Wow, look at the time…

My apologies for the recent lack of entries, but I picked up a new job that’ll probably last for a month or two. Why is that significant? Because it’s during the night shift. Suddenly, all that free time I had in the wee hours of the morning is being put to use for someone else’s benefit. Sure, it’s putting some money in my bank account, but what good does it do you? None whatsoever! And for that, you have my sincerest apologies.

I don’t want to blame it entirely on the hours, though—it’s a soul-sapping job. I get home and part of me says, “Let’s write something and make people smile and giggle and possibly urinate all over themselves with all the happiness and joy emanating from the computer screen!” And then the part of me that just walked into the door after many, many hours of work slaps me across the face and says, “You gotta be kidding me! You don’t have any creative juices left tonight! … This morning!”

So what am I left with? Guilt at not having written anything since the beginning of the month. You’d be amazed at how motivating things like shame and humiliation can be. Or maybe you already know, in which case you should probably write a new blog entry, too. In the meantime, I hope I managed to summon up enough juices for one ni—… morning. If you don’t think so, I can take some time off from work to write more. Just fill out your checks to “Shawn Bakken” and I’ll put that money in my bank account instead.

Penny War Special Ops

As a fundraiser for the United Way, the office is holding a “Penny War”. Everyone is split up into six groups and each group has a plastic container in the break room. You get one point for every penny you put into your own container and give negative points for putting any other kind of coin (or dollar) into another group’s container (five points for a nickel, ten for a dime, etc.). At the end of the week, the group that has the highest number of points (which will likely be the least negative points) wins… something. I’m really not sure and didn’t find out exactly what was going on until this afternoon. Continue reading “Penny War Special Ops”

Why grow up when you can just grow old?

I was shuffling through a pile of paper at work and came upon some random fax machine cover sheet. To commemorate the last few hours before my 31st birthday, I spent about five minutes folding it into an airplane, wrote “RECYCLE ME!” on the wings, then tossed it over the wall and into the next cubicle. And then I spent about five minutes trying to control a case of the giggle fits. Today was a good day…