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Here’s a recipe for a good time.  Group of friends, 30-man wrestling match, and gambling.

Gambling on the rumble is easy.  You pay for numbers and get the wrestler that comes out at that point in the rumble.  For instance, I drew 8, 14, and 29 and ended up with Chuck Polumbo, Umaga, and HHH.  Pete drew 2, 18, and 19 and ended up with the geriatric contingent of HBK, Supafly Jimmy Snuka and Rowdy Roddy Piper.  Yikes.   He also lost his over-under of 6 HBK Superkicks (aka Sweet Chin Music).  FWIW, the first 5 or so numbers and the last 10 are all great.  Anything in the teens is garbage.

Whoever’s number wins the Rumble gets the cash.  One pool had a side bet where whoever threw out the most people won $25, but that’s kinda lame.

Speaking of lame, let’s look at some of the worst groups people drew:

Ben – Hornswaggle(a midget), Miz (yes, from RW/RR challenge fame), and Mr Kennedy
Mike – Hardcore Holly, John Morrison, Snitsky
Dot(yes, a girl was involved) – Santino, Jaime Noble, Shelton Benjamin
There were a few good groups too:

Gouda: Great Khali (giants are always good), Batista, Fit Finley
Dekalb: Undertaker (constant threat), Tommy Dreamer (yikes), Carlito
Stuart(not only because he got numbers 25,26,30): Mark Henry, Chavo Guerrero, John Cena

So clearly Stuart won with that ridiculously stacked group.  I offered him 50/50 when it was down to just HHH and Cena but he was wise and didn’t take it.  To add insult to injury (for the people who hosted the party) DeKalb won the other pool.  So we basically hustled another friend’s party for all the money and got to watch the first ever HD Royal Rumble while we were at it.  Awesome.

Lame Title?  Check.  Lame google image?  Check.  Ok, let’s get on with the grown-up post:

Not to say that I’m the master of productivity or anything like that (identifying, not demostrating), but I’m pretty damn good at it.  It’s kinda what I do.

So I find it kind of humorous that while I sit here writing up reports to measure warehouse associates productivity I am also teaching myself a new programming language, Python.  Now, in most non-CS job environments this would be looked down upon.  I mean, I’m using company time to learn something most wouldn’t identify as relevent without the direct approval of my supervisor.  Thankfully, however, I’m in a position where he trusts me to get all of my stuff done and recognizes that the things I do to learn something new are intended to make my job (and therefore his) easier.

I’ve probably used ~25-30% of my time on the job here searching the internet for how to complete random programming tasks from maximizing query speed, to simplifying VBA code.  I actually was able to cut a program’s size by almost 30% yesterday after reading an article from a book I’ve been working my through during lunches.  It’s a really good book for computer-savvy folk called Hackers and Painters and when I get back to a computer with FTP access I’ll update my sidebar accordingly.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I wonder sometimes if the productivity measurements I’m going to be instituting are really good for the long-term health of the warehouse.  Many managers would see me as a slacker because they don’t take the time to learn exactly what I do, how I do it, and what I need to do it better.  Clearly productivity standards will make the warehouse run better than it currently is as the employees will have a goal to meet, but do we lose anything by setting a standard that doesn’t allow for a growth in the breadth of tasks, only the speed in which they are accomplished?

Just a thought that was running through my head.  And yes, I’m using big words all of a sudden because I’ve been furiously working on business school application essays.

To counteract that, I will update later this week with my tales of gambling on the Royal Rumble this past Sunday.

At least, this one was.

What an awesome schedule.  I woke up at 9, made a for reals breakfast, went to the gym, cleaned up around the apartment, relaxed and watched some tv, and then went to work.  AMAAAAAAZING.  Then I was fully awake the entire day at work, had a bunch of stuff thrown at me so I stayed extra busy jumping between warehouses and was able to solve a few problems.   Basically the best day I’ve had in quite some time.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to go to the mall, get a new shirt and tie, maybe eat some Cajun Supreme (Chinese despite the name) and then go to work writing another order tracker.  Still sounds pretty good to me.  Thursday morning I’ll be testing out my new shirt/tie on my interview at Emory’s business school.

Basically this schedule allows me to sleep well, get stuff done when no one else is trying to get stuff done, come home feeling good, and go out with friends if I so desire.  It’s like college schedule, only I get paid and people act like I’m doing them a favor by working weird hours.  It just sucks that I’ll be back to standard hours next week.  Might as well enjoy it while I can.

