One of my co-workers just came back from a three week vacation. It was nice to see him again and have him around to share in the load. But aside from that, I watched today as the rest of our team rallied around him to listen to him talk about his wonderful trip across the pond. It was so much fun to hear his tales and even more fun to watch the morale of the team lift up. The meetups were impromptu and always accompanies laughter and wide eyed participation. In between the short bursts of social interaction, the team took on new challenges and found quite unique and effective solutions to complex projects. All without knowing how well they were doing.

Iceland

photo credit: randystoreyphotography

He enjoyed his vacation and came back refreshed and ready to face the world. His experiences livened up our day and the group accomplished a whole bunch of goals without even knowing how productive they had been. A boon in so many ways.

My dad has been ill as of late. He had an infection, which led to persistent fever at night and general malaise. We first eliminated any serious illness through the ER and now he is taking some heavy antibiotics, courtesy of an emergency clinic and a fine doctor, to get rid of whatever has been plaguing him.

Get Well Soon

photo credit: Genista

Just the fact that he is taking good medication and he is slowly on his way to getting better makes me feel somewhat light hearted and happy about the day. I hope he gets better very soon but I want him to continue to feel full and energy and vigor.

I love you Baba and I hate to see you unhappy.

Do you ever have those days when time flies so fast that you do not have time to think? Today was one such day. Actually yesterday was one such day and I finally had the chance to start thinking again today. Well it felt good. Kind of like when I feel after a grueling two hour bike ride or after taking a long and relaxing shower. I am not sure what it is about being busy doing things you like, but it makes me happy and content. As if life stops around you.

This is the beginning of a long weekend. I like long weekends but they get boring without too much activity and I get antsy when I am not up and about. I hope to spend some time playing with Lucien, enjoying a couple of really long rides along the back roads (working my way up to 20 miles per ride) and spending some time with Jennifer and my parents. Here is to the end of this summer and a quick jump over to the next one.

Summers!

photo credit: ?ick Harris

Speaking of summers, I think this has been one of the best summers I have ever had. I cannot stop thinking about how much fun I have had with Lucien, of finally being able to take up bike riding and spending some time with family. Sounds like a broken record? Those three things just happen to be my “life fuel”. I enjoy those more than anything else in the world at this point in my life. So I try to do them as much as I can, while I can. Self serving and recharging as they may be, I am collecting all my wits about me, learning how to keep them about me while I forge ahead with as much steam as I can.

“Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!”
- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

I had a small heart to heart with a co-worker today. It was not a review, not a criticism, not an admonition, but just a little feedback from what I had observed of him. I was not chastising him for anything and I made sure that my tone was even and I took the time to explain exactly what I had observed and what it should mean to him. I also took the time to explain that it had absolutely nothing to do with the conversation that led us to the more private conversation and that I was willing to listen to any feedback he would have for me.

It was such a pleasure to just have a nice give and take of what made me feel good about the person and his behavior. To provide what I consider to be valid feedback and re-enforcement of core values that are successful for the individual in a non threatening and usable format, is not something I can practice all the time. Strangely, it also led to a quite private yet quite enriching conversation about our strengths and weaknesses and how we can use them to our advantage. I made the mistake of talking more than listening and I have made a mental note to reverse that trend in our next conversation.

It was a real nice feeling to see a plan come together today and produce excitement and happiness. We had a project, that was put together by my team, come together beautifully. A lot of hard work, planning, cajoling, restructuring and refactoring had gone into this project and to see the launch be a non-event was very heartening. To make things even better, when I logged into the website and started using it, it felt right. The look is modern, the data is interesting and the concept comes together and holds its own.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Well, not really. The reference is to a Lonely Island song that has become a mantra at work for the past few weeks. You see, a co-worker is off tonight on a 20 or so day cruise across the Baltic Sea. He is going to fly to Iceland and then take a boat across the sea, visiting St. Petersburg, Germany, Iceland and a few other countries surrounding the sea. My parents and I had traveled across “the continent” when I was very young and I have always had pleasant memories of the trip.

Sunset Cruise

photo credit: ecstaticist

I have been looking forward to taking the trip vicariously through the eyes of my co-worker. Today we spent quite a bit of time going over what he was the most excited about. He talked about a Spanish Galion he wants to visit, a few museums, some fun places to eat that we have all heard about and go for excursions on every port that the ships docks into. What a fun time it should be! I hope he takes a lot of pictures for all of us.

