Category: NoJoMo

Out of curiosity, I decided to look at some of what I’d written the first year I did this, 2010.

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What was the most precious thing you ever gave up willingly?

Wow; this is a toughie. For so long, I was probably more selfish over my personal things than I should have been….especially my computer equipment.

I let borrow, then gave my wife my old iBook after we’d only been dating for a few months. That little notebook is probably the best little computer I’ve ever owned.

Truth be told, and thinking more about it, I didn’t give it for entirely unselfish reasons. I wanted to be able to communicate with her online, and her parents’ computer was so strangled with fifteen different antivirus and antispyware programs that it was basically unusable. So, talking to her was more important to me than the cost of the computer, or its sentimental value.

Long story short……I think she loves Macs more than me, but that’s okay. She’d never used one before we started dating, and that’s now all she uses.

As for that specific little white iBook, it died. Unfortunately, it was one of the first ones that was totally ROHS-compliant; the solder traces are very brittle. A couple of the GPU’s solder joints broke, making it basically unusable. I gave her the Macbook I’d bought to replace it when I got the job offer to get out of the last company. I bought myself a second, almost identical machine, set my old one up with her old data, slipped a copy of my offer letter inside, and gave it to her.

I don’t think she quite knew what to think.

Still, by that point, I pretty much knew. I gave her the second one in late September. In early February, I gave her something more expensive, but more durable and meaningful. 🙂

Speaking of which, we still need to figure out wedding rings. We’re married, but we didn’t do rings. She still wears her engagement ring, but *I* don’t have anything. There’s that selfish thing again…..I feel kinda naked.

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Re-doing that prompt seems more than a little, umm, odd. That little Macintosh was kinda neat, still. Unfortunately, it was one of the early ones that didn’t use lead in the solder to meet ROHS regs, so, eventually, the GPU came unsoldered from the motherboard.

I am tired, but I have work to do later tonight. I also have work that I probably should do tomorrow, but I’m scheduled for time off.

Decisions, decisions.

I’m still trying to find sites that’ll let me go back through, and find headlines from a specific date.

The only one I’ve been able to find, really, is Democracy Now!, which is more than a bit more partisan than I’d like. (They make CNN and MSNBC look right-wing)

Top headline from last year?

U.S. Holiday Travel Surges as U.S. COVID-19 Cases Soar Past 12 Million

And today….

So there’s that.

Productive day, I suppose. I don’t really know how to describe what I’m feeling, honestly.

I did get an enthusiastic thumbs-up on my idea. Maybe that’ll be something I can try as a test-run on Wednesday, since I’m not working that day.

I think the tack I’m going to take to start is to select three stories, and do re-examinations on each of them, see if it matches what was reported a year ago.

We’ll see how it goes.

Though the tagline on this blog is “everything gets deleted, eventually,” I do know that it’s possible to go back and see what was going on.

Oddly enough, I just saw something I wrote on this day in 2014. Holy fuck was that a horrible situation. Essentially what happened is that I took a job that was not really necessarily up-my-alley. I needed money. There was a contract change underway, and they hired me as the junior person on the contract. My job really was to warm a seat.

Then they couldn’t reach an agreement with the in-place capture of the senior person for the position. They promoted me to fill the senior position. Without a single additional cent in salary.

It was awesome. After something like eighteen months in that mess, I left for something that was differently awful.

Whatever. It’s all over now.

On to other things….

I need to figure out a few more prompts for the next week or so. Hmmm.

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Somehow I got on a mailing list — WordGenius. (Let’s not start with how I consciously try to avoid using overly-complicated words in my writing, but there are some interesting tidbits, to be sure. Recently, they had a post that included writing prompts.

These are not easy. Who is my favorite author so I can write in his/her style? Good question.

Anyway, there’s at least one I can attack…

Write Your Senses

Smelling: Nothing in particular. Perhaps some vague spearmint. And Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar

Seeing: The display on my PC.

Hearing: A podcast that’s currently recapping the Rittenhouse acquittal.

Feeling: Numb

Tasting: Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar

I really am not trying to throw out an ad for Dr. Pepper. I don’t have a sponsorship. It’s just what I’m drinking at the moment.

