Okay, so...

I took too long to get out the door and when I was finally on my way to work, I decided the jacket I chose to wear clashed with my shirt, so I turned around. Destined not to make it in, then, I turned to my thesis. I got a good hour in (after changing, of course!) and then went to the Katrina benefit. I got home and perused Match.com while watching my Sunday night t.v. I also the second Pogo badge for the week (Texas Hold'em). Of course, this all means that I'm up until 3 AM and tomorrow's going to suck!

I ended up e-mailing two women on Match. One lives pretty far away. The other is someone kind of crazy who I've spoken with before. I guess I am smarting a little bit from the break up today. Still, all's good. I used that phone number I've been hanging on to and the girl came to the jazz club for the Katrina-thing. She's real nice, but we were kind of running out of things to talk about. She said she'd like to go with me to a play some time, so...

I'll let you know.

Partial success...

Well, it would be great if I got some work done on my thesis yesterday (pardon me... sometimes I'll say 'thesis' when I mean 'Masters Project'). However, I got plenty of other stuff done. I got vacuum bags and a chordless water kettle (both on my list for a while). I got into work for 2 hours and also got some stuff done for one of the plays I'll be doing sound for. I got my t.v. in (gotta get THAT in!) while sorting Scholastic catalogs (did I mention that I handle the orders for my son's school?). I also ran 5 miles! I also talked with my son on the phone. He was watching t.v., so the conversation was brief. In the middle of me talking, he says "Bye, I love you!" That's how I know we're done! :)

Today, I got more done with Scholastic and sound (great progress in both areas... I'd like to be done with the Scholastic stuff today and get to a stopping point with this particular play and the sound). I did a load of laundry and I ran another 5 miles (in reverse order) and have set up my VCR for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night television (although I'm going to have to figure out how to ALSO record an overlapping show on Tuesday night... I want to see the 2nd part of the Scorcese piece on PBS about Bob Dylan AND the season premiere episode of "The Amazing Race"). I just got one of my two Pogo-badges for the week (if you don't know what these are, ask!). Tonight, I'm going to a Jazz concert at a restaurant of a friend of mine. Cover charges go to the Red Cross. This will be my (sadly) only contribution to Katrina-relief that I've made so far. More to come, I'm sure. This leaves me with little time to get EVERYTHING done on my list. Do I go into work for another 2 hours (it really helps the work week when I start AHEAD!) or work on my thesis?

List of what's left:

• Scholastic catalogs


• play


• work


• Katrina concert


• thesis

New plan:
(1) finish Scholastic catalogs tomorrow night. I have my son and since I'll be dropping him off at school Tuesday morning, I don't need them until then. Besides, I can catch up on my recorded television while I'm doing that. At this moment, I'm already caught up!

(2) I'm trying to finish up work on this play for the time-being so I can turn my attention back to my first show of this season. I think I can give myself another week of reading and note-taking. I'm really almost done, but I'm doing a tedious study of the script now and I tend to do a couple of scenes at a time before I get tired of it. I'll keep working on this slowly until it's done.

(3) The Masters Project can wait until after the concert. If I don't go into work now, I won't go in at all today. Hopefully, I'll get to work by 5:30, work for two hours, then get to the concert by 8 (fashionably late, since it starts at 7).

I'm cutting it pretty tight, but we'll see.

It's funny... With all this stuff I've got going on, you wouldn't know that I broke up with my girlfriend today. She's been pretty busy and the stress has made her prefer to not have me around. That's probably the closest thing to the truth I can describe. That's okay though. I have been prepared for this moment. I confronted her with it straight out today (on the telephone, since we haven't been able to get together in nearly 2 weeks) and at least now it's resolved. She thanked me for having been patient and having given her her space and understood why I was upset that she couldn't take 10 minutes during her week to talk about this on the phone rather than dragging it out. Okay. Done. Resolved. Now, do I go back on Match.com or finally use that phone number I've been hanging on to for 5 months? There SHOULD be a little mourning period, but like I said, I've been prepared for this moment for almost a week. I would have pushed the issue sooner, but I knew how busy she was and I figured it wouldn't go over so well to try and resolve this during the week. Anyway, I guess I'm "available" now. Although, with everything I've got going on, I don't know how much time that "availability" translated in to.

I'll let you know.

Progress!

Well, the thought that I was going to have to say something about my short-term goals actually pressed me into using a small space of time to work on my Master's Project.

Friday was an off-day from work for me, yet I needed to go in for at least a couple of hours. I wanted to get some exercise in during the morning hours, get cracking on my Project, and also see a play that opened that night.

