Friends,<\/p>\n
It’s been a while and the wet paper bag of events has finally managed to drop its load on my keyboard. In other, less pale mauve terms, a lot has happened and it’s time to share some of it with you, dearest reader.<\/p>\n
The structure of this post is kinda up in the air, so let’s bookend the thing with good news. Nothing here is particularly bad or concerning, but a sort of positivity sandwich seems like the way to go, so let’s get started!<\/p>\n
I’m still gainfully employed in my chosen profession! If you’ve been following the advertising and marketing industry, this is quite a feat. There have been massive layoffs—if not actual agency failures—here in the States and in Europe. Clients seem to be taking advantage of this by forcing rates down into the basement, but that’s probably not a great idea if they’re hoping to retain talent for their future projects. It works to bolster their quarterly results, sure, but skittish creatives are going to jump ship or change industries entirely. I’m not that easily spooked, so I’m sticking with it.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, we were pretty excited when the call came in to get ready to come to London this summer. My sweetheart and I have been musing about our first European trip together, so a free ticket for me meant half-priced travel for both of us. England? Great. We can get a free trial for Babbel<\/a> to learn the language, and we can get plug adapters for our chargers. Let’s go!<\/p>\n needle scratch.wav<\/em><\/p>\n The call today was postponing the trip. We bought non-refundable plane tickets, which added some complication, but there’s a happy resolution for that on the horizon. I’m not entirely sure what it is at the moment, but it’s gonna be amazing. Probably.<\/p>\n Before this happened, we moved my mother in-law out of her retirement apartment and into a great memory care facility. “Is there such a thing?” I hear you ask. What I know is this: she’s happier, healthier, and is more engaged. I think it’s very reasonable to say that it’s a great facility.<\/p>\n My illustrious writing partner was scheduled to have a hip replacement months ago. She’s SOOO much older than I am (eight months, friend. maybe cool it. – ed<\/em> It’s a running gag. Relax.) but it really doesn’t seem like the hardware should pack up this early, and I don’t envy her having to wait another few months to get the procedure done. Also, I missed commemorating her birthday, so I’m a bad friend and feel terrible.<\/p>\n Speaking of repairs, and I know that she has, if you’ve heard of P0456, that’s a small leak of your car’s evaporative emissions system. Without a smoke machine it’s hard to find those small leaks, so I acted on a hunch and replaced the evaporative system sensor based on a bunch of YouTube videos<\/a>. It seems to have worked so far, but I can’t be sure because, well, I’ve stopped smoking.<\/p>\n audience light applause.wav<\/em><\/p>\n Since you asked, I got the extra parts to install the Gotek floppy eliminator<\/a> I picked up at VCF SoCal<\/a> in my Kaypro 2x<\/a>. Have I done it yet, no. I’m looking forward to not relying on 5 1\/4″ floppies to make things happen on the machine which admittedly can’t do too much, but I still want to plop the machine on a table at the local Panera and start working.<\/p>\n In case you were wondering, the fans in my 2019 Intel Macbook Air are going nuts right now. Is it because I’m dropping so much truth (i’m not feeling very well right now. -ed<\/em> Me neither, dog. um, gross. -ed<\/em>). I think the problem is that this machine is underpowered, unloved for its zero-travel keyboard with the dodgy zero key, and ready to be retired. UPDATE: Or mail.app crashed. Why? No idea.<\/p>\n Remember how the Republican tax cuts from 2018 benefitted the very wealthy and threw the middle class a bone for a couple years to keep “the people” from revolting? It turns out that whatever enticement we had to not storm the Bastille has ended this year. Will low-information middle class voters blame the Biden administration for the tax increase or understand that this was a deliberate sabotage of our system by a bunch of cynical finks who are only in it for themselves? It’s hard to know!<\/p>\n Well, that’s about it for now. More soon.<\/p>\n Your pal,<\/p>\n – bob<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friends, It’s been a while and the wet paper bag of events has finally managed to drop its load on my keyboard. In other, less pale mauve terms, a lot has happened and it’s time to share some of it with you, dearest reader. The structure of this post is kinda up in the air, … <\/p>\n