Eight more days.

Taking things back five years for this prompt.

Nov. 21, 2016, 5:01 p.m.

Write about something you’ve had to re-learn.

The impetus for this was something too personal to write about publicly.

As my nerves stop working, I’ve had to re-learn lots of things.

Many of them are attributable to my limited eyesight, unsteady balance.

I learn to do things one-handed, so I can steady myself with the other.

Perhaps oddly, I find myself doing a lot more things from the sinister side.

The neurologist I saw at Georgetown said I was a lefty. I don’t even. Maybe it’s that I’m wearing my Fitbit on my right wrist, and carrying my cane in my right hand, leaving my left free to do other things.

shrug

The TV news is doing pre-fab stories about smartphone apps for cooking. Yeah, about that.

How about just printing the recipe?

Part of my fun the past few days has involved getting my 401K funds from the company that shall not be named. I didn’t even think about the pittance I’d contributed when I finally GTFO of that hellhole until I got a notice that they were paying me a penalty and interest for a mistake they’d made.

I’m trying to be surprised.

But they’re giving me the run-around on getting it rolled over into my IRA.

Again, trying to be surprised.

I seriously need my Tysabri infusion. It’s weird; I’m exhausted, but not terribly sleepy.

This is a Monday for me.

At least there should be an interesting game tonihgttonight.

Apologies, to quote Katy, to my non-existent reader, but I really don’t have a ton to say today.

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And jumping back on for this year…

Write about something you’ve had to re-learn.

I’m trying to remember what sort of physical things I was enduring when I wrote about this.

It’s tough to discern, but I think I was still somewhat new in another professional situation where I’d been misled.

At the same time, it really doesn’t matter.

I came across an idea yesterday that I’ve gone whole-hot into pursuing.

One of the things my psychologist has long suggested is I start doing something again where I’m communicating orally.

I think part of the big thing that my periodic meetings with her provide is an opportunity to just speak.

I don’t get much of a chance to do that in my current situation.

Though I’m getting into more meetings, many of them are just me listening and taking notes, not participating.

I have things to say. What I don’t do well anymore is snappy conversation.

I couldn’t host a talk show anymore. I don’t speak quickly enough.

But I think I can put together things, still, in a logical way.

I’ve been bouncing a few ideas off of Justin Campbell, who does a lot of the stuff with several of the podcasts to which I listen.

I think I have it. I’ve registered a domain. I have the equipment I need. I’ve figured out what I’m going to do, when I’m going to record and release.

So that takes me back to what I want to the prompt.

I need to get back further into the IT side of things. Accompanying blog set up.

Twitter account will come at some point.

I don’t know if anyone would want to do Facebook and Instagram, but I’m not terribly concerned about those at this point.

Ideally, the first bit will drop during the event I really wish I could be attending, but can’t. So I’ll talk about it.

I will write and speak, and we’ll see where it goes.

The overall idea that’s guiding this is looking back at things one year later.

Let’s take a step back, and see what people were up-in-arms about. I can see what I was writing about a year ago. What was the rest of the world talking about? How much of the reporting on it ended up being correct?

So, let’s go.

Two-thirds free-write

Twenty consecutive days knocked out, and I feel, um, well, I don’t know how I feel about it.

Next week is Thanksgiving, and a chance to relax some.

I say that with the full understanding that I really don’t know how to turn everything off, now.

I’m listening to this, and and becoming more even more convinced that he’s the wrong guy to be the LP nominee in 2024.

How can you fucking not figure out that 757 revers to the area code?

Another thing why I don’t support him being the nominee, but it almost makes me say that I will not vote for him as President. Virginia, due to various rounds of rich immigration to Northern Virginia, is largely a Democrat stronghold, again, just the way the Byrd Organization intended.

Virginia’s got open primaries. I typically vote against the worst candidates in the primary, then for the Libertarian in the general election.

If I end up living somewhere where there really only is one choice for a party, I will vote in that party’s primary against the worst candidate.

And I keep getting thrown off on tangents.

So. News. Of course, the big story is that Kyle Rittenouse was acquitted yesterday.

*Checks news*

Yeah, no riots in Kenosha afterwards.

