I know I've probably mentioned it before at some point, but this year has proven to be probably the most busy I've ever kept myself, including while I was in college. It's a frequent line that has been popping up in my e-mails as of late ("Pretty much the same as usual, I've been busy"), but until someone actually asked me to define that statement more, I never really did. Instead, I just sort of kept telling people the same thing over and over and it became kind of a mantra of sorts for me.

After I thought about things, though, I realized that I really was pretty busy with things, so at least I wasn't just being overdramatic with myself or anyone else. Sure, there were weekend days where I'd sleep in and get 9 or 10 hours of sleep, but it was usually after a week of getting 6 hours of sleep per night and I just felt like I needed my body to recover (more on that later).

In sort of a rough breakdown (give or take a few hours on this), I'll now try to describe what I've been working on lately that has kept me "busy."

First off, this year has been one where I've gotten greatly back into exercise. If you know me personally, this isn't any huge revelation because I tend to go through big exercise kicks nearly every year, but this one is different and more long-standing. When it was colder this winter and I couldn't be outside, I played racquetball 5 or 6 days out of the week for 1 to 2 hours a shot, as well as ran 1 or 2 miles a night. As it got warmer outside, though, I moved my activity to the outdoors. First, I started a biking regimine of 20 miles or so 5 or 6 nights a week, but soon I started switching off between either biking 20 miles a night or rollerblading 10-12. Eventually, I switched over completely, to rollerblading exclsively for exercise (10-12 miles 5 or 6 times a week) while trying to bike as much as possible everywhere else, including work and around town in general (and have managed to put about 1200 miles on it as well).

So, although none of those activities are particularly time-consuming or even really hardcore in terms of exercise, they do take up a little bit of time each week and I've built up quite a cardiovascular system because of them.

The second part of this equation is web work, and it's one that encompasses the greatest amount of time in my life. Not only do I do it for 8+ hours a day at my real job (along with CD-ROM design, etc, etc), but I've also been doing some freelance work (most of which is on display in the design section) of varying time commitments and difficulty (from CD cover designs for friends to websites for actual clients). Although none of it has eaten up lots of my time, I've nearly always had something that I was working on.

Of course the biggest part of the web work element is this site itself. When I started it all up just under a year and a half ago, I really had no idea how large it would get and how many ideas I would have for it. Although some things have gone better than others, and I still don't really have that much traffic (maybe I should start a blog, then I could possibly be cool), it's something that I still find myself having lots of passion for and wanting to spend a great deal of my time working on.

In a typical week for the site, I write 5 music reviews for that section, I write one decent-sized piece for this section, I update the Come To My Senses section everyday (that I'm able to), I add 2-4 pictures to the photography section, and always hold out hope that I'll get submissions for Lesion Legion or word back from someone about The Photo Trust Project. Not only that, but on the occassion that I have even more inspiration than normal, I'll add something to the In Other Words section for even more overkill. So much overkill in fact, that last time I checked there were over 1500 files (graphics and html) that comprise this site.

I haven't been completely neglecting friends, either. I still try to have a normal life and see a movie occassionally (although this year has been horrible for films in general, wouldn't you agree?) and just hang out and chat with people. I also have a big batch of people that I e-mail regularly whom I've never even met, and although there's something strange about spending so much time communicating with with them as opposed to people I know personally, that's why I like this web-connected world so damn much.

So, as usual, this piece of writing doesn't really have that much of a point, but it may make sense a little bit more the next time I mention that "I've been busy." I'd also like to point out that I realize that there are people who are much busier than me and whom are making a much bigger difference in this world by doing greater things. I know that in the real scope of things, this site doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's one of the main things that's keeping me excited and happy about life, so that's pretty good for me right now.

Also, once again I've managed to completely over-analyze something and turn it into a rambling piece of writing, but I guess that's what I'm best at.

back