Thursday, September 23, 2010
Six weeks into my new gig and a few life optimizations later, I now find myself with an abundance of time, and naturally I’ve been thinking about how best to honor this surplus. Extra time is a bit of a misnomer, I suppose, because from a certain perspective I’ve always had extra time. It’s not like I’ve been rushing to volunteer outside of work, nor have I been partaking in any communities, and I certainly haven’t had to drop anybody off at soccer practice or anything like that.
Indeed, the cross I bear usually takes the shape of a Hulu queue filled to bursting, but even this can only last so many hours. For a while I had suspected that bringing an Xbox into my home would consume my free time, perhaps unravel the very fabric of my being. Hasn’t been the case, though. In fact, it’s been sitting there–idle!–for a couple days and counting, I’m pleased to report. What I once surmised would destroy me may have turned into something far more manageable: an electronic diversion and nothing more.
The life optimizations I mentioned revolve around the office building itself. The only sunlight I see on a typical weekday from 8:45 AM to 5:25 PM is through glass, honestly, and if they could install a pneumatic tube from my place to the corporate park, I’d be set. I basically roll into a parking garage in the morning, enter the building proper through a skyway, and when lunch time hits the food comes to me. Then, it’s back through the skyway and into the parking garage. I’ve even switched to the bank in the lobby, a newly furnished community institution adorned with marble countertops, upon which sit soft-baked chocolate chip cookies. Every day. They call me “Mr. Wu” whenever I swing by to bank, and I’ve told them to stop it.
There you have it: the contours of my new weekday. If any of my ancestors were given to hunting or other feats of nature, I’m sorry! It feels like I’ve violated a covenant of some sort. Lack of sunlight aside, this means the center cut of my day is far more compact, hence the extra time. I’ve been kicking around a few remedies for this. A renewed search for a dog. Perhaps a membership at the local racquet club. Another push to find a community. This last point actually intrigues me the most, and I’ve the beginnings of a plan that, if nothing else, should offer a rich vein of stories. The first task at hand is to go back–way back to the ’80s, a return to my roots. I’d prefer to not be cryptic, but this is all I will say for now.