Well... I stayed up pretty late on Thursday, so I was slow-going in the morning on Friday. However, I did manage to eat and shower and pack everything I needed so I wouldn't have to return home for anything during the day. Before walking out the door, I grabbed a hammer and finally hung a few pictures that have been taking up space in my living room. I probably hung the wrong pix in the wrong places (aesthetically, I mean), but I just decided to get them up. Progress, right?

I finally set forth and decided to pull over to get a haircut. I was passing the exit for the place I usually go to and "haircut" has been on my list of TTD (things to do) for some time, so I just did it. I had to wait for 1 1/2 cuts before it was my turn, so (always prepared) I sat down with one of the play scripts I'm going over right now and took a few notes. I'm almost done with it (this is my second reading... it's one of the Shakespeares, so it's very rewarding and interesting, but takes a while for me, as a designer, to get through). Finally, I got my cut and was on my way.

Then, almost at work (did I mention that I mentally crossed 'exercise' off my list of TTD for Friday?), I was passing Wal-Mart and remembered that was the only place I've seen trash compactor bags available and I really needed them for my kitchen, so I pulled over again. I spent a little extra time looking for a wicker hamper (no luck) and comparing the price of the "Lost" first season DVD (nearly $50) to the one I saw available at Sam's Club the other day (under $40... I haven't bought it yet... I want to see if they have staying-power first, but I love the show). Finally, I was out of there and off to work.

"Off-Friday" means different things for different people and I imagine there were some in the office in the morning. I was nearly 3:00, I think, when I finally got there. There were one or two other people around, but it was quiet and conducive to getting stuff done. Isn't that always the case? It's easier for me to get things done on weekends, off-days, and after 5. Something about the background noise level in the office, I suppose. I find myself wearing headphones a lot... the soundtracks to "Sweeney Todd" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" taking turns in my CD player.

Anyway, I put in my two hours (actually finishing the monotonous process of adding two chapters to a User's Manual I needed to finish for an application I had modified about a month ago, but for which priority dropped when something else came up) and had to determine what to do next.

I was definitely seeing the play at 8 PM and I was probably 40 minutes from the theater. I was going to have to eat as well and figured on a quick stop at Bruegger's for hummus on a whole wheat bagel. So-thinking, rather than drive to some place else to begin work on my Master's Project, I opted to crack open my laptop right there and begin work. Part of the time was reminding myself of what I'd already done. Part of the time was spent moving files out of the way that followed old trains of thought that are no longer relevant to my current topic. And part of the time was spent actually typing new, relevant text (albeit in what is probably the wrong section of the final product). Anyway, it was good to get something done. All told, I worked for almost 1 1/2 hours before speeding out of there to get my bagel and make the show. I didn't get too much done, I guess, but it was a start and it'll mean that I don't have to review all the materials again the next time I sit down to work on it... if I sit down soon! Like: today!

The play was FANTASTIC! I knew a lot of people in the cast, so it took me a couple of minutes to get over the idea that I was seeing my friends on stage, but it didn't take long. Everyone was sooooo good! I decided to go out with the cast after the play and I didn't get home until 5 in the morning! Believe it or not, I had only one drink that whole time, but it was good to hang and talk and wax on about what I liked about the play. I might be doing some sound design for this company after the four shows I'm doing with my primary company this year, so it was good "network". Plus, there were members of the cast who I hadn't seen in YEARS and it was really nice to catch up with them.

Anyway, here I am... Not as much on my plate today, but already 11 AM. I have a little t.v. to catch up on and I've already missed my morning Spinning class, so I'll probably job and work on my Project some more.

I'll let you know.

Lead in Vinyl/Soft-sided Lunchboxes

I am not one to send out mass e-mails with warnings in them, etc....

...however, today I did just that. This isn't so dire, it seems, but it's important. Here's what I sent:

---

Fellow parents,

I check things like this out at snopes.com (a great hoax-busting site) before I send them on. This one seems to be legit! If your child has a soft-sided lunchbox, you might want to get it checked out for lead. According to the article, testing is easy:

"How do I test my lunch box?You can test vinyl lunch boxes using a hand-held lead testing kit, available at most hardware stores. Two reliable and easy-to-use brands are PACE's Lead Alert and LeadCheck (also available online at http://www.leadcheck.com/). They cost less than $5 a piece, and come with instructions. Both of these brands will turn a bright pink color when they are rubbed on a surface containing lead. A clear or orange swab means there is not lead."

