Monthly Archives: May 2015

What I’ve Been Doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) – February 2015

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Here is the next installment of what I have been doing at 8:15 PM for the month of February. Here’s my post from January, 2015, of what I’ve been doing at 8:15 PM.

Little Background

Started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) every day for the last month after reading Kitt Hodson’s Pastry Box article from Jan 1, 2015. Which was about how a year earlier she read Erica Douglass’s article about writing down what she did at 11:11 AM and 20:14 (8:14 PM) everyday.

I thought this was a great idea to see if I could find any patterns in my nights. So far I tend to watch TV Monday, Thursday, and Sunday nights when I’m home. Also on the weekends I tend to be leaving or coming back from dinner, sometimes even eating dinner.

February

Feb 1 – Watching Katy Perry perform at the halftime of Super Bowl XLXI, along with catching up on Twitter. Nothing exciting going on as of yet with the game tied at 14 to 14. With Seattle scoring with six seconds before the half against New England.

Feb 2 – ENTERED 2015/02/3 – Watched 2 Broke Girls after making updates to my Performance slides. Then last night cleaned up a few 100 e-mails with more work to do.

Feb 3 – Sitting in Barnes and Noble drinking a large Starbucks hot chocolate with whipped cream while looking through magazines. The magazines were Communication Arts magazine, along with: Entrepreneur, Inc, Jamie (Oliver’s), and Fast Company magazines.

Feb 4 – Installing Dragon Naturally Speaking on my Windows 8.1 PC, while cleaning up my e-mail. Busy day working on more APIv2 issues, along with creating a draft of e-mail sent to users.

Feb 5 – Talking with Corey, Emily, and Marisa about the design after the Dribbble DC event were a guy from Gannett talked about using the Oculus Riff. Spent the day reviewing ODEP PDF and UX for APIv2.

Feb 6 – ENTERED 2015/02/16 – Had Pho at Pho Viet Flare so was either there or heading home from there to watch Tree Masters. For some reason, this entry got skipped or deleted from Simple Note while using it on my phone.

Feb 7 – Attempted to install Turbo Tax on my MacBook and found out I need to have OS 10.7 or higher to install, and I only have OS 10.6. Glad I have my PC, which has Windows 7. Also working on my 2015 THEME blog post about a HEALTHIER ME. Visited my local coffee shop (St. Elmo’s). Did some reading, napping, and next TV, and dinner.

Feb 8 – Watching Anthony Bourdain’s the Layover in Toronto. After a day of seeing the movie “The Theory of Everything”, Pho at Pho 75 in Arlington, VA, taking a nap, and a getting 3.41 mile walk into Old Town down King St.

Feb 9 – Listening to Ali, Max, and two others talk about getting into UX, what they do, what they are looking for in a new hire at General Assembly DC. Most of the day was spent looking at PDF issues and closing out issues in GitLab.

Feb 10 – At Clarendon Apple Store looking at 13″ Retina MacBook Pro to replace my old White MacBook. Played around with the Notes and Pages, along with Mac Word 2011 to see if the files created were accessible. A long day of checking eight or 10 PDFs and other documents at work.

Feb 11 – Laying in my bed looking at the days Twitter after reviewing PDFs and attending two meetings. Then spending the afternoon teaching Compliance Sheriff class, along with my “Is Your Website Accessible?” talk and other accessibility issues at a work agency.

Feb 12 – Writing up notes for the four websites Viget Labs asked to check for the talk on Friday. Next need to check the home page with JAWS to see how things read and what is going on with the extra accessibility navigation thing. Another busy day checking documents.

Feb 13 – Finishing up Pho at Pho Viet Flare on Van Dorn or heading home from there. Stopped at Sugar Shack for donuts. Had a good day at Viget Labs talking accessibility with their team in DC, Raliegh, NC, and Boulder, CO.

Feb 14 – Eating roast pork Bahn Mi sandwiches while watching “Dinners, Drive-ins, and Dives while waiting to watch mid-season finale of MythBusters. Got cars oil changed, then over to St. Elmo’s, home to read then out to Pho 75 with Sam and Eric. We then went to Super H Mart for meat to add to tomorrow’s soup with a stop at Banh Mi DC Sandwich.

