It is, actually! I tend to get hung up on infrastructure stuff... getting my things organized, making sure I'm covered for different situations, naming conventions, dating methods, directory structures, and generally making sure all my ducks are in a row, but I'm getting better about it. I'm working on two stories right now. One to include with my Christmas letter this year, and one for a contest that's coming up. I have no expectation of getting anywhere in the contest, it just seemed like a fun thing to do to start off the new chapter (which certainly is an appealing way of putting it, as a writer, haha).
But I do want to get a website up and running sooner than later. I figure that's a good first step. Will make it easier to contact me, be a nice place for people in my life who care about what's happening to me professionally to see what's going on (a place that isn't Facebook or Twitter), and hopefully at some point look professional enough that anyone who might be considering me for some project or other will fall into the mistaken impression that I have a bloody clue what I'm doing.
The book seems quite thorough and covers how to use Wordpress for a variety of non-blog sites too. I think what's really best about all this is feeling like I have the time to actually learn, not just half-ass things like I've had to for years. I don't have a billion responsibilities taking up my whole day. Beyond cleaning the apartment and paying the bills, I can just focus on
learning, and learning something I actually
want to learn. As it's been said, it's better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than halfway up one you don't. I'm feeling that keenly right now. And the support from friends, family, coworkers, and my girlfriend has been a huge boost. Everyone is happy for me and wants to see me do something else with my life... and for other people to feel so strongly that this is a good and healthy thing for me makes it so much easier to believe that it's true.
I don't think I've ever been so grateful to so many people before in my life as I am right now. Humility and thankfulness are two things I always seem to wish I had more of no matter how much of either I have, but I'm happy to have a lot of both at this stage of life. It makes me feel more hopeful than I've felt in years.
EDIT - Also, I get to sit on IRC a lot more. What's better than that?
