I just spent a week at my company’s Durham, NC office. It was an intense amount of work and learning but it was fun. Times like that are good examples of the sort of thing I like about my company. You sit down with a bunch of other smart people and you talk about stuff that interests you. At the base level that’s what it’s all about.

Now that I’m back my head is full of thoughts and ideas of things to work on, but I’m mentally drained at this point and I know I need some time to decompress. There are a million things I should or could do… But you know what, being able to let go and not choose is feeling pretty relaxing right now so I’ll just ride this weekend out and see where it takes me.

Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy level of a quantum mechanical system like a particle in a box. The kinetic energy of the system may be zero if the velocity of the particle is zero. However the uncertainty principle implies that if the velocity of the particle is measured with certainty to be exactly zero, then the position of the particle is infinite. This either means that the particle isn’t necessarily in the box (which violates the rules of the experiment) or that there is a new type of potential energy in the box. Since science doesn’t want to get into anything like that it is simply said that the velocity of the particle can never be exactly zero.

My office here at work could easily be considered a box and yet I have a zero energy level most of the time. Since my velocity is exactly zero then I must infer that either I am hallucinating and am not actually in my office at all, or that I am a perpetual motion machine, tapping the infinite energy of sitting absolutely still.

Talk about a whirlwind of a year though.

I actually have another post coming that touches on some of this in a little more detail, but I wanted to put this out there while it was fresh in my mind.

1. Lay out a napkin or a tissue or something else completely inadequate to absorb the juice you are about to subject it to.
2. Place mango on napkin; realize simultaneously you did not bring a knife or other sharp instrument with you.
3. Check kitchen for knife; find nothing.
4. Find pair of new scissors with office supplies.
5. Use wide open scissors to cut around the mango along its length; cut similarly around the center, dividing it into quarters.
6. Use edge of scissors to peel back skin on one of the sections.
7. Attempt to chisel away as much mango as possible from the pit on the skinless section.
8. Eventually give up and simply bite at mango flesh.
9. Continue like this, eating the other section until you realize you’re late for a meeting.
10. Upon returning from the meeting continue to peel, chisel and devour mango.
11. When done feasting upon the mango walk – somewhat ashamed – with hands and scissors covered in juice to the kitchen area; clean up face and hands.
12. Return to your cube and realize that during the meeting the napkin fused with the desk.
13. Use scissors to scrape mango infused napkin from desk.
14. Vow never to be without scissors again.

That’s a big part of the reason I haven’t posted here lately. It’s been on my mind and in fact I’ve had plenty to say; just not enough time. Between the crazy deadlines at work, serving as a judge for the MSU Engineering Design Day competition again, various social engagements and homeowner responsibilities it’s been tough to scrape together much time for myself.

April has completely evaporated and May looks to be even worse. My sister is graduating and then needs help moving from East Lansing. I have several friends getting married not to mention the various parties that are associated with each. Then there will be my weekend of personal enjoyment, aka DEMF (note the countdown to the right). The lineup looks killer this year and I fully plan on spending all three days down in Hart Plaza.

But despite being so busy things are good. The trees are getting green and birds are chirping. The last few days have been a bit cold for my taste, but honestly this is a great time to be in Michigan. Actually, all the weather in Michigan that isn’t January-March is pretty awesome in my opinion.

I’ll have another post soon about some of the cool stuff I’m working on from a musical perspective.

Things are lightening up a bit at work thankfully. Actually I should just say that I’m nailing down some deliverables, so it’s all good. I’m glad too, since I ended up working a fair bit this weekend.

On the home front I’m getting my digital life back in order thankfully. I’m not really entirely set back up yet, but it’s getting there. I still need to install all my music software still actually. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow after Aikido.

Probably not though.

What I mean by “getting mixed up” is having so much going on that at times you feel like your sense of focus is completely lost and you’re not making significant progress. It happens a lot these days and I see it as a consequence of the modern condition; people might not be producing meaningful output continually, but society does expect most everyone to be pretty much hitting on all cylinders non-stop. Productive or not, go go go is the way things are done these days.

Nowhere is this more apparent than work it seems. That’s pretty obvious right? I can’t really complain about it; I knew what I was signing up for when I chose this as my field. And honestly, for the most part it’s not even that bad. Sometimes it can be a little trying, but that’s when you really can see what you’re made of in my opinion. The challenge isn’t always just performing the task, but doing it in a positive way so that when you do succeed you feel accomplished.

Of course, you have to balance this with the knowledge that you’re being used.

But I digress. The fact is that getting mixed up isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At times it can certainly be stressful. And yes, if you let it go to far you end up killing your efficiency and getting much less done than you would if you’d focused (or been allowed to focus). But what can you gain from it? In this case I think attitude can make a big difference. Conditioning also helps too though… It’s only through years and years of “getting mixed up” that I’ve learned to see some good in it.

For example, it keeps you expanding your horizons and trying new things. In the software industry I think this is critical. One of my fears is getting forced into specializing in one area and then getting stuck doing that kind of work forever. That would really be boring and potentially limiting to the career as far as I’m concerned. Being able to move around and have a broad set of experiences to draw upon for your resume is definitely a good thing if you want to be anything more than a cog in the machine.

It has its advantages beyond resume experience as well. Personally I have a hard time forcing myself to be productive in something that I’m just not feeling. Call it a muse or whatever you want, but meaningful, truly creative output can’t be forced in my opinion so fighting your creative urges doesn’t really do you any favors. I struggle at it sometimes, but trying to attune myself to what I actually want to work on and then laying out plans on different timescales based on those desires helps me plot a sort of road map to my personal growth.

If you’re open to it a sort of cross pollination can occur between ideas at times too. Recently I’ve been working on house music, wanting to get into hands-on crafting and realizing I have very little art in my home. The more I let those things percolate in the back of my head I started to get some really cool ideas for some light-fixture sculpture that I want to try my hand at that sort of fits with that “musical aesthetic” or whatever you want to call it.

I guess the take home message is to try and look for the good in your situation no matter what, even when it’s stressing you out. Turn that stress into creative energy and then act on those plans and you’ll feel good about what you come up with!