Tuesday, December 28th, 2009.
| So I tells myself, "I need to get some new hobbies or something," and I think about all of the things I used to do to kill my spare time, and wonder why exactly I don't do any of those any more? Some things, like baseball are purely seasonal, however, some sub-interests that come out of it, like bantering with people over the intertubes about the Atlanta Braves and such just don't seem as entertaining to me as they used to be. Maybe it's because of the fact that the Braves have one of the larger fanbases in baseball, and the fact that they're the "southern" team, and despite the fact that I'm a born and native southerner myself, most of them are a bunch of idiots, and I don't want to surround myself with them too much. And then there are other hobbies, like writing, that for some reason, I just haven't been keeping up nearly as well as I had hoped. I got this netbook, and said that I'd probably be able to do a lot more writing with it, and sure, I've written a few pieces here and there on it, but for the most part, I have yet to fully utilize what it's intended use is for. Nothing is wrong with writing, I just haven't felt like doing it so much lately. And that's what I'm doing right now - trying to remedy that. And sometimes, as much as I hate to say it, forcing the issue is sometimes the best cure for it. But I'm not in a bad mood or anything, so this forced piece of writing shouldn't sound too bitter and mad at the world. ** So Christmas has come and gone, and I can't say that it was a bad one by any means. Not the greatest Christmas in the world, but I've long passed the time in my life where I'm expecting such lofty levels of joy. I received more than I gave, which makes me feel a little lousy, but it's now in the past, except for the fact that I still have to make a trip up to Virginia at some point to give my parents their gifts. On the work front, it's been tediously busy the last few weeks, but I did nurse out a gigantic paycheck out of one of them, due to an inordinate amount of overtime I put in, so the nice big paycheck I got out of it is most certainly welcome. It's weird these days, because this company doesn't exactly pay me the same rate as WCW does, but the one thing that they do offer me that is beneficial is the simple fact that I can score overtime when necessary. So on a base-rate, I don't make as much as I did back in WCW, but in times of need, I can easily surpass what I made at WCW. It has its ups and downs, but what really sucks is the fact that the workload has a tendency to ebb and flow more sporadically than it did at WCW, and regretfully, one consequence to that notion is the fact that I can be sent home early or instructed to arrive later, to ease the burden of, well, having to pay me for sitting on my ass. The thing is, that despite the fact that I'm for the most part working pretty steadily at this place, and making 95.23% excluding potential overtime, of what I used to make at WCW, I can't seem to get ahead of the financial game as I used to. There were periods of time at WCW when I could literally sit on three months worths of paychecks, and then go deposit all of them at once, and watch my bank account inflate like a Pilsbury croissant. And then I would either wait another three months, or wait the requisite time for my bank account to dip to a level where I would feel the necessity to deposit all the hoarded paychecks, and all would be right with the world again. Lately, I feel that I have to be extra careful with my spending, and I can't seem to be able to sit on any paychecks for as long as I used to be able to, because my bank account seems to be depleting quicker than it did back in 2008, into 2009. The scary thing is that it's not going to get any better going into 2010, what with adjusted house payments, and the necessity of potentially getting myself a new car, after having almost three years of zero car payment. I think I know why I'm sprouting so many white hairs at the age of 27, and I really hate doing it, but I stress over money too much. As I was driving home in my car earlier today, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I should start looking for a full-time job again. That would effectively ruin my aspirations to do nothing but contract work until I was 30, before "settling down," but much like the economy, a lot has changed, not necessarily for the better, and I might have to put responsibility a little bit higher on the priority scale over the desire to live my life the way I want to live it. Salary-wise, I made a pretty significantly higher salary at the crooked corporation than I did at WCW, and I can't quite figure out why I could never get ahead then, either. But the bottom line is that I should probably aspire to make crooked corporation-type money over the well, paltry pay for amounts of stress that I'm dealing with right now, for the sake of being able to have some sort of personal and financial security and piece of mind. ** Okay, enough of the fucking money talk, because as much as I love to have it sometimes, money is really something that I'd like to say that I hate. I have no aspirations to be a rich man, I just want to be a comfortable man, and I really do mean that. Nothing good can come out of excess wealth in my opinion. So hobbies. Since I returned from Las Vegas after running in the Great Santa Run 5K, meeting Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman, and also getting to bonus meet Robin Leach, I actually got sick, struggled my way through two weeks of coughs, sneezes, and some night fevers into the holidays, and I swear that I'm probably not quite 100% just yet. Throughout all those days, I haven't really done a whole lot with my spare time. In fact, in the duration of the last three weeks, my evenings have pretty much been spent doing one of the following: -Watching episodes of Dexter with Jen I'm finding myself bored often again, which is never a good feeling, because when I get bored, I tend to get depressed, and before I know it, my friends will start buying and/or sending me bottles of cranberry juice for all my emotional ovulating. But at least I'll have some cranberry juice to drink with vodka. Today, was the first day since December 5th, when the Santa Run took place, that I laced up my running shoes, and ran my customary lap around Zombieland. To say that I'm a little out of shape would be correct, but I'll take my small victory in the fact that as decreased-conditioned as I might've been, I at least didn't need to slow to a walk, and was still capable of jogging the entire route. As for the rest of working out, my morning routine of pullups, sit-ups, push-ups and arm curls has diminished from two sets of each, to one, or none, depending on how I feel in the mornings. Some of it had to do with the fact that I was sick on many of the last few days, and some of it is the fact that I'm sadly, completely a mess when it comes to having a routine anymore. As cliched as it would sound, I'm seriously dreading have to consider "get back to the gym" as a viable New Year's Resolution. I used to really enjoy professional sports, but lately, I can't seem to get into any at the moment. When the baseball season ends, I can usually follow what's going on in the NFL and college football storylines, but I can't seem to give close to the two shits I used to be able to care about in years prior. The scary thing is that usually around this time of year, there are a lot of interesting baseball storylines that take place in the off-season, but I can't seem to get that vested in those either. My Braves have made quite a few significant transactions of their own, and I can't seem to really get into those too. But there is what I believe, a logical explanation for it. Throughout the last few years, I've always had a pretty generous amount of free time during work to be able to surf the web, and keep up with websites like Sports Illustrated on a routinely basis, and be able to digest information, and get vested in them, and furthermore, go onto the Braves blog, and banter with my fellow Braves fans about the news, and make 80s references that only a handful of people get, and then get to work. But since I started working for this place back in September, it's pretty much been work work work work work, from the minute I get there, to when I decide to "save" the work from today, so I have something to do tomorrow, so I don't get forced to go home early. Compound those facts with the fact that it's an open work environment, and most anyone who turns their head to my vicinity is capable of seeing what's on my screen at any given time, as opposed to pretty much always having my own little cubicle for me to dick around on the internet with in years past. I don't surf the web as much as I used to, and much like inconsistently practicing dance or an instrument, I'm forgetting how to enjoy my time surfing. ** I knew there was benefit to be had with doing some writing, albeit some forced writing. One thing I've come to the conclusion with just now, is simply put, that this current job is the source of multiple issues, and not just one, anymore. Perhaps I should really consider seeking greener pastures sooner, rather than later. Pastures with more money, less stress, hopefully an easier commute, and an environment that does not include a menopausal, overweight, food-crazy, croc-wearing lesbian bulldyke that reminds me of the Charger infected from Left 4 Dead 2. Well shit. Now that I've come to this realization, I don't feel any more necessity to write any further. All the rest of the inspiration simply vanished at this revelation. I think I'll stop here, and go have a cranberry vodka nightcap. ** </entry>
All articles on these pages were all written by Danny Hong, unless otherwise credited. |