Publish or perish

I spent the entire day (and some change) attending a conference for work. It was interesting, and offered several different perspectives, but I think have digital-publishing’ed me out for the rest of the evening. I was happy to come home (a couple of trains late) and do nothing more exciting than watch several episodes of Babylon 5. (I’m midway through my re-watch of the third season.)

I took lots of notes so will undoubtedly revisit everything I heard and learned today, but for now I’m just happy to turn the work part of my brain off for a little while.

Back to work

I took me a while to get to sleep last night, even though I turned in at fairly reasonable hour, but I didn’t have any problems getting back into my normal schedule this morning. In fact, I managed to get up a little early and start writing morning pages again.

Picking up my notebook again, I was a little disheartened to see that last year I’d carried the practice no further than March — I was sure it had been longer than that — but I do think it’s a good habit to get back into. And I wrote again this evening, not progressing very far on my short story, but progressing some. The forward momentum might be short-lived, since it’s only the second day of the new year, but wanting to write is better than the other thing.

Work was okay, although our local network servers were down for a good part of the morning and then again in the afternoon. It made working rather difficult, and led not just me to wonder if maybe the universe didn’t really want us to go back to work after all. Tonight, the universe is throwing a huge snow storm at us — it’s coming down pretty fierce, and the LIRR has already promised to run on a shortened schedule tomorrow (because of course they have) — so there might just be something to that theory.

I won’t know until tomorrow morning if I’m actually headed into the office. I’ll need to call to find out if the office is open, then find out if the trains are running, then make a decision about whether I can get to the train, particularly if it’s still snowing. I mean, I wouldn’t mind a snow day — I still have three and a half seasons of Babylon 5 to re-watch — but it was also good to get back to the office today, and it’s not like I don’t have actual work to do.

But we’ll see.

New Year

I’m feeling pretty much all vacationed out, which I guess is understandable, and not the worst thing that could happen at the end of a vacation. I go back to work tomorrow, and while I can’t say I’m exactly looking forward to it — going to bed and waking up at a reasonable hour? who does that? — it will be good to get back into the routine. (Assuming the snow that’s in our forecast doesn’t mess that up.)

New Year’s was pretty uneventful here. I had a nice dinner out with my parents, then watched a few episodes of Babylon 5 rather than a movie. (The Season 1 finale takes place on New Year’s Eve! Also? Yeah, this is my social life.) I watched a little of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve — though, honestly, there’s only about ten seconds of it anybody really should ever watch — and rang in the New Year in pretty ordinary fashion.

Today, I pretty much just hung out, watched some more B5, read a little, poked at the short story, and adjusted to the fact that I go back to work after almost three weeks of being out. I mean, I haven’t been to the office since last year!

Winter vacation, day 13

I helped my father put skid shoes on the snowplow today, worked a little on getting the next issue of Kaleidotrope up to snuff, and watched a few more episodes of Babylon 5. (The first season’s less rough around the edges than I remembered it, and because it was written as a five-year story, the show almost demands to be watched in blocks.)

Then this evening, I watched Jonah Hex, which is where it all started to go south. Dear lord that is a terrible movie. There are hints of a good one lurking inside it, or at least a movie that could have been dumb fun, but the editing is so badly botched that it ends up being just a confused mess of boredom. It plays a lot like the dull sequel to the movie they left on the cutting room floor, and I think it may have broken my soul a little. (And I say this as a man who’s demonstrated questionable taste in movies lately.)

So that was…what was today? Saturday, right? This is the last weekend of my vacation, but there’s still five more days before I have to go back to the office.

Winter vacation, day 12

A quiet day, spent mostly watching several episodes of Babylon 5. (I got the complete series for Christmas.)

This evening, I Watched The Day After Tomorrow and National Treasure. (They can’t all be gems.)

I also took a short nap and took the above photo, for some reason. Exciting times, I know.