02.16.09

Words

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:00 pm by Colen

Bad Scorponok, never updating any more, etc.

Hopefully people are using RSS feeds to view this, so they actually see that I’ve written something. So what have I done in the last year? Let’s see…

• My apartment is now even more of a mess than it was, although I’m starting to clear off my desk at least. Receipts and papers are being categorised and organised.
• My US work visa ran out, and I switched to a different visa with the help of my ex-boss, some friends, and an immigration lawyer. This involved writing a 40-page business plan and starting my own business. Yuck. Hey, at least I didn’t get deported!
• I got my tax stuff sorted out. This had two sub-steps: 1) Start own business, do nothing, worry for 6 months. 2) Pay accountant to do taxes. Next year I plan to skip step 1 for efficiency.
• I visited my family and friends in the UK twice, once in January and once in July. It was nice to see everyone, as usual. Unfortunately with my current visa, I can’t leave the US for a while (long story). Hey, at least I save on air fare.
• At work, I finished 2 major projects and muddled through on a bunch of other stuff. I’m really proud of the Mutants & Masterminds game system for Hero Lab – it’s selling really well and I honestly feel that it’s delivering a great user experience to the people who buy it. (Obviously Management helped a lot, and I couldn’t have done it without Green Ronin’s support either.) The other stuff worked out ok, but I don’t feel like I gave them everything I could have.
• Planned out some new features for our next major project (Army Builder 3.2) on the horizon; that’s a much-needed upgrade, as it hasn’t had an update for too long. When I sat down to look at possible improvements, there were so many obvious places that could be changed. Pretty amazing.
• Played too much World of Warcraft. Enough said.

So, work-related stuff. I feel a little like I’ve been in… freefall almost for 2008. It’s interesting because I definitely feel like I’ve “added value” to the company by doing my work, but it always feels like doing the more “interesting” solution would take too much time / be harder than doing the other one. Maybe I’m looking for trouble? Not sure yet – we will have to see what this year brings.

In the last few months I’ve also started getting distracted very easily from stuff – it’s really hard to focus on things, and I find that I go off and start reading forums / blogs at the drop of a hat. Hopefully it’s just the sameness of work getting at me, which will be less of a problem this year; alternatively, I’ve contracted ADHD from spending too much time on the computer. Ritalin prescription, here I come!

And then of course there was the visa – thank goodness that’s all done with, because it was keeping me awake at night.

Personal life. I don’t feel like I really got anywhere in 2008. Part of that was because I spent a lot of time trying to distract myself from the visa stuff, and wasn’t really interested in original thought; part of it was just my addiction to World of Warcraft. Now, I’m honestly not sure what else I’d be doing if I wasn’t playing WoW so much; I’d be spending money on other computer games, watching more TV, etc. I just can’t think of anything else I want to do.

Maybe I’m simply reaching unprecedented levels of laziness? Is this some sort of biological mechanism that’s intended to make you settle down and have children, because you’re not doing anything else? What a horrible thought…

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