glaphix

    The new study does find that mesomorphs make up an unusually large percentage of the prison                   population, from 62 percent to 73 percent.

    But that does not mean that being fit is a predictor of criminal tendencies, said one of the authors, Jeffery     T. Walker of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

    “Those who are fit may have personalities that are more likely to make them violent,” Dr. Walker said in    an e-mail message.

    “In essence,” Dr. Walker said, “what drives them to be fit also drives them to be violent. It is also likely that those who are fit find themselves in violent situations more.”

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival starts this week and I'm happy that Debbie has agreed to go with me! We're going to see the Texas exhibit, "From Cattle Drives to Winery Trails: Food and Wine" and "The Thunder Dragon Comes to Washington." I told Debbie that  "I hope it's tasty food, and not bad cowboy food." She got excited, "I've never had cowboy food!" Ahhh! I hope it doesn't disappoint for her because in my mind, it's beef jerky and canned beans. :o( When I think of Debbie, I automatically think of Misono. Eee! It's almost July, and almost time for her wedding! Time flies.

I feel both energetic and tired. Work was great today because I met my manager (she's blonde! I thought she'd be a brunette). I think it's cool that I got to know her over the phone so my impression of her is not based on knowing her physical appearance which is different from my other work interactions. Instead of being distracted by unrelated thoughts like "I wonder if she burns easily" or "Her white blonde hair must be thin," I thought "She's very personable and easy to relate to." When I told Kobby, my team mate in the Alpharetta office that I got to meet our manager, he said "You're lucky," and "We all love her here." Yay!

The other nice thing is I got to catch up on a lot of online reading! I think it has been months since I was able to read news online uninterrupted. Ahh, project honeymoon period is nice. Now, if I could just get all the pesky log-ins to work.

Started off the morning (at home) with Washington Post and read an article that confirmed what a couple of my friends have been saying all along - too much worky != money & happiness. This article, "How Rich People Spend Time," talks about a study that shows that wealthier people have less unstructured leisure time so all that time for status, wealth, and power doesn't lead to more time for yourself. Ack! I thought it kind of related to the NY Times article about how there's this Harvard professor forcing students to consider what they want out of life - maybe reconsider that I-Banking and management consulting career and move towards public service so they can have more meaningful careers. Great idea but it seemed like several of the Harvard students they quoted were going to finance or consulting companies like Bain and McKinsey.

The research which won the 2007 Ig Nobel Awards were interesting to read about. I like the photographs in the National Geographic article.

One of my favorite articles from Smithsonian Magazine, "In John they Trust," was about worship of some man called John Frume. The journalist asks things like “If he’s an American, why does he live in your volcano?” The description of John Frume's commute was also pretty awesome, "John moves from America to Yasur and back, going down through the volcano and under the sea." Yeah, because island gods can do that sort of thing, use volcano as subway station and the sea as a subway tunnel.

Tonight, flying out for vacation but I've got to complete work-related things and final vacation stuff. Around the end of Thursday afternoon, Dom and I were talking about Friday plans since a high school classmate is visiting this Labor Day weekend but I'll be away. I've been looking forward to traveling for months, but it's as if I just started figuring out how to enjoy summer when it ends. Vacation will definitely be fun - hopefully, I will be able to get everything I need to done within the next 8 hours.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Wednesday afternoon, I had my first account-wide meeting. Like the brown bag luncheon I attended previously, this was conducted in a conference room over the phone with powerpoint. The majority of staff are in Kansas, so they were at a game center, and the connection wasn't good. Sometimes, people weren't speaking loudly enough into the phone, and most of the time, I just didn't recognize the technical terms they were referring to (maybe something I should study). Near the end of the call, a boy's voice was heard on the phone, saying "Hello?" and everyone in the room laughed.

My manager and I were a few minutes late, because I'd packed up my stuff so I could leave right away after the meeting. He'd asked if I was going to HH, and I told him I wan't sure if I was going to go to dinner at Paolo's in Reston Town Center, which I suspected was a sandwich place (ugh). They weren't ready to start at 5:30 Eastern, and my manager joked that part of the problem was his fault for sending in his slides late. This blonde guy asked me, "Are you Mimi? I'm Nelson!" We'd exchanged e-mails about my project's summary info for the account monthly postcard which gives updates on what's going on, but I'd never met him. About an hour into the meeting, this funny senior manager I'd never met before called Bosco. Bosco is balding with dark hair, and dark undereye circles. He asks Nelson, "What are you doing here?" because Nelson rolled off of the project last Friday. Nelson said, "I want a free dinner!" Bosco complains, "That's all I am to you all. A big American Express card."

Dinner was funny too, except I would've liked it if Adam hadn't talked so much because when Adam was talking, Bosco was polite enough to let him talk even though I think Bosco knew he was a better storyteller. There was 6 of us at the table, but Bosco and Adam talked the most. Bosco was animated, self-deprecating, and made entertaining facial expressions. Nelson and I were ready to leave so we had gone ahead to the restaurant, so I had an opportunity to talk with him before everyone else got there. He was really easy to talk to, and someone I could see being good friends with if I had the opportunity.

We were talking about what was the best way to reach other people in our company: IM, e-mail, or phone, and Bosco overheard so he got into the conversation...or tried to, but Adam wanted to talk. Augh! Bosco tried to tell us about his presentation to college students using a chart relating depth of relationship and time. For example: Snail mail is slow, but high relationship points because the recipient feels pretty good (he asked us "How do you feel when you get a letter?" - sign to me of good conversationalist). E-mail is fast, but we receive so many e-mails (obviously boring/annoying work ones you want to ignore) that they might not be successful. Yes, true, and I think this was an introductory topic that could lead to other interesting conversations except Adam interrupted to tell us wedding website story, and how he met his fiance - he casually IM'd her and asked if she was available for a formal, and did she have a formal dress handy. Auuugh, what a lame way to ask someone out. Bosco and I disapproved, but Bosco was also nice about it saying it was such a great story that he would incorporate it into his presentation.

Bosco was telling us analysts the type of communication available when they started. Phones, because analysts and consultants (2 lowest) weren't issued laptops. He pantomined for us the elaborate process of submitting our bimonthly time reports. When Nelson asked about huge laptop computers, Bosco feinted offense, and said indignantly, "I'm not that old, Nelson! Yes, we had pterodactyls work our computers." HA. Flintstone reference.

We were at the restaurant from about 7:45 until 11 pm when Nelson said, "I have to get going. I need to catch the bus." Since he lives in Arlington, I offered to drop him off at the subway station. Since Nelson has to find a new role, I was able to ask him about his search process, and he shared that he wants to get out to the west coast or Australia, but the hiring parties are dragging their feet. It was good to know how the staffing process felt like for someone else, and commiserate. Yay, new friend at work!