What's up with today, today?

Anyone else have work habits where they're like "You know, that has to be unhealthy."

When I'm working on a freelance project at home, I must be the most manic person I know. And I don't mean that in a way to belittle real manics, but I seriously jet from this super-casual, hey, watching Empire Records because it's the 15th Anniversary [Happy Rex Manning Day!], to tearing through papers and making mad notes in silver Sharpie, to suddenly stopping altogether and blasting my Facebook wall with music videos and quotes from the movie and hunting down John to enjoy Japanese wrestling with me for, say, 30 minutes or so. And then, boom, back to work, back to the cas, until I hit a speed bump or get an idea or break down some kind of invisible wall, and then it's back to rush again.

It feels kind of dangerous. Like gunning it at 95 down a straight stretch of highway, and just slamming on the breaks to the scare the hell out of the poor bastard you passed ten minutes back in a cloud of smoke. All of sudden he's close enough to your license plate that he'd be able to read it with the tip of his nose if you hadn't been such a cheap asshole and just bothered to plunk down the extra 15 bucks to get your numbers written in braille.

Actually, that mention of an "invisible wall" has crossed my mind a couple of times lately. To what should be no one's surprise, in my awkward years I devoured fantasy literature as if it was caffeine-soaked pornography, and while most were pretty standard and disposable, there was a book by Terry Brooks that has always stuck with me. Entitled "The Elfstones of Shannara," there was something going on with a princess, and gypsies, and lot of battle scenes, but what I remember most vividly were the titular stones, these turquoise gems that when the protagonist used let all this badass blue fire fly [that's actually not entirely true. The book also has two of the most realistically written romances I've ever read, one started between two characters who loathe each other and fall in love after having to spend day and night together with only each other for company, and another where a particularly vibrant and forward woman is a nebbish sort of character's second, albeit eventual, choice. But I digress]. For reasons I don't remember, but knowing the genre probably had something to do with the main character not being an elf, in order to use these magical gems he had push against this part of himself, bring down this invisible wall in his mind, and when he finally broke through it, the rocks would do their magical mojo thing and save the day for our heroes. But not without some cost to him -- some long term effect.

Always wondered if Brooks meant that as some veiled reference to the writing process. It certainly mirrors my own.

Anyway, that kind of insanity legitimate employment brings out in me. Welcome future clients!

I'm also growing a beard. Not properly, and not for any real reason, just because every time I reach down to pick up my electric razor I notice a look of disgust on my face, and, as with most things, I've decided these kinds of involuntary gesture are a sign. So right now, I look like this:

I'm not sure why I felt the great need to share any of this. I guess I felt I've spammed Facebook quite enough for today, and I like to let all my links to awesome stuff other people do on Twitter sit there in the sidebar for awhile before I nick them off for banalities. So...this was my decision.

Jobs are going well despite the less-than-focused way in which I work. Tomorrow should be busy, as the rest of the weekend will likely be too. Haven't heard from Kyle and crew. Will keep you updated.

Cheers.