Feb 15 – Sitting in Buzz Bakery with two 9:30 cupcakes to go after a busy day. Went to Hoffman 22 to see the five Oscar-nominated shorts films, along with the ten or so nominated animated shorts films and runners up. Then it was off to St. Elmo’s to read with a cup of hot chocolate. Then to Dairy Godmother for a quart of salted caramel custard and then drive to Mt. Vernon before dinner at Momo (sushi).

Feb 16 – Watching 2 Broke Girls on a relaxing Presidents Day holiday. Spent day reading, napping, and trying to come up with a better way to have multiple skip navigation links on Craig’s Hospital. Having an issue with the width of the container, which I’m thinking is getting style in JavaScript. Plus, waiting to see how much snow we get tonight and wondering if work will be canceled or have two hour delay.

Feb 17 – Back to reading “A Day at elBulli” by Ferran Adria. Currently, read page six of the “Creative Methods I” lime green section of the book which is between pages 136 and 137. The Federal government was closed today because of snow (three to four inches at my house). I ended up shoveling a few driveways (mine and end of neighbors after plow came through) for an hour and a half to two hours. Then it was time to watch “Gift of Business chat with Amy Hoy, Alex Hillman, and Brenan Dunn after that was a late lunch of Pho at Pho Viet Flare. I  dropped my car at Landmark Honda to get an oil pan gasket fix before hopping a bus to King St. metro station and walked home from there.

Feb 18 – Watching an old episode of “American Pickers”. Reviewed a half a dozen PDF’s on first day back after a four day weekend because yesterday was a federal government snow day.

Feb 19 – ENTERED 2015/02/20 – Listening to Kaytee Nesmith talk about the UX of crypto applications. These applications can make life safer for those in danger or sources for articles at nclud as part of February’s Refresh DC event.

Feb 21 – Driving Sam and Eric home after dinner Ray’s the Steaks with William, Anthony D Paul, Samantha, and a few others. Had the hanger steak with mashed potatoes, wild mushrooms, and bone marrow, along with steak tar tar, horseradish, and capers in deviled eggs.

Feb 20 – Leaving Caphe Banh Mi where I had a small house Pho (eye round and brisket with beef broth) with extra noodles. While sharing part of my table with six women out celebrating two of their 50th birthdays. That was fun getting asked a bunch of questions while eating from slightly drunk women. Say of APIv2 meetings about UX and accessibility issues.

Feb 22 – Eating a roasted pork Bahn Mi while watching to Oscar pre-show on ABC. Slept in and did a bit of snow removal so when it freezes tonight it would be an ice rink. Then went to Pho 75 for a small bowl of #10 (eye round and fatty brisket). Next grabbed Bahn Mi, chocolate chocolate cupcakes (Doom) from Baked and Wired, along with breakfast tacos for a mid-afternoon snack.

Feb 23 – Its Monday night so watching 2 Broke Girls like most weeks. Talked with my brother James earlier who called for my birthday a day early. Spent the day dealing with APIv2 with Daniel and figuring out more issues with Token and Datasets.

Feb 24 – Again finding time to read “A Day at elBulli” by Ferran Adria on my 52nd birthday. I’m in the middle of the history of the elBulli section, which are the tan pages between pages 184 and 185. Finished the history up until 1997. After I’m done with the history section, it’s off to grab Pho at Caphe Banh Mi in old town Alexandria and bring it home.

Feb 25 – ENTERED 2015/02/26 – Was catching up on “American Pickers”. Needed to unwind after a day of reviewing PDF’s.

Feb 26 – Watching “Big Bang Theory” after running to Burke and Herbert Bank to pay my rent, then to eye doctors to pick up my new glasses. Next off to Barnes and Noble to pick up “Great Discontent” and “Lucky Peach magazines. Finally, stopping at South China to grab Mongolian Lo Mein after a long day checking PDF’s after a two-hour snow delay.

