![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suppose I say 'you're my saving grace'
Aug. 18th, 2008 11:59 amI am following ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dystopiac's lead, since I have been meaning to start posting to LJ again anyway.
It's been like 5 months since we started dating, so you would think I would have mentioned the fact that I have a girlfriend. That I have not done so should not in any way be considered a reflection upon her.
So, folks out there in LJ-land, this is Angela, aliasfrendzimagnary. I think she is swell.
dystopiac's lead, since I have been meaning to start posting to LJ again anyway.It's been like 5 months since we started dating, so you would think I would have mentioned the fact that I have a girlfriend. That I have not done so should not in any way be considered a reflection upon her.
So, folks out there in LJ-land, this is Angela, alias
frendzimagnary. I think she is swell.
Sometimes productivity is better than relaxation.
Things have been somewhat stressful in my life lately, both at work and in my leisure time. That isn't necessarily an indicator that anything is wrong, but it has a tendency to leave me feeling run ragged and out of sorts. And one of the byproducts of that is I start just getting through the day. Living hour-to-hour and day-to-day and not lifting my head to look at the bigger picture. A few times in the last couple of months I've arrived at Friday night with nothing to do and no real plans for the weekend. And while a nice evening in spent puttering in front of the television is restful and good every now and again, doing so too much leaves me feeling like a loser, emotionally; I feel as though I haven't got any friends, even though I have.
This past weekend was not like that. It was a total whirlwind. After work on Friday there was a company outing to Good Times, which is rumored to be closing in April (to make way for an Ikea, eventually, if the stories are to be believed.) It snowed all day Friday, making the outing something of an adventure. Saturday I spent the whole day at Camp Denison in Georgetown, helping with construction and rebuilding to make sure that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
steamncinders is good to go this Spring. And then Sunday afternoon I showed up in Watertown to help dippy423 effect a move to Brookline. I only pitched in for a couple of hours, but by Sunday evening I was feeling drained and as sore as an old man.
And now it's Monday and I'm back at work (and, asthablueguy put it, grateful to just be sitting on my ass in front of a desk for the day.) And, oddly, there's a way in which this taxing and exhausting weekend was more restorative than a weekend spent sitting on my ass might have been. I worked hard, which made me feel productive. And that sense of accomplishment is good for the soul; even if the root causes of the stress in my life are still unresolved (for the moment, anyway) it's good to know that I did something, actively did something about them. Sure, what I did may have been tangential to the root causes in the first place. But activity is preferable to sitting around with anxiety preying on my mind and my dreams.
My blog is in a sad state, I know, but it's been a long Winter. Bear with me, and I'll try and get back in the habit.
Things have been somewhat stressful in my life lately, both at work and in my leisure time. That isn't necessarily an indicator that anything is wrong, but it has a tendency to leave me feeling run ragged and out of sorts. And one of the byproducts of that is I start just getting through the day. Living hour-to-hour and day-to-day and not lifting my head to look at the bigger picture. A few times in the last couple of months I've arrived at Friday night with nothing to do and no real plans for the weekend. And while a nice evening in spent puttering in front of the television is restful and good every now and again, doing so too much leaves me feeling like a loser, emotionally; I feel as though I haven't got any friends, even though I have.
This past weekend was not like that. It was a total whirlwind. After work on Friday there was a company outing to Good Times, which is rumored to be closing in April (to make way for an Ikea, eventually, if the stories are to be believed.) It snowed all day Friday, making the outing something of an adventure. Saturday I spent the whole day at Camp Denison in Georgetown, helping with construction and rebuilding to make sure that
steamncinders is good to go this Spring. And then Sunday afternoon I showed up in Watertown to help dippy423 effect a move to Brookline. I only pitched in for a couple of hours, but by Sunday evening I was feeling drained and as sore as an old man.And now it's Monday and I'm back at work (and, as
thablueguy put it, grateful to just be sitting on my ass in front of a desk for the day.) And, oddly, there's a way in which this taxing and exhausting weekend was more restorative than a weekend spent sitting on my ass might have been. I worked hard, which made me feel productive. And that sense of accomplishment is good for the soul; even if the root causes of the stress in my life are still unresolved (for the moment, anyway) it's good to know that I did something, actively did something about them. Sure, what I did may have been tangential to the root causes in the first place. But activity is preferable to sitting around with anxiety preying on my mind and my dreams.My blog is in a sad state, I know, but it's been a long Winter. Bear with me, and I'll try and get back in the habit.
Um. Right. So. This journal thing, which I still have. Ha.
