Friday... how I love thee..

Fridays are great. Not much work.. usually leave early and more recently.. the introduction of grey's anatomy..

you avid tv watchers (mostly talking to kd here), would be quick to correct me. Grey's anatomy is on Sunday.. no?.. yes and no.

I've begun replaying the show every week (starting from the beginning) for some fellow workers in a well picked presentation room. So, I've in esscence got a bunch of people hooked, and it feels great. Nothing beats a great tv show other than a great tv show with a bunch of people to talk about it with. Fridays could be even better if they led into... wait for it... a 56 hour weekend.

No, I'm not crazy. I'm talking about the concept of the 28 hour day. Before you think the lack of schooling has gone to my head, hear my out.. it's actually an interesting idea, in the age of lights and curtains.

So, a work week is how long... 40 hours (supposedly). That means we could equally do 4 days @ ten hours vs the 5 days @ eight hours we currently endure. That leaves an extra two hours for more relaxation/sleep whatever.

How does this help?.... think about commuting. How about reducing that by 1/5, including the pollution that goes with it. How about you being able to identify the day by the time of sunrise or sunset? How about a reduction in crime as night will not always coincide with darkness?... etc.. Overall, it's an increase in efficiency.

I know this will likely never happen as there are billions or possibly even trillions of dollars invested in software and products that coincide with a seven day week. But it is something to think about. It seems like an advanced society would put the crap aside and go for what's more efficient as in the end it would be the most beneficial.

There are also the biological factors which are something that cannot be ignored as we have always been used to a certain cycle. But some quick googling found that we are actually more in tune with a 25 hour day than 24, so maybe 28 isn't so ridiculous.

In any case, some thinking outside of the box for you.

you wanted it.. here it is

what to post about...

since work is not a bundle of fun nowadays with me working away at stuff I don't much about (which is good and bad), I'll talk about a day downtown that will likely lead into a talk about something else.

soo.. it was Wednesday and I headed downtown for a mentorship meeting. It was cool.. I got to talk about completetly random stuff (which I enjoy).

after that was the long trek back to good old MP for some general rel.. friggin PO... followed by BK, snes and then the very long trek back to markham. Traffic doesn't bother me as much as it used to..

I didn't post about this before, but you Torontonians likely remember our little baby flood several months ago. It just so happened on this day I was on the 404 heading south on my way to pick up my brother. Now that was traffic. It took about four hours to move a few km, then about two to go back the other way. This leads me to the tonne of natural disasters that have occured. I don't know if I notice them more now that every waking moment of my life is not spent studying and worrying about school.. but there seem to be a lot more. Tsunami, Katrina, Earthquake and a bunch more.

I think we need to be prepared for a continuing trend. Our fast paced highly specialized world is extremely vulnerable. Our friggin super mini flood shut down our city. Can you imagine something slighty bigger? The damage would've been exponentially worse. When they built our infrastructure it wasn't designed to take our new crazy storms, flash floods or hurricanes (my brief stint at the ministrey of transporetation taught me this). The solution?.... spending billions upon billions of dollars on improving infrastructure with money we don't have.. the better solution? How about a world organization, highly trained, highly funded who can swoop in and help in cases of emergency. Something like the UN but more specialized and without the bullshit politics and bureuacracy. When disasters do strike, the response is usually there, or trying to get there. What happens?... local government, aid organization, charities. whatever.. stepping over each other trying to provide help. One properly run organization with the same resources could do a LOT more. And it's not like there will be a shortage of interest.. I'm interested.. sign me up. Many very capable would be interested in such an organization.

it's probably not possible and I'm likely preaching some sort of utopian kind of crap, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

grey's anatomy is finished... hence the end of this posting.

bye

Thursday...

thursdays.. OC... chilling at home and more recently, reading. It started off as long-term study tool for the gre but has really started to grow on me. I haven't had the opportunity for some time as school always sort of made me hate reading. There would always be an insanely dense and boring textbook that would be calling me instead of an enjoyable Tom Clancy or something similar.

but, instead of a book, I just finished reading a few articles in the most recent Fortune.. yes... yes... taking this business stuff to heart. It's not easy coming into a position of mine as it requires an intuitive feeling of the business world and I have zero experience and background in the area. But, I am learning and it's getting better.

So, the one article that I found particularly interesting is the one about the current ceo of ge. Nuts, nuts, nuts... he's nuts. 100 hours a week, 5am-9pm everyday, flying every which way, speeches, lunches, meetings... all while leading the biggest company in the world and honestly, with power only short of the idiot in the white house, the crazy man in Pyongyang and a guy I don't know a lot about in China. And what's makes this even more interesting is ge doesn't like to play musical chairs with it's top man, he's there for twenty years barring some major disaster. If you want to make an impact in the world, be him. It's his job to forsee future growth markets (including nano.. yeah!!) and push the company to capatalize. This is big. His investments in nano can prove to be the tipping balance to millions of jobs, the next cure to cancer, the next anti-aging cream.. whatever.. you get the point. In any case.. it's another argument towards going into business, you can have a bigger impact in the world and affect positive change and growth. Moreso than a lone researcher studying the photoluminescent properties of nanowires (sorry to use you as a scapegoat kd, you shouldn't have asked me to proofread that paragraph of yours!!). I'm not saying that the research isn't important.. it is.. very important.. but I think I can have more of an impact motivating and leading a large group of researchers in a more business role instead of being on the frontline doing the research myself.

enough of that.. onto hockey. I just need to get this in here. Hockey's back.. yeah!!!... it's a good game.. I almost forgot. New rules = too many penalties, but the players will eventually get used to it. Shootout = crap .. a really bad way to end 65 minutes of hard nosed play for 3 breakaways. Besides, the leafs suck in that department, they sent lindros, allison and o'neil.. they got problems. Maybe the shootout will grow on me.. we'll see.

k.. that's all for now.. I hope this doesn't induce more anonymous comments.. I seem to be a magnet for them.

bye