More busy than ever today. Is this job kicking my ass? Maybe.
That said, I’ve been able to listen to lots of podcasts while I’m working.
I do look in on social media from time to time. Today’s gem, courtesy Virginia’s senior Senator….
Really bad ideas
Someone ought to beat Lurch with the cluestick; none of this shit is within the realm of possibility, technically.
You can’t do this, but far be it from a fucking politician to understand that. Motherfucker didn’t support Net Neutrality until it became a political issue his party was behind, and technology didn’t cause a big negative effect on his financial holdings.
There’s a lot more angry things I could spew out, but I’ll refrain. There’s no reason; nobody is reading this.
But I will go to onion routing if I need to. And if you want to lock me in a cage because of it, go ahead.
Month: July 2018
Eleven (7/30)
Actually making some progress with the various things related to relocation.
Still very unhappy about how all of this has transpired, but it’s completely awesome that the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act has pushed everyone into “employer-sponsored” healthcare through some really bad companies.
For the past few years, I”d purchased insurance through the oh-so-wonderful Federal Exchange at healthcare.gov.
When I was first forced to do that in 2015, I purchased the most expensive plan from a major insurance that had been accepted by all of my doctors.
The first time I went to use the new insurance, none of the specialists accepted my new plan.
Didn’t you say we could keep our plans, and doctors, Mr. President?
Enough of that, though. Amazingly enough, my new insurer, and my old one use the same prescription provider, and are willing to migrate things over from the old insurer to the new one, even though I’ve not yet found new specialists.
Still very unhappy about how all of this has transpired, but it’s completely awesome that the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act has pushed everyone into “employer-sponsored” healthcare through some really bad companies.
For the past few years, I”d purchased insurance through the oh-so-wonderful Federal Exchange at healthcare.gov.
When I was first forced to do that in 2015, I purchased the most expensive plan from a major insurance that had been accepted by all of my doctors.
The first time I went to use the new insurance, none of the specialists accepted my new plan.
Didn’t you say we could keep our plans, and doctors, Mr. President?
Enough of that, though. Amazingly enough, my new insurer, and my old one use the same prescription provider, and are willing to migrate things over from the old insurer to the new one, even though I’ve not yet found new specialists.
That fun aside, I’m recycling a typical day prompt.
From 2011…
Yes. Day nine again. *sigh* This is what happens when you can’t type…..
So, my morning routine depends upon whether or not I’m in the office. If I’m in the office, this stuff happens about an hour earlier.
Wake up
Pee
Take pills, watch news
Shower/shave
Take injection
Ice injection site
Dress
Leave for work
Get to work
Work for about an hour on various stuff — mainly responding to E-Mail, etc.
Coffee
After that, really depends upon what’s going on. There’s a concept called “core hours,” where meetings are supposed to be conducted, etc. It’s from 0900-1500. Regardless of where I am, I need to be fully engaged during that time. The hours before and after that are really for me to do administrative stuff.
*yawn*
Is it time for coffee, yet?
So, my morning routine depends upon whether or not I’m in the office. If I’m in the office, this stuff happens about an hour earlier.
Wake up
Pee
Take pills, watch news
Shower/shave
Take injection
Ice injection site
Dress
Leave for work
Get to work
Work for about an hour on various stuff — mainly responding to E-Mail, etc.
Coffee
After that, really depends upon what’s going on. There’s a concept called “core hours,” where meetings are supposed to be conducted, etc. It’s from 0900-1500. Regardless of where I am, I need to be fully engaged during that time. The hours before and after that are really for me to do administrative stuff.
*yawn*
Is it time for coffee, yet?
In my current job, I work fully remotely.
I generally wake up sometime before 0600, as my wife is running off to her job.
Ideally, I’ll take my panoply of pills, drink two cups of coffee, and eat some breakfast.
Then shower, and drag myself to where I work.
I’m trying to miss the parts about taking injections.
