I worked from home today.

My wife and son were sick and I asked if we could rearrange the reference desk shifts so I could do my fair share first thing in the morning and then go home to watch and take care of the kid's sicky needs, and let my wife sleep and get better (and get her things as she needed them - she didn't), and at the same time, get as much done from work as I needed to do at least for tomorrow.

It actually turned out well because, although I was watching my little 4 year old son in the living room, and he has a tendency to get up and raise hell even when he's sick, he was pretty tuckered out and managed to sleep for several hours, during which I got quite a bit done. Excellent.

But the whole affair brought back how much I wish I had a good workspace: office, writing room, home library, inner sanctum, fortress of solitude, Batcave, happy place... whatever you want to call it. And subscribing to Lifehacker doesn't help. They're always writing stuff about how some reader or whoever has created the perfect unique workspace: built their own standing desk, turned a unused corner into a haven for something needing a haven, or whatnot. I don't have anything like that. And I wish I did.

We have a basement... which is actually not as bad as it sounds, despite it being pretty bad. We live in a small backsplit house and so a good third of the house is a half a storey below the ground floor. It's semi-finished (meaning it's got temporary carpeting and fake wood panelling all over it - I think Dennis Leary's dad lived here) but it's not enough and there's no privacy or soundproofing or coolness.

It's got to be cool. You've got to have a space you like to be in, that you're proud of, that you want to spend time in.

Maybe the next house. Hmmm...

Labels: aboutHealth, aboutHousing, aboutWork

Given all the companies and institutions that have an online presence, the length of time we've all had to trial-and-error our way through attempt after attempt, and the extensive research and study into how people scan text, process information and solve problems, it actually is kinda surprising how many bad interfaces there are out there. Perhaps it's all intentional, just as the Pointy-Haired Boss prophesied!

Labels: funny, internet

I'm going to reveal myself as not a "true man" but I do not like sports. I don't memorize stats, I don't monopolize the TV on Super Bowl Sunday, I don't care who got traded to where, and I didn't catch the game last night! Gawd! lol I know... And, coupled with the fact that I'm not that fond of beer, you're probably all asking yourself how I know I'm a man? Well I do like breasts and I like holding the remote, so I'm either a man, or a lesbian with control issues. lol

But, even with my bias against sports, I think it's reasonable for my objection to the classification of sports "news" as news. Sports information, regardless of what point we're at in the season is NOT news. Everytime I listen to CBC radio in the morning, the information that I like to hear and learn about is regularly being interrupted by sports details! A sport is a game. Nothing more. It is not going to affect your life unless you are on the team or have wagered money on the outcome of one. A game. That's all. What about other games-related news? Why don't they tell me how Jeb and Al did in their checker game on the porch last night? Or how the raid on Orgrimar went down on Earthen Ring? (World of Warcraft reference.) Or how Parker Bros. is changing the game of Monopoly? (Ok, that last one may have investment relevance.)

I wouldn't mind as much if they had other "news" on as much. Tell me about the new movies released or new albums recorded as often as how the Leafs did, and I'll shut up. But no. Entertainment news covers the whole of the entertainment world EXCEPT sports entertainment. That's what sports is. Entertainment. Unless you're a player. Then it's exercise.

But I'm probably all alone in this. Even the female librarians (that's almost redundant) talk more about sports than I do, so they probably have no problem with sports as news. Bah!

Labels: thoughts

So I've been ill the past couple days... Made it back to work today but it's always difficult for me: both taking sick days and coming back. Not because I'm not sure whether I'm sick or that after being sick I don't want to go back to work. I like my job. I like going to work. (I don't know any librarian that doesn't, of course.) But when I start feeling under the weather, I'm never sure of the exact moment when I'm too ill to work. I could probably work through almost anything, and, I hate to admit it, I have. On this end of the problem, I have slowly come to the realization that I'm more valuable at home than at work if I'm at all contagious... duh.

On the other side, nearing the end of the period of unwellness, I'm again regularly unsure when it's appropriate to come back to work. I'm caught between wanting to get back to work for both work's sake (don't want to seem like I'm goofing off) and my own sake (again, I like getting things done at work), and not wanting to get back to work too soon again for work's sake (for fear of still being contagious and infecting those at work) and my own (not wanting to push myself too far and keep myself sick longer).

I almost wish there were nice simple guidelines. Basic rules to tell me when I'm sick and what I should do about it. Any suggestions or guidelines any of you use?

Labels: health, work