SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Close immediately if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book.

I’ve never read the book before seeing Wes Anderson’s film adaptation. I want to go back and read it now, though. I feel a connection to the material that makes it feel as though I understand what Roald Dahl was trying to express. It feels as though he was desperately trying to express a wisdom he had learned in life that he thought was very important and worth sharing. After watching the movie, I have to say that I agree.

I just have one thing to say:

Being on the road sucks.

That’s really all, at the moment. Maybe, if life slows down some, I can get a few more words out there. I’ve learned a hell of a lot in the last month or two of being a road warrior. Not only professionally, but in adapting my life to being a remote one.

Needless to say, OpenVPN has become my friend. I’ve learned quite a bit about making my life easier in all respects by using it. Especially when it comes to maintaining a connection to my family and my home life despite my not being home.

I’m having a hell of a time maintaining my motivation. I’m learning new things, I’m honing old skills and developing new ones, I’m restructuring my entire “professional” existence. I’m doing big things, small things, all the things.

I dunno, I’m just petering out. I’ve been working 60+ hours for a few weeks now, and I’m burned out quite severely. I need a beer and a day with zero obligations. I need to sleep more than six hours. I know all of what I need. I’m also painfully aware of how scarce my needs really are. Life doesn’t work that way. It’s not so simple.

I’m considering trying to move up from working for a tier three automotive supplier to either a tier one supplier or OEM. Not sure if I’ll be successful, but I certainly won’t find out until I make the attempt.

My son turns two tomorrow. He’s growing so fast. My daughter is already huge. She’s brilliant for her age, just as my son is brilliant for a toddler. I’m grateful for my kids.

I don’t get very many full weekends off. Whenever I do, it feels like a special occasion. If I’m getting more than a day off at a time it’s usually due to holidays. I need a break. I need time to sit on my ass and be lazy, or just be domestic and do something in my house.

It feels as though I would benefit from taking a break from worrisome things. I need to avoid the news for a while; to avoid twitter and other sources of information about the world collapsing in on itself. Looking at my timeline, you’d think the sky was falling. Anti-vaxers are going to kill us all with long-dead diseases. Ebola is going to mutate and make everyone hemorrhage to death from their anuses. Bobby Jindal is going to run for president, win, and make the national religion Christianity and force prayer in school.

I’m being worked like a dog. Things are getting so rough at work that I had to sleep 18 hours to catch up. I feel better now than I have in a very long time.

That said, I’ve also taken some important steps in my life to make me feel empowered. I’ve cut bad rubbish out. I’ve needed to remove negative influences from my life so that I might start in a positive direction with my new life, doing what I need to do to ensure the success of myself and my own.

I do think anger is a good thing to rid yourself of. It’s not worth carrying around. It drags you down. It weighs on your ability to see that which is truly important. I let it run it’s course, vile and pure as it is, then I drop it as quickly as it comes. I leave it alone, because those who wish to cause me to be angry really aren’t worth being angry with. I can overcome any obstacle thrown in my way. Creating obstacles for others is far more time consuming than overcoming them. For that reason I don’t concern myself with such petty people and their petty games. I actually have a life to live. I have a family. I have people who love me. I have a wonderful baby boy on the way. My life isn’t callous and hollow, my life has meaning.

I’m full of piss and vinegar today. I’m ready to bust some heads and kick some ass. The summer of truly living life has finally gone full swing. My employer needs to back the hell off of me a bit, but other than that I won’t complain too much. I won’t jinx myself to say that things are going “well”, but they certainly aren’t as dismal as they’ve appeared to be in the past.