Quarterly Review
July to September 2006
(NOTE: I'm still playing with the format for this, so bear with me a little...)
Oh, it’s been a busy season, it has. I’ve been reading more, exercising every day, working hard, learning much and making decisions that will affect my life going forward in many, many ways. That, and I turned a year older at the end of it.
So, July saw me take a business trip to Rochester, NY, to learn how to program the cash registers we use at work. As was revealed only recently, though, there are more ways for the registers to be FUBAR’d; ways that I have no control over and require the cooperation of others who don’t seem inclined to want to be helpful.
Back on September 15, our building lost power for twelve hours. Turns out it was one of three master power switches that blew up. We’ve been running on a generator that fills up a 45-foot semi trailer. It’s noisy and costs $800 a day in diesel fuel to keep running, but at least we’re able to be open. However it looks like instead of having to wait the 8 - 12 weeks we were originally told, it’s going to be replaced next week.
August was a challenging month at work in that it was simply the beginning of school and we had half of our windows boarded over from the summer, so it was truly dark in the food court, and that’s been something of a problem for us, I think, moreso than I thought to begin with. However, THAT has also resolved itself with this week’s removal of the 48 sheets of 4’x8’ plywood. Now I see all the streaks and swirls and dust on the windows. My crew’s gonna be busy this week.
August also saw me start a new chapter of Risers, but not finish until mid-September. Only six pages, I’m afraid. Though I find it rewarding to do, and I think I’m seeing some improvement in the art skills, it’s becoming something of an albatross. I don’t really want to work on it any more, and I’ve got other projects I want to begin, but I feel OBLIGATED to the three people that’ve commented that they like it to actually finish the story. I’m still playing with the idea of throwing it out as a mini comic, but that’s backburnered again for a while. Maybe by Christmas.
I’m going to learn how to write for magazines in an attempt to hone my craft as a writer a little better. I really am more writer than artist, but more Jack-of-all-Trades rather than a True Creator possibly. I have a love for comix that runs deep, and I am enamored of actually making them, but like when I realized I wasn’t going to make it as a musician (not one of you requested a CD of my old band, by the way) I resigned myself to being a Tinkerer rather than a songwriter. That’s okay, but it took me a while and some growing up to realize that it was okay. Comix are different, but still, I don’t think I’ll make it big time or even small-time enough to be noticed. I make them for me, but I’ll find different ways to communicate my stories out.
I had a birthday and turned 39. I got some great things including wonderful gifts from my wife, signed Andrei Codrescu books, a beautiful crystal decanter for my bourbon of choice and a rare copy of the never-to-be-reprinted Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. I got Neil Gaiman’s new book, the DVD/book set of Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe series from PBS (the book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and I’m working on developing an idea: an artist’s statement that reconciles drawing, life and superstring theory. Watch for that to come in this space. I don’t know if I’ll release it as a mini comic (which is my preference) or simply as an essay, but the essay has to come first. So that’s working.
My exercise regimen has paid off very nicely. Very nicely, indeed, actually. I’ve nearly made my goal of a 10% drop in my body weight while adding considerable muscle to my legs by walking two and a half miles every morning before I go to work and eating proper portions of anything I like. If you haven’t seen me since winter, you’ll be surprised at how much I’ve taken off. I’m within six pounds of my goal now, and I’ll make it way before Thanksgiving. It’s very satisfying that I’ve done this with hard work and determination rather than using TrimSpa or Hoodia or some other ephedra-laden horror. It’s slow, almost arduous at times, but I’m doing it for me to avoid early diabetes (I hope) and to be with my wife for a long, long time. It’s helped me clear my head and and focus on work and working and creating and tons of other things, improved my circulation and forced me to retire a six-month old pair of shoes that had more than five hundred miles on them. But now I’ve got to start thinking about what I’m going to do when it’s 30 degrees and the wind’s whipping the temperature down to the low teens. I can’t be out in that kind of weather so I’ll be buying an exercise mat this month and exploring things like Pilates, I think. Any suggestions are welcome from the peanut gallery. Sit ups or crunches will likely figure hugely in this.
I’ve read a bunch of Roald Dahl and Harlan Ellison short stories recently, too, and I’m finding it preferable to read short stories or essays in general because of the time constraints I operate in my life. I miss reading as voraciously as I did in my twenties and early thirties, but as my career in the dayjob has taken off, I’ve been pulled away from reading for pleasure. Short stories and essays are my way of trying to take some of that back.
My weight, more reading and writing were my goals for this year and they were modest to begin with, but setting those goals has been good for me, and given me a bit of purpose, despite everyone’s desire to build a superlist at the beginning of each year. My last Quarterly Review for the year will examine that list I made this year and see for sure how I did. I’m taking to heart the issue of planning a little better, and my plans are more realistic and though some are far-reaching, there are plenty of goals in between to keep me going until I get to those. Previously, I’ve never understood a five-year plan but I’m getting it now.
So it’s been a very good three months and I hope that the end of the year sees the kind of life improvement that the last six months have been. That’ll give me a lot of momentum going into 2007.
