This was my Tuesday...  I was too tired to blog about it yesterday.

5AM Wake up.

5:40AM Get in car in Bay Ridge.

6:05AM Enter LaGuardia Airport parking lot.

6:13AM Check in to 7AM flight, which has now been pushed back to 7:25.

7:10AM Board plane.

8:48AM Land in Dulles, VA.

9:30AM Finish Cosi parfait.  Get cab. 

9:54AM Arrive at biz dev meeting.

11:45AM Leave campus for lunch with fun potential partner team.

12:15PM Get seated for lunch at local microbrewery/grill.

12:26PM  Chicken sandwich arrives.

1:26PM Return from lunch to continue meetings.

3:33PM Leave for airport with chatty cab driver.

3:56PM Arrive at airport and check in for 5:35 flight.

3:57PM Black cat crosses path.  Cat cannot get wifi connection either.

4:49PM Flight pushed back to 6PM.

5:30PM Flight pushed back to 6:30PM.

6:01PM Flight pushed back to 7:05PM.

6:39PM Flight pushed back to 7:35PM.

6:58PM Announcement that LaGuardia Airport has been closed due to visability.

6:59PM Check NYC weather on phone...  66.  Rain.  Yes, seems like that should close an airport.

7:30PM Flight cancelled.  9PM flight full.  Please go to the customer service line.

7:31PM Customer service line has 6,000 people on it.  Break for Avis.

7:55PM Arrive at Avis. 

"Carkeep, give me the world handling car you have...something that corners like a whitewater raft.  An Impala?  Oh yes, that will do fine."

8:08PM

"Its 250 miles to LaGuardia.  I've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of overpriced airport trailmix.  Its dark, and I'm wearing khakis.

Hit it."

12:38AM Arrive at LaGuardia Avis, located close to the airport in downtown Saskachawan by the Marine Aviation Terminal.

12:52AM Start waiting for the Avis Shuttle, which comes every five minutes, to get back to the parking lot.

1:15AM Avis shuttle arrives.

1:33AM Exit Laguardia parking lot, peeling out in Mustang, because I was used to Impala's pickup, or lack thereof.

1:52AM Park in Bay Ridge.

2:01AM Sleep in my own bed...zzzzzzz

I remember hearing Basketcase for the first time.  My mom and I were on our way back from visiting my grandparents in Staten Island. She had to stop at the Staten Island Mall to exchange an item and I was waiting in the car.  I was 14 and too cool to walk around the mall with my mom if I didn't have to.  I remember how cool I thought the song was, and remember thinking (maybe not at that exact moment, but not long after) that I hoped Green Day wouldn't be one of those one-hit wonder bands.  Eleven years later, I'm eating breakfast, watching the video for Boulevard of Broken Dreams.  Its so great to see them still going and I had this sudden urge to go see them in concert.  I checked their website and they don't have any NYC dates left, but they do have dates in April in Atlantic City, Albany, Norfolk (could take a DC trip to go see friends from college...).  Boy, do I wish I had a car.  Maybe I'd make a real trip out of it and go somewhere interesting.  July 1st...  Belgium?  Now that would be interest.  Werchter festival anyone?  Is it hot in the summer in Belgium?  Atlantic City or Belgium?   hmm.

In the last... hmm...   ten years, my work environments have never been stable and its been difficult to optimize for best results, but I've learned a little something along the way.

In high school, I used to hole up in my room after coming home from play practice (little known fact in the blog world, I did four musicals in high school...).   Doing work in your bedroom is probably the most distracting thing you'll ever do.  I was unlucky enough to have my own phone line, too (well, the other extension on that line was my dad's fax machine), so that didn't help.   Still, I only had a few hours a night to work and so time pressure helped.  I work much better under time pressure.

Also in high school, I took an architecture course.  Anyone who is building anything, be it a still life water color or a web serivce, will tell you that doing creative work is the most time consuming thing you'll ever do--because you can always put more time into it.  I spent every single moment of free time I had (and in senior year of high school, that was a lot) in the art room.  I had picked out the best drafting table.  It was tucked away in a corner behind a dividing wall and I had my back against very high windows... great light.  Most of the time, the room wasn't being used, so I had dead silence.   I got a lot done.

In freshmen year of college, I have to be honest...  after coming out of Regis, the work seemed sort of easy, so I didn't have a lot of time pressure.  I mean, I had class three times a day, no commute...  gobs of free time.  Again, I went with an enclosed space.  In my room, I built a "cubby".  I took the bookshelf from my the back of my desk and attached it to the end of my bed over in the corner of the room.  The cubby was great... I could go in there and people wouldn't even know I was in the room even if the door was open.  I miss the cubby.  I need some walls.

Sophomore year, I was in a huge room, but with three other guys.  The TV was always on, so doing any work whatsoever in my room was just a no go.  So, everyday in the first semester, I spent some amount of time at a cubby-like library desk with my laptop.  (That was 1998... first time I ever had broadband.)   I also used to go into the lounges in the dorm to work at random hours.   That was when I really started to learn how to wake up early.  I would wake up at 6AM and get two solid hours of work done before most people on campus even woke up.  That's one thing about the way I work...    I don't fare well on a normal daytime work hour schedule.  My best times are 6AM-9AM and 3PM to 8PM.   If I could basically work those hours, I'd be very happy.  All this forced quiet time let to my only 4.0 semester...  that was an abberation, but it was fun while it lasted.

Junior year was a disaster, relatively speaking.  I was an RA (stupidest thing I ever did) and so I had my own room.  I should have learned from high school that I can't work productively in my own room.   Lots of wasted effort there.... too many distractions.  I should have went to the library.

