Away From a Claustrophobic Office
It’s been a pretty busy, relatively productive week so far. Mostly it involved accompanying Paul on his errands, but I also finished returning all my favourite programmes and settings to my PC (after a pointless Windows re-install), wrote three drafts of my next column for GEAR (due on Monday), looked briefly at Paul’s company’s big website project, and am on my second bigamous marriage in Fable. Oh, and I still have to edit together my sister’s photo-video montage tribute for next Saturday, 4 Feb.
Sitting in the sun on Wednesday morning helping Paul with the installation of the new pool light, the revelation hit me how nice it was to be busy but not trapped in an office. That truly is soul-destroying; life-wasting. Instead of wistfully staring out of the window, hoping that the good weather will last until the weekend, 2 days of genuine freedom, I can go out and enjoy it.
Sitting around doing nothing really is a waste, and it strangely makes me feel very edgy and anxious. Especially when you’re 24, and in a claustrophobic home full of people. It is nice though not to have the endless reading and essay writing of studying looming over my head. That really is an activity that you can’t leave behind, unlike a 9-5, Mon – Friday wage slave job The University sent me a letter yesterday saying I had received a scholarship this year, but of course I’ll be turning it down since I’m not studying.
But I’ve digressed form my point about not being a wage slave. As long as you’re being constructive, feel you’re doing something fulfilling and enjoying yourself, it’s fine. Now to just make money from it.
Anyway, Paul, my sister and myself headed to the Exclusive Books Summer Sale preview evening on Wednesday. After an hour or so of elbowing our way through white suburbanites after the veneer of culture that book club membership offers them, I was at the till with 4 books in hand. Using a voucher, all together they only cost me R84.
What I bought was The Little Friend, a critically praised mystery by Donna Tart, the Harry Potter spoof Barry Trotter and the Dead Horse, The Looking Glass Wars (by Frank Beddor), which seems heavily indebted to American McGee’s twisted take on Alice in Wonderland (I’m not expected Beddor’s book to be well written at all- put that down to my prejudice against fantasy that hasn’t crossed over into the mainstream), and Dr Angelo Acquista’s The Survival Guide: What To Do in a Biological, Chemical or Nuclear Emergency.
Now you may expect that my decision to buy the last book on my list stems from my hypochondria, but it actually is a very interesting, factual read by the man in charge of New York’s Emergency Planning. It isn’t some hysterical Terrorism-inspired tome.
This said, I’m not entirely sure how it would be helpful in the case of exposure to biological, bio-chemical and nuclear agents. Pretty much all the symptoms are nausea and vomiting. However, it does at least offer advice in terms of accidents on planes (sudden decompression for example), buses and other forms of transportation, and what you can do to increase your chances of survival.
So that’s been my week so far- so busy I haven’t even really been able to head online until now.
Sitting in the sun on Wednesday morning helping Paul with the installation of the new pool light, the revelation hit me how nice it was to be busy but not trapped in an office. That truly is soul-destroying; life-wasting. Instead of wistfully staring out of the window, hoping that the good weather will last until the weekend, 2 days of genuine freedom, I can go out and enjoy it.
Sitting around doing nothing really is a waste, and it strangely makes me feel very edgy and anxious. Especially when you’re 24, and in a claustrophobic home full of people. It is nice though not to have the endless reading and essay writing of studying looming over my head. That really is an activity that you can’t leave behind, unlike a 9-5, Mon – Friday wage slave job The University sent me a letter yesterday saying I had received a scholarship this year, but of course I’ll be turning it down since I’m not studying.
But I’ve digressed form my point about not being a wage slave. As long as you’re being constructive, feel you’re doing something fulfilling and enjoying yourself, it’s fine. Now to just make money from it.
Anyway, Paul, my sister and myself headed to the Exclusive Books Summer Sale preview evening on Wednesday. After an hour or so of elbowing our way through white suburbanites after the veneer of culture that book club membership offers them, I was at the till with 4 books in hand. Using a voucher, all together they only cost me R84.
What I bought was The Little Friend, a critically praised mystery by Donna Tart, the Harry Potter spoof Barry Trotter and the Dead Horse, The Looking Glass Wars (by Frank Beddor), which seems heavily indebted to American McGee’s twisted take on Alice in Wonderland (I’m not expected Beddor’s book to be well written at all- put that down to my prejudice against fantasy that hasn’t crossed over into the mainstream), and Dr Angelo Acquista’s The Survival Guide: What To Do in a Biological, Chemical or Nuclear Emergency.
Now you may expect that my decision to buy the last book on my list stems from my hypochondria, but it actually is a very interesting, factual read by the man in charge of New York’s Emergency Planning. It isn’t some hysterical Terrorism-inspired tome.
This said, I’m not entirely sure how it would be helpful in the case of exposure to biological, bio-chemical and nuclear agents. Pretty much all the symptoms are nausea and vomiting. However, it does at least offer advice in terms of accidents on planes (sudden decompression for example), buses and other forms of transportation, and what you can do to increase your chances of survival.
So that’s been my week so far- so busy I haven’t even really been able to head online until now.
Comments
~Fight Club
And none of us have the guts to leave. It is an evil cycle.
Hope the weekend was fun.