Posted by Raphael on Sep 19, 2014 in My Business Adventures, Personal | 0 comments

Helllooooo strangers? Are you still there? Really I can’t imagine that there’d be anyone that would be out there reading this ‘ol blog anymore. Then again I can’t imagine that personal blogs like this are even read at all anymore. All the ones save for the really giant blogs I read are all but given up these days. I guess I can understand why…all my original reasons to blog at all before have now been substituted by something else. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a whole slew of social media options now satisfy my need to make a snide remark or mindless observation, and the need to “connect” to the world in some way since I used to work in my office alone has been substituted by actual co-workers again. The time needed to simply occupy free time had been replaced by a 5 year old boy.

It’s been so hard to even think of something with enough train of thought to even fill the need to write something here. It’s a bit of a shame though…something I’ve really regretted. Having my own life documented (if even to myself) on my own blog has been fulfilling to some degree. I may never read it again, but it’s been fun and therapeutic.

Oh well, I might as well just randomly do one of my thought dumps as they come to me since there’s been an endless slew of things happening in life lately.

I’ve now officially joined the kid-sport club. We got the King enrolled in soccer practice along with his swimming activities. It’s been both a rewarding and fun experience….but this whole soccer-dad experience is totally foreign to me, not only because I’m not used to the time commitment yet, but simply because I was never exposed to organized sports by my parents. 1st generation Chinese parents taking their kid to a sports game?  No.  But again, not sure I would have wanted to go even if offered back then. I think my child is just cut from a different mold…his extraverted attitude and physical enthusiasm is just the polar opposite from me. I’m just going along for the ride now watching how his life is taking a different path from the one I took.

We picked up a new car this week, which in itself isn’t all that remarkable. I think where I’m still trying to process is how my wife somehow managed to work it out with the dealer to take a tradein for a “cheaper” lower-model car, and somehow have us drive off with this without paying anything different. I openly admit I suck at both numbers and money…somehow my wife makes it somehow seem easy. Papa benefits by getting to drive a fun car. Maybe if she keeps playing this magic trick we might somehow work our way up to an RS8 one model at a time.

Beyond that…life is still just a matter of working all the time. I’m certainly still doing Lowe Studio projects, but being able to just keep to projects where I’m working with clients I already know is a nice thing. I may be picking up another one of these projects in a couple weeks. 4 or 5 projects a year seems a happy pace for me. No more having to chase the job anymore.

My work at the college is coming along nice too. Having accomplished my major project on time and with successful numbers gives me a little more leverage around the campus now. Almost to the point where I’m able to call out my own shots at will. It’s still very frustrating working in an academic sector where the rules are completely different from the “real world” but at least now I understand the mindset and can sometimes steer things in my favor.

I’m feeling a little bit sloppy and fat lately since I can’t get out and go running as much. And my ability to play live music with friends has drizzled down to almost nil, but other than that all is well so far in Raph’s world. Taking one day at a time….