Christopher Hamilton

In ten short weeks, this years NaNoWriMo begins. It’s a project I had a great deal of fun doing last year, even though the novel I wrote was terrible. Changing the way I wanted to write it half way through didn’t help matters. This year though, I’ve decided to work on an outline for the novel, and organise myself so I know what needs to be written each day, and where I’m going with the story. I’ve been working on an idea for the last few days, and I have a very basic version of the plot written down, an initial list of important characters, and half the main protagonists bio.

It’s a very different approach from last years attempt, when on the 1st November I opened up Nisus, and wrote the first thing that come into my head. It took me on some weird and wonderful plot twists, but I never at any point really knew where the story was going. I had a vague idea that the characters had to get somewhere, and other characters tried everything they could to stop them, but once they reached their destination I had no idea what was going to happen. It was exciting in one way, because I went on the journey with those characters, and got a little invested in their well being, but it was also a little frustrating. Thankfully I hit the 50K word count before I had to figure out how to end the story and stopped writing. It’s something I’ll go back and re-write in the future, but at the moment, I still have no idea what will happen when they reach their destination, which being almost a year later is very frustrating.

I’m hoping that working in this more structured, organised way will be just as satisfying and have very little frustration. I’m intending on only structuring the main plot line, and leaving the subplots wide open to allow myself some degree of freedom and spontaneity, which makes the whole process much more fun. This year I’ve also decided to take the last week in November off work in order to make sure I have extra time to write if I fall behind. Last year I had to work, and then write like a maniac in the evenings to catch up from the days I missed earlier in the month. My aim is to make this years novel a much more relaxed, and satisfying journey.

Once this years site opens up, like last year, I’ll post one of the banners that has the word count updates on it. Last year I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to manage it, but I did. Now that I know I can write 50k words in 30 days, I’m just excited, and eager to get started. Only ten more weeks to go.

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo, Writing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve decided to de-clutter my life. Which initially meant that I needed to go through all of my things, be extremely aggressive in my culling process, and start selling/giving away, (selling is my preference. Cash is goohood), all the things I have, but never use.

The first thing on that list was my PSP. It wasn’t a tough sell, I barely used it, and I was happy to get rid of it. Then the odd DVD went, again no big deal. I had watched them all and while I’ll happily sit through them again and again, those ones hadn’t been near my DVD player in a long time. Tonight was the hardest sell so far. The auction on my PowerMac G5 ended tonight.

That mac was the first professional standard mac I had owned, and I thought it was fantastic, I still do as a matter of fact. I used it for everything for a long time. The only issue I had with it, was that I’d slowly, over the last 7 months, used it less and less. It sat in my study, doing nothing more than being the home of my itunes library, and my aperture library. It was a waste of a perfectly good piece of kit. So off it goes to pastures new, assuming the guy ever pays for it of course.

My MacBook Pro has become the mainstay of my digital life. I’m writing this post on it, I use it for work, and every single piece of creative work I’ve done this year has been brought into existence using it. I have so story ideas, and scenes scattered around this thing that it’s taken me several hours tonight to get everything into a manageable structure. Knowing that after tonight I wouldn’t have the G5 made me a little crazy. Once I had organised the file structure, I started re-arranging my study to accommodate the fact that it would be gone.

After getting a little crazy with the organising, I actually feel a lot better about working in here now. That was another reason the G5 became under utilised. I haven’t really felt comfortable working at this desk since I moved into this apartment in January. There were too many things, lying around, and not enough space on the desk, (which in reality is massive), for me to want to stay here for any length of time. That’s all changed now though. The setup is almost perfect for me. All I need is a more comfortable chair, and to tidy the cabling up, and it’s going to be ideal.

Now that I have somewhere I feel comfortable to write, I don’t need to continually move the external hard drives I have around the apartment either. They sit very nicely in a little desk-side storage unit I have. It has been the home of my printer since I moved in, but now that I know where I’m going to be working, the external drives can be housed on one of it’s shelves, and added too without any issues. It just makes for a much neater, and friendlier environment.

I’ve been a hoarder for as long as I can remember, and at first the idea of getting rid of my stuff was quite uncomfortable. I mean, what if I NEED that PSP at some point in the future to hack into an alien space ship and implant a virus in order to save the world. If I sell it, and that situation happens, I would be so mad at myself. Once I got over my short spell of insanity, it was actually very liberating to begin the clear out. It’s never good to tie yourself to things. That’s all they are, after all. Just things that can be replaced, and generally make no difference in our lives. In fact the only difference a great deal of it makes, is how much storage you need, and how many unopened boxes, you have to transfer when you move house again.

