Mick’s Miscellaneous Meanderings

Awesome video!!! Chilly Cheeks 2010 – Blue Eyes, Krumy, Leslie, and Mick

Good news! There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m just an introvert! Sounds stupid but it was a major revelation recently thanks to a conversation with co-worker, Lynn, and her suggestion of a book called the “The Introvert Advantage“. This book should be renamed to “Mick for Dummies” or “The Missing Manual of Mick” or “The World According to Mick”. It should have my picture on the front cover. And it should be required reading for anyone who considers me a friend or works with me. Really. It’s THAT accurate.

It explained to me:

• why I’m more comfortable in smaller groups and one-on-ones than larger groups
• why I keep information and my opinions to myself unless they are pried out of me
• why I get grumpy if I’m around people or activities too long
• why I like to backpack in the wilderness and can easily go for days without human interaction
• why I can focus on and completely lose myself in figuring out geeky computer stuff
• why eye contact is uncomfortable
• why I like to listen a lot more than I like to talk
• why, when I take in a lot of information, it takes me a while to process it
• why I am not good “off the cuff”
• why I don’t like the spotlight
• why I always underestimate how much I know on a subject until I have completely mastered it
• why words elude me in oral communication, but am able to put anything I want into writing
• why it completely drains me to have to do a presentation
• why I need alone time to recharge my batteries
• why I prefer delving deep into a single subject rather than skimming the surface on many subjects

And it explained to me how and why extroverts (3/4 of the population) think and act the way they do and why their qualities are more valued in modern society.

I’ve come to realize several things:

• That not everyone has a constant running internal dialog (chatter!) with themselves. WHAT??? REALLY??? (I can’t even fathom this.)
• That I don’t have brain damage. No joke. I seriously thought that my brain was damaged in some way. That maybe my mom dropped me when I was a baby. Really.
• That I’m just hard wired differently. And it’s not something I need to “overcome”. I just need to know how to use it to my advantage.

Introverts unite!!! Errr…hang on a sec…

Looks like a mission accomplished – http://krumy.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/181/

[snicker]

And the best line I’ve heard in a long time:

“One thing about running with this group – it’s contagious. You find yourself agreeing to things you promised you would never do.”

Finally got some of the trim up. The downstairs bedroom is done and the living room is done. When I get rid of the piano that’s sitting in front of one of the windows in the dining room, I’ll finish that area up too. For now, there’s at least some noticeable progress.

The living room pre-floor and pre-window trim

Feels a little cozier now.

Five of us (maybe 6 – not sure about Nicole) have committed to running the God’s Country Marathon on June 5, 2010 west of Mansfield/Wellsboro area in upstate PA. This will be my third marathon so I know what kind of commitment I’m in for. But I’ve been putting off the inevitable – getting back into the schedule of getting up at 4:30 am most days and going to sleep at 8:30 and eating right and being disciplined and….ugh.

The marathoners - me, Kathy J, Krumy, Nicole, and Michelle-Blue Eyes. Leslie is missing.

But Krumy’s post has spurred me into action. I WILL get back into the swing of things on Monday, January 18th – one week before the actual marathon training begins. No matter how little sleep I get and how crappy I am going to feel during the day because of that lack of sleep, I WILL get up and go in and run and do body pump. It will be a week or so of utter agony, trying to adjust my body to the new schedule. And I would just like to point out that I have off on Monday. So I COULD sleep in, but I won’t.

And while I normally only post out of the ordinary things in life here so I don’t bore people to death, I will be posting regularly about the marathon training. Wish me luck.

WHAT???? Eleven days off in a row? Good gawd, get the straight jacket ready! Lots on the agenda including putting trim up on all the windows in my house (long overdue!), cutting and splitting next year’s firewood, getting caught up on my blogging, and of course, what kind of vacation would it be without reading some geeky computer book? I’m extra motivated on the blog part since Krumy declared a “battle of the blogs” this morning. Look for a couple videos and a few new blog posts of adventures from this past few months.

The good news is….I finally got internet access at home.
The bad news is…I finally got internet access at home.