When last we left our hero, I had recently moved from Somerville to Cambridge. In point of fact I moved less than a mile, although my new place is much more convenient to Porter Square and slightly less convenient to Davis Square. Its also right around the corner from Frank's, an establishment heretofore unknown to me but which apparently rocks. I also mentioned that my new roommate isthablueguy, with whom I shared a domicile for a couple years in college. That's all going swimmingly; we have the place set up pretty nicely now and it is for the most part quite livable. It has its quirks and idiosyncrasies like any living situation but as I grow more and more adjusted to them I am on the whole entirely satisfied with my new situation.
Things have actually been completely incredible in my life lately. There have been a couple of major developments. In no particular order:
Oh, um. Also. After a full twelve months I am back on the WoW. I rolled a new Druid, thinking about going Feral Combat. Anyone wishing to find me should look me up on Eitrigg, my old haunt. I don't intend to let it become consuming, but it is certainly a diverting pastime, and I did miss it. For the Horde!
When last we left our hero, I had recently moved from Somerville to Cambridge. In point of fact I moved less than a mile, although my new place is much more convenient to Porter Square and slightly less convenient to Davis Square. Its also right around the corner from Frank's, an establishment heretofore unknown to me but which apparently rocks. I also mentioned that my new roommate is
thablueguy, with whom I shared a domicile for a couple years in college. That's all going swimmingly; we have the place set up pretty nicely now and it is for the most part quite livable. It has its quirks and idiosyncrasies like any living situation but as I grow more and more adjusted to them I am on the whole entirely satisfied with my new situation.Things have actually been completely incredible in my life lately. There have been a couple of major developments. In no particular order:
- I am an uncle. I knew this one was coming of course, but it still blows me away every time I think about it. About two weeks ago a new life came into the world, and courtesy of my eldest sister and brother-in-law our family got a little bit bigger. Her name is Hannah and if you want pictures you won't have to pester me very much to get them. I'm shamed to admit I've only met her once so far. As her uncle I'm obligated to say that she is beautiful, and she is, in that 'formless blob of tiny person' sort of way apparently common to all babies for the first few weeks of their existence. Honestly I didn't look much beyond her eyes, which were entirely captivating to me, but I am assured that one can see the outlines of the features she will one day possess, including (apparently) the Davis family chin which will forever live in infamy (and, apparently, in my sister's offspring.)
Wow. That came out sounding all kinds of weird. Suffice to say that I am an uncle, I have a niece. She is fantastic and I am very excited for her and for her parents. And for my own parents. My mother is a grandmother, which suits her while at the same time blowing both of our minds. I suppose technically she's the right age to have a newborn granddaughter but she still seems entirely too young to me. But then I feel too young to be anybody's uncle. Still, even a brief meeting with Hannah confirmed my suspicions about my instincts. I intend to dote on her something fierce. - I got a new job. Of decidedly lesser importance in the grand scheme of things (but on some self-centered level more personally exciting to me) is the fact that I am no longer a schlub. I mean, a temp. I mean, both. For the first time in over a year I am gainfully employed by a company that intends to pay me a salary and furnish me with benefits like health care, and so on and so forth. I only started last week so its too soon to tell but so far its going over like gangbusters. I'm working for a post-startup dot com based out of Boston, running a pair of social networking sites. More specifically I'm doing QA -- thus far all of their feature development has been handled cradle to grave by the features team, which consists of developers and designers. Now, with the hiring of me, they have someone looking over their shoulder trying to think of ways things might explode before they actually do. It seems to be interesting and challenging work and I am very eager to do well at it.
I also really like the company. Again, I've only been here a week, but so far everyone seems friendly and the atmosphere seems reasonable and laid back in a way that no job I have ever worked before has. Certainly there is a given amount of inherent stress in the industry -- since I started last week there have been two major flaps with the server that have caused unwanted downtime on the main site, one over the weekend which required the developers to be on-call outside the work week -- but I'm not corrected to it directly (or at least, I'm not until I fail to catch something in QA and it goes live, at which point blame for the blow-up will fall squarely in my lap. More incentive not to screw this up, I suppose.) And moreover people here seem to have the correct attitude about stress and work time and so forth. I clearly have a good thing going here. Of course, working for a company involved in social networking means that everyone is aware of everyone else's internet life. (NB: I am not working for Twitter, I just got an account because now I'm more interested in this stuff than I was already.) So, hi guys! All future talk about my job will almost certainly go into friends-locked posts.
Oh, um. Also. After a full twelve months I am back on the WoW. I rolled a new Druid, thinking about going Feral Combat. Anyone wishing to find me should look me up on Eitrigg, my old haunt. I don't intend to let it become consuming, but it is certainly a diverting pastime, and I did miss it. For the Horde!
