I like the REM tune I got ear-wormed with. Takes me back to the computer lab in high school and learning Apple Basic.
I should resolve to go to the dentist in 2016. I kind of gave it a miss this year.
I'm going on Tuesday! We could be dentist buddies.
Flying on short notice costs so much.
I'm watching Roc Islanders hop a fence for firework viewing spots while police blow whistles to stop them. Whistling is totally futile because of the crowd density between islanders and cops, but the islanders are well conditioned and scare easily. The whisky probably makes this more amusing than it sounds.
Predictions:
(1) Trump will flame out once primary voting starts in earnest. He will blame the media and the GOP establishment, and he'll be partly right.
(2) Hillary Clinton wins the Dem primary but loses the election.
(3) There will be several once a thousand years weather events. Republicans will continue to deny climate change.
Resolutions:
(1) Exercise more, eat better, ladida. I'm working on this in tandem with my GF, so there might actually be some progress.
(2) Make a sensible long term plan and begin to execute it. Enough with the vaguely drifting in the direction of least immediate badness.
(3) Do something about the state of the carpet in my apartment. Between cats and storing stuff that leaked rusty water on it you could easily mistake if for a poorly cleaned up murder scene.
I can help with two of your three resolutions. The "Doctor" isn't just marketing.
(1) Work harder/more efficiently at work.
(2) Get serious about job hunting, because I've gotten insanely bored and annoyed with my current job.
I hear good things about jobs in Philadelphia.
I haven't been to the dentist in forever, but I did start being more conscientious about flossing recently.
The problem with jobs in Philadelphia is that you have to put all your stuff in a truck and move it to Philadelphia. Plus you have to actually fix all the stuff in your house that you had previously decided you could live with.
Plus, if you're not careful, you can wind up living in New Jersey.
Think of me as like a mighty oak, plausibility of transplantation-wise. My apartment is paid off, and the kids are doing nicely in their high school. Also, if a lawyer can't find a job in NYC, moving probably isn't the solution.
Yep.
I, too should visit the dentist, but probably won't.
It would be easier to think of you like that if you hung out your window and dropped acorns on people walking below.
Dude, get over the New Jersey thing. It's in many ways a lovely state. Majestic forests! Mighty rivers! Fertile farmland!
16: It's like you think I don't. I have to amuse myself somehow.
I've seen the Newark Airport, a convention center in Cherry Hill, and Atlantic City. That's probably pretty representative of the whole state.
I've seen the Newark Airport, a convention center in Cherry Hill, and Atlantic City. That's probably pretty representative of the whole state.
You keep saying "once a thousand years." I do not think it means what you think it means.
I guess New Jersey would be O.K. in that it would let me keep "Live only in states whose names start with N, O, or P" on my bucket list.
Moby must move to Montreal. Harmony in the universe depends on it.
(1) Maybe finish a project or two, just to see what that's like.
(2) Find a new job and fresh batch of coworkers to alienate.
(3) Move. My current place could only be cleaned with fire.
(4) I may as well throw in "find a fulfilling relationship" and "win the UFC middleweight belt".
Happy New Year's, reprobates. Fireworks were awesome.
I don't feel fine, though. The world is already too terrifying and sad and it's not going to get better anytime soon. So I'd rather stay right here, thanks.
signed, Eeyore
P.S. Cheers! Happy New Year! Hugs all around!
Now standing shiulder to shiulder in unmoving crowd in the metro station
All good vibes, but if this is my last post consider me trampled.
Having grown up in New Jersey, I take all the as-seen-from-the-Turnpike stereotypes somewhat personally. (On the other hand, I left when I was 18 and never looked back.)
But since I can't actually (less desirable earworm coming) turn back time...
1. Join the dentist-going crew. (I used to go like clockwork, but then my dentist retired and the one who took over his practice is too hail-fellow-well-met for me. Finding a new one, blegh.)
2. Get back to reading Unfogged in real time instead of weeks after the fact when the conversation has moved on.
3. Clean up the playroom / arts-and-crafts room. Right now, navigating through the room is like trying to cross a stream on a zigzag path of none-too-steady rocks.
