All quiet on the blogging front

So I'm apparently really bad at this keeping up with everyone... I tend to like to say more about things and go through them with people, rather than talk about myself. However, recently I been doing some thinking about various aspects of life, and have something that may get some interesting feedback (or at least fulfills the blog quota :-)

I was thinking about (and Dana and Beth have heard this, but I'm going to write it anyway) people view themselves. How do you define you? I came to the realization that a vast majority of people in the world define themselves by what they do. Not a bad thing overall, except for one thing. People tend to define what they do as their job.

There are some people that are very lucky in this life to find a job they love, or to have a great interest that translates into a meaningful and productive means of gainful employment. For the rest of us (and unfortunately for some of those mentioned above) we are stuck in jobs we don't necessarily hate, but are mired in silly red tape, power struggles, lazy bastards (and bastardettes, can't be sexist :-p), and a general large group of people that conspire to make each and every day they can way more painful than it needs to be.

There is no way in hell I want to define myself by that. I don't want to sit down and say that's who I am. I'm not Scott, Network Engineer. Ick. So I started thinking about it, I do take pride in my work (a whole lot actually, which is what makes people shitting on it so much fun some days), as I take pride in everything I do, but given the environment and mitigating circumstances, I thought I'd best have a go at being something else.

So I started looking at what I do with me when not at work. I determined that (at least according to me, your mileage may vary) a person is capable of doing about 3 and 1/2 things per day. 3 major things that they can be learning or advancing, and one thing that they can maintain, or learn slowly/half-assed (which isn't as bad as it sounds, as some things don't need great insight or time).

The 1/2 thing was easy. Generally it falls into cooking or general place maintenance. Fixing things, or cooking something, not something that needs to progress all that fast, but is pretty required for basic living. Perfectly fine with that.

One of the major things I believe is an interpersonal relationship. One of my friends in college used to joke that his girlfriend was a 3 credit course (with a lab if he was lucky :-p). That's pretty accurate. A close interpersonal relationship takes time and effort most every day. So any parent/child, person/significant other, similar type relationship is one of those blocks. I've got one of those! :-) It's certainly not work, can have it's ups and downs, but it's something I do. I imagine that another one of these blocks will be filled with children once they enter the picture, but for now, just one.

Another of the major things I do is generally video games. I enjoy them, they are fun. I like trying to figure out how stuff works (programatically speaking) and try and beat the product of the coder, or appreciate what they were thinking. May not be all that productive in the grand scheme of things, however it is something I do that takes up another block, but not something that I will do to the exclusivity of something more useful (unless I really need a break).

Which brings us to the third. I realized at this point that I don't have a third any more. And this was the one that really needs to be had. This is the opportunity to improve yourself, to make yourself better. This is the opportunity to learn a new skill or trade. In the past I had done this, I learned to play the guitar, I learned a martial art. Since graduation, this has been filled with more video games, or something equally useless to fill the time until bed.

This must change! But how? That is the question. My current thought is carpentry, I would like to learn how to mold and shape wood. Maybe make a statue or piece of furniture. I forsee making cabinets once we get a house. However this is not the easiest thing to learn, especially in an apartment environment. I also considered learning classical guitar (the picking, reading music kind) and picking back up with the martial arts.

All of which I find as good and useful things to know. More importantly they would allow me to say: "My name is Scott, and I can build you a chair, am a musician, and a martial artist/teacher. What do I do for a living? Does it really matter?" Which gives me power, or at least contentment at my current situation.

So what do you all think? Does this seem like a fairly accurate assessment? Do you have any suggestions? Does your chewing gum loose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky? I think so Brain, but what exactly would you do with 800 yards of silly string and 3 elephants?