Agonotheta

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September 22, 2005

Finding the Joy

The last few months have been really weird for me. I have been having a very difficult time enjoying my job. I felt that I kept getting burdened with more and more responsibilities and that I should get compensated for it. I spoke to my supervisor about it and was told that I was going to have to wait, at least for the time being, for an answer to a raise. After that, as much as I hate to say it, my performance probably dropped. I became chronically late. Even worse, I was having a hard time getting inspired.

But about a month ago all that changed. I'm not sure what triggered it, but whatever it was I'm happy about it. I was told about a new "section" for our website that was going to receive a lot of community attention and so I immersed myself completely into it. I wanted it to be something I was proud of, something that I wouldn't be ashamed to attach my name to.

I’m not sure if this is how it is everywhere in the business world, but for me so much of what I do needs to "get done yesterday," and because of the time constraints I am unable to dedicate my entire creative faculties to it. This may have been part of my frustration the last few months. I have this real need/desire to be creative, or at least feel creative, and I didn't have that. It was probably even evident on this website by my uninspired postings.

I'm voicing this now, even though it literally just came to me, but I guess I realized subconsciously, that I need to slow down, take my time, and enjoy what I'm doing. Otherwise, I'll get burnt out.

This New York trip I'm heading out on tomorrow will no doubt do just the trick. In this day and age, New York City is the creative center of the world (maybe arguably). How could I not return from a 10-day trip to the creative center of the world and not feel completely revitalized and focused, with my creative juices flowing? With that said, one of my main goals for this trip is to take time for me. Every second I'm there I'll have a camera on me. I'll have the notebook I carry with me everywhere here, that's right, the one that hardly ever gets pulled out of my bag anymore. What is written may never see the light of day, but it will no doubt serve as an outlet for all of the emotions, sights, sounds and experiences that will be flooding my mind.

When I return, I have a handful of projects to begin working on. All of them will benefit my pocketbook, but with each one I promise I will gain more than just monetarily. I will continue the trend of the last month and “find the joy” of web creation that once breathed through me.

So, until I return ...

September 21, 2005

Old Flames

I've been so busy getting things ready for New York that I haven't had much time to write. Well, actually, I have had time to write. But I haven't been using it to write here. I recently ran into a former college flame and have begun conversing with her by email.

She and I lived in the dorms at the same time when we were freshmen. Like I said, she was a former romantic interest of mine. But the interesting thing, at least to me, is that she is one of only two women ever to ask me out. (The other, I believe, did so by accident. But that's a completely different story.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's call her K. I ran into K at my work. It turns out that she's new in the district, having just left the private school she's taught at since graduation. She teaches Pre-K at one of the Westside schools now. So after a few minutes of catching up, and finding out that we are both still single, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with a promise to "hang out" sometime.

After some brief introductory, ice-breaking emails, we've gotten into some pretty extensive "conversations" about a huge range of subjects. The more we talk, the more I realize that we have a lot in common, not to mention she has many qualities prized by the superficial man, such as myself. But I am also reminded why we stopped dating when we were so young: religion. You see, she's Mormon and I'm not. Quite the opposite, in fact. I was raised as Jehovah's Witness. I'm not sure, though, if she remembers that or not.

I'm not really expecting much out of this expect the rekindling of a friendship. But I guess the coolest thing about it all is that two people who haven't seen or talked in about seven years would run into each other in a completely different environment.

September 13, 2005

Question For You

Should I take my Canon Powershot S330 (point & shoot) or my brand new Canon Digital EOS Rebel XT (SLR) with me to New York? The debate is small camera/lower quality pictures vs. large camera/higher quality pictures.

September 07, 2005

New York State of Mind

I've finally hit a bit of a lull in work today, so I figured I'd try to get something written here. The main thing I'm writing about is my big vacation this year.

I mentioned it briefly earlier this year, but if you don't recall, I'm going to New York City in a couple weeks. This is my first trip to the Big Apple, by the way, and I love the East Coast and big cities so I'm really excited. It's going to be great.

I know how overwhelming the city can be, especially to first-timers like me, so I'm making a list of everything I'm going to do while I'm there. I certainly plan on doing all of the typical tourist stuff like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Guggenheim, the Met, the MoMA, Central Park, etc., but is there anything else that you know that I need to hit? Try to steer away from the usual stuff because I already know about it and it's already on the list.

The kind of things I'm interested in are the off-the-beaten-path types as well as any tips . For instance, I have a friend who told me to go the Seaport Station Tkts booth (for Broadway tickets) instead of the one in Times Square. Apparently you can walk right up to the one at Seaport, as opposed to waiting hours at the one in Times Square.

September 02, 2005

Sweet & Sour

Well, this has been one hell of a week at work. By the time I leave, which has been late almost every night, I haven't wanted to spend any more time in front of a computer writing for this site. But one good thing that happened, my boss bought me this.