Thanks Everyone and Happy Holidays!

Today is Christmas Morning over here, but with my wife and daughter over in Japan, and me working a lot of on-call shifts at work, I am not really doing much. I spent the morning, before my shift, cruising around empty streets in my little Toyota blaring Daft Punk as loud as I could, Starbuck’s coffee in hand. Pretty stupid, but just enjoyed the quiet morning, good coffee and good music. Few people may know this, but I am a terrible driver (I didn’t even get my license until my wife was pregnant and finally had to learn), so I drive only rarely. Think of it as a traditional American-style “Sunday drive” with a few differences. :)

Anyhow, this year has been madness for me. I mean, really really stressful. Between job transitions, 60-hour work weeks in November/December and various certification tests and online courses I studied for (like the JSCC which I eventually dropped for various reasons1), and trying to be a good husband/father, plus blogs and personal writing projects I really managed to burn myself out. So, as I sit at home by myself with nothing to do but playing classic Final Fantasy games on the PlayStation 1 (more on that in a later post), I realized that I am exhausted. I wanted to work on other projects while I had the free time, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. All I wanted to this week is just sit and space out and play games. I guess I am more tired than I thought I was.

Blog readers here have been a very patient bunch with my ups and downs, rants toward Buddhism, frequent changes in blog schedule and so on. For that, I want to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone who reads this blog.

In spite of all the craziness, I do enjoy writing here and interacting with people. I learn lots of good things from readers, and the encouragement does make a difference during those horrid weeks when I feel overwhelmed. One kind fellow even recommended me to the Blogisattva Awards, which was greatly appreciated though somehow I didn’t “get the memo” until too late. Apologies for not noticing that sooner. :p

So, Tuesday I’ll be off to Japan to spend time wit wife, and celebrate my little girl’s 4th birthday with her extended family there. I’ll be happy to see them again, and also catch up with some friends there too (blog readers, plus coworkers). I don’t know how much writing I will be doing for the next weeks, so things will be crazy. I might have to consider a longer hiatus too, but let’s see how other things turn out.

As for today, I’ve got toilets to clean, fires to put out at work (figuratively speaking) and laundry to fold. Boring is good sometimes. :)

Happy Holidays!

1 I had the option of taking a “leave of absence” and coming back when I was less busy, but I explained to them that I was also dissatisfied with the lack of structure to the course, or of the lack of milestones to measure progress (i.e. “After taking course X I should be able to know A, B and C…”). After a positive discussion on the subject, we agreed to disagree and I opted to just drop the course. I felt that it was not a good investment of my time when other things like the JLPT have a more tangible benefit and means of measuring progress, as did the RHCE Linux certification.


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4 Comments on “Thanks Everyone and Happy Holidays!”

  1. yrene yuhmi says:

    メリーくりすます!!^0^こちらこそどうもありがとう!!★♪

  2. Doug M says:

    Ha ha ha, same to you. :)

  3. Kelly Peeples says:

    Happy Christmas, Doug. I wonder if we were in the Intl’ District at the same time today. I was searching for an open Starbucks. :)

  4. Doug M says:

    ‘Fraid not. I was way up north visiting Mom and getting a Starbucks. :)


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