October 2006 Archives

Back on August 18th, I posted about how I’d finally gotten down to zero messages. By August 21st, I’d actually cleared out my paper inbox as well, and actually went home from work early because I really didn’t have anything to do other than future project stuff.

That certainly didn’t last long. A variety of things exploded on August 23rd, and I’ve been back to playing catch-up since then. I’ve started coming up for air, though, which is kind of nice. My office is once again fairly close to being as clean as it was in mid-August, I only have 10 messages in my Inbox (one of which is dated August 22nd… ack!), and my paper inbox only has stuff from this week plus one bill from last week that I’m waiting on paying until closer to its due date. All are barometers for how I’m doing, even if it’s not a complete correlation to what’s going on inside the Deef.

And Christine and I raked/mowed leaves last night, which is a pretty good indicator as well. Sure, we had the messiest lawn in the neighborhood, but I definitely would’ve waited until all of the leaves were down if I was still feeling buried in other to-dos (lawncare is not a passion of mine, to put it mildly). Past years are clear verifiers of that.

Of the remaining E-Mails, I’m probably just going to delete two of them, one is Canada-business-related, five are customer web site-related (eep), one is waiting for me to decide if I really want to go to a particular conference (gathering data), and one is a reminder to buy a projector screen for Dartmouth’s CCC group (in process). If you’re wondering, I never was much into using separate to-do lists (that’s why my Inbox exists).

Now, if only each of those E-Mails wasn’t going to require at least an hour’s attention, with a couple probably requiring a full day… Oh well. One at a time, starting tomorrow morning. If I can provision my new server tonight with Apache, PHP, and replicated PostgreSQL (or at least two of the three), even better.

And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:1-3)

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And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. (1 Samuel 15:7-9)

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And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “…I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” (1 Samuel 15:13-15)

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And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22)

But look at what happens seven chapters later, and especially the similar wording:

And [Saul] the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech [the priest], you and all your father’s house.” … And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword. (1 Samuel 22:16,19)

Saul had been rejected by God, and he certainly brought about his own fall in trying to protect himself from David, who wasn’t even hunting him. Whoever wrote 1 Samuel clearly knew it, and the choice of wording only emphasizes how far Saul had gone.

This is officially the strangest font name I have ever seen: Gorilla Milkshake

Statistically speaking, 42% of my work comes in either over the weekend or on Monday, and since I tend to take weekends more or less off, that makes for busy Mondays.

Outside of work, I do some volunteer work with Campus Crusade for Christ at Dartmouth (a.k.a. Christian Impact). In the past, that’s mostly been through working directly with the staff rather than students, except when the staff weren’t around and something exploded. For a variety of reasons, this year I’m interacting more with students and less with staff, and decided that rather than spending an hour or two on campus here and there over the course of the week, I’d spend a full evening on campus one day a week, and hopefully get more face time with people (and spend less time driving).

Also, for a variety of reasons, the best day ended up being Monday, and for still more reasons, it’s starting at 3:00 rather than 5:30 or 6:00 (with 5:00 being my normal time to drop off the day’s work at the post office).

Which, on the sum, makes Mondays insane, since I’m effectively doing 42% of my work week in half a day. Or not, as the case may be, and then playing catch-up for the rest of the week.

Which is why there haven’t been any posts here since last Sunday.

Next term, I’m thinking Thursday is the day I’ll be spending the evening on campus if I have my druthers and keep the same setup. Only 16% of my work comes in on Thursdays…