7 weeks to go

i might actually make it to the end of this contract.

this past week was helped by 2 things. bmw driving boss being away, and chatting to the italian man next to me, though I believe they are not mutually exclusive. it turns out he is hilarious. the italian language is much more passionate than english, and in his direct translations to his comments sound brilliant.
talking about the database that we sift through, retrieving results, rather than making an analysis, he calls the error laden disorganised database a 'sea of shit'

on thursday he had his head in one of his hands, staring miserably at his computer. when i asked if he was ok, he replied 'absolutely'
later that day we took the same train after escaping from the office. packed like cattle he said 'this is offensive to human dignity'. and when trying to leave the train at his stop his parting words are 'if i can get through this wall of people i will see you tomorrow'

i shall do my best to draw more words, and remember them, from him each day.

8 weeks to go

just under since i write this a couple of days late.

last night i had a dream about work. some piece of work which has been going for over a week was annoying me. i dreamt i had a solution to the problem. I awoke from the dream to find that the solution was brilliant. except i was still in a dream. I woke up from that into real life and remembered the solution. it didn't help because the solution was obviously wrong.
this appears to be what my life has become.

my boss is away this week so the guy next to me who also works for him is much more relaxed and talkative. he's a nice hard working italian guy. one of the few (only) people in the office who doesn't appear to be a dickhead.

when my boss is back i need to finally tell him i'm not working friday's any more. part of me wants to keep working fridays as i realised i really need the monies. the other part of me would just rather do useful things with my life.

i have monday off next week. i must remember this and not go in to work.

9 weeks to go

This week was much more interesting.
My boss constantly, unbeknownst to him, reminds me he is a dickhead. This week I was doing something urgent and some important person was leaving early (at 5pm. early lol), it had got to about 4pm and I hadn't gone out for my enforced lunch break. So i said, I'm going out, can I just take half an hour and then leave half an hour early, what with needing to chat to this guy before his 5pm leaving time.
he said no. dickhead. acts like this, the complete lack of flexibility are why working for most other people in this world is a waste of time. i can't imagine anyone needs more than one guess for make of car that he drives.

My mental state this week has been abysmal. 99% of my life is incredible, yet the 1% has such an astounding affect. then I read this interview with arsene wenger. I like the bits where he talks about the past being a source of anxiety, thinking about all the things you've done wrong. And the future also being a source of anxiety. Thus, one has to live in the present. I like that. A while ago I made a graph on here for how I was feeling. After reading that interview I was thinking about my graph and realised that the update to the graph is that the graph no longer exists. I can't concentrate on the past and future for my feelings. Only the present.
I think this is why I like cycling. and cycling alone. It's just me, my body and my mind. Sometimes it's harder and sometimes easier. After these 9 weeks are up, I think I will go to Tenerife for a week to cycle in the sunshine.

10 weeks to go

this may be the worst point. I don't think i'll be able to manage another ten weeks. All I can do to get through this is think of the monies. oh, and this week i'm telling my boss i'm gonna start doing 4 days a week instead of 4.5 since half a day is a waste of time.

the week past was mostly unmemorable. I have taken to spending my lunch break in the library. i like this because it means i can read books. Also, there's a tiny chance i'll meet a lovely lady. I realise i have no idea how to meet ladies.

shitting in work toilets is something no one talks about yet everyone does. it's quite normal. except for the person who was in the toilets on thursday. in all the cycling i've done going up steep hills with an empty tank, hungry, and nothing in the legs, or intervals, i have never struggled as much as the guy who was trying to squeeze one out.

today i discovered that i prefer cycling alone than with others. with others it's ok for being sociable but not good for pushing yourself. and i'm not really a sociable person.

and now, i'm off to watch some football (uk, well spanish) football (us) and knock one out before bed. tara.