4. Related, throw out more junk. We got rid of a lot this year, but there's still so much more.
Predictions: I will continue to complain about my job, but it will remain not-quite-terrible enough and I will remain too harried and distracted enough to put enough time and effort into finding a better one. Unless the entire contract ends, in which case, fuck. I will continue to spend an embarrassingly large amount of my free time playing World of Warcraft, but only in an idle way and not plan things well enough to achieve the goals that I actually care about. I will stop parenting a baby and start parenting a toddler, which by all appearances will be progressively more difficult.
Resolutions: get more sleep? I dunno. Getting to bed just 5-10 minutes earlier would be realistic, but not very meaningful. Getting to bed half an hour earlier or more, or taking naps, would be meaningful but maybe unrealistic.
At first I was going to apologize for being a downer and acknowledge that my biggest problem is temporary and even worse for Cassandane than for me. But on preview, hell, I'm no more depressing than most people in this thread.
Yawnoc, my family decided to let the turnpike viewers have their scorn, the better to keep them from staying.
Also, I didn't remember that you were from NJ. Which part?
31.2 is the rare "become more involved with internet commenting" resolution, but I wholeheartedly support it.
A former co-worker of mine grew up in New Jersey but went to college in Vermont and stayed there. She says when people find out that she's from there, the usual response is, "You're from New Jersey? But you're so... clean!"
I never make resolutions because I know I'll break them, but this year I feel morevvirtuous for having, in the last month,
1 found a job
2 avoided being deported (with one day left on the visa, natch)
3 found an ok apartment
which breaks a 2 year losing streak.
Also started posting here, which makes me less lonely.
I never make resolutions because I know I'll break them, but this year I feel morevvirtuous for having, in the last month,
1 found a job
2 avoided being deported (with one day left on the visa, natch)
3 found an ok apartment
which breaks a 2 year losing streak.
Also started posting here, which makes me less lonely.
Some people know this from the other place, but we're moving to another country for six months so the kids can have some language immersion. I still haven't exactly figured out my work situation but it seems likely I'll be able to just work remotely.
I cancelled my dental insurance for 2016 since I hadn't been to a dentist in years so it was a huge waste of money. (And for some reason dental insurance basically only covers primary oral healthcare--it's not catastrophic insurance in case something actually goes wrong.) Then I realized, shit, it's still 2015, might as well use that free dentist appt while I've got it, since I won't have the opportunity next year. So I went to the dentist a few weeks ago. I got a clean bill of health and she said I'd been taking good care of my teeth, so that's good. But it was sort of a pleasant experience overall and now I kind of want to go back, but I don't have insurance.
We're really having a collective dentist crisis here.
40: Dental cleanings aren't expensive. You can go and pay cash!
34 to 37.last.
Ooh, a real one:
(5) Work on non-violent communication. There was a Metafilter post about this recently and boy did I recognize a lot of my patterns of thought and speech in Rosenberg's jackal description. I don't buy into it completely, but as a framework for self-analysis and understanding others it seems like it might be useful to me.
I have never in my life successfully constistently gotten up early in the morning to exercise. Anytime I've exercised consistently, it's been when I've been able to carve time out of some point later in the day. But I've spent several year unsuccessfully trying to carve out later times, and it's just not going to happen. So, I wouldn't call it a resolution, exactly, but I do plan to make a good faith attempt to start getting up early to exercise. I'm not happy about it, but I'm hopeful that I'll be happy enough about exercising to counterbalance the unhappiness about getting up early. Also, I'm sure this will lead to a sleep deficit that may be just right as bad as not exercising. I'm not going to be unhappy with myself if it doesn't work out; I hate getting up early in the I morning. But I am going to make a good faith attempt to make it work.
42: do dentists not gouge the uninsured like other healthcare providers do?
Most dentists have assistants to do their gouging.
45: Not that I know of? I think the strategy is to get folks to come in for a relatively cheap cleaning and annual exam and then either upsell them into fancy (unnecessary) diagnostics (often not covered by insurance anyway) or to find expensive problems that need to be fixed. As long as you have a reasonably honest dentist and are good at declining add-ons, you should be OK. I stopped carrying dental insurance last year and nothing really changed.
A thing that I learned about dental insurance: you can buy it after you know you need it. That is, you're going blithely along with no insurance, then find out you need thousands of dollars worth of root canals or whatever. At that point you can buy insurance that will cover it. That's true in Texas anyway.
I learned this via the volunteer work I do helping people enroll in ACA plans. We tell them not to bother with dental unless they already know they're going to need it.
