Author: sean

Election Day

Yes, I voted.  My wife and I voted for opposing members of the House, the same for the Senate, and split on two of the ballot initiatives.

On many things, I tend to agree with KMW, but not here.  I think you do get better people, overall, with indirect democracy.  That said, the Senate was never supposed to be directly-elected (mark me down as being against the Seventeenth Amendment), and I think the House should be made proportional again.  If they’ve gotta hold session in the Kennedy Center, so be it.

Chances are everyone I voted for will lose.

But how many candidates did I really vote for;  was I just voting against certain people?  Perhaps.

What are some qualities of bad bosses? What would you not do if you were supervising others? 

I missed part of this prompt, somewhere.  Oh well.  It happens.

After a very long day working, today, though, I guess a key would be communication.  There’s a difference between Lumbergh-style micromanagement, and leaving people on islands with zero feedback.

If you thought that I’m seeking feedback this evening, you’d be correct.

Yes, I’m adept at what they’ve got me doing.  Still, it is beyond tedious work.  My eyes are not happy that I’ve been staring at a poorly-constructed Java monstrosity pretty much all day.

But it does pay the bills, and the Saints beat the Rams yesterday afternoon.

I kind of have a working theory of football that was once again proved correct — if you serve up the fortyburger, you lose.  Even if you managed to come back and tie it up, if you served it up, you end up losing the game.

 

I’m very much in the “no” coalition on this one.  Things happen, but the background circumstances are rarely the same.  Maybe the outcome is the same, but…..

Apologies to the non-existent readers for the curt entry;  I’m tired.

Write a bit about your drivers’ licence. How old were you, where did you get it? What kind of car did you drive?

Not applicable.  I haven’t had a driver’s license since my unexpected move in Norfolk.  Prior to that, I had one, but I hadn’t been behind the wheel since late 2012.  I barely passed the vision test when I renewed my license in 2009, before I was diagnosed with MS.

I really stopped driving, though, sometime in the summer of 2012.  I had a pickup truck drop its under-bed spare tire in front of me.  This really screwed up my car, and I was very scared when I got it back out of the shop.

When I tried again between Christmas and New Year’s in late-2012, I realized that I couldn’t see a red stoplight with a green tree in the background.

Probably, if I wanted to, I would qualify as legally-blind at this point.

I was also having real trouble working the clutch without toeing the brake.

I never owned a car with an automatic transmission;  I’m happy about that.

What does it mean to be a good friend?  What type of friend are you?

I’m contemplating this one, and I really don’t know.

I’m still on good terms with a few friends.  There’s others with whom I’d just never speak again.  Some of those are due to adoption of beliefs I find insane.  No, none of them has become a Scientologist, at least.  Those who are fascinated with politicians who are disguised bigots I don’t worry too much about.

A couple folks might avoid me because of something I did, but I think the vast majority probably don’t know how to deal with me.  No, I don’t have nearly the energy I used to.  I also don’t have the money to blow on frivolity.  I made mistakes trying to live a life I couldn’t afford, then they figured out WTF was wrong with me.

Maybe there’s never any reward, but at least I can still live with myself.

Free-write

I drafted this a few months ago.  I’m trying to get out some of the stuff that’s stuck in my drafts queue.

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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

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I don’t know why I didn’t publish this back when I wrote it.  It does speak to the whole data mining.

How does government fix that?  It can’t.

I write this as I listen to a Libertarian take on the issue of birthright citizenship.

The more you read, and the more you think about things, the more your opinions change.

That makes me a bad person, I suppose.  Rachel Maddow might be able to whip up some tears about it.  *shrug*

Stuff in my sights at the moment:

Well, this.  I guess the idea is keep-it-big-but-regulate-the-fuck-out-of-it.  No.  Don’t do that.  If something’s too big, instead of forcing things, leave.  All you can do is take your attention and money away.

That, of course, is what I’m doing.

I’m also paying attention to the NFL, even if the fans, and the TV audiences have largely left.

Rams at the Saints tomorrow should be interesting.

Not a lot more to say, really.  I’m making prime rib for dinner for me, my wife, brother, and sister-in-law.  Similarly, I will declare that done when it’s done.  Like this entry.

So on to tomorrow.

Just in to the prompts today.  The second prompts are harvested from someone on OD, who’s trying to sorta resurrect the old NoJoMo bits there.

I am writing because I’ve already hit my work target for the week, and am out of workable hours.  Maybe, though, Sunday, I’ll actually have a full day off for the first time in like two weeks.

So on to it….

Are you listed as an organ or bone marrow donor? Why or why not?

I was.  My disabled guy ID doesn’t show it anymore, though.

At the same time, like anybody would want my organs with the sheer amount of chemicals pumped into my body, I wonder if anyone’d want them.  If there was something on/in me to salvage, I guess someone could have it, but I’m having trouble figuring out what of me might be of any use.

My blood?  No, I ate British beef in the 1980s, so nobody will take that while I’m alive.

Hair?  Well, what of it’s still left, maybe.

How would you describe yourself to someone who had never met you?

This one is tough.

I’m a married guy in his late-thirties.  No kids.  Nerd.  Not much of a professional future left on account of my physical disability;  I have multiple sclerosis.  MS has taken most of my vision, and quite a bit of my mobility.

My father was a career Army officer, so I grew up all over the place;  I attended three high schools.  While I was in college, I started working in television, then radio.  I stayed in broadcasting for the better part of a decade.  I left radio in 2005 to try to pay off my college debts, in preparation for going to law school.

Instead, I met the girl I’d marry.  I got sick, and she stuck around.

And I got turned around while writing this.  The work I thought I was going to do tomorrow got quadrupled.  Oh well.  I like what I’m doing.

November is tomorrow.  I’m sampling some prompts this year from a Teachers’ site. https://www.dailyteachingtools.com/journal-writing-prompts.html

1. Intro and what I’m doing.  This marks the ninth straight year.
2. Are you listed as an organ or bone marrow donor? Why or why not?
3. Free-write
4. Write a bit about your drivers’ licence. How old were you, where did you get it? What kind of car did you drive?
5. What are some qualities of bad bosses? What would you not do if you were supervising others? (No, I won’t aks for you to make your worst bosses, but you can write about why they sucked.)
6. Election Day.
7. What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought for yourself?
8. Is there an outfit, a meal, a drink, a style, a whatever, that you feel is the quintessential “you?”
9. Write about someone who is no longer a part of your life. Could be a love, a friend, a relative. Why aren’t they a part of your life anymore?
10. What would you do if you could travel into the past?
11. Veterans’ Day.
12. What has been the biggest disappointment in your life that turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
13. What is your favorite kind of weather?  Why?
14. Compile a list of words that describe you as a child.  Compile a second list that describes you as you are now.  How are these lists the same?  How are they different
15. Halftime.
16. What was the last thing on your mind as you fell asleep last night?
17. Tell about what triggers anger in you or someone else.
18. What is on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die)
19. What would you do if someone just gave you $1 million?
20. Recap of your year month-by-month.
21. Write a bit about what you do in a “normal” day.  What do you do?  Where are you?  Are you satisfied with your current situation?
22. Thanksgiving
23. Do you think steps should be taken by government (local, state or federal) to help curb the obesity epidemic currently happening in the United States? If so, what steps should the government take? If not, how do you feel the problem of obesity can be addressed?
24. Small Business Saturday. Write about small businesses you frequent.
25. Football.
26. Thanksgiving leftovers — what do you have, and what are you doing with them?
27. What places hold particular allure for you; where might you like to live?
28. Free-write
29. What are your holiday plans for Christmas?
30. Wrap-Up.