Yes, coffee IS the shit

I have work to do, which is probably why I'm surfing random sites instead.  Anyway, long delayed story...

While Malcolm and I were in Bali this January, we treated ourselves to a lazy, languishing schedule.  One of our lovely mornings on the beautiful coast, we treated ourselves to a western style breakfast (our favourites here at home too) at a nearby cafe.  Noticing a sign for the infamous kopi luwak, we thought that while we were treating ourselves, we'd treat ourselves to a cup of the ultimate of ultimate coffees.

The cup was small, but DAMN was the coffee good.  The "nothing added, nothing taken away" sort of thing.    And so, we treated ourselves to seconds.  The coffee was supposed to be the best in the world (and it tasted that way) and the most expensive, but being in Bali, Indonesia, we weren't too worried about the price, though we admittedly hadn't seen it posted anywhere prior to ordering.

Then the bill came.

$5 USD per cup???


For comparison, our super filling, equally yummy meals didn't cost that much each.  It's not like it put us in the red, but we should have at least inquired after the price before purchasing, especially since we were in such a low-spending mindset.  Again, don't get me wrong - it was WORTH the $5 USD per cup.  WORTH it.  And besides, it gave us a great coffee story to tell; how many can actually say they've tried the best coffee in the world?

Anyway, so my digression brings me back to my distraction on the internet.  Being distracted, I found this post via a series of clicks through other sites, and I felt much better about those $5.  That's all.
...

Oh, and this afternoon, I felt a headache coming on, so to combat it, I went and got myself a huge cup of coffee.  Problem solved...or is that "problem deepened?"  Mmmmmm, coffee!

Not the retail kind

     "Why is it that no one seems surprised when I tell them I'm going to therapy?"
          --a friend of mine, who told me he was going to therapy, and I wasn't surprised

The more accurate reaction was that I wasn't concerned that he was going to therapy. It's because therapy is just therapy, not the end of the world. I think people need to be more afraid of needles and surgeries and chemicals being pumped into their body than a little one-on-one therapy during which you spend most of your time talking.

If you've elected to go to therapy (because really, it's rare that anyone can MAKE you go), then it can be seen that you're looking out for your mental health. Just because you go and join a gym doesn't mean you were overweight - it means that you're interested in getting your body into a healthier state. That's the same way I view therapy - you're trying to get your mind into a healthier state.

Anyway, mental health conditions have become so numerous and commonplace nowadays that to admit to having (or be diagnosed with) a mental health disorder is no longer taboo. It's practically the norm.

Nervous? Stressed? Anxious? Can't stay still or focused for longer than 2 minutes at a time? Those could all be due to an imbalance and therapy is the right way to treat it. Sure there are words like "bipolar" or "depression" that people still find scary or threatening, but really, the sooner you acknowledge and treat those issues, the less negative impact they will have on your life. Going to therapy? Sticking to it? Good on you.

p.s. Yes, drugs can be prescribed to help a lot of those conditions, but I've always believed that the best healing comes from you and comes from the inside out.

Downpour

Dear Pathetic Fallacy,

Yep, that's about right.

melody

Just grin and bear it?

   "The cost of replacing lost or stolen dentures is ineligible under your dental plan."

Who steals dentures?
...

   "Under the terms of your supplementary medical plan’s extended health care benefit, damage caused to your teeth while eating is not covered. Your supplementary medical plan only covers damage to natural teeth resulting from an external blow to the mouth."

So the moral of the story is that if you want to get your teeth fixed, you gotta take one to the mouth. Go big or go home.

The name game

This past weekend, 3/4 of the Sugar team were stuck at La Guardia airport together, waiting for a plane that was constantly re-delayed.  In an attempt to amuse ourselves, we shared travel stories.  When it was my turn, I tried to share the story of the flight attendant I had in San Fran that had the craziest name.  However, to my dismay, I could not for the life of me remember that crazy name during my re-telling.

  "Oh man, guys, it was such a odd name!  Like, WHO would have that name.  I can't believe I can't remember it.  It started with a 'b' and it was this woman's name...argh!  It definitely started with a 'b'..."
  "Bagina?  Was that it?  It had to be Bagina."

Oh gawd.  It wasn't.  It was something else crazy, but after that, it was no where as awesome as Bagina.

Slacking off Working at work

At all my previous work positions, I was accustomed to having to wear a whole wardrobe of different hats to manage all of the various tasks that crossed my desk on daily basis. Here at my new job, I was hired to be a writer and writing is all I do.

Not complaining.

However, by chance, I was asked if had time to sort through a list of clients and determine - based on data contained in the report - which needed to be contacted regarding our latest campaign. I agreed because I didn't happen to be writing anything at the moment. They thanked me and assured me I had two or three days to complete it. They then sent me the file.

It was an Excel file.

Nearly rabidly, I opened that file and sorted and filtered to my heart's content. Fifteen minutes later, I was done.

"You're done already?"

"Yeah, I'm a bit of an Excel geek."

"That's great!"

It was. I was presented with two more files to sort through, and then a graph to complete. Twenty minutes later, after I'd hit send, the colleague wrote back to me:

"You're AWESOME. You don't know how much time you saved me."

She really just didn't know how un-complicated it was. Shortly after that, an instant message popped up on my work screen.

Drugz: Hi there
me: hello!
Drugz: you're a tech wiz
me: hahaha
me: uhoh...is that a good thing?
Drugz: lol VERY good thing
Drugz: I just got a question from someone else: "I can't figure out how to imbedded a word document into another word document (or excel) so someone can pull up one doc that contains a variety of supporting docs."
Drugz: do you know how to do this?
me: there's a way...
Drugz: i'm listening...
me: http://www.geekrant.org/2005/09/14/word-embed-document/
Drugz: see...tech geek...i knew it
me: nope--supreme googler.
me: :)
...

Google makes me look like a geek. Excel makes me look like a whiz. Really, I was just shirking my other responsibilities. :)

A flash of intelligence

At least my version had the right kind of lightning in it.