You know, I really have to stop wearing jeans and dark t-shirts when they forecast 29C for the day.

I'll write more about the background of this sometime - maybe - but I'm in the middle of a career change. Half-heartedly tried the programming thing (everyone else was doing it) having no better idea at the time. Now I've decided my new love in life will be teaching.

I've done several things in my life that tell me I enjoy teaching - working with people stuck on assignments, some tutoring, etc. I ran my own business for a number of years selling computers and at least half my time was spent just teaching people about computers. I know I enjoy teaching-related stuff.

It's been a rough choice though. The past year or so, I've started noticing I have anxiety issues - probably not severe but I'm starting to doubt that I'm the same as everyone else :). Leaving a no-risk ("hey, I'll try it") programming job I disliked for a high-risk ("I *want* this - what do I do if this doesn't work? What am I worth if I fail at this?") teaching career path definately hasn't helped the situation!

On the other hand, talking with a friend today, I've got a number of good things going that should be calming me down. There's a new IT teaching position at the hospital my mom works at that I seem to be moderately qualified for. I'm now a TA (CIS 1000 - Learning Word, Excel, HTML, etc) at the University of Guelph. My favourite high-school teacher helped set me up with another teacher so I can learn the high-school system, volunteer to improve my chance of getting into Teachers College, etc. I've got an excellent shot at getting my old Costco Electronics Salesperson job back to help out the money situation.

To sum that whole paragraph up: I've got WAY too many good things going to feel sorry for myself. Being hard on myself ("you don't deserve this") isn't new but I think the critics in my head just went on a hiring spree this past year.

My apologies to everyone/anyone reading - I'm still not sure what I want to write in this journal o' mine so I'm just doing random thoughts. I promise, I do have good days!

Wow. I'm really screwed. I was just closing a bunch of open tabs in opera (I got lazy; was doing some research on becoming a teacher and had over 30 tabs open) and did a quick refresh-all.

My favourite game series (Homeworld and Homeworld: Cataclysm) just came out with another release! Homeworld 2's demo JUST became available.

What's my first thought after ohmygodohmygod? "I have to mention it in my journal!"

I'm eternally damned now. But at least I have a new game to play.

If you're interested, here is a good list of mirrors. My biggest complaint about the game is the minor learning curve for the interface - but I understand they've changed it all now to be VERY accessible and playable by mouse only. Everything does have keyboard shortcuts though.