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.

Thanksgiving Plans

Staying home.

Ten years ago, I was writing about many things Detroit. Thanksgiving football is the Detroit Lions. Period. End of Story. The Cowboys were Johnny-Com-Latelys, but I do remember viewing more than a few Dallas games. Leon Lett blowing the game. I remember a Cowboys game with Ryan Leaf starting as they searched a decent quarterback in the wake of Aikman. I think I actually caught most of that game driving to Charleston, SC to have dinner at my uncle’s house.

But Thanksgiving football is a Lions thing.

I stumbled across a question in one of my Substack groups (Probably The Fifth Column) that was a guy from New Zealand who connected with a woman in Hawaii. I think they’re engaged. But he was looking for information about what to expect on his first trip to Michigan to meet her family for a real American Thanksgiving.

LIONS FOOTBALL.

I think staying awake to watch the late Cowboys game when I was growing up in Europe was hit-or-miss. The Lions game would kick off just about when the tryptophan was really kicking in, and Dallas would have been something like 1am.

They added a third game probably about fifteen years ago. Probably in an effort to increase viewership on the Sinister Coast. But, for several years there, they were loading it up with all-NFC games. Yeah, I appreciate Lions-Packers. Or Dallas-Redskins Football Team Commanders, but both of those games make me a little less appetized to see Cardinals-Seahawks at night.

Last year they paid a bit better attention, and had some AFC teams playing.

This year, it’s a division game in the NFC North, a cross-conference game with the Cowboys, and an AFC-only game for the night contest.

I am more than okay with this.

So. What else.

News last night and this morning was making a lot over OrangeManBad’s turkey pardons.

Something something remarkable lack of class something something what you get with a Jets’ Fan slumlord from Queens something something.

I’m happy that I don’t have to deal with family who think I voted for him because I didn’t vote for Officer Harris.

Out Thanksgiving is going to be pretty simple. Just me, my wife, and the sickeningly-sweet tiny dog. We’re not going anywhere, and don’t have any guests coming. Money constraints make things a little less-celebratory.

When do I write tomorrow? What do I write about? My prefab prompts seem to be disappearing.

We shall see. But winding towards the stop of this streak.

I’m also trying hard, again, to miss having to work on Thanksgiving. That was kind of an expected thing when I was in radio, and working deep IT support. When was the last time I was in this situation, really?

Free-write

(Discussion of a writing question…that Perplexity did provide an answer to…)

I checked to see if there was anything I’d set aside, and maybe could complete. Nothing was really hitting. so here goes with the free-write.

One of the first listens today was Matt Welch on with LA Mayor Karen Bass.

My comment in the comments § on the Substack post for this interview was something along the lines of it reminding me of the Douglas Adams Somebody Else’s Problem field.

Things are iffy in LA, but things are getting better, and if there’s a problem, it’s because of somebody else.

There’s a few different ways to approach thins when you face questions/criticisms about something that’s your responsibility.

There’s no problem.
Yes, I see the problem, and here’s how I’m trying to fix it.
If there a problem, it’s somebody else’s fault.
If there’s a problem, it’s because of something that’s beyond anyone’s real control.

Response two is probably the correct one, but it’s not what you’re going to get from a politician.

Also had some good discussion with my psychologist about health issues, and some of the OCD-related issues. For many (most?) people, there’s a point where people get stuck in the “D” of the OODA Loops.

Worry about criticism in the AAR prevents any action.

During the AAR, too, I think you have to describe the first two Os that fed into the D step.

*searches for something about a job interview I had with a particularly-overbearing potential manager.*

There was this interviewer who seemed not to like my response to a question that I wasn’t interested in the do-something-even-if-it’s-wrong approach to IT operations. Just Act. Don’t focus on the Observation or Orientation. I think I said I didn’t want to behave that way because if you do, beating the problem device with a hammer was always a legitimate option.

I didn’t get the job. Given that the operation went out of business not long after should ease my mind a bit, I suppose.

The other thing I had for something related to the do-something-even-if-it’s-wrong attitude is from a 2003 private entry where I was talking about the USA PATRIOT Act. Circling back to the entry a few days ago, Lady G.

Or you could just let temporary things expire? So many things go to that in today’s news.

I think I’m finished for now. More tomorrow.

I started writing this waiting to see my PCP this morning. Before I went to see my mom earlier this month, I’d gone to the urgent care clinic because it felt like something was going on with my right ear. They said I had an outer-ear infection/inflammation. You’re fine to fly. Use these eardrops, and it’ll be fine.

No, I went, and was still having issues. After being back for almost three weeks, I decided to head in to see what’s going on. Since my PCP didn’t have any avails herself until next year, yeah, okay, go Monday.

Nasty ear infection. she wondered why the urgent care clinic hadn’t prescribed any oral antibiotics.

