Cup of Coffee

August 28, 2013: Single Days Off

133 Comments

Yesterday I had another instance of just one day off...it's been rare to get two in a row lately. Does anyone else who gets those waste them by thinking of the next day of work all day long? Maybe I'm just sick of my job.

133 thoughts on “August 28, 2013: Single Days Off”

  1. Does anyone else who gets those waste them by thinking of the next day of work all day long? Maybe I’m just sick of my job.

    I've held my current position for 8 months, and I've found that I've been able to successfully separate my work life from my home life (for the first time ever ... ). I chalk this up to a changed attitude towards work ---> I'm responsible for me, my work, and making my institution better. I've realized that I can't control how my coworkers will perform and that I can only do so much, and when the tasks are finished I go home and pound some Buds.

    I'm optimistic that I'll be able to continue this trend, but, like I said above, this is the first time I've ever been able to separate my work life from my home life. It also doesn't hurt to work in the French Quarter. /gloating

    1. I've got them separated nicely, most of the time. I'm able to glance at my email a few times a day at work and nobody cares, and I don't hate what I do. I'm not sure why it is that I can't really enjoy a single day off. I was made to need the true weekend but I excel at work that keeps me from getting them most of the time. On the upside, once in a very great while, I get a four day weekend without asking for it nor needing it. That's always a blast.

      1. It's also possible that my current annoyance is that I'm pouring a lot of time into a venture while outside of work, so I'm really not getting a break at all (although the work I'm doing at home would lead to a much more acceptable career, if that's what it becomes).

        I'm not going to go into it too much, but one of the games I run as part of Spookymilk Survivor is going into production. Kickstarter coming next week.

          1. Cheers, homeslice. There's a blurb on my page over at FB. I expect to put up the Kickstarter on Tuesday. I figure on Monday, everyone will be out drinking. Of course, if people are drinking, they might be looser with their money...hmm...

            1. I very rarely go on Kickstarter when I'm drinking beers at the lake. I don't think I'm alone in that personality quirk.

              Tuesday would probably be better.

    2. I always try to separate work from home. My wife always wonders why I don't talk about my job. The reason is because when I'm not working, I don't want to think about it. I want to think about my home life: my wife and daughter and their things. Talking about work with my wife is one of the least desirable things I can imagine.

        1. YUP.

          I've come to terms with the fact that part of Linds' way of getting her mind off of work is talking about it for twenty minutes. It's illogical to me, and I find it generally distasteful, since I have the exact opposite way of unwinding, but it's an important thing for her to do.

          It still turns my brain to mush.

          1. Must be a female thing, the Mrs. goes on about her work every night in extreme detail. I try to tune it out without obviously appearing to tune it out.;) Myself, I don't want to talk about my job, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to hear about it either.

            1. We have an annual office party. This year involved a juggling contest (among other things). I participated in it, so I was juggling at home way more than usual. One day, she was asking me why I was juggling, and I explained it was for work. Now, GRZ keeps asking me if I juggled at work today again. She clearly thinks my job is more interesting than it is.

              1. Parties &c. are the only things I really talk about, so I think my kids think my work is going to Twins Games and eating cookies.
                So when I have to work at home I try to do a bit when they're around so they can see it's not all puppies and confetti.

                1. it’s not all puppies and confetti.
                  that should be obvious if they know you're attending Twins Games.

            2. Very definitely a female thing. My wife always talks to me about her work. I think it's an intimacy thing. They need to feel we are a part of all aspects of their lives. She's a teacher and I have an education degree, so I can relate. Also, Trey goes to her school and is in the same grade. Just don't get her around her teacher friends when they're not at school.

      2. Amen to that. I don't even want to hear about her job, but I tolerate it because she likes to air it out this way. I'd rather internalize it, if I think about it at all, or better yet forget about it until the moment I walk back in. If you look around on Facebook, it's not even obvious where I spend my days, and if you find it, you've probably found it via someone else.

