Month: July 2023

Freewrite

Obviously, a lot of what I’ve been doing this month has been freewriting.

It’s fine. Sticking to a schedule is a big part of why I do this. What am I supposed to be doing? Oh yeah. That. But first I should write to keep the streak going.

Do this. Don’t do that.

It kind of fits with a lot of where I am on things like the benefits of religion, even if you’re not a believer. (And I am, but I’m really bad about taking my own advice…..I kinda am a shut-in courtesy my health…)

But I really have a reflexive negative reaction to public policy based on faith.

Kind of there with people who view the weather as an existential crisis.

That graphic won’t get a lot of play from politicians.

Credit to Human Progress on that.

Things are getting better. But that doesn’t do a lot to keep the small number of us watching nightly and cable news afraid.

I’m so sick of it all.

Maybe my perspective is influenced by the MS diagnosis? I reached the conclusion long ago that, yeah, I have MS. It’s probably not going to kill me; I’m probably gonna die of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Just like everybody else.

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I suppose, however, that sort of thinking speaks to some of my attitude about so many things.

I’m past the halfway point in life, so…whatever.

From Tracker on OD…

A long time ago, in the days before mobile phones, we 

Had a hell of a time getting from Point A to Point B.

Yes, this is top of mind after the rideshare driver had trouble picking me up from where I’d gotten an MRI at 0800 this morning.

Getting there was pretty straightforward. Getting out, on the other hand, was a pain.

But, as I pointed out in a discussion yesterday, things keep getting better.

The mobile phones were with the transportation, but the entire process of what I did would have been a several-hour process in the hospital even five years ago. Today, I was finished, home-and-back, in about two hours. When I find an envelope suitable, the CD with the results will be sent to my doctor os she can look at them tomorrow.

I should get some coffee, and something to nibble on.

So incredibly busy today. I can’t really say too much, but, overall, it’s a good thing.

There’s things moving in the right direction, but it’s requiring a lot of work on my behalf.

Maybe it’s nothing I’ll be recognized, or even remembered, for, but it needs to happen.

When discussing something to do with really antiquated stuff, I got the opportunity to offer Trebuchet as a solution.

Yeah, that’s offensive to people who care about the old stuff, and I wouldn’t say it directly to the fans, but there’s not a lot of a point in giving even partial assent.

But it is possible to say, “n0,” and not be an asshat about it.

Speaking of that, I did steel myself enough to get through Jersey Dave’s interview with Liz Wolfe.

She’s young. He’s willfully ignorant of anything that’s not on the Scott Horton reading list. Jersey Dave is never gonna read or listen to anything Matt Welch writes because Welch got into it with the NeoHips back in about 2004.

It’s interesting. I disagreed with a lot of the things Liz brought up…and those were the things Jersey Dave would have liked.

Ho-hum.

Let’s see how long the energy holds out tonight. I have a meetup thing in about an hour, then OP Live. Moved up the MRI from Monday afternoon to Sunday morning. I really need to be better about taking time off as I planned.

Another day, another day where I didn’t find a writing prompt.

I actually listened to an interview Jersey Dave Smith did with Liz Wolfe from Reason about her reaction to the RFK Jr. interview.

Liz is young. Dave, albeit 40, is young.

There’s a whole group of people in the NeoHippie movement for whom the epoch was 9/11/2001.

.

Why don’t they talk about the USS Cole?

So, dug back into my archives from that time, and noticed the I hadn’t written much about it.

The nearest thing I had was from February 17, 2001.

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5:05 newscast. A woman who was the financee of one of the sailors killed on the USS Cole gave birth to a baby on Friday. That is local news. They were both from Norfolk. Not a minute after I got off the air, this lady calls me and bitches me out about “glorifying” having a child out of wedlock. Hey lady, FUCK YOU! How many people your age had those six month pregnancies, hmm? Don’t you have anything better to do than mess with me while I’m working. If you disagree with our news policy, there are two knobs on your radio. One will turn the station, the other will turn us off. It works either way.

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So. Some swabbieyoung guy gets his girlfriend pregnant, then dies at work, and you’re going to criticize? Though Norfolk was pretty good at impromptu weddings (I can attest to this from personal experience….there wasn’t a lot to it when my wife and I decided to get married…), it didn’t always happen.

There seems to be a group of people who want to place all the blame for everything on the US; everything bad that’s happened since about 1946 was because of the US. Yeah, we’ve done some bad things. But we’re not the cause of everything bad that’s happened. And it’s not all because defense companies are trying to get rich.

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So. What else is up?

Work seems to be moving in a positive direction, although I did get a lot more work thrown on my plate. It’s not totally unexpected. It’s incredibly tedious. I knew it would come, but I wish I had a little help with it. I’d warned it was coming, was told I was crazy, and so on…but here it is. So I’ll do what I can.

Looking around at the news, related to the last paragraph, look at the appropriations bills. Um.

I should dig into Football stuff. Does anyone have a good recommendation on NFL preview magazines?

I got all screwed up on my numbering the past two days. Fixed, I think.

But the prompt I wrote about was about dreams.

Ooh. I wish i’d written more about those. Had kind of a long aside with the woman from the prescription service yesterday.

The folks I’m dealing with for the mental aspects of my disease. I think they’re curious about doing some of the more esoteric substances to see what’d happen to someone wiht a scarred brain.

I can’t do that, though. Restrictions from both my and my wife’s work.

Do I have even the mildest curiosity about tripping balls?

I’d be lying if I said that there isn’t a little intrigue.

Would I wanna go full Aaron Rodgers?

No. I still really don’t wanna puke. Ever.