Um. I don’t know?
Are you allergic to any antibiotics?
Nope. Just the eardrops.
Are you allergic to antibiotics?
I don’t know? A doctor thought I was because of something that was probably an early MS flare when I was in high school.
Not sure if this is an allergic reaction to antibiotics; don’t take them again.
Okay, doc.

Since my brother is pretty good friends with one of that doctor’s sons, I should ask if anyone knows how he’s doing.

Back to the entry…

I stumble across this when looking at stuff I’d written the month I left radio. From 12/6/2006:

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Checklist

Job? Check.
Raise at job? Check.
Moonlighting at radio station? Check. (bad me)
Wonderful girlfriend? Check+

Just haven’t felt like writing lately. Since August my division has gone from eight employees to three, and it may be down to two (me and my boss) by the end of the week.

The girl and I are getting along amazingly. We’ve been going out for over six months now, amazingly enough. Not talking about getting much more serious anytime soon. Her parents actually like me, which is good, I suppose. She’s not ready to get a lot more serious until she’s out of school.

Now, travel starts. Richmond today. New Jersey tomorrow. Home friday. .

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It’s fascinating to see something that I wrote nearly nineteen years ago. Stranger, still, I’m still with the girl I was writing about back then; who’d have thought?

My regret back then was that I wasn’t writing enough. As I’ve said before, it’s probably a compulsion as part of my OCD. But unlike most ruminations, it doesn’t really affect what I’m doing. I can stop whenever I want to. I don’t feel that guilty if I miss a day, but the techniques I’ve developed do a pretty good job keeping me on track.

One of my earliest bookmarks from OD, seriously, like 1999, was talking about her decision-trees, and evaluations. My wife walked in while I was listening to the entry on it…and started nodding along knowingly.

I don’t plan the whole decision tree. I list the possible options, and just choose the best one. So much of what you’re trying to do in things like team leadership is find ways to progress through the OODA Loops more rapidly/efficiently.

I guess there’s been times when I worried about making maximum use of physical resources, but, to me, time is a resource. If I have 30 free seconds to do something that doesn’t absolutely need to be done right this minute, and doing it right now might require more resources. Whaver. I’m going to clean off that surface with a paper towel. Yes, I understand that cleaning it is on the to-do list tomorrow, but, a) seeing it bothers the shit out of me, and b) there’s not anything else that’d be a much better use of my time.

Maybe this is one of the problems I have with both government and religion? I don’t think you can pre-plan everything. You react to the situation what’s presented, and make do with what you have.

Yes, this is how I end up buying something I thought was deodorant, and was actually sunscreen.

But it sorta worked for a few days, maybe? The writing was too small for me to see until my wife let me know when she was going through what I’d bought.

Wow, this stuff doesn’t work very well; need to make sure I’m properly showered, and am wearing an undershirt.

I’m going to put your mini grooming products into your suitcase so you don’t forget them in the future.

Or i can keep reacting.

Maybe I should do better after-action reviews, but, in my experience, it’s just some small inconveniences. Accidentally spending a buck-and-a-half on something I thought was deodorant isn’t that big a deal.

But I think you you can get caught in a loop trying to figure out all the things you might have screwed up, and working too-diligently to avoid reporting that mistake.

And you end up with a suitcase full of grooming products you’ll never use.

More tomorrow. I think I’ve gotten enough for today.

The little dog arrived yesterday. She is alarmingly-sweet. I will describe further, provide photos when the blackout period is finished. I don’t even know that a western-friendly name has been awarded yet. I found “Daria,” which is a common name from whence she hails.

Crossing my scarred brain was “Ykaterina,” nickname “Kat.” So you’ve got a dog named “Kat.”

.

SMDH. I had an entry stored here, but didn’t have anything in it.

I’m starting to better-understand the concept of “doom scrolling.” Instagram, especially, can lead you into just unlimited time looking at stuff that’s really not, in the grand scheme of things, that important or even interesting.

There was something from WTKR with a reporter joining a crew replacing light bulbs on the building where I used to live in preparation for Norfolk’s annual holiday lights thing. “Celebration of Lights?” You’d think that someone who was in/near there from 1998 – 2017 would remember the marketing.

But there was something that happened in during the year we were living in “The Wainwright” where one of the solid strips across the top of the building had had an end come unmoored, letting the entire strip swing into the building. We lived on the ground floor, but, if memory serves, the end of the strip made an awful noise when it slapped our bedroom window.

Long story short, I spend a lot more time glancing at it than I did when I wasn’t working. Very skeptical about whether that’s improved my life in any way.

Trying to remember where I was with the whole light strip thing, I tried to look at some past years’ writing to see if there way good inspiration.

The stuff from very early is me, I think, caught in a meme cycle. The 2014 situation might have been a big brighter, but it was really still the clankity-clank of things going up the hill of the roller coaster.

i’d tried, and failed, at starting a new business. Strange that that the sorts of things I was considering are now commonplace in IT. It was almost an unspoken truth that you needed to be some place with good Intertubes services to even consider doing something online.