11 weeks to go

As I type this, a child is going mental nearby, screaming it's tiny loud head off at frequent intervals.

this past week was an exciting one of making croissants (fresh out the oven they taste incred), fires on my journey to work closing the roads for two days and homicidal drivers. A minibus came with inches of slowly crushing me to death because he decided instead of waiting in traffic, to go on to the wrong side of the road without looking or indicating as I was overtaking him. He didn't hear me shout since he head a bluetooth headset on. He was rather surprised when I knocked on his window and asked him to look where he was going in future and perhaps indicate to other road users his intentions.

Thursday they had a halloween party at work. I use the term 'they' since I have nothing in common with any of them. And of course i didn't go, much to the surprise of my boss (the dickhead). out of the 100 or so people in the office, me, the quietest man in the world he sits next to me, our boss, and his boss were the only 4 people not dressed up. I don't understand halloween at all or how/when it became a thing in england. i do wonder why he was surprised that i didn't go to the 'party' when he didn't ask me at any point before 6pm whether i was going. so at the going home time so i said goodbye and he asked "you're not staying?" and i said "no i have things to do." Even if i had nothing to do that would have been preferable than to stay. the office is very odd in that talking or taking appears to be frowned upon unless you smoke. also, making me work till 6pm is a waste of time as at 430pm my brain has had enough of their nonsense so i spend 90 minutes counting the seconds till i can make my escape. the only good thing about this job is cycling to work, learning some good shortcuts in london town and getting fit. fit, not healthy, since the smog i breathe in is probably killing me quicker than i realise.

this week, i think i will make the switch from cycling in trousers to cycling shorts because when it rains i cannot sit at work all day soaked to the bone as i might actually die.

i'm quite hungry now. i should go and make some foods.

11 weeks to go.

12 weeks to go

well, week 1 went not as bad as expected. working half days on friday was a good idea, as it meant I could leave early at least one day a week. somehow i had forgotten how terrible leaving work at 6pm is. why anyone thinks 40 hour weeks with an enforced 1 hour lunch is a good idea is beyond me. I assume they think it will make people more productive but i think it has the opposite effect.
cycling to work however, was great. only went in 4 days by bike since it rained the other day and i dont yet have wet weather cycling clothes.
anyone, that was all quite boring. like work. i spent lunches reading the curious incident of the dog in the night time. it's a really good book. i enjoyed it muchly.

I did have one funny conversation at work. 4 days after restarting work, i was sitting the reception on my lunch break because it was miserable outside and i can't face sitting at work my desk. the secretary walks in to the buildine, came up to me and said "you're back!"
i said "yes".
"why are you here?" she asked.
"It's too cold outside." I don't think that may have made much sense but it didn't seem to phase her.
"are you coming to the Halloween party?"
"no", i said. "i can't make it."
"why not?"
"I'm busy". at this point i hoped she wouldn't ask again as i'd run out of synonyms for i don't want to. luckily she didn't.

Anyway, I also realised this week that I have literally no idea how to meet new people. None whatsoever. i saw a stunning lady in starbucks but had no idea how to approach her.
Maybe i should do some volunteer work where I can meet nice people. But leaving work at 6 is bullshit and leaves me not much time for anything in the week.
speaking of which, tis almost bedtime.

13 weeks to go

having run out of money from not working i decided to work so i could have some money and not live on the street. winter is coming, but living on the streets in the summer isn't much better imo. apparently, there's a lovely street near me, probably the most expensive in london, which is half full of empty houses. and there are already some that have squatters in, so i could maybe go and live there.

anyway, 13 weeks of work. Somewhere i've worked before, but have little to no desire to go back to work there. my boss told me off for not taking a lunch break and leaving early. even though i'm a contractor, working the hours is less important than staying in the office till 6pm. honestly. 6pm. that's not really acceptable. then he told me the reason why he wants that from me. his previous job was till 4pm and he found the adjustment hard and wants to make everyone else suffer. all i think when i see him now is 'CUNT'.

so i'm going back for 13 weeks for money. in that time i hope to get investment so i when i leave i can work on my own things for 3-6 months with income. i'm not dreading it. the first time i worked there, the first 10 days had so little work for me to do that the boredom was physically painful. now at least i know i'll have things to do. so it shouldn't be too bad. i also plan to cycle to work. dutch style. This means no cycling shorts or jerseys. just normal clothes plus a helmet. i might switch back to cycling shorts after one day of wrecking my arse and balls. on the plus side, burning an extra 1000 calories per day will let me eat chocolate without putting on weight. it's the little things. (that's what she said).

