v30.8: The Week End

Good morning folks,

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Another work week is quickly coming to an end (for most of us) and the relaxing days of the weekend are almost here.  I worked every day this week and I felt every single one.  In fact, by Wednesday, I felt like I had worked an entire week already so imagine my disappointment to learn it was only Wednesday.  I hate long weeks, more than I hate dead rats in heating ducts.

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When I was a child we had a dead rat in one of our heating ducts in our house.  Being the only person in the house who was mobile and small enough to fit into the blower part of the furnace, my father thought it would be a great idea for me to climb up there with a flashlight and check things out.  I found the rat alright, and if we thought it smelled bad in the house when the heat was blowing, you should have smelled the thing up close.  Of course the rat was so far up in the duct that my father couldn't reach it (even with the handle of the shovel) so I was forced to grab the thing and haul it down.  I've seen a lot of rats in my day but this thing was massive.  Only later in life did I realize that Splinter had died in my heating duct.  R.I.P. Splinter.

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Being a child with an overactive imagination was a lot of fun, but it also had a few downsides.  I would see and hear things all the time and my mind would race and think of monsters and other bad things.  I remember the front room in my grandparent's house.  There was a fireplace there and sometimes we would sit in that room and play.  When the wind would blow outside, it would make a noise in the fireplace that sounded very similar to a monster trying to claw its way down the chimney to get me.  I would run out of the room and grab the first adult I could find (usually my grandmother) and we would check things out.  I miss my grandmother, she could always take something scary and make it fun.  She would come into that room and scare away the monster every time so we could play.  Only later in life did I realize that my monster was the wind and my grandmother had a lot patience when it came to dealing with children.  If it had been my mother, she would have told me to suck it up and there were no such things as monsters.  Funny how, over time, a parent develops.  At times when we need patience the most we are stressed out and have none, but later in life after the trials and tribulations of parenting have passed, we have more patience and want to spend more time with our children.  Parenting confuses me.

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Everything seemed so much bigger as a child as well.  I remember walking through the halls of my old Elementary school.  I don't recall the circumstances of the visit but it was sometime shortly after High School and I recall how small the hallways looked and how low the ceilings were.  It is funny how we remember things.  That rat in my heating duct may have been no bigger than my adult hand, but as a child, the thing was as big as my head.

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Some of you may have noticed the big letters at the top of my page.  The big F is for Facebook.  I finally decided to reactivate Facebook and that link at the top should take you to my profile page where you can request to be my friend or something like that.  I dislike Facebook, but everyone else is using it so why not me?  I'm not proving anything by staying away from it and sometimes it is nice to catch up with old friends and see photos and videos of people I haven't seen in over a decade.  The IN is for LinkedIn which is like Facebook but for working professionals.  Instead of friends you have collegues and you can write recommendations and such for people you've worked with and they can request them.  That link should take you to my profile on LinkedIn so if you're on there, feel free to add me to your list.  Lastly, the letter T is for Twitter.  Twitter has really taken off and I've been a member since it first came online.  Basically, you can sign-up on Twitter and follow me (and others) and every time there is an update on my site there will be something published on Twitter as well to let you know.  A lot of places are using Twitter now; even some stores are offering special discounts and coupons on Twitter for Twitter members only so it can really pay to be a member.  If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can click that letter and typically I will link back and follow you.

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So what is the purpose of all this social interaction?  Quite simply, I'm trying to get my blog and writing out to a much larger audience.  If I ever plan on leaving the IT industry and making a break into the Blog/Writing industry, I need to get known and get some readers.  Hopefully my more dedicated readers are clicking on my Google Ads and helping me generate some cash flow; it is that cash flow that will eventually enable me to quit the stresses of this job and do what I really enjoy.  Of course I can't do that alone so I need the help of my readers to finally break the chains.  Unfortunately I'm in a bit of a rut right now where work is kicking me while I'm down and I'm not writing as much because my mind is always on other things and I find it difficult to concentrate.  Excuses are fun.

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Anyway folks, this is all the time I have this morning to write.  There is a mountain of work between me and the weekend so I best get started on it.  Thanks for reading and remember, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

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Cheers,

Al