        We've had that exact same conversation. "Why don't you like to talk about work?" It's not interesting, it's not fulfilling, it's not unique. What's there to talk about?

      3. I generally keep my work life out of my home life (unless I need to work from home), but since my job involves really, really hot fire, I find that I enjoy talking about it. Mostly, though, I don't talk about it much at home because my wife would be bored/not really understand what I was talking about anyway. (no offense meant to her, its just that she is not exactly engineering minded.)

        1. If I discussed all of the problems I face every day, my wife would be all over them. Why do you have these problems? Are you doing a good job? Maybe you need a different job! I would so much rather hear her talk about the issues she has with this mom or that mom than deal with those lines of inquiry. Plus, you know, not thinking about it while I'm not working is therapeutic.

              1. Heh.

                Funny how we get in trouble for responding to their "sharing" by "trying to fix their problems"....

                My standard, Minnesotan answer to how my day was is "pretty good".

      4. I find when I'm out with work acquaintances I discuss work too much. I barely ever discuss anything related to my job with J or anyone else really. I got moved into a new position a couple weeks back and barely mentioned it at all to anyone because, well, it's still work? I don't know. I want to forget about it when I leave, too.

      5. I find I am completely unable to separate the two. There is no such thing as work/life balance; it's all just life.

        1. I find talking about my work in a non-technical fashion presents false ideas of what I do and what the challenges are.
          Plus, so much of it is non-verbal spreadsheets and numbers and graphs that how do I even translate that?

          And whenever I talk about my work to more casual acquaintances and more distant friends and family that it invariably ends as a discussion about some high-profile political issues involving it. I'm bored with that conversation, usually.

          1. I guess I don't have that problem. I don't necessarily talk about the work itself, but more the environment/people I'm working with. I would probably do less of this in a better work environment.

          2. I know what you mean about explaining to non-technical people. Luckily, my business is also associated with deep brain stimulation, so the higher level discussion about the business is interesting.

        2. That's me, but I suppose it partly has to do with my line of work. Mrs. A is involved in many aspects of the ministry, so we talk about a lot of work-related stuff. There are, of course, some confidential things that I don't talk about even with her.

      6. I have never been able to separate teaching and my own grad work from my life at home, and it's gotten bad enough that I'm making a major life change and will be guarding against similar intrusions in the future.

    3. Re: work/life. With both NBBW and I being career types, no kids, work has always been a big deal for both of us, defining a lot of our time.

      We have both had to do a lot of work travel and that can be very consuming/soul-sucking.

      Only recently (last 2-3 years) have we focused non-work time/attention to triathlon, half-marathon, duathlon, century, etc. It has been a great diversion to alleviate work stress, but also has provided a lot of satisfaction on achieving goals/milestones separate from what we do at work.

  2. I've been doing the "regular" work week - 40 hrs/M-F - since maybe late January. I find that even with consistent 2-day weekends, I'm always disappointed on Sunday morning to know I have to "go back to work tomorrow." I don't hate my job per se, but I don't love it either and I certainly don't look forward to coming in.

    My perspective/outlook on life being what it is, I've never had to worry about working at what meat has put in practice, i.e., separate work and home life. For me, the trouble has been that every job until now was just that, a 'job'...not a career. I took them seriously enough and worked hard, but once I punched out, I rarely thought about them until clocking back in. Now, although my current position may not be a great one, it's work I have to take seriously if I want to make a career in this business...first steps first and all that.

    ...also, the commute sucks.

  4. I'm having the opposite problem. Working from home, it's no problem for me to sit down on a Saturday and put in some overtime during a ballgame when I have some mindless data jockying or graphics to work on, but it's not easy for me to shut down in the afternoons when I have chores/errands to do, when I feel obligated to pick up the work phone if it rings after hours. I guess since I have such a sweet work arrangement I don't want to give the impression that I'm taking advantage of it.

    1. That reminds me of the article I read recently about the companies that give their employees unlimited vacation time. They were finding that people were taking even less vacation because they didn't want to appear to be taking advantage of the generosity and fall behind their co-workers.