Nope. Not working.
I’m adept at working remotely. I’m going to have to go in to an office some time soon to pick up a security jibble I’ll need to do some work.
And after I wrote that, I just ended up working until 1820 EDT.
Sofa King Done.
Ten (7/29)
Today I swam. Or tried to.
Since I was diagnosed, I think the most water I’d ever been in was a full bathtub, and, even then, it was only a couple of times.
There is a pool where we are now. My wife was amped to actually swim. So we did. Well, she did a lot. I tried, and it um…didn’t go swimmingly.
*groan*
About the only thing I can kinda still do is the breaststroke. Making my legs work to propel anything else is either comedic, or sad, depending on your perspective.
(And if you believe the communications school morans, both are true. There can’t be an objective reality of it. It only matters to the viewer. Also, if a tree falls in the woods, it can, in fact fail to make a sound….)
Recycling from waaay back…
Nine (7/28)
I’d planned on recycling, but what I’d fetched really isn’t suiting my fancy this morning. *snip* *off to a later date*
This morning’s fun involves trying to get things better configured in my work area.
I need a WiFi antenna, to figure out getting this RPi to bridge wireless-to-wired.
I guess I also need to do sekurity for my sites since the totes-not-evil group decided that it’s not going to display HTTP pages anymore.
Guess that just about wraps it up for most caching methods. But, like, any sort of traffic management violates Net Neutrality, bro. Speaking of that, I was listening to The Fifth Column last night, where Michael Moynihan was talking about a Vice News interview he did with an Intertubes company that was cutting off access to a group of bigots. (Maybe they were Nazis?) The company rep being interviewed was absolutely okay with that sort of speech restriction.
But it’d violate Net Neutrality.
And heads asplode on Reddit.
Or they should, if they actually gave a fuck. But they don’t. So vote for Mark “Nextel” Warner, who’s all for Net Neutrality now that the smoldering remains of his telco empire is getting sold to the Germans. Keep. Virginia. Blue
But, you know what, I’m okay with providers blocking content, and shaping traffic.
I don’t care that AT&T gives me a better deal with DirecTV Now than I’d get from using other services. (And maybe I will subscribe again, since I’m a bit miffed that Hulu doesn’t let me record S.E. Cupp Unfiltered, or move to later segments in Kennedy )
But back to the Internet providers, I don’t care that they cache content. I don’t care that they keep me from seeing Nazi content, or wholesome kiddie porn.,
I’m okay with that.
Also, there’s myriad technical workarounds you can take to circumvent restrictions imposed by providers.
In the past, I’ve done things such as routing mail through a work Qmail server to get around a home ISP’s port 25 restrictions.
You can’t stop things, no matter how passionately you believe that government can solve every problem.
Eight (7/27)
I didn’t really have anything planned for this one, so I’m going to put up something that I’d written, and didn’t publish a few weeks ago.
I’ve complained, perhaps incessantly, about the stupidity that is LinkedIn.
Late last week, I got a suggestion that I connect with my father.
My dad died nearly eight years ago.
Words fail. Please, please, please shut off your email snooping, you all.
Yes, I’ve got emails dating back years and years; it doesn’t mean that I ever want (or can) speak to those people again.
Still, what’s happening, though, and why LinkedIn is a pond filled with just about only recruiters these days, is that companies are moving almost exclusively to having contract employees.
My new role, I get, at least, paid holidays, and time off. What do I not get? The sacrosanct health insurance, and any 401K match at all.
You know what, though, for most of my life, I’ve not had those things.
Older politicians ran on destruction of the “gig economy” not long ago, while people her age are working forever, and getting rich off reflated housing and equity markets.
So What?
I’m going to point out what I’ve had to deal with as one of the youngest Generation Xers. You will see it on my resume, which will be as long as it needs to be to cover my varied work history. It will not be a two-page Microsoft Word 97 document. Sorry.