I no longer need to continually buy gadgets, and new technology. I’m happy with my MacBook Pro, and my ever decreasing pile of things. The more things I move on, the better I’ve been feeling. I have more space around my apartment, I beginning to feel like there aren’t piles of things everywhere, and that having clean, uncluttered, rooms is much more refreshing and comfortable. The weight of all my possessions is slowly lifting and it’s a wonderful feeling. Again the extra cash is nice too.

Out with the old, and there’s no real need for the new. Not anymore.

Technorati Tags: eBay, Household

In life we make decisions every day. Most of those are small, uncomplicated decisions taking up nothing more than a few seconds of our day. What should I have for dinner? Should I have another beer, or just go home? What should I wear today? Simple, easily answered choices.

What happens when you realise there is a larger decision looming in your horizon? One that can’t be quickly dismissed in moments, but takes a great deal of thought, and consideration. One that can quite literally change your life. Those moments don’t come along very often, and when they do, the way you manage the thought process matters more than the actual decision. Usually, that process shows you that there is no real decision, and that you already know what you are going to do. The process is simply a means to work through the fear or doubt involved in the consequences of your decision.

These more intense decisions usually involve a departure from your comfort zone, and reaching into new territory. Whether it’s a work, relationship, lifestyle, or locational transition, they all bring that same feeling. They all make you question yourself and introduce doubts into your mind. Do I really want this? Am I making a mistake? What will I do if I’m wrong? The thought process of these decisions determines whether you’re ready to confront the choice you want to make. It becomes a problem though, when you know the choice you need to make but let those doubts control you. You, in essence, are allowing your fear to make the choice for you. Some people are happy to do that, to carry on day after day, avoiding the difficult decisions. Playing things safely becomes a viable option, even when you know it shouldn’t be.

I may seem a little melodramatic at the moment, but I’m working through a decision of my own. One that I’ve been thinking through for some time. One that in the grand scheme of things isn’t a big deal, but could make a very significant change in my life. One that revolves around my career.

I’m considering turning my back completely on the IT world, and a job I’m very good at, but can’t remember the last time it made me happy. It’s something I’ve done my entire adult life, meaning I have over 10 years invested in it. The main problem I have, is that I know what I would like to do, but the fear of not being good enough has been holding me back. It’s a completely stupid fear, because it’s not like I need to give up my day job in order to pursue this new career.

I know that the fear stems from the fact that if I’m not good enough, what do I do next? Does that mean I’m stuck in the IT world, with no other options? No it doesn’t, but it would certainly add to the doubts that it’s the only thing I’m good at.

IT has been very good to me over the years. It’s gotten me into some great places, and helped me live very comfortably for most of my time backpacking around Australia. It’s introduced me to some great people, most of whom I’m still really good friends with, but I’m done with the industry. I’m tired of the constant bullshit, and the fact that I only ever hear from people with computer problems. It can be a damn depressing job. There’s nothing quite like having people who don’t understand the technology complain it’s not working properly. Every.Single.Day.

This post has been my process. I’ve been contemplating this decision for a long time, and all it took for me to realise I had already made it, was sitting down and writing it out. It had been internalised for far too long, and was beginning to make those doubts louder and more insistent. Now that it’s been confronted in an open forum, it’s easier to move forwards.

So what do I aim to do with my life in place of my IT career. I plan to write. It’s not something that will happen over night, but over the next year, I hope to be able to develop my writing ability and get a few freelance jobs, and hopefully some things published. Then make enough money from it that eventually it will be my main source of income. At which point I can say goodbye to IT and happily walk away. It’s a very rough plan at the moment obviously, but it’s a starting point. A journey begins with the first step, and I’ve just taken mine.

That means a few things, especially for this site. I’ll no longer be posting the usual garbage I have been. There may be the odd snippet of randomness, but I want to grow the site, and post content I’m proud to have here. I want it to become a focal point of my writing, and a place I can happily say most of my best work can be found. At the moment, there is so little decent content on here that I’m amazed there are any readers whatsoever. So to those that are reading this, thank you for stopping by, and I hope that I can produce some decent content that you enjoy reading in the very near future.

The last nine days have flown by in a ridiculous flurry of working late, comedians, and lately a good few beers, culminating in a tremendously bad few games of ten pin bowling.

