Personal

Where to even begin? Last week I shared my newfound focus on personal improvement. All of that continues, albeit with the occasional wriggling. Do I have cheat meals? Sometimes. Do I not always feel like lifting weights when walking? Maybe. Am I still generally in a better place than I have been? Indubitably! My motivation was always twofold: to be a more well-rounded, healthier person, and progress into the next stage of my life as I gain more independence and get back into building my real-life social network.

In particular I wanted, as many do, to find a partner I could truly relate to and share everything with to an extent that they matched with me. It’s a lofty goal—I am a highly idiosyncratic nerd with niche interests and a very bizarre upbringing, after all—but I never thought it should be completely impossible. Whatever expectations I held have been completely shattered this past week. I met someone.

And I’m no stranger to sudden infatuations. God, do I know that. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve made improvements when it comes to analyzing my own feelings and expectations of others. The reason I’m trying to create a sober set-up here is to counterbalance the gushing I’m about to do. In other words, I know things have been intense, fast, and passionate – yet I regret nothing. In a relatively short time, I’ve been swept up in a whirlwind with someone that feels so right for me that I almost suspect some cosmic trickster deity is setting me up to kick a football only to yank it away at the last second, ala Charlie Brown in Peanuts on a galactic scale (it doesn’t help my family gave me uncharitable comparisons to Charlie Brown as a child.)

It could still be that. But fuck it. I have a chance for the happiness I’ve only dreamed of in front of me, and I’ll risk my heart to grab it. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now I’m incredibly happy and optimistic due to being able to share so much of myself, and so intimately, with someone who feels cut from the same cloth as I do. I’ve always really liked the sentiment, “marry the person who says ‘tell me more’”, and… well…

Not to say I’m engaged or anything. But finding someone I can discuss video games, writing, horror, anime, and cheap, gimmicky, independently published smut about fucking doors and birthday cakes is a blessing I’m not going to give up easily. Our commonalities just refuse to let up, and whatever we don’t share a mutual understanding on is another thing I’m excited to share with her in the future. My sleep schedule is even in tatters from the hours we’ve spent chatting into the early morning, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel like this could be the egalitarian romance most people dream of, and I’ll ride it to the end to find out. I also know she’ll be reading this, and it says a lot I’m not embarrassed or worried to have her know these thoughts.

Other than that exciting development… I guess I don’t have that much more to add? During this “honeymoon phase” or however you want to characterize it, she’s happily monopolized a lot of my time. When I’m working to progress myself personally or professionally, she’s still on my mind or by my side, and I’m so grateful for that. Here’s hoping for a long, idealized future.

Professional

Given my desire to further support the ones I care about, my professional career has only increased in importance. Thus, I’m glad to share that I have an interview later this week! This is for an associate test coordinator position where I’ll be able to put my degree in technical writing into practice. The finer details have yet to be ironed out, but I’ve yet to be given a job I couldn’t do, so I’m not worried. Additionally, the recruiter I’ve been working with believes my candidacy is a shoe-in. While this position alone won’t meet all of my financial needs, just the experience alone is a massive investment in my future. Wish me luck!

Naturally, I’ve still been seeking other opportunities to supplement my income and grow my portfolio. The last week has had me double down on networking, and it’s been a moving experience to see how many of my professors remembered me and responded with such kind, supportive words. While these attempts have yet to amount to anything tangible, I’ve received valuable advice. In particular, Robert Heaton, operator of robertheaton.com, generously nudged me in a fascinating direction.

After I emailed him following my enjoyment of his PySkyWifi article, Robert wrote back to suggest I learn some basic programming in Python. I mean, Python appears in technical writing qualifications more times than pythons appear in fucking sub-Saharan Africa. This cemented my plans to study the language, so hopefully I’ll have something to show for it soon. Come to think of it, Robert has a very utilitarian blog design that’s of the sort I was hoping for my own… I didn’t even get to mention I started a blog, and I’d feel like a bit of a panhandling bastard to double respond to a professional like him. Robert, if some notification finds its way to you about this post/blog, it would always be a pleasure to hear further tricks of the trade from you. My email to you was an act of desperation that didn’t even warrant a response, and you gave one anyway. You’re a king!

To round things off, I’d like to mention a poetry content site has expressed interest in my application. I was asked to complete a routine, if somewhat redundant, personality assessment in hopes of landing an interview. I’m not too experienced when it comes to poetry, but I feel like I have enough of an artistic sensibility to be able to adapt. More details to follow. Or not.

Public

Oooh, finally I get to feel guilty! I had to retool my plans for the site a bit to avoid burnout. I mentioned, or at least internally planned, my desire to rewrite at least one review a day. I naively thought that, since I had existing material to work with, that it wouldn’t take several hours to write one article. Oops! Writing may come naturally to me, but that’s just as much of a curse as it is a blessing. This week passed without any newly written content.

However, that’s not to say work hasn’t been done. In particular, I’ve focused heavily on importing my anime reviews. I initially wanted to do two works per medium a day, but juggling the various source tabs and such resulted in a lot of wasted time. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be sticking to fully importing from one source before moving on to another. In this case, it’s mostly from MyAnimeList. In the process, I’m left wondering whether I have a higher word count for anime or music. In either case, it’s funny, because I’ve always considered video games to be my primary focus on a personal level. I think the lack of a decent video game cataloguing site for so damn long contributed to my missing motivation. Most of my video game reviews were only read by a small handful of friends, so they never gathered an audience to push me forward.

I will be picking up the slack, though. I’d like to get back into the habit of shitting out at least some thoughts on every game I finish. As a matter of fact, a friend and I played through Perfect Dark last week. Despite me being a fan of Rare’s Nintendo 64 output, I had yet to give the game a shake. It’s quite a technical marvel. I feel like my commentary will be light considering my lack of familiarity with the genre, as well as my desire to engage further with it on higher difficulties. It was great to explore another classic, regardless. If I write anything on the game before my next blog post, I will edit this post with a link to the review.

That’s it for this week! Remember to drink your Ovaltine! Carpe diem!