It’s 5-something AM on a Monday morning and I’m typing on a mini-keyboard attached to my iPad Pro.
This is the first full day without a personal PC since 1991 or 1992, and probably 1983-ish if you count the hodgepodge of video game related computers (Commie 64, Coleco Adam, TI994/a), that I’ve had in my life over the years.
I gave my Threadripper system away yesterday to my niece. She has no idea how much power the damn thing has (when I used it for rendering, it sucked so much power it literally made a less power full battery backup unit scream), so it’ll be more than enough for whatever her and her family will need.
I made the decision last week that I needed a change. That I sit in front of the thing doing millions of projects but never getting anything done. I’m not addicted to it, though that’s probably a lie, I just got to the point where I felt obligated to be in front of that computer doing something doing *anything* for almost every waking hour of every day.
I usually wake up at 5-something AM like today and putter around on YouTube until it’s time to work. I had a 55” TV for a monitor (now hooked up in the living room, my niece got the 40” TV that was out there), and thing literally drew my attention in as it was inescapable. It lead a path to so many worlds and wonders but…
I haven’t blogged here in a year. Why? So many worlds and wonders. I never could focus more than 5 minutes on writing. There was always something I could be doing. Always something bugging me. It actually feels weird to sit here writing for five minutes and accomplishing more than a paragraph.
Back to my day… I’d sit here at work for my 9 hours (8 hours and 1 hour of break time), then make myself available until 5 or 6pm, whenever my boss finally gave it up for the day. Then I would be here, working on projects or puttering around on YouTube until I fell asleep between 9-10pm.
Rinse. Repeat.
Sometimes, I’d write comics. But more often than not, I’d get distracted by an advertisement for cheap discounts on the models I use to produce art for said comics, then converting those models from one system to another to actually use them… that I’d get nothing done with my actual intended work.
I haven’t cried or freaked out yet. I imagine that’s how an addict would react and mind you, I do have a computer from work that I am going to do most of my day job on (supplementing note taking with the iPad since it’s much easier to type on something else while everyone insists on a full screen zoom meeting). The computer was gone by 4pm yesterday and I managed to sit through the Jeffery Epstein documentary series on Netflix, play a game on Xbox One and actually have a bit of fun.
Let’s we what today holds.
Jim