Predictions: togolosh gets 'em all wrong in 6:
(1) If Trump fails to take the nomination, it will be after a long, bruising battle - he won't "flame out." Going further out on a limb: The Genuinely Smart Opinion (most prominently from the Nates, Silver and Cohn) continues to be so stupid regarding Trump that I predict he will win the nomination. In any event, it's going to be interesting.
(2) Hillary is our next president. (That's obviously the conventional wisdom, and togolosh deserves credit for going against it.)
(3) Sure, Republicans will continue to deny climate change (just as conventional wisdom suggests) but that position will become increasingly untenable politically in the coming year, and you're going to start seeing Republicans breaking with solidarity on this.
Resolutions:
1. Get more sleep and exercise.
2. Finally prune my family relationships down so that I'm only dealing with the non-assholes. (Fortunately, my asshole relatives are going to make this easy for me.)
3. Help guide my father through his advancing dementia (which, bless him, my father is also making very easy).
Well I certainly need a lot of dental work. But I'm going to wait till I go back to NY on leave to have it done. I looked into getting some done here but what my plan covers isn't much and while I get free cleanings and some other basic work I'm just not confident in the level of dental care I can get in Arrakis. But I really need a lot of work.
My main resolution is to get back on my extreme diet plan and add regular exercise to it. I lost a lot of weight when I started dieting seriously sometime in August/September but a trip to Berlin in November and then December and those 2 weeks for that film festival and I just ate what I wanted when I wanted and I've gained back about half of what I'd lost. I'm bummed but after this weekend I need to start my regimen again. Unfortunately I seem to have 2 poles I swing between: rigorous hunger artist type asceticism and flat out piggin' out.
Other resolutions include getting my fucking driver's license here which is a nightmare.
Also resuming my formal study of Arabic, I'm stuck in a rut and haven't made much progress but I'm getting back some of my vocabulary. I really need to buckle down though. I need to leave here, when I do leave, with at least full professional fluency.
2015 was on balance an extremely good year for me. It was hell to get all the paperwork done for this job and get rid of a ton of stuff but I did it and moved my ass overseas and am gainfully employed doing a job I really like for all its frustrations, and I'm back in the Arabic speaking world again which was a long-term goal after having lived in Morocco for a few years in the 90s.
And best of all I met Chani and it's been absolutely amazing. So life-affirming and just a really major positive in my life, everything looks different and wonderful and full of possibilities with her in it.
I'm hoping 2016 will be even better.
togolosh, what's the basis for your prediction that Hillary will lose the general election?
Oh, and Happy New Year reprobates!
1. Revise and resubmit article.
2. Finish and submit book manuacript.
3. Kill any remaining cancer cells in body.
4. Have sex with my husband.
40: Dental cleanings aren't expensive. You can go and pay cash!
I've done that for the last several years, it's been fine (after being convinced to go to the dentist by an earlier unfogged thread).
Also, congratulations to Mossy Character for a nice streak of positive events, and best wishes to J. Robot on succeeding in her New Year's resolutions.
33: I grew up near Trenton, in almost-entirely-unsmelly bland suburbia. I went to the same high school as Samuel Alito and one of Chris Christie's Port Authority cronies (who I actually knew).
50: Have you considered a trip to South Korea for dental? It might be a good option for getting both cheap and good care vs NY, although it lacks the multitasking aspect. So glad your year looks good in retrospect since it involved so much anxiety in the moment.
Mossy Character, I hope your luck holds and 2016 is easier.
I don't do resolutions, but the last two and a half months have been grueling and sort of awful, and I'm relieved things are looking up. I am hoping the new year sees the boyfriend getting a good job after leaving Science Heaven to follow me.
Well, this thread has given me a reason to feel good about myself. I go to the dentist regularly! Hurray for me!
A couple of years ago (maybe I posted it here) I made a New Year's resolution to give up. I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise that I failed at that too.
Anyway, it's certainly of no help, but I'm sending all my positive energy to J. Robot that all my failures will bring her success.
I'm at an awful/grueling/heartbreaking low point in a lot of ways, but 2016 is going to be so much better.
This year's resolution is to continue to refrain from doing any cleaning whatsoever in Nworb's kitchen, however strong the temptation.
Oh, and train sufficiently to get round the marathon I've gone and signed up for in May. At the moment I run when I have time (10k or so a couple of times a week), which is fine for staying healthy but not terribly good preparation for getting round 26 miles.
