The elusive balance

This is a little bit off of the beaten path for me, but something brought it to the fore last week. I was playing an online game when I got into a bit of a "contest" with a rival player. The rival wrote a very eloquently virulent multi-post letter about how evil my actions were and consequently this player needed to resort to extreme actions in the game. Neither of us was entirely right in our in-game stances and actions, and I did bristle on the first reading. After rereading it, though, I became convinced of something much more important than in-game behavior, and that is that I was spending too much time with this game. Make no mistake- this game is right up my e-alley and is well-designed. The problem is that it is a 24/7 RTS (real time strategy game), and therein lies the rub- it CAN be a major time suck. And I do have an offline life.

So, I made an announcement in-game that I had languishing projects, and have drastically cut back my involvement. I don't know how much time I've reclaimed, but I do know I've resumed work on my database.

The thing I find interesting about balance is that while it is ultimately a positive in one's life creating and maintaining it is certainly work- and not the fun sort of work. I'm certain most everyone experiences some sort of work which they really enjoy... for me, that might be blogging or photography. For Jennifer, it's creating delicious meals in the kitchen. For Mr. T., it's digital modelling... I could go on, but you could probably give an example or two from your own life.

Balance, I think, requires planning, steadfastness and a certain dash of practicality. As I was wrapping up my last job of the day, I had a few options for what to do when I got home. I don't usually go right to bed, but wind down a bit on a PC. I thought about a bit of weight training, which I desperately need to get back in to, but our training area outside of the Secret Underground Lair (SUL) is still not ready for prime time. So, Plan B was implemented: catch up on the aforementioned game, and get a blog entry at least started. I'm also trying to do a bit every day with my database in the SUL- this had been a goal when I first started working on it, but as many things go... well, the plan sounded good on paper!

Today, though, I have a very concrete data entry goal: enter or update twenty-three records in the Media_Title table. Twenty-three? Yes- it's a strange number, but it's the number of slots I have open in a small CD rack, so that is my goal for the day. They are stacked up behind me on a folding table, gently whispering just below the whizzing of three computer fans, calling out with their data entry siren song....

Right. Data entry was, is, and will always be... WORK!

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

On subject matter 05.28.14

I'm currently writing two blogs, one here and one on Wordpress (hochspeyer.wordpress.com). It's days like today that tend to drive a writer just a bit sideways, because even though there is nothing in the way of compensation involved in these writing projects, I still feel a certain compulsion to get a certain volume of work out each calendar month... because even thought we might hate to admit it, at its heart blogging is a numbers game.

And that's a problem when you're trying to write for a blog which has a theme, but for which you have absolutely no pertinent subject matter for your post. However, in the frenzied world of publish or perish- which is the internet as many bloggers may know it-publishing something can sometimes be better than nothing.

So, here I sit in the Secret Underground Lair. To my right, a single-player game of Civilization V is being played. My phone has the mobile version of Words with Friends going, Windows Media Player has just finished sorting songs (in descending order) according to number of plays (James Brown's The Old Landmark from The Blues Brothers movie is currently playing). 

The casual reader might infer from the photograph that right now I'm doing more photography than data, and honestly, the reader would be correct. Still, as long as I'm writing, there's data to be had. While my Wordpress blog is still in its infancy and slowly gaining something of a following, the blog you are reading right now has expanded its international presence, adding readership in India and Lithuania. This gives the blog readers in forty-three countries!

So that's going to be a wrap for my Blogspot posts for the month.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.