I had it intermittently for a while…through Verizon, using my Blackberry as a modem. Verizon has a “deal” where you can tether your Blackberry to your laptop and use it as a modem for your computer to get internet access using your cell. The down sides are that it costs $30/month and that you have a 5 Gig limit before they start tacking on extra charges. Heck, I go over 5 Gigs every month just on the Blackberry itself. Boooo, bad Verizon. So, I’d get it activated for when I traveled so I had internet access on the road. And then I’d deactivate it when I got back.

Kathy J scored some major points today when she introduced me to Tetherberry. Tetherberry is a program you pay for ONCE – $49.95 – that you use to tether your Blackberry to your laptop and allows you to use your current data plan from your Blackberry. My data plan is UNLIMITED. So I pay $49.95 one time and have unlimited internet access instead of $30/month and only 5 Gigs from Verizon. Yeaaaayyyyy!!!

It’s not exactly the speed I get at the shop or at work but it works for email, general surfing, and even some minor web development. The speedtest came back at 400+ down and 100+ up. I’ll take it.

So my resolution to not have internet access at home is out the window because it’s just so darn cheap and easy. I plan to be disciplined about it though. STOP LAUGHING!!! But I’m still not giving in on the TV.

http://www.tetherberry.com/

And the best part is…the tetherberry.com site is built on Drupal!!!! So it HAS to be good!

I spent a year in Germany just after graduating college. The first three months, I understood almost nothing of the German dialect I was hearing. So the brief conversations where I got to speak English were a welcome change. That’s how I felt this weekend when I got together with some fellow web developers. For a couple hours I got to speak geek, my native language.

The three of us are on a newsgroup of web developers. Joe was in from New York, Murray from Philly, and me from Harrisburg area. We met in Allentown, the midpoint, at the Bonefish Grill. Mmmmm!

I’d met Murray before…at a web developer conference in Las Vegas and on various webcam get-togethers (He’s got a GREAT office that shows in the background of the webcam sessions). His passion for web development is an inspiration. When others are ready to kick back and retire, Murray’s digging into a new programming language, taking on challenging projects, and still helping out on newsgroups and forums answering questions. When I grow up I want to be just like Murray…uhhh….Murray #3, that is. Murray #7 can get a little ornery. . (The joke is that there are 9 Murrays….it takes that many to help out in the newsgroups as much as he does and still make a living.)

This was my first time meeting Joe in person. He’s helped me countless times on various odd (and I do mean odd!) projects….everything from simply giving me a shove in the right direction to writing out code that could be copied and plopped directly into a project. And the amount of knowledge he has of PHP coding and *nix operating systems….I can only aspire to.

I enjoyed getting together with you guys. Can’t wait till the next No-NephCon.

Murray and me

Sue, Murray, Mickey, Joe and Judy

Gut wrenching. That about sums it up. 12 years of:

• picking up the garbage scattered on the floor throughout the apartment because I forgot to close the bathroom door before I left
• backpacking trips without a single whine about how much further we were going that day
• giving her a bath because she rolled in something nasty when she was out running in the neighoring farm fields
• running along side of me, forgetting that anything else even exists
• replacing shower curtains because a thunderstorm came through while I was away and her safe place is the bathtub and her nervous activity is to shred the shower curtain
• giving me her paw or rolling over or sitting in return for a treat
• vacuuming up ungodly amounts of dog hair and swearing I would never have another short haired dog again
• returning home to find the container of chocolate chip cookies or brownies I left on the counter laying on the floor empty
• horrendous doggy breath
• thinking that car rides were the absolute, most exciting thing life had to offer
• unconditional love, company, friendship, and kisses

I wouldn’t trade a single day of it.

Ackey in her younger years

Ackey at her best - backpacking the trails

Ackey gnawing on the mother of all bones. Lasted a day or two...maybe.

Ackey on her last backpacking trip...after a 15 mile day...too tired to lift her head to eat

Ackey insisting on sleeping in Charlie's bed...no matter how uncomfortable

Ackey tolerating some snuggling with Uncle Dave

Letting it all hang out

I’ll miss my Ackey-girl.