Pro Creation

People often ask me why I haven't left my job yet.

Lots of people.

It's a question that seems to unite disparate groups of people, who may not agree on very much else except their shared conviction that I need to leave my job. In fact, I was asked the question again tonight.

I certainly don't mind the question - not in the slightest - and I take it as a reminder that people genuinely care about my welfare (and also that I might need to tone down the extent of my whingeing!). And since I occasionally ask myself the same question (some weeks much more often than others), I really can't blame others for wondering too. Well, the reasons that I stay in my job are both complicated and very simple. Although now's not the time to elaborate on those arguments, today emphasised just one of those key reasons...

A couple of months ago I wrote that I was hoping to one day purchase Final Cut Studio 2. (If you don't believe me, here's that post). "FCS2" is a highly-advanced video editing, soundtrack design, 3D motion and DVD authoring suite from Apple, and it's used by Emmy-award winning TV shows & Oscar-winning movies etc etc. It's quite expensive by my standards (you could very convincingly argue that it's worth ten times it's R.R.P., but that's not the point here - it's still very expensive regardless of it's value). The software I use now, MediaStudio Pro 8, costs about one-third of what FCS2 costs (and even then, I only use MSP8 because I was given a free copy by the company!), but if I'm to ever 'graduate' to a more polished and professional quality level, I'll need to move up to learning FCS2; it's the industry standard. The fact that Ulead/Corel seem to be discontinuing MSP after this version certainly helped to make that decision (and push us away from PC's to the Mac itself).

Well yesterday, after a few months of saving - helped by a bonus from work - I was finally able to...[insert drumroll please]...purchase Final Cut Studio 2! Apple have already shipped it, and the tracking website predicts that it will arrive here tomorrow. I'm very excited. I'm not a shopper by any stretch, and I really don't get excited about buying things for myself (case in point being my wardrobe consisting almost-exclusively of decades-old clothing from K-Mart). I actually get very anxious about buying things - particularly things for myself - but this particular purchase excites me because of what it represents. The potential to be unlocked here is immense, and I've had many sleepless nights wrestling with all of the possibilities. I actually have something of a grand plan in mind - I guess it's been brewing for at least the last 18 months - and yesterday's purchase is a big stepping stone on the way to reaching those larger goals. (I may share some of that grand plan here on day, but if you think my current posts are long and rambling, wait until you get me talking about THAT!).

Anyway, the bottomline is that, while I may not love my job, and while they may not always treat me particularly well, and while it may not be leading me where I ultimately want to be going, I am immensely thankful for it. It's an avenue, a stepping stone, a springboard, and a great means to end. In a very real way, it affords me the opportunity to pursue something bigger and better, and I'm getting pretty excited about those future prospects (if you have an hour free sometime, I'll bore you with my big plans!).

Well, I really need to go get to bed. It's a big day at work tomorrow, followed by a big evening installing all 9 DVD's of Final Cut Studio 2. And then I have to start on the 6 BIG, heavy manuals, which will probably take weeks to read and months to understand (I've been reading what training materials I can find on the web, and downloading tutorial podcasts, but it's not really working without the software in front of me). So, you'll either see a very excited post from me tomorrow night, or you won't hear from me for the next 3 months while I try desperately to get my head around it all.

Probably both.

Good night,

Matt