Another long day. I did make it over to the office of the storage unit and paid the balance of the bill, so everything is a go for my new apartment. When I get home this evening I'll spend some time unpacking and making it a little more liveable before my first guest (Tim) arrives to spend a few days on the $25 futon. I figure I'll spend most of this weekend's freetime unpacking, too.

I actually managed to pretty much get caught up at work yesterday, so I no longer feel like I'm going crazy with tons of stuff that I need to do. Really it's just an illusion, I still have a lot of things to do, but very few of them are organizational in nature. Instead I have a lot of writing to do, which is much easier for me than being organized. I really have to work at being that "together."

I've done a pretty darn good job of keeping in touch with everyone back home and around the country, except maybe Karen, but it's not like we talked much after she left Madison anyway. I hope everyone on MonkeyFan (you'll know what that is if you're supposed to) can make it to Vegas for the February convocation. That would be very cool. I like those people.

Time for dinner.

Everything is officially out of my old apartment! Some of the guys from work helped me load up a truck and take my bookcase and computer over to my new place this afternoon! Hooray! Now I just have to get the handful of stuff from my storage unit. Woohoo!

Then it's time to unpack! Very exciting!

Damn! I just typed some stuff here and then accidently closed my browser and lost the whole thing. I am dumb.

We ordered pizza for lunch so I decided to take my break at my desk and do some blogging. Now, what to blog about?

I had a headache last night and really didn't feel like working out, but I did and it made me feel much better. Also, while working out I got to a really good part of Last Call by Tim Powers. It had some really cool ideas and I love the number of different things he throws into the mix. It's funny, because I've like the book a lot so far, but at about page 120 it suddnely kicked up the number of cool things per page and I really got interested. I'll definitely have to check out more of his stuff.

Anyway for another reason and due to the book I realized that I've really forgotten how to think. I mean, I know how to think, but I really haven't spent anytime over the last, say, five years really contemplating anything. In a lot of ways it makes me feel like I'm behind the curve on "life realizations." You know, those things you only think of when you have time to really delve into your thoughts on a subject without someone else piping up to counter your position. Maybe just talking smack, but last night ideas starting coming fast and furious and I realized I hadn't done that in a long time. I wasn't bothering to think about working out, going to the store, going to bed, eating dinner, meeting people -- I was just thinking -- about anything that came to mind. About why I do what I do. Why I don't do what I don't do. Why I feel the way I do about certain things. How thoughts have power, but aren't action. A lot of differnt things that would take far too long to write about here. It was...neat to be able to do that again.

Maybe I'm just learning how to be alone again.

It's Sunday and I'm just finishing up some writing for work. Actually I'm only about halfway through the article I'm working on, but I can finish it tomorrow.

This weekend was nice and long and I managed to get the bulk of what I had left in storage and at my old room over to the new place. Now I just need a truck to get my bookcase over to my new place. Ugh. I hate to have to rent something for about an hour's work. Seems a waste.

Well, I'm not homesick, but I sure could use a social life. I like "alone-time" but I really like have friends to call on to do things with at the spur of the moment. Wanna go to dinner? Wanna see a movie? Wanna go to Best Buy? Wanna do something!? Even though I still have a lot of unpacking to do I have a hard time getting to it because I feel like I'm always working. Not necessarily at work, but just in general. At work I work. When I go to the gym I workout. When I go home I have to unpack. Unfun. Really. It doesn't seem like I ever get a real break, so I slack and procrastinate and bemoan the fact that I have nothing to do. How lame. And I know that, but I still have a hard tme getting motivated.

Maybe sex would help.

Whew, boy! That's funny!

So, to all my friends that read this, be aware that I do miss you. Very much.

It's very hard to meet people when you're by yourself. Strangers don't normally strike up conversations with each other -- thanks, Mom! Don't talk to strangers, indeed. Out of all this I have discovered why it is that some people have no friends and seem very lonely and solitary; it's because there are very few ways for people to interact socially when they have no people with which to interact socially. Ahhh, vicious circles.

I need pie.

My plans for Thanksgiving may change, but I think I'm going to try to get fully moved in to my new place and organize it. Last night I dropped off a couple boxes that I still had at my current place. They were mostly CDs and when I put them all on the CD rack that I bought recently it almost filled it -- 700 CDs and I almost filled it. Conspicuous comsumption indeed. Well, maybe not. I don't really see CDs as being conspicuous, maybe if they were cars or houses or something. But, damn, that's well over $7,000 spent on CDs. Who knew?

I have a sore neck today and I have no idea why.

For Christmas I may ask for money to hire a personal trainer. I figure it's something I both want and need. I really like working out and I can tell I'm stronger and in much better shape than before -- really, I'm probably perfectly healthy -- but I'd like to be thinner. Maybe I'm being silly about that, but the way I see it I deserve it and it would be a new experience. I've had a taste of being thinner in high school when I returned from Cyprus and it was fun; people noticed; I had dates and girlfriends. But then I gained weight and that all stopped. So do people base attraction on looks, noooooo, of course not, how shallow. Ha. I have personal experience to back me up and it's done a wonderful job of adding to my slightly cynical attitude when it comes to dating and people in general. Anyway, I'd like to get back to that and I'd like to be thin enough that I can see it myself. I know I've lost a lot of weight, but I can't see much of a difference because I still have a ways to go, so my mind doesn't really register it. A lot of days I feel like I really haven't made any progress. And then a cute girl looks at me in that way and I think I have. Weird.

Am I buying into the shallowness myself? Maybe, but maybe I'm just playing to the world's shallowness...?