      1. I have no vacation (or sick days) as such -- only 6 holidays -- but I am being paid the equivalent of 5 weeks of vacation (as an increase in my base pay), which I essentially pool in a savings account, but it is difficult mentally to stop working (and not get paid) and dip into the vacation savings when we take vacations.

  5. I get Bryan Garner's daily email about word usage. Today's was all about "thank you":

    "Thank you" remains the best, most serviceable phrase, despite various attempts to embellish it or truncate it: "thanking you in advance" (presumptuous and possibly insulting), "thank you very much" (with a trailer of surplusage), "thanks" (useful on informal occasions), "many thanks" (informal but emphatic), *"much thanks" (archaic and increasingly unidiomatic), *"thanks much" (confusing the noun with the verb), and *"thanx" (unacceptably cutesy).

    "Thank-you," n., is hyphenated thus {a thousand thank-yous}.

    The traditional response to "Thank you" is "You're welcome." Somehow, though, in the 1980s, "You're welcome" came to feel a little stiff and formal, perhaps even condescending (as if the speaker were saying, "Yes, I really did do you a favor, didn't I?"). As a result, two other responses started displacing "You're welcome": (1) "No problem" (as if the speaker were saying, "Don't worry, you didn't inconvenience me too much"); and (2) "No, thank you" (as if the person doing the favor really considered the other person to have done the favor). The currency of "You're welcome" seems to diminish little by little, but steadily. Old-fashioned speakers continue to use it, but its future doesn't look bright.

    For some reason, I particularly enjoyed this discussion.

  6. It may already be ubiquitous, but I wanted to note that today is the 50 year anniversary of a pretty amazing moment in US history. Read this yesterday and found it pretty informative.

    edit: from the repository page:

    ...timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial* of the Emancipation Proclamation.

    *how many years is that?

    2. The Atlantic has posted a photo diary with some arresting images from the March. Perhaps the most startling considering later developments – a photo of James Baldwin and Marlon Brando shaking hands which captures Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston standing behind them.

    3. A music/cultural historian friend of mine shared a link to the song that was #1 on the pop charts during the week of the March on Washington - Little Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips, Part II".

      I was curious, so I looked up the full Billboard Top 20 for the week of 24 August 1963:

      Spoiler SelectShow

  8. I know music discussion day is Friday, but I just gotta say that the new Black Joe Lewis album titled Electric Slave is one smoking hot record.
    I'll be going on my third listen today after lunch

    2. I can't wait for the show at First Ave. Sheenie and I were in the front row when they opened for Sharon Jones a few years ago and they ROCK.

  9. I'm taking the family to a football game down at Kansas State this weekend and on Saturday had planned on spending the day in Omaha. smaller is 5 and smallest is 3, any suggestions on things to do? We'll likely check out the zoo, but beyond that I have no plans setup.

    What say ye citizens?

    2. The Zoo is definitely the thing to see in Omaha, you could easily spend the whole day there. They have an Imax at the zoo also. We don't have little ones ourselves so I'm probably not the one to ask for recommendations, but I've heard the Omaha Children's Museum is quite good. The Strategic Air & Space museum is pretty cool and kid friendly. The Storm Chasers will be taking on the Round Rock Express (Rangers)that night.

  10. Question for those who post tables, I was trying to remember how I posted my top300 Twins spreadsheet last year and looking at Sean's suggestions, I can't remember how to select the CSV option on the table. Is this something I do in excel or within the edit post functionality?

      1. Yep. Then copy the contents of that file (open it in Notepad or similar), surround it with [sr] and [/sr] in the text box, and all should be good. Since it has 300 rows, you might want to wrap it all in a spoiler to keep the normal height limited.

        1. I can't quite figure out if I need to put it in text or visual but either way it isn't formatting right. I might as well wait until the 2013 numbers are finalized anyway and figure out where I'm going wrong. Thanks for the help.

