Slipped

I used to be organized. I had to re-write that last sentence. It originally said I was "quite" organized, but I don't think that's exactly true. Growing up, my room was always messy --not that I liked that. I don't like messes, but they sure like me. And once a mess gets too big, I never know where to start to clean it up.

Even now in my little office, I have boxes stacked on boxes, games stacked on games, books & comics stacked on comics & books... and trading cards, and DVDs and rolled posters in the corner, a messy pile of clothes in the corner and an impressive array of empty cans close to my feet (and what could possibly go wrong there?).

I've always wanted to take a picture of my office for a professional website and have little links explaining different things on the walls and shelves:

• The comic picture on the wall which is the cover to a magazine that had my first published work.
  
• The enlarged picture from my trip to Scotland where it looks like we're all walking off the end of the world.
• The video game poster for the very first game I (proudly) worked on.
• My Cthulu action figure.
• The autographed hockey cards (designed by yours truly).
• My Weighted Companion Cube. And if you don't know what that is...
  
• The... boy, I hope that's an empty energy drink can.

I don't take that picture, though, because to see all these things, you have to push through the piles of my life. Things that get in the way, things that stop me from working on projects, things that once were projects and have been abandoned for one reason or another.

Mostly things that slipped by without noticing until it was too late.

This problem has been getting exponentially worse over the past little while. I can look back over the past 8 weeks and see things where I told myself "You have time, it's still weeks away" to "It's a week away" to "It's tomorrow" to "Aw, crap."

In early July, I'd booked some tables to sell off some of my stuff that just won't make it to eBay because of the logistics of it all. There's value there, but the time to get it on eBay, sell it, pack it, and ship it is too much. But to put them in a box and say "this is the price" and hopefully sell a majority of it would be a boost. Early July I booked the tables for this weekend. And only yesterday did I realize I never sent the money to pay for it. I emailed the organizer and wasn't at all surprised to receive a message back saying "I gave away your tables." Understandable, and I only have myself to blame.

In early August, I had an opportunity to get some hockey cards signed by one of my all-time favorite players. A forum I'm a member of had a notice that he'd be in the region at a hockey camp in mid-August and that one member would be present to collect stuff and get them signed. I'd already designed some cards with his image on them and my thought was: "Great. A little touch-up here and there and I can get these printed and mailed off." I needed to do about an hour's worth of work on them, save them on a portable flash drive (seriously, how convenient are these babies?) and get them printed at a local drugstore. Total time: 2 hours, max. Total cost: $3, including the envelope and stamp. The camp was mid-August and the day after it was over I realized the work I'd done never even made it to the flash drive. I'd missed out completely.

Around the same time, I'd received an email about a contest designing a goalie mask for the local NHL team. Sweet! A big chance to promote myself and my apparent-artistic abilities. I spent hours culling images and symbols for the mask to make it truly inspired and creative: suiting the personality of the goalie who would eventually wear it. The contest closed August 25th and I realized on September 2nd that I'd neither finished it nor, obviously, submitted it.

Another date missed. And another. And then another.

I'm mad at myself. I'm just behind in everything I'm doing and for everything I'm working on, there's never a completion. It just keeps going because I keep slipping. I need to change this NOW.

But I don't know how.