What, exactly, do I DO anyways?

Sometimes I wonder this myself. :-P

I start my day by getting up around 9am. It really depends on how well I slept and how light it is in the house as to what time I actually get up. Sometimes it's earlier, sometimes it's a bit later (oops). Then I shuffle my way over into my office (for those of you who don't know, I telecommute), sit down in my chair and start reading the email that came in over night. I've got various emails that come in: main work address, API proposal list (internal to RS), Betas, incoming bug reports, comments on Ramblings, and RB forum alerts. That's just my REAL Software account. I've also got my personal email and RBLibrary email.

Once I've read thru all the emails and responded to the ones I can quickly respond to, I go to the forum alerts. Then I read all of the forum posts which have been active since the previous night and answer what I can there. Then I check out what new stuff is happening on the forums and post there as well. (Side note: I notice that I account for almost 10% of all forum traffic. LoL). Once I'm done with the forums, it's time to do some real work. By this time, it's usually about 9:30-10am, depending on how many emails/posts there are.

I do some coding for whatever happens to be on my plate at the time. Whenever I've got a minor break (such a long compile process, or in-between code activities), I go back to checking the forums. But I'll do this until I reach a good stopping point in my coding, whereas it's time to actually face the day. I get up, shower, get dressed, etc. I usually use this time to sit and ponder whatever programming problem I'm currently running into, or what I'd like to blog about for the day. (Side note: sometimes I'll write multiple blog postings in a day -- I save those for later. If you see a posting right away in the morning, that's usually one that was pre-recorded.) After getting ready, I sit back down in the office and read thru my various list of personal blogs and web comics. Since most of the blogs aren't updated daily, it doesn't take me too long to breeze thru them. Then I get back to writing code. After a while, it's usually time for lunch (I usually eat around 2pm)

Lunch generally consists of me throwing something together quickly that takes very little supervision (frozen pizza, boxed food, etc). So while that's cooking, I go back into the office and write more code/answer emails/post on the forums. Once food's ready, I grab it, come back into the office and read technical blogs. If those are rather boring, or go quickly, I usually spend that time working on more email/forums/searching thru bug reports. If I'm feeling really unproductive, I may read a book in the kitchen (right now I'm reading Song of the Dodo). Once lunch is done, it's back to the grind.

I find that I do my best coding right after lunch, so I get to it and bang out a lot of code for a few hours. It's usually uninterrupted coding time, but sometimes I do take little breaks to answer stuff on the forums. Bang, bang, bang, get done writing real code by about 5pm. Then I wind down a bit by writing any blog posts which I happened to have thought of thruout the day or play on the forums. Then 6pm rolls around -- quitting time, right?

Well, sorta. At this point, my routine varies a bunch depending on what's going on. Sometimes I go back to coding. Sometimes I work on house stuff (such as the deck). Sometimes I cook myself a nice dinner (instead of boxed crap). Sometimes I play a video game (BattleField 2 has been my latest game -- thanks Adam).

I'm usually done with whatever I was doing by about 9pm. Then I get back on the computer and answer more emails and forum questions. While doing that, I usually write some code for fun, such as work on the Windows Functionality Suite or some other side project. Some nights I also spend time working on real work stuff (like last night; I was up until about 11:30pm working on some stuff for r4). I do this stuff until about 11pm.

Then it's Lis time! By 11pm, we're both usually done with our stuff for the day and finally have the chance to talk (though we do sometimes get to talk during the day too, which is always nice). We talk until midnight-1am, during which time she's usually subjected to me cooking or cleaning or something like that (I can't sit still when I'm on the phone). Once we're done talking, I usually make one last bought thru email and forums, and then head off to bed.

Sounds rather exciting, eh? I've been getting better about not doing work stuff 24/7, but I still do it about 12/5 on average.

Oh -- as for the weekends? Those are basically my own time. I do spend some time on the forums and emails, or coding for fun, but that's only when I'm bored and having nothing better going on.

Any questions? I don't expect anyone really cares, but I thought it would be interesting to chronicle what I do for my own good -- see where and how I spend my time. And since I put the work into figuring it out, why not share with the world, right? :-P

And just to throw everyone off, I'm leaving work early today to pour the foundations for my deck. You just never know what I'll do next. Except when I tell you. Then you know. Damn... ;-)