After a bunch of months, he said stuff.
So.
I was talking with my friend Shane yesterday. Shane's the man I can count on to give me his opinions, sans any sort of varnish. He's among the most straightforward, observant human beings I know. Maybe it's the North Country atmosphere, probably it's more to do with his upbringing, but if you ask him a question he gives you exactly what he thinks, without any intention to hurt but without any padding either. Took a while for me to get used to that but once I did, appreciation quickly followed.
I was telling him about how I was struggling with a client, feeling like my marksmanship was way off. As a concept guy, your job is to find and nail the vibe. That wasn't happening here and it's left me feeling wiggy, even if my client doesn't seem particularly worried about it. Last week was the first full week of work. Production isn't the problem. I've pumped out plenty of work. It's the vibe. It's eluding me. I'm paranoid that I've gone in the wrong direction, right off the bat. Yeah, it's just the first week of work, but still.
As I laid out the situation as clearly as I could, Shane said, "Y'know, seems like we've talked about this stuff before."
Shit.
A bad habit of mine that LJ has now revealed to the world is my tendency to drop off the face of the planet for weeks or months at a time. My fans already know this about me. And my friends. Speaking with Shane, another habit reared its foul head and demanded attention. That's the thing about habits. They're attention whores. You may not be fully aware you're giving them attention, but that's a habit, isn't it? An unconscious track of behavior you're following, a subconscious need you're nursing.
There's only one sure way of breaking a bad habit. You determine a new course, a healthy path, and you yank yourself into that new groove whenever you catch yourself in the old one. With time, you'll overwrite the bad habit with the good. It's tedious. Sometimes it's painful. But it's the only method I know of that always works.
And this is a habit that's got deep, deep roots. I keep snipping away, I've been snipping away for five or six years, but I'm clearly not yet through with the weeding. Bugger all.
These days I'm living by the clock, my day divided into four hours on, one hour off, seven days a week for the next three weeks. I'll get to switch over to six days a week right before Hannukah and ease into a regular five-day work week in early-January, just before this present Big Gig ends. Berbie's buried, boys and girls. If I'm silent, it's not because I care about you one jot less. I'm chasing a gold ring. This is what I've got to do to get it.
I'll be back among the living in February sometime. I am tentatively planning to take March off. That'll give me a chance to finish Cakewalk, among other things. Plus jump back on the Raptorfolio and do my damn job there, too, where I've been remiss in my duties.
The silence at this end of the pipeline isn't you. It's Berbie breaking habits.
I was talking with my friend Shane yesterday. Shane's the man I can count on to give me his opinions, sans any sort of varnish. He's among the most straightforward, observant human beings I know. Maybe it's the North Country atmosphere, probably it's more to do with his upbringing, but if you ask him a question he gives you exactly what he thinks, without any intention to hurt but without any padding either. Took a while for me to get used to that but once I did, appreciation quickly followed.
I was telling him about how I was struggling with a client, feeling like my marksmanship was way off. As a concept guy, your job is to find and nail the vibe. That wasn't happening here and it's left me feeling wiggy, even if my client doesn't seem particularly worried about it. Last week was the first full week of work. Production isn't the problem. I've pumped out plenty of work. It's the vibe. It's eluding me. I'm paranoid that I've gone in the wrong direction, right off the bat. Yeah, it's just the first week of work, but still.
As I laid out the situation as clearly as I could, Shane said, "Y'know, seems like we've talked about this stuff before."
Shit.
A bad habit of mine that LJ has now revealed to the world is my tendency to drop off the face of the planet for weeks or months at a time. My fans already know this about me. And my friends. Speaking with Shane, another habit reared its foul head and demanded attention. That's the thing about habits. They're attention whores. You may not be fully aware you're giving them attention, but that's a habit, isn't it? An unconscious track of behavior you're following, a subconscious need you're nursing.
There's only one sure way of breaking a bad habit. You determine a new course, a healthy path, and you yank yourself into that new groove whenever you catch yourself in the old one. With time, you'll overwrite the bad habit with the good. It's tedious. Sometimes it's painful. But it's the only method I know of that always works.
And this is a habit that's got deep, deep roots. I keep snipping away, I've been snipping away for five or six years, but I'm clearly not yet through with the weeding. Bugger all.
These days I'm living by the clock, my day divided into four hours on, one hour off, seven days a week for the next three weeks. I'll get to switch over to six days a week right before Hannukah and ease into a regular five-day work week in early-January, just before this present Big Gig ends. Berbie's buried, boys and girls. If I'm silent, it's not because I care about you one jot less. I'm chasing a gold ring. This is what I've got to do to get it.
I'll be back among the living in February sometime. I am tentatively planning to take March off. That'll give me a chance to finish Cakewalk, among other things. Plus jump back on the Raptorfolio and do my damn job there, too, where I've been remiss in my duties.
The silence at this end of the pipeline isn't you. It's Berbie breaking habits.