Average Day

I realize in some of the blogs I write that I might create some sense of who I am in the subjects that I choose to write about. But I don't really blog about myself all that much. I tend to blog about things I've done or things I'm thinking or experiencing, but not really about me. So, it occurred to me that it might help people understand my blog if they understood a little bit more about me.

What follows, then, is a description of the average day in the life of me - in so much as any day can be average. What I will describe will be a typical work day, since I almost never blog on weekends.

I wake up at 7:00am. My radio alarm clock is set to KNBR68 - the local sports station. I'm not actually a big fan of the KNBR morning show, but I'm certain that they'll always wake me up. I usually lie in bed long enough to get the sports scores from the night before at the top of the hour sports update, then I sit up in bed and turn on my TV (a habit I formed in the days following 9-11) and watch about ten minutes of news. I use this time to focus my brain on the crawling news stories across the bottom of the screen. Since I have to focus my eyes as well as my attention, I find this a good excercise for the first thing in the morning.

After that I shower, shave, and get dressed, then stop and read the comics on my way out to the Ford Explorer. My commute into work is about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the traffic, but more typically on the 15 to 20 minute scale. My work is out by the airport and the hardest part is crossing the freeway to get to it. Once I'm across the freeway, it goes quickly.

I arrive at work and head up to my big spacious office where I turn on my computer and then go check the fax machine for overseas faxes. I grab a cuppa and then check e-mails, blogs, and other assorted news updates (Aintitcoolnews and a few Disney news feeds). By that point, I'm firmly ready to get to work.

I work in the morning until 10:30am and then I head out for a quick 15 minute break. If the sun is out, I take a 15 minute walk. If its raining or cold, I go out to my car, turn on the stereo, and read or write for 15 minutes. I like to read all sorts of books (also a good time to do homework) but I also write notes for my book, or whatever project happens to be in my mind at the time.

After my break, I come back and check my e-mails again and then work until lunch time. At lunch, I'm actually pretty flexible. It depends on the day. Sometimes I eat fast food, sometimes I walk, sometimes I write or read, or some combination of everything. During school, I often find my lunch hour devoted to running into school to pick up film equipment.

After lunch, I again check my e-mails before getting back to work. My work is mostly feast or famine. There are times, like the last couple of weeks, where I barely have a second to come up for air. I generate a lot of reports while I check stock levels, help the birthing process of new products, or oversee the testing of all our products for safety issues. I'm always at the beck and call of my two bosses (the President and Vice President) who drop new projects in my lap every single day. I work diligently on every project until they are done. But, honestly, after staring at spreadsheets for most of a day, I need a mental break every once in a while and I'll go walk around the building and catch up with my co-workers about once a day.

I take a second break around 3:30pm, and, again, walk or read depending on the weather. And then I work until closing at 5:00pm (or later, depending on the amount of work I'm doing).

Now, my real day begins. For the most part, what I consider a normal evening probably doesn't sound much different than what you consider a normal evening. I go home, change clothes, have dinner, and then watch TV or work on my various projects (write, website, film, etc...). The fact that I rarely ever get to do a "normal" evening should have no bearing on what I consider normal.

Lately, I've been filling my evenings with activities just about every night. In addition to class once a week, I also have the occasional basketball game, Church Choir rehearsal, and Youth Group to take up my time. And believe it or not, this is better than it was in the past. During the final stretch of my novel, I was writing about three to four hours a night. I'd get up from my computer screen stiff from the lack of movement.

In general, that's what I do most of the day. One creative idea chases another and often interupts more productive "work related" thoughts. If I'm not contemplating my novel or working on a new game for Youth Group or envisioning the next great filmic masterpiece, then I'm probably sussing out the problem in an incredibly complex spreadsheet formula. Indeed, I think one of the reasons I enjoy my job as much as I do is that in turning my hands and body over to the mindless drudgery of spreadsheets, I can leave my brain free to contemplate more important matters - like the dangers of immigration or how one might go about shutting down the internet. Some of these thoughts get hunted down and form the basis of many of my blog posts, so, in a sense, my blog posts are a snapshot of my brain at any given moment of the day. And as such, you can see that my concerns and thoughts are all over the board and invariably have nothing to do with spreadsheets.

My ego is hurt by the lack of star acclaim here at ICON. Its like a bad cliche of a Hollywood Agent whispering in my ear, "Will, you are the greatest writer of a generation. People should be adoring you. Why the heck are you stuck writing for this podunk little blog?" But the real me wants none of that. Fame is elusive mostly because I don't crave it. I'd much rather craft a great story and get little attention than craft a small story and get great attention. But when it comes to blogging, I use this blog to merely clear out the cockles of my brain, to empty it of passing thoughts and fleeting fancies and righteous indignation - all the useless things that come to my head during the day.

So that's my average day. And these are my average thoughts. I hope you have an above average weekend.