Ultranormal

Category: Kevin

  • The Internet Fast

    I’ve been stressed out a lot lately… and pretty consistently for the last two years. It finally came to a head this week, and I decided I needed a break from everything. So, I decided that yesterday through Saturday, I would try to live completely without the internet: no blackberry, no laptop, no wi-fi, no nothin’. Since it’s only Friday afternoon, you can see – it didn’t go so well.\
    I’ve worked for AOL for over twelve years. In that time, I’ve only been completely offline for more than twenty-four hours twice: first when a bunch of friends and I went to Carlsbad Caverns and none of us had laptops yet (this was 1998), and in 1999 when Jen and I got married and went on a three day cruise. That’s over eight years of pretty much constant connection to e-mail, IM, and everything else.\
    Back to the break… in the beginning of my internet life (1995), it was just e-mail, and not a lot of it. I worked with a relatively small number of people, I was relatively isolated within the company, and wasn’t involved in anything outside of work that would produce much e-mail. Then, came the buddy list and instant messaging. OK, two forms of interruption, but pretty much exclusively used for work and at work. Fast forward 12 years, and now here’s what’s built up in the almost thirty-six hours I was able to stay away until the DT’s got me and I had to check:

    • over 270 e-mails
    • over 2,100 unread items in my feed reader (from 581 feeds – recently pruned down from 680 – and I just marked them all read… didn’t even read ’em – it you blogged something you really need me to read, send me e-mail)
    • untold messages on twitter (I haven’t even checked… thankfully, I can ignore all of them and I don’t think anyone’s feelings will be hurt)
    • 45 Facebook notifications (also ignored, mostly because I don’t like Facebook)\
      I checked recently and I receive, on average, 21 instant messages an hour (that’s almost 200 during the course of my regular 9 hour work day).\
      If you figure that out over twenty-four hours and consider the last day and a half “average” (it feels like the normal flow), I handle over 1,700 distinct pieces of communication and information a day, and still manage to do my real job, which is not to just read e-mail, respond to IM’s and read feeds. This pace has only increased in the last five years, and doesn’t show any sign of slowing. It’s only getting worse.\
      I’m not sure what the point of this was, other than to document for myself how bad my information overload is and trying to explain to myself that it’s OK that I was overwhelmed. Dealing with this ever-increasing torrent of data every day for over a decade – it’s OK to take a day off. It’s OK to let people answer their own questions, let the world keep spinning while I take a day to close my eyes and read a book (I’ve been reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard to try to cleanse my system from all the technical books I’ve been reading in my spare time… the most beautiful English prose I’ve read in a long time – a modern Walden).\
      I have another blackout day coming. Monday, I’m heading to London for the Future of Web Apps conference. I’m looking forward to the speakers, but, I’m really looking forward to the eight hours of uninterrupted (well, mostly) reading time on the plane where there’s no way for me to check my mail.

  • The Great Stache Off Continues

    You Want What When?

    I’m posting daily photos of the ‘stache’s progress. Today marks the beginning of the return of the ‘stache lovingly known as The Cletus. The sideburns may follow, but I’ll have to go to the judges and see if that’s allowed in the rules.\
    It’s never too late to donate , but why wait? It’s all for saving testicles from cancer. Please, think of all the nuts you’ll be saving (and their balls)!

  • The Great Stache Off Begins

    It’s started! For two months, I’ll be shaving every day, except for my mustache “area”. Yes, The Great Stache Off has begun! I have a goal of raising two thousand bucks for the Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation () in two months. I’ve never really done anything like this, but, I think the idea is so funny, and such a great way to raise money, that I couldn’t resist.\
    So… if you’ve got some spare dough, why not help a nut out? If for nothing else, so Cletus can make a comeback!\
    (the possibilities for puns and naughtiness for the next two months are endless… expect lots and lots of ball jokes)\
    Update: I’ll be doing daily photo updates over on Flickr. You can follow along (yes, day one is kind of pathetic, but I’m not a yeti… it’ll take a good week before it looks like anything)!\

  • The Amazing Mr. Chipman

    Ultranormal

    The Amazing Mr. Chipman strikes again. First, it was his great sculptures (OK, before that, it was all his javascript toys). Now, he’s gone and turned Cindy’s frightening portrait of me into an almost more frightening drawing. You can see the whole thing progress, which is even cooler than the final product.\
    I have amazing friends.

