Last week was my first full week of unemployment and I quite enjoyed it. Of course, part of the reason I can enjoy this time is because I got a decent severance and I have no one that really depends on me. Actually, I know two guys who also got laid off and they have families but their severance packages were huge, so they’re pretty content with life as well.
I went from working OT almost every night to not working at all and I have to admit, that’s been the best part so far. I feel slightly bad for a few of the dudes I left behind. They’re still crunching away. I checked up on two of my former co-workers on the Saturday and they were both at the studio. Do I wish I was with still with them? They’re great guys and all but the answer is a definitive no.
If you’ve known me for any length of time, it’ll come as no surprise that I’ve easily transitioned into a night owl schedule. I go to sleep between 3am and 4:30am every day now and get up around noon or later. I certainly do enjoy getting more sleep now but I sometimes feel bad that by the time I wake up and have breakfast, most of the day is already gone. On days where I have errands to run, I try to wake up earlier so that I don’t have to cram everything I have to do into the last business hour of the day.
On the job front, I will admit that I haven’t been standing still. I won’t get into the specifics of exactly what I’ve been doing or who I have been talking to. I will say that right after I announced I was laid off, there were a few interesting pieces of info that presented themselves to me and I’ve just been monitoring that. I’ve been counseled by several people over the last few days that I should really not think about getting a job anytime soon. They believe a nice, relaxing break is what I need. I agree with them completely and I will endeavour to ensure I get a suitable amount of time off.
I’m using my free time to do several things. I’ve been hitting the video games pretty hard. I have a large backlog of games to get through and this is the perfect time to get started on them. I finished Medal of Honor on PC. It wasn’t a bad game but I think it could have been better. The game at the end teased a sequel would be forthcoming. I hope that is true because I believe there’s a lot of room for the franchise to grow. Currently, I’m playing Dead Rising 2 on Xbox 360. I just started the game but I’m already less frustrated with it than I was with the original Dead Rising. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m now experienced in the Dead Rising universe or if the Blue Castle did such a good job ironing out the stupid parts of the first game.
I also have a list of various things I want to take care of while I have all this free time. I want to get started on painting the exposed drywall parts of my apartment. I’m going to take a look at where I have all my money tied up in my various bank accounts, RRSPs, mutual funds, and tax-free savings accounts. I’m sure the end analysis will be that I have no money but I want to make sure that’s true. I also want to learn how to cook up a decent piece of salmon. I certainly know how to eat it raw but it’s a shame I don’t know how a good salmon recipe.
Last but certainly not least, I want to fix up this blog a bit. Now for those of you who are perceptive, you might have already noticed a change already. The font for the majority of this blog is now in Georgia. Georgia was the font that I used in the previous incarnation of this blog and I like it quite a bit better than the font that came with this theme. There are more changes ahead. The next thing is to import all my previous posts from the Blogger version of this blog into the current WordPress version. It’s taking quite a bit of time to do this as the Google API doesn’t really play well with WordPress right now. I’m currently investigating a work-around but it might be several days before you’ll see anything.
Alright, it’s 2am in the morning and I have stuff to do!
Her is a little bit of a painting tip for you. Since I have just about painted my entire house over the past 3 years, I would recomend CIL Smart 3 paint. Goes on very nice, has ‘nano technology’ in it (fancy way of saying it has tiny ceramic particles added for durability). And it is less expensive that the Benjamin Moore ‘collection’ line. Stay away from the cheaper BM ‘natura’ and ‘ben’ lines. On another note, email me if you feel like taking a trip to Cuba.
Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I’ll have to go with BM as I’m just painting the spots where I had drywall repairs. The walls were originally painted with Benny Moore paint and I think I’ll need to go with them if I want the colour to match.