So, Happy Travels Amigo!

As a ritual at work, we go out to lunch with a bunch of friends from work. Many weeks are too full of meetings and minutiae to actually make the lunch possible but it is a time of the week that I look forward to. Today was no exception.

Just being able to sit and talk with like minded people, facing similar happenstance at work and at home, makes for a very enjoyable time. We went to the Star Diner on Glendale today. I like to order their fish sandwich. It is a large meal with a lot of fish, nice serving of tartar sauce and thin cut fries. I cannot speak for the rest of the crew, but I hope we never stop doing this as long as we work for this company.

We bitch about our co-workers, about taxes, cost of living, political snafus, current events in the world and at work and talk about a host of other things at these lunches and but they are almost always jovial and leave a sense of satisfaction. The food and the service are mildly important, but I think the company makes it all worthwhile.

So yesterday my coworker, who has a girlfriend who loves to cook for her beau, brought in a large tub of bean dip for us to share. Boy did it hit the spot. I remember thinking that the bean dip tasted very mild and fresh but also thinking that the garlic taste and the slightly gritty texture was very attractive. He told me that there was no hummus in this bean dip but the more I think about it, the more I think it would taste very nice. The sour cream taste along with the taco seasoning and the mild garlic and onion taste really made the morning.

We did run out of chips but what a great way to start a day!

Since I own this watch (and love it so much), this is for my personal reference. The graphic is from Citizen Watches and copyright to them.

How to set time on Citizen Men’s Eco-Drive Calibre 9000 Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar Watch

So I upgraded my phone as soon as 2.2 was available. I downloaded over WiFi and 3G, about 86MB, took about fifteen minutes for the whole process to be completed. I

also upgraded my wife’s phone in the process.

Now for the good:

• The phone seems zippier, screen changes appear faster, applications open quicker
• I have gone back to using the Android browser from Dolphin HD because the Android browser seems faster and now has flash support. I dutifully tried the flash player on fox.com and it played the clip just fine. It was a little choppy but nothing that concerned me. The browser speed is definitely improved and pages load quicker than before.
• The flashlight application is fun but I had an alternative that I removed. It is nice to be able to use the flash to take videos now and interesting that the camera interface rotates with the phone, always showing the right side up.
• I like the ability to move applications to the SD card but was disappointed that only certain applications can be moved. I moved as many as I was not using too often and have not cared to check for how fast or slow they run. As long I can install more apps, I am fine with putting the lesser used apps on the SD card. I have lots of space.
• The Profile widget, the Ringtone widget and the SMS widget are interesting but useless to me. I bought an app called profile that gave me blackberry like control over the ringer profiles that I needed. It works well enough.
• App sharing is weird but I guess it could be useful. I have not tried it.
• The SMS application now touts the ability to attach media to make them into an MMS (I am guessing) and that is a feature that I might use in the future.
• Update All in the Applications Market is there in this install and much appreciated! This was a pain in the butt!
• Every other application that I have installed on the phone, including our beloved Internet Camera browsing apps, are working as usual.
• Memory usage was higher out of the gate for 2.2, but the phone now eats less memory as time progresses since last restart. I still have the same amount of memory free that I had when I restarted after the update last night.
• Last but not the least, the battery usage seems to be lower than before although it is not that pronounced. As I write this at 7:00 PM my battery meter reads 66%, which is pretty normal but slightly on the high side. I don’t think battery usage will change much for me.

Android 2.2 Froyo

Now for the bad:

• It really was a kind of let down because the update did nothing spectacular. The phone was already very stable for me and my wife (knock on wood) and though this update might have made marginal improvements on a variety of things, nothing quite stuck out for me.
• There were supposed to be “interface improvements” that I have yet to notice. I was hoping for a different interface experience, especially considering this is probably the last major Android update the EVO will see before EOL.
• The mail application still sucks in spite of the polish! Why is a “mark all read” feature sodifficult to write? Blackberry switchers really miss that feature.
• Group chat for Google Chat? Hello? Anyone? This would be a KILLER feature for me.

Anything else about Android 2.2 Froyo on the HTC EVO 4G that caught your attention? Did I miss anything cool?