self-portrait reflection on the floor of 191 Peachtree Tower, Atlanta
It’s a familiar scene at the House of Fielding: late at night, CBC Radio in the background, speed-reading through articles in my bloated RSS reader, mental notes for dozens of blog posts and unable to decide on one, at least 20 tabs open in three browsers vying for attention, and a Zip.ca movie that’s been waiting patiently for me to watch it since the beginning of the month.
(I have the cheapest subscription at Zip.ca: one movie per month, but with a max of two movies before I have to bump up the subscription. I thought it would be easy, but I’ve become such a computer nerd that I’ve found it much harder to break away from internet reading than I thought. In 2008 I realised that nearly all the films I watched were on planes, so this was my attempt at returning to regular movie-watching again. Except last year it once took five months before I watched the DVD that was mailed to me in the spring. It went from being a cheap DVD “rental” to something that would’ve been less costly had I ordered a copy to own. So far I’m doing marginally better in 2010 having watched two DVDs, but hey, it’s only February.)
You know what, though? It’s not such a bad place to be in, having too many hobbies. For everything I always consider the alternative, and the thought of having no hobbies at all makes me shudder. My work pays my bills and maintains my nerd cred, but my hobbies are what keep me sane, motivated, grounded, happy and inspired. Recently I’ve had discussions with people who admit that work accounts for much of their time, not because working longer hours makes them more money but because they’re bored, or can’t think of anything else to do. What?!?
I feel a rant coming on, so I’ll stop here as I’ve got volunteering in the morning… and for someone who routinely rolls into work at noon, having to be somewhere at 10am feels rather early.