Here is my March 2016, installment of what I had done at 8:16 PM each night during the month. I also found it helpful writing down what happened during the day as a small journal/diary of what was good, bad, or interesting.
Little Background
I started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:16 (8:16 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.
March 2016 Events
Mar 1 – Listening to episode 17 of Stacking the Bricks “Kids Incorporated” by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman (30 x 500). http://www.stackingthebricks.com/episodes/26159-ep17-kids-incorporated. Today was spent in a few meetings and testing VETS 4212 and Ideamill while also testing the new ODEP reports/charts pages.
Mar 2 – changing into sweats from my jeans after coming home from dinner at Wegmans I am doing a bit of shopping. Another day of testing along with trying to schedule training and figure out what to do with the end of the vets 4212 stuff.
Mar 3 – Eating vegetarian crispy rice salad, tofu laab, and an awesome tofu curry soup of some kind at Bangkok Golden with Ted Drake, Eric Wright, and Sam Joehl.
Mar 4 – Eating sushi at Momo Sushi with Eric Wright. Had some great mackerel, along with eel, and scallops. Finalizing this round of testing of VETS 4212 and waiting for Ideamill updates to retest.
Mar 5 – Watching the final episode of Mythbusters of the 250+ episodes I have to have seen at least 200 or them over the years. Was nice seeing them honoring their greatest myths with ending with an explosion of a cement truck that they thought was one of the things that put them on the map so to speak? Went to St. Elmo’s to meet up with the gang, and then it was off to M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters for a bit to add more phone, location, hours, etc. information to my Gotta Eat Here blog posts. Also, created blog posts for both January and February of what I was doing at 8:16 PM this year.
Mar 6 – Sitting in my spare bedroom add restaurants to “Gotta Eat Here” blog posts by separate food categories such as breakfast, lunch, donuts, pizza, ramen, etc. I was in the process of loading up what ended up being 22 breakfast places around the country, nine of which were in DC area. Slept in until 9:30 AM after gong to bed at 1:45 AM, so didn’t sleep in at all. Went to Pho 75 for a small bowl of Pho with extra noodles, round eye, and fatty brisket. First time in all my times there or any other Asian noodle place where the noodles were soft and mushy making it hard to eat. Once done there I went to Boccato Lounge for hot cider and to work on adding more restaurants to my Gotta Eat Here blog post outlines. Then went to St. Elmo’s for tea and sorting daily information for both my January and February what I was doing at 8:16 PM posts. Came home from Elmo’s read and then took about a three-hour nap.
Mar 7 – Again I’m sitting in my spare bedroom add restaurants to “Gotta Eat Here” blog posts outlines for BBQ. Most of the ones I have listed are in Texas and mostly in and around Austin. Finished up testing to new Ideamill board status button, along with trying to figure out what is going on with Compliance Sheriff stop running the scans over the weekends. We have found a few things but now need to check on them to see if they are the actual cause or happen to be happening when things stop.
Mar 8 – In Cabin John in my buddies basement having a beer tasting. We were talking about a trip to Mexico that a friend had with her mother and younger brother on a bus from Mexico City to the beach. She told of how all the people in the front of the bus were chain smoking while speeding along and hitting potholes, etc. At one point she ended throwing up as a six eight-year-old girl. The bus driver looked over at her and laughed while continuing to drive on.
Mar 9 – Sitting on the blue line at the Pentagon City station after leaving LivingSocial at the “Indie Web Home Brew” club, where people gather to work on their websites, along with having your website to be the primary source of your content.
Mar 10 – On blue line home from meeting up with Tony, Jeff, and Mike at BBQ Joint to try the newly opened restaurants food. We tried the pork nachos, chicken wings, and braised beef brisket slides. Along with a four meat platter of pork ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and smoked turkey. Plus, sides of beans, coleslaw, collard greens, and smoked sausage. The sleeper dish of the night was the smoked tofu chili along with the ten beans and some cheese. I would go back only to have the tofu chili.