The news is not all dire, however. From the above link and http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/182/1/Lead-in-Lunch-Boxes:

"How dangerous are the lunch boxes with lead?
The levels CEH found in the lunch boxes are not high enough to cause acute lead poisoning during normal use. However, if your child is exposed to lead from other sources, a leaded lunch box would add to their health risk. Because lead has been shown to cause developmental problem in young children at very low levels, CEH believes it is important to eliminate all controllable sources of lead exposure, including lunch boxes. "

Here's the whole story from snopes: http://www.snopes.com/toxins/lunchbox.asp.
At the Center for Environmental Health website: http://www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm.
Do a Google search for [lunch box warning] or [vinyl lunch box lead] to see more information.

Forward as you see fit.

--Dave

Self-motivation time!

Man, have I got a butt-load on my plate! There's too much to do... So what am I doing renewing my Blog? I have no idea...

Okay, so I ran my marathon (beat my goal of 4 hours by about 7 minutes!), but I'm still running. I did a half-marathon last weekend. Interestingly (?), I still don't think of myself as a runner. I just like those finishing-medals hanging off my mirror! Okay, I like the fact that it sort of sets an example for my soon-to-be-6-year-old, too.

So... what am I doing these days? By day, I'm a computer programmer. By night, I'm a father and a sound designer for a local, professional, and quite excellent theatre company. In the interest of maintaining just a wee bit of anonymity, I won't name the company here.

On top of these things, I'm still setting up my condo (purchased in March), working on my Master's Project (personal goal: completion in calendar year 2005). If, somewhere in all this, I could find time to finish my movie script and figure out some other publishers to send my children's book manuscript to, that'd be golden!

So... I have a hard time believing anyone is going to be reading this. The real purpose of this, then, is to keep myself in check and to help me focus. And so here it is that I will journal my progress on my Master's Project, on my sound designs, my movie script, my children's book, my exercise, parenting, and what passes for a social life for me these days.

Where am I? I'll just list the big couple right now...

Master's Project: collected the material and done the research... I just have to go through the tedious process of actually writing it up now. For some reason, I just can't seem to get going. I've been taking classes for 5 years to get to this point and I just want to get it over with! This'll be for a Master's in Computer Science, by the way.

Sound Design: It'll be over a month before rehearsals begin on the first play I'm working on. I've already read and plotted a possible sound design for that one and am working on play #2 (a Shakespeare, full of flourishes and music and battles... ugh), but I'll soon have return my attention to play #1 and consider how I'm going to pull of making it sound like an actor on stage is playing the piano! All told, I'll be doing 4 plays this season... possibly 6.

Parenting: I've got shared custody of my almost-6 year old. He's great. He showed an interest in tennis this year, so I got him a racket and we practiced a little. He's not very patient when it comes to his progress, however. I'm not very patient when he's not very patient. I think he's probably too young for formal tennis lessons, but I don't know. I guess I should ask around. Something I love to do with him is read. We listen to books on tape in the car (his favorites: "Frindle" and "Charlotte's Web"... We just finished "The Whipping Boy" which he liked and just started the first in the Series of Unfortunate Events which he finds funny [particularly when the baby, Sunny, "talks"]), I read to him every night (a chapter from a chapter book [right now, "The BFG"], and two picture books [any two he picks from his extensive library]), and I read in his classroom. Reading in his classroom started 3 years ago, almost by accident. I'll be starting it up again here in just a few weeks, so I need to hit the library. I'll probably do Halloween-related books to begin with, since it will already be the middle of October when I begin. MMMmmmaybe I'll wait until week 2 for those, though. There are something like 13 new kids in the class (it's a Montessori classroom with 3-through-6 year olds in it) and I don't want to scare them with a monster book before they get to know me! :) My son and I also like to go on walks and do art projects. He plays T-ball and a little soccer and wants to be a Power Ranger for Halloween this year. He has begun reading and is good at math and is a real charmer. Very polite and innocent and funny.

My son is with his mom this weekend, so now's the time to really kick it with the Master's Project and the Sound Design work. I'd really love to emerge from this weekend with some solid progress in both those areas. I don't have work tomorrow (but I'll be going in for a couple of hourse), so hopefully I can get to the gym (Spinning at 9:30 AM? I don't know... it's already 1 AM and I'm still going!), then to work, then get some of my stuff done before taking in a show (a friend of mine directed a play that opens tomorrow night). You know what would be interesting... I have season passes to the zoo. I could take my laptop down there and work on my thesis among the animals! Ahhh... I'd probably do too much people-watching. Still, it would be nice to find a place out of the house to work on it... Maybe the library. If I do it at the downtown branch, then I'll be close to the theatre and I could take in a meal some place nice.

I'll let you know.