Today's diesel post

My sleep schedule has now cycled forward as far as 0400-1200, which is as western as I can ever remember it traveling. Since I'm working at home so much lately, I actually don't mind too much. I'm riding it forwards and backwards as it may go, like one who loiters in an active elevator.

It's still important, I think, that I start any work I wish to accomplish while the sun is still up; my motivators are still solar-powered. (Or maybe just melatonin-inhibited.) The biggest inconvenience may be my desire to attend other peoples' weekday-evening social events, which now fall on my lunch hour...

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Freedom is still on the march at ICCB. My state is always one of (sleeping | working | procrastinating) for at least another week. I'm managing to have fun anyway, and not look at things objectively. Because looking at things objectively would indicate that I've been working harder than ever at my old position's tasks since switching to my new position, and this would be something I'd have to question. But, frustrating as it is, I think the best strategy is to wait it out. (For certain values of "wait".) It can only last so long, due to inflexible chronological constraints. (The date of the grant-review committee visit, for one thing.)

A small change is that I really have been self-managed for a while. While I still lean on my old boss, his role has become more an insightful advisor than manager, and my on-paper managers are actually more like my customers; they create project requests, but it's completely up to me to figure out how to tackle them, and lay out timetables and feasibility reports for it all. I didn't quite realize that this would be the case when I agreed to take this position, but now that I do realize it, I'm actually not complaining. It's a new experience for me. "We'll see what happens."

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Had a short-notice houseguest over the extended weekend, a friend who was dodging bad-roommate kerfuffle. (Happily resolved, now, through the acquisition of a new apartment.) Despite the short notice, the experience was actually more good for me than not; I think it even may have boosted my ICCB-hacking productivity. I liked the awareness that another person was around, hearing the soft typing, talking and televisioning sounds drift in, even though I worked alone in my room.

Something for me to keep in mind when I start thinking about my next housing decision. I want it to be possible to have a housemate situation that doesn't devolve into suck after a few months, because it's good to keep the jmac-Sim's social-meter with at least a little bit of green in it, and living with someone you can tolerate is an efficient way to go about it.

For related reasons, I'm also getting to take care of a kitty-cat for a little while, so that's good experience for yet more future domestic decisions.

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I bought a scanner with my iPod, last week. The last time I got a scanner, it was gigantic (despite the 8.5 x 11 scanning area) and cost hundreds of dollars; many years later, this one is way better, way smaller, and set me back $100, the typical price for such things these days. Cool.

Since I determined that I can't really make artwork 100 percent digitally (even though the idea of it really appeals to me) I'm going to try drawing in pencil (using the two-pencil technique I used when I cartooned regualrly (hard lead for exploratory sketching, soft lead for more confident lines) ) and then "ink" it digitally after scanning. (I used to ink manually with a crow quill pen, and it looked nice, but took me hours and hours to finish a four-panel strip. While getting ink all over everywhere.) Last night I happened to find my old art-supply carousel, and a pencil sharpener, and lo I drew something. I drew until I needed to erase something, and then realized I didn't have any erasers, so I stopped. But anyway, that much was pretty good, more than I've felt I've done in years.

Gonna hit Bob Slate's on my way home from the café. Right now, in fact. Good afternoon!