First Day Down.

Well. I wrapped up my previous contract at Honeywell yesterday and am simmering in a bouillabaisse of relief and tension. I miss the people already. The corporate stewpot is often misrepresented as boring and sterile, but I find the people are infinitely interesting. I'm sad to leave those interesting characters behind. Perhaps they'll crop up in a novel someday beyond the limit of my non-disclosure agreement.

The last year I learned a lot from my technical writing mentor, EVH. She was really tough on me, but the result was an awareness about what it takes to make it in the writing world. Hard work trumps creative license once again.

I have a new respect for understanding and connecting with my audience that was missing in my previous work in sales writing. Ignorance breeds contempt, I reckon. And Fleisch-Kincaid reading levels are no longer the enemy, though it was an uphill climb to recognize that one. Thanks E, just because I fought it out tooth and nail didn't mean I was not listening and learning.

Spent most of last night hanging out with two good friends and my lovely wife. We commiserated and spun yarns about resumes and infamous interviews.

One of my friends, CB is out of work at the moment as well. We've hitched our wagons to tackle a project for a third friend. It sounds interesting: if we win the contract it'll keep the wolves from the door for a couple months....buying precious time for finding the next challenge.

Looking for an interesting gig and some design challenges. The road is wide open.

movies on my mind

- last temptation of christ.
- adventures of baron von munchausen.

- the fountain.
- kundun.

The Latest Version

Well the latest version of my current project is drafted and sitting on my boss' desk. Now I have the luxury of working on all the little fiddly things that didnt get addressed during main production. I know that there are many "tigers in the long grass" waiting for my attention.

This is one of my favorite parts of each project. When the external pressure is off and the internal pressure ramps up. I get to make it better in little personal ways and I learn more when I am pursuing my own digital muse. Corny, yes. True, definitely. I can live with that.

And I just finished reading Dan Savage's remembrance of his late mother and I thought he did a very nice job and I would assume that she would be proud of her boy. Take it easy, Dan.

City of Heroes Tonight

I need a passivity break. Tonight JpneseSchGrl is going on the town and kicking some ass. I have been hard at WORK for too many days in a row and need to veg a bit.

Then I need to return Battlefield 2142 to Best Buy. For some reason it just keeps hanging on my machine. I have tried the whole install , reinstall thing and no dice.
Mebbe tomorrow.

Later that night...
No one on CoH. Bummer. Will try again later. Its sad that I dont want to hook up with strangers in the game, but elitism wins the day and I would way rather group with my friends.

dead.line.

Being on deadline is great for me. I love having that Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. I generally try to passively consider a project for as long as possible before committing anything real to the process. In most cases this works out fine, but I do find that it cuts into many end of project tasks that then get pushed or skipped altogether. Like reviews and revisions....

There are so many steps to this project and I am LITERALLY doing all of them. Writing, producing, editing, scripting, designing and providing educational design. I'm glad that I can handle it all, but its a bit overwhelming.

Just a Monday

I am working on many projects at the moment, on the upslope of a manic cycle. The basement table is making progress. All that remains is finishing the top and beginning the painting and fiddly little details. The recent mild flood has spurred a number of additional honeydo projects around the basement: trim, flooring, drywall...all the fun stuff. With the housing market suffering, we are staying put, happily as it turns out. We need more room so we are going to make more.

Writing again: this time some short fiction, sci-fi mainly and some gaming plotlines and story arcs. I have high hopes for the next campaign. My players are enthusiastic and have spent several weeks working on character ideas and sketches and have finally begun to gel the characters more formally. We are trying some new and interesting ideas this time out and I hope that it adds to the generally great level of play. If not, out they go.

Art projects are also abounding: diorama ideas, modular scale buildings with decal skins and the painting of the odd model for old friends.

Lunch is over, back to the training CD that work has me on at the moment.

Back at it. Writing and recording went well last night.