Mishmash Musings

I’m not particularly religious, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy Good Friday! Everyone loves a 3-day weekend, and if it just happens to be tied up with Easter and Catholicism, then so be it. I’m happy to be able to recover from a hectic two weeks of nearly nonstop work (6-days per week) at my office job, and just catch my breath for a moment.

Oh, for those of you wondering (and judging by the number of Google searches on the subject, I think it’s a significant amount), there is no mail delivery on Good Friday. Most government offices, banks, and public schools are closed.

Enjoy the day and weekend, whether you view it as a holy day of obligation or not!

One of my favorite NFL teams is the San Diego Chargers. I have no ties to San Diego, but got hooked on the team because they usually come on as the late game on Sundays. I started watching them when Drew Brees was the QB and have liked them (and him) ever since.

I can’t believe the Chargers won the division last year with a mediocre 8-8 record. Sure, they got bounced from the playoffs pretty quickly, but the fact that they were able to win the division with as poorly as they played most of the time shows how weak the AFC West is. I think they ought to be able to repeat this year as well, seeing as how the Raiders continue to be a franchise in disarray, the Broncos lost their All-Pro quarterback and will likely have Kyle Orton under center, and the Chiefs, while better with Matt Cassel on the squad, probably won’t have enough weapons to win it all.

I’ve been to a couple of Bears games before, but have never seen the Chargers play in person. I would love to do it though, as they have such a talented team. Maybe I should start checking around for a San Diego hotel deal to make that happen. It would be so cool to travel to SoCal, take in a football game, visit the zoo, and maybe head down to Mexico for a day. What an awesome vacation that would be!

I have completed all the steps in the grad school application process. I’ve filled out an online application form, paid my fee, written my statement of purpose, ordered transcripts from all past schools, and requested letters of reference from three different sources. Now all that’s left to do is sit back and wait for the committee’s decision.

This is the hard part because I don’t even know how long I should expect to wait. The deadline for the program is May 1, so I’m assuming that I’ll have to wait at least that long. I doubt that they accept/reject people on a rolling basis as the applications come in. And May 1 is just the deadline for paperwork to be submitted. The committee will still need time to review all the info before making decisions. So I’m thinking I have to wait until June at the very least.

Ugh, six weeks or more of waiting and wondering if grad school is in the cards for this year!

I’m relatively new to Twitter, and hardly use it at all — except to follow a few celebrities who tweet. Among the most famous are A-list couple Asthon Kutcher (@aplusk) and wife Demi Moore (@mrskutcher). I think their tweets are a lot of fun, and they post so many pictures and videos that it’s hard not to get sucked into whatever they’re doing. I mean, who wouldn’t want this behind-the-scenes look at making movies and living a jet-setting life?

Anyway, Ashton also streams lots of live videos over at qik.com. They’re totally hilarious, like this one about him giving a fake acceptance speech for a fake Twitter award. The story behind that little bird is that he, Demi, and director Rob Luketic found it sitting on their table when they went out to dinner in Nice. They decided to call it a Platinum Tweet Award, and gave it to Ashton for having more followers than Barack Obama. Now Ashton is the second most-followed Twitterer in the world — behind CNN.

Here’s Ashton’s acceptance video. Just remember this whole thing is a joke. The award is not real, and neither is his “excitement” about it!

I just read a Reuters article about how some Australian study concludes that people who engage in moderate “workplace Internet leisure browsing” (WILB) are actually more productive than those who don’t. The study’s author, Brent Coker, said that it has to do with “zoning out” and giving the mind a rest before diving back into more meaningful tasks.

I can kind of see his point, but at the same time, it’s hard to limit your browsing once you get started. I think Coker put the figure at less than 20 percent of the entire workday. So if you do the WILB thing for less than 20 percent of your time at work, you’ll be fine.

I doubt my boss would go for that though! And as for me personally, I tend to surf when there’s a time-consuming, tedious task ahead of me that I just don’t want to get started on. I also surf in the middle of tasks, causing things to take much longer than need be. Clearly, I’m not a responsible workplace Internet surfer!

I haven’t done a “Five Things” meme in a very long time, and since I’m sick of posting about depressing current events, I thought I’d change things up and go with something light today. This list is inspired by a conversation I had with a friend over lunch a few days ago, and features my favorite TV characters from shows that are still on the air.

1. Greg House (Hugh Laurie), House
2. Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), NCIS
3. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), 30 Rock
4. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), 30 Rock
5. Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Grey’s Anatomy

I watch a lot of TV shows, so it was hard to limit myself to just 5. I tried to base my choices on how likely I would be to tune in if these characters weren’t on their respective shows. Obviously, House without House wouldn’t be… House, right? Gibbs is the anchor of the entire NCIS team, and that show definitely wouldn’t be the same without him either. 30 Rock wouldn’t be nearly as funny or interesting without Jack or Liz, and say what you want about Katherine Heigl, but she’s the best actress on Grey’s and the most compelling character to me.