I’m on a little bit of an Aria kick, mostly because I’m desperately waiting for Aria Volume 6 to be released in the US (not that I think Tokyopop ever will actually release it, but eh) and I still adore the art style. I could re-read the ones I have forever and still love the beautiful art and the wonderful slice-of-life stories in each issue.

Otakon was lovely, as usual, and while I didn’t get nearly as many pictures as I normally do, I did get a few of some great cosplayers. I spent a lot more time this year in panels and viewing rooms and things this year, which I’m more than happy to say, and I only spent a couple of hours in the dealer’s room this year – mostly because I was only looking for a few specific things, and when I found what I wanted, I picked it up. Granted, I did come home and order a few things I didn’t find (or found online for less than the Dealer’s room) but since the con ended on Sunday, I went back to work on Tuesday, and this weekend I’m headed up to see my family, I haven’t had time to unpack my new gear, much less relax and take a break from both the vacation antics and the werkweek.

The result of this is a lot of dirty clothes, an apartment that needs some vacuuming, a pretty empty fridge, a couple of gadgets to review that I’m waiting to find time to review, and a living room piling up with shiny new toys I haven’t had time to play with just yet. One of my friends had a great idea – take next Monday off and spend that one just around the house doing everything I’ve been planning to do. I’m also thinking I should take my own advice (since I did pen an article at The Classy Geek about how shopping for groceries online can save you money and be healthy) and make a Peapod order and get myself some groceries.

I don’t mean to completely spoil what a wonderful time I had away from the office and at the con with that griping however – I had a really really wonderful time, and as usual it’s always wonderful to see Hannah and Rae and Raevyn, especially at an event like this. I had a fabulous time, ate well, slept well, saw lots of great things, and ate at California Tortilla. I got spend a little time with the lovely Kittyhawk of Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki where she was in the artist’s alley, and she was lovely enough to sign a copy of her latest book for me and draw a print for me while I waited. It was awesome. I even stopped by the J-List and picked up an Obey t-shirt, which will get a laugh out of Code Geass fans who understand the joke.

That all being said, I think I’m going to make a list of the things I really want to accomplish. I already use ReQall religiously, and it feels really good to be able to mark off items that I’ve completed; maybe it’ll help with this feeling of wanting to do so much but having my time drained away. Even as I say that however, the reason I adore the Aria wallpaper above is that it feels so vacation-y and so fantastical – much like the world in the Aria series. I’ve had getaways on the mind lately – I’ve even been thinking about where I want to move when my lease is up next spring. And no sooner than I got back from vacation did I start thinking about a new vacation – maybe getting my passport and going somewhere abroad a little bit, another cross-country trip, or even just another casual trip to New York City on the train. We’ll see.

This week went by much more smoothly than last week; a lot of people were out of the office on my side of the building, so things were nice and quiet, and I was able to work in some modicum of peace while most people were away. Unfortunately, a number of people who normally bother me anyway were still there, so I still managed to take at least one day to myself to work from home so I truly had some peace and quiet. It was blissful, and I need to do it again soon.

I would say I need to do it next week if I weren’t going to be out of the office later in the week for Otakon. It’ll be another beautiful vacation, and after Wednesday I won’t be in the office until the following Tuesday. I’m really really looking forward to it, and I’m also looking forward to being out of touch with the office. I can’t wait, and I’ll be taking tons of pictures.

I also managed to finish a number of articles I’d been meaning to write this week, including a keyboard roundup that should go live at Tom’s Guide sometime next week. I’m looking forward to that one going up – I got to play with some pretty interesting toys in order to write it. The writing circuit has been heating up a little, and I’ve even been authorized to post a little more often at Gearlog, so keep an eye out for me over there.

I’d been thinking after some of the events earlier in the week that maybe I talk about my writing a bit too much, or maybe I write too many long-form posts, but I think I’m mostly over both of those worries now. I talk about my writing because I’m a writer and it’s my passion – I think some people should be so lucky as to have their passion identified, and some people should be so lucky as to be working on their passion to the point where they can discuss it the way I do. And when I look at some of the most popular blogs on the Web and see where they’re linking when they post their content, I see all long-form articles at the content sources and short form pieces at the aggregators.

