Year of the Busy Nate
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The new year has been named the Year of the Busy Nate. I got internally shiny last year, and now I have momentum in my life that I haven’t had for ages. I’m finally getting past the procrastination and fear of failure / success and things seem to be happening all by themselves. A new business, new clients for the old business, new spiritual and personal directions and big career developments all conspire to keep me incredibly busy this year.
I’ll go into more detail later on but I’ve made some very big changes in my home life and personal focus so I think this year will see me with more time to dedicate to the important things; This year will see me losing weight, getting healthier, proposing to R 
and much much more.
For some reason I’m feeling brief this morning so i’ll leave it there – but expect more ramblings as time goes on.
Year of the Shiny Nate wrapup
Well it’s past due but here it is.
The year of the Shiny nate has been a tumultuous one. I’ve cut my hair, changed my career direction, become a freemason and several other things, left Lonely Planet, joined a new gym and grown emotionally and spiritually. Most of the shinyness gathered in the year of the Shiny Nate has been internal actually – it’s been a year of emotional, mental and spiritual journeys – most good, some difficult, but all life-changing.
I come out of this year a completely different person – at least to myself. I have learned more about myself in the last 12 months than I have in years, and between the meditation, the lessons, fatherhood and the love I share with R, I’ve come closer to finding my personal center than ever before.
There is still work to do, but I’m pleased with the sum of the last year. I have weight to lose, health to gain and many more things to learn but I’m confident that the coming year will be even better.
Downsizing
I am currently carrying out an experiment with a carefully controlled amount of “growing up”. I’ve discovered that if reduced to it’s basic state and strictly regulated, adulthood can indeed be introduced in a beneficial way, without completely destroying your life.
As a result of this, I have been reviewing some of the “stuff” in my life, and rrealising that a lot of it is fairly superfluous. I have many things cluttering my cupboards that I really have no need or desire for, they’re just there because I had them when I had very little else. But my analyzing eye soon fell on my home office, and much to my chagrin I realised that there really is no need for the amount of hardware I currently have in there.
I have been, as R calls is, somewhat “acquisitionist” in relation to computer hardware and gadgets, and I have enjoyed having tghem all arranged and laid out in the study / office just for the sake of them. In getting this laptop however, I’ve realised that I don’t need very much of it at all. So what I have decided to do is get rid of all my computers and extra hardware, except for R’s machine. I will keep the laptop for me (it’s faster than my current desktop anyway!) and replace everything else with a single mac mini running linux (of course) to handle the photo library, backups and filesharing etc. Everything else I’ll sell or give away 0 including my 22 inch flat screen monitor!
I’m going to do this for a couple of reasons. The initial reason was so I could reclaim the dining room as an actual dining room – move the bookshelves in there etc and put a dining table in it so we can eat proper family meals at the table, and have guests round for dinner. Should also add a bit more space to the house really…
I’m going to move one of the desks from the study into the sunroom (I’ve dissembled the double bed I put in there for Mum’s visit) and that’s where I’ll stick the office bookshelves, filing drawers and R’s computer etc. With luck we’ll also part a dishwasher in there somewhere (it;s just the opposite side of the wall from the kitchen).
However I was thinking about this the other day, and I realised just how big a paradigm shift this is going to be for me. I don’t think I’ve really been conscious before of how much my “default” position is at the computer. When I wake up on a saturday morning, I stumble out with coffee and check my email. When I’m bored I check my email, browse a few sites or tinker with the configuration of my machines – the list goes on. With this change however, my laptop is going to be really the only terminal I have freely available to me. It will be a shift not only from having loads of computers (read 7 running machines) to only having the one, but switching from actually living a connected life.
It had never occurred to me before, but I *think* in temrs of being permanently connected. The internet and the world of technology has a permanent window into my home, and instant messages or email can interact with the rest of my life. In some cases, this has been a boon – my career for example has been greatly helped by this complete immersion. But in many other ways I think it just detracts – I’m sure I’m only repeating things that people have been saying about me for years 
So I’ll be spending less time on the computer. With 1 server, properly configured wireless setup and only one laptop of my own I won’t have much need for configuration or messing about with hardware. I’m not going to be able to play much in the way of games on this laptop, and so it will end up shifting me to using the computer almost exclusively for work and for writing / research. Which is no bad thing in the grand scheme, it’s just a little unsettling to think about
And you know what – I think it’s fatherhood that’s done all this for me. Well, that and R’s eternally positive influence in my life. My career emphasis has changed to something that’s giving me more opportunities and pleasure than i’d believed it could, my personal desires and lifestyle have shifted and I seem to be growing up a bit.
