Burnerblog

At work, I’m swamped today… all the stuff I’ve done all week long pales in comparison to the last-minute “gotta get my draft in for review” rush I always go through. As hard as it can be, these are my favorite days. Deadlines are hated by most writers, but for me, they’re the days when adrenaline surges through my body and I work at light speed to get everything done.

I love the time between the holidays. While Sherry uses it to get things done around the house, typically things that she hasn’t had time for in previous months, I use it to hang out with the kids and play games. Brendon got a new X-Box 360, so we’ve been playing a lot of Forza Motorsports 2. Gelli got a new camera, and she’s been taking photos of just about everything (yay!). She’s even been using the time off from school to write new songs and to play guitar.

I don’t have much else planned for this break… considering it’s almost over. We are going to head over to Manz’s house for the “group’s” annual New Year’s Eve party, and then afterwards is the requisite recovery day and then it’s back to work.

I am looking forward to having a reason to wake up in the mornings, as I’ve been predominantly a night owl for the past two weeks or so. It’s been nice, and it’s been fun, but I need to have a sense of purpose every now and then, to feel like I’m doing something really productive.

So… vacation is good, and vacation has been fun, but it’s time to head back to reality and to get back to the daily grind. I kind of like my coffee/Webb Alert time… I’ve been missing that.

I was looking through some of the artists I’ve listened to on last.fm when I found that there was an entry for me. Apparently, when I listened to some of the recordings I had made for the Boy Scouts, they got scrobbled to Last.fm. Now, I’m listed as a performer on Last.fm and have my own artist page! I decided to have a little fun with this, so I uploaded a picture and added my bio that is related to the types of recordings that could ever find their way to being scrobbled on last.fm.

Now if I could just get some cartoon voice acting work…

This afternoon, I decided to relocate my office to the backyard, under the gazebo. The temperature outside was perfect with only a slight breeze. The sound of the water in the fountain behind me and the sound of Sarah McLachlan singing softly on my iPod’s Logitech speakers made for a most pleasant afternoon. I got a lot done, no doubt because of the peacefulness of the environment. The only complaint I have is the mosquitoes. There aren’t a lot of them, but every once in a while, one shows up to ruin the serenity.

Since I’m using wireless at home, it makes for a very simple “move” from my office to the outside. I already configured my notebook long ago to take advantage of the ActiveKey I need to access my work’s network via VPN, so I had all I needed.

I will be doing this more often as weather allows. Next time, I will probably spray some OFF onto my exposed areas, though.

That’s what it feels like for me sometimes after I finish one project at work and begin on another. There is no momentum yet, and I have to get it all started with some procedural stuff that’s not quite as fun as the detective/writing part of the job. Next week, I finally get to start working with (an) engineer(s) on the guide, bulking up and updating sections of the guide I write that have not been updated since the initial release (six versions ago). I’m now working on the 7th version, so many of these updates are long overdue.

Later today, I will start scheduling the meetings, getting the material together, and compiling packets on the sections we’re going to cover in our meetings. Then, after the short meetings take place, I get to take the new information, insert it where applicable, take out the old information, then re-read and edit the entire section, and then re-re-read and re-edit the section once more before I move on to the next section. It’s a long process that involves a lot of time consuming effort, but I do enjoy it. Lots of my job is long-fuse, meaning that my deadlines don’t come too soon. I typically have months between releases, so I am able to get lots of information and spend time writing good content. Rarely do I have to rush.

So, it’s back to trudging for me.

Last night was my first night with this cold. The first night is usually the hardest. I did have the weird dreams that usually accompany an illness (I was in HS and my best friend was Scarlett Johansson and we were talking about her love life because I was her “nice” guy friend yet I had a crush on her and had to be in a school play where I was to act in a scene with George Bush (sr) that was a little lewd and the wife of the current president sent me a note telling me her husband was a jackass…) and I woke up with the dry and sore throat and stuffy nose and headache to end all headaches. I also had to eat a little crow for the minor error I made in my work project yesterday. That part was worse than the cold I have.

Oh well… I just have to remember to scrutinize more heavily next time any edits I’m given. The sad part is that I really could have sworn (and I did, actually) that I made EVERY change I was asked to do. Somehow, one slipped past me. Bah! It’s Friday, it’s over and done with, and it’s taken care of, so I really should just get over it and move forward. Learning experiences: this wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last.

Now I just need to figure out what kind of medicine to take. My nose was running last night, so I took some pseudephrine, and right now it’s stuffed only because I was sleeping. It’s not like my sinuses are full of junk… they’re draining nicely (and I’m sure they’ll continue to do so once I “clear the way”). I’ll at least take something for the headache… that part I really don’t want to have to deal with all day.

One of the weird things that’s happened since going to WP is the order in which the posts have been hitting the site. It seems that since I didn’t have the proper time zone setting for the site until the third post, it made my third post look as if it were my first. Then, when I updated all the times for the posts to reflect when I actually made them, it made my second post my first, the first second, and at least the third is still third. I’ll try one last time to get it right, and then I just won’t care. Besides, they’re nothing more than glorified “Hello world” posts just to make sure things were working, that I remembered how to type, etc.

Speaking of time and date, I love getting the first phone call of the day telling me that what I was supposed to have corrected in my guide (which was incorrect to begin with) was still wrong after I had republished it. Then, when I called the editor to allow me to make the changes, I gave her the wrong object number on one of the objects I need to change, so the chain of crappola continues. They sound pretty understanding about the whole thing, but I don’t like making mistakes. (I’m sure none of what I just wrote makes much sense, but it does to me, and it helps for me to write it. Kind of helps me get the frustration out).

So… I need to go get a cup of coffee and wait for my objects to change and then I can get back to work.

Grrr.