So now there's a bit more time to breathe. We had so much time to prepare for the event (more than 6 months) and still it seemed like everything that had to be done was crammed into the last 2 or 3 weeks before the event itself. A good thing that I don't have a (demanding) job at the moment. Sorting mail and delivering it takes some time (about 10 hours a week) but leaves enough space for sawing, screwing, painting, printing, latex-ing etc. Matthijs has the good fortune to be a one man business (zzp-er) so he could just 'drop' all the work and focus on Xenophobia for a while. Soldering, coding, screwing, breaking stuff and fixing them again late at night, etc.

I didn't see much of the event itself. I was mainly busy in the dressing room or helping build up 'De Waard' (the nucleair facility that the players were going to raid). I hadn't had any time to read the final plot either so I have little clue as to what the players did (or were meant to do). However, all the good stories and some pictures make clear that it was a success and it was well worth it. Xenophobia IV is going to be the last episode of this story. Hopefully we'll be able to plan all the preparations a bit better and make it even greater than III.

All that work for Xenophobia meant that I had to 'drop' some personal stuff too, or at least postponed it. Like cleaning the house (my god what a mess!), book a centerparcs weekend with the discount scrounched together at Jumbo, finally tidy up my dreads colllection (bought some nice hooks at Xenos, had to put them into my closet door), 'belastingaangifte' (taxes), tidy up the attic (looks like something exploded in there), put all loose crocheting print-outs into one notebook and most importantly my homework for the job searching thing. Cleaning the house has been done yesterday (though I still need to do the windows), tidying my dreads has been done too, taxes are up for coming Monday (Matthijs needs to make some time for it to help me), the attic will be done this Sunday, the crocheting notebook is in the making (halfway there) and I prepared some stuff for my homework.

The homework consists of finding some people (on LinkedIn) that work as a makeup person (grimeur) or costume designer and ask them if they would be willing to tell me about their job (how they got it, what it entails, good stuff, bad stuff etc.). And to find out what it would take to become a freelance illustrator. So there's 3 possible jobs here that were the result of searching through a 4000-jobs database. Sadly most interesting jobs had a 'very low chance of finding work' notification. Some jobs that sounded interesting (tattoo artist, writer) are a no-go because I don't think I got the talent or the drive for it. Makeup person, costume designer and illustrator were the 3 most promising jobs. Though voice actress (found on LinkedIn) tickles something too. And there's also the "I just want to make pretty things that other people buy" idea. There's just a few things that spark an 'hey that might be interesting' vibe, but no 'yes!! that is it!'. And most stuff that sounds interesting is a 'small' job to do alongside a 'real' job that actually pays the bills. Most makeup persons that I found started their own business aside from the regular job they do.

Still, when I look around I see a lot of people that are doing what they like best in life. Perhaps not earning tons of money, but having fun doing their thing. If they had the guts to take that step, and if they can do it; why shouldn't I?