Mar 11 – Driving to Peter Chang’s with Eric and Sam to eat Sichuan style Chinese food. We ended up ordering a bunch of different things starting with scallion bubble pancake, BBQ pork ribs, pan fried dumplings, and large individual soup dumplings. The two primary courses we order were “Hot and Numbing Beef Brisket in a hot pot” and pan-fried steamed pork belly. A great meal would go back again and should bring more people so we can order and try more dishes. Finally, managed to get VETS to sign-off on the first part of the VETS 4212 accessibility updates.
Mar 12 – Leaving Wegmans parking lot after grabbing dinner to go along with some cured meats, cheese, and fruits to get me through the week until I leave for Las Vegas on Friday. Woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep so went to M.E. Swing Coffee Roasters for a hot chocolate while doing some more work gathering list of places to eat for different blog posts. Then it was off to St. Elmo’s for an hour and a half to hang out and chat with friends. Next was quick stop home before going to Frederick, MD, to get my beard trimmed to make me look less homeless at Citizen Barber. First had to stop for lunch at Family Meal for he Catfish with beans and other veggies, along with grits. Once my haircut was done wandered around E. Patrick St. and then N. Market St. to see what was around. Finally, got back to my park to head over to “Gravel and Grind, which was recommended to me by my barber. The parking only cost me $2.00 to park in the city parking garage for almost four hours.
Mar 13 – If I had known it was so close to 8:16 PM, I would not have gone to my bathroom, which is where I was at the given time. Today went to Taqueria Poblano to have their breakfast burrito which contains, rice, beans, cheese and scrambled eggs. Next went over to St. Elmo’s for tea and to add more restaurant information to my Gotta Eat Here blog posts. After that got into my car and drove over to Boccato Lounge for a hot chocolate to drink while updating more Gotta Eat Here blog post outlines and then an hour or so worth of reading of “Designing Products People Love” by Scott Hurff. Around six in the evening, I headed home to do more laundry and then catch-up on Twitter.
Mar 14 – Working my way through all the photos on my phone and deleting one’s hat I don’t really, need since I backed them up the other day. Had two meetings today and finished up checking some charts and graphs for accessibility issues. The first problem was that I could only look at the pages in IE, which made it in-accessible for most from the start. Also met with the programmer from VETS on what was still needed to be corrected in the next two weeks or so.
Mar 15 – Sitting Cabin John tasting beer with about eight or ten other people while eating homemade chicken tacos with rice and beans. The three best beers and not being a beer guy like the rest of the people were the two by our friend Mike from CA and the Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Regal Rye Stout. Managed to grab my laptop and bring it home so I can work from home Wednesday because WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) is closing he DC metro system for 29 hours to inspect all the cabling. Feel sorry for co-workers that had already left and didn’t have a chance to bring their laptops home so they could work from home too.
Mar 16 – Cleaning up peanut shells up at Five Guys after ordering a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and sautéed onions, along with a small fry. Got to work from home today do to the fact that the DC metro was close for 29 hours to inspect all the electric cables in the system. I managed to clean up my laptop desktop along with gathering all my accessibility resources files all in one place.
Mar 17 – Sitting in my spare bedroom booking one-way car rentals from Las Vegas, NV, to San Diego, CA and then back five days later. The price of the Las Vegas to San Diego one-way rental went up about $60 or $70 since I waited an extra day or two. Luckily the San Diego to Las Vegas one-way rental stayed at $34 since it looks like Fox Rental Car needs to move cars out of San Diego to Las Vegas. Today managed to do a small bit of Android testing on of the updated OSHA Heat Index application before heading out on vacation and then speaking at CSUN next week. Also did a bit of reviewing of a couple of projects that I was doing accessibility testing but need to be finished most likely while I’m gone.
