The One Where I Talk Too Much About Myself

NaBloPoMo, Day 14. Fighting off exhaustion and lack of a good topic, a cluttered mess falls out of my head into the blog. I truly apologize to anyone reading this, as the recent posts have veered off from the original mission, to discuss all things video games. Bear with me as I try to get back on track.

For the past few weeks, a lot of my head space (that not wholly consumed with the acquisition and enjoyment of the iPhone) has been preoccupied with rather heavy topics. Even though the product may not bear up to it, I've really enjoyed putting time into writing and posting to the blog, so much so that there's a tickle in the back of my mind which would have me explore the possibilities of using writing to somehow earn some extra money on the side. That would be great: doing something I like to do and get paid for it! Sadly, the big problem lies in the fact that many, many people aspire to the same thing, and most of those people have the education (let's just say that possessing an engineering degree and trying to break into a writing or journalism field isn't the best angle of attack), experience and talent which I lack. Understanding all of that, my little daydream of using an outlet like this to generate an income will have to wait.

A bit of my head space has also been directed to ways to improve my current craft, as an instrumentation and controls engineer for an environmental engineering firm. I've been mulling around a lot of ways to improve the design process and delivery standards, and there are a lot of half-formed ideas bouncing around. To create a list of these would benefit only me, and would drive the rest of you to click away from this page in boredom. Rest assured that it's a great list and, if implemented properly, would revolutionize the I&C design team. There might be some hyperbole in that last statement, but probably only a dab.

The problem I have, and one that's plagued me for as long as I can remember, is that I can't seem to keep my brain focused on one task long enough to complete it, before it careens off in another direction. You would figure that this would be frustrating and annoying, to go through life like this, and you would be right. This blog, for instance, probably does a great job at illustrating my point. If you were to go back and look at all of the things I've set out to do, and how many of them I actually do, you'd be appalled at the completion percentage. In a single, concise statement, I can sum up most of my adult life: I Lack Followthrough. Hopefully this isn't going to come out sounding too pretentious, but if I could train my brain to focus on one task or project at a time, see it through to completion with attention to detail and proper review each one deserves, I would be a far more successful person than I am today.

What do I do about this? There's the rub...I just don't know. If anyone reading this has any ideas, I'm all ears. Clearly, this behavior demonstrates a shocking lack of discipline on my part, and maybe that's where I need to start. It will require further research to understand my options, which isn't going to happen tonight. My eyes are starting to blur, and I'm going to be driving back to my hometown tomorrow night, starting around 9pm. We should reach our destination around 3am or so, which tells me I need to get some sleep. This post, though, will serve as my reminder to actually take the time to figure out what I can do about the issues that haunt me.

To those of you who've made it this far, through all of this navel-gazing and introspection, thanks for continuing to read. My hope is to get back to other topics, starting tomorrow. Until then, stay safe and be well!