I Think George Jetson Made A Similar Joke At One Point

Ugh, these three-day work weeks are the worst

Well, two and a half, really.  But your point remains valid.  

Well, here we are on the cusp of another holiday weekend, the Fourth of July!  It'll be time to celebrate everything Murica, including drinking and explosives.  Preferably not at the same time.  

So, in celebration of America Day, we have Friday off here in Jeremy Land.  It works out especially when when you factor in that I took a vacation day yesterday.  I'm actually working today, parts of tomorrow (more on that later), and all day Thursday.  Geeze, really?  All day?    Three-day work weeks suck.

So what happens next week when you actually have to work all five?

Wait, what?  Five days?  That's just crazy talk.  

No Internet Smell-A-Vision Yet

To celebrate Color TV Day, today’s Sametime Status is brought to you IN COLOR!  

In a blag feature not seen since 1990's Geocities webpages.  Good job, Jeremy!  Can you make the text blink and have a jaunty "Under Construction" gif too? 

Thank you!  

So today marks the 61st anniversary of the first color TV broadcast in the US.  The first color TV show was an hour-long variety show called "Premier," and it first aired in color June 25th, 1951.  It was especially amazing, since almost nobody could watch it in color, since they call still had black and white TVs.    

I felt this was a very important moment in history, which led us to today's Sametime Status.  See, while Sametime does allow people to change their status message, the outside observer may not be aware that the status is, in fact, in color!  Users have the option to change their status from Green (Available), to Yellow (Away), to Red (Do Not Disturb).  It's really not very exciting, especially when it comes with the same old tired Status Messages like "Available," "Away," and "Do Not Disturb." 

Therefore, as a public service to you, my loyal Sametime Status readers, I have made the extra sacrifice to offer today's Sametime Status IN COLOR!  

You are welcome. 

It Wasn't Even That Difficult At The Time

I really shouldn’t have dreams about upcoming calculus tests anymore  

It just goes to show just how much calculus you could do now if you had to.  

So, being a professional engineer and genius, it probably doesn't come as much of a shock to you to hear that I have done some advanced maths in my history.  This includes things like vector algebra, calculus, differential equations, and quantum physics.  It's true.  I couldn't do any of that crap now if I tried.  

One of these, in particular, I'm not 100% convinced I could really ever do.  One of the advanced calculus classes I took when I was in college.  I, for some reason, remember it being a late class, so probably a night course which was the only one available when I could attend.  It has since turned out to be 100% irrelevant to my career goals, but that didn't seem important at the time.  All I know is that I knew exactly how to solve the problems, with no understanding of what it was I was actually doing.  I passed the course, presumably with a decent grade, and went on with life, never having to do that nonsense again.  

See, engineering is so very much not about being able to plug the right numbers into an equation and solving for x to get the right answer.  Engineering (aside from a remarkable long-winded rant I often go into about engineering being the art and science of laziness) is all about fundamentally understanding why the world around you happens the way that it does and knowing how to change it to get better results.  Anybody can plug equations into a computer nowadays, but Knowing Where To Put The Chalk Mark is what makes someone an engineer.  So, the fact that I was able to get through an advanced math course in college having no earthly clue what I was actually doing apparently didn't sit well in my brain.  

To this day (well, strictly speaking, to at least some day last week, but I doubt it'll stop now), I have a recurring dream about that calc class.  I know that I didn't go to the class recently.  In reality, it's because I graduated years ago, but in my dreamland, it's because it was a night class that I kept forgetting to go to because I didn't have to go every day.  Combine the fact that I seem to have skipped that class recently, with the fact that I didn't actually know what the class was about, and we have a test coming up soon results in a feeling of panic that I'm going to fail the course.  This is annoying, and wakes me up.  

I've already passed the course.  I've graduated.  I'm a professional engineer now, and I never need to take a calc test or do math ever again.  Why does this still wake me up at night?