Update

So I suppose I should probably update this here and keep people up to date on the goings on of the last few weeks. In order of occurance...

I got Lasik eye surgery on 31 October. My eyes are pretty much fully recovered now, aside from the occassional dryness--which is normal. I've still got artificial tear eye drops that I can take as needed. The price of the surgery was $1200 per eye, which is apparently a significant drop from what it once was. It was a very unique experience. The surgery itself only takes 10-15 minutes, and by the time you wake up the next morning you are pretty much at 20/20 vision. Awesome.

I've been dealing with an inordinate amount of stress at home because my cat isn't adjusting well to the apartment. She's scared of Poofy, who also happens to be scared (but still curious) of her. Stupid cats. Long rant short, my cat has been relegated to living in the bathroom for the last week and went to the vet today. It sounds like Chase and I are doing all we should be doing right now; it's just a matter of time and changing the diet of all our cats.

Chase and I are now officially dating again. After I had made a suggestion, she thought it over and agreed to give it a shot. We've been dating for roughly a fortnight. The best way to describe the situation is as a contractual dating period. We'll date for two months, and at the end of that time period we'll see how we're both feeling about the relationship. If either one feels it just isn't working out, we stop dating and remain friends. It sounds great on paper, so we'll see how it turns out in reality.

That's pretty much it for the big things going on. Aside from that I'm still financially strapped and relying on my parents to help make ends meet. ...With my student loan payments starting in December. *sigh* On a more positive note, kurtin, Noel, and I have been doing brainstorming and drafting for the movie review website. A name is still up in the air, so all suggestions are welcome. Sometime in December I hope to meet up with kurtin in person and we'll go over graphics, images, and all that pretty stuff; hopefully I will be able to begin coding before the end of January.

We Have the Green Light

I spoke to Noel last night and he is 100% behind the movie review website and wants to be a part of it. That's all I needed to hear. Now I'm really hitting the design sketches in my free time (starting tomorrow, since I did cleaning today). I'll work with kurtin on the details for the website. Will probably call him later this week so we can set a tentative deadline for an alpha version of the site to be finished. Now back to cleaning!

Oh Money, How I Miss You

Yay job hunting! Everybody's favorite activity, especially during an economic crisis! I've got about a half dozen applications out right now... I've heard back on one, but I won't be able to begin the training classes until November due to my eye surgery (and thus the ability to drive to said classes). The job in particular would pay well, but would also suck big time. So I'm hoping I'll hear back from one of the other places I've applied at.

I've also decided I'm going to try to start donating plasma regularly. I could really use the extra cash every week, and it gives me an excuse to start eating better. While we're on the topic of my health, I'm going to try to set-up a regular schedule every week for me to go to the gym and actually, you know, USE the facilities that I'm paying for each month. I'm leaning towards a Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule right now, but we'll see how that works out.

The movie review website might turn into an actual something. I talked with my friend kurtin and he sounds like he's on board for the kind of thing I've got in mind. I have a couple rough preliminary sketches of general layouts for the site so far--I'll get them scanned and emailed to ya buddy! If any of my readers out there have input on what they would like to see in a movie review web site, please let me know in comments. As I get closer to an alpha version of the web site, I will probably contact Hank Green (of the Vlog Brothers) and ask what he recommends for web site hosting (and trustworthy internet advertising) since he also runs EcoGeek.org.

As a small aside, I'm also debating picking up writing again. Specifically, working on my novel. I only ever wrote two chapters, and the few people I let read it wanted more. So maybe I'll spend some time in front of my computer working on that. Maybe.

The Longest Week

Wow, what a week... I've felt a day off all week long. Monday felt like Tuesday, Friday felt like Saturday... mentally I feel like Samhain (or Halloween for you strange folk :P ) should be next week already.

So I suppose a quick update is in order. I didn't get the full-time position at the radio station. In fact, nobody got it. My boss got a call from corporate (in Conneticut) that they were cancelling the full-time opening in light of the economic crisis. But the hours still need to get filled; but you can't work any of your part-time employees more than 30 hours a week. Yep, it's a corporate clusterf*%#. The only good news was that I was able to get a small raise out of it. I'm now up to $7.00/hour, which is roughly a 7% pay increase. Not bad, but realistically not much since the state minimum wage will increase to $7.25 or $7.50 in the summer of 2009. But that's a future worry and now a present concern.

