Dossy's Blog

I hate this. Most of the things I want to blog about, especially the stuff that really eats at me and causes me stress, I can’t even talk about because it’s covered by non-disclosure agreements.

Every now and then, I think about blogging “anonymously” but that goes against my personal principles. There’s no such thing as anonymity. Eventually, somehow, the dots get connected and then what has been said is out there.

How does one crowdsource wisdom on matters like this? Sure, I talk to my therapist and my family … but sometimes it feels like it would be useful to cast a wider net.

I guess I’ll just sit here and wring my hands and just let you all know that there’s plenty I wish I could share, but can’t. Argh!

I normally don’t do these meme things, but I was very curious to find out what kind of questions jesus_jeff would ask me.

Leave me a comment saying “Resistance is Futile.”

* I’ll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
* Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
* Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

Here are his questions for me and my answers:

1) Excluding family, who have you known the longest that you are still in fairly regular contact with?

I’m notoriously bad about not keeping in regular contact with people. Given this fact, I suppose my answer has to be my friend Ian, from high school. There are a few people who I talk to now and then that I’ve known longer, like Jeff Mach, but I don’t really maintain regular contact with him.

I wonder if this answer will cause people I’ve actually known longer to come out of the woodwork. Interesting …

2) Iphone, Droid, Blackberry, or good old-fashioned “my phone just makes phone calls, thankyouverymuch”?

I own a BlackBerry, now. The Droid has tempted me, and I refuse to take the iPhone as long as it lacks a real physical keyboard. I’ve got high hopes for the Nokia N900, but apparently it’s fallen short. I gave up on Palm after replacing my aging Treo 650 with my first BlackBerry.

3) If your kids (once of appropriate age) expressed an interest in joining the peace corps or the military (i.e., doing dangerous work in dangerous far-away places) would you encourage them or try to convince them to pick a safer path?

I’d like to believe that I encourage them to pursue things that they love. Life is dangerous and learning to handle it is an important skill, not something to be avoided for the sake of avoiding.

That being said, I’d rather they not enlist in the military. While I’m thankful that there are people who do so on behalf of the rest of us, I would rather my kids pursue careers with an organization that has more accountability.

4) What do you think the next big thing technology-wise will be?

Realistically? Probably something truly boring like “wireless electricity“.

My personal imagineering? I call it “personal interactive television”. It changes the way we watch television: the shared screen (the traditional TV set) acts as an interface hub, while individuals use their handheld devices (phones, remotes) to interact with the content programming without disturbing the shared experience of the other participants.

I suppose I should describe this vision more clearly in a separate blog entry, but maybe this hints at the potential of such a paradigm shift.

5) If you were a craftsman in the middle ages, what craft would you practice?

If I had to pick an established craft, I would probably be a butcher or apothecarist. Butcher, because I enjoy dealing with food and especially meat. Apothecarist, because I enjoy the diagnostic process of medicine but would prefer to deal with the common folk rather than solely royalty.

However, I suspect if I actually lived in the middle ages, I would probably be a agricultural scientist: experimenting with growing plants to increase their yield, be more resistant, come up with ways of dealing with pests, etc.

…

That was fun answering Jeff’s questions. If you’d like to participate, just leave a comment for me and I’ll try my best to come up with interesting questions for you!

Last night, Samantha and I went into NYC to see Daniel Bauer’s “Purity” show at The Duplex Theater with my friend Ian. It was a fun show and his magic is simple but effective. The Duplex is a very small venue and the intimate setting really lets you enjoy the experience nicely.

But, that’s not the point … what I really want to write about is some introspecting I did. I’ve known that I’m an extrovert, but oddly I don’t tend to enjoy myself amongst a large number of people. I usually end up spending time with the same few people once I identify who I want to spend time with.

A while ago, I stumbled upon the definition of dissocial personality disorder which fits me to a tee. I’m finding that the Paxil and Wellbutrin combo are helping a lot with this, but it hasn’t totally eliminated the feelings of “gee, I wish there weren’t so many people here.”

I realize that the definition of extrovert doesn’t necessarily speak to the number of people one interacts with but merely the fact that external interaction brings positive effect, and it’s clearly possible to be a dissocial extrovert because I am one, but it also means finding people that I enjoy spending time with is difficult.

I just wanted to get these thoughts down in writing before they escaped my head, so I can reflect on them later, and perhaps some of you have insights to share that I may not have thought of, yet. See, there I go again, that extroverted nature which thinks better by expressing than reflecting, looking for external inputs …

I’ve said this to people in the past, but I wanted to put the quote down in writing:

True friends are there to help you celebrate your success, not complain that you have it and they don’t.

Tags: friendship, success, quote

It’s a task I’ve been putting off for years — reorganizing the home office — but I’m finally doing it. The rack and servers that sat behind me for years is now finally in the basement, thanks to my Dad helping me run two 20A circuits for the equipment down there. Here’s what the room looks like mid-reorganization:

Sure, my desk is still a mess, but that’ll also get taken care of once I put up some new shelves to better organize stuff.

The one thing I still can’t get over is how silent the room is, now. The fans from the various computers and the Liebert UPS were loud! Over the years, I just got used to the low level noise and tuned it out, but now with the contrast of the room without the noise, it’s eerie.

Tags: home office