There he is!

November 15, 2003

Dan asked me today “So what have you been doing since November 11?” and I realized that I hadn’t written since early in the week. Honestly, there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about. I feel like I’m letting people down who read my site because I don’t have any tales of exploits to tell, but alas, that’s how it is. I had people contact me from one of the forums that I read and post to on a regular basis about my site several times, but I’ve even dropped that, so I can only assume that some of the readers I picked up in there have gone away. I didn’t actually DROP the forums, but I got tired of posting the same things over and over, not to mention that there was little exciting going on in there to begin with.

That reminds me, you can manually unsubscribe from the mailing list if you’re on it via the text box on the menu on the right….

At one point I wanted to try updating every day during a month to see if I could do it, and I was planning on doing it during November, but ooops, looks like that’s not going to happen anymore. I stopped working on the pictures for the time being, though I may just do the index page so that you can access the ones I have done without going back through my archives to find the links. Eventually…. I just haven’t had much energy lately it seems. Not “get up and do things” energy, but more like energy for going about and doing various things. It’s like I can only focus on a few things at once, and everything else just goes to hell. Things seem to substitute for each other, you know? There’s that old joke about how every time you learn something new, something old gets pushed out of your head, well it’s like that with me: every time I start doing something new I lose something else. I’m sure when I start working, I’ll lose something in my life. Kind of strange, I know. If you lok in my archives for last summer when I was exercising and losing weight, I gave a better explanation of what I’m talking about.

But I’ve had a few things on my mind in the last couple of weeks, and so other things have suffered as a result. I even was putting off my daily exercises that I came to rely on so much, and finally I decided to make them every OTHER day, but even that’s presenting problems. My knee was feeling perfect early in the week, and so I went jogging. No problems. I did a mile and a half as I posted before, walked the other mile and a half, and while my knee was just a little stiff later, three Asprin took care of that no problem. On the next day of my exercise rotation, I tried the same thing, but I couldn’t make it past a half mile on jogging. I finally stopped and walked the rest of the distance because my knee was twitching just a little too much. I could have pressed myself and gone the other mile, but that’s how I got into trouble in the first place doing my jog that brought out the knee problems in the first place. So I walked. Two days later my knee was back to perfect health (as in, I could get up, sit down, lie down, go up and down stairs, etc, without feeling any twitches of pain), so I took a five mile walk. Big mistake. I was slightly limping by mile 3.5 to take the weight of my steps off my left knee, and by the fifth mile I was silently grimacing inside. Even as late as a full day and perhaps nine or twelve Asprin later, my knee was still stiff and painful if I left it in one position for too long. *sigh* I guess my knee isn’t going to be the same until I get it looked at by a doctor. I can’t do that now, though, because I don’t have any health insurance. I’ll have to wait until I get a job with insurance and then see a doctor about it, but at least it’s good enough for short walks and weight-lifting. I guess I’ll be limiting myself to three miles at a time for now–no jogging, period.

I’ve taken some of the time I’ve had to myself–that is, most of every day–and started playing computer games again. OK, so one in particular, and it’s not like I play all day, just a couple of hours at a time. I really don’t have a whole lot else I can do. There are a couple of games out that I really want to play, but I’m not buying them for obvious reasons. I have plenty of other games to keep me occupied for the time being without spending $40 or $50 a pop on new games. I tried putting a bunch of VHS tapes up for auction on eBay to get some more money, but only two out of seven sold. I’m glad I didn’t put all 20 up for auction. I’ll have to find some place that buys movies and try and sell them to that place to get cash for them, I suppose. I was hoping to add the proceeds from those sales to my other auction winnings that I had earmarked for a new laptop, but that money is going to have to go into circulation out of its saved status.

If I were working and earning money, no sweat, I’d keep socking away the cash for a new laptop. I figure that the only time in the near future that I’ll need a new computer, however, is if I get the job I interviewed for a few weeks ago that would require me to travel and be on the road a lot. At that point, however, I’ll be earning money, and I won’t need to be saving auction earnings like I have been. Oh yes, still no word on that position, but there may be some progress. My Dad did some work this week with the man I talked with, and he made sure to get my phone numbers from my Dad, so I may be hearing from his partner soon, which is what I’ve been waiting on. I’ve felt a little uneasy applying for other jobs in the last week or two since I’m waiting to hear about this other position that would be so much better than anything I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t want to be offered another job while I’m waiting, obviously, because then I’d have a hard choice to make, and I’d prefer to just wait this out. If I don’t get it, no sweat, though I don’t relish starting over again. If this doesn’t pan out, though, I’m going to go straight to an employment agency and say that I’m interested in temp-to-hire positions only. No temping. I’m not doing any two or three day jobs anymore. Not even worth my time. That should get me a job fairly quickly, though I’ve been avoiding them due to the types of jobs that I’ve gotten offered in the past. I’d prefer not to do customer service (phone stuff, at least), and I won’t do any telemarketing. None at all. I have moral objections to it, so I don’t think that I would be the best at it.

Yesterday I was a total brain case and I thought it was Saturday all day long, from the morning when I got up to the evening when I went to bed. I don’t mean that I woke up this mronign thinking it was Sunday, but that I kept thinking it was Saturday, realizing my mistake, and then later in the day doing the same thing. Even as late as 11 PM as I scanned the TV listings and thanked my good luck for finding two shows on that I could watch (”Seinfeld” and “Cheers”), even though I ALWAYS watch “Seinfeld” and “Cheers” every weeknight at 11 PM. Not an hour later I wondered why “ER” wasn’t on at midnight like it always is on Saturdays. That was really weird. I hate it when I’m a total moron, but all day long? How pathetic is that?

And so that’s where I stand right about now. Today I may start a new book, or I may reread something I’ve read a dozen times before, or I may suit back up and head into the wayback machine to join my teammates in a rousing game of Conquest in Battlefield 1942, fighting for freedom and glory as the Allied forces or for power and glory as the Axis forces. Depends on where the server puts me, after all….

Or I may keep listening to music and hoping the phone rings with a better offer.

Posted in Geekery, General