From Monday At Work

The morning was overcast, but as i left home it seemed the clouds were breaking over the south bay to let in more lovely light. Hurrah, i don't mind the summer pattern of obscured skies that clear by mid morning, for Christine's sake -- although it does make meteor shower watching something i don't do as often as i might.

When i got on 101 and pointed my car up the peninsula, though, it did not look like the summer weather pattern. It looked like the winter pattern, where storms sweep down from north bay to south. "Storm," in this case, with chunky fog that i can't quite bring myself to call rain. I used the windshield wipers, though.

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I've started reading Granta 97: Best of Young American Novelists 2. It's not bad -- some of the stories have that sense of fairy tale or magical realism that i appreciated in South American fiction in the 90s, when i was subscribed to Granta. In the 90s, i found a good deal of the British and American fiction tedious. I wonder, now, whether part of my rejection of Anglo fiction was the preoccupation with married adulthood and sex, procreation, and in/fidelity. Two of the stories i read last night were about those issues: i find i read the stories with more compassion now. They still don't do much for me, but i'm not as impatient. The story between those two was a wonderful pice about death that i should read again, more slowly.

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My day's skimming brings some fascinating IP legal opinion my way: Games are not copyrightable.

The reason why games and other systems are uncopyrightable then becomes clear: the purpose of a system is to serve as a forum for user activity; it is users, not authors, who provide the primary informational value to the outputs of a system. Games and other systems are excluded in order to fence in copyright protection before it reaches user creation.

Presumably, then, you have to patent the game?

Exhale

I had a lovely chat yesterday with lola_kristine, recovering from her nose surgery, which is why i think of her as i write "Exhale." I spend some time when i wake up, if i'm able, trying to breathe deeply. I don't normally. Lola had her deviated septum repaired and her nasal passages widened and now she can breathe. I ponder such a surgery.

Would oxygen make that much a difference in my energy levels?

The allergist just said i had narrow passages: no deviation in mine. But ... I should probably just use that nasal inhaler i've been prescribed and more regularly commit to nasal rinsing. Honestly, i've no desire for surgery in the next eleven months.

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We watched Up in the Air last night and were delighted. I'm glad i watched it at home because certain social/emotional situations upset me far more than gore, and there were two scenes where i was so anxious for the character....

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Yesterday at work was of a consistent level of productivity, with a nice little mid day break with LJ and chat and such. It felt good to be so engaged, but it was a long day. (Long for me, at least.) I know i haven't been at a good work level consistently for months, and i need to remind myself, before i overwhelm myself beyond management levels that i am catching up (still) and that that doesn't mean that "normal" should be extended hours.

Goals Check-In: Week 4 of 9 (Spring)

The new glasses photo doesn't show how long my hair had gotten. I got it chopped off to my usual chopped off length yesterday. This feels short to me, because i do get used to the longer hair so quickly. But then looking through the photos of me in the LJ scrapbook, it seems i document myself at this hair length more often. Probably, when it's long, i end up wearing it up far more often.

"You look so much younger," the stylist kept saying. I think it was how i tried to relax and let my headache drain away while she washed and styled my hair that made me look younger.

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Cranky: the global (well, Germany to California) meeting that is at 6 am in CA didn't happen today. Someone decided there were conflicts so he's moving it to Easter Monday. Hello, if you have rigid three week iterations, with a scheduled kickoff meeting, you don't go willy-nilly wibbling it around when other folks may be doing what they can to keep that time sacrosanct.

I don't think i'm really pissed off, just tired of the Not Thinking and Not Communicating.

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@RuTemple passed on a quotation yesterday. It turns out it is from a poem, "The Best Friend": ( Now shall I walk or shall I ride? Ride, Pleasure said: Walk, Joy replied. ~W.H. Davies )

I found the division between pleasure and joy helpful. Pleasure isn't necessarily how i think of my choices, but there is a, "What do i have energy for now?" question to contrast with, "What will deepen my energy reserves?" I think Joy is when that energy flows easily and (seemingly?) abundantly. The choice for the moment may be for something i believe i have insufficient energy, like exercise, but in the longer view, it should help the energy flow better.

To frame that as choosing joy -- which it is -- is a bit more motivating.

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I do feel i am a little less depressed than i had been, so i think i'm slowly moving in the right direction.

One of the energy things is whether i should go to Where Camp this Saturday. I "should" go because it is a chance for me to expose myself to a geekdom that i'd like to have more time in, and that's the same way i feel about the Berkeley "Statute of Anne" Copyright celebration.

Spend the spoons or not?

The Copyright thing is off my list with no guilt. WhereCamp is close by and has no logistical issues. I could bike. I can stop by after Meeting on Sunday. It's still hard, but i can't close it off my list.

Current conference line up:
* evening Wednesday 7 April (Santa Clara): “What the Surprising Failure of Data Anonymization Means for Law and Policy.”
* May 17-19, 2010: IIW10 (Mountain View): internet identity workshop
* June 21-25 (Raleigh, North Carolina -- hey, annie_r & lola_kristine): inCommon's CAMP & Advanced CAMP.

( the usual )