Um, hi.
...
Hello? Is this thing on? Yes? Oh. OK.
OK, well... that was a Spring and a Summer, that went by there, with very little posting. I'm not particularly happy with that, but there's no changing it now.
I could chalk it up to good and bad things. I've been stressed out a lot, lately, but I've also been really happy at points. There have been good things going on in my social and gaming life, and anyone who knows me knows that's a lot of what it takes to keep me going.
I moved, on September 1st, to the other side of Davis Square. A little less than a mile, over the border into Cambridge. My new apartment is with roommatethablueguy, and I like it a lot.
I've been off the internet for nearly two weeks as a result of moving. If anything interesting happened between about August 28th and now, please let me know, as I probably missed it.
It is my hope that more posts, regular posts, will be forthcoming. Thank you for your patience.
...
Hello? Is this thing on? Yes? Oh. OK.
OK, well... that was a Spring and a Summer, that went by there, with very little posting. I'm not particularly happy with that, but there's no changing it now.
I could chalk it up to good and bad things. I've been stressed out a lot, lately, but I've also been really happy at points. There have been good things going on in my social and gaming life, and anyone who knows me knows that's a lot of what it takes to keep me going.
I moved, on September 1st, to the other side of Davis Square. A little less than a mile, over the border into Cambridge. My new apartment is with roommate
thablueguy, and I like it a lot.I've been off the internet for nearly two weeks as a result of moving. If anything interesting happened between about August 28th and now, please let me know, as I probably missed it.
It is my hope that more posts, regular posts, will be forthcoming. Thank you for your patience.
Hello journal. How are you? I've missed you, sort of. We have a lot of catching up to do.
For those who haven't caught up with recent developments, I am once again among the ranks of the employed. I started temping through an agency a while back. Through them I now have a good if un-thrilling assignment working for a research company here in Cambridge, hopefully for the next few months. I have not shaken from my conviction that the world owes me a living, but a guy's gotta eat, so its back to the salt mines for me, at least for the time being.
For a long time I fixated on the notion of going back to work. On what a relief it would be, because so much of my stress seemed to revolve around not having any money. And being ashamed, of course, that sort of deep fundamental shame that comes only when you know your parents aren't proud of your choices. And while those burdens have certainly started to lift, I apparently underestimated how much of my worry was tied up in feeling adrift, as though I am spinning my wheels. Temping may be good for my budget but it doesn't solve that other problem at all, and of course working comes packaged with a few stresses all its own. On balance I'm doing better than I have been, but unsurprisingly just going back to work did not instantly solve all of my problems.
The rest of my life remains much the same as it ever has. I still have a LARP post in the backlog, and its grown pretty massive at this point, as it covers highlights from three full-weekend events this Fall. Legends is some good boffer LARPing. And there's at least a half dozen other developments worth mentioning. I posted some thoughts about old television a while back, but there's been a lot of development on the new television front (Heroes, Studio 60 and Torchwood most notably.) And its not as though the old television world has been static in the interrim; Gilmore Girls keeps kicking me when I'm down and Battlestar Galactica has hit the ground sprinting ever since the season premiere. I'm sure I'll get to touching on some if not all of these things in time.
Generally I separate movie reviews out into their own posts. But in order to feel as though I've posted something of substance, let me make mention of:
The Prestige -- 4 stars -- I hardly even know where to begin praising this movie. Its got a stellar cast, obviously, and it uses them all to good effect (of particular note is David Bowie taking a turn as Nikolai Tesla so engaging I barely noticed his unconcealed heterochromia.) The framing devices are folded in on themselves a little intricately, but they straighten out pretty clearly well before the story reaches its climax. This movie delivers on all fronts. I walked out of the theater brimming over with how well the total package fit together, putting across a simple message with crystal clarity while actively encouraging the reader to unpack that deceptive simplicity into oodles of complexity and nuance.
And, as I mentioned to my fellow theater patrons, the film bore at least a passing conceptual resemblance to Primer. Obviously no one has ever steered wrong by reminding me of that movie, as its one of my quiet favorites. So I'm happy I listened to everyone and went to see The Prestige. Next on the list of movies I absolutely have to see ohmygod right NOW is Borat -- anyone interested?
For those who haven't caught up with recent developments, I am once again among the ranks of the employed. I started temping through an agency a while back. Through them I now have a good if un-thrilling assignment working for a research company here in Cambridge, hopefully for the next few months. I have not shaken from my conviction that the world owes me a living, but a guy's gotta eat, so its back to the salt mines for me, at least for the time being.
