One of the benefits of being extremely busy was that my current mental state led me to the wonderful analogy that the last week's been like being the last kid remaining on my side of the Dodgeball court. Since last Monday, I've been bobbing and weaving with respect to a variety of deadlines, surprises and obligations. This is probably as good of time as any to post a personal status update.
The original prompting for this (delayed) post came from a friend who contacted me privately via Facebook to inquire if I had an alcohol problem. The available evidence of my many alcohol-related posts to social media, combined with an in-person encounter where I was basically brain-dead (slowness of speech and movement you may see in a depressed patient) led him – not unreasonably – to assume that I've been hitting the sauce a bit more than I should. I reassured him that all the booze you see me post on Facebook constitutes the vast majority of my recent drinking, and not just a highlight reel. Given that we've worked together in the past, I reassured him that my drinking has gone down since my 9 to 5 job given that I'm functionally on-the-clock with my consulting business. If I had an addictive vice, it was getting sucked into "Star Wars: Battlefront II", which I recently traded in for a return to World of Warcraft's Azeroth after some nostalgia recalling how much I missed exploring the place and questing. (Fodder for a future post, I promise!)
The big thing in my life lately has been keeping up with a rapidly expanding business. As I mentioned elsewhere, revenues grew last year 64% (after me vowing to take it a bit easier at the start of 2017), and this has been accelerating. I'm smack dab in the middle of no fewer than seven projects and life's been like a pinball game: I'm either the player trying to make the most of my multi-ball bonus, or I'm the ball ricocheting between projects, client, and other obligations. (Pick the analogy that works best for you.)
The last two weeks are a great illustration of that. I kicked off last week by getting a long due iOS application off the ground in time for a client presentation on Monday. After that was finished, I switched gears to finally overhauling the Fresh Comics website before I was due to attend a Jim Lee signing and drop off my contact information to try and get a closer relationship established between my mobile efforts and DC Comics' publications. Thursday was focused on getting another iOS app off the ground, and I attended the C2E2 comic convention on Friday. While at the show, I heard back from my accountant the actual amount I owed Uncle Sam for 2017 taxes, which was roughly twice what I was informally expecting. (64% growth doesn't come without additional obligations!) This set off some tax planning over the weekend (involving a multi-step process of funding a retirement account to reduce the actual amount of $$$ the Treasury was receiving, filing the tax return, getting a business line of credit to pay those taxes while I wait for a few big checks to arrive) and some recovery. I was back on the horse on Sunday working on the first iOS app, then switching gears back to the second on Tuesday (Monday's workday ending on 3:30am on Tuesday). Did more work on the app on Tuesday and played catch-up on all of the small stuff that piles up and needed resolution. On Wednesday, after doing come insurance and contract wrangling with a New York hospital/research client (Do you really need my immunization records if I'm not stepping foot anywhere near your facilities?), I was getting another new app going for a meeting today (Thursday) and ended up working until 3:30am (again) last night. In between all of this, I interviewed another client's COO/CTO candidate, applied emergency fixes to another clients' project that was falling behind on data process, and any number of other minor things that I am presently incapable of recalling.
If I were in your shoes, Dear Reader, I'd assume that I had just read the diary of a fellow who had been goofing off and putting off things until the last minute. And while it's true that I'm certainly more deadline-driven than I would like to be, I could take the two weeks before that and tell you a similar story all the way back to the beginning of the year. I'm certainly in a much more reactive (as opposed to proactive) stance than I like, but on the other hand, I haven't been spinning my wheels as my outstanding invoices will attest. Finally refreshing the Fresh Comics site was certainly a hurried indulgence, but that's been in the cards for almost two years and I wasn't ever going to find time to finally whip it into monetizable shape. (The Zedtown zombie chase ads being the first "real" attempt to make the site pay for itself.)
Today's meeting (the reason for coding late into the night last night) went extremely well and will likely open up some promising doors into a variety of other research niches that I'm not currently serving. Given that my next deadline is late Tuesday afternoon, I'm spending the remainder of the day wrapping up some final tax tasks and recuperating from the current state of shell shock that I find myself in. (Nothing makes me feel older than the late nighters catching up all at once.) With any luck, I'll spend the evening decompressing watching some TV that's stacked up (new "Expanse" and "Legion" episodes – w00t!) and finally maxing out my character's level on the "Legion" expansion of WoW. (I'll be free to fly everywhere again, which is sorely missed at the moment.)
Despite all the chaos from the past few months, my overall morale is pretty good. There's certainly no rest for the wicked, but I'm also making solid progress on things that I care about. The business is growing well, home life is pretty good, and the only thing that I'm really missing are quiet calm opportunities to make the most of the new "cave" I've constructed for myself (more fodder for another post) to chill out, catch up on some reading, and enjoy some of the Bourbons and other spirits I've been neglecting. Moving from a reactive stance to more of a proactive position is an ongoing project, but the current glut of work should pass in the next few weeks and leave me in a place to do all the new things I have on my list as opposed to fighting fires.
So, things are good here – if you insist on worrying about me, come over and share a drink with me (alcoholic or otherwise) . I'd appreciate the company.
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