I made a commitment to myself a long time ago that I was tired being just a content distributor: I wanted to be a content creator as well. I want to write new and interesting articles, damned if they’re longer than some people’s snack-size attention spans can handle, and not just link to all of the new and interesting articles that other people are busy writing.

With all of that aside, I think I’ve been doing pretty good by myself lately. Next week is my first vacation since I traveled to San Fran a few months back, and that wasn’t so much a vacation although I like to think I made the best of the time. I checked my available vacation and sick leave a couple of days back just to make sure I’m set for Otakon, and it’s official: I need to plan another trip after Otakon is over. I’ve accured far too much leave to not actually take any.

The past week or so has been something of a whirlwind, kind of like Miku’s hair up there, but most of the things happening have been largely good. The past week was particularly draining at the office and my personal life hasn’t been any less draining, but at least I managed to get some good sleep and recovery over the weekend that I’d been desperately missing. A couple of major projects went live last week, and it didn’t help that I was on call all last week and over the weekend (and boy did I get calls,) but on the up side, the week is over, a new one has begun, and a lot of our management is out of the office, so the office itself is a bit more relaxing than it has been for a while.

So over the weekend, Raevyn and I managed to escape for a bit and hang out – if it’s not obvious by now we’ve been hanging out a lot more lately – dinner on Friday night at the lovely Carlyle in her neck of the woods, where the meal was fantastic and the cocktails are shaken and poured table-side, and then an old favorite on Saturday in the form of the Paper Moon Diner a little closer to me than to her, where I’ve been meaning to get back to for the past couple of weeks. I normally don’t have dessert at the Paper Moon, but the “Dark Side of the Moon” cake we had was so pretty that I wish I had taken a picture. We actually ate in the back dining room, which they normally don’t open and I have very fond memories of feasting in when I was much much younger.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend, and the ability to have a few meals and drinks out and about without having to worry about cooking and the ability to sleep in as late as I wanted to were both stress relievers unlike any other. They were both more than welcome, and the company was more than perfect, if that’s even possible.

On the up-side though, at least the bulk of those things are behind me and I have a little more free room to move to look forward to. Especially at the end of next week, when we’re looking at Otakon, my regular vacation-y event of the year, even as much as I’ve been traveling recently. I’m still not totally over my “I’m done with airplanes” feeling that I got after flying around so much at the beginning of the year, but I could do with another train ride to New York City and another lovely stay in the New Yorker Hotel like last time.

In other news, I’ve been making a point to pay close attention to my writing lately, something I’m grateful to have the time to do – I don’t always get it done in the order and in the time I’d like to, but I always make sure to get it done eventually, and I think flexing those writing muscles for my own good is a wonderful thing. The paid gigs though, are starting to pile up, and that’s a great feeling too – getting paid to do what you love always does, I suppose.

I’m starting to formulate a few new goals in my head that hopefully will make it easier for me to pursue freelance writing, or even full-time writing in the future – even if I have to take a pay cut in the long term. We’ll see how it works out, but I have a little legwork to do first. I know I’ve mentioned some of the affiliate programs I’m participating in before, but I’m not too proud to beg that when you consider shopping online to buy through my links and blogs, since I make a little money on them. I have a ways to go before I can say things like “buy through this link” or some of the same things other affiliates say, but we’ll see. I want to get there, and quickly. You see where my logic is going, right? If I can make enough from affiliate programs, I can freelance without worrying about how the rent will get paid or groceries bought – or alternatively, I can get enough reliable freelancing gigs so the affiliate money is icing on the cake. Alternatively I can work, affiliate, and freelance, and then just let the savings pile up. Anything’s possible, and it’s refreshing to start thinking that way again.

Speaking of anything being possible, I just renewed my lease on my current apartment, so I’ll be here for at least another 10 months – but after that I’m thinking about moving. Maybe somewhere into the city – by which I mean Washington, DC this time. It’s closer than New York City, and while DC certainly isn’t NYC, it’s closer to my family for the time being and still gives me the city life I’ve been wanting for a while. Maybe I can find a nice condo or apartment with hardwood floors and a nice view. We’ll see – it’ll be new and interesting and only time will tell if I’m really ready to do it.

