It was good while it lasted

Unless a miracle occurs in the next 48 hours, I’m going to be on disability or unemployed next week. The new regime at work requires my position to be 9-5 in an office and I’m not physically capable of that currently. After five years I have a near-instant ultimatum to do the Dilbert or leave.

The prognosis for my neurofeedback treatment is that I should be in the period now where improvement occurs, but that’s roughly a two-month period according to my practitioner. That’s not an acceptable timeframe for my bosses. So, depending on bureaucracy and things I don’t understand well enough to predict, I’ll either go on temporary disabiliity and re-evaluate at some point for possible full employment, or just lose my job.

Either way my income is about to dive. I have debt and I’m bad with money, and all the therapeutic interventions require cash too. I’m also bad at filing claims, with the result that I’m way behind in getting reimbursed for things. And anything that might speed recovery requires yet more cash.

This has left me in the unfortunate position of being that middle-aged geek who has to ask his family for an allowance. I don’t enjoy the stereotype, but it beats actual poverty. I shall try to feel lucky about that part and rise above the shame.

mobile technology!

I was just sitting here freakwatching at Ruba and got the irresistable urge to hear “Scotland the Brave.”

Two minutes later, the Gordon Highlanders were providing my soundtrack.

The next pick on random was “Summer of Drugs” which was apropos for the environment.

SINK THE BIZDEV!

ahhhlisaaah reports that:

Vince Neil, lead singer of Motley Crue, is headlining a three-night MOTLEY CRUISE in January that will sail to the Bahamas from Florida – he’ll be featured with his solo band on the ship.

Cruises, like second-rank Vegas hotels, are the natural destination of has-been entertainers. I’m not sure whether this one would be better or worse than the Styx Cruise, but it doesn’t have the wonderful cultural resonance of that one anyway.

the new old thing

It’s opening day here at the Panera Bakery & Café on 17th Street in Costa Mesa and folks we’re seeing a lot of unforced errors. I think that actually every order is being filled wrong in some way. Everyone’s cheerful though, both the very young employees and the very bland Zero Day customers.

The Wi-Fi works and is free. It tries to launch some PORTAL PAGE and fails, and you can’t get to Panera’s own site. This suggests to me that someone reversed a firewall rule.

I can see the sign of the “new” Diedrich from here. Waving good-bye.

There’s a patio of sorts and it’s open until 9. Coffee’s okay.

sexy!

Women wearing Converse shoes are sexy.

Women reading books are sexy. The weirder and harder the book, the hotter.

Women over 30 with beat-up cars and weird t-shirts are sexy.

Women with excessively loud laughs are sexy.

Women who skateboard are sexy.

Women who speak in declarative sentences and directly without tilting their heads to one side or trying to look up at me are very, very sexy.

There’s no romance in piracy.

Does anyone have a good reference for Indonesian and Malaysian dialect and pidgin? I want my Talk like a Pirate Day experience to be authentic. Ideally I should sound like real pirates: boatloads of emaciated Malay drug addicts who swarm freighters in the Malacca Straits and hack up the crew with dull machetes, shrieking happily.

Or maybe Somali. Ships are supposed to stay > 100 miles off the coast of Somalia to avoid the local industry there, too.