I Work Cheap
As I noted on geophlog, my price for taking cute pictures of your kids is dinner. That is, of course, the friends and family rate. 
The HymnalGNM: Wilco, Wilco
I’ve had this from the stream for a while, but now it’s great to have it in physical form.
links for 2009-06-26
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I only make this joke because I drive a Subaru.
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June 26, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Going Back
I’ll be back at work on Monday. I decided this today after talking with co-workers who wanted to check up on me. I would’ve figured our program reviews had happened this week, but they’re happening next week, and jumping into that is a great way to get my feet back wet. Next week is a short week, so I’ll be good with that.
I start therapy on Wednesday. I may need it after the PMR, heh.
links for 2009-06-24
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"Whether or not you count illegal immigrants in those numbers or not, the number of uninsured in the United States is far too high and is a travesty. It is nothing short of a massive market failure to provide a service to the general populace. It’s a damning blow to privatization of for-profit healthcare."
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The concept of anyone guestposting on gfmorris.com is weird to me, but if I gave in to the temptation, Bry would be my guy.
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Yes, I have like four versions of this show now. You think I'm crazy, right? No, I'm just going to matrix them together … FOR GREAT JUSTICE!
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"What Will's position reflects instead is ideology: who cares that the federal government could build a better mousetrap? They're the government and that's bad. His argument is really no more sophisticated than that. If a libertarian conservative wants to make this argument, more power to them, but they absolutely should not be turning around and suggesting that a public option would raise health care costs. They're saying, rather, that they're morally opposed to the cost savings that would ensue.
"If you've been reading me for a while, you'll know that, as compared with most self-described liberals, I'm unusually sympathetic toward the notion of the profit motive and private industry; I've defended Wall Street bankers and the AIG bonuses at various points during the financial crisis, among other things. It's my belief that private industry is usually able to deliver more efficient outcomes to the consumer than the government could.
"But usually isn't always."
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Jeff and Amy, I'm grabbing this for you.
Let’s just call this “six in a row”.
I wrote on Monday that I was auditioning for the Huntsville Master Chorale. My audition was this afternoon, and I was told that I had “a perfect choral sound” and that “I would love to have you in our group”. I mean, that’s not, “You’re in,” but it’s pretty close. Needless to say, I’m happy with it, even though I thought my sight-reading stunk on ice. [She demurred and argued that it was a challenging piece to sight read, which I grant you that it was, but still ... I missed notes! I don't like missing notes!] I was nervous, mainly because the last time I tried out for anything was ACDA All-State my senior year at MSMS.
Also, things continue to be good. I had a dream last night that I went back to work today, where I got yelled at by everyone involved for coming back early. :chuckle: Today was actually the first day I was eligible to go back, as the leave I’m on requires that you be gone at least two weeks. Admittedly, I am tempted, but there are some things I want to get done around the house and with myself before I start back to work. I meet with my shrink again tomorrow, and I think she’ll be happy with my results. I know that I am.
links for 2009-06-23
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So do I. I really dig it.
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I always learn something from Maciej.
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"Driving home from work, listening to NPR's story about health care costs, I couldn't help but be struck by a couple of numbers. The Obama health plan will cost a trillion dollars we're told. A TRILLION sounds big enough to end the debate, doesn't it?
"Then I hear, almost as a footnote, that that trillion is over ten years. That's still a big number to be sure. A hundred billion dollars a year. But then later in the story, I hear that US total health care costs are $2.2 trillion a year. Suddenly, that $100 billion a year doesn't sound so big. That's only a 4.5% increase.
"Doesn't it strike you as just a bit odd that we accept those kinds of increases from our insurance companies every year as a routine cost increase, but balk at the amount when it is presented as an attempt to overhaul the system?"
Four Good Days in a Row
If you follow the mood chart I started mainly for my doctor, you’ll see that I’ve had four good days in a row. The combination of the medical changes I’ve made are really making a difference in my mood and energy levels, and it’s awesome, y’all.
I’ve also been thinking about what I was doing wrong, because hell, it’s not all the drugs, man. To argue that my choices have no effect on my mood is just such utter bullshit, and turns meds into the crutch that so many people are afraid they’ll be. I strongly suspect that one of my friends who is struggling with depression right now fears meds because of the crutch concept. I want to tell you that they are not a crutch but a restorative—and you need that to keep the car on the road, but at the end of the day, you still have to drive, dammit. Kari sparked the thoughts that I’d had going to mind in writing about her issues with overcommitting.
Simply put, I got so busy at work that my fear of overcommitting—which has burned me out in the past—lead me to undercommit to anything that was not my job. Church, family, friends, self … all of you got sacrificed on the altar of my career. It was good for my career, but eventually left me such a broken shell of a person that I couldn’t hold it together to do the one thing I was theoretically trying to save.
It is entirely true that I am an aerospace engineer turned project manager. But to argue that this is all I am is just so, so wrong. I have long prided myself—rightly, I think—on being a well-rounded person. But the only way in which I can be considered well-rounded is in my physical appearance, which is not what I would call a Good Thing. [Just ask my knees and hips, which are both really barking tonight as I sit here in my desk chair.] I’m working on this, though. I plan on going flat out for the 40 [sometimes 45, sometimes 50] hours a week that my job asks of me, but I’ve got to do other things besides that lest I go absolutely batshit insane.
I’ve been working on this in two ways: one is, of course, seeking to get back into a church home. The other is something that finally came to mind today: auditioning for the Huntsville Master Chorale. I go on Wednesday. The time commitment may prove, ultimately, to be too much, but I owe it to myself and my baritone to stretch myself a little bit and have some fun.