My actual New Years resolution is not to leave my dirty clothes on the floor at least 80% of the time, and not to let the other 20% get momentum.
58.2: Give up reading unfogged, or give up in general? If the latter, I can see how following through could be difficult.
Thanks for the kind words all.
Power to J Robot and Thorn.
Congrats to Barry, and sympathies re foreign bureacracy.
62: Give up in general.
Although, I've resolved to give up posting on Unfogged once or twice too.
51: A combination of real negatives like her hawkishness (which will turn off a fair number of Bernie voters) and perceived negatives like her apparent dishonesty, and the trump (ha!) card of course being simple sexism. I'm assuming she's not running against Trump or Carson and that there's no third party run by Trump.
I won't be astonished to be wrong, but from where I sit she doesn't seem to have any particular advantages other than not being batshit crazy, and that's not a huge advantage in American elections.
She has been so thoroughly vetted that her popularity is solid. That's her big advantage.
I'm hoping to get a new job. I'd like to stay with the Company, but I'm starting to get pissed off at the lack of attractive openings. It might be time to look elsewhere, but that also means giving up a lot of cush benefits.
I think I had a super tiny role in helping 50.6 get going and that makes me so very happy!
I predict Cruz as Republican nominee and a vicious ultra nasty campaign. Would like to be confident Hilary will win but think too little of fellow voters, alas.
I shouldn't have said "awful," probably. I'm just at a stage where I have to endure a while until I can get resolution, but it looks like all the resolutions will be much more positive than I'd previously hoped.
You've done a lot this year Thorn, and I think you've really moved in a very positive direction for yourself and the girls. But inevitably making a change like that stirs up a lot of shit. It'll settle and I'm sure you will be at a much better place in the near future.
For sure this was the best year of my life in terms of progress made and how great I've felt about a lot of my choices. Next year we'll sort out whether the girls and I will keep this house or find a new one and exactly how much time and on what schedule they'll be with me, but the current status quo works for now. Ooh, and 2016-2017 is the year I'll hold no offices at the school and get to focus on my own interests! And the big girls should be able to scooter to school most days and I can walk Selah, so I'll cut my driving time significantly. Many good things are in the works.
I'm not sure I'm hoping my dad makes it to 2016. Reports from the last couple of days aren't very promising: gasping for breath really sounds awful. He's in Eastern Time, though, and so has only a few hours left of 2015. Making the end on January seems nearly impossible.
Other than that, 2016 looks pretty normal for me. My ambitions are fairly modest:
1. Hire good executive director for the non-profit I'm busy (not) running.
2. Good showing at my GTMO parole hearing. Get done with a couple of civil cases that really ought to get done.
3. Make up skiing missed in 2015 (ankle is still weak and thus sore).
4. Kids do well at what they're doing.
Clinton isn't going to win here, and probably won't even try. All the energy is going to go towards re-electing the governor.
I'm really sorry to hear that, Charley.
Charley is detained in Guantanamo? I didn't know they got internet privileges there. Or parole.
This year's resolution is to continue to refrain from doing any cleaning whatsoever in Nworb's kitchen, however strong the temptation.
See, people are so different. I find it so easy not to clean Nworb's kitchen that I don't even count it as a resolution anymore. It's just a baseline. I know that, if I find myself scrubbing his sink, I've really gotten something wrong with my life.
Well it's just past midnight here so once more Happy New Year to all.
I hope for Mr. Robot's sake (and J's!) that the list in 53 is not intended to be chronological.
I don't have any resolutions in mind, but I have a vague goal of riding 20+ miles at least once every single week through winter, and 40+ thereafter, so that I have a solid baseline of fitness. I really squandered my extraordinary early-'15 fitness, only in small part due to my knees gradually going to hell.
Oh yeah, maybe that should be my resolution: do something about my knees this winter. I can still bike and walk, but all other mobility is (mildly) compromised. I've never had PT or any medical care for non-acute concerns, so the whole thing is daunting and easy to put off. But no more!
HNY, Barry. Hope your trajectory keeps upwards. upward? Whatever. Go up.
I chipped the back of my front tooth, and let my mother talk me out of paying $300+ to fix it immediately. Now it's chipped more, and I have to make sure my dental insurance is still in place (renewed medicaid, because I am a poor) to get it fixed. I'm worried my dentist will have to give me a silver cap or something, because it's cheap and America doesn't care if people on public insurance look bad. But anyways, seeing a dentist is DEFINITELY in my future.
