Catching up
Not a lot to say about any one thing... but lots of little things to throw around, so here goes:
The shrub is coming to visit... I'm not sure if he's supposed to arrive today or tomorrow. Most Israelis don't give a damn at all. Many, like myself, are more angry at the surrounding issues -- like that traffic is going to be messed up, and that the government has been spending much-needed-elsewhere money on cleaning up the area around the King David Hotel, so that the Shrub Entourage doesn't have its sensibilities offended by trash or a smell coming from the sewers.
'Cause obviously the press corps would be going back to the States and writing about that, instead of about their Main Attraction. Right. I mean, seriously, there's a walking bridge I go across on my way to work every day, and they were painting it yesterday -- 'cause someone from the Entourage might look up and notice it as they're going under it? Yeah, okay.
I'm embarrassed by our main English-language newspaper... I have no doubt that most American journalists do not even bother reading The Jerusalem Post, however as they're going to be here for a couple of days, I am sure they'll pick it up and read it.
And this morning, as I was skimming an article about what the Israeli government is going to do in order to try and get the American press corps to think about something other than their Main Attraction, I noticed bad grammar, missing words, and wrongly-placed punctuation. Don't get me wrong -- I do not copy edit every single thing I write, including this blog... however, it's ridiculous and embarrassing that a freakin' newspaper - the ONLY English newspaper that is published on its own, and not just translated from the Hebrew - cannot bother to have a decent copy editing team.
I was originally going to be a copy editor at the JPost, but they didn't have enough of a budget to pay me... and apparently, that's pretty common there. So they have an overworked team, working on tight deadlines with bad writing, and it's no surprise that there are tons of errors... but as we're going under the world magnifying glass again, it's a shame that we cannot prove that we know how to spell properly.
Things are crazy at work... we got a new project doing transcription for a national American radio station. We're on a 30-day trial at the moment, but if we pass it, it'll be a great project for us. We'll be able to offer part-time (or full-time) employment from home to something like 60 people or more. Nice.
But meanwhile, I'm supposed to be bringing in around 40-50 people in the next three weeks... in addition to the other positions I'm supposed to be filling. So I'm pretty tired, pretty much all the time. Such is life.
My writing class is wrapping up... it looks like we're going to go another three or four weeks. I figure it's going to take me a month or two to work on my portfolio, so maybe around April or May I'll start looking for another job. It'll be hard to consider switching... 'cause as much as I dislike my job and my company, I very much love most of the people I work with... and it'll be very difficult to leave them. Plus, the evil you know is better than the evil you fear... but I definitely plan on leaving my current job, 'cause I'm wasting away there and slowly losing my brain.
I'm a huge fan of Ritalin... After consulting with a psychiatrist a couple of months ago in order to figure out what to do about my regular meds, he asked if I'd ever considered taking Ritalin to help with my ADD issues. At the time, I laughed him off and told him I had no need for more chemicals to make my brain work better, as I'd developed coping mechanisms.
However, a couple of days later I was in class, and I realized that I had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on. I was completely clueless. And suddenly I realized that I was not, in fact, coping.
So I went to my regular doctor and got the prescription for Ritalin... and I am so happy I did. It's no miracle drug, but it is changing my life in ways I hadn't imagined. I'm able to keep my house clean. I'm able to daven (pray) and actually pay attention. I'm able to go to shul (synagogue) again, after many months of not being able to stand being there. I'm losing the scars in my palms that I've had because when I couldn't pay attention, I would dig my fingernails into my hands to try and re-direct my focus. I'm finishing tasks at work. My short-term memory is more than two milliseconds long.
It's freakin' amazing, and I thank G-d for making human beings smart enough to invent stuff like this.
It's such a shame to me that there are people who refuse to take medication for stuff like ADHD or depression, because they think they need to be stronger than their problem and just deal with it. Diabetics don't do that about insulin. Epileptics don't do it about seizure medication. Asthmatics don't do it about medication that helps them breathe. So why are people so stubborn about medications that could make the quality of their life go up so exponentially? Anyway, I'm a big proponent of better living through modern chemistry, and I'm glad I changed my mind about the Ritalin.
I guess that's about it for now... I should start trying to get ready for work. I wish I could go back to sleep, instead.
