The holidays went well, despite being a busy time for me. I flew home to spend Christmas and the days on either side of it with my family, and spent New Year’s Eve with old friends I hadn’t seen in possibly close to a year, one of whom, thanks to a conversation that night, applied at my place of business and is now working with me again.
While the old year ended with family and old friends, the new year has started with new friends and relationships. My best friend and I have found a new hang-out spot, and have made a half-dozen or so new, good friends from it. With school starting again, our routine has been tossed into a bit of upheaval, but we’re making it work, anyway, and having fun.
Project black is dead. It served its purpose and reached its lifespan, and was killed in what was a very satisfying conclusion.
Project blue is stronger than ever. It’s outcome is not yet definite, but it seems to be shaping itself towards a desirable end within the foreseeable future.
Apologies for the lack of updates recently; I’ve been busy with my regular work as well as, with a friend, founding our own computer services company to do some freelance work. We’ve only had one customer so far, but our website and advertising are still in their infancy.
Projects red and yellow have, more or less, been retired. Neither came to an actual conclusion, they were just sort of set aside due to other concerns. Black is on a back burner, and brought out when I need some additional entertainment.
Blue is a different matter completely. Nearing it’s fourth month in existence, it has taken an unexpected turn and reached a crossroads I couldn’t have really foreseen. I’m not sure where it’s going, or even where I want it to go. For now, I’m going to continue to play the game to see what happens, but I may have to make an unwelcome decision shortly.
Projects three and four (codenamed yellow and red, respectively) have kind of died down recently, but this is ok; yellow has been given a rest temporarily, and red has been all but abandoned, due to lack of interest, part of which may have to do with the increasing escalation of project one (blue). Project two (black), blue’s semi-intertwined sister project, is holding steady. Even with the shifts in status, all four and their intertwining interactions still offer an amusing diversion and plenty of mental exercise.
On the subject of diversions and mental exercises, though this time more material, I played my first game of Warmachine yesterday since the convention in June. I lost in the end, but it was a close-fought game and I gave my opponent a run for his money. All told, I don’t think I did too badly for being almost six months out-of-practice.
Yesterday was a pretty good day to be employed by my particular company. Free tickets to the local Renn Faire were great, but I received an email from the owner last night stating that, along with some changes to the other policies I don’t like, everyone is getting a raise just for existing. Said raise is effective as of our next pay check, so, combined with the completion of a full eighty-hour work week and five hours of overtime, this should be a pretty nice paycheck.
As of today, I have worked my first full pay period on day shift, which is also my first full 80-hour/ten-day pay period since May. So, obviously, the change to my schedule is helping a lot. I even received a comment from a co-worker along the lines of “You look awake; you’ve never looked awake before. You always look half-asleep.”
My projects went through some temporary adjustments, but righted themselves in the end, and are on track and moving smoothly. With an end in site for a couple of them.
On the subject of games, the changes to my sleeping schedule and ability to focus again have brought about a resurgence in my interest in Warmachine (thought it probably helps that my factions new army book is coming out this month). I’m not sure yet how much Warmachine talk will occur here, or if I’ll re-open my project log and keep it all there.
Today’s the first day of my first full week working day shift. The four days of it I worked last week went well, and I’m actually getting regular amounts of sleep again, though it is kind of annoying having to go to bed as early as I do to get a full eight hours. Let’s hope it stays effective, so I can get back to working all the hours I need to.
No specifics, but there was an interesting development in one of my projects, which could cause problems and entangle me in ways I wasn’t expecting when I started this game. I just hope I can keep my eye on the ball, and see this through to completion without getting side-tracked.
I asked for it, and got at least a couple good changes. My new schedule started a couple days ago, so I’m working on a shift other than graveyard for the first time in almost five years. We’ve also finally started getting fall weather, and that’s always a good thing, especially the thunderstorms we had the past couple days. Finally, the two projects I was working on have kind of morphed into four projects, or one collective meta-game. Even if it doesn’t keep me busy, it’s a time killer when I need one, and a fun little mental exercise.
I need a change. Of scenery, of something. I don’t know what. I’m just stagnating currently. The highlight of my life currently is the two intertwined projects I’m working on, but they’re not sufficient to provide the distraction I need. Hopefully my new schedule change will kick in soon, and I’ll be off nights and able to function again, and get out of this funk.
Since 4pm yesterday, I’ve slept three hours, all of it in a lab for a sleep study. In that amount of time, I have had no caffeine. I can not sleep. I work in 2.5 hours, and know that my job can’t hold my attention enough to keep me awake if I can’t nap now.
It has been about a year and a half since I last updated this blog. As I’ve recently found the desire for a sounding board of sorts, I’ve wiped this site and am reactivating it, and theoretically will actually be updating it again on a regular basis.