My two resolutions are: 1) do more yoga, enough so I don't have chronic neck and shoulder pain, 2) write 3 diss chapters this year, and 4) not buy any more clothes (I own lots of clothes, have not a lot of space, and want to save money to spend on more important things, like my teeth).
Predictions: I think Clinton will win the election, although she'll have the hardest time if Rubio is the nominee. I predict that Trump will hold strong in the early states but not really convert it into the nomination, and the establishment will hold its nose and support Cruz (there's a chance they both implode and Rubio is the most viable establishment candidate, but he's neglected his ground game, so he's not in as great a shape as he should be.) If Cruz is the nominee, then Clinton will win rather handily. She'll turn off a small percentage of Bernie supporters, but the vast majority (like me) will be too scared by the possibility of a president Cruz/Rubio/Trump/zombie Caligula to not vote for her.
71 sounds good (except the moving bit). We'll all be rooting for you.
81: If we move, it won't be far and it will be because it's financially advantageous to do so. I do have the option to buy this place, but it will take a bit of wrangling to make it all work out for Lee's interests as well as mine. We'll see, and the current habitation setup is supposed to last through the school year either way. I hate moving and I love this house, but my desire to not be tied to Lee anymore is stronger than either.
I think I'll pass on resolutions, as I can't possibly top this year's happy achievement.
This year really sucked, with all the health problems and the world and stuff. Next year will probably be worse.
My 2015 wasn't that great, but improving; it was defined by the bad seizure my mom had at the end of 2014 due to her MS finally catching up with her. She had to be in a medical coma for a few weeks to bring it down, and since then has been living in a nursing home, partially paralyzed and with significantly decreased cognitive ability. So for me that's meant constant phone calls and trips back home to help out my dad in ways practical, emotional, financial (not that he needs money, but the financial implications of elder care are befuddling). Throughout the year she's been improving but it hasn't been monotonic; she had another seizure a back in...October, I think, that set her back a few months. It's been trying but I knew something like this would happen someday. With her improvements 2016 is looking better, although a lot of that will just be adjusting to the new normal
On the other hand, I've been settling into being a home owner, we got another cat, and I read a lot of good books.
Resolutions? Be less of a shithead, exercise more (especially walking--getting a Fitbit has been wonderful for that), (maybe) drink less. Try to be more empathetic. Not going for creative here.
Predictions? I feel like we're near a tipping point in public understanding and disapproval of police violence against people of color (especially young black men), as well as public acceptance of trans people. So I want to believe that there will be positive results on both fronts next year, although there will also be trauma. There will be continued angst in the geek community but I don't know whether or not that will lead to sidelining of the hateful angry young male part of it.
Headed out for the night, so:
Happy New Year, all. Let's hope it's a better one for all of us.
PS-Also dentist overdue.
Very sorry to hear about your father, Carp, and your mother dalriata.
Yes, I also care about other people.
best wishes to j,robot, ccarp and daltiata & very happy new year to all!
I've made it much farther on weight/health than I could have thought possible when I started twelve months ago, which is gratifying. This year, no resolutions, but hopefully parlaying that success into more dating.
Seconding 55 and 70. Best wishes to all. It's been an odd year--i had realized awhile ago that I had gone the whole year without visiting the USA, but I only just now realized that except for an old grad school buddy visiting for a couple days, I also went the whole year without seeing any pre-Vienna friends in person. I probably shouldn't do that again.
How's 2016 since you're already there?
You'll be there yourself in like half an hour, dude. Have some patience.
I don't really do resolutions, but I have recently made some decisions about the future that I might as well mention here. The most important short-term one is to finally move to a nicer apartment. My mom is planning to visit in early March, so that gives me a deadline to move by, which should help.
Longer-term, over the past couple weeks (which I took off work and used to visit my mom) I've decided that I probably should plan on leaving my current job in the next year or two, for a variety of reasons. I've been monitoring job postings for a while now, but I'm going to start monitoring them more seriously and even applying to some jobs if they look particularly well-suited to me. This will most likely, but not necessarily, mean moving out of Alaska.
