilled with one part, but I blame myself for not adequately thinking through the way I cut and assembled one segment of the frame. Still, everything’s off the floor and the wires are hidden and everything’s stained and the surfaces are stable, so I consider it a moral victory.
  11. I have the world’s most awesome landlord. Not only are he and his wife just a riot, but he’s very responsive — even to odd things. Last week, I noticed that I had a curious intermittent leak in the ceiling from my cigar room (the three-season porch). The fluid came directly from the kitchen sink area of the upstairs neighbor, and it was dark-colored and a bit greasy. I figured her J-trap came loose or something. But nope. It now appears that the fluid is raccoon urine, and the landlord is sparing no strategy — mothballs, live-bait traps, sealing the rafters — to fixing the problem. Yay me.

All for now. Ciao.

Personal

The Last Few Weeks ….

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Caught in a titanic struggle between “busy” and “sick,” the last few weeks have been somewhat less than enjoyable. Nevertheless, a few items of note are worth passing along.

  • Malaise.  Last weekend was unhappy; by Friday afternoon I got clobbered by some sort of stomach ailment that didn’t clear up until Sunday night, although it came back for a mini-encore on Wednesday. I ended up missing Mega 80s and the TGIO party last weekend (sadness) and scrubbed a planned site visit to Zeeland on Wednesday.
  • Cigar Night. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I hosted another monthly cigar night. Tony, Rob and Brad attended. We shared Tony-supplied Gispert robustos and I made bison grass martinis. A pleasant way to unwind before Turkey Day madness, even if Tony’s intervention led to a few of the martinis being more olive than alcohol. Next event is planned for this coming Tuesday, at Chop House.
  • Thanksgiving. This year’s holiday was fun … the festivities started the Friday prior, with an office potluck. My sausage jambalaya went over well — cutting back on cayenne and adding more red curry and chili powder led to a more flavorful but less intense spice profile. On Thursday, the family assembled at my mom’s house. Brian, grandma, and Sue/Robert/kids attended for a lovely meal.
  • NaNoWriMo. I didn’t “win” but I learned a ton about novel-writing, and had a blast at the twice-weekly write-ins. Kudos to everyone who made it so enjoyable, especially Duane, Jennifer, Adrianne, Liz, Nicole and Mary. This year, I discovered that it’s a bad idea to try to force-fit a character story on top of a genre template. Next year, I’ll be more ready. At Duane’s suggestion, I bought a Kindle copy of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The book is a largely unstructured and informal reflection by this popular Japanese novelist about his lifelong loves of running and writing, and how the two intertwine throughout his career. I’m up to the third chapter.
  • Interface Rejections. My team at the hospital grew by one member and one huge pile of work. We are now cleaning up all the daily rejections between two of the hospital’s primary systems — the facility clinical environment, and the facility billing system. Yay us.
  • Walking. I’ve driven along Butterworth Avenue often enough that I decided it was time to start exploring all the trails in Millennium Park. From the trail head near the Coke plant at Butterworth and O’Brien, I walked along the trail that hugged Butterworth, crossed the new elevated pedestrian bridge over Maynard and then skirted the lake along the park proper before looping back to the trail head by means of the Grand River path. It turned out to be a nearly 6 mile circuit — quite refreshing. I’ll have to walk (or cycle) this more often.
  • TV. I don’t watch too much television, but based on Sondra’s recommendation, I watched both seasons of Better Off Ted on Netflix. The show featured a deliciously sociopathic Portia de Rossi and the suave Jay Harrington as two of the main characters. If you seek a TV show that mixes over-the-top satire with wickedly funny dialog, you’ll love this program. It’s what The Office should have been.
  • Phone.  This week I managed to drop my phone into a sink full of hot soapy water. Although it took a few days to completely dry out, the HTC HD7 survived with no apparent problems. Yay. And even better — last week I received a Windows Phone upgrade that, inter alia, included a new Wi-Fi hotspot feature. Which works really well, although it is a bit of a battery drain.

All for now.