The shrub is coming to visit... I'm not sure if he's supposed to arrive today or tomorrow. Most Israelis don't give a damn at all. Many, like myself, are more angry at the surrounding issues -- like that traffic is going to be messed up, and that the government has been spending much-needed-elsewhere money on cleaning up the area around the King David Hotel, so that the Shrub Entourage doesn't have its sensibilities offended by trash or a smell coming from the sewers.
'Cause obviously the press corps would be going back to the States and writing about that, instead of about their Main Attraction. Right. I mean, seriously, there's a walking bridge I go across on my way to work every day, and they were painting it yesterday -- 'cause someone from the Entourage might look up and notice it as they're going under it? Yeah, okay.
I'm embarrassed by our main English-language newspaper... I have no doubt that most American journalists do not even bother reading The Jerusalem Post, however as they're going to be here for a couple of days, I am sure they'll pick it up and read it.
And this morning, as I was skimming an article about what the Israeli government is going to do in order to try and get the American press corps to think about something other than their Main Attraction, I noticed bad grammar, missing words, and wrongly-placed punctuation. Don't get me wrong -- I do not copy edit every single thing I write, including this blog... however, it's ridiculous and embarrassing that a freakin' newspaper - the ONLY English newspaper that is published on its own, and not just translated from the Hebrew - cannot bother to have a decent copy editing team.
I was originally going to be a copy editor at the JPost, but they didn't have enough of a budget to pay me... and apparently, that's pretty common there. So they have an overworked team, working on tight deadlines with bad writing, and it's no surprise that there are tons of errors... but as we're going under the world magnifying glass again, it's a shame that we cannot prove that we know how to spell properly.
Things are crazy at work... we got a new project doing transcription for a national American radio station. We're on a 30-day trial at the moment, but if we pass it, it'll be a great project for us. We'll be able to offer part-time (or full-time) employment from home to something like 60 people or more. Nice.
But meanwhile, I'm supposed to be bringing in around 40-50 people in the next three weeks... in addition to the other positions I'm supposed to be filling. So I'm pretty tired, pretty much all the time. Such is life.
My writing class is wrapping up... it looks like we're going to go another three or four weeks. I figure it's going to take me a month or two to work on my portfolio, so maybe around April or May I'll start looking for another job. It'll be hard to consider switching... 'cause as much as I dislike my job and my company, I very much love most of the people I work with... and it'll be very difficult to leave them. Plus, the evil you know is better than the evil you fear... but I definitely plan on leaving my current job, 'cause I'm wasting away there and slowly losing my brain.
I'm a huge fan of Ritalin... After consulting with a psychiatrist a couple of months ago in order to figure out what to do about my regular meds, he asked if I'd ever considered taking Ritalin to help with my ADD issues. At the time, I laughed him off and told him I had no need for more chemicals to make my brain work better, as I'd developed coping mechanisms.
However, a couple of days later I was in class, and I realized that I had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on. I was completely clueless. And suddenly I realized that I was not, in fact, coping.
So I went to my regular doctor and got the prescription for Ritalin... and I am so happy I did. It's no miracle drug, but it is changing my life in ways I hadn't imagined. I'm able to keep my house clean. I'm able to daven (pray) and actually pay attention. I'm able to go to shul (synagogue) again, after many months of not being able to stand being there. I'm losing the scars in my palms that I've had because when I couldn't pay attention, I would dig my fingernails into my hands to try and re-direct my focus. I'm finishing tasks at work. My short-term memory is more than two milliseconds long.
It's freakin' amazing, and I thank G-d for making human beings smart enough to invent stuff like this.
It's such a shame to me that there are people who refuse to take medication for stuff like ADHD or depression, because they think they need to be stronger than their problem and just deal with it. Diabetics don't do that about insulin. Epileptics don't do it about seizure medication. Asthmatics don't do it about medication that helps them breathe. So why are people so stubborn about medications that could make the quality of their life go up so exponentially? Anyway, I'm a big proponent of better living through modern chemistry, and I'm glad I changed my mind about the Ritalin.
I guess that's about it for now... I should start trying to get ready for work. I wish I could go back to sleep, instead.
posted by M at 08:12
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