Still Alive, Still Off the Grid, and the More Alive For It

Much less posting, of late. I've been particularly busy at work, as we are in the midst of transitioning into a GIS environment that should be very beneficial to my career in the future, but is putting a tremendous strain on my workload at present.

It's been weird to be without a computer at home for the past five days or so. Without a doubt, I have some pretty strong indications of computer addiction; and I say that in a clinical sense, not a slang one. Beyond a fairly substantial amount of work that I put into working on theatre-related stuff, and home finance (which I attend to almost exclusively on my computer), I spend far more time obsessively checking various email accounts, RSS feeds, and late-night, open-ended cruising about that I think arises from some sort of false hope it will relax a mind that is wound up from day after day full of operating at a high level, both at work and home. I think the reality, though, is that a computer (much like a TV) has some sort of stasis effect on your brain; it emerges from a period of time devoted to the activity in the exact condition in which it entered; and none the more rested. As I stated to PMix on Friday, I aspire to approach my computer activity at home with the same method that so successfully governs my TV watching: I will turn on the device if I have some very specific purpose in mind, and turn it off as soon as that purpose is done.

So - sans-computer this past weekend, I went with my family out to an apple orchard for some annual pickin'; and sweet, fresh apples were feasted upon for the remainder of the weekend, along with Goose Island Autumn Ale and Bell's Two Hearted IPA. I also had the opportunity to see live theatre performance, directed by the guy who will be directing my company's winter show, plus hang out with my two girls yesterday afternoon while Sharon did one of her intermittant naturalist programming events (she works about one day a month). One of the hilights from the afternoon (and there were many): finally getting some glow-in-the-dark stars stuck up on Lucy's ceiling. I elected to represent the Winter Sky, since it'll be a sky she is more familiar with, growing up (dark will always occur before her bedtime). So far, we've got The Big Dipper, The Little Dipper, and Casseopia represented, all directionally consistant with the actual sky outside. Then we ran out of the white, tacky stuff. When our supply is replenished, we'll start in again. You have to pick and choose, since there's only so much ceiling space, but I know I need to get Orion in there, and then probably as many of the Zodiac characters as appear in a Winter sky.