The Mind of Mierow

So after a nearly 6 month hiatus, I have decided to start journaling/blogging again. I hope to keep myself more accountable to the things I really want to see happen in my life this year. This is happened because I came close to having my dad die once again. This time it wasn’t some horrific car accident, but a heart attack. Sometime later when I’ve gotten my sleeping & eating back to a “normal” schedule I’ll go into all the details. For now I’ll just say that he’s doing fine and we hope to have him home soon.

I’m also hoping/planning/praying to make some other changes in my life. I’m going to start journaling my health: physical & spiritual. I figure this blog here is some of my emotional health. When I finally think of a good name, I’m sure I’ll have it linked here. I’ve only started this journey yesterday, but I think I can make a conscious effort to keep on top of it.

I think that’s it for now. No “true” resolutions for 2008. Just a daily reminder to myself to go into the day conscious of all that I do and say.

*Evening Update*

I’ve started my journaling site. Mainly just as a help to me. I decided on the name, “Daily Bread”. I think that sums up its focus. You can find it here: http://mierowdailybread.wordpress.com/

I had an interesting week at work this past week.  I got to do a number of server migrations from a physical environment to a virtual one.  While this process is very cool, and is amazing to see in action, the actual process was not so fun.  It basically boiled down to me working from about 8a-3p in the office, then from10p-1a from home.  It made for a very long week coming off of the 4th of July.  Oh, well.  This is a new week & it’s already half over!

It gets tough sometimes to keep it. There is a daily struggle to recognize it. You see the changes happening in other people’s lives and you wonder what you’ve done that is denying you from something similar.

Are your prayers sincere? Do you really have faith? Is this just a time of testing?

Let me clarify and say that there are definitely days that suck, but overall I enjoy my job and don’t dread having to come in each morning.

I know there are people that absolutely hate to have to go into work. I don’t understand that concept myself, I mean if you dread it that much, then get a new job, but I digress. Here are a number of reasons why I love my job:

• we watch The Office in the office (every thur @ 11:30a if you want to drop by)
• 4 words – Box o’ Nerf Guns
• gaming over lunch
• we have our own IRC channel (and bot!)
• learning from the vast knowledge pool of my coworkers
• listening to the I.T. squirrel
• getting to play w/ technology all day long

Overall I’ve been pretty blessed with this job. I’ve had my fair share of jobs with the boss who was a jerk, or the hours that were horrible, etc… On a friday (when the boss is away) I figured it was a good day to enjoy my job.

It’s been an interesting week.  On one hand I feel like I’ve gotten a lot accomplished, and things have been moving right along.  On the other hand, I feel like I’ve done very little this week and there’s been little motivating me.  Although, tomorrow is payday… so that’s always something to be motivated about.

The in-laws are all going to be around this weekend.  Everyone is crashing at our place Friday night.  It will be interesting to see how we pull that one off.  If they were staying all weekend we might have needed to find other accommodations, but the way it stands now, most of them are heading back home Saturday afternoon sometime.  I’m sure the weekend will be packed with games, conversation and little sleep.

Totally off topic – have you ever found a random bruise, cut or scratch and had no clue how it got there?  I have about a 2 inch scratch at the base of my neck and I have no idea when or where that may have happened.  Just makes me wonder every now and then how it happens.

If you need to see a movie in the theater, my vote would be for 300.  Let me start by saying this is NOT the best movie ever made.  The thing is though, it is a good movie.  For my money, that’s saying a lot now days.  I haven’t been as much of a movie die hard as I was in my younger days, so I don’t like to spend my money on a theater ticket ($6-$8/person) if I feel I can wait for it on DVD.   300 was well worth the price to see it on the big screen though.

I’m also not too concerned with the historical inaccuracies.   It’s a movie based on a graphic novel.  That right there tells me that there are going to be a lot of liberties taken.  For example, I think there probably 3 facts in the movie that true from historical records:

1. There was a King Leonidas
2. There was a King Xerxes
3. 300 Spartans (and others) defeated 40,000 (roughly) enemies

Other than that it was a great movie.  I highly recommend seeing it in the theater.

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.