Even longer-term, and more vaguely, from talking to/arguing with my mom during this vacation I think we've both come to a better understanding of where we each stand on some important family things where we've been in conflict lately. I'm not sure what the ultimate result will be or if anything will actually change, but it's good to at least have a better understanding of these things.
Also, I too should really go to the dentist soon. I haven't been since shortly before I moved up here.
I never make New Year's resolutions, but I'm starting a new yoga class on Monday. And I have some vaguely formulated intentions (not resolutions!) to spend more time walking, and less time in the car.
And I love living in New Jersey (admittedly, I live in the most liberal town in NJ, largely populated by expats from Brooklyn who couldn't afford to buy in Park Slope. They all vote Democrat, and are annoyingly earnest about the town's recycling programme. So I live in a bubble, in other words, but it's a New Jersey bubble nevertheless!).
I enjoyed my time in New Jersey, and wouldn't necessarily mind living there again. On the other hand, if I got a job in Philadelphia I would definitely live there rather than in the NJ suburbs.
If you know SQL, they're looking for somebody on that.
Does that mean you've decided against taking that job?
So I signed on to the playlist that went Piazzola - Satie but totally *not* the Kindertotenlieder kicker, which came whilst I was elbows derp in dishes and now has me. Happy new year those not burdened by Gustav!
101: That is a different job at the same place.
How's 2016 since you're already there?
Drunk. And soon, asleep.
I can confirm 106.2, didn't manage anywhere near 106.1.
It's 2016 (because time marches on, and there's nothing, not a single thing, we can do to stop it).
Happy New Year, one and all!
(My dog is seriously freaked out by the fireworks. At least it's not gunshots).
I hardly ever drink or go out on the drinking holidays. Irregular bar goers can be a bit much at times.
To the detriment of both my teeth and my credit (I presume) I have neither visited nor paid my dentist for over a year.
Irregular bar goers can be a bit much at times.
Well, it's like hockey, isn't it? The house league is no match for the pros.
Is that how your dispute with them ended up?
HNY Mountain!
Dog does not like the fireworks.
Resolutions (or general hopes/plans for the next year):
Find a new job*
Kick off a bit more of the freelance consulting work I'd like to do
Walk a lot more**
Play guitar more
All of which should helpfully contribute to being a bit less stressed and miserable. I'd like to lose weight, but that's a multi-year commitment, and just walking a lot more would be a good start.
* My fear that an unqualified candidate with the appropriate gender would get the internal promotion turned out not to be unjustified paranoia, but ... exactly what happened.***
** since xelA went to nursery, I've gone from averaging over 10K steps per day, and often closer to 15K or more, to around 5K per day. Combined with the sedentary job, and the hours of daily driving, I feel like I'm atrophying.
*** I've been offered an alternative promotion --- one which recognises that there's a need for someone who actually knows what the fuck they are talking about -- which is actually _more_ money, and the same seniority as the other post, but I'm still fucking pissed off about it. I like the person who did get the job, so I'm not going to be a dick about it to their face, but they really are under-qualified/experienced, and I've spent much of the past 6 months rescuing a project they've fucked up.
That sucks ttaM. Just unbelievable.
Shit, ttaM, that's crappy. If you were to take the alternative, would you end up working harder and being even more resentful of you're supposed-equal? Would you look for a London job?
Resolutions? - to lose a bit of weight and exercise more in the next 7 weeks whilst I have time. Before Christmas I was working 12.5 hour shifts, which was not conducive to trying to eat less as maximum calories were essential, but I carried on eating similarly on days when I wasn't working ... Hmmm. Now back in uni for theory modules. March-August will be my final three placements and so my main resolution is to have a job lined up for September.
Sorry, ttaM. Sounds like they recognize they need you.
Sorry to hear that ttaM. Good luck with the other post/s.
The most important thing to remember is to stretch. When trying to walk more, your tendons can become a non-metaphorical weakness.
F'ing Christ, ttaM! That's rotten.
Kindertotenlieder kicker, which came whilst I was elbows derp in dishes and now has me. Happy new year those not burdened by Gustav!
The Ferrier recordings we've mentioned before, or something else? It was an old-recording day yesterday: I listened to the DuPre/Barbirolli Elgar concerto yesterday. Also somber but sublime.
I now resolve to eat the oysters my dad won't be eating this year. Thanks for the good wishes, friends. I'm going dark for a bit.
118: So, there were two senior slots open, and you got the better paid one? Congrats!