Still frustrated by the continuing stupdity of the people I meet in this world.

I'm not sure if it will ever improve.

. . . is that a negative attitude or just another step in my dawning awareness?

It scares me a little that I don't know the answer.

Don't you hate when you start to write something as a joke, but then it gets all serious without really trying? The above was supposed to just be funny, but I kept writing. Brevity really is the soul of wit. It really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really is.

Today I'd like to discuss writing by committee.

It doesn't work.

Wasn't that simple? I thought so. Apparenly other people think it's perfectly acceptable. Let's say you're hired to . . . write ads for a company, just as an example, but every time you have to write something you have to meet with two or three other people. In this meeting they talk until they all agree on a theme or idea that they think is the kernel of the main point of the ad, then they suggest some copy. Usually something like, "Totally two-dimensional games" but then add, "but with smart words."

Now that you've been given the idea and all you have to do is "make it smart" you go back and write it. Smart. Then you meet again to show everyone what you have. They, of course, don't like it. The theme is wrong. The main point is wrong. There are too few or too many words. So they tear apart the ad and come up with a completely new theme -- or better yet -- do that and then turn around and decide the original was just fine after meeting for a half and hour.

So then you go back and write, but you know the final ad will be picked apart and changed. Oh! Oh! Oh! And the ad is already late because they blew off the actual, scheduled meeting time because they're one of the owners of the company. Smart.

So, ahhhh. Happy day.

I've taken to wearing my headphones at work. I find that it's easier to concentrate that way and people don't try to socialize with me as much. Sometimes I even listen to music.

I want to eat dinner at the Hubbard Avenue Diner. Instead I think I'll eat tuna sandwiches. Then I'll go move stuff to my new apartment and try to settle in a little bit. I still have a lot to do there.

It's Sunday and I'm at work. Yippee. I have a ton of writing to do and haven't really put a dent in it. I'll have to get to work for the rest of the time I'm here and all day tomorrow between meetings. Yippee.

I went to a party last night for the birthdays of some friends of friends and had a very good time. I spent most of the evening talking to a very nice, funny, attractive, 26 year-old, British, grad student. It went well. I hope it continues to. I'm very glad I went, shortly before leaving I was tempted to ditch out and do some work moving into my new apartment. Speaking of which, I wasn't able to get my things moved in this weekend as planned because the person with a truck who was going to help bailed on me. Oh, well, I've a couple weeks before I have to be out.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'll probably end up cleaning up my aparment some more. I don't think it'd be too kosher to spend the day moving stuff while others are trying to have a nice, quiet dinner.

Things to do. More soon.

So here I am flush with the success of adding a link to Seth's blogger site earlier today (Huzzah!) but now I have utterly failed at adding a site counter at the bottom of the page. You'll no doubt notice it's conspicuous absence. Go on, look, it's not there.

Anyway, now I've got to get going. I was typing away on this and a bunch of people from work came and started talking to me, so I wasn't able to get much done on this. Damn them! I have to go work out; it's been almost a week since I've gone to the gym because I've been moving -- and Wednesday I had to prepare for a game I ran on Thursday.

Sometime soon I have to just get loopy and do some writing here.

Sometime soon I have to just get loopy. Period.

Back from lunch and I feel much better. My eyes are still a little foggy, but maybe it's just time to change my contacts. They're amazing little pieces of plastic, but they sure can mess things up if they aren't working right.

Seth showed me some HTML-fu, as he called it, so hopefully I can aid your magical, mystery tour of the internet. I'm no longer a dead-end link if that link actually works. Woohoo! Aren't you excited as hell?

Gotta work more now.

Despite the fact that I've been getting about seven hours of sleep a night I'm incredibly tired all the time. I don't know if it's from sitting in front of the computer all day or if my body's fighting off some illness or something else entirely, but damn I'm tired and my eyes feel strained constantly.

I'm also convinced that I'm a moron, because I've been screwing up lots of stuff at work lately. It's really frustrating and is making me very angry with myself. Work smarter, not harder, right? I think I'll do both for a while to get things straightened out.

I also hate when people miss meetings and don't inform you they're not coming.

I need an attack baboon.

The greatest trick played upon white-collar workers by blue-collar workers is the practice of starting work with large, noisy machines at 7:00 in the morning. That's all I have to say.

I have officially become an exhibitionist of the electronic age. Read my thoughts. Accept my typos. Worship me.

This little blogger was inspired my my friend Seth's, whose was in turn inspired by friends of his...and so on, and so on. Admittedly this is an interesting little tool that should be entertaining for blowing off steam and making some sort of impact on the Web.

Briefly, I recently moved from my home in Madison, where I spend 14 years earning an English/Creative Writing degree from the UW, to Bellevue, Washington. I've been here about a month and a half now and over all things seem good. I moved here to take a job at WizKids; a game company that makes cool, little, painted, plastic miniatures. The work isn't hard, but there's a lot of it and lots of organizing -- never my strongest suit -- but it's going well. My social life is less than stellar, but I only know the people I work with, so I can't expect miracles. I dedicate most of my time to work and going to the gym (five times a week), so that leaves surprisingly little time for other things.

I just moved into a new apartment after spending the last month and a half cooped up in a small bedroom during most of my free hours. I can see now that prison isn't all I thought it was cracked up to be when I was a wee lad.

To start with this blog won't be very hi-tech because I don't know how to do any coding or programming for Websites. Hopefully soon I will learn how to create links to different things and show you some of the cool things I do with my time.

Right now, I'm going to bed.