From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., boxers from Detroit’s famed Kronk gym duke it out and Mexican masked wrestlers, Revolucha, hit the mat in a ring taking center stage in Prentis Court. Ann Arbor’s The Bang! provides the backdrop with a dance party adventure mixing everything from rock’n’roll to ‘60s soul, from BritPop to HipHop.
I’m thinking of getting a plug-in or hacking up some OpenID integration for comment posting on this site. On the surface it seems to really do what I want. I am so anti the idea of having a unique registration here, or even the idea of a unique “blog-centric” identity management solution. Something like OpenID sits with me really well since it’s very generic.
My sister Niku had her commencement ceremonies recently and in between feeling very proud of my sister for getting her degree in Microbiology I found myself reflecting a bit on my own accomplishments as well as the areas that I could do more. Objective self-evaluation can be a tough thing to do right and it’s something that I always strive to be better at. While thinking about this I started to try and come up with some of the core qualities that help successful people reach their goals.
There are a lot of different qualities that a person needs to embody to attain their goals. Of course, a big part of it is what the goals are. But I think that there are also some common traits that are perhaps the foundation of success. I was able to come up with the following: knowing how to plan properly, being persistent and being patient. (Note that they all start with the letter P, which is just a lucky coincidence.) My list probably isn’t exhaustive, but these seem like some of the most critical general traits.
To begin with, planning seems like an obvious one. If someone is not able to actually figure out what his or her goals are, how can that person possible accomplish anything? Past that she need to be able to reason out what the steps are to reaching a specific goal and then to be able to map out the steps for each of those subgoals. Being able to plan for a variety of circumstances is pretty critical too.
Persistence doesn’t really require much explanation. Simply put once the plan is laid out a certain level of drive is required to stick with it. Depending on how difficult the goal is a little more persistence might be required.
The last one is the most important one I think. Patience might seem a little odd coming after a trait that might seem at odds with it, but I actually feel they go together quite well. First, a person needs to be patient with themselves. Not complacent or making excuses; that’s quite a bit different. Patience is the trait that lets someone persistently execute his or her plan in an effective manner. Without patience emotion can take over and in my experience an over-emotional response won’t help at all.
On that note, if I had to throw in a runner up I’d say passion. Funny… That starts with the letter P as well.
Last night I found this thing I wrote a few years back. Please note that it’s not intended to be taken seriously, just something goofy I came up with for my own amusement.
Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy level of a quantum mechanical system like a particle in a box. The kinetic energy of the system may be zero if the velocity of the particle is zero. However the uncertainty principle implies that if the velocity of the particle is measured with certainty to be exactly zero, then the position of the particle is infinite. This either means that the particle isn’t necessarily in the box (which violates the rules of the experiment) or that there is a new type of potential energy in the box. Since science doesn’t want to get into anything like that it is simply said that the velocity of the particle can never be exactly zero.
My office here at work could easily be considered a box and yet I have a zero energy level most of the time. Since my velocity is exactly zero then I must infer that either I am hallucinating and am not actually in my office at all, or that I am a perpetual motion machine, tapping the infinite energy of sitting absolutely still.
Sometimes I think about how much of my brain is being used to remember and automatically avoid the significant potholes and other road dangers all too common here. It concerns me. If the roads were smoother here I probably would have figured out the meaning of life at this point.
I ordered a CME VX6 keyboard controller last Friday. On paper it looked like an excellent controller. I was able to get one for $750, which definitely isn’t cheap, but it had the right mix of features that I was looking for without much extra. To get that same blend you typically need to go into the much more expensive full keyboard workstations, so this seemed like a good compromise.
However, when I picked it up yesterday from the shipping depot and brought it home I had a bit of a nasty surprise. The thing was built like absolute shit. To start with, it just felt very cheap. The controls and inputs were all pretty “meh” in my opinion. Rough edges on some of the plastic parts, knobs feeling fairly gritty (not smooth) and cheap feeling button switches sealed. Definitely not what I would consider pro-audio level.
Worse yet however, many (I’m talking just about a dozen) of the keys had their weights on the underside coming unglued! Most were hanging down, partly glued to the key. Others had somehow found their way into the keyboard itself and were scraping around in there, banging into electronics as I moved the keyboard out of the box. On top of this the keys that did have their weights in place properly just felt bad. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a really top of the line key action, but this was pretty awful. The worst thing was that it was just inconsistent. A few keys felt pretty good while others were just really soft and had no bounce to them.
I can’t comment on how the software worked or how it performed as a controller because I had seen enough. Poor fit and finish and a defective keyboard… There’s no way that is acceptable for a controller that expensive. I’ll be sending it back for a full refund. I don’t know about the rest of CME’s stuff, but honestly I won’t be bothering to find out. You’ve been warned.
I guess I’ll just save up my money for a Korg M3 or something…
I just realized that my “work” tag is currently out pacing my other tags. It’s interesting but I’ve started to use the tagging as a tool for me to gauge what I’m writing about most and it’s clear I need to change things up a bit more.
I wonder if I should go back and retroactively tag my older posts… That sounds like a job for a Sunday when I’m really bored.
My boss just presented me with my corporate mark of honor for one year of employment. Normally things like this don’t really mean a ton to me, but this one does. I found a place of employment that - while it can definitely feel like work some days - I really do enjoy. I also feel that professionally I’ve grown a considerable amount and can say that I really feel for the first time since after college that I’m at a place that I can really develop a career at, not just do my job. That’s a pretty good feeling.
Talk about a whirlwind of a year though.
I actually have another post coming that touches on some of this in a little more detail, but I wanted to put this out there while it was fresh in my mind.
I love mangoes and eat them often. This morning, I thought Wouldn’t it be great if I ate a mango at work? As it turns out, it was great. However, I have learned some valuable information about the process and so I thought I’d provide this helpful guide on how to eat them properly while in your cube at work.
Lay out a napkin or a tissue or something else completely inadequate to absorb the juice you are about to subject it to.
Place mango on napkin; realize simultaneously you did not bring a knife or other sharp instrument with you.
Check kitchen for knife; find nothing.
Find pair of new scissors with office supplies.
Use wide open scissors to cut around the mango along its length; cut similarly around the center, dividing it into quarters.
Use edge of scissors to peel back skin on one of the sections.
Attempt to chisel away as much mango as possible from the pit on the skinless section.
Eventually give up and simply bite at mango flesh.
Continue like this, eating the other section until you realize you’re late for a meeting.
Upon returning from the meeting continue to peel, chisel and devour mango.
When done feasting upon the mango walk - somewhat ashamed - with hands and scissors covered in juice to the kitchen area; clean up face and hands.
Return to your cube and realize that during the meeting the napkin fused with the desk.
Use scissors to scrape mango infused napkin from desk.
