So what is it you say you do here? What is my day like? Today I will step you through a typical day in the life of Brian. At around 7:35AM the lights turn on in the bedroom, bathroom, dining room and kitchen automatically. A text message gets sent to my phone "time to wake up." Of course since I hate morning I usually pull the covers over my face. So much for that alarm system. Then around 7:45 my cell phone alarm goes off. Then the in wall speakers then say "It is 7:45, time to get up" Of course, I don't like being told what to do so I am still in bed. I then reach over and grab my iTouch. It kind of reminds me of when I was in college and had to have a cigarrette in the morning to get me out of bed. I check my email, check the news and then turn on the Voice Alarm. By now it is 7:50 and the voice alarm says "15 minutes till your departure." I then hop out of bed and turn the shower on. I take a shower, brush my teeth, and shave. Depending on how late it is I may skip some of those steps. By 8:15 I am usually out in the kitchen making my V8 and bologna and cheese sandwich for breakfast, packing my lunch and taking my pills. The voice alarm reminds me of the time during my morning ritual. If I am successful with this ritual I should be out the door by 8:20. The lights then all turn off automatically when I leave. If I want to ensure my on time to workness I should leave by 8:15.

The drive to work has been tested to be roughly 42 minutes depending on lights. As I drive to work eating my bologna & cheese sandwich and drinking V8 I think to myself - If there was some kind of website that tracked the status of all of these lights I could determine my optimum speed, leave time and be able to get all green lights. I also take time to do a daily prayer for the family. Supposedly at 8:55 I should pull into the parking lot. I then go through the metal detector to get into the building and should be at my desk in a desk farm at 9AM sharp. Today it was 9:02 and that is not bad at all. Once at work I usually start by checking my email, checking the news and start to ramp up my mind. My current task is what I call a "hero task". I have been porting over 200,000 lines of VB code to C# since January and am close to finishing. Back in the day this task has probably cost over a million dollars and has failed most of the time. Companies just give up. I aim to do the impossible - one person, code porting to something that actually works without any old code. I think I will be successful. Of course it my belief that what I do will get quelched by management eventually so I am doing this task straight for the joy of coding, with no thought that it will actually make it into production. I have learned when you are in government work if you don't have low expectations you will eventually leave out of disappointment.

I usually eat around 11:30 at my desk or at Mango's - a good chicken pho restaurant nearby. Everytime I eat there I get Best Buy reward points. At around 5:30 I fill out my timesheet and leave for the day. I drive home a different way since school is out and there are no school zones. I usually get home at around 6:30. I check the mail and walk in. Holly is there with the baby making dinner. I give her and the baby a kiss and get a plate. Brennon is in his high chair and probably has already eaten. I ask "how was your day today" and she does the same. Afterwards I give Brennon a bottle and play with him a little. Sometimes I give him a bath, change him, put him in his PJs and put him to bed. That is usually by 7:30 since he starts to get grumpy. After that I am free for the evening. It usually involves TV, laptops, programming, surfing, Holly, dog walking, errands. Holly goes to bed around 10:00. I stay up till around 12:30 watching a movie and surfing and then go brush my teeth, clean my CPAP, plug in my phone and hop into bed and put on my CPAP. Sometimes I toss and turn for around 15 minutes, coughing as well. Then I fall asleep and do it all again the next day. What is everyone else's day like?