11 June 1999: Feedback at Work

Friday, 11 June 1999:

Feedback at Work

Yes, it's been another busy week. And yes, a lot of it has involved gaming.

Wednesday was weekly gaming at Subrata's. I figured it'd be another Settlers-fest, but on a whim, I threw The Great Dalmuti into the stack of stuff I was taking to work. It turned out that several people there felt like their brains were fried, and Dalmuti was about the speed of what they wanted to play. So we spent two-plus hours playing 8-person Dalmuti. It was fun.

Thursday night was another Bridge night. I was uncertain whether I felt like playing Bridge; I was kind of tired and contemplated going home and sitting quietly and reading comics. But, I was weak, and after running some errands I drove up to Becky's and played. (The Bridge regulars, by the way, are Becky, Grant, Ben, Subrata, and sometimes John and Ron. I work with Ben, and John's the John I always mention here.) It wasn't one of my better nights, although it was remarked that some of the hands I had trouble playing (or bidding) were particularly - even deceptively - tricky hands. So I felt a little better about that, and paid more attention to advice on playing out a hand than I've had to in the past.

And today, after work, a bunch of us got together to play Starcraft over the network. It was not an auspicious game; two people had never played before, and it took quite a while - over an hour - to get everything configured so we could all play. Aargh. The game itself was okay, although I'm still struggling to work with the middle game; I seem able to get my 'economy' of getting resources up and running okay, but I could do better at building the right buildings in the middle game to develop a good offensive force.

And tomorrow I'm going up to see Ceej and David and we'll likely play more Starcraft (and perhaps other things, too).

On the more productive front, I went into the fitness center four times this week, which is pretty good. I'm getting better at getting through my weight training program, and have added a third set of reps to several of the exercises I do. I also noticed today that my jeans are feeling looser at the waist, which is obviously a good sign! Although, to be honest, I think I'm near the lower end of the size these jeans can accommodate anyway, so I probably only have a little ways to go before I go to the next lower size.

I also went out and bought a new bag to hold my workout stuff in, and also some better shorts to work out in, rather than my everyday shorts. Although it now seems like I may need to replace the shorts fairly soon with the next smaller size!

And, yesterday morning my boss' boss came into my office, and told me at the end of what he came in to talk about that he'd "heard good things" about my work and my relationship with the developers on the product, and to "keep up the good work". This was great to hear, obviously! I'd been feeling like I hadn't been getting much feedback on how I was doing, and I was about ready to ask my boss for some, so it was great to get unsolicited compliments like this. (And, I might still ask my direct boss what he thinks about how I'm doing.)

So, I felt really happy the rest of the day.

So, things are going well, though it seems like they never slow down! The only real downside to report recently is that just tonight I discovered that I seem to have ants in my study at home. I'm not sure why, since I don't keep food in there, and there aren't many of them. I think I see where they're coming from, so I guess I should just get some Raid and spray there. It is annoying, though. I don't have a phobia about them, but bugs always make my skin crawl, even when I know they're basically harmless.

And now, it's late, and I must get off to bed. Another busy weekend... and I don't really mind. Really.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)