Saturday, February 8, 2003

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….

The day started out well; I completed all my errands in plenty of time to get home and do everything else I needed to do. I dallied too long, though, and just managed to finish cleaning before Cartoon Network‘s showing of .hack//sign, a neat anime series set in an MMORPG. Beautiful artwork, too.

A friend of mine was scheduled to arrive and hang out about when .hack//sign ended, but he called and had to re-schedule for tomorrow evening. Great. That threw off my afternoon. My Dad braved the cold weather and helped me check over my truck’s oil level, antifreeze, tire treads, etc. I was surprised to discover that it’s just fine. Then I read a bit from Prichard’s A History of the Episcopal Church before dinner.

I laughed to some Monty Python before setting up the agenda for my weekly meeting between Saalon, Brennen, and myself, got everything ready to go, called each of them, and…no answer. Arg.

Saalon had told me he’d be out of town, but I completely forgot. Brennen probably forgot. Which is okay; we have no life-or-death issues to discuss. It’s just frustrating. This is something I’ve wanted us all to commit to, that would become a regular part of our lives.

After that, I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was 8:30, and if I’d known all my friends would be unavailable, I could’ve been productively writing or programming or drawing or composing sine 3:30.

After allowing self-pity to surge thorugh my system for awhile, I reminded myself of a recent commitment: I have three part-time jobs. Two are for NLX weekday mornings and weekday afternoons; the third is writing (and/or working on other things that will eliminate my dependence on a full-time job). So, I have this writing part-time job. I decided I should spend some time on that job.

And I’m sitting here with five pages’ worth of writing. Sure, I’d already written one page’s worth before, and it’s actually part of a script for my earliest anime project, Wine to Those in Anguish. But it’s writing. For a guy who hasn’t accomplished all that much on the writing front — and in front of whom Wine threw up huge writing blocks when I tried to write it before — I’m happy as a clam at high tide.

I’m writing. I’m producing content.

But too easily do I get caught up in the celebration of such things. Writing says little about me at this point; to prove myself, I must finish something. As Henry Ford said, “You can’t build your reputation on what you’re going to do.

If I begin to wander from this path over the coming weeks and months, I want you — yes, you, the reader — to e-mail me and tell me to get back to finishing something. I won’t take offense. I may not work on the same thing all the time, but I should be making progress. I should be well on my way…to finishing.