Two major stories have come to light in the time apart from writing.
Most notably, and what will probably be consuming quite a bit of my time for the rest of the year, is the again death of Open Diary.
Most of my entries were private. I’d kinda turned off a bunch of stuff just when I left radio, and met my wife.
I have outputs from the old site in ASCII. the new stuff is largely a rehash of what I’d posted here in my writing streaks.
I suppose it’s sad to see it go, still, even if it’d really been taken over by the advertising bots. Even here, I spend a lot of energy making sure that junk doesn’t flood the site. Let’s blacklist that phrase. Automatically mark as spam anything that uses that one Cyrillic character. Time limits, approvals, firewall rules, and so on. I get it. It requires a ton of effort, and probably isn’t generating a ton of revenue.
I will probably send a thank you note to Bruce after I’ve gotten everything I want. I do appreciate what he provided.
So, what else….
Washington is really good about burying news to times that people aren’t playing attention.
Reporting came out yesterday about January 6th. I know, I know, biggest attack on democracy ever, Trump from his bruised, swollen, orange left hand. (h/t, too, to Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand)
But it looks like one of the pipe bombs found the morning of 1/6 had been placed by a.UC Capitol Police officer who would be one of the ones firing less-lethal rounds at the assemblage, really starting the riot.
Um. Okay. Yeah, if true, that is big news. But it’ll be ignored because it dropped late on a Friday.
Rep. Thomas Massie posted some very interesting to X last night about it. Pretty damming.
Does it even make the Sunday Morning shows? Even if it does, Director Smith is going to be unavailable to comment to answer questions on the network shows. This is important to Tyler and Olivia, and he won’t be missing it for the world. Those ruffians from Loudoun County do have a lesson to be taught, after all. Potomac is going to make sure it happens this year; lacrosse is not a joke.
So, back to what I actually had prepared for writing today.
I wanted to write a bit about the twenty years that have passed since my last day in radio.
11/7/05
The closer I get to zero-day, the more behind I feel, and the more sad I get.
So, it’s not at all easy….not in the least.
I’m really going to have to make a concerted effort not to hate this new job.
I think I’m also going to need something to occupy my free time, since I’m going to have a hell of a lot of it.
One of the salesbabes seemed really bummed that I’m leaving. I’m not quite sure what to make of that.
Tfffftbt….I have more to say, but can’t really figure out how to spill it out in an orderly fashion right now.
Unemployed
I officially am, for the first time since 1998, until 0800 tomorrow morning.
Really wanted to cry as I was leaving….really, and I’d planned to let it come when I got on the drive home, but I had a hassle getting out of the parking garage (I had to turn in my transponder, so no automatic drive-out), and by the time I really got on the road…..
Gone.
Still nothing.
*sigh*
Reading documentation about my new job now. 967 page PDF. Egad.
Transitioning away was abrupt. Once I got into the media biz, I kind of figured it’d be what I did for the rest of my life.
Obviously, that proved to be untrue. When all of this mess with the private disability gets straightened out, I can rest satisfied that I made the correct decision to leave. I absolutely appreciate what Bob and Lisa provided, and where those opportunities led.
I learned to live as if I don’t have a budget, to figure out how to do things with what I can find.
The people who work at the big companies, and control the certification paths, really don’t like that sort of operating.
Oh well. I’m finished. Please leave me alone.
I know, I know, you can’t do that. I should be beaten about the head for not treating the correct things with adoration.
Okay. Fucking shoot me. But do it in public where everybody can watch.
You still won’t get anything meaningful accomplished.
But you did get your participation trophies in the form of letters after your name you have to pay for forever to use.
I’m anticipating pushback on the “do it in public” part after some of the things I’ve written previously. Adjuration for doing things that would normally not deserve any notice seems odd to me. I recall Harry Browne writing about personal hygiene, teeth brushing, in How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World.
So you brushed your teeth. Congrats, I guess. But I don’t care either way if we’re not going to be close enough that I’d smell your breath.
And I’m all over the place. I am sitting waiting for last bit of responsibility on this trip, then wondering if the trip home is going to happen.
I anticipate that tomorrow’s entry is going to be more like what I’d typically write on a Saturday.