For a long time I fixated on the notion of going back to work. On what a relief it would be, because so much of my stress seemed to revolve around not having any money. And being ashamed, of course, that sort of deep fundamental shame that comes only when you know your parents aren't proud of your choices. And while those burdens have certainly started to lift, I apparently underestimated how much of my worry was tied up in feeling adrift, as though I am spinning my wheels. Temping may be good for my budget but it doesn't solve that other problem at all, and of course working comes packaged with a few stresses all its own. On balance I'm doing better than I have been, but unsurprisingly just going back to work did not instantly solve all of my problems.
The rest of my life remains much the same as it ever has. I still have a LARP post in the backlog, and its grown pretty massive at this point, as it covers highlights from three full-weekend events this Fall. Legends is some good boffer LARPing. And there's at least a half dozen other developments worth mentioning. I posted some thoughts about old television a while back, but there's been a lot of development on the new television front (Heroes, Studio 60 and Torchwood most notably.) And its not as though the old television world has been static in the interrim; Gilmore Girls keeps kicking me when I'm down and Battlestar Galactica has hit the ground sprinting ever since the season premiere. I'm sure I'll get to touching on some if not all of these things in time.
Generally I separate movie reviews out into their own posts. But in order to feel as though I've posted something of substance, let me make mention of:
The Prestige -- 4 stars -- I hardly even know where to begin praising this movie. Its got a stellar cast, obviously, and it uses them all to good effect (of particular note is David Bowie taking a turn as Nikolai Tesla so engaging I barely noticed his unconcealed heterochromia.) The framing devices are folded in on themselves a little intricately, but they straighten out pretty clearly well before the story reaches its climax. This movie delivers on all fronts. I walked out of the theater brimming over with how well the total package fit together, putting across a simple message with crystal clarity while actively encouraging the reader to unpack that deceptive simplicity into oodles of complexity and nuance.
And, as I mentioned to my fellow theater patrons, the film bore at least a passing conceptual resemblance to Primer. Obviously no one has ever steered wrong by reminding me of that movie, as its one of my quiet favorites. So I'm happy I listened to everyone and went to see The Prestige. Next on the list of movies I absolutely have to see ohmygod right NOW is Borat -- anyone interested?
So I've been meaning to get back into the LJ habit. Its on my list of things to do. I need to establish a foothold on reality, so that one days does not simply fade into another. It used to be that I lost whole days that way when I was feeling crappy. Lately I've been losing entire weeks, what feels like the better part of the summer. I haven't felt listless like this since last Winter when I lived with my parents. So clearly this is a bad sign.
And believe it or not making an LJ entry every (week)day is a thing I can do that will help. It means using my brain, however briefly, to put one word in front of another. Its a routine. And much as I might rail against routine, much as I might claim to savor my laziness, I need a modicum of order in my life, however minor. So it was in that spirit that I made an entry on Friday. Just a little bit of what had been rattling around my brain.
Only, upon review, it seems that I overstated the case a bit. I tend to do that when I'm depressed. I said some things that were true. But I said others that were gross exaggerations, my viewpoint blurred by hopelessness that proved momentary. It always does; I'm a hopeful sort, at heart.
I wanted to thank everyone who called me over the weekend. It was, quietly and in an unorganized fashion, an outpouring of support that far exceeded my expectations. And it snowballed into my starting to make actual progress on putting a new Exalted game together. Which is another thing I can do. These things may seem trivial but I hope you can understand they're not. They're things I'm actively doing, for one, and they're things to look forward to for another.
And with enough of them anchoring me, and with friends like these, I might just set this house in order.
And believe it or not making an LJ entry every (week)day is a thing I can do that will help. It means using my brain, however briefly, to put one word in front of another. Its a routine. And much as I might rail against routine, much as I might claim to savor my laziness, I need a modicum of order in my life, however minor. So it was in that spirit that I made an entry on Friday. Just a little bit of what had been rattling around my brain.
Only, upon review, it seems that I overstated the case a bit. I tend to do that when I'm depressed. I said some things that were true. But I said others that were gross exaggerations, my viewpoint blurred by hopelessness that proved momentary. It always does; I'm a hopeful sort, at heart.
I wanted to thank everyone who called me over the weekend. It was, quietly and in an unorganized fashion, an outpouring of support that far exceeded my expectations. And it snowballed into my starting to make actual progress on putting a new Exalted game together. Which is another thing I can do. These things may seem trivial but I hope you can understand they're not. They're things I'm actively doing, for one, and they're things to look forward to for another.
And with enough of them anchoring me, and with friends like these, I might just set this house in order.
