It was October when I made the last post in here, and I have gotten several emails and IMs asking if I had abandoned the site or if all was OK. Well for those interested here is the deal (read on if interested) if not just rest assured that I have not turned my back on this site and I hope to begin regular posts again soon!


So why no posts since MAX? Well here goes... for the last 6 years I have pretty much been running at full steam. The first few years I was working 3 jobs (plus freelance) and trying to finish up / put myself through college. Once I completed that I cut back to only working 1 job but continued with freelance (lots of freelance), all was going good but then about a year ago I was ask to teach at a local art college and then this past summer was contacted about writing a book. Well I figured that I could pretty much take on everything, and still maintain my "personal" life.

For a few months I was running strong, would get up, work a typical 8 - 10 hour day, come home freelance for a few (or several) hours, then spend the rest of the evening gathering / preparing / writing everything needed to get the book off the ground, by the time all this was done I was lucky if I ended up getting a few hours of sleep. But I loved it, so what did I care.

Well while at MAX I realized something... I was spending so much time working I didn't have time any more to play, experiment, enjoy, and experience things like I used to. True I was working on projects that I found fun and loved designing / developing (and I did develop several Flash Lite applications for personal use during this time), as was I happy with my personal life. But I just felt like I was moving at 100 miles an hour and some really cool stuff was passing me by that I was only able to catch a glimpse of.

So upon returning from Anaheim I decided it was time to take a much needed break. I finished up the remaining freelance projects I was working on, put down writing, and made a pact to myself that for the entire month of November I wasn't going to do any freelance work and that once I left work I was going to try and stay off the computer unless it was absolutely necessary (checking movie times, booking hotel reservations, checking the occasional email :), etc..).

And guess what... I was able to stick to it! At first it was a bit awkward getting contacted to work on some really cool projects and having to turn them down, and I admit I did jones for the Internet at times, but it was something that I felt was necessary so I ignored to urges to work. During this time Emma and I took a trip to Tennessee, enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family, and celebrated my 25th birthday all without my computer. Needless to say the month was very enjoyable, and by mid-month (after catching up on some MUCH needed rest) I felt more energized and refreshed then I have in quite some time.

By the time December came around I was ready to get back to work freelancing, and had about a million blog posts and emails to catch up with. Almost immediately I was contacted by an agency asking for my assistance with a really cool Flash project (which unfortunately I can't talk about). Only catch, it had an unbelievably short deadline (but don't they all). After thinking about it for a brief seconds I decided, lets do it. So while I remember November like it was yesterday, December pretty much flew by in a blur :) I did make time for Christmas and New Years but pretty much every other night was burned working till 2-3 in the morning.

This brings me to January. As some of you may know I have been having a house built since last July, I was scheduled to move in in Oct / Nov but it was pushed back due to delays, etc... Well they finally finished it and the first week in January I closed on my first house. I have pretty much been spending the remainder of this month moving, setting up utilities, unpacking, enjoying the house, and starting back teaching (Winter quarter) at The Creative Circus.

So if your still with me, I hope you now understand why this site has been dormant for the past few months. I am pretty much back to the normal swing of things, working, teaching, freelancing, personal life etc... (although I still haven't started writing again) just doing it now with a little more focus on balance. What can I say... I love what I do!

I do think though that I may start adding a monthly vacation in each year and possibly plan a longer / larger trip or now that I am a home owner plan some kind of household project. Just next time I will try and let you know before I just up and quit posting to the site.