Haven't daylogged in a while, so off we go. I've been pretty busy with New Job, which so far is proving to be much saner and more likely to succeed than last job. Of course, it usually takes several months to find the damage in a dotcom if it's got decent morale and is moving rapidly, so. I've been working to get up to speed - unlike my last gig, where I was brought in to firefight, I can't just impose my will and design in order to make things better. There is a system here, and it mostly works, so I have to learn it fairly carefully before I can tell if I can (and should) make any improvements (I suppose I should say 'try to make' for humility's sake, because yes, I can and have totally screwed the pooch of course).
The worst thing about New Job is that they are healthy eating whackjobs. Almost to the point of orthorexia (cool new word a twitter pal taught me today). Me? I don't know, I don't have anything against eating healthy, but my God, people, kale tastes like chemical waste mixed with feces. Just fucking get over it already, hipsters. Well, those are the people ordering food for our company.
At least I'm eating more fresh fruit. And instead of starchy snacks, at 4pm veggie platters show up, so I'm eating that.
And, as I may or may not have blurted before, we have coffee. In many forms. Good coffee. Lots of it. Within reach of my desk is a Mr. Coffee for the traditional joe drinkers, a Nespresso for the yuppies who like convenient shots, a kegerator full of cold brew (not joking, thought it was beer for a couple days before pulling a pint at 5pm and realizing nope, I'd just get jittery) and finally a full barista station. We don't have a barista, we're not that spoiled a dotcom, however. Operating the espresso machine is part of our onboarding training, though. I'm getting pretty good at pulling shots. Soon I will graduate to the horrors and wonders of steamed milk drinks!
What else. A couple of days ago I was leaving work and I came across a huge huddle of floor lamps near the elevator. This wasn't surprising; they're moving another 16 desks into our floor, so there have been herds of furniture around for a week or so (desks, lamps, chairs, file drawers, etc.). However, on these floor lamps was a sign saying "We're being thrown out! Please take us home!"
These are 4"+ square-steel tubing floor lamps, natural brown (treated corrosion). Which happen to go perfectly with the raw steel coffee table and side table I have at home. Why yes, don't mind if I do! Over two days, hauled two of the steel beasts the length of Manhattan, but now I have lamps that match my tables! Hooray!
My right knee is now totally fucked again. I've been dealing by getting Prednisone shots into the joint every few months; the damage doesn't actually interfere with the joint working like my left knee did before I got surgery. But the right knee is inflamed, and the inflammation markers cause my left knee and elbows and shoulders to swell up too, and it hurts like crazy. I'm walking like a 90 yr old. Gotta get this fixed. Don't know if I'm going to do it before the bariatric surgery, but I don't know when exactly that will be yet - the docs are still dancing with my insurance company.
Yeah, I've decided to get the fat fuck surgery. At least (I think) my motives are pure - I don't expect it to fix my lack of a social life or my general depression. I am hoping that it makes my sleep apnea and my blood levels (sugar, cholesterol, pressure) better enough that I can stop taking at least one of the three maintenance drugs I'm on. Or all three would be spiffy. I feel that's a healthy sort of goal.
Recently read an article that says some docs now think excessive antibiotic use in children will cause them to become obese and remain so over time, due to changes to the microbiome (gut bacteria). This is interesting to me because from the ages of around 3 to around 14 I was forced to take sulfadiazine every night to prevent me from getting strep throat (a common ailment in kids) because I had had rheumatic fever as an infant, and strep can lead to relapsing rheumatic fever - which can lead to cardiac damage.
I'm fat. Imagine that.
So it's finally cold here in New York City. I wore a short sleeve shirt to work today, which was fine, but walking home after dark with the lamp was not as good, it got to around 48-50F, so it may be time to give up and start wearing…well, at least microfiber short sleeves, if I'm gonna wear short sleeves.
Haven't flown in far too long a time. Working on it. Have projects. I'm working on my second ebook, which is a compilation of the Spacelore category here (so you guys don't have to buy it to read this stuff, but hey, if you wanted to, I'd be most happy to sell you a copy! Or Amazon will, whatever). Working on a cover design now. I got super lucky and I managed to license a painting by John Berkey, one of my favorite classic sci-fi artists, from his widow to use for the cover! SO VERY EXCITED. Also, the inestimable Lucy-S has permitted me to include her recent essay on The Intersection of Science Fiction and Horror, because many of the tales included have more than a bit of horror in them.
Still working on second New York Magician ebook. Really. I swear. It's coming.
Also started work on a second interactive fiction game, this one based on Desiderata of Time and Elevation. So I have enough machine things to keep me busy over the winter.
Earlier tonight I gifted a friend's twin 11 year old girls with their first fountain pens. (Pilot Metropolitans, if you're curious). I was unsure how they'd take to them, but both of them (after squeeing and then demanding their dad teach them how to operate them) immediately turned out two full sheets of elegant prose and drawings and then carefully put the pens on their desks, so that went well.
I have two rifles waiting for me to pick up in Vermont at the local gun store - a Finnish Sako-manufactured M39 Mosin Nagant and a Yugoslav M48 - a Mauser K98 built in the early 1950s on tooling taken from Germany during WWII. I have to get north and procure the gun safe that I've been eyeing.
And now it's the weekend. People to see tomorrow. Sucks being alone, it really does, but so far I'm managing to keep busy, which…lets me forget that I am. For whole hours at a time.