A Plea to the Gods that Be

Once in a while I get this urge. An urge so overpowering that I start to go just a little mad. The urge to move forward, pack up all the loose ends in my life, and hit the high trail never looking back.

That urge has struck me again recently. Perhaps it's a symptom of the general unrest with the company at which I am currently employed. Seriously, the place I'm at now is like poison for management. I have been working here for just over two years, and starting tomorrow will be on my fifth general manager. It's not a horrible place to work, I like the work I do, I like the people I work with but for whatever reason it's just unable to get a good grip to push itself out of the mess it's in.

I don't know much about corporate politics and the red-tape that follows it, but I do know that it obviously is having nothing but detrimental effects on my office. Each successive manager I have worked with has been an increasingly better fit for the role (don't know much about the newbie yet) and yet they still keep dropping like flies. I've had great relationships with many of my bosses too. The last two that have come and gone I could have seen as mentors should they have stuck around long enough to be such.

Though I have been fortunate enough in my careers to have had many great people lead me along the way, teaching me their ways, showing me how business really works. It's been tremendous to work with such great people, and I have learned a great deal from them all. I think the greatest thing I have ever been taught though is this, "you either shit, or get off the can."

The one thing that has been a recurring factor in my learnings is that if you aren't happy with your current position you either learn to deal with it, maybe finding a way to better suit it for yourself, or you find something else to do.

That's where I sit today. It's time for a reinvention. I need to regenerate, this Doctor's body is all used up. Sure my new body may come with a goofball attitude and an affinity for bow-ties and fezzes but is that such a bad thing? I don't think so, change is an inevitable function of life and it's best to learn to embrace it with open arms so as not to get slipped up in a moment and finding yourself lost with no idea of where to go or what to do.

I've begun a journey in search of finding my new Doctor, I've found something highly promising and exciting, and now I wait. I wait with the bated breath of a dancer about to perform his first solo act shrouded in the intense white stage light. I wait with the patience of a younger me the night before Christmas. I wait sitting here typing these words as a plea to the gods that be, hear my prayer, hear my cries, help me to move forward once more. One more step closer to the other end of the board, to the checkmate, to the dreams that inhabit my mind.

Oh, and thank you.

Changes

Yah, it's the same old story. Been away, haven't had time, blah blah blah

It's not really true though. I just haven't had the motivation to keep up a blog of any sort. It has been awhile though and I've decided to start working on it again. I've also started up a third blog (I'm an idiot, clearly) to chronicle any updates with a new little project/company I'm starting.

Bum/Star, or Bum and Star Productions, is something I have had rolling around in my head for a long time now and am really just starting to get put it in motion. In any case, things will be getting updated a bit more periodically now.

Keep an eye out here, Bum/Star, to see what's going on with that stuff. Just put up a small post detailing what it's going to involve. It's really everything I've said I was going to do with Reality Grounded but I'm rebranding it basically to keep it more uniform and in line with some other stuff. Reality Grounded will probably remain a small part of the Bum/Star brand but, more or less anything involving new or creative media such as podcasts and videos will be Bum/Star branded. Reality Grounded is sort of a floater for now.

Same goes for AZ Rogue Travels.....haven't really had the energy to focus much on that lately either. I have been travelling a lot more recently but have sort of giving up on travel blogging. It was sort of a pointless endeavor on my behalf. I will keep the site up just for the hell of it but I'm not going to be pursuing keeping it active any longer. Maybe just make it into a sort of vacation picture blog or something. I dunno...

[edit] I just wanted to point out that I did also update the photography page on this blog. I now have a small little slideshow up for your enjoyment!

Anyway, thanks

Serial Stories

I often have a difficult time just sitting down and writing, specifically when it comes to writing any sort of short story, it truly baffles me. Stories float around in my head, bending and warping, and they just sort of sit there. I don't really touch them. Occasionally I may pick one out and start to write it but once I've started the act of writing, the story goes away and I can no longer think on it.

This poses a real big problem for me. I want to write novels that people cherish and enjoy reading but I am wholly unable to focus on something quite so lengthy. This blog is really a place for me to experiment with my writing style and try to find things that work for me. I'm quite able to write personal thoughts down without any effort and on occasion I can write down small editorial-esque type pieces. I am proud of my writing, I feel that it is strong, well written and concise, but I need more practice with fiction.

I've devised a plan that will hopefully alleviate the issue of forcing stories out of my head by working on them more slowly and over a long period of time. Very much the same thing that Charles Dickens did with many of his novels. Though I don't have a particular public outlet, other than here, for any sort of exposure. I am hoping though, that regardless of whether anyone reads my stories, this method will allow me to work on a singular piece until it's completion.

Depending on how my day turns out I may kick things off tonight with a fresh story that started brewing in my head this morning. It's a bit of a departure for me in terms of subject, but then again I do like to float around with different ideas until one makes sense to me.

Oh How Time Flies

Life has become a rather hectic endeavor these past few weeks. For a rather long time work had been awfully slow which gave me more free-time throughout the day to read and write. Lately however, it's been anything but slow and I find myself having almost zero free time to focus on my interests.

I refuse to completely give up on my blog through Finnegans Wake but as it stands currently but am going to be putting it on a small hiatus. With the way things have been I just don't have time to try and read through the insanity that Joyce unleashed upon us close to a century ago.

As for my other ideas and projects I have currently planned, one in particular I intend to start focusing on in a big way. I've been mostly discouraged by my lack of proper equipment to really bring anything of value to the table but I need to get over this fear. There's more to quality than flashy lights and smooth silky voice, though honestly they don't really hurt, but I will do my absolute best to make do with what I currently have available.

Now on the same subject, Kickstarter, a community based funding project has intrigued me greatly. The only problem here is that again, as with my discouragement in equipment, I find fault in my own ideas. It should go without saying yet somehow flies over most people's heads anymore but if you never ask, you never receive. So I'm struggling with working up, within myself, the notion that my ideas are just as valuable as anyone else's.

This blog post here, written by Lizzy Bennett, Online Marketing Manager of Timbuk2, is what has most recently set off this series of explosions in my mind. Little explosions that my ideas truly are worthy of something and the reason why, is, I am that StrangeBum from Twitter, I am the one that sparked the little partnership between two of my favorite companies, Timbuk2 and Sanuk Footwear.

So that's where things stand for me currently. My life is filled with ideas that I truly think have some potential to get me to where I truly want to be. All it takes now is a little creative marketing on my behalf to get my name out there and also to just push through my insecurities and get something done.

Thank you for reading and with this, I am done for the night.