✌ Victory! ✌

Every day is Shark Week in our hearts if you truly believe.

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Not sure if this is Victory or Fuck Today. The steroids I’ve been on appear to have given me some vague sense of smell back. First thing I notice the smell of…Brussels sprouts.

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Yesterday was a good day for them to introduce the new BBS badges. Pretty nice to come home late at night and learn that I’m apparently “Appreciated” and “Respected” and “Gives Back”.

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I’ve been invited to join not one, but two different honor societies at my university. All that time I’ve spent posting replies here paying attention in class and studying really paid off!

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Also, driving my new Nissan Leaf is making me surprisingly happy for a whole variety of reasons.

Without turning this into a huge essay: it’s peppier than I was expecting, it learns your driving style and likes my driving touch and so has been steadily raising its estimated range on a full battery, it talks to my phone over Bluetooth, it happily plays my music from my phone or iPod via Bluetooth or USB plug-in, it’s new and shiny and not old and battered, and I’ve got it trickle-charging off our solar install now (while we try to get the solar company to fix some issues with the car charger installation) so driving it now uses zero fossil fuels. I just feel this car likes me.

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Much like @Clifton, I’m basking in the glow of something new: Galaxy S7, and it’s more than just hype. I’m not normally a big phone junkie, but I’m feeling really good about this one in a way I haven’t for my last couple of phones. I also discovered, completely by chance, that buying it made me eligible for a free VR headset worth $99 (so I guess being an early adopter has its privileges?)

What else is going right? Completed an assignment that was a monkey on my back.

Cleaned up a little.

Made some progress on a couple of collaborations.

Have been eating well today. (I’ve been eating really crappy lately)

Girlfriend comes back from visiting her mom tomorrow.

Discovered a new Glitch Mob song I really like.

Got some new clothes I really like.

Today was pretty goddamn awesome.

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¿Cómo se llama?

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It’s actually an old song I’d never heard until now, weirdly.

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¡Gracias!

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Victory, @the_borderer?

Good fucking riddance, at least.

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We’ll see.

He will be replaced with another Tory after all, and there are far worse MPs than IDS. Real sociopaths, rather than IDS’s ignorant and destructive tough love.

It will probably give me some breathing space though, I doubt there will be further changes to disability benefit rules until after I have got my renewal forms in.

Even the right wing press are angry about how disabled people are being treated, the only newspaper that I saw late on Thursday that seemed happy with the budget were the Daily Mail, and maybe the Express (they were mostly angry for other unpleasant reasons).


Tell me when George Osborne has been replaced with someone on the Tory left, then I will think about celebrating. If he gets replaced by John McDonnell I will have a party.

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Back in January I wrote

Well, following that, and a couple other incidents where I was on the brink of quitting, I decided to give it one good honest try at resolving it productively, and took it to the other principals of the company. I figured the worst that could happen is I could get fired instead of getting so frustrated I quit.

I started with the one I’ve worked with the most, and spent a while talking with him. He took my issues really seriously and scheduled a meeting the next day with all three of the other principals - excluding my direct boss. I tried to keep it as productive as possible, focusing on concrete problems I could identify that had been caused by lack of adequate testing, and on the state of the documentation. It turns out some of them knew about some of the pieces, but none of them had clearly understood what a bad shape those areas were in.

Basically, they’re not making any formal changes in the structure but they’re quietly sidelining my boss on these areas so I can work around him and accomplish what the company needs.

This week an ad went up on Craigslist for a tech writer on contract, we’ve got a couple decent responses already, and I’ll be starting to interview applicants next week. I have a plan for whoever we hire to do a full overhaul of the product manual to bring it up to date, and reorganize it so the reference bits can be integrated and pulled up as immediate in-context help from the application, while also adding a big “How do I …” section.

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It looks like my concerns may be well founded. Ladbrokes have Priti Patel (right wing of conservatives, works for tobacco companies) as 2/1 favourite to take over.

Fuck, please no!

Other possibilities from the article are

5/1 Stephen Crabb (involved in a welsh food bank, opposed government investigations into food bank usage)

6/1 Anna Soubry (has worked towards the privatisation of the NHS)

6/1 Chris Grayling (is shit in various ways, but nothing obvious in the wiki article regarding health policy or funding)

8/1 Owen Paterson (loved by Breitbart)

10/1 Robert Halfon (has cerebal palsy but has previously worked with George Osborne. Has supported homeopathy in parliament.)

16/1 Andrea Leadsom (Has also worked for George Osborne in the treasury)

16/1 Boris Johnson (May be one of the better choices going by comments made as Mayor of London. This is fucking depressing)

20/1 Ed Vaizey (Credited in The Force Awakens along with George Osborne for helping with tax breaks, once claimed 8 pence as travel expenses)

20/1 Nick Boles (Wants to cut welfare even further)

20/1 Claire Perry (like Chris Grayling, she is shit in various ways, but nothing obvious in the wiki article regarding health policy or funding)

50/1 Jacob Rees-Mogg (because the Tories don’t have enough cabinet ministers from Eton. Investor in tobacco companies.)

100/1 Philip Davies (thinks that disabled people should be paid below the minmum wage, filibustered an attempt to make carers exempt from parking charges. Is the most rebellious Tory so doesn’t stand a chance.)

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The warm glow of self-worth was all out of proportion to the actual worth of the badges, objectively, but welcome nonetheless.

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And it’s Stephen Crabb.

Can I be the first to say “Oh Fuck!”?

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like most external sources of validation, but…

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Two solid days of crawling up the walls (think Train Spotting, but g-rated) and I think I am approaching normal again. Slowly coming off the benzos while hitting the gabapentin hard has made all the difference.

My skin is no longer on fire, I have a mostly clear head, and I no longer want to scream. Not quite out of the woods (a psych checkup on Wednesday), but I think I’ve found a reasonable answer to the anxiety and depression I’ve had all these decades:

  1. Stop self medicating with alcohol. It is now a treat, not a part of every healthy dinner :slight_smile:
  2. Kick benzos to the curb. I got addicted to Ativan a few years ago after just five days. And those withdrawals were worse. And I’ve been on xanax/klonapin for a friggan year :confused:
  3. Stick with low, low doses of prozac and titrate down the gabapentin starting Tuesday to low, low levels.
  4. Exercise, self reflection, and light meditation.
  5. Finally, reconcile with Heather. She made a mistake, but haven’t I? I’m hoping we can meet somewhere Romantic in April.

Any suggestions about Romantic locations round 'nyah? (And not Levi stadium!! :D)

So…

Victory

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Hay, so did I! Nothin’ fancy, but work appropriate and decently fashionable.

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Hey @slybevel, what city do you live in?

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I’m West of Salt Lake City, near the Jordan River.

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