Feb 27 – Flying to SFO for Bay Area Accessibility Camp at LinkedIn in Mountian View, CA. Currently, over middle America somewhere between the western side of Iowa and eastern side of Nebraska. I’m sitting next to Nguyet and Doug how are headed to Sonoma Valley for a few days.

Feb 28 – Sitting in Agave Mexican Bistro with a dozen or so accessibility people after a great day at Bay Area Accessibility Camp at LinkedIn in Mountview, CA.

Conclusion

After re-reading these entries, I have notice how much I have done over these few months. Some of it productive and other times recharging the batteries. I also at some point in my writing down of events started adding in how the day went, what happened, what I planned to do later, and I was thinking.

In the future, I plan to post this information once a month at the beginning of the following month.

Hopefully, this has been helpful to you and gets you to keep track of what you do a particular time of the day, along with a short daily diary.

If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:15 PM some evening, please leave a comment. Or a suggestion of something that is not part of my ordinary life you think I should do.

 

What I’ve Been Doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) the Last Few Months

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Started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:15 (8:15 PM) every day for the last few months after reading Kitt Hodson’s Pastry Box article from Jan 1, 2015. Which was about how a year earlier she read Erica Douglass’s article about writing down what she did at 11:11 AM and 20:14 (8:14 PM) everyday.

I thought this was a great idea to see if I could find any patterns in my nights. So far I tend to watch TV Monday, Thursday, and Sunday nights when I’m home. Also on the weekends I tend to be leaving or coming back from dinner, sometimes even eating dinner.

Below I was going list all the things I have been  up to for the past month at 8:15 PM, but realized it was going to be over 6,500 words so will be posting February, March, and April entries over the next week or so. Some days I didn’t enter the information into my phone (SimpleNote application) until later that day or the next day because I was spending time with others and didn’t think it polite to stop right then to write what was happening. On those occasions I made mental note and did it later. Sometimes you will see “ENTERED – YYYY/MM/DD” after a date that notes when I entered the information.

January

Jan 1 – N/A – Hadn’t started yet.

Jan 2 – Writing bills, rent check, and fixing checkbox alignment CSS.

Jan 3 – Watching Edward Lee in the third season of “Mind of a Chef” (video) on DVD. While he is talking to Andy Ricker of Pok Pok, and I’m eating cured meat and cheese sandwich on a great baguette.

Jan 4 – Again watching the second season of “Mind of a Chef” on DVD with Sean Brock (video). While he is talking with Edward Lee about making Korean BBQ and using Carolina Gold rice, and I’m eating cured meat sandwich on a great baguette.

Jan 5 – Watching “2 Broke Girls” and then it’s time for dinner before doing work on the INPUT field outline examples pages. This TV watching thing needs to change sooner than later.

Jan 6 – Updating WordPress: plugins, themes, etc. and looking through spam comments to see if and are good, along with looking at my draft folder to see if anything is ready to post.

Jan 7 – Working on making two different text versions of an organization chart one using a definition list (DL) and the other using heading structure to convey who and what groups fall under what. Going to convert work example to be Geeks Love Wine related example.

Jan 8 – Watching “The Big Bang Theory” and starting to outline the FOCUS on INPUT blog post, along with one about a possible better way to display an organizational chart with text.

Jan 9 – Watching American Pickers and Dinners, Drive-ins, and Dives while waiting to go to District Taco for fish tacos closer to 9 PM.

Jan 10 – Watching the beginning of the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks NFC Divisional football  game.

Jan 11 – Taking a break from working on responsive TABLE example, while also doing laundry.

Jan 12 – Working on making fixes to the responsive TABLE example, so the footer doesn’t end up showing a horizontal scroll bar while listening to the Stick Mob’s “Drive West All Night”.

Jan 13 – ENTERED 2015/01/14 – Was attending WordPress DC and listening to Anthony D Paul on “How to Create a Website Using WordPress on Your Cellphone”.

Jan 14 – Purchased CSUN tickets and now checking the weather for a trip to Cleveland for a long weekend and then booking the hotel for now at least.

