The title is a reminder for myself. I need to look at a kitten. It’s been one of those weeks.

I purposely don’t talk much about work here except in generalities; there’s something to be said for establishing some boundaries between my lives there and out here in the digital æther. That said, this new job involves some definite life-changing arrangements that seem like proper grist for the blog mill, so, I’m going to talk a bit about how things are working out a week into the new circumstances.

First of all, I’m feeling pretty good about the job itself. I’ve only just started, so the new “normal” hasn’t been established yet (I also still haven’t had vital IT equipment issued to me, but that’ll come). I have a basic idea of what I’ll be doing, and I think I’ll be able to handle doing it. That’s about all I’ll say there.

The biggest changes are the fact that I’m in a car four hours a day. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet – once the IT issues get worked out, working from home will be a welcome possibility; I’ll be able to cut the commute out of my life for two days a week. I was in the office four days last week (I had meetings locally one day) – I put almost 900 miles on my car. That’s a bit intimidating, and something that I’m glad that I’ll only be doing for the next couple of months assuming everything else works out. Luckily, my car gets really good gas mileage, so it’s not as expensive as it could be, and with luck, I’ll be able to shave 200-250 miles off of that thanks to being able to work from home a couple of days a week.

I’ve also sorted out, to a great extent, what my new life schedule is going to have to look like. I’m getting used to the idea. I’ve found that hitting the road by 4am is the sweet spot to arrive early enough and depart early enough to beat the worst of the traffic snarl of the greater Washington area. That’s basically shifting my normal day ahead by two hours. In order for all this to work and maintain some semblance of normalcy, I’m having to give up my beloved four 10 hour day workweek with every Friday off. I’ll get used to that, but I really, really liked having every week be a three day weekend. I got so much done.

I’m also going to bed really early, but that’s just part of the deal. It sucks, because this week, I’ve seen my wife and kids about as much as I did when I was on the road. I get home, and they’re usually gone or on the way out for after school dance classes or cub scouts or choir rehearsals. Plus, I’m losing my Friday of hanging out with the spouse. I’ll miss that the most, I think. Still, I’m in my bed every night, which is nice, just a little while before the rest of the family. Eventually, I’ll cut this schedule down at least an hour on each end once the move happens, but for now, it’s just weird. Thankfully, I’m not a huge appointment TV guy, so I’m not broken up about missing stuff. I can see how this would suck for someone who’s gotta see that show about doctors or lawyers or whatever every $weekday at 10pm.

Otherwise, I’m feeling more or less okay with things, given the fact that I’m a creature who’s very attached to his habits and patterns who’s had all those habits and patterns upended and haven’t totally gotten through the shakeup just yet. I’m dealing, though life will be much better once I get used to things.

On the bright side, at least I have a chance to work through more audiobooks.

Hey, my tens of readers, one of my little missions here in this space is to draw attention to the work of independent artists who make neat stuff. In the interest of fulfilling that mission, here are a couple of things I think you ought to take a look at, courtesy of my buddy Dan Nokes of 21st Century Sandshark Studios:

First off, Dan’s got a new “slice-o-life” sci-fi webcomic out called Impossible Space Tales of the Last Pit Stop, all about the staff and happenings of a convenience store at Area 51 that caters to all manner of extraterrestrial visitors. It’s pretty great stuff, and you should check out part 1 (of 12) which has just been published at the link above.

Secondly, Dan’s in the process of crowdfunding a combined omnibus edition of his recent post-apocalyptic zombie buddy comedy joint Adam and Eve: Bizarre Love Triangle in the Zombie Apocalypse via indiegogo. If you remember a few months back, I posted a pretty glowing review of this particular project based on the original two volume release:

the real treasure here, the stuff you can’t plaster over with piles of production cash, are the characters: you care about Adam’s against-the-odds journey, and feel his trepidation at making the leap to move on with his life after seemingly losing Lilith, and his growing determination to see his task through to the end, where he has to hope happiness is waiting. Like in all good post-apocalyptic tales, the apocalypse takes a back seat to intimate human drama. How the world got this way is much less important than how the people left behind (both living and undead; yes, even the undead in this case) react to it. Each character gets some nice character beats, adding flavor to the larger package and making the world Nokes has created feel more accessible and real.

This new edition will collect all 200-odd pages into one volume, along with “new bonus artwork and material”. I’m in for a few bucks on this one, and if you’ve got a little cash to spare, you’ll get your money’s worth in terms of good reading and swag.

The job upgrade has been the primary concern at the forefront of my mind for the last few weeks, but I did a couple of cool things this weekend worth mentioning, so I shall mention them.

Friday night, I checked something off that’s been on the bucket list or whatever for the last seven years or so – I saw a production of Avenue Q. I haven’t been to NYC in years, and the touring company tickets were ridiculously expensive when it came through DC. However, I was lucky enough to learn recently that Theater VCU was doing a production of the show, in a nice room for very reasonable ticket prices. So, I spent Friday evening with my lovely wife and a group of good friends enjoying music, jokes, and graphic muppet* sex scenes. The university theater department did an excellent job with the show (they’ve got some seriously talented students), and I was absolutely thrilled with the experience, as was the rest of the sold-out crowd.

