no time for this, or that, or the other

An amusement. Most of that site is NSFW but this particular comic is OK.

It would be an understatement to say that I’m not adjusting to this job very well. I’ve been eating out much more often, doing yoga at home a lot less, watching almost none of the things I want to watch, and sleeping less enough that I am noticing the difference in my stamina and mood. The extra time commuting is probably not the only thing doing this; I am having to work quite all day long, with little down time, and there’s so much to learn, and so many details. I’m exhausted.

The internet thing is probably the biggest difference. So much of my inner life is conducted over the internet, and I used to use so much of my work time to look up things I wanted to know, or pay my bills, or blog, or email my friends, or, just for example, look up how to obtain molding porcelain. Now I can do none of that. My time has really shrunk right down.

I’ve also learned that it’s basically expected that I should work a few hours on the weekend. I don’t mind having to work extra hours during a push, when my extra work is really needed, but for that to be the case pretty much all the time is not something I’m comfortable with. Not only are my weekends personally precious to me, but I ideologically believe that the American workweek is too long as it is, and that it’s a labor issue that we should get our entire weekends off.

Plus, any stretch at work is added to by two hours of commuting. So it’s a lot more of a pain in the ass than it would be if I were a half-hour away.

I will deal with the weekend problem when someone tells me to work weekends, though. Until then I will just try to be a team player during the 40 or so hours allotted during the week.

None of this is any good. The job itself is pretty neutral. It’s the same thing over and over, but the people are nice and the environment is OK and I don’t mind getting paid for boring work at this point in my life. Someday soon I will write a long post about how vague my near future is, like the next year or so, and how stressful that vagueness is for me.

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Over the weekend I watched A Prairie Home Companion. Because I am not a fan of NPR – I will have to tell you about that another time – I’ve never listened to the radio show. The movie seemed incredibly weird, but BF tells me it was a great deal like the show. I loved the music, and the performances were all good. But Altman’s style doesn’t really do much for me. I could tell he was thoroughly in his element here, what with the performance aspect and the dry humor and the constant backstage movement. And I loved how his camera, at some moments, drifted forward and back, side to side, in a continuous near-security camera movement, like a buoy in the waves of the music. But still – not a filmmaker I really cotton to.

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As I write this I’m watching the Tim Burton Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and while BF is a Gene Wilder devotee and hence did not like this version at all, there are pieces of it that I think are just sublime. The opening with the flaming animatronic dolls is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. Seriously. It’s so humorous and frightening and surreal.

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I have things to say about yoga, but I’ll save those for another time as well. Because I am tired. As I think I’ve mentioned.