Ta, all.
re: 127
No, there was only one, although my boss has talked for a while about needing an additional senior technical post to cover strategy and set direction in that area.
They are scared I'll leave. So they've decided to rapidly go ahead with creating that additional senior post, and will give it to me. It'll be on the same scale as the other post, but they've [secretly, presumably] promised me I'll come in at a higher point within the scale.
There is a real risk that this post will end up folding in all of the bits of the other senior post, though, that the person who got it isn't good at. So, my acceptance of the new post is likely to involve very carefully outlining what I will and won't do.
We were on a Amarcord Wien jag, so it was the Elizabeth Kulman and it was only Im Diesem Wetter so sort of a homeopathic dose.
We watched some heartrending videos of Du Pre and Barenboim last night, one of just the two of them in a recording studio during a sound check, flirting at the piano. Heartbreaking. She should be an old cello playing lady now. Sometimes the universe is a bastard.
ttaM I hope your negotiations are successful and eventually you can parlay this into something more congenial.
Charley, my thoughts are with you and yours.
ttaM, that sounds like a potential disaster. Also a truly screwed up process. If the person is qualified for the job, then why create a new one after the fact? I do hope that all of this crap results in good things for you. (There has to be a pony here somewhere.)
Fertile farmland!
Is it too late to read this as a Chris Christie fat joke?
Apparently, "Green Acres" was a problem that missed it's obvious solution.
There's a show on our local NPR station (which is maybe syndicated nationally?) called Two Guys on Your Head, the two guys being psychologists and UT professors. Today's piece was about making change from the outside in. Super obvious in some ways but feels very helpful to me.
http://kut.org/term/two-guys-your-head
re: 133
Yeah, it's a bit messed up. The job, because it basically involves managing a team that does a bunch of stuff on demand (for money), has multiple requirements. Some are strategic, and operational: decided what we do, how we do it, and in what way, both in the short term and over several years. Some are more outreach and brand-building, i.e. kissing appropriate arses. There is an on-going disagreement within our senior team as to which is the more important.
The person who got the job is arguably better than me at the outreach and brand-building bit. Or at least, was able to be more convincing on those topics at interview. And, not taking anything away from them, they would actually be good at that side of things. I am significantly more qualified and experienced on the strategic and operational side of things. The person who got the job has a pretty shit record on that side of things.*
The problem being that the chair of the panel is clearly more interested in the sales/comms element, and massively less interested in the operations/strategy element. The other senior panel member, who is particularly interested in the strategy/ops side of things, was actually out sick the day I interview. So instead of a panel composed of people from both the operational and the 'marketing' side, it had a majority from the 'marketing' side, and I got hosed.
So, basically a disaster for me. But also, they are in a bind, because if I go, they don't actually _deliver_ on lots of things. Hence the panic.
* but my track record of success, and their track record of relative failure, isn't actually 'admissible' (for want of a better term) as a criterion for choosing a candidate. As a matter of formal written policy, in fact, in order to prevent people the panel already know from having a huge advantage. Letter of the law apparently applied in this instance, even though we were both known to the panel. Which then worked heavily against me.
Now slightly worried I should be going presidential. Meh.
My next year is shaping up to be unnecessarily "interesting" given where I am in my career and life (with the latter part of 2015 having already served as a preview). Massive changes in the company scheduled to take place through most of the year on an impossible schedule; and I am one of the leads in my part of the organization. Challenging in both good and bad ways... plus I hope it works out (me and a lot of other people).
And I will pass two of my company's retirement thresholds (under current rules which are always subject to change) over the course of the year. Turning tail and trying to go gentle into that good night does have its appeal.
If you have the right system privileges, you can set the copiers to use a picture of your butt as a watermark.
The ensuing investigation to identify the culprit would be a hoot.
All the Princeton alums get ruled out first.
I predict that in a shocking upset Donald Trump will be elected the next President of the United States. Also, it will be revealed that Hillary Clinton is a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
Where do nursing homes keep the liquor? Asking for a friend.
Behind the counter with the good drugs. You're gonna need a distraction.
Anyway, death stalks us all. I'm exhausted, drunk, and have to be awake in six hours. 2016 can fuck a coffee grinder. 2017 better watch it.
That's not actually bet far out of the ordinary.
I'm drinking Belgian beer in support of making beer with lots of alcohol and not enough hops to kill a horse.