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As predicted, a week of slowly starting to care again about work and my own small life, with its limited "adjacent possibles" and its fake adventures in the corporate world. On Monday I just couldn't care, and by Friday I was at least sort of into it. There was extra time for fussiness and scrubbing away of to-do lists, if only because the squirrel was out of town again: no dates. At one point I complained that I didn't feel like doing any more useful stuff that night, and the bug said "Don't worry, you will anyway", which was weirdly comforting. (And then I did some more useful stuff). Last week's retail therapy is this week's slogging to the post office to return crap that doesn't fit.
Regarding corporate adventures, it looks like my director is going to give my second team more people and have me keep my first team, all of which is going to be enough to force me to appoint someone as a sub-manager. And this might be announced as early as Tuesday. So here I am, nearly risen again to skip-level manager a mere four years after the last director knocked me down out of that position. I told myself I didn't care about that, but something in me does like it, as some sort of sign of recovery. It's going to feel better to leave on a bit of an upswing, rather than in complete defeat like I would have if I'd left in 2021.
Last week I also got to send out spot bonuses for the completion of one of my little spite projects. It was just a cleanup, but a cleanup that mattered to me and was on my bucket list. Done now.
I read (audiobook) a book called Strangers Drowning that I found pretty interesting, with the life stories of quite a few extreme do-gooder types. I had hoped to read more about people who (like me) aren't terribly tribalistic, people who think about how strangers are probably just as worthy of help as one's own family members are, and who sometimes act on those thoughts. Oddly, I found the author to be a little too down on these people, while another reviewer complains that "the author cannot contain admiration for people who almost certainly were ENORMOUS ASSHOLES". But either way I found it interesting. Not philosophically rigorous, but discussing Kant and Peter Singer and all that. At one point she discusses physical distance as an input to people's moral calculations:
I see that physical distance makes a difference in the ways I might be able to help, or not help (a drowning child in a nearby pond is something I physically leap toward), but I don't feel it so much morally. Guess I should probably read some Singer. In the meantime, oddly because Singer also featured in this, I picked up a used graphic novel called Just Another Meat Eating Dirtbag that turned out to be quite charming.
What else? I did handstands. Saw the advanced studies show from the local circus school on Friday, and survived the associated Lioness sighting. Forced myself to go to open studio on Sunday, and felt bendy and friendly. Tried to take the impulsive young cat out for a walk on her harness, but she fears the open door.
Regarding corporate adventures, it looks like my director is going to give my second team more people and have me keep my first team, all of which is going to be enough to force me to appoint someone as a sub-manager. And this might be announced as early as Tuesday. So here I am, nearly risen again to skip-level manager a mere four years after the last director knocked me down out of that position. I told myself I didn't care about that, but something in me does like it, as some sort of sign of recovery. It's going to feel better to leave on a bit of an upswing, rather than in complete defeat like I would have if I'd left in 2021.
Last week I also got to send out spot bonuses for the completion of one of my little spite projects. It was just a cleanup, but a cleanup that mattered to me and was on my bucket list. Done now.
I read (audiobook) a book called Strangers Drowning that I found pretty interesting, with the life stories of quite a few extreme do-gooder types. I had hoped to read more about people who (like me) aren't terribly tribalistic, people who think about how strangers are probably just as worthy of help as one's own family members are, and who sometimes act on those thoughts. Oddly, I found the author to be a little too down on these people, while another reviewer complains that "the author cannot contain admiration for people who almost certainly were ENORMOUS ASSHOLES". But either way I found it interesting. Not philosophically rigorous, but discussing Kant and Peter Singer and all that. At one point she discusses physical distance as an input to people's moral calculations:
To most people, the distance between themselves and another person—physical as well as emotional—is a deep moral fact: it makes a profound difference to their sense of duty. A person who is far away, whom you cannot see or hear, and with whom you have no memories or loyalties in common, cannot compel your help in the same way as a person who is right in front of you
I see that physical distance makes a difference in the ways I might be able to help, or not help (a drowning child in a nearby pond is something I physically leap toward), but I don't feel it so much morally. Guess I should probably read some Singer. In the meantime, oddly because Singer also featured in this, I picked up a used graphic novel called Just Another Meat Eating Dirtbag that turned out to be quite charming.
What else? I did handstands. Saw the advanced studies show from the local circus school on Friday, and survived the associated Lioness sighting. Forced myself to go to open studio on Sunday, and felt bendy and friendly. Tried to take the impulsive young cat out for a walk on her harness, but she fears the open door.
