Older

So, a little over a week ago, I turned 27. Several people asked me the same question: "do you feel older?" I answered "no" - in case you were wondering. But it got me thinking, what is that magic age range where you no longer feel older as birthdays go by?

For example, when you're in your teens (and below), you probably feel a little older each year because of how much is changing in your life. Then, you reach a certain age (23 - 24 ???) where birthdays don't make you feel that much older. And then, the cycle of life continues, and birthdays (I'm told) begin to remind you of how much older your body is getting: sore joints, metabolism changes, etc.

Anyone have a clue on what the golden age range is?

My First Website

For the past several months, I've been working on re-doing the website for the company I work for. And for the past several weeks, we've been refining the content, scanning for grammatical/spelling errors and tweaking the information. All leading up to today: the day we go live with our company's redesigned website (and, correspondingly) my first public website.

I'm excited, but a little nervous. I have this underlying fear that there is something that I (and everyone who has helped me look the site over) have missed. Let's hope that's just an irrational fear. If you'd like to see the site, simply click the link below.

http://www.developmentalpathways.org/

Seasonal Songs

Well, Thanksgiving has passed, so it's now officially the Christmas season (unless you're a retailer, in which case the Christmas season started over a month ago). One of the things that I enjoy about Christmas is getting to listen to Christmas music - however, this presents a special challenge for me as my taste in Christmas music is rather picky.

For example, I often prefer traditional Christmas songs/carols. I don't particularly care for when bands from various genres attempt to re-do said songs in that genre.

Another example: I don't mind "Jingle Bell Rock" but I can't stand "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - and if I never hear "Santa Baby" again, I'll die a happy man.

I'm curious as to your thoughts. What are your favorite Christmas songs/albums? Or, what songs/albums drive you nuts?

"Meh"

It's official, "meh" has been added to the dictionary.

http://www.newser.com/story/42859/meh-add-it-to-the-dictionary.html

(So apparently yesterday I posted this on the 180inPoland blog by accident. Oops.)

Email Etiquette

I’m not talking about SPAM – well, not in the official sense of the word. I’m speaking more about people who you know who either, 1) received your email address from someone else, or 2) you didn’t have the heart to give them a fake address when they asked for it.

I know that there exists email etiquette. This etiquette includes items like:

• When you are sending emails to a large group of people who may not all know each other, place everyone’s address in the BCC: field
  - That way you don’t inadvertently increase the number of recipients one of those people now has for their daily “I think everyone in my address book should know this” rants/forwards.
  - Additionally, this practice guards against the incredibly irritating (yet common) practice of the Reply to All*
• Verification of information you’re sending: in other words, don’t send your entire address book an email about Obama not being born in the US, if you’re going to send a clarification less than 60 minutes later that the original source was a hoax.

My question is not specifically around email etiquette, but rather on what is allowed for people who don’t follow this etiquette. Here’s my question: How bad of a person would I be if I used Gmail’s wonderful “Filter” feature to automatically filter (a.k.a. delete) all emails from an individual who, to this day, has yet to send me something worth reading?

* - Please don’t think that I abhor any usage of the Reply to All feature. If there are fewer than 15 recipients, it can be a great way to have a discussion about something, or plan an event. But anytime you have more than that, it often turns into a constant barrage of one-line replies like, “Right on, Joe” or “Good point, Sue” – valid thoughts, but hardly worth sharing with 50 other people.

Good Coffee

For the past several weeks, I haven't been getting up early enough to make coffee. This means that I've had to settle for the coffee in our break room at work. (One employee described this coffee well: "caustic, at best.")

This morning I broke the cycle and made coffee at home. The point of this little rant: it's amazing the difference that good coffee can make.

IDSRVIT

Saw this as the license plate of a Porsche Carrera (MSRP: $86,200).

The "Teflon" Look

Well, 5 days of rigorous training has come to an end. My brain if officially full! As my instructor said of the class today, we had the teflon look. No matter what new information is presented, what concepts are discussed, nothing sticks.

RGE

Yesterday in class, the instructor made the following remark: ". . . making this change can help your users from accidentally deleting important files. As such, this would prevent them from causing an RGE - Resumé Generating Event."

I thought it was pretty funny.

Training

The company I work for has been gracious enough these past several months to send me to a variety of classes that will help me in my job. This time around I'm attending a 5-day course on deploying and maintaining a major piece of collaboration software, Microsoft SharePoint. I'm excited to know this product better; I'm also excited for the expertise I'll have when we deploy this technology. What worries me, though, is how much information there is to absorb. This morning, we were handed our course materials, a 2" 3-ring binder full information that we're going to be covering this week!