hackett.life
I begin a new job tomorrow. The pay is good, and it’s a good company to work for. Possible downsides are that it is not local (100 miles away), and I will be working nights (7 pm to 7 am), four on four off.
The work is hard, so it might take a softy like me a few weeks to adapt, but adapt I will! I’ll report my progress here.
Wow, I have just noticed that I haven’t posted anything to this blog for almost an entire month! That is unforgivable. In fairness, I have been swamped these last few weeks.
I am having doubts about my newsletter. Writing this blog makes me feel like I am talking to myself. I have no idea if anyone is actually reading anything that I put out into the world. Maybe I should drop writing here and really lean into writing on Substack. Will anyone actually listen to anything that I have to say? Who knows?
Is there anybody out there? Shoot me a message and let me know, will ya?
The news that we had feared was coming has arrived. Once again, we are being turfed out of our rented home. Our situation is precarious. A combination of poor credit history, sporadic freelance work, and zero savings make walking into a letting agent and choosing an off-the-shelf rental home near impossible. We have to be careful that our next move will be more permanent. The last five years have been hard. I will not let the next five years be the same.
So, it is time to begin the boxing up of our belongings once again. I intend to write about the experience via this blog. The day we move home will also be when I stop using social media for a year. I won’t even update pages for businesses and organisations that I work with. Instead, I will write, read and take a bunch of photos. That is all.
A while ago, I mentioned that there was trouble on the horizon. Well, the horizon is coming up fast, and I need to do something to get my family and me out of the shit storm that we are about to find ourselves in.
I will be spending some time developing my Substack page/newsletter over the next few days. I need to get back to putting the best of my writing out into the world with my newsletter. I’m unsure about how to split what I produce between this blog and the Substack platform, which in some ways, is also a blog.
I loved Contracts, so I reckon this game will be off the hook! I shall save my pennies.
Do you ever feel like the days are slipping away so fast that life seems to be accelerating? I’ve been feeling that way lately. I need to come up with a strategy to help me get more out of my day. Exercise and doing something meaningful every day has to be a priority. I’m also starting to think that I should be waking up a lot earlier than I do right now.
After decades of halfhearted smirks and outright dismissals, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s newest chief Bill Nelson says the agency is officially joining the effort to understand UFOs better. Read the full article over at The Debrief here.
I like to think that I have been keeping depression at bay, but lately, I’m not sure. I continue to flit between grand ideas and being unable to focus on one thing. As I have mentioned in my last post, there is potential trouble ahead, and I struggle to keep that potential future from affecting me in the here and now. I am distracted.
Being an eternal optimist is difficult sometimes. When the ‘black dog’ is circling the boundaries of my happiness, I find it hard to remain happy. I fucking hate uncertainty. I can live with it most of the time, but when things that affect my family are out of my control, I become overwhelmed with fight or flight feelings. A small lottery win would help.
A neighbour told me something yesterday that could disrupt my life. I had hoped that we, as a family, had put some distance between us and upheaval. But, unfortunately, it would seem that the universe might have different plans. So, I said a little prayer to the big U, help us out, will ya?
I took Karta to meet up with his mates at the CycloPark Skatepark today. The boys had a whale of a time. The weather was awesome, I got my first sunburn of 2021!
What a day! I have a new 27 inch widescreen monitor coming today. My 22 incher is a bit too small for the work that I am doing, so a new LG is enroute.
It has been a while, but I finally managed to get the latest issue of my newsletter out into the world, here’s a link to the webbo version.
Here is a link to a great article on The New Yorker website.
For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo. Read HOW THE PENTAGON STARTED TAKING U.F.O.S SERIOUSLY.
This is the 700th post on my tiny, insignificant blog! Over the last few days, I have found myself pondering life and my place in the world. I have read books and articles, watched YouTube videos and meditated. Finally, I have concluded that I need to very firmly put the past behind me and move forward through the rest of my time here, one day at a time.
My wife and I took some time to crunch the numbers regarding my work as a driver. When taking everything into consideration – fuel, wear and tear, time etc – my hourly rate was coming in at under £5.00! You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out what happened next.
I’ve been wondering how easy it would be to live permanently in a motorhome, here in Europe. This requires further research. Van life is appealing, especially if I could support myself and my family along the way.
I kind of liked having longer hair. Needs must, I suppose? That’s it though, I’m not going to have another haircut in 2021!
Due to upcoming work specs, I will have a haircut and a beard trim in Canterbury this afternoon. I’ll post a before and after shot upon my return from the barbershop.
Just call me Frank Martin! I will hopefully be starting a new gig this week, being a freelance delivery driver! Although the eponymous Mr Martin delivered, “no questions asked”, I will be making deliveries within my postcode area, so maybe a few hours a day, job and finish.
Now, I’m not new to this line of work. I recently worked part-time as a freelance motorcycle delivery driver, dropping premium motorcycles across the UK. For reasons that are still not clear to me, that work ended abruptly. Still, I like regular income, so pulling in money from several different gigs each month suits me and gives me the flexibility I need to pursue my passions – writing and photography.
It should be easy, I just have to remember to “not look in the bag”!