But there is that mild curiosity about losing control. It fades when I think about the other things where I don’t have control courtesy my condition, but….

Also goes to the things where people felt lit it was okay to lie to the public in hte name of safety.

If you take this substance, you will either go crazy or die.

If you have unsafe sex, you will get AIDS and die.

A coupler of years ago, it was COVID.

At this point in time, I’m sick of being told to be scared.

Things, while settling some, are still in a tizzy at work.

Appropriately, aampling from a previous NoJoMo:

Describe a typical day for you at work. You can go total Peter Gibbons on this one.

I send a good morning email to my bosses letting them know I’m working.

I check in on the agency’s reporting site.

I check the systems connected to what I’m running.

I clean up email after making sure everything is okay.

Then, depending on the day, I start in on my panoply of meetings. Generally, two nights per week, I do preventative maintenance on systems. That typically takes about 90 minutes.

Not terribly fascinating, but it’s kind of my routine.

With telemedicine, I often have medical appointments here and there.

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Not very interesting.

So. What else? Things seem to be kinda calm, though I’m in a bit of an information void with the changes to work.

I’m tired, now hitting that five-week mark since the last Tysabri infusion.

Generally, when I’m not on a call, I’m listening to either a podcast, or news.

My mental health might be better if I cut some of it out.

But it’s kind of what I’ve done my entire adult life.

Recycling again from when I started these summer streaks.

Have you ever had to re-learn something that used to be second nature?

God, I feel like this is a nearly every day in my current role. I’m runnning very old software on very old hardware.

Have I dived into it? Um.

Not really.

For much the same reason I am not going to relearn the art of roasting coffee beans. Or working a timing light on a car engine. (Please excuse the tired appeals to food or cars, but that’s what immediately came to mind….)

Things move forward, and I’m not wed to doing things one single way.

It’s taking everything to keep from self-deprecating there.

If you hitch yourself to the winning horse, good for you.

Whether or nor I’m correct is a bit of a curiousity, but let me do what I wasnt tod to. I’ll pay your the same respect.

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Yeah, I’m really not feeling like writing a lot more on that.

Productive day today, but I’m feeling tired today.

Still am very curious about how I’ll feel after the new shots. While the Tysabri buzz declined the longer I was on it, I did appreciate the bit of a boost it gave me on a regular basis.

We shall see.

I peeked around my unfinished/unsaved entries.

I’d started this one, with the working title of “You Will Fix This“:

The title could be my general message on several things the past few days.

The things I’m not capable of doing outnumber the ones that I am capable of doing at this point.

As I said, it involved several things. I think one of them I’m still working, but my tone is the same.

I’m sure there’s been times where I was more than a little discourteous since I was diagnosed with MS, but I’ve never set out to, and have never intentiionally screwed anyone over. I can look at my ugly face in the mirror, and be okay with what I’ve done.

I really don’t need to be too reflective in thse, and really ought to find some other things to write about.

*checks 7/23/1999*

Yep. I wrote then. It’s not on full-display for myriad reasons.

From this day in 2001:

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So Maybe I’ve Missed Something….
….but I’m not quite sure what that might be. I haven’t figured out if I got a signal. Kiss me, maybe?

Art Bell is still not back. It’s driving me nuts.

Anyway, now I’m racking my brains, trying to figure out what other people are seeing that maybe I’m not. I believe that’s “Bull in a China Shop,” syndrome. Or like when you’ve got spinich in your teeth. Something like that. But I’m just guessing here, because I really can’t remember. And yes, I do want to remember.

It also shows that maybe I’m right with what I said earlier, that I’m consumed by other things. “Oh, it’ll happen when you’re not looking.” But is it happening and I’m just not paying attention at all? I don’t think so.

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Reflective even back then. Perhaps overly-so.

My overall conclusion, though, was correct, I suppose. Half a decade later, I was newly-involved with the woman who I’m still with.

Don’t think about how she was fifteen when you wrote that.

Don’t think about how she was fifteen when you wrote that.

Don’t think about how she was fifteen when you wrote that.

Oops.

Or if you live in a place that does its dates DDMMYYY, pi day.

People actually get in long debates about this, especially those who’ve memorized pi to the umpteenth decimal point.

It’s an approximation.

People get really sensitive when you take on things they hold dear.

Maybe I’m channeling my emotions surrounding getting blocked by the LP National Chair, but when you continue to do the wrong things, I’m going to call you on your shit

They talk about things like a national divorce, but won’t cut loose state parties who do things like this.

I’d rather spend the rest of my life in New Jersey than give a dime to LPNH.

You broke it, you bought it. Consequences exist for a reason, and if you’re a public person, blocking people who call you on your shit ensure that you’ll never improve.

So. What else?

Waiting on my MS meds to be delivered. Both the generic pills, as well as the ew shots. All three of my initial does will be during this streak. I’ve been looking to see what side-effects I should expect from this stuff, but it seems to actually be better than some of the stuff I’ve taken in the past.

Using it does seem to be very straightforward. Place the thing, hit the button, wait for the indicator to turn green, remove. They’re not individual needles, so no sharps container to deal with, at least.

I’ve kind of given up on my one-year-ago news site. Just don’t have the energy to devote, but I guess I can do that sort of thing during thi sstreak, too.

STFW for news fro July 22, 2022, and I get this.

I never understood why people paid attention to him, anyway.

But did you see him totally school Bill O’Reilly?

Yeah, I’m not caring.

Did O’Reilly gross more viewers that night than all of the big cable news outlets did combined on a typical night this past week?

Yeah, I’m gonna guess that he did.

Nobody is watching.