            1. May have to be the way to go. I have a draft currently with all the data, but when I preview its all gobbledygook when I put the data into visual and when I put the data into text the columns don't properly format.

    2. Would he be an upgrade over Dozier though? Looks like he's a month older, so doesn't at least have age on his side. Plus he's arb eligible for next season whereas Dozier is still a serf until 2016.

      1. It seems like Espinosa can play both middle infield positions better than Dozier or Escobar can, and likely has more offensive value than Escobar or Bernier. If it doesn't take much to obtain Espinosa, who I doubt will see much of an arb raise (and seriously, the Twins have no standing to complain about player salaries next season), I wouldn't mind giving him a shot to get his swing back and try him as a utility man. If they're lucky, the Twins might find a switch hitter with some power & speed who can play both middle infield positions for pennies on the dollar.

        1. The salary comment is more about how long the Twins would be willing to keep him if he doesn't immediately turn around his performance.

          I'm nonetheless interested. A backup to Florimon and Dozier would be great, since I don't have high confidence in the ability for both to remain above average players.

        2. I just wanted to point out, though it's probably unnecessary, that "more offensive value than Escobar or Bernier" is such a low bar that it's almost underground.

      2. I'm wondering if he could be a major-league level shortstop. I don't see anything in his numbers there to dissuade me of the possibility.

        2. This is immediately where my mind went. He's worth a shot I think. I wonder what they'd have to give up for him. I'd be thrilled for them to go after him.

    1. That's gonna be worse than Cuddyer at second, isn't it?

      Is the Cap'n playing, too? Maybe having Jeter right there next to him will magically cure him!

      1. UZR has him at -14 per 150 games at first (somehow he's better at third). Translating that to second means he's roughly a -20 fielder at second. He would make Jeter look good.

        1. Maybe that'll be a thing as Jeter continues to play--having other infielders who are even worse so Jeter continues to look good by comparison.

    1. Yeah, pretty much nailed it. I would like to add that the irrational fan in me would be satiated by him going to the pirates so he could be part of another pennant race.

      Also, i do not like Tad Trottier.

      1. OK: Cuddy didn't have the peak that Morny did, but he was playing better when not traded than Morny is now.

    4. Only Mauer has more hits and a higher OPS (given 500 games in a Twins uniform) over that time period, and he’s a no-doubt-about-it first-ballot Hall of Famer.

      But, but, but, ... he doesn't hit homer runs and he's not worht the $80 bajillion the Twins are paying him!!!111!!

      1. this one was my favorite

        It kills me to say this, but you know Mauer is clean and he is never doing "whatever it takes" to get back on the field in a hurry. Mauer has had one great season, bent the franchise over the barrel for $25MM/per and plays at an All Star Level, but hardly HOF. If any Twin should have HOF talk, why isnt Tony Oliva in the HOF?

        got the 'always injured' angle and 'makes too much money' thing tied up into juicing.

        1. That was the exact comment that made me stop reading and got me to comment above how much I dislike Tad Trottier and, by extension, all of Eagan.

          1. Those comments, and the Yahoo comments on SoCal's stories, also raises an interesting internet question to me: Does the lack of anonymity on the internet not actually matter, or does Facebook just make people really stupid?

  17. I'm on my way home, spending the night in Des Moines. Yesterday, just after my uncle's burial, I got a text from my wife to tell me that her uncle/godfather had died that morning. Her aunt went for a walk and found him dead at the bottom of the stairs when she got home, very sudden and unexpected. So I'm waiting for my wife to get off work to find out if that funeral is going to be on Friday or Saturday. Rains --> Pours.

    4. Gracias, amigos. I didn't know the wife's uncle all that well, mostly just from weddings and the occasional family picnic. But I'm starting to think I might have a career as a cooler in Vegas ahead of me.

  18. y'all might not believe this, but Cuddy just struck out flailing on a curveball outside the zone.

  20. 10:57pm: The Orioles are the team that claimed Willingham, a source tells Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (on Twitter). The O's are trying to work out a deal with the Twins.

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