John Scholvin

John Scholvin

still can’t fit a half-stack in the trunk

10 Jan 2020

Friday Five

What if humanity is an instance of the Peter Principle? A group of hominids on the savanna with above-average cleverness and opposable thumbs woke up a few dozen millennia later and found themselves in charge of a civilization of nearly ten billion, and stewards of the planet to boot? And they are way, way over their heads? We’ve all seen this at work or school. We know how it always ends.

I have two bosses, one good and one evil. A large part of my anxiety over the situation at work is because evil boss has done nothing but trash and belittle me for the last two months. He thinks I’m stupid and has no problem saying it to me or to others. But I had a talk with good boss this week. He has observed all this, and been generally supportive, but he made that support more explicit this week by telling me there’s only one person whose opinion matters, it’s his, and in his mind I’m doing fine. This makes me feel better, of course, but it’s not like evil boss will be changing his tune. The berating will continue. He is, however, really old and rich, so maybe he’ll just go away.

I’m still not 100% recovered from the flu. Going up a flight of stairs winds me, and I still sweat through a shirt or two each night. This shit is no joke. More than once it occurred to me how very old or very young people, or anyone else in less than full health, would literally not survive it. (Yes, I had a flu shot. Sometimes they guess wrong. I’ll get it again next year and every year.) (And you don’t get to say you have “the flu” unless it’s actually influenza. 48 hours on the shitter is most likely a norovirus, and a bad cold is a bad cold. Nobody dies from those.)

I have my favorite Democratic candidate for president, 1-2 others I could vote for without hating myself, and of course I’ll vote for whoever I have to when it comes down to it in November; most likely someone I loathe, that’s what always happens. But if one of them would come out and say that they will turn everyone in the current administration who has committed, abetted, or pardoned war crimes over to the ICC, and actively assist in their prosecutions at The Hague, that candidate will have my sword.

I wrote the following as my Facebook status last week:

I really fucked up and overcommitted myself this fall and winter. The combination of that plus my work travel schedule has affected my mental and physical health. So I’m hereby announcing that March is a “do nothing” month for me. Please don’t ask for my time for anything. Like if you want to go get a beer or whatever some random night? Fine, hit me up, but I am not painting any chunks of my calendar as “busy” for literally any reason. (Immediate family is of course exempt.)

I mean this. I have sabotaged myself for too long and I am stopping to reset. But I think there are people who don’t believe this applies to them, and I’m already feeling some stress about the conflict to come. No means no.