Submitted by Shawn Conn on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 02:49

It seems like all I ever blog about these days is odd-ball metaphysical, meta-cognition, arm chair philosphy stuff. As much as I love talking and writing about that, I'll change it up...This time, I'll start off with some candor about my life, ramble on about some other subject, then I'll blog about some odd-ball metaphysical stuff. Sounds good? Let's beginning.

This week was pretty good for the man with the name that rhymes. I finished a long standing project at the job. I'll spare people boring techno-babble, and just say it was a momentous effort that made various things easier (from a maintenance perspective), more secure, and, if I say so myself, a damn good professional job given the time crunch and a huge mix of various complex details of hardware and software. That might be over-simplifying but I'll leave it at that. So anyway, that means a lot of props for me at work, starting from my peers and all the way up the chain of command save for the C.E.O. So that's an ego booster.

I usually just nonchalantly ignore stuff like that at work; I'm always thinking about the next big thing, a project that will essentially be all the complex parts mentioned above but also something that will entail changing the work-flow of our software development. If I had to compare it to something tangible for my non-tech savvy readers, think about it as if I was designing an assembly line process. The only difference is the process isn't for manufacturing, it's for creating, testing, and deploying code or, in our case, web site/programs. It will employ not only a lot detailed, technical solutions, but also have to fit a natural work-flow for all the members of our team. It should be a fun challenge, and I look forward to starting it soon.

Amidst the props was a comment I found rather funny, someone called me a sarcastic beer-hunter. I think that was the term, I might be one word off...I imagine people take my sarcastic, sometimes irrated, sometimes nonchalant attitude offensively. It might be bordering on the anti-social if I said half the time I don't pay attention to my coworker's attitudes/feelings and that I don't care. That isn't true, of course, but that's sometime how I feel; it's the nature of how I work and how my brain works. When I'm thinking high level like that, I'm focusing completely on all the details and that's it. Therein lies my rub with having to work in a job focusing on computers; I love the challenges, but hate how anti-social & left-brain focused it makes my mind.

Following into the weekend was nice. It started off with celebrating a friend's birthday. The night was fun but it left me wore out for some odd reason. I didn't really party hard so it left me confused why I was so lethargic the next day. I chalked it up to all the things—the house, the car, work, etc— I have cooking at once and the stress I put on myself trying to balance it. So many details, so little time. That dragged me down for most of the Saturday until I finally made my way over for Harvest Homecoming. That picked me up for a while. A nice diversion in New Albany always helps until I have to come down and make my way back home. Sunday was a good day to rest in, take it easy, get some more things done around the house.

 As I mused about Sunday, I was thinking about something I wrote a while back, the 3 acts of life, and the start of my 2nd act. Memento Mori, the phrase and the short story I've mentioned a number times from this blog, is a sort of reoccurring theme here. Coming to terms with your own mortality is a tough subject. Some people sugar-coat it up to end, some never consider it until their blindsided by it, others ignore it until it smacks them in face. I like to take the rational approach; know that it's coming, prepare for it, kick back and enjoy the ride until it comes to a complete stop. Or as I often say...Life is an experience, not a race (and even if it was, you certainly wouldn't want to win it).

Enough dime-store philosophy though...I'm off to the next experience. Til the next episode...