Work, Weariness, and Warcrack

Work has been very busy lately. I have one very big job, and possibly several other smaller jobs coming up. I am hoping to be able to partner with d. We will try a test run with one of the smaller jobs. We have almost completely opposite skills and completely opposite ways of working. I think that is a good thing. She is very organized about the initial process of signing up a client, including managing expectations, writing contracts, and charging realistic prices based on actual time worked, rather than pulling some random number out of the air like I tend to do. She is also skilled at graphic design and has experience making web sites. If I had my way, I would stick to the (x)html/css and back end coding for the site and do technical support for the client after the site is complete. I would leave the business stuff, front end design, and client management to someone else. Could be a match made in heaven if we can somehow merge our oppositeness into a working business.

It is getting harder to keep up with school. The ‘side-effect’ of feeling better lately is that I have lost the super-focus that I was having when I was undermedicated. I have also been very twitchy and shaky which is quite annoying. It is a strange balance. It is still hard for me to get out, but not as hard as before. The main difference is that I am not completely exhausted like before. I can do a wider range of things, but am back to having a one second attention span. Going to see the doc on wednesday, but not sure if I am ready to continue experimenting with new meds and/or doses and timing of meds.

I am tired of waiting and waiting to find the right combination of drugs and going through long periods of terrible side-effects until the next drug or dose kicks in. I will probably keep experimenting, but am thinking of taking a break for a while and going back to figuring out ways to make myself feel better even when things aren’t so good. It has been very hard to do that while continuously messing with my meds, and I am hoping that taking a break will help, at least in the way of keeping things stable for a while. One of my best skills is adapting to life under less than ideal circumstances. It is impossible to adapt to something that keeps changing.

I have officially entered the World of Warcraft, aka warcrack. It occurred to me one day a few weeks ago that I had no games on either of my macs. This may not seem like a tragedy, but for some reason it disturbed me. Maybe this is what a midlife crisis is like for someone who isn’t interested in sports cars or extra-marital affairs. I will be 40 in a couple of months, so it is about that time.

After some online research, I had it narrowed down to Stubbs the Zombie, World of Warcraft, and Quake 4. At the store, Quake 4 lost the box wars, where the packaging has a chance to convince me to buy something. I am very susceptible to the box. I asked the mac guy which of the other two was better and he said that they are both fun, but that I should go for Stubbs if I still wanted to have a life. That convinced me to buy Warcraft. I didn’t realize until after I installed it that you have to pay to play it! It came with a one month free trial. I will pay after the month is over.

It is my first experience with an MMORPG. I’ve tried Evernight, an online strategy game, sort of like Stratego, where you make one move per day. I hated it and got very stressed out about having to make that move every day. I’ve tried Second Life a few times, and still can not figure out what I am supposed to do. It is too close to real life and I end up hanging out with virtual people who I do not know how to communicate with.

Warcrack is just like a regular video game, but you play it on a server that has lots of other people playing too. You can interact with the other people, fight with them, fight against them, or ignore them. My friend ScratchMonkey invited me to join his guild and gave me a tour of some places, a bunch of gold, and some armor. That added a whole new dimension to the game than when I first played it. I am still not exactly sure how to interact with the people in the guild. They all seem very nice, but aside from saying hi, I’m not sure what to do. When I have some time, I will try to find out more about that. They have a nice website with lots of information.

If I was 15, I think I would be totally addicted to this game. Currently, I barely have any time to play it, and even when I do, I get a little bugeyed after about an hour and have to take a break. Still, I am as addicted to it as I can be under those circumstances and completely understand why people call it warcrack.