The Mind of Mierow

I have a meeting that occurs once a month.  For the most part, it can be a fairly good meeting.  A lot of decisions are made, ideas discussed, etc.  What makes this particular meeting a royal pain in the ass is that I’m not sure that there has been a time where the meeting hasn’t lasted 3 hours (or more)!  Such was the case yesterday.

Who in their right mind can concentrate for  an entire 3 hour meeting?  I know that I can’t at all.  The sad part is that I either (1) end up walking out of there not remembering much of anything that was talked about or decided;  or (2) I feel like nothing was accomplished except for a waste of time.  I guess I’m struggling with how do I, as the new guy, try to bring up ideas on more efficient communication?  more effective meeting practices?  shorter meetings?

Meeting for meeting’s sake is not good for everyone involved on all levels (physical, emotional, spiritual).   I find it draining.  On that note, time to prepare for my next meeting.

All morning was spent delivering batteries for all of Concordia’s UPS’s (Uninterruptible Power Supply). These things are not small. Needless to say we only delivered about 12 out of 30 of these things. It looks like its going to be a long week.

Other than that (and the strong desire to sleep at my desk) the day has gone well. It will be a nice short week since I’m using a vacation day on Friday. I also stumbled upon a disturbing video of one of America’s latest sweethearts. Enjoy.

Nothing like having someone who’s competing for your business.  Today we had a group take us out to lunch.  We ended up at the Bonfire Grill on Grand Ave.  Not too shabby, especially when you’re not paying for it.  Every now and then there are perks to a job that you totally forget about.  This was one of them.

If the decision were up to me I’d buy what these guys were selling.  That’s not basing it off of the food, but the product and services we would get.  If we want to remain active and competitive I think we’ll be looking for a solution like the one they proposed.  Other than that it’s been a pretty slow day.  The weather’s too nice outside to truly focus on much more work.  Good thing friday is almost here.

If only I could speed read then I’d be set. I love to read books, and so far I think I’m off to a good start. Here’s what I’ve been reading so far this year:

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley & Ron Powers (here) -finished

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (here) – finished

The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
by Thomas L. Friedman (here) – in progress

I’m not sure what titles to add to my list for the remainder of the year. I’ve got some time before I finish Friedman, so I know I’ll find plenty of titles that will interest me before then.

03/22/2007 – side note, I just came across this article.

Thank God its Friday!

It’s just been one of those weeks.  All the crap that’s happened in every facet of life…  I’m just glad this week is soon behind me.  I’m looking forward to a little r & r.  I doubt very much that it will actually happen, but at least the thought of it happening will get me through the day.

What the heck? I’d really like to know who decided to go and change daylight savings time. I understand that it was done to save energy, but how much time, money and energy has been wasted on getting everything up to the new standard? I know that I’ve personally spent about 5 days on this issues.

Oh well.

Time to get my butt back to working on our DST issues. Here’s to day 6.