What I read (4): Dating is Dead

Dating is Dead

Who she is: Belle lives in NoVA and I met her late last year at a blogger happy hour. I'd started reading her blog and particularly wanted to meet her. She's in her 20's, grew up in the Deep South and has been in the DC area for about a year. She's good natured, a good sport and a good person.

Why I read: Belle is a great writer with a good ear for dialog. The details of her dating stories are priceless. She is a tolerant person—to a fault and to many other people's faults—but that's why she's so sympathetic. Unfortunately, her blogging has fallen off in recent months. While I wish she would post more often, I hope she's at least doing her writing somewhere else.

What I read (3): Bathroom Reading

Bathroom Reading

Who he is: he lives near DC and I met him at a blogger happy hour--he is a rowing coach! We had plenty of rowing stuff to talk about, which was fun. Other than that, he is recently re-employed, has a bunch of housemates, and likes goofy movies.

Why I read: Funny and sometimes personal stories. The movie reviews/reflections are interesting. I like it when men share personal stories, it's rare. This blog mixes up the personal stuff with cultural, topical stories. It's been almost a month since his last post--is work getting in the way of blogging, perhaps? That is no excuse! Let's argue some more about what the best teen romantic comedies are, ok?

What I read (2): Articulatory Loop

Articulatory Loop - Read, Repeat, Remember

Who he is: Michael is a public health student in Atlanta but he used to live in DC. I met him at the blogger meet up and he's a great guy. Other than studying a whole lot and letting us in on a few of his insights, I don't know what else he's up to these days. He also writes at DCFUD.

Why I read: I often learn something from Michael. His entries are short and informative. I enjoy seeing the trends of epidemiological and public health research and even though the links are technical, Michael does a great job of translating for us dilettantes. My only complaints? 1) He should post more often and 2) I'd like the full feed to be available in RSS. Other than that, keep up the good work!

What I read (1): Arjewtino

Arjewtino

Who he is: an early-thirties guy who is (believe it or not) a Jew from Argentina. After leaving Argentina as a youngster, he spent the rest of his youth in L.A., which has left its mark (Dodger's fan). He lives with his girlfriend, "The Princess," who strikes me as a very good sport. Arjew, as we like to call him, works hard as a government contractor type. He was also super nice to me after my last great break up. Break up? What break up?

Why I read: Smart, funny stories. He’s good writer and posts lots of pictures. The stories are generally personal with a heavy does of sports and humor. He could probably write a book—no, he should definitely write a book—but he’d need to pick a topic first. Or maybe a book of essays? It’ll be good, whatever he decides.

Blog diet

It should be no secret to regular readers that I'm not crazy about my job. I still think the substantive parts of what I do are important and interesting, but my real, day-to-day duties have turned me into a glorified editor. The writing quality of the documents I receive is so low that I have to do significant work to turn them into things my agency can publish without embarrassment. It is a sad, sad state of affairs.

Perhaps the saddest aspect of this state of affairs is what an incredible slacker I've become. I spent all week reading a document for which I'll have to prepare a memo summarizing my (and other readers') comments. I want to have the memo ready by Monday and I started writing it today. I'm at page 22 of the document and page 8 of my memo (it's a bad sign that my memo is so long).

In order to get this memo done on time, I decided to track my time at work. Being accountable to myself should help me get more work done. I set up a little free timer thing with categories for my different tasks, including non-work ones, like lunch, breaks and "non-work reading." So, what did I find I was spending most of my time on? Was it on writing lovely, entertaining blog posts? No, not at all. Most of my time was in the "non-work reading" category. That's right, I was spending (almost) ALL DAY reading blogs! And I'm a fast reader. However, since I subscribe to over 100 blogs on bloglines, even a reader as fast as I would get bogged down.

Yesterday I decided that not only were my reading habits ridiculous but they bordered on the shameful and definitely crossed over to the irresponsible. I may not enjoy my job, but I am well paid and I do have work to do and I damn well need to get it done.

Even in the super slow times, I need to limit the blog reading to off hours. I have lots of non-pressing reading to do if my projects are in lulls. I actually was starting to get some of that reading done before the holidays, but too many days away from the office and the ramping up of some projects put it on the back burner. But it's there, waiting, when the slow times come again (and they will).

I'd say that even doing my own writing is a better non-work use of my time than reading blogs. Not that I'm going to stop, oh no. I'll just have to gorge myself in the evenings and weekends. When I'm not knitting, that is. Or maybe while I'm knitting!

Today's approximate numbers:
Time spent on real work: 5 hours
Time spent on blog writing: 30 minutes
Lunch: 1 hour
Breaks/email: 1 hour

Hey, that's almost a full day! I haven't even included the drop-bys and casual work conversations (one was a question about how to use our phones for conference calls—if it's electronic, they ask me). I'm off to a good start.

Wish me luck!

Grateful for: self-discipline.