Gwnewch y pethau bychain

Tag: life Page 2 of 15

Slip Off The Edge And Never Worry About The Fall

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are my questions: Will you thrust your foot across that imaginary line, or will you back away from it, scouting around for an escape route? Will you risk causing a commotion in order to scratch the itch in your ambition? Or will you shuffle on back to your comfort zone and caress your perfect daydreams? Personally, Cancerian, I’m hoping you will elect to do what’s a bit unsettling. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. If you make a bold move, make sure you’re not angling to please or impress me — or anyone else, for that matter. Do it as a way to express your respect for yourself — or don’t do it.

(from Rob Brezney’s Free Will Astrology)

The Things You Lean On Are The Things That Don’t Last

They say that any box you haven’t opened in 5 years probably contains nothing you really desperately need. There is wisdom in this, and I have, at the top of my back closet, three boxes, labelled "Rob’s Desk", which were packed when we moved into this apartment in 2007, and have been sitting up on the top shelf untouched ever since.

Because of the above axiom, it was tempting to just take the boxes down, and toss them in the dumpster. But I knew there WAS one valuable thing up there, which was the boxes themselves. So tonight, pulled each one down and went through them, sorting the (very few) keepable things from the trash. Most of it was the usual assortment of old bills and papers that should have been discarded years ago and instead wound up in an increasing strata of desk drawer until it was transferred, unsorted and unexamined, into a box on moving day. But there were some things unearthed that, while of varying levels of value, were at least amusingly interesting and an insight into my packrat nature. They included:

  • A Consonance 2007 program book and song book
  • D&D character sheets for a campaign that ended when the Suttons moved to Indiana
  • Cheques with our old address, obsolete since 2007
  • Family photo from reunion in 2004
  • Two envelopes of Kitanzi’s pay stubs, some dating back to when she lived in New Hampshire
  • A Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 video card (with 64MB of vRAM!)
  • A strand of Mardi Gras beads
  • Christmas card/Family photo from J., dated 2000, featuring one more wife and one fewer son than he has currently
  • A compact tool kit
  • A variety of CDs, both labeled and unlabled
  • A menu from a restaurant that closed some years ago
  • A laptop-sized ram chip with 256MB of PC133 ram
  • A Radio Shack branded widgit that looks like an S-Video to RCA adapter
  • 2 USB to PS/2 adapters.
  • A Microsoft Windows Services for Unix 3.5 CD
  • A map of Paragon City from the original 2004 release of City of Heroes
  • Program books from Gafilks 3, 5, 7 and 8.

I seriously need to do something about my packrat tendencies.  *examines state of current desk*  And, like, soon…

Protected: Don’t Push Me Cause I’m Close To The Edge

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

I was struck by lightning walking down the street

This morning, I was roused from a pleasing dream by an work-related phone call at 6am.   After taking care of the problem, I decided to just stay up, since this is the day the cleaners come and I wanted to get out of the house before they arrived so I wouldn’t be underfoot (or, indeed, under-dressed.) 

So I got dressed and out the door by 8, with a few hours to kill before I had to be at work.  (Since I currently live on the east coast, but cover the west coast support hours, my schedule is slightly off-set from everyone else.  This has ups and downs, but that’s another post…)

I sauntered down to the local barber shop for my bi-monthly shearing, then walked across the parking lot to the Original Pancake House, where I had three original pancakes, bacon, eggs, and grits.  (A hearty and calorically expensive meal, but a very tasty one, I must say, and since it’ll likely count for both lunch and dinner, it shouldn’t set me back.)  I then popped down to the North Point area for some idle shopping.   Went into Target first, because it was open and nothing much else was, and browsed around the clothing section and the media/electronics area, and I grabbed a copy of <i>The Hunger Games</i>, which I still have not read or seen.  (I may wait to read it until AFTER I see the movie.  Or I may not.  I haven’t decided.)

Once it was 10am, I wandered over to  Ken Stanton Music to inquire about the guitar strings I ordered, and noodle around in the acoustic room for a while.   Bought a nifty little electronic tuner, because while the one on my phone is perfectly functional, i don’t always want to have to haul it out when I just need to do a quick check.

I stopped by the Big & Tall store to look for vests.  I’ve decided that my summer look this year (yes, that’s a thing, shut up) is going to be a shirt and tie with a vest, rather than a jacket, because it really does get very warm for a jacket all the time in Georgia, no matter how good they look.    Alas, they were no longer carrying the cool casual vests they used to, which made me sad.  It’s actually very hard to shop for these on the Internet, because they get lost in the noise of all the very expensive 3pc suit vests or the outdoorsy fleece type things.  What I’m looking for essentially *is* a suit vest, only, y’know, cheaper. 🙂

My final stop before heading into work was CVS.  I needed to drop off a refill request to pick up later, and while I was there I picked up some caffeine laden beverages, because I got four hours of sleep last night and it might be required.  I had the most amusing conversation with the girl at the checkout:

"Picking up some energy to get through the day, huh?"
"Yeah.  Got woken up at 6am, so I might need it."
"I was out until 3am, went to bed at 7am, got up and 8 and was at work at 9."
"Wow, that’s pretty hardcore.  I hope you were at least having fun."
"Not really."
"Well., that’s too bad.  I hope you have fun tonight, then!"
"Nah.  I’ll probably go out partying again."

