Category: NoJoMo

Write about things that really bother you

A friend of mine once talked about a job interview he had. This wasn’t for any sort of really-professional job, and it was in Texas, so it makes a bit more sense. The anticipated parts of the interview had gone well, and it looked like he had a good shot at getting the job.

After the HR troll questions were finished, the interviewer thanked him, and said something along the lines of, “I’ve got just one more question, and it’s kind of a personal thing — What really pisses you off?”

This isn’t quite that, but, I’m sure there’s a nails-on-a-chalkboard thing for almost everybody out there.

When it comes to me at work, it’s the oft-proffered, “we have a requirement.”

Oh, yeah? Which one? Where’s it documented? Who approved it? How does it fit into solution design? What are the test cases that demonstrate its satisfaction?

I ended up working more yesterday to finish the ton of yearly training stuff for work. Of course, it’s due right after I’m supposed to get back, while I’m still technically “off.”

And I couldn’t get through it. But I did finally get into the benefits site so I can adjust the bits that are coming out of my paychecks.

Maybe I should do this by levels of annoyance.

1. Human Resources. It’s transformed over the past twenty years or so from a position of trying to get employees what they need to do their jobs to one of creating labyrinth processes to keep employees so busy that they can’t be individuals. Yeah, we’ll help them get what they’re after. After they do these 98 courses that make them into exactly the sort of people we want them to be. During my workout, I got Creep by Radiohead. I’m thinking Fitter Happier might be something that’s on repeat for a lot of these folks.
2. “Negative Impact.” This is an outgrowth from Dr. Santoro in college. In addition to whatever GE class he was teaching, he was really intent on making sure that his students could express themselves well. An “impact” is a collision. Learning to use “affect” and “effect” really improve your writing. With that in mind, “negative impact” started bothering me when I was writing mainly broadcast copy. Several years later, I was working with someone trying to “sexy up” language in something I wrote. He rewrote something, and used “negative impact.” My response was something along the lines of, “A negative impact is a vacuum; it sucks.” That was back when using such language in polite company, much less on TV or radio.
3. Catastrophizing. Sadly, this is in overdrive until Tuesday. I listened to this yesterday, and found myself disagreeing with pretty much all of the guests. I did sent my absentee ballot yesterday.

I probably could continue pounding things out, but I’m tiring of trying to think of things.

I also need to go fill out more paperwork.

I’m not supposed to be doing this again, but I figure it’s something that gets me into the mood for the holidays, and next year.

Things this year aren’t as jam-packed as last year, but I still do have a few things on my plate. I do have some travel the first week of the month, but why am I doing this? Well, some of the things in the Ep. with Susan Cain on EconTalk kind of spoke to some of what I do.

Even after a disgustingly-long day, it’s something I can do to kind of even out my head, as well as stay on track.

A lot of what I’m going to do this year is really recycled stuff from a particularly-low point in life, 2017, but I do have a few other things I want to write agouti.

We’ll see how it all goes, I suppose. There are a few blank spaces left, so I’m soliciting suggestions.

But, off we go. Let’s see what happens.

All that said, I really ought to consider not doing this next year. Fifteen straight years is a bit of an accomplishment, I suppose. Maybe I’ve stuck to this to keep some connection to what life was before everything went to hell.

Obviously, that started immediately after I finished the first month; my dad died. But this was something I did right after getting married, so that, too, fits into major life milestones.

Do I miss having things better set out for me before I started? Yeah, a bit. But I’m not trying to go back to then.

A particularly uninspiring politician is running on a general saying of “not going back.”

Okay, but when what you’ve got is completely screwed up, you do need to review how you got to that place.

I understand, Lessons Learned aren’t good Agile practice, along with things like proper engineering, but…..

Do I apply lessons from previous years to the next effort? Yes.

Let’s see how it goes.

I didn’t really have a prompt for this one, either.

Again, an incredibly busy day. Eleven hours of work, and I’m not finished. I have something to do in a few hours. Oh well.

IN the meantime, however, I did get notice that, no, I’m not going to be taking my shot tonight because, yes, the med agencies couldn’t get the paperwork completed correctly to get me my medication today

I don’t know what it says that I’m not getting bent-out-of-shape about it. I did nothing wrong. That said, no, I’m not going to be conciliatory about the situation. You all screwed up. I don’t care that it wasn’t you, particularly, but you didn’t call me to let me know that there was going to be a problem until the day thathe problem was going to expose itself.

I could have spent a bunch of time trying to apply more pressure from my end, but it doesn’t change anything.

