Motels and Peep Shows

This morning I woke up at the Motel 6 thinking, "Why do I stay at these crappy motels?". Yeah, they are cheap but everything about them sucks. The TV screen is smaller than my laptop, the shower looks like some sort of peep show booth with stains included, the bed feels like a box spring w/ covers (has anyone actually slept under them? Sleeping bag required.), and of course the smell, hmmmmmm....why that just can't be described but must be experienced first hand. Of course, even though there is a desk I can't actually work in the box (oh the smell, just nasty) so after quickly showering I squeal my tires onto the road again. Destination? The closest Starbucks, where I can "camp" for the day in relative luxury and feel like a "normal" person.

After a few blissful hours of quietly documenting items that will never be read by anyone, my day is changes with a single phone call. "Um, er, is it bad if..." hahahahahah... yeah so the day turns into a debugging day filled with phone calls and online chats. Great, and all I can think about is how I have to roll off this project very soon. Of course this unmotivated myself to help solve the "is it bad if" problem.

The brain is basically an organ of the body and should just function on command. Unfortunately it doesn't unless given the proper motivation...how about "fuck you brain, if you don't perform then I won't feed you any porknbeans or vodka". Sometimes a little tough-love is needed to get results but it didn't seem to work in this case. The day dragged on until I finally said, "I'm done. Going to go find a campsite". Guess what happened? A super smart guy (not it) figured out the problem and came up with a resolution. Oh, hell yeah, sometimes the Team comes through!

As I ventured down the highway, hoping to get close to where some friends where camping the following night, I realized that I needed to stay relatively close to civilization so I could work in the morning. Well, about that time I saw a sign indicating National Forest access. I still had 3G and Sprint was blazing fast! After a few miles from the turn off, I found a campsite with an amazing view of the sunset over a city (Grand Junction, CO) and decided I had found my "motel 6" for the night. Of course, it was nothing like a motel 6. There was a big bright half crescent moon shining in the sky instead of a TV, area looked clean with no stains, the ground was soft, but most importantly, the air smelled sweet with cool with mountain breezes.

After setting up camp, getting a big comfy campfire raging, and feeding the brain, I realized I was more comfortable than I could ever be at a real motel 6, or any "box" actually. Men were made to live like this, stars overhead, crickets and frogs singing in earnest, and the warmth of fire wrapping them like a blanket, things a box can't really provide. Shouldn't I be tired of living like this yet?

My flashlight is the iphone

Today I drove to Buena Vista, CO with the naive hope that I could just forget about work and relax. Oh hell no! Anyways, after spending some quality time parked on the side of the highway, with the laptop on my knees, and the phone on dash, I continued on and finally reached my destination.
Once near where I wanted to camp I realized that I didn't have any camping gear. hahahahah. I only brought the tent, sleeping bag, golf clubs (to fend off the bears supposedly), and of course my new refurbished laptop with the working broadband card. Oh yes, I never leave home without my google and facebook!
So now I'm sitting in the dark, next to a raging fire, blogging about my total lack of preparation, hoping that my iPhone will provide enough illumination to get me to the tent, 50 feet away. How did I survive before the iPhone? I don't recall but it must have been a nightmare!

Fluffy bunnies and meat grinders

OMG! Today I am finally on freaking vacation and guess what I was planning to do this morning? I'm sooooooo sick. I need to get slapped around. My wonderful plan for this morning as I hung out in LA before flying out was:

1. Copy all my files to the backup drive.
2. Upgrade my laptop's OS to Windows Server 2008 RC2.
3. Build out a Window's 7 virtual image, with Visual Studio 2010 beta.
4. If I had time then maybe talk a walk on the beach.

WTF? I've turned into a freaking workaholic loser. Me, the guy who had a million hobbies and interests, now is reduced to building out OSes on his days off because that seems like a good idea. Oh great freaking idea! Dunzo. New plan:

1. Turn on auto responder for work email. (*Try to keep it civil...don't use "Hahahaha...you are working and I'm probably passed out in the hammock. Don't try to call me either since my phone doesn't get reception when I'm on vacation. I might be back in a week unless I get smart and quit this freaking job." - yeah, don't use that message *)
2. Shut down laptop.
3. Disable work email from iphone.
4. Shower (don't shave - start the "i'm-a-bum-and-i-don't-care" look).
5. Drive directly to the beach.

Yep, that's my new plan and its time to execute it!