News from me

Not a lot of posts of significance lately, so I felt a catch-up post was in order. There just hasn’t been much going on, and nothing I felt like talking about. I guess it’s business as usual in that respect.

Mainly I’m just trying to keep up with this crazy Year In Pictures thing. It’s one thing to know you lead a boring life, it’s another thing to document that fact in photographic detail. Some days it’s fun, but most days it’s like a chore. Of course, practically everything feels like a chore to me, more often than not. Even the stuff that’s supposed to be fun. But I’m trying to hang in there. I feel like it’s valuable to regularly engage in creative endeavors of some kind.

Someday I’ll find one that doesn’t feel like a chore.

Speaking of creative endeavors, I have plans for this domain name. I guess you could say it’s the sort of thing I’ve always imagined for this site since the day I bought the domain back in 2000. But I’m not going to talk about it until there’s actually something to talk about.

I mention it now because it means this blog will eventually have to move. I plan to buy another domain (or use one of my “spares,” I don’t know which yet) and transfer the blog to it. Rather than do it all at once, however, I’ll mirror the blog for a while and do both sites in parallel, then once the new home is working fine, I’ll throw the switch and this site will be cleared and possibly moved to a new host in preparation for the relaunch.

I made up the totally arbitrary deadline of October 1 to launch the new site. We’ll see how that goes.

If you’ve been paying attention to the photos and the accompanying commentary, you’ll have noticed that I gave up on the house hunt and opted for an apartment. Between needing to move by a certain date, my financial uncertainty, and not finding much of anything I liked, I decided to just sign a lease somewhere and try again in a year or so. I’m not all that unhappy about it. I didn’t feel ready to buy a house at any rate, but since I was in a situation where I had to move anyway, I figured I should at least look into the possibility. So I did, and I didn’t like what I was seeing, so I’ll chalk that up as a practice run. In the meantime, I move into a one-bedroom apartment in a couple weeks, and it will be the first time I’ve never had a roommate.

Adventure, and total control of the thermostat, await.

As noted in yesterday’s YiP entry, I finally broke down and got a digital SLR camera. Wal-Mart had last year’s model on clearance, so I’m the proud owner of a new Nikon d50.

Now I’m discovering that photography is right up there with golf and iPods in that there are more accessories than you could possibly ever buy, but that doesn’t stop you from trying.

Anyway, you can now expect much higher-quality photos of boring stuff.

In exchange for the indulgence of the camera (and the possible future indulgence of a new TV, and the not-so-indulgent-but-necessary possible future purchase of car maintenance), I’ve decided to start moonlighting once I’ve moved into the new place and gotten settled in. I originally thought I might get a job at a mall or something, but I’m getting the idea that I could make a lot more money if I did freelance in-home computer services. I’ve gotten a few gigs through folks at work, and it’s proven to be fairly lucrative.

I was resistant to the idea mainly because it’s what I do all day, and I wasn’t interested in doing more of it, and for another million reasons, all to do with dealing with people and their insanity.

But then I was looking at what Geek Squad charges, and… well, even if I charged half that, it would be far, far more profitable than any job at the mall. And despite my reservations, I think it would be stupid not to at least try it.

My gimmick, if you want to call it that, will be that I only do Macs. There aren’t many places that offer in-home Mac service (in an area that can support two Apple Stores, no less), and also, if I had to work on PCs any more than I do (which is hardly at all), that would make me not want to live anymore.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Lastly, I think there are certain movies that, if I want to see them, I might just have to swear off my policy of never seeing movies alone. I hate going to a movie alone more than just about anything. As a friend of mine says, it makes me feel like I’ve “failed at life.” That, and going to laundromat or using public transportation.

(I know that last one sounds odd to anyone who lives in a city, but in an area where there’s virtually no public transportation to speak of, using it is truly an option of last resort.)

At any rate, thanks to this policy, I’ve basically missed the theatrical run of Pan’s Labyrinth. And while I’m sure it will be impressive when I see it, seeing it on the big screen would have been far better.

Ah, well. Such is life.