This Could Be Easier

It would be so much easier if it were possible to dump my brain into my computer, without my having to be the one to do it.

Last night, as I was going to bed, after having written a couple of pages of brilliance - okay, I think it's brilliance; others will have to wait - I thought of more things to say. But then I went to sleep. And to work. And now all that additional brilliance is faded.

Same thing happened on the drive to work this morning. I thought of a bunch of other topics for my table of contents. I did manage to remember most of those by the time I got home.

One other thing that I'm going to have to resolve is some sort of desk to write on when I'm watching TV. My coffee table is too low. I either have to sit on the floor below the table - which is not comfortable because my legs have to stay bent between the table and the couch - or I sit on the couch - much more comfortable on the legs, but harder on the back as the coffee table is low. So tonight, I'm trying typing with my laptop actually in my lap. It means I can't use the mouse and have to use the touchpad, which I don't really like, but it's not all bad. And much more comfortable on both back and legs.

So I now need to try to figure out how to get what's inside my brain down into the computer. Next blog entry, perhaps?

Audacious Goals

A friend of mine just finished biking across the country. On a regular bike, not a motorcycle. He's a longtime cyclist and does an annual bike trip in Maine to raise money for the American Lung Association. In memoriam of his father-in-law, and because he was hitting 50, he decided to bike across the country before his birthday. He made it a fund-raising event and raised thousands of dollars. He also kept a blog of the ride, including pictures from the road. It was quite amazing to his progress. I was amazed that anyone could ride a bike that far, much less at 50!

Today, I read about another person's quest. This guy is a contributor to Anderson Cooper's 360 online. His goal is to travel to every country in the world. When I first started reading about his adventures, I assumed he was my age - middle age. In fact, he's 32. And planning to complete his quest of 192 countries by 36. Amazing. He too is keeping a blog of his quest. And the end of each of his entries is an entreaty for each of us to have an audacious goal.

So here is my audacious goal. In keeping with Mark's goal and Chris' entreaty, I am going to set a goal of writing a book by the time I'm 50. My dad has written two since he turned 80. Seems only reasonable for me to try. Right? And maybe I'll even blog about the experience / challenge.

Ready For Fall!

It's almost time for the new fall season. I'm certainly seeing enough advertisements for it, both on TV and via other media like my Facebook account. And I'm ready.

In previous summers, it seemed like the reruns were mixed in with new shows. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong. But I'm tired of the reality drivel that they parade out at the end of the summer. Big Brother? Please. Yuk!

I'm ready for the new seasons with new plots and to find out what happened in continuation from last season.

I'm sure there will be a new crop of shows, too, some of which will be good but most of which will stink. Oh well. That's the way the world of TV goes.

Mostly I'm just tired of reruns. So I have a tendency to turn off the TV early and head for bed. Which is okay except part of the point of watching TV is to give my brain something else to think about. And not having anything interesting to watch just doesn't fit that bill.

A good book would work too. But it's harder to read a book in one hour increments. And right now, an hour is about all the time I have to do anything other than work.

Hopefully that will also change in the fall. We'll see.

Yesterday's Exercise Debacle Becomes Today's Exercise Present

I knew I had to work today. But I took yesterday off. I didn't work at all, except to answer a couple of emails. Instead, I went shopping, ran errands, and went for a run.

Or at least that was the plan. The plan was to go for a run on the path by my house. A friend had told me that the plan goes all the way to a park out in Chantilly. So I figured it would work well for my usual 3 mile run.

I had tried it once before, but had ended up on a dead end in a neighborhood that was nowhere near as far away as Chantilly. So I figured this time I would take the left fork, instead of the right, and see how far it went.

The one thing that makes me nervous about this path is that it's in the woods. Lovely in terms of protection against the heat and sun, certainly cooler than my usual run around the local streets. But it also seems more dangerous somehow for a single female. So I wanted to try it to see how far the left fork stayed in the woods. But it was definitely on my mind as I headed out.

Usually I run for about 30 minutes. Yesterday, I decided to run further. It was 5 minutes down the road to the wooded path. I figured I would run 15 minutes down the path and then turn around. When I got back to where I would get back on my streets, I would have run for about 35 minutes and could decide whether I wanted to run or walk the 5 minutes back to my house. That was the plan.

