After the New York trip everything came screeching to a halt for me, which would be reflected in my lack of blogging if I had blogging all the time to begin with. I see a New Year's resolution in the making.
I've actually been struggling with the whole blog thing lately.
It's a weird sort of balance between some crazy kind of observational writing about the shit that I see, without turning into some new kind of stand-up comedy....thing (which usually end up on Twitter since I don't know how many of them warrant more than 140 characters), the more serious blogging about business (which isn't why I wanted to have a place to write my thoughts, to turn it into a Daniel Pink knockoff or an online to-do list) and the compulsion to write about the crazy shit that informs my outlook on things - which usually means some insane "there was this one time with my crazy friends" stories.
There was a time I wanted to put all those stories down online, I've been using them on stage instead but I think the ultimate outcome is that I either sound like I'm stuck in the summers of the mid-90's or a compulsive liar. In any case, this probably isn't the place collect them either - regardless of statutes of limitations. Those people, where we all ended up and how we got here, have been on my mind lately. That happens around this time of year.
Speaking this time of the year - Everything did come to a stop all around for me, which is the good and the bad part of December for me. New York was the last trip for the year, Sunday shows are done and the sudden infusion of "free" time I always complain about not having to get things done actually makes me less likely to get anything done at all. I sink very quickly into enjoying my inactive time by being less active all around. My challenge is to keep moving during the slow times to catch up on all the things I've been chasing and still feel like I had some sort of rest when things kick back into gear in 2010.
The holidays are fast approaching and the kids are very excited, even if they're quickly reaching the age of "what am I getting" and growing out of the age of generally feeling like this is some magical time of the year. They met Santa and talked his ear off. Owen has seen through at least part of this charade - he said he knows that the elves aren't real and that Santa makes all the toys himself.
Apparently that was the least plausible part of the whole story. Sharp kid.
Extra time around the house instead of airports and faraway hotels has reminded me how frightening my children are. I don't think people understand what I mean when I say my kids are freaky geniuses - or they think it's typical parental pride.
No. My kids scare me from time to time.
We've been tearing through a Mind Teasers book they got for free, which is full of problems of escalating difficulty in several areas of math and logic, and it reminded me that I won't be able to teach them anything for very much longer. They're devouring the book and loving it.
Aidan got all the way up to Algebra before hitting something he needed me to explain to him - so I gave him the capsule instructions on "variables" and that equations were all about solving for whatever the letter in the problem was. And off he went to solve a whole page of equations, only occasionally asking for some help.
Meanwhile we decided to work some logic puzzles together for fun and in the advanced puzzles I hit a roadblock - had no idea what to do or even what the next step should be to explain to Aidan when Owen strolls up, takes a quick look at the page and points to it saying "if you know what this is then you know all the things that it isn't and you can cross off all the other parts" and then went back to playing Legos - until I asked him to come back and solve it. Which he did. Quickly.
My usefulness is approaching an end as anything but a clown that amuses these super-geniuses.
My place at the foot of their thrones is secure, at least.
Spending time with the wife has been a nice change to adjust to as well - we got out to Roller Derby the other night with some friends. I have to remember to bring ear plugs to Roller Derby, not because I am turning into a grumpy old man, but because they apparently don't see the need to have someone actually work the sound board during the halftime entertainment.
The bout was good but we left at the half, since the score had MN up 95-15 we weren't too worried about how it was going to end. I like watching the Rollergirls and all (side note: boy, do I) but it would be more fun to watch if it seemed like there was another team on the track.
It was a slaughter. I felt simultaneously bored and sorry for the team that drove all the way from South Dakota to have their asses handed to them so completely.
Working around the office is....weird.
I find myself teetering on the edge of credibility, which is amusing and pretty satisfying at times. I've been pushing some thing for some time and a few ideas have finally started to stick and I've been given the OK to run with some of them. Freaky.
It was so much easier to talk about how much better my ideas would be than actually prove it but I'm stoked to take a run at it. Thankfully it entails being online ALL the time, so I'm well suited for the task. Ironically, it involves blogging on a regular basis.
With that, I'm off to the office for the last bits of physical "work" before I commit to immersing myself in the intertubes. Surfing at work? Surfing AS work?!? Brace yourselves.
This should be amusing.
1 comment:
Your job is to teach the super geniuses to function in the real world.
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