I haven’t really had any time to blog over the last week, mainly due to work, (which is where I am just now), and the odd social event. Last weekend, while I was still unwell, we went to catch a few festival shows. The saturday evening was spent watch Jason Byrne, and the Sunday watching Jim Jeffries.

The funnier of the two was without question Jim Jeffries, I if your not one who is easily offended, I can’t recommend him enough.

Unfortunately though, the abundance of my week has been spent working, and I don’t see any signs of that fact changing any time soon. I now get to support the entire company on my own, for pretty much the next month. Happy Days.

Thankfully, it looks like I’ve just finished for today. I could stay later and do more, but I’m a little wiped out, and feel like going home and reading for a while.

I intend to write some more later, but first I had to clear out the last week from my head. I may write up the comedians, or write about the birthday drinking yesterday at a later point, but for the moment I don’t really feel like it.

Another quick thing to mention; Fraudulent eBay buyers can kiss my ass. The fucker completely screwed my 7 day auction. The Rage. Must.Contain.The.Rage

I’m going to pack up the laptop, and head home.

Being sick sucks.

I’m of work with some kind of plague and I’ve only now managed to eat something. Ahhh tasty, tasty bacon.

I’m going to go lie down on the sofa and watch some terrible TV.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Going through some of the boxes I have at home, led to some interesting discoveries, of which I may mention later. Among the things I found were the missing photo’s from my year in Australia. There were around 30 that I was sure I had taken, but couldn’t find anywhere. It turns out I boxed them with my CD’s, because that’s where you store photos. Right?

Anyhoo, it took me on a trip down nostalgia street for a little while, and completely got in the way of some things I needed to do. Which in turn means I’m going to get to bed a little later than anticipated. I get cranky when I don’t get enough sleep; or if the clock happens to be before 10am.

I mention the photo’s because one of the guys I lived, and travelled around Australia with is paying me a visit in a few weeks, which should be good fun. Although I doubt I’ll be able to spare the cash necessary to make it a big weekend, we’ll still make sure we still have a blast. I don’t get to see those guys very often, in fact out of the four of them I’ve only seen two in the five or so years since I’ve been home, so we usually send a few hours catching up, and the rest of the time getting very, very drunk.

Now it’s time to get some things on my list taken care of before bed. I wonder what other memories I’m going to find in the remaining unopened boxes.

It’s remarkable how I can collect things over the course of a few years.

I’ve been going through a lot of the things that I own, but never use/watch/listen to, and I’ve come to the realisation that I really do have too much crap. The other thing is, hardly any of it is crap, if you know what I mean. You probably don’t so let me explain.

One of the things I own, and never, ever use is my PSP. Now when I first bought it, you could hardly pry the thing from my hands. I’m trying to think of the last time I switched it on, and I seriously can’t remember. So it’s going up on eBay.

Another thing that I barely use and have decided to sell is my Apple Powermac G5. I LOVED that Mac when I got it. I mean really loved it, it was a little inappropriate at points. Now I have the MacBook Pro, the G5 sits on my desk not sure of it’s purpose. Sure I use it for a few things. It’s my main iTunes library, it hosts all of my external drives, and holds the main Aperture Library. The thing is, the MBP could do all that easily, and all I would need to do would be to move my iTunes Library to an external drive. I don’t, because I want the G5 to be doing something to justify my keeping it.

Hello, my name is Chris Hamilton, and I’m a hoarder.

There’s lots of other little things I own that I don’t use, in fact there are a few boxes of things, that I packed up before I moved into my current apartment, and they are still sitting in those boxes unopened. I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a great deal of time on eBay over the next few months.

Technorati Tags: Clearout, eBay

My buddy Keith and I went to the cinema last night to watch the new Transformers movie. Keith is a HUGE fan of the 80’s cartoons, as am I, and we were both really excited about seeing it. It didn’t disappoint.

The main characters throughout the movie are Bumblebee and Sam Witwicky, (played by Shia LaBeouf) and the central emotional connection in the movie is between them. All the other main characters are there, however, they play very small parts throughout the movie. The only other Autobot that is prominent, is of course, Optimus Prime.

The film seemed a little rushed, and they didn’t develop the characters that much, but overall I loved this movie. It was action packed, and visually amazing. It also surprised me by being really funny too.

I enjoyed it so much, that I’m pretty sure I’m going to go see it again.

Technorati Tags: Movie, Transformers