2013 — 4 May: Saturday
Sooner or later, my uncontrollable tendency to take pot-shots at the DSM1 will get me diagnosed as mad, bad, or (perish the thought) dangerous to know... I've just been browsing, jaw agape, through the opening section of a new book that seems to pander to all my prejudices very nicely.
... but surely the doctors who insisted that homosexuality was a disease were not all bigots or prudes. Nor are the doctors who today diagnose with Hoarding Disorder people who fill their homes with newspapers and empty pickle jars, but leave undiagnosed those who amass billions of dollars while other people starve, merely toadying to the wealthy. They don't mean to turn the suffering inflicted by our own peculiar institutions, the depression and anxiety spawned by the displacements of late capitalism and postmodernity, into markets for a criminally avaricious pharmaceutical industry.
I chuck my empty marmalade jars out, though I note with some trepidation there's one on the end of my desk, stuffed full of my collection of ballpoint pens. I'm almost sure some of these still contain ink. Probably. And (I further console myself) at least none of them has green ink.
Memories, heh?
In late June 1996 there was a Dilbert strip on "Employee Satisfaction Surveys". Pointy-Haired Boss had received dismal scores for his department, so naturally decided to assign Dilbert to the "Satisfaction Task Force" until the problem was solved...
"Please... anything but that..." "How satisfied are you now?"
Just for my own amusement, I looked back over some of my dubious past in the Hursley Lab to see what I'd been up to back then in cubicle hell...
This Web page and mailing list and ftp site maintenance is a lark and a half, I tell you. Good job I don't seem to be being asked to write any books, though, as I dunno when I'd have the time. Case in point: TonyD asked me (about three months ago) to give one week out of the next six to a chap called NickD for an MQ marketing item (perchance a brochure?). I rang the guy, to be told that he was just off on hols, then over to Germany, and that he'd be in touch as soon as he got back.
Seems he got back this Monday. His initial question was "Is it all done?" "You're kidding" says I, "this is the first contact I've had since your hol and trip to Germany." "You mean X and Y didn't give you H and J?" (Or words to that general effect.) "Nope" says I, with a tad of the laconic to my tone. "I've had nuffin, and I've been busy enough not to need to go looking for extra work..."
Upshot is my mature student (did I mention I've been given the dubious boon of a little grey-haired lady with a delightful Midlands (Brummie) accent to look after for a couple of months?) gets to do an unexpectedly solid chunk of work (forget brochure, the spec I saw for the first time yesterday screamed "Entire library" all over it) that should keep her busy until the end of August, and I no longer have to worry about finding her do-able tasks from the set I have to contend with. Phew!!
I find I don't miss my Marketing colleagues :-)
This looked irresistible — so I didn't resist...
Once upon a time...
... if you believe what it says in the good ol' book (as painstakingly redrawn by Robert Crumb)...
... your average, hard-working &deity; of choice could create an entire infinite universe in just six days, before knocking off for a well-earned day at the beach. Care to guess how long it takes for a cheque to clear "with certainty"?
'Certainty' applies from the end of the 6th working day (11.59pm) following the day of deposit.