Performance Zen

Author: spierzchala

  • The fading of blogging

    Through 2007, the number of posts I made per day/week/month decreased steadily. I know post new items 2-3 items a month, or less. After 2 years of steady entries, I just didn’t have anything to add to the conversation.

    Having been an A-list groupie for this entire period, I lost touch with the self-perpetuating scene. A comment that I saw on Top Gear summed it up: Jeremy Clarkson had another chat show host on, and they both commented on how all British chat show hosts end up appearing on each others shows.

    That’s how blogging began to feel to me. I began to step back.

    I stepped back from true, active day-to-day management of GrabPERF.

    I drifted, intellectually and emotionally.

    I found the sharp edge of my humor, which had wandered off and gone hitchhiking through the British Isles disguised as Roger Daltrey for six months.

    The last few weeks I have been asking myself if I want to go back to blogging, if I want to continue to produce the random ideas for the world to see.

    The death of my grandmother a few weeks ago brought my world back into sharp focus. Who is going to see these stories, these tales? Who will be the keeper of my intellectual flame? What will people know of me when I fade away.

    I will be trying to storm back. My brain is here.

    I AM THOR, GOD OF THUNDER.

    Ok…maybe that was delusional. But hang on for another wild ride.

  • Goodbye Grandma

    On Friday morning, my brother called to tell me that Grandma Isa had passed away overnight.

    Isa was my father’s mother, and was one of the most amazing people in my life. In her life, she had survived poverty that few of us can imagine, seen 5 children die in infancy while raising 5 of the most different and unique people I know, survived the unexpected death of her husband, and the slow death of her eldest surviving child (my father).

    She was always there. She always had something to say. And she was there to tell you anything you wanted to know about the family.

    I miss you Grandma.

  • You know you have reached middle age when…

    You hear a song off Bob Mould’s album Workbook used in a TIAA-CREF commercial.

    I think I’ll just nip off and shoot myself.

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  • Some days you look outside…

    Most days, I look inside. And that’s part of the problem I suppose. That’s why I haven’t posted in so long: there has been no inspiration to stand and shout about anything.

    I suppose that’s why I have been so viciously depressed these last few weeks. There has been nothing to write of. My life has been void.

    Have I missed anything while I was away?

  • Overwaitea: Hey! How about a 20 minute shift?

    Many, many years ago, I started my depressing voyage through the world of work at an Overwaitea food store in my home town. As a teenager, I expected to work so weird hours, and accept some level of abuse from the “adults” I worked with.

    However, it seems that the organization now expects all their employees to accept this crap [here].

    A major B.C. grocery chain wants some of its unionized staff to work shifts of just two hours, a move the union representing 8,500 workers called shocking.

    The Overwaitea Food Group, which also runs Save-On-Foods and Urban Fare, made the demand for two-hour shifts as it began negotiating a new contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the union said.

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  • The music of Iceland

    I don’t often (ever) talk about my musical taste. It is unremarkable for the most part, with flights into madness and impulsiveness.

    Lately, I have discovered Icelandic music. Mainly Sigur Ros, Mum, Apparat Organ Quartet, Aniima, and (of course) Bjork. Apparently Icelandic music is all the rage, with people trying to understand how such a small country can produce such a wide range of artists.

    These artists provide a soothing background to my jangled, often confused, mental state. I played it as I slept while I was on my latest trip, and while I was on the plane returning from Chicago.

    However, my deep feelings and desire to visit Iceland has its roots back in my very early teens. A Hardy Boys mystery and a Clive Cussler novel brought it to my attention. It’s a nation of extremes, of wonder, isolation, and survival.It is among one of the few places I feel I have to visit at least once in my life. I cannot explain this desire. Perhaps it is the latent Viking in me.

    But the music draws me as much as the place does.

  • New GrabPERF Measurement Locations

    I know that I have been bad at blogging news about GrabPERF, but today there is some. In the last two weeks, we have added two measurement locations: Washington DC AOL and Argentina LaNacion.

    Thanks to Carson Evans of AOL, and Jose Falvo and Leonardo Lancellotta of LaNacion for helping out with the installation process.

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  • 7 Hours at Sea-Tac on New years Eve

    So, on New Years Eve, due to the vagaries of modern air travel, the family will be spending seven hours at Sea-Tac waiting for the second leg of our trip home.

    For me, this is usually not an issue, as I can huddle up in a corner with my wireless connection and while away the hours with work and general interest. However, we will be a one laptop family, and my children need to be entertained.

    Likely at least an hour of the trip will be handled by immigration as they subject us to the joys of entry with our Advanced Parole documents. It’s now harder for us to get into the US via air as late process Green Card applicants than it is if we were simply visiting the country.

    After that, who knows.

    Does anyone out there in blog land have any great suggestions for entertaining a family for seven hours at an airport?

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  • San Francisco 1, Wasteful Excess 0

     

     

    Don’t really need to explain this, do we?

    Via Core77 and LuxuryLaunches

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  • There is a 12-step program to help even you…

    I am often chided for my 5-shot, Venti Latte.
    Then I saw this.

    Yup, it’s a “a 13 shot Venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel”.

    Lord help this person when they wake up in the alley behind Starbucks on Christmas Day.

    Original image from Core77.

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