October 10, 2016 at 8:45 am
I take the train to work, only 22 minutes each way. I use this time to read. I have gotten through over 50 books this year thanks to this reading time, and when I get home I am very relaxed.
October 10, 2016 at 8:52 am
manie (10/9/2016)
Nowadays I only work 5 km from work and it takes me no more than 10 minutes to get to work.
Same here. But I still wonder if that car behind me is a cop, was I speeding, am I too close to the line, etc.
October 10, 2016 at 9:06 am
I've been using Google Maps for "directions" every day, not because I don't know the way to to work, but because Google does a better job than I do of figuring out which of the three river bridges available to me has the shortest commute that day given the current state of accidents, congestion and road construction. Regardless, I spend some of my time doing about 5 mph on a 5-lane interstate while the road condition sign says "Speed Ahead 25 mph". Right. I'm really hoping that once construction is complete on one of those major bridge routes in December, this situation will ease up considerably.
On the way home, I am attempting to (safely) negotiate with my teen when and where she needs to be picked up from, depending on her varying schedule of school activities that she somehow does not know in advance.
I try not to let the crazy drivers get to me, but they do every day. If a large pick-up or SUV which is riding my bumper rear-ends my Honda Civic at high speed, which vehicle do you think is going to come off worse? I do my best to stay away from them, let them past, never make eye contact, never acknowledge rude gestures, I stay out of the far left lane most of the time, but I still end up with crazies on my bumper. Many times they tailgate me on exit ramps. I'm sorry that I'm not exiting the highway like a roller coaster! I also have this weird notion about actually leaving adequate stopping distance in front of me. I am often tailgated aggressively while I am matching the speed of the car in front of me, but leaving a safe distance.
It's a significant addition to my already-high anxiety level, but I can't find a way to avoid it. I don't have a work-at-home option. There is zero public transportation, and cycling is impossible given the distance, highly-variable weather patterns, river crossing, my deep fear of being hit by a car, and my sad state of physical fitness.
And don't get me started about driving in the snow... we are just far enough north to have snow driving, but far enough south that no one is good at it.
October 10, 2016 at 10:20 am
Pray or listen to worship music or preaching, occasionally talk radio to here what they are saying about the two poor choices we have for presidential candidates.
October 10, 2016 at 10:46 am
First, I'll turn on the radio to NPR news (I hate political\entertainment talk radio and morning rock DJs shows). If there isn't a good feature on, then I'll switch over to SQL Server or TED Talk related recording on CD.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 10, 2016 at 11:18 am
My office moved from 3 miles away to 29 miles away, so my commute went from 10 minutes to 45. I am in a van pool, and drive in the morning, so I spend my time watching out for crazy drivers. When I drive myself in my car, I usually listen to the radio, and wait for problem solutions to percolate through my brain. in the afternoons, another guy usually drives the van, which means I can take a nap - getting up at 5 to be ready to drive the van at 0600 is getting old.
