Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Nothing like finishing a major project to make one realize just how many things have been put on the backburner to get it done. I commented on this on my Welcome to Bridgetown post yesterday; in short, now that I have all this free time and extra brain space, I can now focus on things that I'd put aside over the last few years.

Like my guitar playing. Sure, I've been picking up my guitars and noodling around on them every other day or so, especially if I want to play along with a tune or two, but I've been doing the bare minimum with it. I realized I was still playing the same bass lines, the same chord changes, the same riffs. And I was kind of getting bored with it. Say it ain't so!! So I went ahead and did something crazy: I shifted one of my acoustics to a DADGAD tuning. I've been wanting to learn how to play in that tuning for years, I just never had the time. [As I'd mentioned in the blog, I did it for two reasons: to learn that tuning, and also to make sure I picked up that guitar more often than I've been doing. Nothing as embarrassing as having to wipe dust off a guitar.]

What I didn't mention is that I've been continuing with the avoidance of social media. I admit part of it is due to not wanting to feel the heartbreak of watching my country's government fuck itself up for no reason other than for sheer selfishness and pettiness (I've realized that part of my anger towards the Fuckwit's administration is just that; we're going down a road we do not need to go down, and it's just wasting everybody's time and money). Again: I'm not choosing ignorance, far from it. I'm just choosing a healthier way to process it all.

Still: nothing like backing away from Twitter to make one realize just how much time is actually wasted on it. For every itch to pop back on, I exchange it with opening something else: a project or a journal entry that I'm avoiding. And when I do pop back on, I'm only on for a few moments before I close it back down for another few hours. Today, in among working at the Day Job, I've written an entry in my journal, wrote a blog entry for Walk in Silence (which I should have done last night), and wrote this LJ entry as well. And it's still just before noon. And I'm cool with that.

[For those of you wondering, Does Jon actually WORK during Day Job hours? Heh. Yes, I do. I sneak these blog entries in during slow times in five-minute blocks or so. And I type 70 wpm, so I can zip out lengthy entries pretty quick.]

So what else do I have planned, now that I have more time? Well, there's the artwork, of course. Between drawing for fun and creating book cover mockups, that should keep me entertained for a while. I'm woefully out of practice in that area. I do love making art as I find it very calming, not to mention quite enjoyable in general.

Anything else? Well, who knows. I don't have much on the docket right now, but I'm keeping my options open.