duermemucho's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- summary of the new life My notes function is now up and running again. It's been so long since I set up my previous blog I completely forgot that you need to activate it. Things are so much more old-school and low-tech here than they are at LJ, which is why I like this site. I'm not even going to mention My Space, aka Sex Predator Central, access to which has been officially banned by my employer. Speaking of which, seven people were fired from my work last month for inappropriate and/or excessive internet use. That's half the reason why this new journal isn't going to be updated nearly as much as the old one. I work (indirectly) for the US Government now, and in the interest of securing freedom and liberty as inalienable rights for all of us, they keep a secret file of everything I do, and if some unmentioned rule is broken I'll be quietly removed from my position and replaced by someone who isn't quite so inquisitive or so willing to use said freedom. There aren't as many interesting characters here as there were back in my academic former life. On the other hand, the structure here is much more hierarchical, which makes it more difficult for individual mavericks like my former Ph.D. advisor ("Woodpecker") to run amok, pecking to a pulp those who are seen to be inefficient. My new workplace is like a machine, and we all have the individuality of machine parts. Some might find that quite depressing but I like it, at least for now. I don't feel like there's a role that I need to perfect...the intellectual who can't get his head out of the clouds long enough to zip up his pants; the incompetent goofy screw-up; the motivated go-getter who irritates the shit out of all his associates. It's not as interesting when there isn't a big fat Iranian guy who delivers the gas cylinders and calls everybody "sir" (and takes a little bow when he does so), but it's easier since I don't feel like I need to be such a character myself. It's overcast and windy today, which is a welcome change. Last week was unendurably hot; a week ago today my city came one degree short of its all-time record high (113 F). That's bloody hot, children. I honestly didn't realize the interior regions of the northwestern US ever got that hot, naively. I went to Seattle last weekend and it felt like the hottest day of the year in Cleveland, something like 92 with similar humidity...but the amount of weather-related conversation hasn't been exceptional. I lived in Ohio for so long I had forgotten that people in the Midwest are unique in that they would talk about weather all day and all night if they didn't have to stop for food and sleep. They would complain about the rain until the sun came out, and then they would complain about the humidity, and when it cooled down they'd gripe about how there'll be snow on the ground in a month or two, and they'll have to get up half an hour earlier to scrape off the windshield and warm up the car. Never realizing that if you actually just step outside and do what you need to do, it's never as bad as it looks. I'm cleaning today. I miss Owl, horribly, but since I lived right down the street from her I seldom got a chance to spend a weekend day by myself doing what needs to be done. I have to find the positives where I can, as any psychologist would say. Not that I give half a shit about what psychologists say. 12:38 p.m. - 2006-07-30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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