Live Truly

The past two weeks, especially the last one, were insane. I had almost half a week of allnighters all the way up to this Monday.

I learned quite a bit though. Cleaning up an online store and gui and adding new parts to the product at the same time. It’s been a bit overwhelming because on one hand I’d love to make it look as nice as our artist designed it, but on the other hand I have programming projects which are a lot higher priority riding me, violently. The greatest challenge though as in communication. Responding through text and emails is vital, just letting the rest of the team know what’s going on, even if projects keep jumping on your shoulders. This is definitely an area I will improve in.

I also found something I absolutely love doing. The design and the GUI. It’s so much fun and it’s so rewarding to make a part look better. It’s up there with drawing. I’d like to work on things like this more in the future, I’d love to be able to finish cleaning up our sites. But I’m not the boss and we have different priorities. Hah, maybe the way to do it is to clean up my portfolio and take a few gigs on craigslist…. when I make the time (and whether or not any of that goes to other gigs, I need to make some time soon)…

Work has completely taken over and as much as I love what I’m doing, I really miss being able to sleep enough, to dance with my friends, and just to have a day off to relax. It actually got to a point where I turned down some late night invites because I was just too tired from work! Not healthy. The part that really gets to me is that I’m working crazy hours and yet it seems like I get nothing done. I really want to either build up my speed or find something I’m better at. I know I’m a thousand times faster than I was before, but its still sad seeing my pace compared to what I expect.

During this past week I’ve been listening to some pretty cool motivational cd’s. If not for them, I don’t think I’d be in as good a mood right now.

I’m exhausted, but very happy to have my first semi-weekend in two weeks.

The past few weeks have been destructive. No sleep. No fun. Just work. It seemed everything came together. Work got hardcore, my student had his test Saturday morning, had to cover a midterm and final for my real estate class, along with half the book in about four days. Plus two half days spent in San Francisco getting TB clearance and trying to get rescheduled. The earliest I got home this week was 10:30, minus the day I stayed in to finish the real estate course. The weekend didn’t let off. Another project due. Spent both days and this night coding. Just submitted my latest versions. It’s been a real test, getting through it, but I think these past weeks have really made me stronger,, although I’d need a nice day or two of sleep to show it.

During this whole time I’ve been listening to a semi-fitting book: Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALs : Battle-Tested Strategies for Creating Successful Organizations and Inspiring Extraordinary Results.

It’s a good wake-up book and it has lots of strong smart realistic advice on everything from how to arrange a team to moving on and doing something you can and want to do. The CD is a bit like the whole Rich Dad series in that it was kind of a pitch to join the SEALs, and after listening to it I can say I’m a lot more open and enthusiastic about such an idea than I could imagine before hearing it. It was really inspiring hearing the organizational structure, what to be and look for, how to live with a purpose and do things to the best of ability. It had many lessons. One that stood out a whole lot, along with dozens of others, is that in the platoon, in business, and in life, being an honest and dependable person is one of the most important things you can do. Another really imprtant aspect was on setting objectives and goals. How do you judge a mission to be successful. This book had a really good insight into that when it told about a rescue mission that went flawlessly minus the fact that the hostages were moved. The best thing about this book is it’s no nonsense approach, after listening to it all excuses and all fuzzy-big-picture-but-no-results actions are clear for the wastes of time they are.

I feel I’ve kind of stopped growing for the moment or maybe I grew up a whole lot. I put all my focus on just getting things done. There was no time to “look within” or anywhere else, only time to get things done. In the few moments with enough time to think clearly I kind of thought about what I’d want to do. I can’t wait to get back to Thailand and kick it with Rains. Can’t wait to just hear her voice. Can’t wait to hit up SF and visit the grandparents and can’t wait to kick it with my bro. Can’t wait to get back to dancing and dancers. It’s crazy how easy it is to take things for granted, but when there’s absolutely no time, in the few moments you chill out, you really realize some of the things you really miss. This weekend though, I made it through and got things done. Now sleep. Sweet sleep.