Puddintopia

PuddinTopia is a labor of love born of frustration with my job situation a few years ago. As you can see from the posts near the beginning, the place where I used to work had more than its share of problems. You should be careful what you wish for, though, because a few months after I started bitching, I got laid off. What followed was a relatively brief (by most industry standards) period of unemployment, during which I questioned nearly everything about my life other than my wife and my children. Yes, in hindsight, it was relatively brief, but don’t ask the Puddinette if she thought so. At the time, it felt like an eternity. I did manage a fairly regular posting frequency during my unemployment, which I think has helped me get a better feel for what I want to say here and how I want to say it.

After finally getting a job again, my posts kind of fell by the wayside. In order to kind of get life back on track, I worked two jobs for a while, and did some contract software development on the side.   I even had my own company; scary huh?  Anyway, for awhile, I had to have other priorities. I just didn’t have the energy for two kids and two jobs and constant new writing. I realize now that I should have kept up better, regardless. I did, after all, still have things I wanted to say.

Since I started putting my thoughts to paper (well, electronically), I found that doing this kind of thing is as liberating as I always suspected it would be. It’s great to have a nice, reliable forum where I’m able to get my thoughts, feelings, and especially frustrations out without anyone getting hurt. I’d always toyed with the idea of being a writer, but never could quite get started on one of the many novels dancing about in my head like sugarplums. So, although this wasn’t what I had always had in mind as a writer, I’ve grown really proud of what I’ve done so far and I hope to be able to do more future.  I’ve got four kids now and a job, now, but sometimes I find that I have an hour or two and nothing to do with it.  So please, stay tuned, more fun may be on the way.  Also, do you have comments or suggestions? For God’s sake, junior, fill me in. I’m dying for feedback, especially now, since I’m finding that word of my little shrine to sarcasm here is slowly creeping out beyond my own personal circle of contacts. Yes, of course I realize that I don’t know you from Adam. That doesn’t change the fact that I want your opinions. God knows that heeding my own opinions has never gotten me anywhere good.

I guess the real question is: who is PuddinBoy, and for cripessake, man, why the name PuddinBoy? Well, the name PuddinBoy, like all good nicknames, was given to me by some of my closest friends during one of many nights of unnecessary drunkenness. I used to play recreational hockey (I hung up my skates a few years ago while my young-uns are such young-uns), and all the core members of the team got nicknames one night. I’m actually pretty lucky, myself. I could have been the “Greased Weasel”, the “Sloppy 5Hole”, “Cocknut”, “Asspipe”, “Shithead”, or my own personal favorite, “Braided Ass Hair”. You see what I’m saying? Puddin Boy ain’t so bad, eh?

What do I do? I’m a software engineer by trade, an employed one, (thank you God, or whatever you believe in). I recently turned 36, and although I wasn’t struck immediately with a mid-life crisis, I have begun to realize lately that it’s time for me to decide what I really want to do when I grow up.  I think I’m starting to learn a little bit about being honest with one’s self. We’ll see.

So, to sum up, I’m really a relatively chipper guy who loves his wife and his kids to death and likes to just kind of hang around and shoot the shit. Kind of like Hemingway, but without all that expatriate angst. Just give me a beer, a poker game, a table full of friends (well, they’re assholes, mostly, but you can’t ask for everything), and a family to go home to, and I’m pretty much a happy-go-lucky guy. Well, a happy-go-lucky guy whose life is often beset by a huge black cloud that rains shit upon him at every available opportunity, in increasingly embarrassing and soul-sucking ways. But hey, you know, still…

Any other questions about who I am or why I do this? Don’t ever be afraid to ask…

pud’n