Back From Hiatus

I've taken a blogging hiatus the last couple of weeks, mostly due to a project I've been doing for work. I put a video/presentation/brainteaser game together for a conference we're having this Friday, and I've been going nuts trying to get it done on time. Of course I have to do it at home - for two reasons... I can't really take time out of my regular project at work to do this, and there is no way on earth my dumpy Dell at work could handle the load of putting it together. Even my speedy little iMac is churning, and it's excruciating to wait for some of the video to render. It's even more excruciating when I wanted to tweak the timing, add another animation, or correct a typo then re-render a thousand times, not to mention the 15GB of scratch disk space I took up.

Funny thing is, I won't even be able to be at the conference where the presentation will be shown! My Big Day Of MOHS Surgery is this Thursday, and it was recommended I not return to work the next day. Probably a good thing - I'm guessing I won't be in a lot of pain, but it'll be hell to explain a huge bandage on my nose to everyone. For all I know the bandage may even obscure my eye, making it a little difficult to drive.

I've been having a hard time cutting back on smoking like I'm supposed to, mostly because of working on that project. But I've been beefing up on my vitamins, not like it'll offset the smoking or anything, but it can't hurt.

Back to the presentation, a lot of people have been asking me what on earth I'm doing working in a lab when I'm "so creative". Truth is, I don't know. I mean, I loved science since I was a kid, got my degree in Chemistry, and have worked in a laboratory environment for about 12 years. It's familiar, and it pays my bills. But I do think it stifles my creative muscle a bit. The trouble with that, though, is if I would venture out to find a job doing graphic design, video production, etc., all my now "extraordinary" talent would then be sub-par. I'd say I have higher than average skills with graphics and video when it comes to the general population, but there's no way I'm in league with professionals in the creative industry. There's always the possibility of taking kind of an "apprentice" role, I guess, but I couldn't afford the cut in salary, even if it's only a year or two.

All this leads to some depressing thoughts, especially since my birthday a couple of weeks ago - do I want to spend the rest of my life doing what I'm doing now? Have I spent all these years doing the wrong thing? If I stay on the same path, I honestly can't even see where I'd end up in a couple of years. Way too depressing to even think about now.

Maybe I can just keep practicing at poker and become a professional poker player.

Yea, that sounds good.