Monthly Archives: December 2013

Boxes

This might be the longest I’ve gone doing just one thing. I’ve been a full-time programmer for several months now. While that time has been split between Ruby and Objective-C, those things aren’t different enough to exercise different pieces of my brain.

In college, I took courses in every department; I was always trying new things. During my year-long “break,” I did programming, I was heavily into drawing, and I also taught a class. Even though the teaching involved programming, it’s a vastly different experience than programming itself. At my old job, my responsibilities were divided between programming and support.

While at my new job, I’ve devoted less time to piano, to drawing, and to writing. It’s not just the lack of time devoted to creative endeavors that bothers me, it’s that I feel imbalanced. I don’t like being just an engineer, being put inside a box. My brain thrives when it can do different things, and make connections between those things. I know I will be teaching again, but I need to make a greater effort to do more things.

Recently, I have been excited by really good television. It may be time to try my hand at fiction again. The introspective style of blogging doesn’t feel like enough to exercise a separate portion of my brain. As a programmer, I already spend to much time in my head. I need to create new worlds.

I may have to officially take a sabbatical from comics for a while. I don’t feel like The Chalkboard Manifesto, in its current incarnation, has much left to teach me. If I go back into comics, it will have to be with something new, I think. It’s also very heavily introspective.

When it comes to music, I might try taking piano lessons again or I might try more singing. I’ve always been an instrument-person rather than a singer. But it’s fun playing the piano and singing. The new activity would be stimulating.

Well, these are all great ideas, but I may wait until the new year to commit to something.

Playoffs

No one cares, but I’ll continue logging my fantasy football achievements.

Dragon Army has now gone from 0-4 and 10th (last) place to 8-5 and 2nd place. I pulled off 6 straight victories, then lost one despite having the second highest score in the league that week, and then won my next two. With another victory and a loss for the 1st place team, I can move into the 1st seed for the playoffs. I haven’t yet secured a playoff spot. There are four 7-6 teams behind me. I could drop out, but one of the players in the 5 and 6 slot would have to outscore me by over 60 points this week.

After losing three in a row (two brutal bye weeks in a row followed by a bad week) and dropping to 11th out of 14th, I won two in a row and secured a playoff spot. I’m the 5th seed, and the playoffs begin this week.

The fantasy gods tested my faith. On Sunday night, Jordan Reed was a surprise inactive, so I had to take a fat 0 in both leagues. Yet I prevailed on Monday night, with the Seahawks keeping down Drew Brees in one league, while Russell Wilson propelled me to victory in another. Ugh, I hate having to rely on the Seahawks.

I’m a little worried about this week since Josh Gordon may get Caleb Hanie at quarterback this week. My stud WR has been carrying me the last 2 weeks, and I’m worried this may be the end of the line.

Also, I really, really hate kickers. I picked up Shaun Suisham, who scored 0.8 points after some type of botched field goal or fake field goal. In my other league, I felt good for grabbing Justin Tucker, who scored 19 points. Unfortunately, I dropped Vinitiari for him, who scored 20 points.