Overholidayification(yes, I made it up)

 or How I grew to loath the run up to the holiday season


I include Valentine's Day and any other day that has marketability in this title, but the big ones at the end of the year are the target of my ire at the moment. First, let me be clear. I LOVE Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would love them even more if the musical artists, stores and any other venue that can make a buck from the season would just SHUT and let me. No! I don't want to hear Christmas music before Halloween. No! I don't even want to hear it before Thanksgiving, and I would REALLY appreciate not hearing it until a bit closer to the time. YES, dear sweet musician, I AM excited that you sang the same old Christmas music in new and exciting ways for you new album, but please listen to this: I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT UNTIL IT IS RELEVANT!!!! *pant* *pant* *smile*

Stores, you don't get off so easy. I can turn the radio off or listen to my mp3 player. I can NOT avoid your holiday exhibits of 'things-that-never-happen-at-my-house-or-any-other-I-have-ever-seen-or-heard-of' as I attempt to find and purchase my essential items. Grocery stores, I'm looking at you too. If I buy it now, then I will have to cook it well before even Thanksgiving. Please, hold on to it until I need it. THEN you can advertise it until I hate it.

Clothing stores and websites, if you show me one more Christmas themed article of clothing I couldn't care less about, I swear, I will sew my own clothing from now on out of Chuck Wendig's beard clippings while living in a cave I dug myself with the remains of your server or window hangers.

In summary, if you are one of those entities that absolutely MUST start advertising your black friday sales or dresses your windows before I have even decided on my Halloween outfit, OR begin playing carols and hanging holly.... Then I  hate you with a loathing that borderd on the psychotic. YOU are what is making me hate the holiday, and I can guarrantee that the hatred I begin freeling for my favorite time of year only pales in comparison to the hatred I feel for those creating that situation. Please consider this into your plans as you go about making others as insane or more so than I.

If you are one of those people who puts up decorations the day of or the day after Thanksgiving, then I love you. I have to, you are my family. At least you waited until it was more appropriate.

Everybody else, do yourself and your friends a favor. No matter how much you love the season and want to share it with others, please DON'T. You create more monsters than you could ever cast out in normally pleasant and proper citizens. The zombie apocalypse needs to be put off as long as possible. DO YOUR PART!

~Nearly-zombie JFo

The woe of burnout...

I agree with the friends (wonderful that they are) who have indicated that I am exhibiting various stages of advanced burnout. They are right, of course. I don't think I ever completely got out of the burnout that I had as a result of working at the giant cesspit.

I have a ton of great things kicking off to, hopefully, address this and get me back into the manner to which I am known. My buddy Matt and I are training with a fight trainer to cut tons of fat and get us on a good diet and exercise regimen. I'm really excited about that. Matt is a fighter. I want to train as a fighter. Win/win ;-). I'm headed to Wilmington for what I hope is the first of a series of visits aimed at 'getting some ink done'. I'm excited about that too.

Carlota wants me to visit in California (How can I say no to her? I can't, that's how. ;-)). This has many benefits. 1) I miss the Carlota. 2) Lots of friends live in the SF/SJ area and I miss them too. 3) Jono lives in SF and I need to meet Mrs. Bacon. 4) This is a perfect opportunity to scout for the Graner invasion that Jono and I need to plan. 5) I miss the Carlota... :-P So I guess you could say that, just on those items alone, I really need to get out there. (Tedo, get ready!)

My buddy Mike is brewing beer in Philly. He wants me to head up and partake, and I miss him and James and their wives and families. I've been very slack in my travel to see folks, and I hope to correct that. I'd also really like to head back to Dadeville, AL and visit my family.

I hope all of those trips become possible. I vow to do everything in my power to see that they do! (or Carlota will spork me :-/)

UDS is in Budapest, and I love the planning and sessions as well as the party on Friday night. I always look forward to these big events with all of my friends and acquaintances and this one looks to be just as awesome as all of the others have been. As an aside, I am thinking of standing up a site to crowdsource the DJ setlists I build for these events. I may not get it done this UDS, but I'd love to get it going fro the next one. :-) More on that later.

In summary, there are too many good things happening for me to remain in this funk. I have a lot of things to get on track and an equal portion of items to kick off. I don't have time to be down! To those who should be in the areas I plan to be in, I look forward to seeing you! If you will be at UDS, look me up. I'll be one of the long-haired fellas running around with musical instruments.

~JFo

Previous post title got me thinking...

Being a teleworker or a telecommuter is a great thing. I can show up for work in my PJs or I can sit on the porch, in the hammock... There are a number of benefits to working from home, but there are also many drawbacks. Many of them a product of not setting rules to work by.

Many people try to keep our attention on burnout, or to use a friend's label "Volunteer Vertigo", but most of the time a simple set of rules would keep us from being affected. I'd like to share some that I use, and I am interested in what you have to add.

1) Set up a 'workspace'.
For me, this is as simple as the table I use for my laptop in my office.

2) Make the rule that nothing other than work will go on in this 'workspace'
Sounds easy, right? Well, it isn't. Something as simple as reading your snail mail in your 'workspace' can undermine the rule. This is a difficult one for me to follow through on. I've begun going so far as to get up from the workspace and walking away when the phone rings. It gives me the chance to keep my mind focused.

3)Ensure that you set work hours.
Most important rule, and most likely to be seen as flexible. In IT it is easy for us to get blinders when we are working on something we enjoy. We lose track of time. This has the side-effect of causing us to begin to dislike what we once loved. I consider this rule one of the most important, if not THE most important.


There are many other little rules that I have, but I think I will stop there for now. I may continue in a later post and cover things like "recreational surfing must be done somewhere other than your chosen workspace." Also very important, however, I think the ones above are the keystones. If you can achieve those, then the rest are up to you.

Let me know what you do to keep from working all hours. :-)

~JFo