Senior year, I had mostly finance classes, so the amount of work I actually needed to do, after interning for a corporate pension fund for four years, was pretty minimal.

When I was at GM, I learned about my afternoon boost.  At about 3PM, I used to kick myself for not being as productive as I could be...  partly b/c of my own lack of concentration and partly because of all the co-worker interruptions I'd get in a day.   So I started pounding stuff out like a mad man for four hours or so and would leave at 7 or 8.  Funny how I can't get my mind to work exactly when I want it to.   

At USV, the work was really just so different.   When you're networking, researching, trying things out, its hard to figure out exactly where your work ends and just your overall interest in the area begins.  So, I'd sort of work a little bit 18 hours a day...  continuous partial attention.  If I was IMing some guy who worked at another venture firm about what verticals could benefit from aggregation, was that productive work?  I think so, but it sure felt different from writing 12 page papers in high school.  I don't remember networking much in high school.

So, here at Oddcast, I've been here a little over a month...    I'm a couple of weeks away from finishing all the design work that will go into our consumer product, and I'll tell you, its been like herding cats to get my brain working correctly.  Like, this morning, I woke up at 6AM, drove into the office to get work done, and was going very well for a few hours before this blog post.  Now, why I couldn't manage that on Friday morning, I have no idea.   I was going to go kayaking, but its raining again, so hopefully, I can get another spurt like that.   

One thing that is very helpful.... unplug once in a while.  Turn off your IM and e-mail while you're working.  I'm going to do that right after I click publish...

So DTUT has become a “they” company.   

They’ve killed the wireless internet after 7PM.  I asked the guy behind the counter what the reason was, and he said that it “ruined business”, because the laptop freeloaders would order the minimum amount or nothing at all.  I looked around.   I’ve never seen the place so empty on a Friday night.  I wanted to just reach across the counter and explain to him all about incremental profits and overhead, but, I realized that it would probably be to no avail.  Counter Guy doesn’t care.  Now, perhaps it’s true that the people using the wifi do order less, but the point is, they order something, and, there is incrementally no cost to keeping the wifi on all the time.  The only legitimate financial argument you could make is that, somehow, the overabundance of laptop freeloaders drives away higher paying customers—that the place is already at capacity and it ruins the mix.  Of course, that’s not the case.  People rarely walk out of the place because it’s too crowded.  I mean, sometimes its packed, but like right now, its pretty empty.  (I’m typing this on Word because I already bought my green tea without realizing the wifi deal.)  Do I usually only order a green tea while I’m here?  Sure.  But…  so what?  What’s the margin on a $2.25 green tea?  90%?   In other words, at eight visits a month, I pay for half the wifi myself.  Do I take up the space of an otherwise higher paying customer?  No, definitely not.  In fact, the wifi is really the only reason why I come here in the first place.   And, in fact, one thing they fail to take into consideration is that because I’m here all the time freeloading off the wifi, it becomes my central hangout place and I’m used to coming here.  So, when I’m looking for a place to go to with friends, this is also my number one stop.  Now, however, I’m annoyed, and their ridiculous retraction of the free wifi has created ill will.  I’m less likely to come here the next time.  In fact, I’m less likely to come here at all.  I have a feeling this won’t last.  Although, perhaps it will, because the downtown location of DTUT just closed, so perhaps they’ll run this place into the ground before they have a chance to change the policy.

This afternoon, I finally closed on my new co-op apartment...  and only nine days after I moved out of my old apartment.  :\ 

Thanks to Joy for letting me crash in her empty pad while she was away.

Apartment and neighborhood tour to come soon, but for now, I'm just glad to be in my own place.  So, over the next few weeks, I'll be getting another couch, a bedroom set, and some office furniture.  I may sit in reception at work, but in my own place, I have an office!!  Woooo.  I'll be painting, too.  I'd say it will be ready for a housewarming party by the end of the month. 

First, the MTA cries poverty, telling us they're deep in the red and need to hike the fares.  Then, it turns out they were keeping two sets of books, so they actually have a big SURPLUS. 

Now they're striking??

Link: New York Daily News - Home - City war plan for transit walkout.

City war plan for transit walkout

BY MICHAEL SAUL and PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Commuters stream into city April 7, 1980, during last strike.
Workers rail for big raises

The city has begun preparing for a possible transit strike that would leave millions of New Yorkers stranded in the middle of the holiday season, the Daily News has learned.

If the MTA strikes, they're going to cripple the city during the important holiday shopping season, causing a lot of economic distress for hundreds of thousands of other workers.  Lots of babysitters, eldarly caregivers, etc. won't be able to make it to work either.  Its just very selfish, especially when you consider how much better the average transit worker's salary and benefits are then a lot of the other people in this city. 

Perhaps busboys, dishcleaners, and newsstand workers should go on strike...  the working poor with jobs nobody else wants.  But as for transit workers, they can strike without pay for as long as they want, for all I care, and I hope they get fined amounts equalling the economic hardship they cause the rest of the city.  In the meantime, I'm happy to bike to work.  Ridiculous.

One of the best things about blogging is that it can take your passions and interests, magnify their intensity, and act as a lightning rod for like minded people and a great network.

It also has the unfortunate byproduct of being non-discriminating in this process, particularly with people like me who are still a bit rough around the edges.  I put myself out there and sometimes, it comes back to bite me... more often than I'd like to.

So if you're thinking about blogging, currently blogging, etc. just remember every post is something you feel reflects you and you don't mind being representative of who you are... pretty much forever.  Its generally not a good place to start yammering about things you really don't even care much about and let your mouth go where it will.  Blogs are better when you are thoughtful about stuff that really interests you, lest you find yourself in a bad place, taken there by a post not really worth it in the first place.