(NOTE: I'm still playing with the format for this, so bear with me a little...)
Oh, it’s been a busy season, it has. I’ve been reading more, exercising every day, working hard, learning much and making decisions that will affect my life going forward in many, many ways. That, and I turned a year older at the end of it.
So, July saw me take a business trip to Rochester, NY, to learn how to program the cash registers we use at work. As was revealed only recently, though, there are more ways for the registers to be FUBAR’d; ways that I have no control over and require the cooperation of others who don’t seem inclined to want to be helpful.
Back on September 15, our building lost power for twelve hours. Turns out it was one of three master power switches that blew up. We’ve been running on a generator that fills up a 45-foot semi trailer. It’s noisy and costs $800 a day in diesel fuel to keep running, but at least we’re able to be open. However it looks like instead of having to wait the 8 - 12 weeks we were originally told, it’s going to be replaced next week.
August was a challenging month at work in that it was simply the beginning of school and we had half of our windows boarded over from the summer, so it was truly dark in the food court, and that’s been something of a problem for us, I think, moreso than I thought to begin with. However, THAT has also resolved itself with this week’s removal of the 48 sheets of 4’x8’ plywood. Now I see all the streaks and swirls and dust on the windows. My crew’s gonna be busy this week.
August also saw me start a new chapter of Risers, but not finish until mid-September. Only six pages, I’m afraid. Though I find it rewarding to do, and I think I’m seeing some improvement in the art skills, it’s becoming something of an albatross. I don’t really want to work on it any more, and I’ve got other projects I want to begin, but I feel OBLIGATED to the three people that’ve commented that they like it to actually finish the story. I’m still playing with the idea of throwing it out as a mini comic, but that’s backburnered again for a while. Maybe by Christmas.
I’m going to learn how to write for magazines in an attempt to hone my craft as a writer a little better. I really am more writer than artist, but more Jack-of-all-Trades rather than a True Creator possibly. I have a love for comix that runs deep, and I am enamored of actually making them, but like when I realized I wasn’t going to make it as a musician (not one of you requested a CD of my old band, by the way) I resigned myself to being a Tinkerer rather than a songwriter. That’s okay, but it took me a while and some growing up to realize that it was okay. Comix are different, but still, I don’t think I’ll make it big time or even small-time enough to be noticed. I make them for me, but I’ll find different ways to communicate my stories out.
I had a birthday and turned 39. I got some great things including wonderful gifts from my wife, signed Andrei Codrescu books, a beautiful crystal decanter for my bourbon of choice and a rare copy of the never-to-be-reprinted Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. I got Neil Gaiman’s new book, the DVD/book set of Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe series from PBS (the book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and I’m working on developing an idea: an artist’s statement that reconciles drawing, life and superstring theory. Watch for that to come in this space. I don’t know if I’ll release it as a mini comic (which is my preference) or simply as an essay, but the essay has to come first. So that’s working.
My exercise regimen has paid off very nicely. Very nicely, indeed, actually. I’ve nearly made my goal of a 10% drop in my body weight while adding considerable muscle to my legs by walking two and a half miles every morning before I go to work and eating proper portions of anything I like. If you haven’t seen me since winter, you’ll be surprised at how much I’ve taken off. I’m within six pounds of my goal now, and I’ll make it way before Thanksgiving. It’s very satisfying that I’ve done this with hard work and determination rather than using TrimSpa or Hoodia or some other ephedra-laden horror. It’s slow, almost arduous at times, but I’m doing it for me to avoid early diabetes (I hope) and to be with my wife for a long, long time. It’s helped me clear my head and and focus on work and working and creating and tons of other things, improved my circulation and forced me to retire a six-month old pair of shoes that had more than five hundred miles on them. But now I’ve got to start thinking about what I’m going to do when it’s 30 degrees and the wind’s whipping the temperature down to the low teens. I can’t be out in that kind of weather so I’ll be buying an exercise mat this month and exploring things like Pilates, I think. Any suggestions are welcome from the peanut gallery. Sit ups or crunches will likely figure hugely in this.
I’ve read a bunch of Roald Dahl and Harlan Ellison short stories recently, too, and I’m finding it preferable to read short stories or essays in general because of the time constraints I operate in my life. I miss reading as voraciously as I did in my twenties and early thirties, but as my career in the dayjob has taken off, I’ve been pulled away from reading for pleasure. Short stories and essays are my way of trying to take some of that back.
My weight, more reading and writing were my goals for this year and they were modest to begin with, but setting those goals has been good for me, and given me a bit of purpose, despite everyone’s desire to build a superlist at the beginning of each year. My last Quarterly Review for the year will examine that list I made this year and see for sure how I did. I’m taking to heart the issue of planning a little better, and my plans are more realistic and though some are far-reaching, there are plenty of goals in between to keep me going until I get to those. Previously, I’ve never understood a five-year plan but I’m getting it now.
So it’s been a very good three months and I hope that the end of the year sees the kind of life improvement that the last six months have been. That’ll give me a lot of momentum going into 2007.