Fruit of my labors

Another Labor Day has come and gone. Jerry Lewis, finished with his annual telethon, has once again retired into the sunset and relinquished his hold on the airwaves. Life is good.

I always view Labor Day with a certain apprehension because it signals not only the end of summer but also the beginning of my busy season at work. So this weekend I was determined to pack in as many diversions as possible to avoid thinking about the upcoming weeks. For example:

1. Attended the Nebraska State Fair: To those who know me, this might be a bit of a shock but yes, I did go to the State Fair this year despite my hatred of this boring, money-losing event. My loathing of the fair goes so far that one of my first acts at my job was to cancel our booth there. But this year I was given some free passes, and while I certainly wouldn't pay to see this crap, I'm not below going on someone else's dime and picking up a Deep Fried Oreo. Unfortunately, it constantly rained while we were there so no Oreos were consumed that day. Lynn and I did record some things for our next podcast, so it wasn't a total waste.


2. Read a Book: I am a voracious reader, but I think I've even outdone myself this time by consuming The Path Between The Seas, a weighty 698-page tome on the construction of the Panama Canal. Historical essays are a weakness for me and this one doesn't disappoint. I think the most interesting fact I got out of it was that the Canal made extensive use of electricity at a time when the first factory in the US had just been electrified. It was such a potential PR boon for General Electric that they did everything in their power to make sure it would work without a hitch, and the electrical system survives today largely intact. My other book purchase this weekend was Bobby Fisher Goes to War, and I haven't made much progress with that yet. Bobby's just not a very likeable character, but I'm sure it'll get better as more of the details about his big chess match with the Soviet Grandmaster are revealed.


3. Set up my Google Calendar: Am I the only one that thinks Google is writing some of the best software out there? First Gmail, then Picassa and now Google Calendar and the rest of the Google Labs betas - all fantastic. I especially like the multiple options Google Calendar has for getting your data out of it via iCalendar, RSS or plain HTML, which is something I haven't seen with other online calendars. I used to use iCal at home to handle my personal schedule and publish my calendars to .Mac so I could access them from my PC at work or wherever I happened to be. But the problem was that I could view appointments but not add or change them. It just didn't work for me. Now I've got everything in Google Calendar, I'm subscribed to my calendar in iCal and via RSS with Bloglines. All my bases are covered. Plus, after a bit of experimenting I found out that I could send meeting invites from Lotus Notes (terrible, terrible program) for my work appointments. My life is in perfect sync.


4. Caught up on Project Runway: This is my new guilty pleasure. I like Project Runway because unlike the other crappy reality shows out there, the focus in on the work and not the personality conflicts of the contestants. The designer in me really enjoys seeing the process even though I know nothing about fashion. But I know what I like when I see it, and I have to say I am very pleased that Angela and her craptacular rosettes will no longer be gracing the runway.

Now for what I haven't done this Labor Day weekend:

1. Prepared for big job interview: I have a second interview for a job on Friday and I really should be prepping myself for it, because the first round was a spectacular disaster. There was just too much going on in my life at the time and I left that interview thinking I didn't make a very good impression. Now it's two months later and they want to see me again in a group interview with the whole marketing team. How fun! I can't escape the feeling that their first choice backed out and now they're scrambling for a replacement. And I really need to get a better idea of what this job will entail. I feel like I can do the work, but don't know if I want to work there. It's an unusual situation. But I am determined to present myself better than the last time. Well, if I can get around to preparing for it.