love your body, my girlfriend says to me, entirely innocently. I already do, way too often.
she's not the one for me so i need to break up with her but i'm not good at doing that.

i think i've explained the escalator game on here before. you know, going up an escalator, you 'choose' a lady (or man) based solely on looks to be your other half. then you wait to see if you made the best choice, or if someone better comes along. What happens if you've picked no one by the top? Some say you get thrust upon the final person, others say you die alone.

This is a metaphor for choosing someone in real life. This is difficult to play in such a manner, because you should really assume you've never seen another person when you start playing the game, so there is no frame of reference.
The maths solved this conundrum by telling you how to play. Of the first third, you pick the best, then choose the next person to appear better than that.
What makes this good to compare to real life is you don't really know where the third lies, due to arrival rates.

Anyway, I digress. Though I have forgotten what any of my points were.

In other news, I'm going to quit my job. Tomorrow, I will try to get the program I have written to replace me working. I think it requires some IT guys to open up connections to SQL server, and then I can happily leave. Spending 12 hours a day working so you can take 20 days holiday a year is not the life for me.

i cant believe it's been so long

i can.

anyway, i started cycling last year. england is not good for cycling. mental drivers, no hills, terrible weather. The problem is that it can be quite expensive.
however, i have decided that i will be going to europe next year and cycling the alps. all of them. well, not all of them, but i will do as many as possible.
i will begin creating a list, and also i should start working. i can work till about june next year, and then go to the alps for a month or so. this sounds like the best plan i have ever had. I should spend a week or two working in a bike shop for free to learn how to fix all the things i need to, and then i'll be set to go.
i don't know much about cycling famous roads, but the list will include the stelvio, in east italy, perhpas cervinhio in central italy, verbier and some surroundings in swissland, sestriere in west italy, montervnier, alp d'huez, mont ventoux and col d'eze in france. i think i will start in east italy, near venice, and finish in monaco. possibly in the order listed above. this is a good motivation to work!

Estate Agents

Estate Agents are like a good pair of sunglasses. When you find one, hold on to it and never let it go. I had one and let them go. (They're still there, I just have the misfortune of not using them at the moment.)

Of course, sunglasses have a higher IQ than most estate agents, so the metaphor ends almost as soon as it has begun. I spent quite a while trying to fix my flat after some people smashed my front door in (not a euphemism), the latest in my series of bewildering agency calls went something like this:

The door fixing company came to survey the damage and make a quote. They spent a week making a quote. A WEEK! I chased them a few times, and each time I did they said they would mark it as urgent. I don't think they know what it means to mark something, or what urgent means. I imagine their online record of my case just has the word urgent written by lots of different people in many places, sometimes repeatedly in the same place, and no one really knows what that means. Or they all know that it means nothing. Like adding the sticker 'fragile' to luggage.
Finally, after more than a week, they were ready! Well, inasmuch as they then had to await authorisation to do the work. That comes from either the landlord or the building management people.
I called the estate agency asking them to get the authorisation from whoever it needs to come from, to the door fixing people, straight away so that it can get done.
A day later I called the estate agent to see what was happening, as a door that works would be nice.
She said, she's been chasing people. I asked who, she said the door fixing company! I said, I was calling them last week (when she was on holiday), and their part is done and they need authorisation to continue. She told me she had received an email this very morning from them saying they have submitted a quote and are awaiting authorisation. I didn't say anything as sometimes there are no words. She continued by saying she will chase up people to get authorisation. I asked who she would be chasing, she said the door fixing company! I got confused so stopped talking.

The next day I received a call saying she now knows that she needs to call the management agency who run the flats and will call them.