Wish me luck.

The past several weeks have been fairly hectic, as you can tell if you follow me over at Twitter. I’ve been trying to nurse my burned right hand back to health, and it’s mostly there, I’m just waiting for the coloration and pigment to come back fully – but that’ll take more time than anything else. Some of my coworkers don’t particularly care for the smell of cocoa butter lotion, but I have to tell you – it’s the best thing to prevent scarring and to help the natural color come back to your skin as quickly as possible.

I’ve also been tidying up my apartment and finishing my spring cleaning bout. I know, I started my little spring cleaning initiative in April, but at least I managed to finish before the end of June. I called the fine folks at 1-800-Got-Junk to come by and remove my old stupid-heavy TV as well as a ton of other crap that I’ve collected over the moves and never made myself throw away, and I finally finished setting up my spare bedroom as a spare bedroom as well as a library. The incredibly comfortable futon from the living room that had served as a living room couch has been moved into it and set up as a bed, replaced by an actual plush and comfy couch that I snagged from my parent’s house during a weekend joyride in a U-Haul cargo van.

Although giving credit where credit is due, if it weren’t for Raevyn, I would never have managed to get that couch up the stairs to my apartment from the back of the U-Haul truck. We both promptly collapsed on it after getting it into my living room.

I’m also locked in for Otakon, pre-registered and everything. The hotel room is in my name, and although I’ll miss the company of Paul and his friend who were planning on coming, there is something to say for the room not being crowded, and again it’ll be the dream team of Raevyn, Rae, Hannah, and I. I have some figures on my wishlist this year, and maybe a few hard to find box sets if there are any, but that’s about it. Nothing huge and major – no artbooks or wallscrolls or must-have posters or bags. Even so, it’s nice being able to go to Otakon and be free to look and shop around and have a good time no matter what. I’m also thrilled because the lovely Kittyhawk, author and artist behind Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki will be back this year and she’ll even be doing a panel that I have every intention of attending.

I’ve also been working tirelessly to keep up with my writing – it’s not that it’s been too difficult, but I’ve been taking on more writing assignments lately to push myself a little harder and make sure I make the time to do more writing, and so far it’s been working out. Just last week another piece of mine was published over at Tom’s Guide, a list of must-have smartphone apps for vacationers, regardless of the smartphone you own. I’m pretty proud of it – it was a good bit of research to get all of those apps together.

Additionally, I’ve been helping my mother set up her own blog, and I’ve been helping administer it behind the scenes by approving comments and tidying up the formatting on the posts if it’s out of whack at all. I haven’t spoken about it publicly very much, but since my mother is comfortable talking about it, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be: her blog is where she’s been writing about her faith, her day-to-day, and her struggle with cancer. I love her dearly, and I’m glad that writing is proving as cathartic for her in this troublesome time as it is for me on a day to day basis. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

As usual, you know that music tends to be the most comforting thing for me in times of stress or just general business, and I’ve all but caught up with my backlog of episodes of Freefall Radio, hosted by one very talented David Bassin. I literally run through episodes at the office like candy – partially because the music helps me think, and partially because if I don’t have my noise-canceling headphones on, people take that as a reason to interrupt me while I’m working.

It’s those constant interruptions that are the real time-sink at the office, and when I talk about wanting to manage my time effectively so I can get my day job done and do my writing, I think that alone is the biggest challenge for me to date – people just hanging around to talk long after it’s clear the course of the conversation is over, or the constant office distractions that return again and again.

Anyway, today is the 4th of July! It’s time to grill up some burgers and dogs and have a good time. I’ll see what fireworks I can see tonight, if any – I may be content to watch the fireworks from the national mall on my plasma today in HD: no sense fighting a crowd to see things blow up when I can watch them endlessly with a burger in my face from home and do a little gaming in the interrim!