It’s almost as if actually deploying the National Guard stopped it?

Nah. Can’t be.

Tony Evers is responsible for what happened with the shootings in Kenosha last summer. Not because of what he did, but because of what he didn’t do.

If the mostly-peaceful protests had been stopped by government protecting life and property, Rittenhouse wouldn’t have had a reason to be there. (And end up shooting the people who were chasing him….)

Okay, that’s enough. Ten more days of writing. I need to start figuring out Christmas stuff.

Recycling from 2015….what I wrote back then;

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Nineteen
*What opportunities that you’ve passed up do you regret passing?

I’m trying to think of my frame of mind when I wrote this prompt.

I mean, there’s stuff that I could have done that would have greatly affected my life path. but, then, I probably wouldn’t have met my wife, so I don’t really care about them.

I love my wife. I love where I live. I like that I feel like I’m getting some control over my health. My job would have to improve to suck, but….can’t win ’em all.

Do I wish I’d been a bit less reckless on a few things? Sure. Do I sometimes wonder what would have happened

had I been more reckless? Absolutely.

But, for tonight, I’m home. I’m going to have a Martini, and wait for my dinner to arrive.

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Reading back on that, I really am not sure what to say about it. I was in a somewhat-positive headspace that night, for sure. Maybe I shouldn’t have been. Things would get even worse shortly, but I guess I was kind of in a reflective mood.

But to recycle the prompt…

What opportunities that you’ve passed up do you regret passing?

Nothing.

It’s been difficult, but there’s nothing I can say where I feel like my life was ruined by missing something.

In one of my recent off-the-wall dreams, I was on the bridge of a very old Naval ship. It lacked many of the modern bells and whistles. But it ran smoothly in spite of the really awful weather around it.

What I’ve got might be that interesting, but it’s mine, and it works for me.

That speaks to some of where I am with many of the political things going on. “My betters” don’t like the choices I make. Whatever. I’m going to do what works for me, and if you don’t like it, oh well.

I’m not doing the right thing?

Okay. I’m not going to do what you want me to do. Let’s go with that as a stipulation. You have a problem with that. Okay. I understand. What do you plan to do about it? Let’s get down to brass tacks. If you feel strongly enough about it that you’re willing destroy me — say it. if you feel no shame for it, let the world know.

A bit late getting to the writing this evening.

It’s been a hell of a 24-hour period.

Seeing as how I put in something like twelve hours yesterday, and ten today, with nothing but an inconsequential meeting scheduled, I decided to go ahead and take tomorrow off.

I’m also taking the Friday before MLK Day to go to Shmoocon.

There’s a chance, there, to enjoy some of the work I’ve put in to improve my health over the past two years.

Two years ago, I ended up doing Friday night back home, and watching things over the computer. Because of something that was going on, that worked okay, actually, but there is something that would be nice about being there in person.

I do wonder if my note-taking, and subsequent writing will be less-effective, however.

Given what drinks are going for in DC, I don’t think I’ll be getting as blitzed as I would have when I was younger.

At the same time, they do have liquor deliveries to the hotel so I can avoid the fees. Hmmmmmm.

I also wonder if Internets access over the 5G network is good enough that I could almost listen, then write from my own warm roomette on a train to somewhere.

Actually, the writing on the train had been an idea I had pre-pandemic. A few years ago, Amtrak had this residency program.

Sounds like a fun thing to do.

Yes, there’s something about being in a toasty warm compartment, but you also have to worry about the tracks being blocked with ice, and having to go out into the cold.

Do you think it is safe to blindly follow something that is the conventional way of thinking?

This kind of gets back to something I’ve touched on quite a bit lately. You have to re-examine everything from time to time. You can’t just stick with some bit of truth forever.

The wording of this as “blindly follow,” is very appropriate, especially when it comes to politics that have replaced religion. for so many people.

A quick Duck Duck Go search yielded something from Lew Rockwell, an righteous outrage piece from the New York Times, and this from The Atlantic.

But I do think you have to continue questioning things, even if they’re promoted by a group with whom you identify, for consistency.

Do I believe that there was a man named Jesus in the Middle East? It doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.

Should I even consider that?

Why should I not?

