Arrive Without Traveling

I've been posting these fairly early in the day* over the last several months because I've had the extreme and borderline obscene luxury of having whole days off while still getting paid for the job I still technically have. I've documented this extensively since this program period began back in April so I won't belabor it, but suffice it to say that the persistence of my availability at some point in the last month or so has started to edge away from Hedonist's Utopia and teeter toward Something Of A Pickle.

While the circumstances of being able to pay my bills has been "You know what, that's a funny story..." for the better part of 2026 by now, I'm very aware that one's abilities as a raconteur don't really enter into it when you get to the point where you aren't able to pay the same bills. It turns out just about everyone in Accounts Receivable, regardless of industry or institution, are humorless sticklers. Some stereotypes (like boring accountants) are built on verifiable experience in statistically meaningful sample sizes. See, they've even got mean talking that nerd shit.

All this means I'm getting right down to it in terms of my need to get another job. One that pays money and has health coverage, exotic features like that.

Today's posting is later than unsual as I had to spend the morning prepping for and then attending my first real measurable opportunity since I started looking in earnest back in June. It was a video call job interview using Microsoft Teams (Zoom is for Millennials, apparently, so passé) for a position that overlaps well with my skills, but would give me a 1-2 hour commute (one way) to basically LAX every day. If you don't live in the area and you're wondering how far I'm talking, just know that "basically LAX" is automatically "too far" no matter where the point of origin is.

But beggars-in-prospect can't be choosers-in-fact. So I took the interview.

I think I did OK, but the real downside of a) having little to no contact with professional adults for half a year and b) being a twitchy recluse at the core of one's nature is that you can forget how to Person. I acquitted myself acceptably though, I think. I didn't do any swearing or work in a racially insensitive joke as an ice-breaker. It's another job working in the 2026 defense industry headed by Pete Hegseth though, so that last part might actually count against me.

I've got a few other prospect on the go, plus a whole shitload of other life-changing rearrangement happening, so it's possible future postings might be "late." But that's not just a quantum abstraction, when I post this when I feel like it and you read it when you can. It's almost metaphysics to point out that if you're reading this right now, I can't have posted it not on time. Think about that.

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*Early in the day for me. The really interesting AND ALSO super tedious types of physics people will tell you the idea of simultaneity, a "now" that two different conscious beings can meaningfully agree upon, is an absurdity. This has something to do with gravity and spacetime and distance and probably the speed of light. Please keep this in mind the next time I'm "late." Also maybe I just mean because time zones...