I'm now going through a period of mega-crunch at work, such that my evenings and weekends are less and less at my disposal. A bit of a jolt when work is normally so humane (this is a once-in-several-years thing).
A very thorugh and watertight argument, Heebs. Thumbs up. Could use more trolling, though.
Just a pinch of trolling can give a blog post so much flavor and zest.
I wish someone would convince my students that fall break is not in fact the kind of break that combines well with attempts to travel anywhere that involves a plane, bus, or train. They should call it "fall midterm study period" or "autumnal miss-your-deadlines season" instead.
I'm still not fully used to the weekend/work week schedule here which is Sunday - Thursday with Friday and Saturday off. And because most places close in the middle of the day on Friday for the congregational prayer Friday ends up feeling more like a Sunday than a Saturday but because I have to go back to work on Sunday, Saturday feels more like a Sunday than a Saturday. It all feels messed up.
So, one of the weirdest thing about China is that the weekend is moved to be near the holiday, rather than the holiday being moved near the weekend. So, if the holiday day falls, say, on a Wednesday, the weekend is then moved to Monday & Tuesday, and Saturday and Sunday become weekdays. So, you'd work a 7 day week (Mon-Sun), have a three day "weekend," and then a 2 day workweek.
Billionaires can afford to move holidays to whatever days they want.
I prefer Friday holidays. Most holidays are Mondays so Fridays spice things up. This is a key to maintaining a successful calendar year in and year out.
Sometimes holidays surprise me at work in the middle of the week, when I wonder why the parking lot is empty. This is less pleasant. Always carefully plan your holiday surprises. Not everyone likes the interruption or the pressure to look like they're enjoying themselves.
Quite a timely post, but I didn't realize they even celebrated Alaska Day down in Texas.
I am so glad to see Texas giving Alaska Day its due.
Wife had Thursday -Monday off so we went down to San Rafael swell area for a couple days. It was awesome. I'm back home and drunk as hell so mission accomplished.
You could have just gotten drunk at home.
But the San Rafael Swell is admittedly pretty great.
Speaking of holidays*, is the drive from the Research Triangle area to the Outer Banks difficult? I'm going to be heading that way in a few weeks and wondering if I should leave the conference I'm attending a few hours early. I'd be leaving around 6, trying to get in by 11.
*I think this gets me an off-topic dispensation prior to 40 comments.
Consider yourself dispensed. I can't answer your question, though.
There's nice stuff closer to the RT than the outer banks. You could go to Cary and watch them make a SAS.
Anyway, I lived in North Carolina and never once went to the Outer Banks, so they must not be that nice.
You could go visit Duke, and tell them they suck.
They also had a space aged (by which I mean, built when people were on the moon) transportation system to move you from a parking garage to a hospital. I think they blew that up after I left.
Anyway, I don't get a fall break now, but I didn't get one at Duke either.
Duke's campus is very nice. If you go to the smaller, extra campus (I forget what it's called), they have a cage where they store some art. It's not as good of art as you'd expect when you remember how much money has been made from cigarettes, but it's closer the the Outer Banks. There's also a giant garden, which is nice if you're into that sort of thing.
There's now a Holocaust Center in the same building as my liquor store. That seems like it might be depressing for me. The other liquor store you can walk to from my house is below the Hadassah office.
16: It is not too bad, and a nice time of year if you like that sort of thing. And likelihood of a stray hurricane landfall that far north is pretty low that late in the season.
Giant garden at Duke is fabulous. I was just down there for the first time in years, and boy does that campus give off a great dystopian vibe aka white suburban UMC fantasyland. My inner Nazi felt very at home.
It's very nice, but it's still just a bunch of flowers and trees.
As for the art cage, there's no reason not to shove it in the same building with the dinosaur bones. You got to have something interesting to draw a crowd.
What do raises and space age parking and gardens and dinosaur bones have to do with ACC Basketball?
None of them have been in my kitchen.
Cameron Indoor Stadium is a bit confusingly named. It sounds like they put the building in another building, but really it's just a basketball court with a smallish number of seats.
the Outer Banks are a hell of a drive from RTP, because there's no direct road.
but, you can get to any of the beaches from Beaufort/Atlantic Beach/Emerald Isle to Carolina Beach/Wilmington in a couple of hours. this time of year they will be mostly empty.
go to Beaufort, catch a water taxi over to Shackleford and you can literally have 12 miles of beach to yourself.
Right. You have to go I-495 to US 64 (limited access for a lot of it). Two different roads! Very confusing! Go someplace else.
Either way, you have to start out on I-40, which I recall as being miserable. I-85 was nicer because nobody ever drove on it. Of course, nobody ever drove on it because it went nowhere but the crappy part of Virgina.
35.
oh yeah, Nag's head.
i guess when i think OBX, i think Hatteras and Okracoke. you know outer.
I don't know what limited access on US 64 means but I'm going to the Nags Head area to start. This is like asking for advice on buying a PC and being told to get a Mac.
Of course, nobody ever drove on it because it went nowhere but the crappy part of Virgina
I was going to make a "all Virginia is crappy" joke here, but I guess there are parts of the Shenandoah Valley that are nice. And maybe a few blocks in the middle of Alexandria.
South of Richmond though, yeah, a crappier place than most.
38: Don't get a Mac. They don't run SAS, at least not directly.
Yeah, somehow those "get a Mac people" think they are clever to say that every time a PC comes up on a thread somewhere, but really its just unhelpful.
38: I don't know what limited access on US 64 means
It's a freeway. Maybe that term is no longer used.
Considering we're taking about SAS, it's more like asking what kind of PC to buy, and in response being shot between the eyes.
42: Ah, I thought it might mean something like a toll.
Ask not for whom the road tolls. It tolls for thee.
"Fall break" here is one day. Classes are canceled, but most of the rest of the university is open. I cannot refer to it without air quotes. Just call it "hunting season is starting and everyone's going to cut anyway". "Fall break."
46: Give me a fall BREAK!
Amirite or amirite?
46: That's crap. The schools had Thurs and Fri off and my wife's school had today off as well.