I wrote a bit earlier about the existential weight of fear and the mental anchor that is the ever-present search for safety. It was a balm, but definitely not a cure, for the condition to get some of that out of my head. I suppose we’ll see where we go from here.
Inputs
1: I read a fantastic biographical piece from Lauren Thiesen over at Defector today, about the work to change one’s name, not personally, but outwardly, legally, and officially as the world ties it to documents and databases.
In my time in management, I managed an employee through the work-located aspects of a gender change and learned an awful lot about how the larger world makes such things difficult, on top of all the other inherent difficulties involved. Many people, upon updating their gender identity and shedding a dead name, do so by changing their employer entirely, such is the psychic weight of trying to move a machine that large.
To my employee’s credit, and to the credit of my former employer and their coworkers, it was an experience that went remarkably well. For all the pains involved in the process, my team was incredibly supportive of her and it turned into an opportunity to grow and bond as a group, as people shared their personal experiences with family and friends who’ve undergone gender transitions in their lives. I was, and remain, so proud of all of them, and of my employee herself, for their work through the process.
2: Read through Kottke’s 52 Things list earlier, and some days before, the list it was inspired by, Tom Whitwell’s “52 things I learned in 2023“, which has been running since 2014 and is always a remarkable collection of interesting insights about the world at large, from any number of angles1I mean, by definition, no more than 52 angles, but go with me here.. I actually tried to keep my own list of such things at the start of this year, in inspiration, but it fell off hard. However, rather than bury it in shame, here’s what I had going:
1/12 – Chuck-E-Cheese still used floppy disks to update their animatronic shows through this year (2023) (https://www.tiktok.com/@showbizpizzaman/video/7186009974852586795)
1/16 – By ionizing air using lasers, lightning was able to be directed to hit specific locations. The idea itself stretches back to the 1970s (https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/lasers-used-to-guide-lightning-strikes-to-a-safe-target/)
1/30 – The Texas Two Step is a technique by which a company tries to avoid liability by splitting off a portion of itself liable for legal damages into a different company. Johnson and Johnson failed to accomplish one when defending against lawsuits for asbestos in their baby powder. (https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-01-31-johnson-texas-two-step-bankruptcy/)
2/6 – Chock Full of Nuts is called that because it was the coffee served at a lunch counter called Chock Full of Nuts, whose specialty was a “Nutted Cheese Sandwich” made from raisin bread, cream cheese, and walnuts. The sandwich was chock full of walnuts. Via Adam Conover (https://www.tiktok.com/@adamconover/video/7196808838689885483)
4/1 – Pizza Rolls were invented to capitalize on a wave of American interest in both Chinese and Italian foods, and originally came in pepperoni, sausage, lobster, and shrimp flavors (https://www.snackstack.net/p/pizza-rolls-and-the-meaning-of-midcentury)
I’m gonna see if I can do better this year, and grace you all with a What I Learned in 2024 list that’s actually got 52 items in it.
3: After watching the three NFL games last night2The NFL would conquer the entire calendar if they could. Santa and Jesus are no match for the shield., I officially won one of my fantasy football leagues and made the finals in the other. One more week to go and we’ll see if I can make it to the promised land. Go Team Calvinball!
Projects In Progress
Webapp: Took some time today to try and figure out how to put in a CI/CD workflow via GitHub to the site. It, as most programming exercises go, did not work at first attempt. However! I’ll be working through some additional guides and hope to have a Hello World standing by EOD. So, progress? Kinda?
Notes:
- 1I mean, by definition, no more than 52 angles, but go with me here.
- 2The NFL would conquer the entire calendar if they could. Santa and Jesus are no match for the shield.