Probably offensive to overweight people

Well, this is probably going to be kind of offensive, but oh well.

I have admit that often times I have no sympathy for overweight people. Sure, you can be fat all you want, it's your own choice, but the reality is that it does not affect just you. I'm not even going to get into the healthcare cost aspect of it, I'm mostly just thinking of it in terms of personal space. This whole thing was brought to my attention as I sat at a concert the other night. I was there in my seat, with a larger woman next to me, and it was rather irritating that in addition to the fact that the seats in arenas are incredibly small, I couldn't use the entirety of the seat I was in.

This is one example, but it happens everywhere, probably most notably on planes. My theory is that if I pay a lot of money for a tiny ass seat, why can't I use all of it? Or more importantly, why should the little comfort that I can have be impacted because I'm stuck next to someone who is large? This is where the grey area is. Sure, it's a personal choice (or arguably, maybe not) to be overweight, but regardless, why should normal size people impacted by someone who takes up more space than they should?

Reliving our honeymoon

This is an excerpt from a letter I wrote while on our cruise ship during our honeymoon. It brings back some great memories. Enjoy!

We have both been very tired, trying to adjust to this 9 hour difference is rough. And to make it worse, we move ahead another hour tomorrow when we hit Greece.

Well, like [anonymous wife name here] said, we got here safe and sound, but it wasn't without some excitement. Our flight left Atlanta 2 hours late, so we missed our connecting flight in Paris (which appears to be a very chaotic airport to begin with), and so they put us on another flight, but rather than being at 9:55AM, it wasn't until 6 PM, which meant we missed our afternoon in Venice, added 8 hours to our trip, and also got to try to figure out some French to get by for the day. But we finally got to the ship about 9PM.

So in the morning, we got up at 7 and had breakfast, then headed into Venice for a few hours, making it back to the boat for our 1PM departure. Venice was pretty amazing, and we even got to see the plazas flood, which apparently happens every high tide, and according to some signage, about 300 days a year.

Today the boat dropped anchor off the coast of Croatia, and we had to take a 10 minute boat ride to the shore, where we then took a bus to the Old City of Dubrovnik, which is the historic area, and is totally walled in by huge stone walls and guarded by ancient fortresses. It is a combination of residences, stone alleyways, shops, and cafes. We spent the afternoon walking around the squares, and through the tiny little walkways and alleys, doing a little shopping, and relaxing to people watch while we drank cappuchino and ate some fresh bread. Both the old part of Dubrovnik and Venice are interesting in that there are no cars, since the old streets are so tiny and just stone and rock. We also climbed up the stairs and walked around the entire wall surrounding the city, which had some great views of the area from above, and of the rocky cliffs and the Adriatic.

Tonight we are relaxing because we are so tired, and tomorrow we will be docking at Corfu, which is a Greek island off the coast of Albania, across from Italy. If we are up to it we will probably try to walk the 2 miles from the boat to the city to see more of the local life, rather than getting shuttled over in a bus or something.

So far it has been great, the only downside is that most of the people on the ship are really old, although we met another couple today who we will probably have dinner with tomorrow. The other downside is that we have been exhausted, so we have been really drinking a lot of cappuchino, since most of the places around here don't really do coffee, rather they just have espresso or cappuchino. All in all though it has been great, and the scenery is amazing, and so far the weather has almost been like San Diego, but clearer air and nicer looking water.

Take a look at the flickr photos

Perspective

From time to time I think about the day when I'll get to leave San Diego. It's been home for six years, and every now and then I'm just fed up with it. Both my wife and I are ready for a new place to live. We just got back from an awesome honeymoon, so that makes it even worse. Whenver I'm in a new place or on a trip somewhere that's different, I try to picture what it would be like to live there. Walking around in Rome on our trip, we saw plenty of people just doing their daily activities, while we're there in a new world. Same in Greece. Same in Croatia. Same when we go to New York. And here I am walking around downtown San Diego, wishing I was someplace else. When I pass someone carrying a map, or someone getting off the bus who is obviously a traveler of some sort, or when the big red tour bus drives by me, then I think, I'm that person that someone else sees and wonders what living that life would be like, in that beautiful city trapped in the corner of the country between Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.

wondering

Do you ever see people during the course of your day and wonder what their story is? I see some of the same people regularly on the bus, likely on a schedule similar to mine, probably going to or from work. Some I see just in the morning, some just in the evening, some both. There's this one guy however who gets on after me, not always the same stop, but at one of maybe 4 different ones. He then gets off before me, so we never actually cross paths. But he seems like the kind of guy who has a story, and I wonder what it is.

He carries a big bag on his back, sort of like a military issue duffel bag. Every day he is wearing the exact same jeans, shirt, vest, hate, and sandals with socks, which leads me to believe that would be homeless. But he seems very put together and I haven't noticed him to bring a stink onto the bus. Most importantly, he hasn't done anything that would make him seem crazy, like most homeless people do.

So to sum things up, he seems normal with the exception that he carries a bag whose size indicates that it could likely be carrying all his daily necessities, and that he wears the exact same clothes daily. My money is on him being homeless by choice, or maybe some sort of travelling type guy. Sort of how I would be if I had nothing going for me.

Only in SoCal

It's the beginning of November, and it's 10:00AM, and it's 78 degrees outside! Only in San Diego... Sadly enough, it kind of sucks. It's supposed to be the time of year where it's nice and crisp and cool, and here we are sweating to death. Though I suppose there are worse things.

