March 6, 2008

Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:56:53 AM

Well I guess I wasn’t as ready to stop playing as I had originally supposed.  Yesterday was Wednesday which according to our schedule which we are trying to migrate into is a recharge day which for my understanding means a play day.  I was really excited to get to the beach.  We didn’t know the exact way to the beach but had seen a sign that said “beaches” so we decided to just follow that.  Our decision worked out great.  We found free parking.  On our way to the beach we passed a surf shop that advertised surf lessons.  The shop was closed when we went by but I was very interested to find out how much the lessons cost.  After spending some time at the beach I gave into my curiosity and went and talked to the person at the counter about lesson prices.  I was originally a bit put off by the price of $85 for a single 90 minute lesson but decided that it would be a great experience and a good way to kick start into a sport that looked like a lot of fun.

The lesson didn’t start until one o’clock in the afternoon so it extended our beach visit a bit more than the four hour parking we had found allowed so we reparked under the surf shop where they could validate the parking.

During the lesson I didn’t show any natural ability for surfing.  If the object of surfing were to fall off the board then my natural tendencies would have showed great benefit to me however as it was I found my instincts working against me.  I was able to get up on the board and ride out a wave once in the lesson about half way through.  I think by the second half of the lesson I knew what to do but just couldn’t get my body to do it because I was too fatigued.  I am anxious to get another chance on a surf board but I am not sure when time and money will allow it.  After a person buys a wet suit and a board the sport is virtually free other than the parking and transportation to the ocean.  For right now the transportation to the ocean part is preventing me from thinking a surfboard would be a good investment right now.  That and I really am trying to live without stuff and a surf board definitely falls into the “stuff” category.  I think next week we will rent body boards and wet suits.  I think that surf boards are over kill for the kids right now but I think they would have a ball on a body board.  I let the kids play on my surf board after my lesson but they quickly lost interest.  I am sure one factor was the 57 degree water temperature.  The wet suits that come with the body board rentals will greatly help that.  I was very pleased at how comfortable the water was in a wet suit during my surfing lesson.

I am going through some stress points about my employment.  It has been hard seeing the money go only one way, well the one way part isn’t the hard part it is the fact that it is the wrong way that is the hard part.  I keep thinking about getting some temp work to sustain things but I don’t want to undermine the mission of what we are trying to do with our trip.  I also think about getting a real job in the San Diego area but again I don’t want to be too hasty with respect to a decision like that either.  A trick is that once we run out of money we will need work and need it fast.  Trying to get work fast will not likely lead to as good of a decision as a decision that has some more time behind it.  It is really difficult not knowing exactly when my efforts of game development will pay off in cash.  I think what I need to do is to make sure I get an honest effort of two months in toward the goal of finishing the image data base, finishing the game data base and getting a healthy start if not completion of my first game.  After that I think I need to find some way to get some money coming in at least on a part time basis.