Re: Tension Breakers -- or, how to keep from going insane

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First off let me say RhetTbull, you have it made!!
I would love to work in a place like that =) ... or even a place with people in my age/maturity range (early 20s).
But alas, I work with stuffy middle-aged commodities/futures traders, so wild wacky stress relief is out of the question.

We have absolutely beautiful grounds here at the office complex, however - with a lake, plenty of trees, and some wildlife even. So needless to say, I click off my monitor and take a walk outside where I can free my mind of debugging messages, hardware limitations, 8-level derefrencing -- and it helps to smoke a pack of cigarettes ;)

Whenever possible though, that unbearable level of frustration/exhaustion/tension should be avoided!
I find it helpful to take periodic short breaks - stepping out for a quick smoke, reading the Newest Nodes, dropping into #Perl, reading the news.
Aside from those times you get deep into a coding trance, these quick, but frequent distractions can help keep you out of the asylum. =)

Update: fixed broken tags.