Wednesday, July 16, 2003

A few nights ago, I spent a sleepless few hours in bed thinking over my desire to quit my current job and start writing. As I struggled, I came to a decision.

At work, the current project will be done in about a month and a half. If I leave now, their documentation will be screwed. I don’t want to do that to the folks here. I could, but I don’t want to.

So, I decided that I would work hard to finish the documentation at work, and then I’d see where I stand. That should be about a month from now, at which point I should have all my debts paid off. And I’ll see how I feel then.

But I need to work hard. I need to tear through a bunch of work. I need to feel that satisfaction that comes from taking a workday and nailing it to the wall.

So, I did that the next morning. And I did tear through a bunch of work, and it felt so good. It was so very very good.

By not wanting to do work, I did great work. Not bad for the anguished thoughts emerging from a sleepless night.

Forgot to mention: Sunday I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean, which is now one of my favorite pirate movies ever (perhaps my second favorite, after The Buccaneer). It’s an absolute blast. It has great action, all of which is actually character-based (the great lesson of Hong Kong kung fu cinema). It captures the mood of treasure-laden pirate ships perfectly. It’s got a few good shocks. There are a bunch of great lines, most delivered by Johnny Depp (who improves the film considerably). Orlando Bloom (Legolas) gets to play with swords in that peculiarly intense way of his. The CGI is the most natural I’ve seen since Jurassic Park.

And one of the pirates is played by Gareth (the tall, smarmy guy) from The Office, a zombie with a persistent problem keeping his right eye in its socket. That turned the coolness factor up several degrees by itself.

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