After working on .php coding it's high time to do some rambling and writing. I thought this website on developing a WordPress site would prove once and for all that I am a master programmer but the reality is that...this stuff bores me. I'm a biologist at heart, not a programmer. Maybe it's just .php which is what the website to Hell would be coded in. I didn't think .html or .css was horrific.
See I'm rambling here.
Let's begin with some life updates for the season.
I just discussed my travels to Quebec. Mum's the word, but hopefully another trip is on the horizon in May.
Also, in May, I'll be embarking on a new opportunity. Since last year's employment with an ISP that shall not be named it has been my goal to finally leave the for-profit world and I believe that will be successful. The University of South Carolina offered me a summer internship with the Law Library and I most definitely accepted. The Technical Services head offered me a position last year that I turned down and everything at my current job began to fall under in exhaustion. Thus I made sure that if the opportunity came again I wasn't going to turn it down.
What about my writing and film?
Earlier this year I continued my work on the When That Great Ship Went Down series of poems. I started finding a new way to write poetry. I think because I'm ultimately a screenwriter/playwright and theatre is my background, I began employing more first person elements in my poetry, akin to Maurice Manning. A poem would be about a subject--person, place, theme--and I would compile different voices. One poem was about a former friend I knew that I represented in various voices of those who knew him. I submitted a couple of these new poems to some journals but so far no response (rejection or otherwise).
A short script I wrote entitled Skinny Dipping has been making the rounds of criticism. After four drafts it's starting to get a positive response. The goal is to have a shooting script by May 1st before I leave for my internship. Thus when I come back (hopefully August or so) I can assemble a team to film. In the meantime I've been procrastinating on a sketch script on the idea of a food pusher.
More importantly, however, my short film Awake was accepted by the Chattanooga Film Festival. I have booked my hotel and I intend to bask in the glory of the film festival.
Ultimately the job has me exhausted alongside school. This semester hasn't swamped me except for the .php WordPress building class that has left me befuddled beyond belief. That being said, I can't wait to walk out of my job in May and not turn back.
It seems that I'm making progress in my goals. I'm not discontent in that regard. The grunt work is starting to subside.
What I've learned thus far in 2015 is the value of having a half glass full mentality. I've learned that the easily content and half glass empty frame of mind is absolutely useless. Through the course of the year I've lived in the reality, but I've worked hard to realize various goals I set myself too. In my 30 List I have "Get a film in a major festival" and while that hasn't happened yet, having a short at a festival like Chattanooga at age 26 isn't shabby. It's progress. I have to be patient.
More importantly this year I'm following through my pledge to find more living space, mentally and emotionally speaking. I knew that after the exhausting and merciless year I had last year something needed to change for me to find Zen, so to speak. I've been listening to Rick Steves' AudioEurope app (which I highly recommend for travelers) and the common thread among the Europeans (particularly French citizens) is that one should work to live and not live to work. This principle has begun to percolate in my real life. Now on Saturdays I take time to sit down, drink a cappuccino, read some poems and wind down. Now I take time between work and schoolwork/writing and leave it to myself. I turn off screens, take a nap, and find tranquility.
You may think this is rubbish but I have no spirituality or New Age thinking in this. This is purely biological and health-related. Just like it's unhealthy to continue eating even if one's food isn't fully digested, one needs to take time and allow full mental digestion.
Why people stigmatize naps and sleep is beyond me?
I'll take my naps and work towards the richer life.
Take care.
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