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.

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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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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.

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.

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….)

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.

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.

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.

Before I start in to the prompt I’d selected, I was reading through some of what I’d written last summer.
It totally seems like a different life.
I was unemployed, prior to my re-entry into the cluserfuck that I’d left a little more two years before.
During my thing yesterday, I mentioned that when I was in the clusterfuck managing the Windows Server environment, I was digging through my scarred brain to recall things I hadn’t done in about fifteen years.
Yet, that’s what was still being used.
Also, never engineer from scratch.
Colonel Boyd actually addressed this.
https://youtu.be/oC6bF4f2iiU
The payoff isn’t until about the six-minute mark.  Essentially, though, he told the Air Force higher-ups that they had a choice between making something that was only marginally-better than the F-111, or building something correctly from scratch.
Do you think you can ever trust a politician’s word
I really don’t have malevolent suspicions about others.
Maybe that’s a character flaw.
But I really don’t think most people are out to hurt others.
Politicians are, first and foremost, people.  In the vast majority of circumstances, they’re not to do anything bad.
The geriatric folks running Washington, aren’t trying to mess with anyone.
No, they may not understand Facebook or Bitcoin.  To me, that says they just shouldn’t try to control those things they don’t understand.
But, hey, let’s have the fucking FCC regulate the Intertubes!!1!
So, with the basic assumption that the vast majority of people don’t leave the house every single day looking for ways to screw others, you have to say that politicians aren’t either.
Would you be hesitant to ask a politician with a cell phone in his hand what time it is?
Well, he’s a politician, so he can’t be believed, amirite?

Description of what I’m doing, and why
I’m writing every day until 20 August.
Why?  To get back into the swing of writing.
This is something I’ve done for the past few years.  It’s kind of a summer version of National Journal Writers’ Month.
I’m plunking away on this while I’m rewatching training videos for the fourth time.  Most of these have multiple-choice tests where they’ll show you which ones you missed.  This one, however, doesn’t.
It’s frustrating.  Both that I have to spend so much time on this, and that I have to keep watching it until I manage to pick the right tile in the Minesweeper game.
It does make me happy, however, that I’m no longer in Norfolk, where, professionally, your ability to buy chances to play Minesweeper determines your career potential.
But, hey, Virginia Beach actually topped a list!  Negative Equity
So, got sidetracked writing this.  It may be something very positive.  The ability to use the phrase, “make the magic smoke come out,: says a lot.
We’ll see what happens, I suppose.
To quote Forrest Gump, “and that’s all I have to say about that.”
So.  Back to the writing.  No, I’m not going to post my prompts ahead of time.  I have many of them, already.

I thought earlier today, counting on my fingers, that I was okay on the days.
Nope, I’m still a day early.  Oops.
That said, at least someone actually did read some of what I said yesterday.  If I was petty about it, I might complain that it only took 28 entries.
So flashback time….

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8/17/2011

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That definitely feels like another time in my life.  Copaxone sucked for a variety of reasons, but it wasn’t the hell that the next two DMDs would be.  (Disease Modifying Drugs)
The second seriously had me considering taking the Red Line like Kate Mara on House of Cards.
The third completely screwed up my lower half, and gave me nice hives.  I did have another exacerbation on it, too, though the neurologist kept me on it because the flare stopped after IV steroids.
Then I had to find new specialists because none of the ones I’d been seeing accepted my plan from Healthcare.gov.  It was awesome.
Back to the Copaxone, though.  I wrote that a few weeks before my wife and I went on our year-delayed honeymoon.  (Yes, we had our first anniversary in New Orleans.  She’d forgotten about it, and was more than a little surprised when flowers were delivered to our hotel room….)
But it was some nice time away.  People at work today were razzing me about something NOLA-related.  I called someone a Saint. compared to someone else.  (I think I called Bill Gates a saint when you look at him next to Larry Ellison.)
So.  My usual line about the Saints — “I’ve been a Saints’ fan since before Jim Mora was famous for ‘Playoffs?!'”  So before the information about Greggggggg’s bounty scandal came out.  Before the hiring of Buddy Ryan Jr.-B.  Before #BlewDat.
“Blew Dat” is actually the name of one of my fantasy teams this year.  I need to figure WTF is going on with the other league(s).
Something to do this weekend.
But, all in all, a pretty successful week, I think.  My ticket queue is nearly empty (and all but one of those is almost finished)  I got my Tysabri infusion.
So time to go do weekend stuff.