Mar 18 – Checking into the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas after a busy day traveling and giving an accessibility talk at Web Development Group. We ended up having dinner at Chine Poblano, which is a Jose Andres restaurant at the Cosmopolitan. We order the following dishes: “When Pig Fly” which are steamed pork buns, lamb dumplings, mojo shrimp, and lengua tacos.
Mar 19 – Walking around Fremont St. in downtown Las Vegas and listening to the Angry Brian’s which a Celtic band from Bakersfield, CA. They even had a young woman who played the bagpipes. Managed to only sleep about four hours last night. We went to the Bellagio Hotel to have their all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I had shrimp, rare prime rib, roast leg of lamb, scrambled eggs, some dim sum style pot stickers, chicken sausage, and chorizo for my first plate. When back for a second which was some bread pudding that I put a bit of chocolate sauce on, mini cheese blintz, mini apple crepe, carrot cake, gluten free chocolate tart/cake, and I think that was it for me. My buddy had a few more plates than me. Took an hour and forty-five minute nap later in the day before we headed to John Mulls Road Kill BBQ were I had baked beans, mac-n-cheese, cornbread, smoked chicken thigh, smoked sausage with sauce, which I didn’t care for as much, and finally, rib tops.
Mar 20 – Laying on my hotel bed reading Twitter to see what might have happened the last few days. Managed to sleep until 6:30 AM this morning after going to sleep at 12:30 AM. Hoping tonight, I can stay up until closer to 11:30 PM and the sleep to after 7:00 AM, which will get me more towards the west coast time before heading to San Diego Tuesday morning. Today we went to Mr. Mamas for breakfast. After that, we went over to Counts Kustoms to take a free tour and see all the cars from TV. Next, we went down the street less than a half-mile to Welder Up to check out all the rat rods. Once we were done there, I had William drop me off at the Bellagio so I could get my 80-minute massage, which worked out great. I then stopped at the Bellagio’s Fine Art Gallery to see all the photos of famous artists, actors, politicians, etc. by Yousuf Karsh. It was unbelievable to see all those black and white photos he took of them over the course of 50 years starting in the 1930’s through the 1990’s. During his career, he held 15,312 sittings and produced over 150,000 negatives. I next walked over to the Linq to meet William, his co-worker, and his wife at Guy Fierri’s restaurant for dinner. Managed over 15,600+ steps for today. My steps have stopped being counted at 9:00 PM Las Vegas time which is 12:00 AM eastern time.
Mar 21 – sitting front row to the right of the stage to see Penn & Teller. Saw some of the same tricks last summer (2015) sitting eight or ten rows back center and still couldn’t figure out how they did some of the tricks. Went to late breakfast/lunch at El Gordo Tacos where I order seven tacos and some roasted scallions and a few hot peppers. I ordered one al Pastor, one beef, two lengua, two tripa, and one sesos (brains) taco. They were well worth the thirty or so minutes to get them. Dinner managed to be a late double double animal style at In-N-Out Burger after Penn & Teller.
Mar 22 – Eating Ramen with Makoto Ueki and his wife at “Tajima Ramen Bar” Hillcrest located at 3739 Sixth Ave, San Diego, CA 92103. The three of us order all four types of Ramen so that we could try each one. The waiter brought us extra bowls so we could try a bit of each. Once that was done we each chose the one we liked the most. We let Makoto’s wife go first, and I think see chose the curry ramen, and both went with the lighter ones. I ended up with the chicken and extra garlic. Since I had a late lunch at 3 PM, I had Makoto finish the spicy one. I spent the day traveling with William from Las Vegas to San Diego with side trips to Joshua Tree National Park where we stopped a bunch of time to take photos. Next, we traveled to the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach to have lunch at the Ski Inn. We ordered the patty melt with coleslaw and a side of french fries. When we got there, it was the bartender, a cook, and one local guy who left right after we got there. Once I food go there three locals, and another woman from the area stopped, and we had a grand time talking with them. We signed dollar bills and placed it on the ceiling and took a photo of where it was so we knew where it was when we came back.
