Yesterday was another one of ‘those’ days. Work was a little stressful with the demo I had to do. I’m not sure why, but I find those to be the most stressful of my job. Especially when I need to demo to a client with higher-ups watching my every move. Even though I ran through my script multiple times, I still had a minor error that made me pause for 5 seconds before realizing what happened and why.

Immediately after work I was off to an advisory board meeting for the Grossmont Union School District. My Favorite Daughter’s digital arts teacher invited me. It was fascinating to see how advanced the computer art classes are, the video technology available in the schools, the photography class. I was impressed and this was just one school. We went over the proposed curriculum and wish list purchase items. It was a great process. I’ve been invited back to sit in on their IT advisory board.

One of the things I found amusing in the meeting were the wish list items. I work for AT&T. When we need something, say software licenses for 8 servers, the cost could be $8000-$10000 dollars. This is a small amount of money when you look at a company as large as AT&T. We might spend $100,000 on a server farm. These are just the cost of doing business. The amounts aren’t anything that cause me to pause. SO when we were looking at the wish list items and the amounts ranged from $1700 for software and gear up to $10,000 for advanced video production, green screen equipment, and the like.

I didn’t think anything of these amounts. They were so small why would they need advisory board approval? But then I needed to think in terms of school budget. The teacher that invited me said that they needed approval for anything greater than $500 and just because it’s on their ‘wish list’ doesn’t mean they’ll actually get the equipment. For what they’re putting into these classes, I’m impressed they can do the work they can with such small budgets. It would be nice if classes and classrooms like this were spread across the country, but I know that they’re not. I’m glad I live in the area that I do that my favorite daughter has every opportunity to learn in these class rooms and learn the skills she’ll need to be successful.

After that it was home for about 15 minutes to gobble down some food and take my favorite daughter off to a private volleyball lesson. I stayed for the hours, helped shag ball, and was impressed that even though she was sore and tired, she did well. I’m impressed with her as always. I might be biased, but I’m still impressed.

Finally got home. I had a headache again. I watched Big Bang Theory with the Wife (the one with Wil Wheaton and Levar Burton). Easily the funniest episode so far this season.

I wasn’t going to write. I didn’t have the energy to write. I didn’t want to write. I hadn’t written the day before what did it matter if I didn’t write? My headache wasn’t getting any better, I was tired, I just wanted to go to bed.

I hadn’t written the day before meaning I’d used up my day ahead I was in my NaNoWriMo word count. If I skipped I’d be playing catch up. I would fall behind. I didn’t want to fall behind, I wanted to at least stay on track. I’d been doing so good. I was at an interesting point. I might as well and try and write something. Even if I just wrote for a little bit I’d be better off.

So I wrote 1972 words yesterday. I still had a headache (it rained again) but I felt really good by the time I went to bed. With no demo scheduled and just regular work stuff to deal with, and the rain out of the way, and my favorite daughter no having anything planned (that I know of, that could always change by the time she gets home from school, or in five minutes) I should be able to stay on track today or maybe even get ahead. We’ll see what happens.

I’d better get the day job out of the way.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!