Category: Sabbatical
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Hungry For Change
This past Friday found me playing out a scene normally reserved for Saturdays or Sundays: sitting on my couch in my sweats, flipping through Netflix suggestions, recovering from the boozy previous night. I rarely get overtly terrible hangovers (probably because I fight them off by sleeping as much as possible), so this was my usual hangover: feeling at about 75% energy level, which is just low enough to prevent me from working out or going on an adventure somewhere in the city. Thursday night was fun; I got to see a couple college buddies and lots of local friends, but…
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Three Week Update
It’s been about three weeks since my last post, so I figured it’s time for a brief update. I’ve got a couple longer, more interesting posts in the works, but those life items aren’t finalized yet, so in the meantime I’ll humor you with some smaller updates. I’m still working through the most stubborn to-do list ever, but thankfully it’s getting smaller every day. I’ve finally settled all of my new insurance (medical, dental, vision, and accident) and I’ve continued selling some random items (mostly electronics) that I no longer use or won’t need for much longer. In fact, I…
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Yosemite Photography Weekend
Back in January, on the same day that I gave my notice to my manager, a Meetup email appeared in my inbox with details on a photography workshop weekend in Yosemite. Being in the say-yes-to-life mood, I immediately RSVP’ed, paid my $150 deposit, and started making accommodations at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal (just outside the park). The trip took place over all three days of Presidents’ Day weekend and was led by Christine Krieg, a local photographer. There were only seven students, so the workshop had a nimble and personalized feel to it. Saturday morning, we all carpooled…
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Super Sunday
Completely unrelated to the fact that I’ve called San Francisco my home for several years now, I’ve been a 49ers fan since I was about 9 years old. At the tail end of the Joe Montana era, I started watching football with my dad and decided that the best team at that time (and all of the 80s) would be my favorite team too. Somehow I was able to weather a devastating playoff loss that resulted in the end of Montana’s career in San Francisco and the end of the Bill Walsh dynasty. Given that my reasons for latching onto…
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Media Day
For the past few weeks, I’ve been taking care of a lot of errands and odds and ends that I’ve been putting off for a while. I prefer to think of this as “getting my affairs in order” and it’ll actually take a little bit more time before I feel like I’m done. I’ve been an accountant, homemaker, webmaster, handyman, and IT technician. And I guess blogger now too. As an IT technician, I’m currently tinkering with the four computers and three DSL modems strewn across my apartment as I migrate to a new laptop, try to fix my Internet…
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SMBC LOL
One of my favorite web comics is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. It’s a great combination of intellect, irreverence, philosophy, science, and superheroes. One day you’ll get several pages of existential rumination and the next day you’ll get a single panel comic with a line graph about penis sizes. The one about the librarian is probably my all-time favorite. I bring up SMBC because in the past month, Zach (the creator) has put up a couple great comics that I found particularly timely for me, but are certainly applicable to everyone: They’re related, but slightly different. I really like the second…
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They Call Him The Sagmeister
During my last week of work, I was talking to my manager about my plans for my time off and he suggested I read up on a graphic designer named Stefan Sagmeister. Besides having one of the best names, he’s the only person I know who could be a source of advice or inspiration at the moment. Why? He has a philosophy of incorporating sabbaticals into his life and the idea is quite interesting. Here’s the abridged version. The normal life schedule of someone in the civilized world is to grow up and attend school for about 20 years, then…
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A New Hope
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” Truer words have never been spoken, Minnesota alternative band Semisonic. In my life, this particular lyric refers to my decision to quit my job and take an undetermined amount of time off. The professional term for this period of perceived laziness is a “sabbatical”. While I’m sure some sabbaticals are indeed wondrous examples of sloth, I sincerely hope that mine is enlightening and busy (in a good way). I feel the first order of business here is to give a bit of background on me and my current state of mind.…