I thought about this for a moment, and said philosophically,  "If you’re going out partying and not having fun, you’re doing it wrong."  She looked perplexed and said "What?"  "If you’re going out partying and not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.  You should find a better party."  "I *like* that!" she said happily, having seen the light on the road to Damascus, or at the very least, the road to the disco, and thus I fulfil my mission of bringing profundity to the sleep-deprived.

And now I’m at work.  Time for some thrilling heroics. 

I’ve got the brain, you’ve got the looks…

Jeff has been visiting this weekend, which means the conversation level in our house gets more surreal than normal. (This is no bad thing.)

We were having a discussion about a great list of songs by band which were mostly one-hit wonders, and I was saying how I had kibitzed over the inclusion of the Pet Shop Boys, who had numerous top-20 singles in the 80s, and were even bigger in Europe.

Me: And of course, they were pioneers of gay disco, and that’s no small thing.
Larissa: I didn’t even know there was such a think as gay disco.
Me: Oh yes.
Larissa: Apparently, I’ve been hanging out with the wrong people.
Me: You obviously haven’t been hanging out with gay people at discos.
Larissa: I like gay people. It’s the disco I object to.
Jeff: How do you know a disco is gay, anyway?
Me: Easy. It makes passes at other discos.
Larissa: So what does a straight disco make passes at?
Me: (shrugs) A laundromat?

Shaping reality

I have taken certain ideas — notions, if you will — and put them into motion and released them into the universe.

Let’s see how they come back to me.

Starting the week right

Feeling pretty good this morning. Got up by 8am to see kitanzi off to her new job, got 25m in on the treadmill (15m running), and still have two hours before I have to show up for work.

Spent the weekend being exceptionally lazy. Made a trip to Fry's to pick up a couple of things, watched a few episodes of "Stephen Fry In America", and poked around for a video game that might hold my interest for more than 15 minutes.

Short week this week, as we're getting a four-day weekend for Labour Day. No Dragon*con for me, though if there's an AIE and/or Tadpool meetup that's happening outside the badge perimeter, I might be willing to pop down for that.

The Paralysis of Choice

Yesterday was my last day at $OLDJOB. Monday will be my first day at $NEWJOB. In between, I have five days where I don’t have any real obligations on my time, for the first time I can remember.

It’s 11:30am, and I’ve yet to get dressed. I keep thinking “I should do something with this lovely day, but being utterly indecisive about something even as simple as “Where should I go for lunch?”

Ah well. I think I’ll just go out and wander around for a while. Maybe something interesting will occur to me as I do. 🙂

So I Turned Myself To Face Me…

Today at 4pm, I walked out of my office.

For the last time.

About six weeks ago, a former co-worker caught up with me as I was out on one of my constitutional walks around the parking lot. He wanted me to know that his company might have a new position opening up that he thought would be perfect for me, and he knew I had been thinking of looking for a new gig. After listening to the particulars, I sent him my resume, and told him to let me know. A couple of weeks later, he pinged me back to ask me when I’d like to set up an interview.

Two weeks ago, they offered me the job, and I submitted my resignation to my current employer. This was certainly a surreal experience. I went to work for this company fifteen years ago, when it was still a tiny startup and the Internet was only just starting to explode. As I leave, it is a well established player in its corner of the market, and in no small part it’s success is because of work that I’ve done for it. I’m very proud of what I helped to build, and it’s strange to think that as of today, I’m no longer an active part of it.

But the truth is, whatever my frustrations with my job are, the biggest motivator for me is wanting to seek new challenges. I’m going to be working in a market sector that is, I think, going to be exploding over the next few years*, so it’s an exciting time to be joining it, and while there’s a certain satisfaction that comes from being at the top of the game and the guy everyone comes to for all the answers, there’s also something to be said for getting into a new one and mixing it up with a new team where you have something to prove.

My 40th year has been one of great changes. Some of them good, some of them less so, but I’m certainly going to emerge a different person to the one I entered as. I’m looking forward to the future.

A moment of spring in the dead of winter

Often, people who live in other parts of the country who are planning to attend Gafilk for the first time will innocently ask me: “So, what kind of weather should I expect?”

My typical answer is: “I have no idea.”

This isn’t because I’ve not been here long enough to know the trends. I’ve lived in north Georgia, for better or for worse, for the last 20 years. The problem is that Georgia loses its little weather mind in the winter.

Three weeks ago, Atlanta was hit with a snowstorm that left us paralysed for nearly a week, causing Gafilk to essentially be a 4 day con for many people. Today, it is bright and clear and 70F (21C) outside. It won’t last, but it’s absolutely gorgeous outside.

Taking advantage of the sudden moment of spring, kitanzi and I walked down to the CVS to pick up a prescription I had to get. It’s almost exactly a mile from here to there, with just enough incline to make it interesting. Along the way, we saw a hawk making lazy circles on an updraft across the street from where we were walking. It was just too gorgeous a day to spend all of it inside.

It’s been a pretty lazy weekend, otherwise. Went to the gym yesterday because I didn’t go on Friday, and did a bit of shopping for necessary clothing, but otherwise, there’s not much to report.

Page 2 of 15

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén