This might be the longest I’ve gone doing just one thing. I’ve been a full-time programmer for several months now. While that time has been split between Ruby and Objective-C, those things aren’t different enough to exercise different pieces of my brain.

In college, I took courses in every department; I was always trying new things. During my year-long “break,” I did programming, I was heavily into drawing, and I also taught a class. Even though the teaching involved programming, it’s a vastly different experience than programming itself. At my old job, my responsibilities were divided between programming and support.

While at my new job, I’ve devoted less time to piano, to drawing, and to writing. It’s not just the lack of time devoted to creative endeavors that bothers me, it’s that I feel imbalanced. I don’t like being just an engineer, being put inside a box. My brain thrives when it can do different things, and make connections between those things. I know I will be teaching again, but I need to make a greater effort to do more things.

Recently, I have been excited by really good television. It may be time to try my hand at fiction again. The introspective style of blogging doesn’t feel like enough to exercise a separate portion of my brain. As a programmer, I already spend to much time in my head. I need to create new worlds.

I may have to officially take a sabbatical from comics for a while. I don’t feel like The Chalkboard Manifesto, in its current incarnation, has much left to teach me. If I go back into comics, it will have to be with something new, I think. It’s also very heavily introspective.

When it comes to music, I might try taking piano lessons again or I might try more singing. I’ve always been an instrument-person rather than a singer. But it’s fun playing the piano and singing. The new activity would be stimulating.

Well, these are all great ideas, but I may wait until the new year to commit to something.