I took off. 5 minutes down to the woods. Left at the fork. A nice run through the woods. Then the path crossed a street. I was about 10 minutes into the path part of my run and feeling nervous, as I said, about running in the woods. Since I recognized the name of the street and knew it would take me back to one of the main roads by my house, I decided to head out up the road and out of the woods. Down the street about another 10 minutes. All is good.

Except when I hit the main road, I realize that I am much further down the road from my house than another 10 minutes. And I'm tired - 25 minutes in. So I have to make a decision. Run for another 5 minutes to make my usual 30-minute mark. Or walk. I decide to run.

I head down the main road and take a side street that I think will take me back to the path. I run into a neighborhood and down several of the paths of the neighborhood, all of which seem like they should connect to my original path. Once I hit the neighborhood, I ran some and walked some. I walked to try to see if I could find my way better when I was more focused on possibilities. No go. Demoralized I stop running. I realized that I need to just go back to the main road and go back the way I know.

I'm now about 40-45 minutes into my workout. And I have a pretty long walk or run ahead of me. I'm about 2 miles from home. Remember that I usually only run 3 miles. two more miles is much too far. So I mostly walked back. It was another 30 minutes before I got back to my neighborhood. Might have been more than 2 miles.

So what started out as a run that I wanted to be a "little" longer ended up as a run / walk for 1-1/4 hours. I was exhausted.

Today, the plan was to work for a couple of hours after lunch, go do a little shopping, and head to the gym to work out. The amount of work I had to do ended up taking longer than I had planned. So I was going to skip the shopping and just do the gym. Then, as I was deciding about whether I would go work out and come home to finish up my work, I got a call from my niece and her husband. He was coming over to help me move some furniture. He had thought he was going to get out to me between 6 and 7. It was just about 4. They were early. At this point, I decided that I would just work through and have them come. Maybe I would get a workout in later, but if not, well, it happens.

I didn't end up finishing up work until 7:30. Much too late to work out. But then I realized that I had essentially done a double workout yesterday.

A present. Thank goodness.

Things You Never Knew You Needed

Every once in a while, I am struck by the things in life that I have bought and use routinely that I didn't know would be so helpful.

Case in point, a stepping stool. I bought one for this house because the kitchen cabinets are very tall and because the master bedroom's walk-in closet is also tall and the top-most shelves are higher than I can reach. I bought a relatively short stepping stool with only two steps. But it has become an extremely useful thing to have. I use it for things for which I used to use a chair. But it's much handier to carry around the house than a chair. And much more stable. Although I bought it for my kitchen and closet, I used it to hang my new curtains. I used it to hang the pictures in my living room. I used it for at least a handful of other things that I am not even sure I remember.

A related purchase was a pole that I could use to change the lightbulbs in the ceiling. My previous home had low ceilings, not more than 8 feet high, and no overhead lighting. My new home has can lights in the ceiling. They are 12 feet high, higher than I can reach even with my cool, new stepping stool. So I bought one of those poles that you use to grab a lightbulb, twist it out, and put a new one in. Very cool.

When it comes to technology, I tend not to be an early adopter. I like to wait a while for new technologies to get the kinks out and drop in cost. Three new technologies in my life in recent years - the iPod Shuffle, iPhone, and a flat screen TV. The first of these purchases was the iPod Shuffle. I didn't want a full iPod because I couldn't imagine walking around listening to music. I still can't. But I use my Shuffles (I have two) when I work out. Much more convenient than even a cassette player and certainly better than a portable CD player when trying to run. About 6 months ago, I went running with my sister, and she used my second Shuffle. She has a Nano that she has used at the gym, but since Shuffles are much smaller and cheaper, she planned to get a couple more. I don't know if she did.

The iPhone was my next purchase last summer. I needed a new cell phone and decided to get a smart phone. I have a couple of friends with iPhones, and they seemed like they were cool. I wasn't really sure if I would like it, and now I can't imagine how I survived without it. I can check news anywhere. I can play games anywhere. I can check my AOL mail anywhere. I text. Much easier than on my previous phone.