Uh, hi. I sort of dropped out there. Again. For almost a month this time. I swear its not my fault. I blame war_pug, who got me addicted to World of Warcraft.
I hadn't realized how badly I had fallen out of the LJ habit until a couple of days ago when I slacked over here only to discover that all my 20 most recent friends entries were new to me. That's partly due to the fact that I joined theb0st0n community in a vain attempt to meet people, and its pretty spammy. (Its also proven somewhat useless, populated primarily by people just asking it questions of the "Where should I go for X?" variety.)
Not too much has happened, although I've got a bunch of random stuff to write about, mostly relating to my thoughts with regards to television, books, and life at large. I'm not feeling up to tackling any of that at the moment, however, but I would like to take a moment to pimp Can't Stop the Serenity. I've already bought my ticket to see a second showing of Serenity at the Coolidge Corner theater, 11:55 PM on Friday, June 23rd. Who wants to join me? Its for charity, even.
war_pug, who got me addicted to World of Warcraft.I hadn't realized how badly I had fallen out of the LJ habit until a couple of days ago when I slacked over here only to discover that all my 20 most recent friends entries were new to me. That's partly due to the fact that I joined the
b0st0n community in a vain attempt to meet people, and its pretty spammy. (Its also proven somewhat useless, populated primarily by people just asking it questions of the "Where should I go for X?" variety.)Not too much has happened, although I've got a bunch of random stuff to write about, mostly relating to my thoughts with regards to television, books, and life at large. I'm not feeling up to tackling any of that at the moment, however, but I would like to take a moment to pimp Can't Stop the Serenity. I've already bought my ticket to see a second showing of Serenity at the Coolidge Corner theater, 11:55 PM on Friday, June 23rd. Who wants to join me? Its for charity, even.
Must! Resume! Blogging!
5 things that have happened since I got out of the LJ habit, in no particular oder:
5 things that have happened since I got out of the LJ habit, in no particular oder:
- I went to see V for Vendetta with Igor and fly_nimue_fly. That were some good movie; I like explosions.
- I moved from my dinky little studio in Allston to a house in Somerville near Davis Square, where war_pug and dippy423 and Pete were already living.
- I spent an entire day hanging out and talking with the infamous John Greene, during which we walked all the way from Davis Square to Packard's Corner because it was a nice day.
- I took a road trip to Middlebury with war_pug and dippy423 to see human_typhoon perform in Into the Woods as the Baker's Wife. She was of course fantastic.
- I hung out with Jacqui and her friend Tracey, who were in Boston visiting sleetfall and seeing a Dane Cook show at the Fleet Center. We got pretty drunk and it was serious good times.
now I'm looking to the sky to save me
Feb. 24th, 2006 07:59 amWell, its been nearly a month since I made a post in this journal. And that's long enough. This whole not blogging thing has not been working for me at all. I must find ways around the blogging constraints in my life, and resume making entries. So I hereby officially declare myself back.
And speaking of back, I was away in more ways than one. As many of you know I spent slightly more than a week in Chicago recently. It was heavenly. Thank you to everyone I got to see and apologies to anyone I might have missed (ahem,kailunkat). If the goal was to get me excited about the prospect of returning to Cook County in a few months, then you all succeeded admirably. Not that I wasn't psyched before, but, well. You know what I mean.
More to follow, hopefully soon. All sorts of crazy crap has been going on in my life that bears mentioning in this journal, including a free screening of Nochnoy Dozor on Wednesday night withsleetfall, war_pug and others that was crazy hell of good.
And also just as a quick shoutout to some fraternity dude I saw on the train yesterday: who the fuck chews tobacco anymore? Its 2006. Modern science has invented a multitude of ways to deliver nicotine to your bloodstream, and not one of them is anywhere near that disgusting.
And speaking of back, I was away in more ways than one. As many of you know I spent slightly more than a week in Chicago recently. It was heavenly. Thank you to everyone I got to see and apologies to anyone I might have missed (ahem,
kailunkat). If the goal was to get me excited about the prospect of returning to Cook County in a few months, then you all succeeded admirably. Not that I wasn't psyched before, but, well. You know what I mean.More to follow, hopefully soon. All sorts of crazy crap has been going on in my life that bears mentioning in this journal, including a free screening of Nochnoy Dozor on Wednesday night with
sleetfall, war_pug and others that was crazy hell of good.And also just as a quick shoutout to some fraternity dude I saw on the train yesterday: who the fuck chews tobacco anymore? Its 2006. Modern science has invented a multitude of ways to deliver nicotine to your bloodstream, and not one of them is anywhere near that disgusting.
