My apologies for the radio silence around these parts
recently. Mostly, I’ve been becoming acclimated
to a new job and the new schedule that comes with it. This is a very good thing, actually, but the
one-two combo of getting used to my life becoming more rigidly scheduled once
again along with learning a whole new set of professional skills hasn’t left me
much time to play here in my little sandbox on the side of the Information
Superhighway. So here’s the plan: in
this one Franken-post, we’ll catch up on what’s been going on life-wise since
last I visited these pages (was it really
just after the Bob Mould concert back in September? Yikes!), and from there I’ll get back to
doing exactly what I used to do around here, once again on a more frequent
basis.
The Job: I’m
dispatching limousines. It’s not
something I ever contemplated doing before the opportunity fell in my lap, but
truth be told it’s a lot of fun. The job
itself is interesting, the people who run the company I work for are absolutely
delightful, and knowing that there’s a steady paycheck coming in once again has
made me calmer in a way I’d barely thought possible back when I was desperately
writing posts like this. Time-wise, it dovetails
beautifully with my plans to begin getting my computer networking
certifications and – these last few weeks aside – it should leave me time to
begin writing regularly again as well.
It will also put me in the correct frame of mind to accomplish those
things: friends, it is truly amazing how much peace of mind knowing that the
bills are paid can afford a person. And
it’s even more amazing what you can get done with the rest of your time, having
said peace of mind in your back pocket.
The Storm: I don’t
really know what I can say about Hurricane Sandy that a million others haven’t
already beaten me to. My family lost
power for just under forty hours, and our porch is a few windows worse for the
wear. Compared to what others not very
far from here have lost, none of the above is particularly even worth a
mention. My loved ones are all safe, and
my roof still lives above my head. For
all of this, I am humbly grateful. If
anyone more deeply affected by the storm is reading this and needs something
that I can provide, what’s mine is yours.
The Election: Yeah,
I know, it’s all pretty grim. Here’s my
advice: shut off the TV, click off your Facebook, and think for a couple of
minutes about your core values. Then
think about the two major candidates for the presidency. Accept the fact that neither of them is going to be a perfect – or likely even a kind-of-good
– fit, and choose the one that will cause you less lost sleep. For myself, I’ll say the following: many of
my friends are gay, female, or just plain not economically advantaged. I refuse to vote against their rights and/or
general well-being, and you may draw your conclusion about whom I will be pulling
the lever for from that. I too wish
there were a better choice than either candidate, but as a bunch of
economically privileged old farts will be once again singing (for up to $750 a ticket) in the near future, you can’t
always get what you want. Try, then,
to keep as much of what you need as you can.
Beyond that, I’ll leave the politics to the political bloggers and move
on to truly important topics like…
The Aerosmith album: I
really, really want to like it. Three or four spins in, I just don’t
yet. I’ll do a full review in a few
days, when I’ve either (a) convinced myself that it’s pretty good after all, or
(b) decided to be honest about it. The
playing is largely fine – far better, in fact, than most of what clogged up their
last few albums. The songs on the other
hand are mostly mediocre, and the abundance of recycled lyrics makes me sad and
irritated.
The next post on this
blog: Before the end of the week, scout’s honor. To use a timely metaphor, the lights are once
again on.
As always, thanks for reading – and thanks for suffering my
occasional pauses.
No comments:
Post a Comment