I am on my customary week off. The first of the year is always a time for me to reflect and relax and to remember the year before, sometimes years before, and try and think up better ways of living life, working and a lot of other things. It’s always at the perfect time for me as it comes right after I’ve seen the vast majority of my family and am usually pretty burnt out by the end of December 31st. I am a person who has come to understand the nature of change, in my professional life I certainly am constantly changing, sometime next week I’ll be moving out of database land and into a job where research is my primary responsibility for the company.
I’ve learned a lot about databases in the last three months, and I’ve went from knowing just about nothing about Oracle, to knowing a heck of a lot more than my co-workers even know. Update (I re-read this and I certainly don’t mean to say I know more than my co-workers about Oracle, I meant to say that I know more about Oracle thank they think I do)
I am most creative when I am at home, in my own environment. It’s tough leaving this job, but research is my real passion, and I want to do it for the rest of my life perhaps. It’s been a long term goal of mine and it’s only a few weeks away. When people work very hard, especially when it requires critical thinking, they are not creative; it’s a fact of life. I am usually most creative in Janurary and in August when I look back on my work. I think there are many reasons for this.
1. I usually have a friends and family get together in the summer which requires a lot of planning and work, and then after the party I try to relax in my pool, but work in the summer time has traditionally been taxing, and in August/September things usually involve a transition or have historically.
2. My one week off at the beginning of the year really gets me thinking in retrospect, and about the future. I think I begin a pattern of shedding the obsoleteness of what was the year before this week, and it better focuses me on the things which will be important, not only at work, but with my family as well.
3. Looking forward to seeing the sun. The has more of an affect on the brain than most people know or will give it credit. You’ll often hear people in Ohio say, I like Ohio because of the “Changing of the Seasons.” This is because there are many chemicals in your brain which change and your personality is very dependant on the light which surrounds your brain which isn’t much more than a giant super sophisticated filter. I have a high pressure sodium light running in my house, not just to fight off winter depression, but mostly because my dog has a rare problem where the lack of sunlight causes her fur to almost completely shed off, making her cold in late winter/early spring, and a ghastly sight to look at. I feel really guilty knowing I have a brain that is smart enough to change the condition using a trip to the store and pulling out the wallet. I’m glad to report her fur is nice and thick as ever. (Not very thick but she doesn’t have thick fur to begin with) I’d like to wish everyone the best 2008.
I ended 2007 thinking about all of the hardships, and how things were ruff in 2007, and the theme of the night was everyone agreed that 2007 would be bested by 2008. We all decided at 1145 to wander down to the closest restaurant to watch the ball drop in a celebratory fasion. That’s when is saw a man who was dying of stomach cancer, who’s wife had left him very recently. It looked like he tried to kill himself with pills or something. That did a lot to my attitude, I looked my wife in the eyes and knew she loved me, I looked at my friends, and knew I had good friends, I looked at what family was around and was glad that they were there. Life was good, and it could only get better in 2008, because I had it good already, and life isn’t supposed to be easy.
