On not being dead
No, I’m not dead. Just busy. Although it’s true that I’ve been a bit under the weather, my legions of dedicated readers need not fear--I have returned from the brink of oblivion to entertain and enlighten one and all. (It’s okay to use plural nouns like “legions” and “readers” to refer to one’s mother, right? Yes? Good.)
Getting started at my new job has taken its toll on my blogging (a situation that does not seem likely to change in the immediate future), but has left me very satisfied nonetheless. I am pleased with the decision to switch jobs, although with my first paycheck coming at the end of this week, it remains to be seen whether the cash-flow problem will be as difficult to deal with as I had anticipated.
Fortunately, my wife has been remarkably supportive this decision, for which I am exceedingly grateful--none of this would have been possible without her loving assistance and steadfast encouragement. She jokes that she depends on me, but the truth of the matter is that it’s the other way around. I depend on her much more than she would ever admit, and probably more than she knows.
The job itself has been going very well so far. The director of my department tells me that my first major task is to determine if this is a job that one person can handle or if the department needs to hire another person to share the workload. It’s too early to tell which will be the case, but I can clearly see areas where I can contribute a lot, which is somewhat of a change from my last job, where my contributions were limited to a few areas that were somewhat narrowly defined.
This potential to make substantial contributions has tapped a wellspring of previously dormant enthusiasm for work. Perhaps even better than the opportunities for professional satisfaction, though, are the opportunities for self-improvement. Not only is there a great deal to learn at this job, but it also opens the doors to a lot of exploration in ways that my last job did not. Plus, I get paid to play with bleeding-edge technology, which is always fun.
This switch has not been entirely without sacrifices, though. You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing as much as I used to, for one thing. I also don’t have as much time to read as I did before. My Safari Bookshelf was one of the first casualties of this transition, simply because I no longer have time to use it. Fortunately, I am learning to make use of the longer commute to do a bit of both reading and writing. When the trains are crowded, I can write, albeit very slowly, with my PDA; when they are not crowded, I can read! With any luck, I’ll be able to just about break even on these two counts. At the very least, I should be able to write enough to keep my mom satisfied, but what am I going to do about my other commitments? Time will tell, I suppose.
In the meantime, rejoice. I’m blogging again!
