jonathanhickman.com

I did it!

We’ve been having trouble lately with the printer at the office. I sat down on Monday and worked on the network, and I thought I did some good.

After lunch today, I wandered through the boss’s office and said “the printer seems to be working better!” It hasn’t printed a thing since then.

After moving to our new house, we’ve had continual problems with the two dogs. Essentially, they lost their housetraining. And I’m not going to point out how they’ve been doing better lately, too….

I love winter, but

I am a huge fan of cold weather. I love it. I love putting on a coat on a cold day. I love the feeling of warming up. I love a good hat to warm my head. I love cold sheets slowly warming. I love a good fire in the fireplace. I love not sweating.

But I have to say, I’m quite happy having opened the windows at the office today, even though I won’t get my fire tonight.

And now that I’m a homeowner, I love not paying winter utility bills, too!

Note to self

Note to self: get better at talking to clients, and do it SOON.

Failing a test

I found this via NiT (love the new digs!) - how to tell if you’re colorblind.

I think colorblind tests are all kinds of fun. When I was in elementary school, they’d send the “vision van” around to the schools to see if you needed glasses. I never did. But they also gave a colorblind test.

I’ll never forget breaking down crying because I couldn’t figure out what they were asking. They said I should see a number in the dots, and I thought I was stupid or maybe even misbehaving because I “should” have seen a number but didn’t. After giving me a tissue, the nice people at the vision van sent me back to class.

I can only assume they thought I was confused and young instead of colorblind. I never can see the numbers you’re supposed to be able to see.

Go try it yourself. It’s fun. And if you find yourself to be colorblind, like me, you can have a good excuse for not knowing what colors to paint your house or what shirt to wear to dinner.

And by the way, if you’re not colorblind, you should see a boat in the picture to the right. If you see nothing, you’re likely colorblind.

If you see something else altogether, you probably need a vacation.

Currently reading

(Can you tell that some people went to the bookstore last night?)

And on a lighter note

link

Future parent “advice”

You can’t really prepare for most things in life. No one is ready for death. No one is really ready for marriage or for school to start. You can’t really prepare for life’s biggest changes, positive or negative (why can’t I think of any more positive examples?). To say that you’re “preparing” to have a child is really to say that you’re buying diapers, thinking of names, and rubbing your wife’s feet.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t really get anything useful out of “your life will change!” or “sleep now while you can!”

I know this time next year I’ll be wanting more sleep, but how does that help me now? Should I lie in bed on Saturday morning thinking “ah, I won’t have this next year!” or should I be joyful when the alarm goes off at six every day because at least I got my seven hours of sleep?

Nope and nope.

As Katie said, people seem bent on giving me “advice” about the upcoming (Labor Dayish) birth, but I don’t think it even qualifies as “advice.”

Here’s what I think: you can prepare for buying a car. You can prepare for a test. You can prepare for the birth by taking classes and bringing a new child home by getting diapers and baby clothes. But you can’t actually prepare for the child.

And why would you want to?

Ouch!

I’m still feeling unmotivated today. Since I forgot my to bring food this morning, I decided to knock some sense into myself by getting the spiciest wings I could find for lunch.

But I forgot how dry and cracked my skin is, and now my fingers are burning.

Ouch!

Thanks to my theme author!

I updated my theme tonight. You probably can’t tell, because I’ve been running the beta for a while and because the improvements were subtle anyway, for the most part.

I just wanted to say thanks to the theme author, Scott at plaintext.org. I’m a fan of minimalism in blog themes, and he is the master of it. All of his themes are worth looking into.

Anyway, thanks, Scott!

Unmotivated

I’m trying to work at home today, but I’m feeling completely unmotivated. I was just telling a friend that all I feel like doing is having a hot cup of tea and staring out the window. Then at some point I’d like to switch to beer.

Yep. Sounds about right.

Don’t be going through my stuff!

Since moving in with the Granju clan, I’ve struggled over how to maintain a few areas that are “mine.” I’ve finally settled on a few places I want to myself: my closet, the drawers in my desk and bedside table, and my toothbrush - which isn’t technically a “place” but is something I want left alone.

But I’ve got to work on a better way of telling the kids about my private spaces. This morning, when E was looking for my swiss army knife, what was my lame response?

“Don’t be going through my stuff!”