It's been about a month since my last blog entry, so I thought I should write something.

Not a whole heck of a lot has been going on in my life. I haven't really made much of an effort to meet people since I got back from Taiwan, so my social life is basically non-existant. I either don't have the motivation to get out there and do something with my life, or I'm too lazy. I've been beginning to wonder if I made the right choice to come back to the States. Things just haven't been working out the way I had hoped/planned. I don't dislike my job, and I'm lucky to have really nice co-workers (except for this one old Chinese lady that everyone dislikes) and a really nice boss (an ex-Army guy with the personality to match, severe Type A personality -- but he really is a great guy and treats us all well) ... but, I wouldn't want to be doing this forever, especially not for the money I'm making. I mean, shit, with the money and effort that I put into my education (double major at a really good university, and a M.A. in one of the most difficult foreign languages you can possibly undertake to learn), and nothing really good is emerging. It's thoroughly depressing.

I've done quite a bit of freelance translation work in my spare time over the past couple of months so I can get my credit cards paid off more quickly. I don't really like doing it, because I don't have the patience for that kind of work, but it pays decent. I don't understand how people can be full-time freelance translators. I guess it's nice that you can make your own schedule and pick and choose the projects you take, but it's extremely monotonous, feast or famine, and not much room for career advancement. But to each their own, I guess.

I signed up for that "Blockbuster Total Access" service where they mail DVD's to you, instead of having to go into the store. I like it, cause you can get all kinds of independent and foreign films that you couldn't usually find in the stores. I've seen a few good ones so far. I watched "Beautiful Thing" and "Joe the King" this weekend. Both were EXCELLENT. I would highly recommend both, and "Joe the King" reminded me of Vance's kind of story quite a bit ... I could picture him writing the screen play for that.

As for reading, I haven't been doing a whole lot of that lately. I have been following Dom's "In the Fish Bowl," but so far don't like it as much as his other stories. I really hope he'll finish up "With Trust." But, having written a couple stories myself, I know that if the inspiration isn't there, it ain't gonna happen. I've also been reading "Pieces of Destiny" by John Francis over at AwesomeDude. I really like the way this story is going. I'm also still following EleCivil's "Laika," and was really happy when I saw the latest chapter posted last week ... it'd been a while. It was a GREAT chapter, too, and the interaction between Brandon and Nick was extremely well-written. I could literally feel what they were feeling as I was reading ... the emotions were so familiar and so well described.

Anyway, that's about it for now ... not much else to say.