October 10, 2016 at 12:16 pm
OMG... Are our lives getting so boring these days that this is the kind of thing we post on a tech blog?? That said, why is this the first blog I've ever responded to?? Anyway, I'm a Data BI/Analyst/Architect.. I try to drive on auto pilot and perceive the surrounding world as a movie. Doing so keeps a distance between me and 'them'. This removes emotion from the equation and allows me to set even pace with activity around me. When I'm successful this blocks out the road rage.. never take things personal. That guy who just cut you off, by the way, was probably a Java Programmer.. and we know where their heads at!! Something that does bother me are the time locks, the typical 8 to 5 mentality that has the tendency to cause grid lock, waste time and energy and give rise to road rage. With the time it takes to recover from the morning mental and physical stress, plus time around the morning coffee pot, long lunch breaks, afternoon exhaustion and the tense drive home mixing everything from drunk drivers to the over amped to those simply trying to survive the drive.. what percentage of the day actually gets translated into something productive? Take that small slice of productivity and from it how much of that time actually translates to anything truly 'creative'? Need we discuss the Sh!* for Brains functional manager micro-managing a job he has no clue how to do or the guy 20 years your junior insisting on sticking his fingers in the pie that takes you an hour to 'correct' for every five minutes he or she spent on the job? We could be focusing on patterns and then translating those patterns into automation. I believe the primary motivation keeping us from doing so is the fear that such act on a broad basis would result in machine replacing man. But what lies beyond that? What's the positive outcome? If 80% of Data Warehousing jobs are indeed failures as so often reported, is it because developers see the reduction in effort of continued sustainment, reports development, etc. due to the adjusted paradigm and thus fear future job displacement?? With so much to be gained from warehousing/BI techniques could that simple abstract be that hard to understand?? Well, if it was I'm sorry to say, but the logic behind it has been placed in machine based automated packages leaving the time consuming effort a thing of the past. Now the developer has to seriously step up his game in effort to catch up with technology embraced in machines and automation that continues to move at an accelerated pace on a daily basis. Machines suffer their own frailties from traffic congestion (network) to stress (load balancing) but given respect, cooperation and room to do their job properly a unified, well-balanced and progressive work environment can be established and successfully maintained for both man and machine.
Well, my solar-powered, AI equipped self-driven car is pulling up to my work station so I must go.. But as I was saying... who would actually pay attention to this type of blog anyway?? :crazy:
October 10, 2016 at 12:43 pm
dyatch (10/10/2016)
...Something that does bother me are the time locks, the typical 8 to 5 mentality that has the tendency to cause grid lock, waste time and energy and give rise to road rage. ...
My first database developing job I worked 10am-7pm. It was awesome! Zero rush hour traffic either way, and two hours every night when no one was in the office that I could program in with no interruptions! It was kind of interesting developing an ETL/reporting system in dBase III long before I'd learned of the term ETL.
Personally, I'd class APL programmers as more insane than Javaheads, but to each their own. There's certainly more of the latter than the former.
-----
[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
October 10, 2016 at 2:08 pm
For me music on the radio I start with the 70/80's rock station then progress to alternative then hip hop then country until I find a station not on commercial break. Fortunately I only live ~15 minutes from work and the majority of that time is driving along the coast 🙂
I do miss good talk radio though, there was a great couple years at my last job when Adam Carolla was on in the morning and Tom Leykis was on in the afternoon.
October 10, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Insanity's fine.. Javahead is something completely different. I started as a C then C++ OOP programmer. Went into data to support C interfaces. Art was lost in my mind when Java came around. Response time drives me nuts and those that try to control data through Java script with disregard to any actual DB engine.. well, that's a different world and one that in many respects is finally starting to crumble. Thank God!!
October 10, 2016 at 7:52 pm
NPR and Books on CD occupy most of my drive time lately.
412-977-3526 call/text
October 10, 2016 at 11:15 pm
Gary Varga (10/10/2016)
I have to say that over time I have met a good number of people that commute a really short distance by car stating that they need to drive in order to have enough time for the local gym they go to. This is madness to me. Particularly when they tell you that they use the cycle and running machines most of all!!! :crazy:
I could easily use a bicycle to commute to work but unfortunately in our town I find it to dangerous to ride a bicycle. :-D:-D:-D
Manie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
I am happy because I choose to be happy.
I just love my job!!!
October 11, 2016 at 1:06 am
manie (10/10/2016)
Gary Varga (10/10/2016)
I have to say that over time I have met a good number of people that commute a really short distance by car stating that they need to drive in order to have enough time for the local gym they go to. This is madness to me. Particularly when they tell you that they use the cycle and running machines most of all!!! :crazy:I could easily use a bicycle to commute to work but unfortunately in our town I find it to dangerous to ride a bicycle. :-D:-D:-D
That's a reason. Most when questioned about it look at me as though they have never even thought about it.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
October 11, 2016 at 5:39 am
I found the lack of a shower at work a problem when I lived less than 10 miles away.
I rode my bike 5 miles each way to high school, walking on the occasional snowy days.
412-977-3526 call/text
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 51 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply