March, 8, 2004 archives

something to do on a beautiful sunday: ride the gold line out to pasadena to get some groceries at trader joe's.

so my earlier comment about there not being a gym near my apartment turned out to be a little too pessimistic. the stuart m. ketchum downtown ymca is a half mile from my door (or six short blocks).

so now my regular morning routine should include heading up there to exercise in some way. right now, that just means hopping on an exercise bike or something along those lines. some day i’ll figure out the whole deal with the heavy things.

i like this quote from this bbc article on academic research into how people use music players:

“Donning a pair of earbuds also grants a certain amount of licence. They let listeners become witnesses without the risk of getting too involved. The earphones absolve them of some responsibility.”

yeah, that pretty much nails it for me.

maybe i’ll go and wear my perl shirt to blend in.

a few people have commented on google’s apparent policy of letting employees spend 20% of their working hours on their own projects. this article from reuters casts it in a slightly more interesting light: For 20 percent of your time, if you’re working at Google, you can do what you think is the best thing to do. i wonder how many decide that doing their regular job is the best thing for them to do.

this sounds similar to nick denton’s 80% company, if you decide that the best thing for you to do with that other 20% is get away from work. (yes, the article is in a bizarre format. c’est la vie.)