  • Ineloquent

    Sometimes I’m really stupid; sometimes I say things I shouldn’t; sometimes my jokes aren’t funny; and sometimes that pisses people off.\
    And sometimes I don’t realize any of those things (mostly because of the first). If you are one of the latter that I’ve offended by one of the former, and I haven’t apologized to you, healed the rift or made it right, please let me know. I’m a boy – insensitive and thick-headed. I try not to be, but sometimes the lizard brain takes over.\
    You know, having a blog is great… so great that I think everyone should have one. I think everyone, especially when you’re in a profession related to the online world, should have one – should have some place online where you talk about your passion. But, they’re a real pain in the ass sometimes.

  • Five Things You May Not Know About Kevin

    I got tagged by Greg, so here we go… five things you may not know about me, in no particular order.

    1. I was a TV “star” on a Tucson Public Access TV Show called Tech X. I was a floating head called Otto (they had blue screen and everything) and sat behind the two hosts and said really stupid things. My pal, Diana, sent me DVDs with all of the episodes of the show on them, and I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to watch them all yet.
    2. I graduated from Vicksburg High School in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I’m not proud of this fact, but that’s where Dad made us move, so that’s where we went.
    3. I moved 19 times in 21 years growing up. Since moving out, I’ve moved three times, once in the same town when buying a house. All that moving had done some weird things to me psychologically, which I think I’ve talked about here before, but it was so long ago that hopefully you’ve forgotten about it. I’m crap at relationships. When people leave, or I leave, I’m very good at pretending they no longer exist. Growing up, it was always easier to believe they no longer existed than to believe that I would never see them again. I never wrote letters, tried to never think about them, and did a good job of compartmentalizing my life. I recognized this a little after moving to Virginia, and have been trying to fix it, but it still pops up all the time.
    4. I’m an Eagle Scout. I earned Eagle at 14, and then maybe went on one camp out after that. I liked scouting, but was pretty much done with it once I got Eagle. If you’re a kid or have kids, and it’s important to you to get it – get it before you get interested in girls, cars or other stuff.
    5. I’m a big girl for Love Actually. I love that movie. I couldn’t tell you why other than it’s about all kinds of love, very well acted, is really funny, and makes me cry every single time I watch it. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth (and you might not know it).\
      Since these things are 21st century chain letters, I now have to tag five more people. Let’s see… I’ll tag: Jen, Tim, Heather, Cindy and Jason.

  • Wishful Thanking

    Thanksgiving was great. Max and I went over to my parents’ early to help out. I spent the morning stuffing a turkey, chopping veggies and eating (you have to pre-eat on Turkey Day or you get full too early). We watched Over the Hedge and Cars with the kids, played games, and had a good time. We even talked about politics without yelling. I call that a success.\
    Thanks to my boss, I’ve got Monday-Wednesday off, other than going in to give a presentation on microformats on Tuesday. Jen has a list of manly-putting-things-together things I have to do, which will be fun as long as I get over this cold.\
    And since it’s that time of year again, and just in case you’re in the gift-giving mood, here’s my wishlist. Not that I’m expecting anything, honestly.\
    Time to go put Brian down for a nap…

  • Vast Tracts of Time

    I have so much vacation time that I haven’t used (I’ve taken a grand total of four days of vacation time all year), that I have to take off a huge chunk at the end of the year. How much time? My last day of work for 2006 is December eighth.\
    I’m sure Jen will find stuff for me to do, but I’m looking at the calendar at those vast tracts of time and thinking that I might just have time to finish my “class project” (my “hey, let’s learn Ruby on Rails project) and launch it.

  • WOWee

    Kevin came home at a decent time last night and we ate dinner all together. Later, Kevin and I sat together for over an hour while we watched tv. Baby, life is good.

  • They keeled him

    Kevin came home. And then shortly became dead to the world for over 12 hours.\
    I guess the thought of Supernatural was too much for him.\
    Now I have to sing all by myself. “Wheel in the sky keeps on turning…”