To the arts major recruiters, consider your favorite author. How would his/her (yes, I know, that’s sys-gendered…..) works
After I’d bitched about LI on Twitter, they asked me for the link to his profile. Uhh. I don’t know? I didn’t look closely. He had several addresses, but he’s been dead almost eight years.
Maybe, just maybe, you’re just a little bit fucking overzealous? Speaking to someone about them, he said that he actually managed to delete his account. If I had motivation, I might try to find a way to do that, myself.
I did rewrite my resume to separate out my volunteer, part-time, self-employment, and contract work.
Katie Recruiter, you’re quite comely in your LinkedIn profile. How about you read what I wrote, to find out if I’ve done the things you’re looking for.
Enough with that, though. There’s not a lot else to say, really.
AT the same time, I”m tiring of all this job search stuff. I do like where I am, what I’m doing, so why am I even thinking about anything else?
Maybe I’m a little flattered that I’m getting so much attention.
But what’s the career equivalent of scratching my head with my sinister hand to prominently display the ring on one of the fingers?
What else could I write about…..hmmm….
One of the interesting things I’ve recently heard with my marathon podcast sessions while I”m working is that this is kind of another major change in economics going on.
It’s a bit like Feudalism, or the Industrial Revolution. You now don’t need to actually own/horde much of anything. This is a big change from what people are accustomed to in Western societies.
I’m thinking of the “All I Need” scene from The Jerk.
No, I actually don’t need much of anything, really. Yes, there’s a few things which have particular sentimental value, but, if I”m not going to use them anytime soon, why do I keep them?
I have a tuxedo, which I bought in probably 2000, because I had something like five events within about a nine-month period In the *gasp* eighteen years ensuing, I think I’ve worn it once.
I’m nearly certain that it doesn’t fit anymore; I’m probably about 30 pounds lighter than I was when I bought it.
So how much have I spent housing that?
The same goes for various tools, kitchen implements, etc.
How much have I spent to keep these things?
Kind of what I”m coming to, and I’m sure my wife doesn’t agree with me on this, so there’s persuading to be done, is four tiers of things.
Tier I: Immediate use/consumables. This would be things like pershible food.
Tier II: Mid-term. So foods that will store, medications, etc. 90-day retention limit.
Tier III: Most everything else. If you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.
Tier I : Sentimental things. No time limit.
Finalizing this in my scarred brain, and winning others over on it….that’s going to take time.
I’m going to shut up now; it’s the weekend.
Seven (7/26)
Free Write
I’d plopped this out there, hoping I’d be more in the writing groove by now. Notsomuch. Oh well.
So, what’s going on?
Work: It’s progressing. I think I am meshing with my coworkers. Fits and starts getting me completely setup to work, but things are progressing finally. It’s incredible that many of the things that were getting me in trouble down in Tidewater are exactly the things I’m supposed to be doing here. It’s almost as if I actually do know what I’m doing, and give a shit about making sure I’m operating in accordance with published regulations. I can also trace those regulations all the way back to the laws passed that brought them about. A younger me would have cared more about proving that point, but I really just can’t bring myself to care.
Health. Nothing to say, really. I stumbled a bit yesterday about my considerations with regards to my soon-to-be-former insurer. I have lots of problem. I don’t know if those are considerably worse due to the upheaval surrounding my relocation. At the same time, I really don’t care. I had my infusion, and it made me feel a lot better.
I really don’t know what else to write about. Long week is long.
Six (7/25)
Apologies for the directionless venting yesterday.
At the same time, that’s part of the reason I do this. Just writing off-the-cuff is one of the reasons I do this (both in November, and in the summer).
At the same time, the energy is often lacking to do just about anything.
After the —a-caused miss of the Tysabri dose, I noticed that the positive effects kicked in a couple of days sooner than usual I’m wondering if that’s why the end-of-dose crash seems to be a few days early. Who knows.