As for what happened after the 'fixed' the door, i shall leave my story of crime to another day...

empathy

one of my favourite things about poker is how it shows most people have no empathy whatsoever. I say favourite, but it's really quite a sad realisation.

case in point:
someone posted something about religion on facebook. cue, many posts, and there always seems to be one person saying something like, "religion teaches people what to think, not how to think"
My favourite comment was "religion deals in absolutes", i'm trying to not reply, "unlike people who talk negatively about religion".
and then there's atheists who think that by proclaiming they're atheists makes their arguments more logical. like football fans who support awful teams, believing that this makes their opinions about football more important than fans who support premier league sides.

How self centred do you have to be to believe you know about all religions, and more importantly, what people take from them? and then to generalise about all of them, complaining about how they are the ones dealing in absolutes?

Poker players, especially when they start playing, always think about what they would do in their opponents shoes instead of what their opponent would do in their opponent's shoes. Even as you improve, you assume other people know some of the new things that you've just learnt! It sadly seems like human nature is to assume that everyone else does or should think like you.
i don't know how most people think this way, how they can be so sure about what they 'know'.

rash

Not making terrible decisions, but an actual rash.

yesterday after returning home from a chum's house, the knuckles on my left hand were rather dry. so i washed them and put some vaseline on the skin. Not long later I noticed that the knuckles were going really red. And then the thumb knuckle (is it still a knuckle? it seems different to the others) also started to turn red.
I thought i'd check the symptoms on the interent, and that was no help whatsoever.
so once again i ventured onto uk's webMd. as before, when i mention the word rash, EVERY SINGLE QUESTION for about 40 minutes is another question asking about a symptom of meningitis. and after answering no to all of them, the recommendation is go get help. as it was past midnight, i thought i'd call 111, the non emergency version of 999.
i spoke to a guy who asked me all sorts of inappropriate questions like have you ever had AIDS.
eventually he told me he was going, and someone else would call me.
as it was now past 1am, my phone went in to do not disturb mode so while watching 30 rock to stay awake, i missed a couple of calls. 3rd time lucky and i answered to a women who was a trained medic (nurse) who then asked me a similar set of questions. after this she said bye, and a doctor will call me back.
i managed to answer the first time to someone who really didn't sound like a doctor. at this point, i was so tired and unimpressed by my knuckles that i figured just going to bed was the best option and if i died then at least i wouldn't have to deal with anything in the morning. the redness had gone down a bit, so i told the lady on the phone that and she just let me go.

i woke up as usual today before my alarm at about 730, in a state of unbearable tiredness so i just stayed in bed for about 2 hours. after lunch i had a siesta, and then early evening i had another. i have been tired today. went out to do some exercise tonight, and then have to be awake tomorrow for a day full of actual work and leaving the house.

being open!

this has not gone well. I realised that i don't like being open with people i don't like. Perhaps I need to change this and just be open with everyone including those i dislike....

more things i've learned while cycling

Gastroenteritis is very painful.
I've had hangovers where i whispered into the phone that "i just want to die" to make it end.
High interval training is probably worse. Just 4 minutes is excruciating - 20 second cycling super fast, 10 seconds slow, repeat and repeat and ..... After 2 minutes of that everything in my body is already telling me to stop, and when 4 minutes is up I collapse onto the floor where i lie in the foetal position for about 15 minutes to recover. This may not be so painful however, it is definitely mentally very tough to keep going when you could so easily stop.
And yet all of those pale into insignificance compared to the heartache (and perhaps depression?) of the past few months. The easy way to keep cycling is to remind myself that the pain of the intervals is so short and weak compared to the torture that my brain has put me through recently. (Although maybe it's the torture that i've been putting my brain through?)

And then the training doesn't seem so bad after all.

In other news, I have discovered that LinkedIn can be better for tracking people down (read: stalking) than Facebook. Of course, you have to be careful not to be signed in, otherwise they see you watching them and then you might end up talking to them, and i've just had an idea.

things i've learned while cycling

most people cannot judge the speed of a bicycle. or they think because you're not a car it won't hurt if you hit them at 35km/h. or that they, as pedestrians, have right of way on the road.
following on from the above, some parents care not for the safety of their children, crossing the road with them in buggies, or allowing them to wander into the road because it's just a bike coming.
it may be the most efficient form of transport humans have ever invented but it's hard work.
% of terrible drivers is probably quite similar to % of terrible cyclists.
pushing yourself to the limit is probably tougher mentally than physically.
i am very unfit.

existential crisis number 132

Showers are great for thinking.

