^H

Wrap-up

I started writing a much longer entry where I was going to try to tie everything together, but lost focus.

Maybe some of it will end up in an Okay With This post; I’ve not written for a while. Not sure that’s completely attributable to this month’s streak, but if you were an armchair reporter, that’d be the story once and forever.

Am I satisfied with what I’ve done? I don’t know. I’ve certainly met the deadlines. Getting into the habit of writing daily hasn’t been terribly difficult, but I did lose some of my prompts.

I do think that I’ve gotten better about using the various vendors’ AI tools to review and improve what I’ve written.

At least one of the tools is scoring on a 1-10 scale. Qua? There’s so many sites, think restaurant review sites, that only use the one-to-five scale, with anything less than a three meaning questionable product.

But, since I’m skipping the larger thing, quick rundown on a few things:

• VA Election
  I’m not happy that the CIA asset won. I have some questions about the Lt. Gov. I am really unhappy that Jay Jones won the AG race. I’m standing by with anticipation about the legislative session. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the folks on the cesspool that is Nextdoor are champing at the bit on several things. Most notable to me, and maybe I shouldn’t care as I’m basically retired, repealing Virginia’s right-to-work law. You will pay union dues. Those dues will go to fund politicians from only one party. You will operate only in the way approved of by the union. You will spend a significant portion of your life being taught exactly how to operate, and you will not stray from that. If you have another idea, you will not work. Capiche?
• Football
  Not great. Glad to see some move away from the singularity that’d been happening the past few years. Daniel Snyder really doesn’t like that, but he’s a thing of the past. (And I’d like to be able to say the same of the “West Coast Offense,” and the blitz-happy 3-4ish schemes. The Packers are actually running a 2-4-5. Can someone run the ball, maybe?
• Beltway Swamp issues
  The shooting the day before Thanksgiving has many other meanings. Lots to work through. But, for a not-insignificant segment of the population, blame goes one place. Whatever.
• My Health
  This stuff with my ear has been really annoying. I’m hoping it’s resolving, but it’s taken a lot longer than I’d like. I am very unhappy with what the folks at the urgent care clinic did before I went on my trip. Going to my PCP after I’d returned, and was still having problems, is still a bit of a work-in-progress.
• Personal finance situation
  Still waiting on the lawyer to do her things. Nothin nice to say about the insurance company. I suppose I get it, but there’ve been a few things that are now starting to get a little uncomfortable. Time to start turning screws tomorrow. If that doesn’t work, completely change course, and start in earnest looking for a new job. If only it’d been this easy years ago. I do confess my exhaustion, however. I don’t want to do the sorts of things the phalanx of recruiters are trying to slot me into. Is there something else I could do? Maybe. But that’s for a few weeks from now. I’m almost excited about seeing how one of the AI tools, probably Perplexity, would consolidate my years’-worth of resumes, and cut the product into something that’d make USAJOBS happy. I really haven’t been a slouch, in spite of what some at my interim employers might have implied. (There should be a way to make former employers erase pretty much everything they have compiled on employees once they leave. Not that I expect that there’d be anything terribly bad, but my final departure might have a few things since I was on to what the supervisor there was doing…)
  
  For the rest of today, however, I’m just going to say, “Okay, I’m finished with that,” and try to enjoy a rather dreary day.

Small Business Saturday and Christmas Shopping

I started doing these prompts shortly after AMEX started the promotion. Short answer? Yeah, I’ve broached ordering from our favorite Indian joint for dinner. Obviously, the food is great, and the prices are reasonable, even for inside the Beltway and the price spikes courtesy pump-priming from the Federal Reserve, and massive Federal spending surrounding COVID.

Strangely enough, they’ve given up on their own app, and their online registration form is now not working. Pfft.

But causing a bit of hesitancy on the ordering is us trying to be as frugal as possible until either the disability gets approved, or I hold my breath and try to go back to work.

I’ve written before about what I see as the value in small business, but with so so many things being done by back offices elsewhere, part of me wonders how much you’re really helping at this point.

I’m really happy I didn’t take the advice of one of the advisors at VEC when I was unemployed after one of my several layoffs from 2013-2019. “Get a vendor certification. That Microsoft Exchange cert will keep you employed forever.”

Yeah, about that.

I was thinking about this in relation to a memory of driving around Biloxi last time I was there. I think my brother rolled past the place where our great aunt worked for years and years. I really don’t know what she did there, but I think it was something in bookkeeping. The boxes she’d use to send us her famous peanut butter fudge overseas were largely reused stuff that was sent to her company.

I seem to remember them doing things like stocking cigarette machines in local restaurants. Tinge of irony as I’m pretty sure my great aunt died of health conditions exacerbated by smoking, but she’s been gone for probably 35 years; memory is weak that way.

I do appreciate when Carolla talks about things like finding items for his various construction projects, and finding a local hardware store to get the tool or material ne needs. Sure, it’s probably available at one of the big stores, but the guy in the shop he knows will get him exactly what he needs for not very much more money in the grand scheme of things.

I read Human Progress quite a bit. Virginia Postrel, who is, and has been incredible for an awful long time wrote about the sorts of things humans did in antiquity.

