A busy, bicoastal week
Jun. 28th, 2014 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagonFor those not reading between the lines, I’ve been on a business trip this week… flew out Sunday morning, flew back Friday insanely early morning (of course it’s worth getting up at 3:30 in order to attend handstand class with Bender -- anyone would make the same choice). I had Norwood along for most of it, which made it less lonely than most trips.
The work itself was interesting and stressful this time, as I was doing something very new to me — something that, to be fair, half my team does on a regular basis and that it’s good for me to understand. Most of the time I make sure our products write logs correctly, make sure my team is happy and call it a day — this time I was actually analyzing the records, trying to explain things that happened in the real world, as part of an intense several-day rotation. I did okay, if not great, and now have a way better understanding of how to use some of the tools that we build and maintain. I thought I might do it again next quarter, but the person I was subbing in for feels ready to do it again, so maybe I won’t.
It’s funny, but I feel more free to do things like this — expanding my knowledge base at the cost of getting some “usual work” done — now that I’ve gotten promoted. I’m 105% sure I’m going to be at “Meets Expectations” for the next year no matter what I do, and that I at least kinda have tenure now, so making a few long-term bets on behalf of the team seems reasonable.
Another thing I did is ingest about 16 grams of 100% casein protein powder, as soon as Norwood was gone (no need to subject him to the sight of horrible breakouts, if those were going to happen). My skin had been getting nicer and nicer before the trip, and, after 2+ days, I can say the effect of the casein was… nothing but a gross taste in my mouth. The sweetener in that stuff is truly disgusting.
Are you keeping score? Whey nothing, casein nothing, lactose data blurred by period but nasty delayed breakouts. This is GOOD news, maybe great news. Of all the major milk irritants, lactose alone can be countered very easily — and I’ve already used Lactaid successfully a couple of times after either accidental milk ingestion or (like Thursday night) realizing I was trapped at a co-worker’s dinner with no dish on the table free of cream.
I did get a couple of deep chin-zits on Tuesday and Wednesday, the kind that don’t show much, and I wondered what I might have eaten or if I’m still not realizing there’s something else that causes acne. Then, upon return from my trip, I saw a sign in the local burrito place: “Guacamole contains sour cream.” Agh! The guacamole in Charlie’s Cafe, that’s something I was eating on both Monday and Tuesday! Could it have possibly…? Yes, it possibly could have. I didn’t see ingredients listed, and never suspected it. :-/
This leads to the relatively obvious question of: why not take Lactaid all the time, or at least before every meal I don't cook myself? Is there a point past which lactase is harmful? This page, at least, says no.
There are plenty of people claiming that the hormones in milk are the bad thing, too, so the next test or two should probably include actual milk -- the lactose-free kind is available at work, and I could try drinking normal untested milk with a Lactaid pill (on purpose this time).
The Wifi on the return plane was slow, so I spent most of the flight reading Blue Remembered Earth. Yep, Alastair Reynolds is back on top of his game, all right, though he did do the thing he does that usually annoys me (traces of a super-advanced civilization, never explained, turn up near the end of the book) and it's also not a standalone.
Back to getting my usual home-life in order. An electrolysis session and a haircut helped a lot, and I'm unpacked, and now I'm going with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heisenbug to the gym for squits. :-)
The work itself was interesting and stressful this time, as I was doing something very new to me — something that, to be fair, half my team does on a regular basis and that it’s good for me to understand. Most of the time I make sure our products write logs correctly, make sure my team is happy and call it a day — this time I was actually analyzing the records, trying to explain things that happened in the real world, as part of an intense several-day rotation. I did okay, if not great, and now have a way better understanding of how to use some of the tools that we build and maintain. I thought I might do it again next quarter, but the person I was subbing in for feels ready to do it again, so maybe I won’t.
It’s funny, but I feel more free to do things like this — expanding my knowledge base at the cost of getting some “usual work” done — now that I’ve gotten promoted. I’m 105% sure I’m going to be at “Meets Expectations” for the next year no matter what I do, and that I at least kinda have tenure now, so making a few long-term bets on behalf of the team seems reasonable.
Another thing I did is ingest about 16 grams of 100% casein protein powder, as soon as Norwood was gone (no need to subject him to the sight of horrible breakouts, if those were going to happen). My skin had been getting nicer and nicer before the trip, and, after 2+ days, I can say the effect of the casein was… nothing but a gross taste in my mouth. The sweetener in that stuff is truly disgusting.
Are you keeping score? Whey nothing, casein nothing, lactose data blurred by period but nasty delayed breakouts. This is GOOD news, maybe great news. Of all the major milk irritants, lactose alone can be countered very easily — and I’ve already used Lactaid successfully a couple of times after either accidental milk ingestion or (like Thursday night) realizing I was trapped at a co-worker’s dinner with no dish on the table free of cream.
I did get a couple of deep chin-zits on Tuesday and Wednesday, the kind that don’t show much, and I wondered what I might have eaten or if I’m still not realizing there’s something else that causes acne. Then, upon return from my trip, I saw a sign in the local burrito place: “Guacamole contains sour cream.” Agh! The guacamole in Charlie’s Cafe, that’s something I was eating on both Monday and Tuesday! Could it have possibly…? Yes, it possibly could have. I didn’t see ingredients listed, and never suspected it. :-/
This leads to the relatively obvious question of: why not take Lactaid all the time, or at least before every meal I don't cook myself? Is there a point past which lactase is harmful? This page, at least, says no.
There are plenty of people claiming that the hormones in milk are the bad thing, too, so the next test or two should probably include actual milk -- the lactose-free kind is available at work, and I could try drinking normal untested milk with a Lactaid pill (on purpose this time).
The Wifi on the return plane was slow, so I spent most of the flight reading Blue Remembered Earth. Yep, Alastair Reynolds is back on top of his game, all right, though he did do the thing he does that usually annoys me (traces of a super-advanced civilization, never explained, turn up near the end of the book) and it's also not a standalone.
Back to getting my usual home-life in order. An electrolysis session and a haircut helped a lot, and I'm unpacked, and now I'm going with
heisenbug to the gym for squits. :-)
