I recently finished reading Web Standards Solutions, by Dan Cederholm. Despite the dry-sounding title, it was a fun read (do keep in mind that I was already interested in CSS beforehand). I now have some ideas of things that I could improve, and I’m also starting to get an itch to revise (if not completely redesign) things around here. Of course, that sorta overlooks this site’s long-neglected links and stillborn anime review areas, but…

There are only so many hours in the day—and when you manage time as inefficiently as I do, there are (effectively) even fewer hours in that day. Once you take out time spent sleeping or working for The Man, I only have a little bit of free time to spend how I choose—and, for now, I choose to dance. (Or sleep more. My late hours continue to kill me.) Spending time with friends and family is similarly valued, even though lately I seem to be more successful with dancing. The fact that I get anything else done on the side (if I ever actually did get anything else done) is gravy to me.

It’s amazing how much dancing does for my attitude towards life. I frequently walk into dance practices (and classes) beaten down, and almost always leave with a bit of a spring in my step. That spring then quickly wears out—but it leaves me in a much more contented state of exhaustion. I’ve found something that really makes me happy.

And I don’t think anyone would have predicted that I would ever dance. (I sure as hell wouldn’t have.)

…

Now if I could just find an interest that I could actually talk about with normal people. Dancing is fun, but hard to describe to the uninitiated (I apologize for the repeated attempts I’ve made on this blog, though I refuse to change my ways); anime is fun, but is probably something better to enjoy quietly on the side; macs are fun, but are more a means to an end than anything else. That last one might change if I actually start trying to make a movie, or compose music, or make a book of my photography (more likely once I get a camera with image stabilization)—but, again, the interesting conversation would be about what I was doing, not the computer I was using.

I guess my problem is that the one thing I do (as opposed to more-passively watching or using) isn’t much in the way of conversation fodder. And since I don’t watch all that many movies (though I’ve been getting some milage out of Pauly Shore is Dead), or keep up with the latest gossip from around town (let alone Hollywood), or even pay attention to the weather (most days I discover what the weather is when I step out my front door to go to work)… I’m a terrible conversationalist.

I should probably learn how to chit-chat, one of these days.