Peregrination

As per the title of this blog, you may or may not think this is great.

http://jandaintheusa.blogspot.com/

The above details the major sections of the trip around the Americas that Amy and I made last year.

I’ve been reading back through it in order to refresh my memory on some of the happenings. Its surprising how much you can fit into six weeks if you put your mind, money and feet into it.

New York! Click to embiggen

Gaming

Penny Arcade have an uncanny knack to be able to sum up my feelings on a topic in three panels.
This gives you an insight into one of my main motivations for playing computer games.

A Trick of Retrospective

Click to embiggen

Heavier

Stress is a strange thing.

I find it eternally frustrating that you can be stressed without even realising it.
Until that is, some small thing pushes you over the edge and you find yourself dealing with severe and obvious symptoms.

All in all, I really enjoy my job.
I work in an unusually comfortable environment, I’m good at what I do, I have flexible working hours and I enjoy the company of my workmates. Yet, stress is still an issue for me. I can find it difficult to sleep, I find myself in an inexplicably foul mood, I become unmotivated and drained.

These are small and comparably insignificant issues when weighed against the common problems generated by stereotypically ‘stressful occupations’. I have friends and family who have serious problems with stress that can lead to time off work, changes in occupation and conditions which can only be treated with counselling and sometimes even prescribed drugs.

Here’s a few things that I try:
I have a number of hobbies that help to control my stress which vary from the geeky to the exhausting. I married someone who is awesome at helping me relax. I have a great book which helps a whole lot. I try to holiday whenever I can.

What can employers do to ease workplace stress?
What can you do to deal with the amount of stress you are under, or to reduce it?

Tentative

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you an array of content that will either delight you or leave you in a state of perpetual apathy.

Get excited (or don’t) because in the coming weeks (or months) you will be inundated by a deluge (or trickle) of posts which I am sure that you will find both original and hilarious (or plagiarised and boring).

Most of the posts that will follow will simply be about things that I have found in my travels to be interesting, funny or exciting.
I will be linking interesting technological articles, funny webcomics, happenings from my life and anything else I deem to be worth your time.

I wish you luck as we delve into the murky depths of my interests.