Bryan's Mind

Antonella was flying back from Italy and forgot some of her documentation. Faced with a choice of spending X dollars putting her in a hotel and taking Y days for her documentation to be sent to her via Fed-ex or of flying there myself and handing her the documentation, I chose “B.” So, we spent the weekend in Munich.

One quick observation…the exchange rate is more like an exchange rape. The dollar isn’t worth much more than Monopoly money in the European Union (The United States of Europe seemed too copy-cat, I suppose.)

I should have some pictures of Sophia chasing the pigeons around Marielplatz below the carnival-esque Rathaus-Glockenspiel shouting “Ducky.” I’ll try to get them posted today or tomorrow. If anyone doesn’t have access to my Picassa folder and wants it, let me know.

The next few days will be some observations about my trip, though they may be slow coming as there are no words to express how mentally fatigued I am right now.

I have to say, one of the best things about an impending high school reunion is that everyone comes out of hiding and new contacts are made.  I am not sure why everyone drifts apart after high school, but it happens.  I think it is nice in a way, though.  Here are people that you knew quite well for several years, then they vanish and re-emerge and you see what they’ve been doing.  If I keep in touch with someone quite regularly, it appears I don’t have a whole lot to say, as the day-to-day lends itself to few stories worth recounting.

Additionally, some people have done remarkable things since high school.  It is interesting to see what everyone is doing and how they have changed.  Sadly, I will not be going to the twenty year reunion.  I have to go to orientation for my MBA during that time in Tempe, Arizona.

Having the family gone is not the only factor that makes my life boring…

Additionally, my job is boring.  I have not written a line of code in 2-1/2 months, and it doesn’t appear the opportunity is going to rear its ugly head any time soon.  I program in Word, baby.  YEAH!  As a result, my reading on the WCF (Windows Communication Framework, for you non-PC freaks of nature out there) has all but ceased.  Without the opportunity to use it, why bother reading about it?  I am even exploring moving to other projects that are in C++ and Unix, just so I can get some code-writing love.  Maybe I chose poorly coming here.  They had a personnel survey and found that 80+% of all people in the company found their jobs fulfilling and interesting.  Either they have elevated their buttkissing to a whole new level, or they don’t know better.  Maybe both.  Probably both.  Hell, I know it’s both.

In addition to my joyous workday, I am also studying to re-take the GMAT, a not-very-challenging test that measures how fast you can answer simple questions.  The only thing that ranks higher than taking that test and knowing that I have to take it again is studying for it.  It sucks. Period.

So I have just been sitting around studying and trying to get some stuff done around the house.

WHOOPEE!  (sorry, couldn’t contain myself).

Arthur C. Clarke has returned to the mother ship.  He will be missed.  He has always been one of the more compelling sci-fi authors, and without him we wouldn’t have the Hal 9000 or such quotes as in the title, and:

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave?”

I spent most of Saturday taking the GMAT, and doing quite a lousy job at that. I was not done reading the prep and probably could’ve taken the practice test another couple of times. I got to the Metro pretty early, and had about 30 minutes to either a) memorize some statistics formulae, or b) learn how to take the data sufficiency questions, I chose option “a”. This wasn’t a very good choice, as half of the quantitative test was based on option “b”, and there was one statistics question. Ouch!

Another shout out to that asshat that nearly killed me on the way to take my test. Some idiot was stopped at a yard sale and decided it was okay to just go from a dead stop and pull out over two lanes so he could make a left turn at the signal a quarter of a mile up the road. I had to slam on my brakes and veer over into the grass median. Of course, I showed them they were “number one.”

As for running…I ran Friday night and Sunday night. On Friday, I picked a new route and ran down to the beach at Breton Bay. There is a hill on that one that is ridiculous, both in grade and length (goes from 118 ft to 26 ft over .3 miles, located at 38 deg 16’08.27N, 76 deg 39’53.92W, paralleling hole 1 of the Breton Bay Golf Course), but I never stopped running, which was my goal. It was 4.5 miles. On Sunday, I ran my usual 4 mile route, and averaged 9:47 pace. Not too shabby; however, it is funny to think when I was in the Army, the worst I ever did on a two mile run was 13 minutes and something, which is 6:30 pace, give or take. The best was 11:47, which was like 5:40 pace. If someone was “really slow,” they ran it in like 15:00, or 7:30 pace. Granted this is 4 miles, not 2, but still…I’m feeling lethargic here.

I feel I am in pretty decent cardiovascular shape now…on my last run, I never hit Zone 5. So, I will probably start working on speed a bit. I have a race the weekend after Antonella and Sophia leave, where I will join Brad and Monique over in Northern Virginia for a 5-miler. Hopefully I can get my speed up to at least 9:00 pace before then.

Have a good week!