As long as it’s just a bit, I’ll be ok. I still don’t see the need to be grow up completely – after all if I did, I’d have to give back the lego.
Unplugged
Muahahahaha. I am sitting comfortably on my couch, feet up on the coffee table and composing this blog post on my shiny new powerbook via my shiny new wireless router
I got it setup today, and amazingly enough got the native linux drivers for apple airport extreme (the powerbook’s wireless card) working, so now I’m wunnerfully wire free. This is a big step toward the move we’re planning on making here… not sure if I’ve posted about it before yet, lemme check… nope I haven’t. It deserves it’s own blog post I think so check the next one up.
Scribbling Shininess
A little while ago I promised an update on the new pens I got. Here’s the story – a while ago I started using my fountain pen again. As a child, I was taught to write with a fountain pen when I was old enough, and getting your first fountain pen was somewhat of an occasion. I haven’t used one for a long time, and to be honest the impetus was partially from reading a novel in which a character wrote with a fountain pen.
There is something a little special about writing with a fountain pen – it’s definitely more elegant and refined than a ballpoint or equivalent, and when you have a really nice pen it makes a whole world of difference.
So I took to using my fountain pen at work all the time, and was soon writing with it constantly – I got a better nib for a few dollars and cruised along quite happily. As Christmas drew nearer, I took R to a pen shop to show her a 76 dollar fountain pen I’d seen and wanted for Christmas. R being R, she got me to try a couple of other more elegant pens, and I ended up actually buying a beautiful Waterman fountain pen, black and gold with a gold and silver nib, and matching pencil and biro – it was all on special and I got a total of about 340 dollars off… that should give you some indication of how much I spent too But it was all at R’s bidding! I haven’t written with anything else since – they are truly magnificent pens. I got a little case to keep the fountain pen and the pencil in, and I keep the biro in the pen slot on my little carry-around case that holds my notebooks. I’m constantly looking for excuses to use them, and just absolutely love writing anything with them. If you’ve ever considered getting a fountain pen, or you do any amount of writing by hand then I thoroughly reccommend you get yourself a decent fountain pen. Go to somewhere like Pen City and they’ll help you find something to suit you – it’s absolutely worth it, and is a very nice way to spoil yourself
Invasion
An interesting thing occurred last night. R and I were sitting watching Stargate DVD’s and out of nowhere, a possum sauntered into the lounge room. I say sauntered because that’s exactly what it did – just came out of the darkness of the bedroom and quite amiably snuffled into the lounge room and under the coffee table, before turning around and going back.
I followed it into the bedroom and watched as it clambered up on top of a few things,sitting on it’s haunches to survey the room. The little beasty was quite unafraid of me, even deigning to wander up to my feet and go back and forth past me a couple of times. Even when I started trying to herd it out the front door it wasn’t in any way concerned – but rather kept badgering about the house as though it had all the time in the world. We suspect it was a female looking for a place to nest, and I’m convinced that the only reason it left was because the place wasn’t up to scratch as a nest – definitely not because I wanted it to.
I shooed it through the hallway for a while and it totally ignored me except when I was directly in it’s way – then it just went around me. I even touched it a couple of times and it seemed completely unruffled, so when it climbed up onto the hall table I picked it up to get it out the door. Yes, yes I know, but nevertheless it got it to the front door. A few scratches later I dropped it at the front door and it STILL didn’t run, but casually ambled out the doorway and dropped down the small step onto the porch, where it sat for a few moments before wandering off into the darkness.
Damn possums.
Happy New Year 2006
Well here it is – I’m in my lounge room enjoying my air conditioning while watching a bunch of drunken sweaty muppets gawping at fireworks in melbourne city via the TV
I’m here with my babe – R, and little B asleep in bed. Planning is underway for moving in with R, and the new business seems to be coming along swimmingly (well, preparations for it are at any rate).
My new year’s resolutions? Simple – this year I will ask the woman of my dreams to marry me and allow me to care for her for the rest of my life, actually *get* married and get right on to the business of getting pregnant Well. getting R pregnant at any rate. More detaIl tomorrow, but many happy wossnames to all.