Back to Weekly? I Think Not!

Okay, so I’ve only been posting about once a week recently. This is a direct result of the additional time and energy I’ve been putting into work (I’m now averaging just shy of 70 hours a week, for which I am paid less than 40… joy…). It’s a drain and exhausting and blah blah blah.

Moral of the story is that for now, once a week is about all I can manage… but I don’t like it. No sir, I don’t like it one bit.

So I wanted to let everyone know that my plan is still to update this blog about 2-3 times per week with little snippets of whatever I happen to be writing at the time, some information that I find helpful, and progress on my efforts to transition from a miserable physicist to a poor-but-happy writer to (I hope!) a financially stable writer. That’s *the plan*.

Thanks for being with me this long… the blog officially turned 2 years old today!… and stay tuned as things will continue to get better!

A Good Day

So it’s been a little while since I’ve updated this blog, much to my chagrin. But this is sort of a positive sign, really… I’ve been busy with my other blog, which is good, and fighting to keep the company I work for (which I freely admit to being uninspired by) open for awhile longer… at least long enough to pay off my backlog of taxes!

But, more importantly, today I had a very good day. I competed in a tournament and did well, I spent some awesome quality time with my partner doing yoga… and I spent 10 glorious minutes on Skype with two of my internet heroes… Paul Dean and Quintin Smith of “Shut Up and Sit Down”.

Busy. Which Sucks.

I know that having a lot of work is theoretically a good problem to have… the alternative (to have no work, and therefore no pay) is infinitely worse. But I’m so exhausted these days that I can barely deal.

It’s not just the long drive to and from work. Sure, that sucks, but that’s sucked for a year solid. No, it’s more than that. It’s the systematic destruction of every freedom… of everything that made my job, while never enjoyable, at least bearable. It is no longer.

And yet I plod on. I wake up every morning and get in that car and drive to that job and sit at that desk and feel my soul being crushed a little more. My energy drained like I’m the target of a villian from the Negaverse (Sailor Moon reference? Old one? No? Okay… I said nothing).

Writing About My Parents

So today I have a little bit more time to write than yesterday (or most of the preceeding days, actually). I mean, sure, my boss is still spying on me (Hi Scott!), but no more intrusively than usual, and that’s okay.

This weekend I have to work, since the CEO has dictated that we have “training sessions” on Saturdays to help the sales force… I dunno, waste more of their weekends by doing pointless work, I suppose. Not that our work, in general, is pointless (although it kinda is), but the “training” is going to be about as useful as bicycles for fish. Mostly because I’m running it, and I have *no* idea what the heck I’m doing.

Busy! Gah!

Sorry for the delay since the last post and that this one will be so short… insanely busy at work (changed my office, among other things!).

On the plus side, I’m starting to get back to grips with writing again. Which is very good. So with some luck I’ll be writing again in a week or two. Huzzah!

On Workload and Work

I think I’ve belly-ached on this blog before about my general dislike of my job. There are many things that I dislike about said job, and a list of them here would probably be redundant but would unquestionably be long.

Rather, I would like to momentarily comment on the things I DO enjoy about my job:
1. I have several co-workers I like,
2. I get paid,
3. I’m able to write, both for the blog and for my goals of getting published, while at work.

Depressing Percentages!

It is now the second week of January… which in and of itself isn’t a big deal, but does mean that it’s been about a week since I started working again after the Christmas/Holiday/Festivus/Saturnalia break that lasts up until New Year’s day.

And already I kinda forget what it was like. Maybe it’s just me that this happens to? But I had 11 glorious days without having to come into my soul-crushing job, which was glorious. I wrote, I read (the sublime “Consider Phlebas” by Ian M. Banks), I painted, I played video games… it was wonderful.

And already it’s faded into the past… a warm but distant memory of good times and relaxation.

It’s a Little Chilly

So it’s around -40 Celsius outside today (that’s more-or-less -40F for my southern readers)… just ridiculous. Of course, that’s about the same for everyone, so my situation isn’t unique.

I wasn’t able to go to work yesterday due to the snow, and today my car won’t start. Just too freakin’ cold.

On the plus side, this gives me extra time to do actual useful stuff! Writing, reading, painting… none of which I am paid for, sadly, but steps in the right direction, at least!

Not Your Average Resolution

It’s now a few days into 2014. It’s going to take me awhile to remember to write 2014 instead of 2013 instinctively (back when I was still in school, it would take about two months for it to become habitual… these days it varies wildly). I have a list of things I tend to do in January… change all my online passwords (not all to the same thing, obviously, but usually to variations on a theme… for example, my 2008 passwords included such gems as “Knight2008”, “2008Sword”, and “Yearyearstabstab”), calculate my previous year’s taxes (ah the joys of self-employment… that’s sarcasm), and come up with a long list of resolutions.

For the past ten years or so (more, actually, but who’s counting?), I’ve done the same thing. I don’t make my resolutions on the spur of the moment on the 1st… it takes weeks of thinking, meditation, pondering, planning, and dreaming to come up with my list.

Well, except for my resolution to get 6-pack abs. That one has been on the list since 2000.

But my other resolutions tend to be more varied. Things like “Travel to Japan” have shown up frequently (not last year since I knew I couldn’t afford it, but the 2 years before that… it will probably show up again this year since I still haven’t gone!), or “Become a published author”.

… And a Happy New Year!

It is a few minutes after midnight (as you’ll probably be able to tell from all the typos… I am not an efficient typist while tired!), but I felt compelled to write a few thoughts down before going to bed.

Compelled. A good word choice in this context.

I’m a little behind the curve on this, but I just finished a video game by the name of “Bioshock Infinite” (the third game in the series, despite its title). It was… well, I *got* the game yesterday, and 20 hours of gameplay later I finished it today. So you can probably extrapolate how good a game it is from that.

Allow me to tell you a little about how good it was anyway: It was excruciatingly beautiful. Painfully powerful. Tortuously good. It was punishment of the most brilliant kind. Finishing the game, I had to set the controller down and just breathe slowly for a few long minutes, letting the characters roll around in my head for a bit. The ending was neither happy nor sad: it was as close to perfect as I remember an ending being.