Category: work

in office days

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They are the worst. There’s really no reason to be there. All it does is raise my tension levels, trigger my natural introvert’s social anxiety and make me work slower and worse.

I will not understand the reasons they want us to go in more often; the reason given was “camaraderie”, but fuck that. I’m not trading the peace and focus of quietude at home for a fucking high five from a co-worker.

Seriously. That was used as an example of why it’s worth coming into the office.

A fucking.

High.

Five.

Fuck that shit, Treasury Board. You’re either drunk, incompetent or power hungry.

None of these things qualify you for making decisions about other people’s lives.

If anything, they disqualify you.

Time to replace the leadership, methinks.

Target: 800 words
Written: 1230 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: 'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
Comics: I Hate Fairyland 19-20, Middlewest 1-2
Music: Live Shit, Green Day

anyway, back at work

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Perhaps we could just do away with the whole work thing and just kind of live?

I know that’s not really practical if we want, you know, stuff and food and shit.

But maybe we could make it less horrible, so it’s, you know, less horrible.

Less life stealing.

More enjoyable.

Better.

Please make it better.

Perhaps if we remove the profit incentive and just focus on making cool stuff that’s actually useful and providing for our needs?

Target: 800 words
Written: 654 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, CJ Cherryh (finally, a bit of progress - it should never have taken this long for a 250 page book)
Comics: Bully Wars 1-4
Music: Random Covers, L7, Mudhoney

coffee

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I think it’s time. As is par for Saturdays anymore, the cats and dog had me up earlier than intended (not the big one, the little dog – the big dog is lazy as hell and sleeps longer than any of us most mornings. She’s wonderful.)

They’re all wonderful, really, but they’re even more wonderful after coffee.

As are most people.

At my best, I mostly want to be left alone; without coffee, I’m full misanthrope.

Is misanthrope a career path? If so, I want to be on that track. Especially before my morning brew.

Aspirations are weird, aren’t they?

Target: 800 words
Written: 435 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne
Comics: Caliber Presents 1, The Crow 1-2, A Caliber Christmas 1
Music: Underground V4.0, Linkin Park

change for the sake of change

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I’m all for change; things change. It’s the only thing we can’t change.

But change for change’s sake, as pushed by tech companies and corporations filled with individuals who may have had a purpose at one point, but have now accomplished that task and are just trying to justify their existence?

Enshittification is a real thing, partially driven by greed, but partially, but idiocy and ego.

You design an app; it’s easy, it’s clean, it does what it’s intended to do and very well, all it requires is maintenance after that.

But then comes the lull. The people who built the app aren’t really necessary at that point; they’re really just there to fix bugs and security flaws. That means most of them can go. But they don’t want to lose their jobs, their prestige, so they start tweaking. This needs this unnecessary feature. What if we update the look?

Cornflower blue?

And next thing you know, the app is a mess, your users are disenchanted and the only thing you can do to keep them is to create more restrictive systems to try and lock them so they have no choice.

But all you had to do was maintain.

Someone should tell the bosses they are no longer needed. Coast, bitches. It’s fun, and it’s easier on everyone.

Target: 800 words
Written: 408 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Regiment, Farley Mowat
Comics: Postal: Night Shift 1
Music: Underground Network, Anti-Flag

new york bound

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I can’t afford this trip, but my daughter and wife decided we must go see some musical with Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway.

I hate musicals, but Daniel Radcliffe’s pretty great and I guess, the rest of New York is all right.

So we’ll do this, regret it later, and I’ll probably have to work a bunch of OT to catch up.

Fuck me.

Target: 700 words
Written: 367 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Fully Engaged, Thomas Sterner
Comics: Danger Girl/G.I. Joe 3-4, Danger Girl: Trinity 1-2
Music: Organic Soundball, Red Hot Chili Peppers

bite sizes

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I know it probably looks like I’ve completely checked out on writing, but I’m just in a lull.

My overall total of written words and time spent on The Mungk still exceeds its target by about twenty thousand words, so if I take a few days to regroup before the draft, I have the leeway. It’s one of the reasons why I keep a daily target and a total target.

That way, if there’s days where things go off the rails and the demands on my life leave me with barely time to take a piss, let alone crank out a few hundred words, I have the room.

And this past week?

I’m near to bursting from holding it.

This can’t be healthy.

Target: 700 words
Written: 54 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales
Comics: Danger Girl 0-3
Music: One Foot In The Grave, Beck

derailed

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I hate in-office. There’s so much extra (unnecessary) shit to do. And there are things that you have to be in the office for, but honestly, so much of it could be automated, or done by the group that is in office all the time, and with what they’ve assigned me this week, there is absolutely zero reason for me to be there.

It’s just so goddamned unnecessary – a time suck, a morale suck, a tension raiser because I don’t like being around all those people (I’m not a crowd guy). I work less efficiently, it raises my stress levels and the extra time I need in the morning, afternoon and lunch to travel, get lunches, get things ready for dogs, cats and whoever, the whole fucking week just becomes a drag, literally, slowing down any momentum I might have had with the extra time and energy I have from a work-at-home week.

Any why? Because they want federal employees to stimulate the economy by spending money on gas?

Polluting the fucking planet when we don’t actually need to?

It’s so goddamned irresponsible, fiscally and morally, and as human beings.

Ridiculous.

Target: 600 words
Written: 60 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales
Comics: American Vampire: The Long Road To Hell, American Vampire Anthology 1, American Vampire: Second Cycle 1-2
Music: Once Upon A Time, Simple Minds

office days

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Well, every third week, my days get a little tighter, when they can no longer stand to be.

The noose scratches at my neck.

I don’t remember who put it on, but everyone that comes by seems to give it a solid yank.

To nudge the chair under my feet.

How soon we do swing.

Today’s dark musing brought to by L7 and One More Thing.

Target: 600 words
Written: 94 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Carrie, Stephen King
Comics: Tom Judge: End Of Days 1
Music: Oceania, Smashing Pumpkins

spiralizer

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I use it mostly to create zucchini noodles, but sometimes, it likes to take up residence in my head, and spin me out of control, akin to a piece of fluff floating on top of a bath, that’s being rapidly drained out.

Where does all that water end up? The sewer?

Am I a piece of fluff, doomed to hang out in the shit the rest of my life?

I used to think I’d like to aspire to living in a cardboard box, but it’s a hard life, feeding yourself and begging for enough money for booze and drugs. Too responsible.

Then, I thought I’d like to be super rich, but rich people are always fighting off scavengers for their money, and there’s a disconnection and cruelty that festers beneath the freedom, and that’s not who I’d like to be.

Plus, there’s all you have to do to get there. You have to, at least, go to the convenience store attached to the gas station and buy the lottery ticket.

There’s no escaping responsibility.

The only way out is through.

Or death, but that’s a whole other topic.

Target: 600 words
Written: 725 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Five Weeks In A Balloon, Jules Verne
Comics: Monstress 35-38
Music: VU, The Velvet Underground

seeding

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I’m seeding herbs today, and it makes me think that maybe I’m seeding stories, little poems and things to grow my writing career.

However, like seeding, one needs the right fuel and the right ground, the soil, the nutrients, in order to sow the ground with something fertile enough to allow things to grow.

And I’m not a green thumb.

But I think that’s how I need to start thinking of my writing career. Create fertile ground. Find the right nutrients, the right level of sunlight, water as needed.

Pay close attention if the leaves are wilting.

Pray for little babies to push the soil.

Target: 500 words
Written: 818 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: High Hunt, David Eddings
Comics: Y The Last Man 9-12
Music: Vespertine Live, Bjork