Jan 15 – Looking at plane tickets from DCA to SFO and then SAN to DCA, while updating my responsive TABLE example to use other data than work dataset data that I first made it with.

Jan 16 – ENTERED 2015/01/16 – Driving to Cleveland, OH, to go see the Ferran Adria “Creativity” exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in Cleveland Heights, OH.

Jan 17 – Watching Barrett-Jackson car auction while waiting for the Mythbuster’s “Indiana Jones Special” in Cleveland, OH. Drove from DC to Somerset, PA, with a side trip to see Kathy and Nicolas Chugh at his swim meet in Canton, OH, next to Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Jan 18 – Ordered a few of Ferran Adria book ( add book names ) after attending Ferran Adria’s “Notes on Creativity” at Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. After spending three hours at Cleveland Museum of Art. Had dinner at Eric Meyer’s house.

Jan 19 – Relaxing by watching 2 Broke Girls after driving home from Cleveland that took over eight hours instead of the six I expected it too.

Jan 20 – Watched TV while getting rid of slight headache and queasy feeling after having to wear broken glasses all day. Glasses frame broke yesterday and got an older pair as a backup pair so current lenses would fit into them until I can get newer ones, along with the new prescription.

Jan 21 – Starting to read “A Day at elBulli” to see what Ferran Adria’s creative thought process, along with he and his staff go through in a day to serve dinner to about 50 people.

Jan 22 – ENTERED 2015/01/23 – Was driving to Taco Bamba to have tripe, tongue, and el pastor tacos before meeting the Deque group at their hotel in Dulles.

Jan 23 – ENTERED 2015/01/24 – Was having dinner with Glenda “the Good Witch” Sims (Twitter), along with fellow Deque employees Dian and Jeneen and then Sam at Hyatt Dulles. We headed up to Glenda’s room for wine and more conversation once dinner was done.

Jan 25 – Watching the Screen Actors Guild Awards after a day at the movies watching “The Imitation Game” and “Birdman”.

Jan 24 – Again reading “A Day at elBulli” by Ferran Adria about their process of creating dishes and how learning a technique for one thing can help when creating something else later on. This afternoon went to Sugar Shack on their grand opening day to try their donuts which are great from the one I have eaten so far, plus had Pho at Pho 75 with extra noodles for dinner.

Jan 26 – Watching “Trip 2015” on Travel Channel, which I’m guessing is a big ad for each of the companies being shown. Then during ads need to update nephews soccer website with requested changes. Loads of fun at work with meetings and PDF reviews.

Jan 27 – Started the first draft/outline of my “Healthier ME” blog post (never finished), which I’m currently explaining last year’s theme. Next need to explain why I’m looking to improve my health. I’m listening to “The Stick Mobs” who are from the DC area. It’s getting difficult since I had no breakfast and a small lunch. Need dinner soon. I’m thinking South China takeout.

Jan 28 – ENTERED 2015/01/29 – Looking at the AT&T accessibility jobs and decided not to apply, since not sure what I want to do for work. Am I going to do more coding or UX?

Jan 29 – Talking with the Army .MILers old and new at Refresh DC (Twitter) after listening to Megan Zlock talk about the differences between the CMS Craft and WordPress.

Jan 30 – Sitting in Pho 75 with Sam and Eric ordering a small round eye and fatty brisket with extra noodles. A day spent using JAWS on two PowerPoints and entered 20+ issues into GitLab.

Jan 31 – Laying on my bed listening to Hot Jazz Saturday on NPR while reading twitter after a long day of shopping with Sam. We went to Sam’s, Wegmans, Super H Mart, and Banh Mi DC Sandwich.

Conclusion

After re-reading these entries, I have notice how much I have done over these few months. Some of it productive and other times recharging the batteries. I also at some point in my writing down of events started adding in how the day went, what happened, what I planned to do later, and I was thinking.

In the future, I plan to post this information once a month at the beginning of the following month.

Hopefully, this has been helpful to you and gets you to keep track of what you do a particular time of the day, along with a short daily diary.

If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:15 PM some evening, please leave a comment. Or a suggestion of something that is not part of my ordinary life you think I should do.