A kinder person might be more understanding, but I’m beyond the point of either outrage, or conciliation. There’s nothing I can do, so…”Whatever.” /GenX

I looked at past entries, and found this from this day in 2011.

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3. How are you similar or different from the person you were 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20 years ago?
Really, there aren’t a ton of similarities. Five years ago I was in a new relationship, my first significant one in several years. I liked it so I put a ring on it.
Ten years ago, I was trying to finish my degree, and working far, far too much at the same time. Still, I think that fall semester my last year was probably my best academically.
Twenty years ago? I was living in Bremerhaven, Germany. Memories are really fading. I think we were just about getting the hints that big changes were coming to American life in Germany. By May, the immediate changes were already happening. My high school had about 600 students when the 91-92 year finished. The next year, there were only about 150 to start the year. When I left in February, it was down to about 80. I had four lockers.

I’ve got a bunch of faves I apologize. Up too late last night watching Breesus give repeated doses of Manningface…

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Let’s see….

Five years ago, I was settling in to my last job, working an insane amount of time. We were coming out of the bad situation around my employment.

I absolutely loved what I was doing in that job. I tried hard to find a reason to stay there, but the money really spoke. Given that that job would have come to an end even before the pandemic started, but at the time, I really did not want to head anywhere else.

(Wow, there was a weird formatting tag in that old §. I’m not sure what that would have been lost without it.)

Kind of replaying the entries from towards the end of NoJoMo a decade ago…

My initial temptation was to say that I was trying to be calm, and make the best of the situation in which I found myself then.

Thinking back on that, though, I really had good reason to be pissed off.

Did I let my emotions get the best of me more than once? Absolutely. But in retrospect, the anger was justified, maybe underplayed.

I was doing so much to really disconnect from the horrid situation in which I’d found myself both personally and professionally.

Kyle Orton’s (Not the former NFL QB who heard a boo..h/t TMac) Substack name — It can always get worse.

Something very British about that outlook.

But I had no idea what was ahead in just a couple of months…..

A missive here about the four-letter company, and the inmates partially responsible for me being there would absolutely be appropriate.

But I’m not going to do that.

I am finished for the day.

And, tomorrow, for the month.

I probably should set out how much I’m going to write on the wrap-up tomorrow night.

Let’s try to do a solid hour.

I’m not working Friday, and don’t really care to see the Thursday Night football game.

Christmas Plans

We are staying home. I am very much okay with this.

I have one day where I’m going into a temporary office facility, but kind of sanguine about it.

I think I’ve got a handle on what I’m planning to do for presents.

But I just thought of something I was supposed to do over the weekend, and forgot about.

I should be able to get that done on Friday since I’m not working that day. I’d scheduled leave for this paycheck, and have already worked more than that.

Let me try one of T2K’s prompts….

What’s your greatest writing strength and greatest writing weakness?

You know, I think I could do better about planning a long project write. What I did for this month really didn’t require a lot of pre-planning.

What I’ve not done this streak is getting a head-start on answers to the individual prompts.

I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration lately from some of what Michael Malice said about his process for writing.

But it requires better planning than I’ve been doing last few streaks.

Many stretches I don’t really have a good list of things I’d like to hit upon. Have your idea, then spend a set amount of time writing on that section. Same time every day.

Obviously, with NoJoMo, writing at the same time has been tough with my work and travel schedule this month. Some days I write in the morning. If I’m working, I might pound out a paragraph or two while listening to a call.

I do tend to write on Saturday Morning after I’ve filled my pill case for the next week.

A lot of what I’m listening to these days is from authors.

Will I get a chance to reach a moment of equilibrium again where I can slice off a segment of time each day to operate?

I don’t know.

I do appreciate how much I’ve actually done this month already. I’m hoping that next month can kind of be a month can actually include some time for relaxation.

.

But I’m sure I’ll end up spending time planning the next big thing.

After my company stole the equity I’d built up in the form of Paid Time Off, most of the week before Christmas will be spent paying CxxxXXX’s protection racket rrenewing my certification so I can keep working.

What else?

The cold weather has me really wanting an Irish Coffee. I don’t even know what to say about that.

Exile in Guyville review

My wife had forgotten about the show, so I went solo. Took a taxi up there; does that count towards Small Business Saturday? How about the one drink I bought at the show?

I would say the place was only about 70% full, which I guess makes sense; not many of us GenXers out there.

The opening act was good. I’ll probably look up on Apple Music a few times in the next few weeks when I have some time. I will say that it was tough to hear the lead singer’s voice, however, due to the audio mix. A bit of the same strange levels with Liz, but she was a little easier to hear.

