February 17, 2006

• My oh my oh my...

  Another protracted silence from this little corner of the online universe. After a period of forward progress and moving back into the civilized world, I've been backsliding a bit. A large chunk of it has to do with a headcold that I've been trying to shake for over a month. Most of the rest has to do with various things at work. The rest is snips and snails or something along those lines.

  Work has had both positive and negative developments.On the positive end of the scale, I interviewed for and got a position as a trainer. I'm now one of the people who trains the new hires. Saturdays are machine operation, and Monday-Wednesday is order assembly and stuff, so the only day I do my usual job is Sunday. I just finished my 2nd week of it, and I'm finding it very enjoyable so far. On the negative side, it looks like my days off are shifting to Mondays and Tuesdays, so I'll only be able to train 2 days a week, with the other 3 days reverting to my usual job. But the change won't take effect for a while, so I shouldn't dwell on that too much. Also, there's been a push to change unions, which was scary since if we had voted out our current union there would have been a period of at least a week of being non-unionized, during which the company might well have implemented the concessions they've been seeking during our current contract negotiations. Thankfully, the results were announced today and we're maintaining the status quo. Now the stress comes from the negotiations, which hopefully will yeild agreeable fruit in time to keep us from a strike when April rolls around.

  I'm going to make another attempt at setting some goals for myself for the year (even though 10% is already over!). I set some for 2005, but my father's illness and death sort of scuttled my attention span. Most of my 2006 list is actually a recycling of those failed ambitions of yesteryear. I want to have something published (my standards for this one are very low, so it's attainable). I want to finish ten of my songs-in-progress. I want to get back into doing more live performances (no set numerical goal at the moment). I want to get a much clearer idea of what my goals will be in my eventual return to university. I want to make definite progess in my Korean language studies. I want to completely revamp my personal website and the Ticklish Brother website... That's a partial list. I'll let you know if I manage to accomplish any of it. I guess the unifying theme that runs through all the goals is the idea of self-improvement and opening up possibilities for significant change in my life.

  As for miscellaneous current stuff... Been preparing birthday packages for a couple of old friends of mine. They share a birthday actually, and in typical me fashion I'm running late. The day is already a couple of days in the past. But oh well. Hopefully I can mail the packages Monday. I'm also putting together the annual Ayyam-i-Ha package for my family, which should go in the mail Monday as well, if everything goes as planned. On March 2nd, I'll be taking a little trip into Toronto to see my dear old friend Amelia Curran perform at CMW. I haven't seen her since just before Korea, so it'll be nice to catch up a little. Plus her live shows are fantastic, so I'm in for some good listenin'.

  Okeedokee. I'll leave everything else for the margins. I hope that everything's going well for you, though I know that for some it isn't. Rest assured that you're in my thoughts and prayers, even if my silence is loud.

  Take care
  -J-

  • 2:29 am
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