This is a e-mail I just got from Cuz, world famous blogger, Creative Loafing covergirl, and podcaster.

This Is Where I Work

In 3 Parts:

1. (note from designer to client): “what needs to be covered up besides the genitalia? do the nipples get x’ed out?”

2. part of advertisement: “Debbie Does Dallas – Now Available in Blu-Ray!”

3. client specification for ad: “make dwarf oil wrestling text all in white”

(sigh)

What a job.

No, it’s not some crazy use of dairy products to show how tortured some trust fund “artist’s” life has been.

It’s my friend Stuart and his friend Mike’s hilarious blog.  Apparently it was pretty active back in 2005/2006 but then took all of 2007 off.  It’s back up, and I’m just now reading everything.  It’s awesome.  Like, worth going back and reading the archives good.

They just post whenever they come up with anything funny so it doesn’t matter if you have any idea who these people are.  Most of the posts are short unless Stuart goes off on one his rants about something.

Yes, it’s offensive.  Yes, it’s funny.  Yes, it’s Milkart.

I used to be pretty good at basketball.  I mean, I had pretty much written off any delusions of NBA stardom or even any respectable college ball early on, but I was definitely solid HS ball material.  I didn’t play for a few reasons, mostly my realizations described earlier and the fact that pretty much everyone I knew quit after Freshmen year because of the coach.

I played at least 2 seasons a year from 7th grade on, attended and taught at summer camps, and would usually shoot around for at least an hour a day unless it was just awful weather.  Through college I would play at least a few times a week at the SAC and in intramural leagues.  I even got into a Men’s Open League one year with a bunch of friends from high school and we ended up winning it (still my only basketball title despite some 25 seasons).

Well, as you know from reading this blog, I’ve been doing a lot of rec sports lately with some friends in Atlanta (note: different friends than I won the earlier league with).  Let me just say that it’s been a sobering realization as to how far I’ve fallen.

Once I moved off campus about 2.5 years ago I never got around to playing basketball much.  Maybe 3 or 4 days a month, and never for more than 90 minutes.  After graduating I never played, simply because I had nowhere to go shoot anymore.  I was expecting to be able to slowly get everything back during the league, but it’s not really happening.  My shot’s still WAY off, even free throws are a struggle, I’m still too out of shape to simply be athletic enough to get by, and the game just doesn’t move as slow as it used to.  It sucks and I want to change it.

So, after the most recent game of another stellar 5 point effort on like 2-8 shooting and 1-4 from the line, I’m looking for places around the city where I can start playing again on a regular basis.  Of course, getting into grad school also makes this a lot easier since I could play at the school again, but I don’t want to wait that long.  I guess the main two option would be either getting run out of the building at Run n Shoot (huge basketball complex) or getting a membership at LA Fitness and going to the one in Atlantic Station which has courts.

If the season ended right now the Hawks would be the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They’re 15-14 as of this writing and are playing in Indianapolis, which is a game they really need to win. Are the Hawks for real or is this just a short term spurt?

Well, the Hawks have a very good home record at 10-6 despite playing the Suns, Mavs, Spurs, Pistons, Raptors and Magic . That’s 6 home playoff teams, for those of you playing at home. On the road is a little different story, as the Hawks are only 5-8. However, those games have included @Dallas, 2 @Detroit, @Boston, and @Orlando. Either way, you can tell the team is still young since they’re aren’t doing a great job closing out games on the road.

Horford is playing amazingly well. If points weren’t what everyone paid attention to he’d be ROY. He’s almost averaging a double-double for Christ’s sake. Josh Smith hasn’t exactly stopped making his “way too athletic for his own human body” mistakes, but he’s doing a much better job doing what he’s good at, which is keeping himself within 15 feet and embarrassing people. Marvin’s showing why he was drafted 2nd, putting up 17/6 a night while still only 21 years old.

I compiled a bunch of per40 stats last year on the Hawks, but can’t find them right now to compare with this year to see how the players are playing better individually. I was very critical of Woodson and how it seemed like he was doing a terrible job of growing the young talent. Well, with Smoove and Marvin’s improvement this year, I don’t think I can say that as strongly anymore.

So, do the Hawks still suck? No. Is there still a long way to go? Well, it is just the Eastern Conference, but yeah, there is.

And yes, that is the only Hawks logo that matters.