As a direct result of not getting the full-time position at the station, I am once again looking for a second job. In a city that strangely enough is unusually difficult to find a job considering its size. Best of luck to me, I suppose. At least on the plus side I won't be working two jobs and dealing with classes at the same time.

My relationship status remains in the weird state of limbo that it's been in all summer. Hopefully that will change sometime in the near future.

The apartment is more or less all settled in, aside from a few odds and ends that will get taken to storage sometime before the real cold weather hits. This also means that I'm always looking for things to do in my free time. I'm hoping for D&D 1-2 times a week because that's a great release for me. One other thing I'm considering is starting up a more official movie review website. I'm still working out design details in my head. Realistically, this is a project I'd like to sit down and go over with two of my friends who are also keen on films. Once I get a better idea for how this will get set up I'll post more about it here.

Useless

There are some things in life that you just don't expect. Sometimes it's because it is not a logical conclusion that you would jump to; others because they are things that are beyond your perspective to view without aid.

Okay, so enough with the vague metaphor... I never thought that I would meet someone who has difficulty relaxing. Someone for whom things are always "Go, go, go" and who does not have a tried-and-true method for destressing. To go back to the [really bad] metaphor above, this was beyond my point-of-view. I tend to be a pretty mellow guy; why? because I take time to relax as often as I can. I read a book, meditate, play a game, watch a movie, stare into space and daydream. Multiple ways for me to relieve stress because not everything works the same. Sometimes you don't feel like reading a book because you're dealing with visual overload.

Khasa, it would seem, is not as skilled in this area as I. She has a lot of legitimate stress right now (class, post-graduation plans, 2 jobs) but no way of releasing the tension. All she's ever had are books--and right now it seems that all the books are doing is putting the stress on hold. Like a magical "Pause" button she seems at ease until the moment she puts the book down--then it all comes crashing back again.

The kicker to the whole situation is that there really isn't anything I can do to improve things. I've told her that she needs to take time to unwind other than just reading, but she tells me that she just doesn't have the time. It's just so frustrating to know what a person needs, but not know how to make it happen.

A Return Never Felt So Tiring

Per request (and I honor requests as often as I can) I am returning to this blog. Hopefully with a [once again] semi-regular pattern of updating it with the happenings of my life. So what have I been up to since my last post?

Well, earlier this summer I was [unfairly] evicted from my apartment on the west side of Eau Claire. This led to a scramble for housing that included living in a campground as well as crashing at a friend's place for most of August. I was finally able to sign on a new apartment with Chase mid-August... but we were unable to actually move in until the last couple days of the month. So currently we are [almost] fully moved into our new home, and finally one where we can have our cats with us. A few pictures to put up yet, some boxes and assorted bags to unpack--but generally everything is there.

In other news a full-time position has opened up here at Maverick Media. With luck I will be selected for it (two other internal applicants and I don't know how many external ones also applied for it). I could really use the extra money; and by that I mean that if I don't get the full-time position then I need a 2nd job to help pay bills. I currently have all of my time available for Maverick Media, but because of company policy regarding part-time employees, it is very difficult for me to get more than 30 hours a week. At $6.50 an hour that is extrememly stressful and not at all helpful with bills that need to get paid. Thankfully my parents have been willing to help me out the first couple months here while I see if I will need to get a 2nd job or not.

I'm also quite tired at the moment because I was in Baltimore, MD for the weekend with Chase and my family. Today (Sunday) was made worse by the fact that in order to do some last minute walking around before we had to leave Chase and I got up early to have breakfast and such with the family. Which equated to some time around 0800 Eastern Time... which would be about 0700 Central, and I'm working until 0500 on Monday. So essentially 22 hours with minimal sleep (bits and pieces on the two-hour plane flight and on the car ride home). Obviously this means that my phone will be OFF until such time as I wake up. ^^;