We had a great night tonight.  When I got off work Janey and I ran a few errands.  While driving we were batting around what we wanted for dinner and decided it was a great night for sushi.  I’ve become quite partial to a wonderful little Japanese restaurant at the Paradise Pier Hotel called Yamabuki (It’s where janey took me for my birthday last year).  So we stopped in for a fantastic dinner at the sushi bar.

About halfway through Janey actually made the suggestion of stopping by Disneyland when we were through.  Of course I was all over that like white on rice!!  I love going to Disneyland, and I’m always afraid that I will push her over the edge if I ask her to go with me too much.

So a hop, skip, and jump later we were inside the gates of the Magic Kingdom.  We were only there for an hour or so.  Just long enough to take in the atmosphere and go on Haunted Mansion.  Man, I’ll tell you that just a little dose of that wonderful little theme park just does me good.  I know I am there every day, but I don’t take the time to just stop and smell the roses… or vanilla as it were.  That was a little pick-me-up that will keep me going for a while.

Great night… great night.

So my wonderful girlfriend surprised me with a fantastic preasent for my birthday (today).

Thats right friends, it’s the gift that keeps on giving and giving. The entire Monty Python Collection (16 discs!). That includes all 45 episodes of Flying Circus, as well as a bevy of things I’m sure I didn’t even know existed. In fact… aside from the Hollywood Bowl show… I didn’t know they existed.

So I’m in for a few months or so of solid fantastic classic british humor by the masters themselves.

Thanks Janey. Love you.

So, as all six of my regular readers will know, about a month ago I did a big desk cleanup at work. You can read that post to find out about the motivation… What I’m here to do today is give you all an update on how it’s going. This entry was actually inspired by a comment made on that previous post.

So it’s actually been a little more then a month since I dug down to find the grey horizontal cubicle shelf that I refer to as my desk. The fact that I work in a monstrous cubicle farm is a subject I like to gripe about. We’re a creative company… with a decidedly uncreative work area. That, of course, is a topic for another post. For now lets stick with the organization of my little grey box.

For the last month I have actually done very well with keeping the area clean. I’ve received several tips via email by folks who apparently don’t like to comment on my blog. These people have all sorts of tricks they use to stay organized. Even my Mom chimed in with a tip of her own. In the end though, I didn’t heed a lot of the tips… I just sort of did it.

It’s actually taken a lot of real thought to do. The first few days I would find myself instinctively just putting papers on the desk after I’ve read them and moved on to something else. I had to stop what I was doing and remind myself to put it in it’s correct file. Luckily my work is project based so it’s easy to come up with an organization system. Each project has a folder, and each folder has a slot on a desktop folder display/ramp/holder thingy. So in the beginning it was tough, but now I’m kind of on autopilot.

Another tough part was making sure my desk was clean at the end of each day. I work like crazy all day, and it’s really fast paced. so I used to just work right up until my leaving time… then when the clock hit the designated time I dropped what I was doing and left. Now when I arrive I set a little alarm on my cell phone for about 15 minutes before quitting time (changes from day-to-day). When the alarm goes off I start my cleanup. Most days that just means sorting a small stack of invoices, POs, requests, photos, drawings, and other stuff into their folders. Other days it means making sure that my computer desktop is clean of icons as well… all those data documents have a folder too! And if I have somehow gotten my hands on an old fashioned graphite pencil, that day will call for a wipe down of the desk surface (for some reason I can’t hold onto a pencil without writing all over everything and getting graphite shavings everywhere).

I still can’t say that it’s made me any more effective, or more efficient in what I do. But I’m sure it’s nicer for folks who have to look at my desk… And hopefully it looks like I’m totally in control. Of course I will still maintain that it’s nice to show up in the morning to a clean desk, so I guess it does help me capture that hour or so of work I was losing while I got situated in the morning.

I’ll post again about this if anything really comes of it. 🙂

So I just did something that I never do. Well, at least something that I’ve never done before. I actually completed a second reading of an entire book, a novel to boot.

The subject of my determination was “Angels & Demons“, a novel written by Dan Brown. This was Mr. Brown’s first book in what looks to become a series starring the character of Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon. The second book being, the wildly popular, always controversial, and soon-to-be blockbuster movie “The DaVinci Code“. Several fan websites say that Dan Brown is working on a third book, with the same starring character, having to do with American secret societies.

I’m not sure what prompted me to actually read this book a second time. Getting me to read something once would normally take an effort akin to coaxing a proclamation from God, but for some strange reason I just felt like reading. I do go on reading kicks now and again, but being a very critical audience, with an incredibly short attention span, it’s difficult to find a story that doesn’t irritate me to the point of closing the book after the first paragraph. But Dan Brown has a brilliant sense for including the perfect amount of detail without letting it slow the story down. I really love his writing.

He’s got four books and I’d recommend them all. Now go do some reading.

My sister Geina had a healty baby boy this afternoon. As of my last phone call home he didn’t have a name, but I’m sure they’ll get that sorted out soon.

Say hello to…  No Name.

I’ve been knee deep in so many projects that I thought I’d never be able to get back here for an update. But I’m taking some time out this afternoon to make sure you’re all informed.

Things around here are interesting and boring all at the same time. I’m about 99.9% moved into my new apartment. It’s the same size as my old one in the same complex, it’s just been renovated a bit and it’s on the second floor. Those of you who’ve been reading a while might remember that the first floor hasn’t been so good to me. So that’s going well…

Work is picking up like crazy, I’ve got more events than I know what to do with. It’s fun, but a little stressful. Some are big, some are small, but they all seem to be challenging me quite a bit. Also a new project has hit my plate rather unexpectedly. It’s one of those that I can’t give details about online, but it’s a fun brain twister that I’m having a good time with. This special project alone has called for some pretty late nights.

Lets see, what else? Oh, Janey’s new roomie is all moved in and they did a much better job of cleaning up after the move then I did. I’m still living out of crates, bins, and boxes. I imagine I will be till it’s time to do laundry.

And I think that’s it. I know it’s a short update, but hey… at least I’m doing it!