Do you work better on a schedule or freelancing your time?
This answer is going to make me sound like a politician, but….
Both? Neither?
I like to have interim milestones, but I do like to freelance to meet those intermediate milestones. If you need A, B, and C. by Tuesday, break it down a bit. If you want A, and C on Sunday, I’ll prioritize to get those finished first.
How I do those really isn’t something you should be overly concerned with; I’m going to meet your deadline, and I’m going to be busy AF on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday finishing up Task B.
Perhaps I should bloviate move, but I probably ought to go ahead and stop for the evening.
(Side note: “Bloviate” was coined by Warren Harding. It really doesn’t mean anything, but I guess it describes lecturing about nothing. Despite the Washington Naval Treaty, Teapot Dome, and other various scandals, I’d still take Harding over Wilson….)
Five (7/24)
The thing I wouldn’t talk about Friday isn’t happening. I don’t know how I really should feel about that.
Yes, it seemed like it could be kinda awesome.
Just after I got that, though, something else may have come through.
At the same time, I am sorta getting in to what I’m doing.
No complete crash towards the end of the afternoon.
And interrupted by my wife phoning me to tell me she’s on her way home. I guess the racist fucks from Charlottesville are going to be rallying in DC this year.
You can’t imagine the immensity of the fuck I’m not giving.
I’m listgening to a recap of a Millennial’s weekend.
I don’t even know what to say, other than maybe I’ve eaten that much avocado as she had that weekend in my entire life.
Are you more likely to be swayed by logic or passion?
Given what I’m listening to right now, it’s definitely the former. Ayn Rand made lots of somewhat compelling arguments about reason being what separates humans from common animals.
Yes.
At the same time, passion is also important. Caring about what you’re doing, doing something you think is important, makes you more likely to do whatever you’re doing well.
I’ve been neglecting the things I think I do, even adequately, to try and sustain for a while.
Why do I do that? Because I’m passionate about being able, despite my failing eyesight, to look at myself in a mirror.
I don’t have any big regrets about what I’ve done. Maybe about some of the self abuse I inflicted on myself, sure.
But I never have portrayed myself as something I’m not.
Is that the battle between and logic? I don’t know.
I could probably ramble on all night, but I”m not sure that’s at all worthwhile.
Four (7/23)
Perhaps I short-arm this one a bit.
DNS woes are still wreaking havoc.
But I’m sitting listening to a meeting, so I figured I’d do the import of many, many old entries.
How do you feel about the political climate of the country?
I really don’t know.
I’m watching with bemusement about the 3D Printed Guns. Also what’s happening to the retired military talking heads who are getting their security clearances pulled.
The thing is, and I voted for one of the people who didn’t win the 2016 election, is the constant accusations of “treason.”
Could it be because people are really dedicated to seeing the president executed?
Somehow, I can’t put that past them. Maybe that makes me a horrible person.
Three (7/22)
I’ve been fighting through DNS gremlins the past few weeks with this.
I was too blind to get things really working the way I wanted when all of this moved to where it is now.
Then I updated to the new systems-ified Debian release, blowing up my well-tended legacy install.
I also haven’t gotten the mailing list stuff setup yet.
There’s backups on a sever that’s languishing somewhere with the rest of our stuff, as we hang in out temporary landing spot.
All that said, things are sort of coming around. Am I satisfied? No, not really, but it’ll get there.
I do have energy to work on things again, at least.
Still going through debates about where we want to land. *shrug*
You can change one significant event in history, and only things directly related to it will change in the future. Do you change it, and if so, what event do you choose?
The Treaty of Fucking Versailles.
There’s little more to say about that.
One of the places I am completely with Glenn Beck is that Wilson was the worst president in history..
Why did the phrase, “JDAM for Rushmore” just pop into my scarred brain?
More tomorrow, I’m sure. I am keeping up, though this afternoon’s issues gave me some second thoughts.