Some of the particulars are probably incorrect, but the general idea of the story is correct.

Dunno.

I could probably mull over this for hours, but dinner is ready.

Somehow I had an unused prompt for yesterday, which means I’m closer to being full on prompts.

But I’m still looking forward to Thanksgiving, honestly.

I kind of marvel at how I’m able to hold so many separate things in my brain.

Had some interesting discussions with Clint from Liberty Lockdown on Twitter.

I should probably screenshot those, and save them to the gallery here before I nuke all of my old Tweets next.

(If you STFW, you can find scripts that’ll go through and delete all your old Tweets. It’s not that I really care that someone checks back on what I wrote, but so much of it loses relevance…unless you’re just looking to find something where I misspoke under changed standards. Maybe I shouldn’t care, but, refer back to the tagline here. “Everything Gets Deleted, Eventually.” I’m sure the censorial out there really wish that could happen faster, but…)

I’m getting more and more jealous that I can’t go to the Peddling Fiction super-spreader event next month. I’ve never really wanted to go to Mexico before, but this sounds like it’s going to be doubleplus fun.

(And, if I wasn’t worried about staying employed, now, I might be tempted to try some of the other recreational activities that’ll be present there…..)

Other stuff. Well, I got my results from my medical tests earlier this month. I have to go for another check in a few months, but no cancer.

So there’s that, I guess.

Prompt: What I have accomplished in the last 10 years?

I guess the biggest thing I can say right now is that I’ve survived.

I can still look at myself in the mirror without any reservations. Yes, I’ve sometimes done things that weren’t, in retrospect, 100% the best thing, but I don’t have anything I’m ashamed of. At all.

I have a lot of resentment, but I’ve gotten past most of that, too.

Another very, very long day of work. I probably do too much when it comes to making sure that things are covered.

My initial reaction to that thought is to say that I need to learn to quit caring.

But that’s not who I am.

Part of the training I had today was a big focus on directing ethical behavior in the workplace.

There was one douchenozzleguy I dealt with when I was marooned in a really bad job that really made it a point that his behavior might be unethical, but it wasn’t immoral.

Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, fella. You know you weren’t doing the right thing. I can only hope your wife is making sure your wife isn’t raising your kids with such loose standards.

I have my doubts.

So, prompt, because I could kvetch for a long time about this sort of thing….

Do you think that social justice warriors accomplish anything productive?

I’m not sure. The SJW-types probably don’t know, either. But they’d be disgusted that you can’t reach whatever conclusion they’ve reached at that moment.

Last week, it’d have been a different conclusion, but, you know, awareness raised; what the hell is wrong with you?

One of my fantasy football teams this year is the DC Wokescolds. They really don’t know why they disapprove of a behavior, but they do disapprove, and if you don’t, you’re the problem.

Okay, then.

Kind of boring bit today. Yesterday was kind of eventful, with disagreements I won’t really broach here, but not a ton going on.

I’m kind of trying to ignore the news.

Part of what I’ve been trying to do lately is really go back and re-evaluate previous conclusions, then everything that was based on those conclusions.

I wrote a bit about this with the Veterans’ Day entry. Would I be happier if I just continued to rely upon the things that were driven into my head in school?

Maybe. If I remained ignorant of it.

I really do think it’s important to periodically re-examine everything from square zero, and see if you still reach the same conclusions based on new evidence.

There’s nothing at all wrong with changing your mind. Admitting that you were wrong is tough, but is that tougher than stacking with something you know to be untrue?

…

I don’t know.

Prompt: Talk about two things about you that would surprise those who know you.(T2K)

1. I get really wound-up about things sometimes. I am adept, however, at containing my true feelings. I’m not as much of a nerd as people might think. My math skills aren’t that impressive. But I refuse to let my conclusions remain when there’s hard data that contradicts them. I feel very strongly about some things, but I’m pretty good at controlling my emotions, still, despite my medical condition. When I lose control, it’s often with physical things (sometimes embarrassingly so…)
2. I do pay particular attention to words. “You’re being over-sensitive!” Yeah, but I’m actually paying attention to what you said. Maybe that makes me different, but it’s what I am/what I do.

