Studio711.com – Ben Martens

You know you’re getting old when you get excited about something as mundane as a kitchen table, but that’s where I’m at. When I moved out on my own, I got Great Grandma’s small table and four chairs. It wasn’t really an heirloom as she bought it after Great Grandpa died and she downsized to a smaller living space. But it was fun to think of her when we ate at the table.

Anyway, the table was nice (and free) but it was small. We just got in the habit of dishing up straight from the kitchen and then eating at the table. When there were four people eating there, you had no chance of getting any extra dishes on the table. Plus, the ends folded down and weren’t very sturdy so it wasn’t great for having people over to play games, etc. And when we have Tyla’s family over, we’d have to set up the folding table just to fit everyone. I’m 34 years old but I still have a college kid’s table.

Finally Tyla and I decided that we were in a position to buy a new table. We were somewhat discouraged when we tried this last year and couldn’t find anything in our price range. We saved up some extra money and then went for it again this year, but to our happy surprise, we found a crazy good deal! This new table comes with six chairs and can fit all six chairs without the extra leaf. Or we can extend the table and fit two extra chairs. It’s big enough to seat a bunch of people but it fits perfectly in our smallish kitchen eating area. (Our formal dining room is Elijah’s playroom.) The leaf is pretty cool to. It folds down inside the table so you don’t have to store it in a closet.

The table and chairs came from Don Willis Furniture in on Lake City Boulevard. It’s an odd place but they have some really nice furniture (no particle board.) They have some furniture that is unfinished and you can either have it finished in the exact color you want or finish it yourself to save some money. We’ll be checking them out again when we need more furniture.

The first time we used it was while my parents were still here. Mom had asked if she could do anything to help while I was outside grilling and I said, “Yeah! You can set the table!” That’s something we never did before! I got a ridiculous amount of joy out of seeing the main course, side dishes and condiments all sitting there on the table while we ate dinner. I’m an old man.

PS. Thanks Don for lettings us borrow your truck! Dad and I got five of the six chairs in the back seats in the cab and the rest fit easily in the bed. You saved us a $99 delivery charge!

At the beginning of February, my group at work moved into a new building. Technically it’s an old building but it was completely gutted and renovated. Instead of most people having their own office (or sharing with one other person), we now sit in big open areas. The only personal space you have is a rolling desk with your computer on it. The idea is that you can easily unplug and roll to sit next to whoever you’re working with. There are no walls between you and your teammates so you can chat more easily.

I have to say that I loved having my own office and I’m not a huge fan of the change. There are definitely some advantages especially when it comes to pair programming or just asking quick questions. But overall I find it pretty distracting and it also makes it more difficult to handle the quick personal phone calls like scheduling doctor appointments, etc.

It sounds like all of the buildings on campus are moving toward this so there’s no getting away from it. This stuff goes in phases so I’m sure in 10-20 years we’ll all be moving back into our own offices because that’s the cool new thing.

When Tyla and I started making our first trips to Woodland Park Zoo together, we always made it a point to stop and see Simon the siamang. He seemed to enjoy interacting with guests and we got some great pictures with him.

Tyla visited the zoo a few weeks back with Elijah and was sad to learn that Simon died in mid-December. An article from the zoo says that he was 34 and succumbed to a long-term chronic illness. (I had no idea that Simon and I were the same age!)

We’ll miss seeing him there!

On a recent episode of the Making It podcast, the topic was “how do I quit my job and build stuff for a living?” Bob Clagett chimed in with some very thought provoking comments. (Note that he says these come from the book “Quitter” by Jon Acuff.) Bob doesn’t make stuff full time. He still has a day job. So how does he divide up his time? Here are the three work categories he uses along with my thoughts on them.

1. Day job. I like my job but if I could do anything in the world, I wouldn’t be doing my current job. If you’re in the same boat, it doesn’t mean that your job needs to be a complete waste of your time. What can you learn from your job that benefits your passion? Also remember, that depending on your situation, your day job is probably what you do to make your passion possible. It generates the income and provides you with health insurance.
2. Spend time with family. Having a good family life isn’t something that happens by accident. It takes work and you should be accounting for it when you’re planning out how to spend your time.
3. Do what you love. This can be the easiest bucket to fill, but it’s also one that we can misuse easily. This isn’t a bucket for surfing Facebook, reading random internet sites (ahem, like this one), or staring at the TV. Pick one or two things that you love and really want to focus on and devote your time to them.

Few things in my life had made me more conscious of how I spend my time than having a child. These three buckets are a great place to start. I’m still trying to work out how things like paying bills, making dinner and cleaning up fit into this but I suppose that could fit into building a good family environment. And of course, as a Christian, my faith is the most important thing to me. That should weave it’s way through all aspects of my life but also deserves it’s own bucket of dedicated time.

It has already been useful to think of my time in terms of these buckets. Instead of thinking “is this a worthwhile activity”, it’s better to think “is this the most rewarding/important thing I can do right now?” I do try to set aside one evening a week to just veg out and watch a movie or something, but most nights, I need to take advantage of my limited non-work time to fill up the other buckets!