Mar 23 – Back again at “Tajima Ramen Bar” Hillcrest for Ramen with buddy and co-worker that work at 18F. We order the same as yesterday which one of each kind of four types of Ramen so they could try each one. Busy day talking to people about accessibility work options while attending a few different talks about testing and performance.
Mar 24 – Talking with different accessibility people over at Puesto during Google’s party. Spent the day attending a few talks while also making the Knowbility Hero Awards ceremony before the Tweetup. During the Tweetup went to talk accessibility with a person I know from the Boston Accessibility Camp group out on the patio to enjoy the evening weather and sunset.
Mar 25 – Cheesecake Factory with Gareth and two of his co-workers from the BBC. I presented my accessibility performance talk to about a dozen people, which usually happens when I get a late Friday afternoon time slot and even more so when it’s Good Friday and people are heading out early to be home by Easter for the international travelers.
Mar 26 – Wandering around the container park in Las Vegas with William heading to get chocolate from Jinju. Had a fun day driving from San Diego to Las Vegas. We took mostly back roads so we could see more the Unites States countryside, plus it made it easier to make stops. One of our planned stops was at a flea market outside of Joshua Tree National Park in a small desert town. We saw some interesting items, but they were too big to take home. The two redwood slabs would have made a great desktop, printer shelf, and maybe even coffee table. We next stopped at the small farmers market on the way to the “Joshua Tree Country Kitchen” restaurant, which is owned and run by an old Asian couple. While waiting in line to be seated in this tiny restaurant, we were talking with the people in front of us. The old Asian lady came out and told the two older ladies in front of us she had a table for four for them. Of course, me being the shy introverted one that I am said: “We could share the table if they didn’t mind.” The older of the two women said sure while the other one gave me the impression she wasn’t so thrilled with the idea. He managed to talk pretty much the entire time with each other and learned the one women was eighty-four years old. I would have never guessed that. After a lunch of patty melts with cole slaw. We again headed towards Las Vegas with a stop at Bristol Lake and then through the Mojave desert. Bristol Lake is a mostly dry lake most months out of the year which they dig large trenches to get to the water that then produces salt as it evaporates. Dinner in Las Vegas was at Lotus of Siam. We ended having a few hour wait, which is why we were at the container park at 8:16 PM.
Mar 27 – Was in the process of landing at DCA from Las Vegas. My day was spent sleeping until 8 AM then waking William around 10 AM, so we could get ready to leave for the airport to travel back home to the DC area. Breakfast ended up being two Whooper Juniors at a Burger King in the airport because we didn’t have enough time for a sit-down meal before taking our direct flight from Las Vegas to Washington, DC.
Mar 28 – I was writing a follow-up accessibility e-mail. Again had a busy day catching up o e-mail, while in the beginnings of a stuffy head and hacking cough after coming home from CSUN.
Mar 29 – walking down the international aisle at Wegmans after shopping for bread, cured meats, cheese, fruits, cookies, and some candy for the office, along with grabbing dinner from their hot bar. Got called out more or less for coming into work with a hacking cough and stuffy head after CSUN. It looks like DOL is starting over in awarding our contract, so we got a six-month extension because of it.
Mar 30 – I was home watching TV, after a day of work with the middle part of my cold retesting the new OSHA Heat Index with TalkBack and looking at Compliance Sheriff issues.
Mar 31 – Laying on my bed talking accessibility with a guy from NC. Had a busy day finalizing the new OSHS Android Heat Index application to make sure others understood that there were accessibility issues using TalkBack on our device, but things worked with TalkBack on other devices. Also, did some testing and review of Compliance Sheriff to try and figure out why scans are now taking so long to run after the upgrade. One thing that helps some was adding more memory to the database server.
Conclusion
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 entry to see what you have done or can accomplish over the course of a year.
If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:16 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.
