There is an episode of the Brady Bunch in which Peter has committed himself to two dates on the same night. On Hallowe'en, no less. So he runs back and forth between kitchen & living room, changing costumes, entertaining both girls, until inevitably he is caught, all to the soundtrack of some horribly misused piece of classical music (1812 overture maybe?)
Beyond being very, very concerned that I am able to recall instantly so much trivia about crappy 70's television, I am also disturbed that I am able to apply the antics of a poorly developed sitcom character as a metaphor for my current state of mind. My work life during the past few months): write code for Project A as fast as my fingers can type and synapses can fire. Receive new, equally super high priority request for Project B, which is related to Project A just enough to be confusing, but not especially helpful; shift gears and now write code even faster for Project B. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Periodically receive phone calls from my supervisor telling me that she knows I have more work than I can handle right now, just try to stay on top of it, the company is considering hiring more employees / reassigning current employees to alleviate the increasing work load. Periodically receive exceedingly bizarre emails from one of the researchers I work with, who clearly was a pirate in a past life, or is drunk in his current life, or possibly both.
It rained on Sunday. Rain is my favourite weather, and we've had precious little of it for the past few months, so I was very content. I spent most of the day sitting on the futon, listening to classical music on NPR, and alternately falling asleep and reading The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. It's pretty good - I had the belief that all Pulitzer winners were massively overwritten, but this one seems to be an exception. Somewhat overwritten, yes, but on the balance, it works. Plus, it mostly takes place in Canada, so it has that going for it.
Man do I need a holiday. I'm thinking about going out to Mystic Seaport to take a class on traditional boat building. It'd be nice to have some hands on work that doesn't involve a keyboard (or weeds!) for a change.
New Tom Robbins book out! Just noticed it as I walked past the bookstore this evening. Ah, happy.
Beyond being very, very concerned that I am able to recall instantly so much trivia about crappy 70's television, I am also disturbed that I am able to apply the antics of a poorly developed sitcom character as a metaphor for my current state of mind. My work life during the past few months): write code for Project A as fast as my fingers can type and synapses can fire. Receive new, equally super high priority request for Project B, which is related to Project A just enough to be confusing, but not especially helpful; shift gears and now write code even faster for Project B. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Periodically receive phone calls from my supervisor telling me that she knows I have more work than I can handle right now, just try to stay on top of it, the company is considering hiring more employees / reassigning current employees to alleviate the increasing work load. Periodically receive exceedingly bizarre emails from one of the researchers I work with, who clearly was a pirate in a past life, or is drunk in his current life, or possibly both.
It rained on Sunday. Rain is my favourite weather, and we've had precious little of it for the past few months, so I was very content. I spent most of the day sitting on the futon, listening to classical music on NPR, and alternately falling asleep and reading The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. It's pretty good - I had the belief that all Pulitzer winners were massively overwritten, but this one seems to be an exception. Somewhat overwritten, yes, but on the balance, it works. Plus, it mostly takes place in Canada, so it has that going for it.
Man do I need a holiday. I'm thinking about going out to Mystic Seaport to take a class on traditional boat building. It'd be nice to have some hands on work that doesn't involve a keyboard (or weeds!) for a change.
New Tom Robbins book out! Just noticed it as I walked past the bookstore this evening. Ah, happy.
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And it's soooo much fun being woken up stupidly early by a bloke yelling "Ali? Alistair? Have you seen my spanners?" and drilling holes outside my door.
Bah.
What you said made total sense. It really is amazing how removed we have become for daily suffering, and what appears to be the human condition. Most of my art work deals with that idea actually.
I think Chuck's book Fight Club had some good stuff to say about the reality of suffering in America actually.