Right now, I'm watching my flat screen TV. In addition to being bigger and clearer than my previous TV, it's light enough that I can carry it myself. My previous TV was too heavy for me to carry. And too bulky for me to carry, too. This one is much easier to shift if needed. And of course, takes up much less space on the TV stand.

So there you go. Five things I didn't realize that I needed until I had them.

Work-Life Balance?

Does it count as good work-life balance that I got the last of my new furniture delivered, hung the pictures in my living room, unpacked the rest of my books, and worked out both days on the same weekend that I worked most of each day? Probably not.

We've been working on a significant project at work. It required most of us to work a fair amount of the weekend. I didn't work as much as some, but I did work for several hours on Saturday and again on Sunday. I was only supposed to work on Sunday, but it turned out that the lead on the project wanted to put in her input on my part of the project. So she came over on Saturday and then I implemented her ideas. Then Sunday was spent doing the things I had agreed to do on Friday.

At the same time, my new couch was delivered on Saturday. It's beautiful, and I am very happy with it. It was the last new piece that I needed to have all my rooms completed. Yea! While I was waiting for the delivery guys - who of course had given me a 4-hour window for delivery - I hung the pictures that I had had framed a couple of weeks ago. I had run out early on Saturday morning to get the level that I needed to complete that task. With seven pictures, it was critical that they were spaced the same and lined up in parallel. I finished hanging the last picture just as the delivery guys showed up. Good timing. Then tonight, I unpacked the last of the boxes - four boxes of books. That means that I am officially done with my move.

Productive weekend. Time for bed.

It's All In The Timing

I've discovered that 6:15 is my bewitching hour. If I get out of work by 6:15, I can make it to the gym or home for a run. And be done with either of them in time to eat dinner before it's too late at night. If I leave work after that, I have found that I can't make myself go to the gym or for a run. That I'm too tired. Or that it's too late. Because by the time I get to the fym at that time, and work out for an hour, I won't get home until after 8. And I just can't do that. Because these days, I'm usually in bed (to read usually) by 9:30. So if I don't eat until after 8, that's just too close to the time I'm going to bed.

So how often do you think I got out of work before 6:15 this week? Only twice. Not good.

Not All Reality Is Equal

So many reality shows are worthless. And so many reality shows only make the participants look stupid.

I'm not talking so much about the new-generation talent shows. Honestly, I don't think that American Idol is any worse than previous generations of such shows. Yes, the audition shows are vile, but those that make it into the top three or four have proven that they have some talent. Carrie Underwood. Chris Daughtry. Kelly Clarkson. Millions of CDs sold.

But look at The Hills. Worthless. Jersey Shore. Embarrassing.

In the past few years, there have been a few shows staring rock stars. I think The Osbournes started it. For the past few years, there has been "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" on A&E. If you had told me that I would enjoy watching Gene Simmons from KISS on a reality show, I would have laughed in your face. The only thing I knew about him was that he claimed to have slept with thousands of women. I thought he was full of himself and honestly a bit disgusting. The thing is that he is full of himself. But he laughs at himself about that. He's been living with the same woman for many years now, and they have two kids who are teenagers. The show is about their family. And his business. And it's really quite funny and interesting. Who knew?

Now there's a new rock star family show - "Growing Up Twisted". With Dee Snyder, the lead singer of Twister Sister. Also on A&E. Seems like more than a little bit of a copycat to "Family Jewels". And I just don't see that Dee Snyder will be as charismatic as Gene Simmons. So I don't think I'll be watching that particular reality show.

Not all reality is equal.

Time Flies

Last weekend was my high school's 30th reunion. How could that be? I'm not old enough to be 30 years out of high school. At least it doesn't feel that way. Time flies.

It got me to thinking about some other milestones. Being 30 years out of high school means I'm 26 out of college. And 23 out of graduate school. Amazing.

I've lived in Northern Virginia for 25 years, having moved back to the DC area in 1985 to go to graduate school, but to VA instead of MD where I grew up. And yet I still don't think of myself as a Virginian. Not a Marylander either. Just a citizen of the United States. Or a DC area native. Maybe it's from living in Northern Virginia, but I just don't identify with the state as a place that I'm from. Strange.

