When we were in the throes of hammering out our partnership with Astellas last year, I was on conference calls regularly that began at 2AM and ended at 4AM. As weird as that was, it's stuff like that that allows me to basically create my own work hours. My boss is the same way. One of the reasons I love my job so much (and am extremely hesitant about ever changing companies) is that I have no regular hours. I can get into the office at 8 or Noon or 2 and it doesn't matter (unless I have meetings, for which I am always the first one in the room). But the flip side is that I am available 24/7. It works for me. I am thankful that the respect goes both ways.

Leif has decided that's he's an Egyptologist and has started to study ancient Egypt. He also decided his educational plan. He's going to learn everything now so he can coast through high school and college.

Leif is a planner! And has he been to the King Tut exhibit?

I'm pretty sure that a 6am to 9am conference call would be a leading cause of workplace death, if more jobs were crazy enough to have them.

Occasionally we have them.

Stupid Earth, what with it being round and all.

And has he been to the King Tut exhibit?

Has he heard that Steve Martin song?

It's very informative, as long as you don't care about accuracy.

He's going to learn everything now so he can coast through high school and college.

Brilliant plan!

I've only had a 6am conference call once, and that was because I had flown to the west coast the day before, so it worked out fine for me. But my west coast colleague has them all the time! It would make me crazy, but does actually work for her.

Yeah, King Tut actually was neither born in Arizona nor moved to Babylon[i]a.

My commute this morning was almost normal (more backed up than usual on the beltway but not insane). Am crossing every body part that tonight isn't a repeat of yesterday's commute home.

Leif is truly brilliant. That's an excellent plan.

I'm putting the kids in the car for the 8 hour trip to Indiana. I'll trade the three hour conference call for that.

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.