And, with that, I’m halfway through. The mustache is growing in. Still not seeing any gray hair. What the hell?

This one is kind of apropos. Las weekend, my wife an I were discussing some of the folks we knew when we were dating, what’s happened to them, an so on. That guy is in North Carolina. That guy nobody actually knows where he is; serious. That other guy is in Georgia, but I haven’t seen him in IRC lately. What was his wife’s name? Geez. I don’t remember.

Today, almost a week later, I get her as a friend recommendation.

Naturally, it’s denied. Still, fuck you, you dropout ginger. Are you listening to our conversations?

I’ve deleted all but the messenger app from my phone. I don’t know what my wife has on hers.

And she wonders why I don’t have things from the Space Cowboy’s company.

They at least were listening. I’m not okay with that. So, I can leave.

On to what I was going to write about. This was from five years ago.

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On being sick.

I understand why I chose this prompt for this date.  I wrote much of this on the train heading to Washington DC to visit the folks at Georgetown School of Medicine.  I wrote a bit about it recently.

The potential to get some of my life back would be worth getting my femurs drilled and Humira, or chemotherapy.

This is not a condition I’d wish on my worst enemy.  (And if you know who my worst enemy is, please let me know, because I really don’t know who’d that’d be at this point.  There is one individual I’ve dealt with professionally, recently, that I’d just assume never speak to again, but…)

So, I find myself trying to decide what would be the best way to tackle this.

The less-pleasant parts I really don’t feel like relating, but they’re all a part of the overall experience.

The most maddening part, though, is not one of the more disgusting things, honestly.  I really am nearly blind these days.  When I was younger, I’d say that I’d much rather lose my vision than my hearing.  I was working in radio, and there was the big story about the things Rush Limbaugh was going through with his opioid0induced hearing loss.

Obviously, working in radio without being able to hear would be very difficult.  But doing just about anything without decent vision is just as tough.

No, I really can’t see what you’re pointing out.

No, I can’t tell the difference between those colors.  (And this is more than being lectured on the differences among cream, Ivory, and other shades of white.)

Saturday, we took my mother to the football game between her alma mater, and my wife’s school.  Not only did her school not even who up, I couldn’t really see anything that was going on on the field.  Getting up and down to our sets with the stadium steps with no handrails was difficult enough, but…..

It was also rather chilly.  Normally the cold doesn’t bother me much anymore, unless I’m out in it for a long time.

So, not a particularly enjoyable experience.  I think my mom had a good time, though, which is what matters.  She and my wife got to experience the sorts of things I deal with being reliant upon public transportation.  You can get pretty much where you need to go, but it takes a long time.  I guess it took probably about 40 minutes to get from our place to the university;  it’s fifteen by car.

At the same time, it probably cost as much in transit fare as it’d have cost to park near the stadium.    And no need for a long-distance walk.

I can still walk some, sorta.  I’m good for about a block and a half most days.

Trying to get though this is annoying me.  I guess I’ll revert to the list from NMSS.  It might be easier to say which of those more common symptoms I don’t have.

I really don’t have emotional changes or cognitive changes.  The others listed I do have to some extent.

((And a few more paragraphs excised; you know the thing))

The less common symptoms, really, I only deal with a few.

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Since I’ve been living up here near to DC, I’ve been seeing the same neurologist who met with me when I cam up five years ago. I was actually try to get set up at another research university there in the city, the one named after a President, but kept getting thrown in to eternal phone system hell, I emailed the doctor who’d seen me.
The treatment I’ve gotten at Georgetown is, without question, the best thing that’s happened to me, ever.

Yesterday, I spent the morning listing to a patient information session.

A few things I can maybe interconnect. One of the bright spots of the pandemic/stupid lockdowns has been the advance in telemedicine.

I can keep getting treated by these people who’ve done so much to help me without necessarily having to truck to DC in the future — a white pill moment, perhaps.

I was getting my Tysabri infusions at Georgetown for a couple of years, but have not my fifth site.

I wish I could get it at home.

But I’ll deal, and I’m happy that there’s somebody who does care about what’s going on with me.

I could probably write for hours on this, but I’m going to go watch football, and enjoy what’s left of my time off today.