Memories of the 757.org machine shuffling first from Ethan’s house, then to 757Tech office, Ethan’s apartment in The Botetourt, 757 Labs at the Wainwright, then finally a datacenter in NoVA.

This was all after it’d been spun up in a bedroom in Virginia Beach.

I’m sure I missed a few of the interleaving steps.

Same goes for the HR Geeks stuff, which started as something like a Pentium 4 notebook motherboard I’d moved into a cheap rackmount case after the screen on the laptop died.

Wow. I think the Thai place where we had the first meeting in 2004 is still open.

This is where the guy with the maybe gray mustache would start with an “in my day” story about needing to find a place and time to hold meetings.

On closer examination, it’s still pretty much golden, and needs to be trimmed. I should do that before I go into the city tomorrow?

Other stuff…..

Many thoughts about this from TheFP. While I appreciate the way he’s going with the article, I got derailed thinking about the things that are happening in Virginia with Gov.-Elect CIA. My fine neighbors on Nextdoor are very excited about the things the Party of Harry F. Byrd are planning to do now that they’ve wrested full control of the Commonwealth from the Northern Aggressors. One of the things that’s high on the list is repealing Virginia’s Right-To-Work. law.

If you want to exercise your natural right to work, to pursue your happiness, you have to pay alms to a union that might not represent any of your values, who’d take money from you to give to politicians you don’t support.

Freedom!

Whatever you want to do, you will do it in the manner we prescribe, or men with guns will throw you in prison.

I don’t need another cup of coffee, but I do want one after plunking all that out.

How do you feel about people’s need to post every detail of their relationships on social media? Are you guilty?

This pairs so well with my overall approach to so many things today. It strangely fits in with what I was tinkering with yesterday, debating about how to go get a medical issue reexamined. (My questions were along the lines of, “where am I as far as my deductibles for this year?” and “How much is this going to cost out-of-pocket while you’re waiting for the disability appeal?”) Is it potentially something really problematic? Do I want to know with the holidays starting next week?

I am going to go Monday after all; it’s the last opening my primary doc has this year, so it’s a bit of an opportunity to send holiday wishes, too.

But, even here, I’m not going to blab share my worst thoughts about what it is. There aren’t any really any gruesome photos that can be shared. (I can’t see any of it; it’s an ear problem.) But if you were to encounter me, you’d be none-the-wiser about what’s going on.

MS is kind of the same way; But You don’t look sick! Nope. Sure don’t. And if I hasn’t told you, you’d never know.

I just look like a forty-something dude with a suspiciously-blonde mustache. I’m starting to wonder if that’s just how my body is expressing gray hair; it appears blonde. No salt-and-pepper here.

Maybe I should let the hair on my head grow a bit more to see if it’s the same shade.

But back to the topic; while health issues aren’t relationship issues, I think they’re treated with same circumspection. As I’ve slipped into the Ginger Dropout’s Social Media tool more, I’ve seen where information gets filtered/sorted. It’s very strange, and I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.

Often the things I’m seeing, now, are about professional athletes being cut, or coaches being fired. You dig a bit more, and it turns out to be untrue. Maybe there’s folks within the organization who are dissatisfied with how things are going, but…

I don’t need to know much about what’s going on in someone else’s life. In face, for the most part, I don’t want to know.

I wrote a few days ago about asking one of the AI tools to tell me as much as it could about the address where I used to live in Bad Newz. (Yes, y’all. I lived on a numbered street in Newport News, and saw Ookie play high school ball…) I think in very old radio days, there used to be a tracked stat — TSL (Time Spent Listening). Many, many of these sorts of stories are very short TSL. The real information might be buried somewhere in the story, but you’d need to read way down to find the information that doesn’t necessarily match the headline.

But people are getting better at sifting through data, and drawing conclusions from the sift job.

Senator Graham was very upset that Jack Smith had been spying on his phone activity. One of the FB comments about it said something along the lines of They found Lady G’s Grindr account. And you can STFW, yourself, for the meaning of “Lady G.”

But do I really need to know what he does in his downtime? (Given that he’s a Senator, there’s a ton…) No, not really. Reason is upset that he helped clear the path for the tools to be developed. (And the obligatory disclaimer that I have been a financial donor to The Reason Foundation…)

I understand why he’s upset. I also understand why Reason is upset.

But this was going to happen regardless of what government did or didn’t do.

You can ferret out whatever information you want about someone else’s relationship, and you’re never going to have the actual story.

So, stop trying? It probably isn’t any of your business, anyway.

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In tangentially-related news, looks like JFK’s grandson is running for Congress. Do I really care if he engages in the sort of excess his grandfather, and other male relatives purportedly did? Nah, not really. If he does, he’ll probably get away with it, which raises all sorts of other questions.