Danielmedley.com

Monday, November 26, 2007

As If My Plate Is Not Full Enough

One of the side effects of my recent career change from fairly active to a desk job has been the fact that I’ve quickly started to get out of shape even more than I was before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not extremely over weight or a complete physical wreck. I’ve always been in decent shape, but over the past couple of months I’ve noticed the beginning of what could be a slippery slope.

So in response, I’ve taken up Krav Maga. Click on the link if you’ve never heard of it. Anyway, tonight was my first session and it literally kicked my ass. I swear, I was almost ready to step outside and hurl my guts out at one point. It was great. I couple nights each week of this and I should be in fine shape in a few months.

Oh yeah, I’ve dug out some of my writing related material and have started working on it again. It feels good to have life take on an even keel. Lets just hope it stays that way for a while.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Sweet Release

OK, so I’m sitting here at the kitchen table posting a blog entry for the first time since … August. Freakin’ August.

Man, what the hell have I been doing since August? Well, actually, a whole hell of a lot has happened. I hit a multi-million dollar lottery the last week of August and I’ve been chilling out ….

Nah, you idjit. I didn’t hit the lottery.

What I did was do a complete career change-over as a result of an unexpected opportunity from an old friend. Maybe someday I’ll go into it deeper, but I doubt it. Anyway, I quit my job that I’d been at for 18 years and started a new career in financial services. I won’t go into it too deeply other than to say that I’ll be helping people to avoid having to work as a WalMart greeter in their retirement years to make ends meet. In reality this isn’t something that’s completely out of the blue as I’ve been peripherally interested in this for some time.

So, I quit my old job which was beginning to suck in a big way (it’s amazing how new owners and new management can really screw things up). It was WAY past time for me to leave and aside from the usual anxiety that comes from jumping out of one’s comfort zone, it was a great feeling to walk out of the door. I was subjected to an hour and a half exit interview by HR in an attempt for them to find out just why they can’t seem to hire anyone or keep any of their key people. I laid it all out and told them exactly what the problems were. I doubt they’ll listen.

Anyway, new career, new challenges, new rewards. I did have to study for and take some exams put forth by such organizations as the NASD (now known as FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the state of Utah. By the way, who the hell comes up with the verbiage on a series 6 exam?

In between the changeover, the studying, the working and everything else—called life—I haven’t had any time to do anything extracurricular. Now, however; I’m thinking that I’ll actually be able to get back to some writing, and other things that I love to do but haven’t been able to devote any time to. I guess that’s called prioritization. Gotta put bread on the table as it were.

Well, I’ll start working on regaining my paltry readership. Hell, to tell you the truth, I don’t give a shit if you read or not. I do this for me.

Ah, sweet release.