Assault of the Inner Critic
Well. In my previous entry, I wrote that I’m thinking of pitching some animation ideas to Cartoon Network. That was Wednesday. I’ve spent the past two days under an almost unceasing assault from my Inner Critic, insisting that I not do that. That I’d be better off abandoning all my creative projects, in fact. That I’d enjoy myself far more if I spent every evening watching MST3K […]
I will not wait
I just got off the phone with Saalon, with whom I talked for, um, three and a half hours. We talked about anime and the nature of work for about half an hour, then I dropped a bit of a bombshell: I think I’m going to go to Atlanta and pitch some animation ideas to Cartoon Network. I have a startup animation company. They take pitches from people with a lot less than that. I gather that producing […]
Reinvention of the Self
Tonight, I needed to rest. Work passed as a dim grey blur. Accomplished little of any consequence. As I drove home, I stopped by the library and picked up about eight different books, most of them about finding a sense of fulfillment at work. As you can imagine, this has been on my mind quite a bit lately. I blame the season, actually; it’s been getting dark about when I get home, now, and we had some cold […]
Care and Feeding of Precious Values
Just went to the theater and watched Chicken Little, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A shame about the negative reviews; I don’t know why people expect The Incredibles from Disney Feature Animation. Those are some amazing animators—the character animation in Chicken Little is jaw-dropping for their first CGI film—but what was the last great Disney film? They’re hamstrung by their writers. (Not that the writing was bad, either; it just […]
The Power of Ritual
There’s some new VR story over there. Meanwhile, I’ve more than doubled my productivity at work this week. How? Ritual. I just finished a neat book, The Power of Full Engagement, which suggests that the proper management of energy, not time, is the most direct route to personal improvement. They point out that you can expend and recharge energy—physical, mental, emotional, and spritual—a lot like you exercise a muscle: […]
Challenge, But Worth It
What do you want to be when you grow up? That sounds a little patronizing, I know. But it’s easy to have big dreams about things you’ve always wanted to accomplish, then leave them as big dreams. What is the one thing you’d really like to do someday? Or two things? Or three things? Writing a novel? Visiting Mt. Fuji? Finding the greatest cheesecake in the world? Create a cool […]
An Odd Greeting
After all my preparation for my parents’ visit last night, I got a phone call yesterday morning. It was my Mom, telling me that one of the dogs woke up very sick and was…let’s just say, making messes all over the house. There was no way they could come. ARG! That threatened to spiral me into a depression that would have put me in a funk all night. I had […]
A Sunday Spent at Home, and the Pleasures Thereof
I like staying home. I have a good friend who, if he’s stayed home for an hour or two, is overcome with a need to go out, see people, and do things. I can sympathize, but I almost never share the impulse. I’ve made my home a place I enjoy living in. That’s kind of the point of having a home, isn’t it? Why not enjoy it? Which is why I spent all day yesterday […]
October 30, 2005
Meanwhile, Saalon is back, with a neat description of our hacker travails. Halloween Comes Once a Year, It’s Almost Here, It’s Almost Here After a day spent on chores and a productive Otherspace meeting that’s uninteresting to anyone outside it, I sat down tonight to re-watch John Carpenter’s Halloween. Every time I watch this movie—as I do every October—I am more impressed than I was the last time I watched it. It’s […]
Paati o shimasho!
Well, the Pumpkin Carving Party was a complete success. I’m already planning for next year’s, which I want to make even better. It came on the heels of a bit of a disastrous day at the office, from a productivity perspective. I could not make myself fall asleep Thursday night, so I ended up sleeping through my alarm this morning and got to work late. I’d scheduled a one-on-one lunch with my boss today, so that […]