On Saturday, we ventured out to Chesapeake, VA to crash a party. You might remember my numerous mentions of my friend Jonah Knight, the talented paranormal folk singer-songwriter? One of the high-dollar rewards for backers of his Kickstarter campaign to fund his latest record, Another Creepy Christmas (on sale now!) was a concert in your home for you and all your friends. I did not contribute quite enough, though someone else did, and Jonah arranged for us to crash KT and Kevin’s party, because he’s such a nice guy (and they’re such nice and welcoming hosts!). So, we got to spend an afternoon listening to some excellent music, engaging in some silly party games, and making a bunch of new friends, and meeting some online acquaintances in real life. It was a very good time.

So anyway, I still do interesting things from time to time. I occasionally even offer proof.

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* – They’re not actually Muppets™, though the puppets are constructed similarly, as they show is basically raunchy Sesame Street. They did, however, have lots of puppet sex.

It’s been a while since I posted anything particularly content worthy in this space. There’s a reason for that. A reason that I’d been wanting to talk about for a while now, though for reasons that will become clear sooner rather than later, it just wasn’t in the cards.

See, today, I started a new job…kinda.

Well, it really is a new job, with a new location, new responsibilities, new circumstances, new benefits, new headaches, and truly, a whole bunch of newness that needs dealt with. However, it’s not entirely unfamiliar, as it’s with the same organization, with the same bosses, and honestly, a lot of the same responsibilities. Plus, I’ve been doing large chunks of it for a couple of months now anyway.

A couple of months ago, my team lead on the project I work on left rather suddenly for other opportunities. For reasons I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand, the task of picking up the slack fell to me. I found myself kicked upstairs rather unceremoniously, suddenly being asked to bless various project documents and plans without a heck of a lot of warning. It was a strange experience. That’s about the time things got quiet around here – I was just really busy and distracted by events.

And, long story short, the guy whose job I was doing got competed, I applied, and I got the offer. Without a formal interview. I guess the previous couple of months was the interview.

Now the real fun begins. The good thing is that the job is a pretty big promotion – one can always use more money – and should be interesting work. The less good thing, at least initially, is that the job is at my organization’s headquarters, which is in Northern Virginia. Hotels and per diem are no longer a feature, so my commute is currently two hours one way.

Plans are, however, afoot. I’m going to suck up this commute (or perhaps look into vanpools or something) for the next couple of months, all the while working to get this house into sellable condition and ridding ourselves of fifteen years’ worth of clutter, and have a for-sale sign up outside around the time school lets out.

Hopefully, the house will sell with a minimum of difficulty, and we’ll have ourselves well-settled into a new place (which we really need anyway) a bit farther north. Exactly how far north in the end will depend on a complex alchemy of factors like housing prices, school quality, and how long a daily drive I can stand. There’s a sweet spot between here and there where I can get a nice house for reasonable money, near a school that’ll serve my kids well, and will not require me spending four hours per day behind the wheel – in the next couple of months, we’ll find it.

So, that’s what’s been going on and why there’s been little but random quotations and silly videos for the last little while. I figured people might want to know.

One of these days, I’ll get around to posting actual content again, I promise.

So today, I’m just going to throw another quote from a smart person at you.

Because frankly – I’m tired. I was “on” all weekend, including several hours of software validation overnight. That’s not counting the variety shows, comicons, and regular life stuff like laundry and pet care.

Sometimes sleep deprivation leads to interesting thought places, but this instance isn’t one of those times.

I cribbed this quote from the comments of a thread over at Scalzi’s regarding feminism, which I can only assume was prompted, at least indirectly, by this excellent piece from Rachel Edidin, an Associate Editor over at Dark Horse comics.

So…your promised wisdom, from the pen of author Rebecca West, who also said many other clever things that you should read:

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.

Courtesy of Neil deGrasse Tyson:

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

Not a bad way to look at things, if you ask me.

I guess Ark Music Factory’s fee now includes social media optimization and viral guarantees, because this video was nowhere yesterday, but this morning, it’s all over the internet.

Sorry, but Nicole Westbrook is no Rebecca Black, although the rap breakdown is genius:

Can’t be Hateful, Gotta Be Grateful, Mashed Potatoes on my, on my table

That’s deep, I’m telling you.

Huh. That’s about all I got. Been a long week. Might have something interesting to share later, or maybe I won’t. It depends on how quickly reality catches up to rumor and innuendo.

“Innuendo”, he he he.

1. “Take Me Away (live)” – Avril Levigne
2. “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” – Aimee Mann
3. “Disco Boy” – Frank Zappa
4. “Too Little Too Late (live)” – Barenaked Ladies
5. “Without You” – Van Halen
6. “One of Us” – Joan Osborne
7. “Never Say Goodbye” – Bon Jovi
8. “My Brother The Ape” – They Might Be Giants
9. “Shankill Butchers” – Sarah Jarosz
10. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – The Muppets Barbershop Quartet