Rant - Update with Pictures!

I've updated my June 24th entry to include before and after pictures of the room now that Nicole and I are finished. Next step: start using it. :)

TPC

Rant - New Office

The new downstairs office is sweet! The walls are a freshly painted deep, comforting grey (thx again Nicole!). I found a very comfortable blue futon that matches the carpet fairly well. I found a floor lamp that matched the grey walls, and bought a similar color desk lamp. I didn't get track lighting after, because I found a sexy ceiling unit with 3 individual heads. It's been installed and I didn't electrocute myself. That's good news I think. :) The heads can be directed with considerable range, and currently highlight the wall maps with as much of the dramatic as my testosterone allows.


The north west corner of the office. Notice the beautiful dame (Nicole) looking forward with great anticipation to putting her newly chosen grey on top of the existing 'ugliest yellow in the world' (tm).


The south west corner prior to our exploits, and another shot of my beautiful interior decorator like assistant, Nicole.


In contrast to its previous level of chaos and misuse, the room is now inviting, very comfortable, and quite private. Pictures below!


The sexy new ceiling fixture.


North west corner after the paint is on and some of the posters are up.



The south west corner. Here you can see the mural map, floor lamp, medium light rubber tree I mentioned, as well as my comfy new futon.

TPC

Rant Update - Not Wasting My Life

Last night I did what I said: I setup my environment, at least in part. I cleaned out the 'storage' room downstairs (a cozy little room with lush new royal blue carpet) and converted it into an office. At Walmart last night I picked out the paint I want for the walls (Granite Grey) and I now have to hunt down some track lighting. I think I'll need an additional floor lamp, as well as a pull out couch of some sort so it can double as a guest room. There is a decent sized window, so I have a great rubber tree plant that can do well in that room too even though its a basement room (they are med light plants). The plan is that the room be used for work only, that being Zievo code (Zievo is the name of the company we are birthing), writing (our books are known as the Celestial Trilogies and I hope soon to give you a taste of our world), painting (dad is an excellent painter, so I've always wanted to try it and see if I inherited any of his talent, not to mention that many of my walls are bare), and any other non-time wasting projects I take on.

A few weeks ago I received three maps from National Geographic that I can't wait to put on the freshly painted walls. A huge world map mural, one of the solar system, and one of the universe as a whole. They will help me focus, I find them very grounding.

It's dad's birthday today. He's 51. Not bad eh? He's young to own a 31 year old. Yeah, I thought so too.

In other news, Nicole and I are taking a break. Neither of us are putting our all into the relationship right now as we both have other stuff going on in our lives.

As you may have previously noted from the blog description above this blog was intended to have more than rants, namely software architecture essays/code and some example writing that Nick and I are doing for the books. Now that I have my own space, it's time for those to come to light.

Prolific, I'm coming for you.

TPC

Rant - Not Wasting My Life

In the world I've created for myself, the gray one that doesn't allow extremes, I find myself struggling to raise the bar on the general level of productivity in my life. I'm not asking for the moon here, I don't want to break any land records for work accomplished in a week, just the ability to focus on a task that matters to me without it turning my stomach.

What is it that gives me such amazing stints of accomplishment? Why at times can I be not only focused, but creative or even prolific? What chemical is in my brain that makes it not only possible, but enjoyable?

I haven't felt or seen that for months. That upsets me, as I have some great projects I'm working on that need my attention. My brother Nick and I have a plot summary for some novels we wish to write, and for a while we were doing quite well with character sketches and related shorts -- getting our feet wet so to speak. It was even exciting. Now its drudgery. My friend Greg and I are working on a software project on the side to fill a hole in the project management industry (I was originally going to purchase, but what I needed didn't exist). I've spent about 2 years on some of the subsystems (primarily an enterprise scale data transport layer in c#) and what we have planned is exciting. We are getting close to having something in alpha form. But actually sitting down and working on it? Drudgery.

So, I'll start laying blame. My health isn't the best. I'm tired a lot. I play floor hockey most weeks, but that doesn't seem to be enough. So, I started swimming at the Y in the evenings which seemed to help some, but I slacked off that too. More drudgery, not to mention that I seldom enjoy being in a change room full of testosterone and creatine laden muscle heads casting sidelong glances to add data to their eternal manhood evaluation.

There's also work. I haven't had any real energy for this company since .. well, since back when we believed all the lies. I still do my job, but there's nothing else in it: no more energy, creative breakthroughs, all nighters, or epic team efforts that end in success and praise from above. Sometimes I feel like I drudge so much at work that I just can't bare to do more in my spare time.

And the big finale, WoW. I truly enjoy the game. They've built it so that the smallest accomplishments are rewarding, the biggest ones are more so, and I feel good when that happens. In a way it satisfies much of my need to accomplish. It doesn't help that many of my family and friends play it too and we are sometimes all online together reaping the social rewards collectively. It may be 'just a game' but with the built in chat client (very IRC or Messenger like) the sense of community is very real. My own disgust that comes from how much time I spend playing it is placated by my knowledge of how much more time other people spend watching TV, which is far less mentally stimulating. And the fact that I'm making excuses for myself tells me that, once again, I'm playing it too much.

So what's the resulting solution? I have to suck it up! Excuses are for the weak! I have to get off my ass and do something. I have to take the spike of energy I currently have (the one that prompted this blog entry) and use it to get back on my horse. In the process, I have to set up my environment so that when the spike is gone, my routine and surroundings encourage me to be productive and not waste my time.

I bloody hate the idea.

TPC