AS it’d been pitched, Liz played Exile In Guyville from stare-to-finish. For the encore, she generally played a hit off of her other albums Was very happy to hear Supernova, and Polyester Bride. (Two tracks that have gotten significant play on my various devices throughout the years….)

This was the first time for me going down to “The Wharf.” I get what they were going for, but there was a lot that screamed some of the pre-planned parts in Tidewater.

Getting in was a bit of an issue. Glad I didn’t have a bag. Didn’t check my coat. Might have needed to do that if it was more crowded, but I had enough space.

The entry was a bit odd, but I finally got behind some other folks who were attending. Once I was inside, it was pretty easy. Didn’t take my normal laptop, but had pockets loaded with some of the things I’d most often need to fetch.

Happy that there was no vaxport stupidity.

The whole experience was closer to kind of what I’d been expecting moving up here.

It’s a nice change from the absolute hell I’d been dealing with for too many years.

So. What’s up for the rest of the month?

A few more days writing. Shot Wednesday that’s, for some reason, giving me a bit of irrational trepidation, then…?

I think I would like to go see a comedy show.

Small Business Saturdays

Oh my. I need to find something. Do the taxi rides I plan to take this evening count?

SBA links the AMEX site.

I did order food last night, though it wasn’t on my AMEX. \^/hatever.

I kinda go out of my way to shop with small, especially local, merchants as much as I can.

I can recall early in my time working where things like computers would be purchased from a local shop for what seemed like an unreasonable price. In retrospect, the markup really wasn’t that much.

And it kept other people working.

It sort of goes with where I am with travel now, too. I could save a few bucks here and there, or I could be taken care of.

I think the bigger part of that, though, is that I was broke back then. There were many instances where I did things the hard way, because that’s all I could afford.

Kind of getting distracted by what I’ve got on in the background.

I’m reminded of Trump talking about dealing with labor unions. You want something don, you go talk to this guy, and it’ll get taken care of.

Part of my company’s annual training involved grease payments. It’s generally okay to bribe peoplepay extra to expedite things that would normally occur.

I mentioned the taxi rides tonight. Full review of what I did is coming later.

Still excited.

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OH!

Fits with some of the refreshers on mid-90s Feminism in preparation for… Almost forgot. During the Dolphins-Jets game yesterday. Space Cowboy Jeff’s TV series called something along the lines of Small Duck. (Yes, I did make an effort to STFW and find it…and couldn’t this morning. Don’t care enough to look further.)

Um.

Okay.

I’ve been a dude for a long time. But I can’t think of a single dude with whom I’ve compared the size of my junk. Certainly there were dudes with whom I am acquainted that there’d be giggling among the women about physical size. Then there are stories like Milton Berle.

After a very young age, it became just one of those things. I’ve got a schqantz. You’ve got one, too. Whatever. I’ve never considered, much less been jealous of, another guy’s equipment.

I would say that it’s just another example of me being weird, but I really don’t think so.

It really feels like it should be Saturday.

Thanksgiving recap

I alluded to it yesterday when I was writing — just incredible sleep Wednesday night into Thursday.

I’d made brief reference to it before, but I wound up ordering a Thanksgiving feast from Lena’s in Alexandria.

Very well-received. Probably didn’t need the pumpkin cheesecake I added on at the end. While it’s very tasty, I worry about my wife and I being able to finish it.

Add-on two, extra dinner rolls, was met…a push? My wife had bought different rolls because she didn’t think her mother would eat the brioche rolls. I didn’t find that out until after I’d ordered. They’re bread; they’re not really expensive, so whatever.

Add-on three was very well-received. House-made pasta was incredible.

So. The family who visited were very satisfied.

The little dog got fed things despite my wife’s objections. Not going to point fingers at the guilty party, but she’s been dealing with an upset GI tract, and, as side-effect of that, missed a dose of her some of her medications.

So she’s not been okay this morning. Hoping that she’ll settle down today as the medications take effect.

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Football wasn’t great. I probably paid most attention to the Lions’ game. Ended up disappointed, of course, but I do think that they’re building a football team that I like.

I was losing consciousness during the night game, so I headed to bed.

Too early, it seems, considering how I was awake when the dog started having problems in the we hours…

So. What else today?

‘Do I watch the Jets’ game today? Mmmmm…maybe?’

Maybe I’ll look at some of the “Black Friday” sales. But the only thing on my internal shopping list isn’t going to have any real discounts anywhere. My debate with that is how I should buy it. Do I buy it on my longest-lived line of credit that I got a warning they were going to cancel if I didn’t use it soon? Hmmm…

But it’s late enough that I should go get some coffee.