I live in a big East Coast urban area where overwork and "workaholism" is common. And it is not only necessary to remain competitive and financially secure, it is admired. I am being only slightly ironic when I say that since I moved to my current location 16 years ago, I have aspired to that hard-driving work-centered ideal. This same kind of work-intensity is part of the scientific life, and the ideal is the man (or rare woman) who can spend thirty-six hours straight on an experiment or a project, or who can sleep in the laboratory or office only to return to work a few hours later.

Being "busy" is thus the ideal condition for a worthy human being, and being super-busy is even worthier. I soon learned that in this area, I had to say whatever I was going to say to someone in thirty-second sound-bytes, because he or she had no time to listen to anything longer. In fact, for the time I have been here, most (but not all, thankfully) of my social and business encounters have been with people whose lives are so full and so overworked that they have no time for anything except brief moments of interaction. I have come to accept as the "default" condition that anyone's life here in urban east-coast America is HECTIC! CRAZY! OVERWORKED!

Feeling left out of this hectic lifestyle, I finally have, with my day job and other jobs combined, achieved at least some measure of overwork. As 2004 comes to an end, here's a list of all the things I am working on at this moment in December.

1. My day job. That's Trader Joe's, part-time, about twenty-five to thirty hours a week, attending to the prices of broccoli and apples and organic tomatoes, among other more luxurious goodies such as pesto-stuffed Brie, olive tapenade, and chocolate truffles.
2. Sign work for Starbucks. I do the "Daily Offerings" and "Specialty Coffee" signs for Starbucks, in markers on black metal chalkboards. I embellish six different Starbuckses in my local area, for which I am paid in coffee and food. I never have a problem obtaining fancy coffee or espresso jolts.
3. A logo for a T-shirt advertising a cat show. Two of my good friends are running a large international cat show next year, and they've asked me to design the logo for the show. My first attempt wasn't right, so I'm back to the drawing board on this one.
4. Prints. I am currently preparing a set of prints of my "Zoroastrian Angels" to send to a collector overseas.
5. Fine arts paintings. I am experimenting with "fine arts" abstract paintings, using geometric forms inspired by my mathematics and physics studies. I have at least one in the works, and in my most recent show at a fantasy convention, exhibited two or three of them. The orange and blue "logarithmic spiral" painting (see my entry for October 13) is an example of this kind of art. This art can be rightly defined by High Art Criteria as "serious" art. I expect to show some of this next year, and perhaps, though it may seem like a totally naive and fanciful idea, find a way to exhibit it in a "real" art gallery.
6. My graphic novel. A "graphic novel" is a long-form comic book, or a long story told in the form of pictures with word balloons. I have been working on a Graphic Novel now since 1999. Its title is THE FLAMING RAMPARTS. It is a rather straightforward fantasy-adventure story, set in modern times on an "alternative" Earth, about a psychic power-wizard, who looks a bit like a beardless Gandalf, who is involved with geologists investigating a big volcano. Wizardry must work with science when the mountain erupts catastrophically and sends a flood of lava and ash towards a city. The projected length of this volcanic epic is 80 pages, and I am now about to finish page 32. I don't know how long it will take to finish it; my pace is very slow since I don't get much time to work on it. As far as I know this has No Commercial Potential (no sex, "dark" themes, or violence!) and it is not at all Serious Art but I like it anyway and want to continue.
7. Fantasy writing. I have been doing a kind of "fantasy chronicle" since March 2004, set in the same imaginary world as the graphic novel (though thirty years later). This is just words, no pictures. Like most science fiction and fantasy fans, I have an imaginary world which I have been "building" for decades. I am always coming up with new ideas and characters and I want to set them down in words and pictures so that they won't just be vain and fleeting daydreams. With art and writing, I can make this imaginary world come to life. Again, this writing probably has No Commercial Potential, but I like doing it. The chronicle is supposed to encompass a period of a year, and I'm writing it "real-time," so next March I will round it off and end it, unless something happens (fan appreciation? publication?) that might cause me to continue writing it.
8. Lest I forget: Math and physics. The main reason I'm here on ELECTRON BLUE is to keep you posted about my studies in mathematics and physics. What with all that other stuff going on, I still make time for this, because it's really important to me. I still have hopes that I will be able to reach the level of knowledge and mathematical skill that would enable me to follow the work of scientists (physicists) as if I were another scientist.

When do I sleep, you ask? Well, that would be giving away too much information. I use no illegal drugs and am not any weirder in my lifestyle than any other tech-geek in this urban world. I am hoping to put some of my fantasy art and writing up on my main Pyracantha Website, in its own special section, in case some of my Electron readers might be interested.

Posted at 3:52 am | link