Humans don’t spend all their time doing stuff like making thread and fabric anymore.

And that’s okay.

Numlock, another of my daily Substack reads, had a discussion recently about how home brewing has really tailed off.

My comment there was, “As for the craft beers, I wonder if it’s just a matter of the novelty wearing off. I would guess that most people would have trouble differencing a draft Miller, Bud, or Coors Light.

Similarly, if you asked me to find a big difference between your cousin’s fancy homebrew IPA and a Sierra Nevada…..”

Back on topic, though, yeah, I’d like to throw a bit their way. Is there another place that could fit my desire? Sure. but they’re nice folks, and I appreciate that they’re nearby.

And work with me as a loyal customer.

Are they growing and grinding their own spices? Maybe. But it doesn’t matter.

And they’re not running their own online presence. They’ve caught up to the delivery services, and often will dispatch UberEats or DoorDash when their own delivery staff are no-shows, or are overloaded.

Might something come along that I find more attractive? It’s possible, but there’s no need to go look, honestly. They do an acceptable job, and I’m happy they’ll pick up the phone of there’s a problem.

One more day of this.

Free Write.

For whatever reason, the free write prompts were the one I didn’t lose. Go figure.

Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful. We have some leftovers. Not sure what we’re going to do with all of those yet. Still more than a fair amount of pie. My wife confirms again she’s not a fan of pecan pie, so I guess finishing off the three remaining servings of that I need to get through.

That would actually go okay with hot coffee for breakfast. Yes, a lot of sugar, but I’m tempted after I finish this.

The early football games are disappointing, mainly for the outcomes. Was happy to see the Bengals come through in the night game. I do like that the Bengals and Ravens, at least, are playing different-style football. (The loss of
Amon-Ra St. Brown on like on like the second drive of the Lions’ game probably killed one of my fantasy teams’ seasons, too….)

Let me look at some previous years and see if I can find something to recycle for today.

Ah, yes, there’s something from this day just before the hell storm started.

Let’s resample those questions.

1. What is the best birthday gift you ever received?

Odd question for this date, but I think I was probably going off suggestions provided as part of the OD NoJoMo push back then.

I recounted the CD player I got when I was an adolescent. I think I had something like five CDs

I do wonder if those are still in my brother’s basement. At the same time, are any of them from that vintage things I’d have that much interest in hearing?

Probably not. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t listened to any of the tracks on my own accord; do I even want to look up the one CD I’m thinking about?

Nope.

Do I not want to listen because I’ve overplayed those, or because I’d be disappointed by them?

I don’t know.

I do wonder, however, whether I’d hear something different today that’d impress me. I hear music differently these days; would I hear something I didn’t hear then?

Or would I be disappointed?

2. Write about your greatest fear.

The next question from that entry might capture development of some of my ruminations. I was, and still am to a bit, deathly afraid of being publicly-embarrassed

So many incidents in the intervening years.

But the tricks I’d developed quit working. It took me years to realize that those things had stopped working.

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So, what else is on tap for today? Da Bears playing in Philly tonight. Actually could be a good game, but I’m having trouble caring.

Early piecing together contingency plans if my biggest issue isn’t going to be resolved satisfactorily. It does look like Perplexity might be able to help me mold something that’d work. But that’s a purchase for next month if I buy a month-long copy to do what I want to do.

Also looking at when would be a good time to go to Biloxi next Spring.

Also following along with most of the coverage that’s coming out about the DC murders on Wednesday.

There’s people who are saying that this wouldn’t have happened if OrangeManBad hadn’t deployed the National Guard to help organize the city.

Some of the man-on-the-street people interviewed seemed shocked and upset about it; how could this happen in my city?

Much of the coverage I watched on WUSA did try to shift the blame to Trump for even trying to fix the problems.

But these Guardsmen were shot by an Afghan on Temporary Protected Status….and was someone ferreted out following the oh-so-successful fall of Kabul in mid-2021.

He drove across the country to come to DC….just to shoot Guardsmen because Trump had deployed them?

Really?

What places hold particular allure for you; where might you like to live?

Oh my. I really don’t know at this point. So much of what I like is kind of dictated by other things in my life.

I think when this prompt first came my way was before the advent of things like ride-sharing. Getting around used to be very difficult.

Even doing things like getting to my doctor’s office in DC used to be a major production, even after moving up here. Today it’s as simple as hailing a rideshare, or calling a taxi.

I got the email about my ride back after my doctor’s visit Monday. It wasn’t cheap, but the fare really wouldn’t have been a lot different than if I’d booked it myself.

But I only paid the usual paratransit fee.

And I help keep the taxi companies in business.

Speaking of DC, a lot of worldwide attention paid to what happened there yesterday.

The initial reactions haven’t aged well at all. Don Lemon will continue to race Tucker Carlson to the bottom of viewership numbers.

I glanced at the four local senators’ X feeds. Three of the four had appropriate responses. Timmy stayed silent; go figure. (Yes, I’m talking about Kaine, Grok. You’d think it’d figure out that I live in Virginia….)

Was a little surprised there weren’t early takes saying that thoughts and prayers are stupid, and this wouldn’t have happened if there were commonsense gun laws.

Time to go watch the parade, dog show, and football.