Honeymoon cruise journal and photos

I've finally started posting some of my journal entries from my honeymoon to my travel website if you're interested.

Oct 5 - Princess Cruise - Venice to Rome, Getting to Venice
Oct 6 - Princess Cruise - Venice to Rome, Morning in Venice, Day at Sea
Princess Cruise - Venice to Rome, Dubrovnik
Princess Cruise - Venice to Rome, Corfu


Also, check out my Flickr pics that I've started uploading.


More to come...

What careers pay well?

What careers/jobs pay comparable to a mid level programmer/developer? I know I always complain about work, and I try to pin down what it is that I don't like about it. Some days I think it's the people, some I think the actual job, some days I think I am lazy, sometimes I think it's the boss, and sometimes I think the amount of work. Today I'm thinking it's the type of work. I am just sort of disinterested. With the addition of new people coming on board, who are so geeky they read tech books and study different programming methodologies outside of work, I'm realizing that I have no interest to further my work skills on my own time. When I leave work I don't like to think about it. But it seems that plenty of others do ... by choice.

I stay at the job and just continue to complain because for the field I'm in (technology) it's about as good as it gets. With the exception of pressure to work more, there's not a whole lot that would be any different anywhere else. And I don't think I could find a career in another field for a comparable salary. And since our goal is to move or take an extended vacation in the next few years, the money is important. So thus far I've continued to stay... and complain.

Work update

So the company that I work for, that I joined back in January as the second developer and the 5th employee, is now a company of 9, and possibly 10 people. Now rather than just 2 developers, it's 5 (soon probably 6 or 7), one of whom doubles as project manager. It doesn't sound like much, but effectively the development team has practically tripled in the past few months.

It kinda sucks. I came here thinking a small company would be fun to work for, more casual, more loosy goosy. Which to be fair it is. But I didn't envision that what I was looking at as a fun way to make a decent paycheck is now becoming sort of stressful because of the growth. Projects galore, and even though I'm going to try to maintain only 40 hours a week, I know more would be welcomed to further the company. And the new hires are all for the most part work oriented, rather than life oriented, which is really the part that frustrates me.

People who are so work oriented aren't really fun to work with, and since they're kind of geeky they think they're know it alls. They don't mind working until 8 at night, which I very much oppose. They don't mind shortening deadlines, and taking on more work.

I know I sound lazy, but to be honest, I don't really care. I liked the "old company" better.

Skewed by working?

I have always thought about this, but finally am in the mood to blog about it today. I've alway thought that working so much as a society takes away people's ambition and motivation for more. I can say first hand that as work gets more stressful, my motivation and creativity goes down the drain. Granted, I generally only work 40 hours a week, and I know plenty of people work more, but after 40 hours I still don't have enough time for all I want to do.

I've blogged before about how as the years go by I, as well as plenty of other people, start to wonder what has happened with time. Now I am really convinced that working as a whole makes people indirectly sort of numb to their real desires.

When I first starting working almost seven years ago (how?), I always jumped at opportunities to do anything fun. And I've noticed as I and others get older, we just don't have the time for things, too much going on, we're too old for that, we need to be responsible, blah blah blah. I don't think it is any of that. Really, truthfully, I think it is just that we work too much.

I have decided this (again) because of people's reaction to my returning from a much needed vacation (and honeymoon). Several people asked if I was "refreshed and ready to be back." Others were glad to see me, but didn't care to hear the details of the trip. The one person who I was able to talk to about the trip, and how great it was, and how much I wanted to go back, was a girl I work with who is still in college. And she said she still thinks about a trip to South America she took several years ago. My guess? She hasn't been stifled by the "real world".

Poverty in Europe

One thing I had wanted to blog about way back in regards to my trip to Europe was regarding homelessness and poverty. Starting from our unintentional 8 hour layover in Paris, I got a different feeling about the stigma of homelessness. I saw a guy sitting in the airport, who was clearly homeless, and he was just sort of sitting, then he took off his shoes and proceeded to rub mineral oil all over his feet. Security walked by countless times and never made any attempt to usher him out. Another guy who was either homeless or crazy or both was walking around the airport singing to people. Again, no big deal. If either of these things happened here in the United States, you can bet that each of those people would be sent on their way.

Then, during our time in Croatia, Greece, and Italy, we didn't see any apparent problems with homelessness. To that effect, neither did we see anyone who acted like the rich "too good" pricks you see all the time around here, nor did we see any people who seemed overly rich. Everyone seemed pretty equal for the most part. Hell, I see more homeless people walking the 2 blocks from the bus to my office than I saw in all of those countries while I was there

I know I've heard many times before that work ethic is different in Europe, and so I'm assuming the drive to become rich is not as widespread either. Perhaps I was just seeing tourist areas that are kept pretty homogeneous, who knows. I know I did notice for sure work ethic was different, especially in the service type jobs.

There seemed be less disparity between rich and poor, and less emphasis on it as well. I don't know, but I think it's healthier overall. Of course, I'm not driven by money so my opinion is bound to be different. It's a weird sort of paradox here, homelessness is frowned upon and pushed under the rug, and if you aren't driven by money and materialism you are different. I know I've made a bunch of gross generalizations, but hopefully you get my point.