My sister married her husband almost 20 years ago now, when his kids were kids. Now the eldest of his kids is going to have a kid. Cool.

I've loved a handful of men, but haven't loved anyone in more than 15 years. Sad.

I've been working for 26 years since I graduated from college. I was a professional editor for 10 years, and haven't been a professional editor (i.e., that hasn't been my title) for 13 years. And I still write and edit almost every day as part of my job, as I have for pretty much my entire career. Odd.

In the 26 years I've been working, I've worked for New Boston Group, The Congressional Information Service, Codeworks Corporation, Hart Research, Relevant Knowledge, Validity Corporation, Effinity Financial Corporation, Treasury Bank, the CARES Commission, Northrop Grumman, Cognosante, and Northrop Grumman. Of all of those firms, only Hart Research, Northrop Grumman, and Cognosante still exist. That's a lot of baseball caps and coffee mugs for companies that have gone out of business. Entrepreneurial or maybe stupid.

It's an interesting set of statistics. There's lot of data in there. But the bottom line....

Time is flying by.

Brand Management

Between BP and Toyota, there are a lot of ads on the TV these days that are all about brand management. That is, they are about reputation clean-up. About making the company's brand viable again.

It's an interesting business to be in. During my recent sojourn in unemployment, I interviewed with a company whose job, among more traditional brand research, is to determine how best to woo the public back. When I worked years ago for a polling firm, we did some of this kind of market research. Not about which brand the public prefers, but the public's perception of a company as one they like or don't like. It's a much harder thing to measure. And also much harder to affect.

I've noticed recently, however, that more and more companies are doing this kind of advertising. It's not just those like BP and Toyota who need to address scandals that are associated with their companies. It's also companies like Microsoft. Sure, they are advertising Windows 7, and sure, some of what they are doing is trying to get people to buy that product. But they approach the advertising by trying to make people feel like Windows 7 is something that the public contributed to. That an average person's ideas were part of the process. In other words, affect the public's perception of Microsoft as a company, not just the Windows 7 product in particular. Jeep is advertising the new Cherokee as not just building a car, but rebuilding a company. Rebuilding the brand.

I wonder whether it's a trend in advertising, or it's just that there are so many companies that need to improve the public's perception of them.

You Get Back What You Give In

You give love, you get love.
You give trust, you get trust.
You give respect, you get respect.

On the flip side...
You don't trust those around you, they won't trust you.
You don't respect others' choices, they won't respect yours.
You don't believe that others know what they are talking about, they won't believe what you say.

The philosophers are right. Karma's a bitch.

I'm A Planner

When I was watching Pretty Woman - way back when - I was struck by the line "Are you a planner? I'm a planner. Well, actually I'm not a planner. I'm pretty much a skin-of-my-teeth kind of gal." Paraphrasing here, but I remember the repartee well because I am a planner.

I come a family of planners. My mother is highly-organized, and it rubbed off on the rest of us. I think I've written about that before.

But where planning gets me into trouble is that I'm not good at switching gears midstream, to mix metaphors. I can plan to be spontaneous. I can be spontaneous if I have no plans. But if I have a plan in my head of what I'm supposed to be doing and when, I have trouble letting go of it and being spontaneous.

I think some of this inability to go with the flow comes from my highly-organized genes.

I think some of it comes from the fact that I work in an environment where I have to have a plan and then I have to throw that plan out the window probably at least two or three times a week. I always tell people that this is why I have cats instead of dogs. I can plan that my day will end at 5 or 5:30. I can do what I need to do so that I can leave by that time. And all too often, something will come up and that plan to leave on time goes boom.

And so in my personal life, I tend to be a little more of a stickler for staying with the plan. Because most of the time it's just me. And so I have more control.

Which is, of course, another factor in why I'm not good at being spontaneous. I'm usually in control. If I go into a situation that I didn't plan, then I'm less in control.

But the other reason I am not good at spontaneity is that I usually have so much to do that planning is the only way to get it all done. And even then, it usually doesn't.

So I'm a planner. And that's not likely to change. Because I'm not spontaneous.