For those not in the know, I burned my wrist pretty badly last week – the day after my last post, actually. I tend to heal pretty quickly (go go mutant healing powers) so my wrist is back in action now, just really raw with reddish pink skin visible and the rest of my poor charred skin slowly peeling away. It’s sore and painful to the touch or to pressure, but thankfully I know how to treat a second-degree burn (not by research – I had a second-degree burn on my left hand back in 2002…through pretty much the same circumstances…hot oil will wreck you, take it from me) so I didn’t have to go to the hospital or anything.

I mean, let’s be clear – I could have gone to the hospital, but I opted not to because I burned myself at 10pm, would have gone to the ER and had to wait until someone saw me (even though I live close to the hospital, it would have been difficult getting there alone) and then had them treat me the same way I was treated in the ER back in 02 when I burned my hand. Thankfully that’s the kind of experience you remember through and through, so I knew to keep my hand in cold water, sleep with it wrapped in an icy towel, and then keep it covered and covered in antibacterial ointment and silver cream until your body recovers. I’ll spare you the gory details, but thankfully I’m coming around to normal, and hopefully in another couple of weeks I’ll have pigment back in it.

In other news, the week has been good, if not a little stressful what with everything going on at the office and trying to take care of my poor burn at the same time. As usual, I could definitely use some time away from the office, but alas, I don’t think I’m going to get any until Otakon comes around at the end of next month. Still, it’s something to look forward to, for the most part.

Speaking of which, I should pre-reg. Sheesh – still haven’t done that.

Aside from that, I’ve been doing a little work behind the scenes to get my writing in-line for better and brighter things. Still doing the usual routine over at Gearlog and AppScout, and thrilled to do it – my editor’s allowed me to post a bit more often, so that means I make a little more come the end of the month from freelancing. Supplimental income is good. Also, I’m on two separate assignments now for Tom’s Guide, so those will be tidy projects to turn in at the end of the month, thankfully.

Signed up for affiliate programs in a couple of places so when I link to goodies on any of my blogs, especially sites like Gears and Widgets or The Classy Geek, I can make a little bit if people click on them and buy what I’m talking about. Hopefully that’ll help a touch too.

Still, thinking about other places I can get my foot in the door. I’ve been a little troubled that I may be reaching my writing bandwidth cap, but I don’t think that’s the case – I think I still have some room to grow, it’s just getting to the point where it’ll be challenging to manage my time such that I can enable it. Right now my weekends tend to be pretty well eaten, and while I don’t want to change that right now, I might carve out a little more evening time to pay more attention to my writing time – and myself, for that matter, and get back on the DDR pads, for example.

If anyone has any ideas, do let me know. Always eager to take suggestions from friends or those who have some advice. It really does seem sometimes like I just don’t have the time to do all of the things I really want to do….unless I remove the things that I don’t want to do from my life.

You probably know where this is going – I’ve been reading things like Danny Choo’s “Pursue Your Passion” story, but I keep thinking I’m just not there yet. I don’t know if I’m at the point where I want to make writing a full-time gig, or I want to keep doing what I’m doing now and write on the side. I don’t know if moving to New York will enable me to take writing full time or not. I don’t know what the right financial situation that would enable me to do it looks like, although some of the things I’ve been doing are designed to help me get there. I don’t even know if I’m just letting myself be “comfortable,” as Danny puts it, waiting for something to happen to me instead of taking this thing by the reins while I have the time to do it.

I just don’t know. And I don’t know if I’m actually trying to find out, or if I’m sitting back and going through the motions without really giving it much thought, or if I’m just afraid there are too many significant external influencers on my life right not to keep me from making the leap that I may want to make.

Whoa. This got kind of heavy, huh? That was unintentional, but it’s good to have out in the open.

In any event, this weekend it’s up to see my family for Father’s Day, and to set up his gift. He’s already opened it, so it’s no secret that I picked up a ASUS VH242H 24-inch Monitor and a pair of Gunnar Computer Glasses to help reduce eyestrain when using that nice big new display.

The best part? I already know he loves it!

Now, I’d better go get a cup of coffee before I kick off this weekend.