All I Want Is A Normal Life

This morning, while I was talking on the phone to my friend, Rob, I got busted for talking and driving! YES! I was talking on the cell phone without a bluetoof or anything. Just on the phone. Out in public. On the road.

It’s notable that this is my FIRST TICKET EVER. Yep, I’m 33 years old and have never had a ticket. But this new cell phone law has me by the short hairs. See, I use the time when I’m in the car to take care of business and friendships and my family. It’s a very productive time! And I absolutely can’t stand those bluetoof things. They make people look like lunatics. And they’re rude. Seriously rude. I never know if someone is talking to me or carrying on some dialog with a voice in their head. Just watching people drive around with those on when they’re not even talking on them… ugh. It’s horrible.

Anyway, it was a completely deserved ticket. I broke the law and I knew what I was doing. I was completely conscious of my lawbreaking. And it’s only a $20 ticket, so it’s not completely catastrophic. And the officer was totally nice about it. He even told me that since they passed the law, traffic incidents have gone down 20%! Imagine if we outlawed putting on makeup in the car… or, heck, even READING in the car! (yes, I’ve seen it) We could have an incident-free society!

I’m ramping up my bike activity by biking to the doctor’s office for lunch today. I’m getting a Hepatitis vaccine! Did you even know they had those? Apparently, they’re required for all kids entering school these days, but I wouldn’t know much about that.

Ok, admittedly, it’s my own group’s doing. But I love it.

Check this shit out.

While I was standing in Trimana yesterday waiting for my chicken noodle soup (my last non-vegan meal before I give my vegan friends the wedding present of going vegan for 2 weeks… TWO WEEKS!), I noticed on their TV monitor ad thingie that it was National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Back in 2004, I decided to embark on the insane mission of completing National Novel Writing Month (175 pages of breakneck writing in November). I got about 3/4 through the month and about 100 pages of the most awful tripe I’ve ever put out, let alone re-read.

It was painful. Terrible. And the story… was… the… worst. — Not to mention that I had no life and no self esteem for one whole month.

So when I saw the rotating ad placement, I got all optimistic (who wouldn’t?!). I thought maybe I could go ahead and start late and catch up… I mean, it’s only the 7th, which would leave me only a little bit behind. No sweat, right? Oh gimme a break. I’ll never do the AIDS Lifecycle again and I’m definitely not writing another crappy, unfinished novel in a month. Side note: I take on these insane, behemoth, marathon-style projects. Sometimes I finish them and sometimes I don’t.

Instead of doing the stupid NaNoWriMo again (hey, I still have the t-shirt), I’m going to do NaBloWriMo. Yes, I’m going to write at least ONE blog entry every day this month. It’s not an insane task. It’s totally do-able.

Welcome to NaBloWriMo. I’m sure I’ll make some t-shirts or something. Oh look, I already made one.

Splat directed me to a very fine website that gives the simplest weather report ever. I’ve subscribed so it sends my phone a text message every morning at 7:00, which is right about the time I already know if I need an umbrella (because I’m usually sitting outside enjoying coffee). So maybe it’s not all useful, but at least it’s a bit of fun and I can write about it on my blog.

Umbrella Today

This just popped into my inbox:

subject: brain scans, no waiting!
Hello all -
Please join us as we check out a technology that allows our brains to be scanned for “engagement” in response to anything we want to test. Advertisements, shows, games, special fx, bring whatever you want this interesting insight into, and we will strap ourselves in and give you some subconscious feedback.

At Sands Research, an El Paso, Texas-based company, scientists-turned-marketers are monitoring the brain activity of individuals in a lab setting to determine which television and print advertisements spark interest — and which fall flat.

“There’s a whole lot of science behind the process, but basically we can quickly give marketers feedback on whether an ad will click with consumers, at what point a commercial begins to generate a response and how long that engagement is sustained,” says company founder Stephen Sands. “We measure engagement.”

This technology is not new, but this mobile unit that allows for quick testing is, and may be of interest to you for research, marketing testing, or anything else you can think of. Bring your friends, and bring your brains.

www.sandsresearch.com

I don’t think I have to tell you how ABSOLUTELY RAD this is. Just take FIVE minutes and evaluate the possibilities for this… no… that’s too long. Remember the mood knob from only a few days ago? This is like the mood knob, but involuntary, which makes it sinister and dark in the same way that the mood knob was friendly and filled with sunshine. Perhaps this mind-reading machine would say that you find engagement from things that you’d rather no one knew you found engaging (blow up dolls and creepy cartoon characters are mine) or you’d become aware of engaging things that aren’t healthy for you to be engaged with… but are drawn towards (17 year olds, in my case).

My evil marketing brain is working overtime on this one.

It’s weird. I was pondering changing positions to Project Manager at work, since we have an opening over there and I’m not bad at it. My work as Community and Content Manager is awesome, but I’ve streamlined stuff enough that it doesn’t require my constant maintenance, and we’ve pretty much stopped developing community stuff because of lack of resources, so I find myself just kind of checking up on the processes and stuff that I have implemented. I guess I could be more hands-on with those things, and I guess I’ll start up with that tomorrow. I hope I don’t annoy everyone in the process.

But that leads into a bigger career decision… do I want to change career paths? I love what I do right now… LOVE it! For the first time in my life, I’m actually totally satisfied with my work and my job. So, what’s my problem? Why do I have next-best-thing syndrome? Should I be focused on career growth or looking like a super hero in my current position?

I guess I think I know the answer (gee thanks, blog): in my position, I work on a lot of projects and plans that will probably never be implemented. I write specs for things that will probably never be built for features that people request, but may never see. It’s frustrating to do it and to feel like I’m not really part of the committee who decides what gets cut and what makes it in. I think I may be looking for meaning in my job — a feeling that something I do makes a difference and launches. These things have kind of been lacking recently, so I may naturally be looking on to other places I can make a difference. But I think every workplace has parts that are frustrating and take forever to implement, but while I’m waiting, I can write stuff and plan stuff within my control. And just try not to get bored.

And to make this post remotely amusing, I found you a nice Sesame Street clip that ties it all up in a funny little bow:

Ok. kinda geeky:

In case you missed the original post, it’s here: omg the large super-collider is going to destroy the earth.

“If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.”
– Peter Ustinov

That came in from my iGoogle quote feed this morning. It sure sounded applicable!

For updates, click here: Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the earth yet?