In today's shower I realised that about two years ago I mentioned on here I need to get some new friends. The criteria was whether they liked the TV show Derek.
In the intervening time, I have been doing what all poker players know is the number one sin - lying to themselves. You'll never get better if you can't be honest with yourself about what you do. And I realised that in life, while I know it's best to be open and honest (except at the tables), I convinced my self that I was. I wasn't. I also managed to convince myself that I don't care what other people think (well, I know I'm a good actor. I really haven't been good at this, while thinking I have been. I may be improving but very slowly due to my overestimation of my abilities. I just didn't realise I was so good at convincing myself.
And this is why two years later, I only made 1 real friend (as linked to above). They were the best friend I ever had, and I realised I've not done any better because i've been lying to myself all along.

The book (and definitely not the film) 'yes man' is great. The idea of saying yes to everything to be open to opportunities is great. I am going to be honest AND open about everything in a similar manner. Only for a week, mind. I dread people asking how I am, as my reply will be "terribly depressed." That is seriously frowned upon in England and probably punishable by hanging. Anything other than "fine, you?" is a criminal act.

I wonder where this will take me...

the worst theives

having been attacked by the worst muggers, i have now been burgled by the worst burglers.

they destroyed my front door, stole my car keys, ransacked the place and took nothing other than a few pounds in change. nothing else at all. things i have worth more than £500 in my flat are
1.

that is all.
the most expensive things are probably my bike and my laptop. after that, i don't think there's anything worth over £100. the most expensive thing i own is my car. they took the keys. not the car, just the keys. the police reckon they got disturbed, but having been through every cupboard in the place, including pots and pans, it seems like they had time to look through everything. i think they were just interested in cash monies. it's a bit like being mugged from a distance.

the annoying thing is having to replace a door (landlord pays for it) and car key set (hopefully contents insurance cos that is blady expensive). i think i'm very lucky. of course, my one time therapiss told me off for thinking i'm lucky. and that's why i fired her.

this week i have signed up to 10 weeks of self defence. i hope i can achieve something useful in 10 weeks.

therapiss

I went to a therapist this week and am astonished at how much it has helped. They had many certificates on the wall, and recommendations from people i trust. The only word I want to use to describe them is terrible.

they were more interested in talking to me, than listening to me. Worse still, the rare occasions they did listen, they didn't believe me!

For example, they said how i should do things outside my comfort zone, so i said i had started doing that. they ignored me and carried on telling me that i need to do these things. They just repeated their point that i'm scared of trying new things. that was odd.

to try to help them, i gave examples of things i choose not to do, not because i was SCARED, but because I didn't like it. they told me i was actually scared of it, that i found it stressful, and being an introvert is a choice. i did well to hide my disdain. On my way home I was considering sending them an email asking if they think other issues, like perhaps autism, are also a choice.
at one point i explained that i was a slow thinker. which i am. they replied to tell me i wasn't. i had no idea how to respond. why would you not believe me when i say things?

next up, they asked if two wooden planks were laid out 6 inches apart on the floor, I would be comfortable walking along them. I said yes, obviously. They then said what if they were 30 feet in the air. I said no. they said, but it's the same. I said, no, the risk-reward ratio has now become unacceptable. There is now a risk of injury, with zero reward. They refused to respond to my point!

The funniest part was when they tried to teach me about control. Poker was an amazing teacher for this aspect of life. I explained i've learnt to focus on controlling what i can control. She tried to tell me that luck doesn't exist. I tried to respond that you can only control yourself and that's where my focus is, not on whether or not luck exists. It fell on deaf ears.

Next was the question of what limiting beliefs I have. This always makes me laugh. Anything I said I believed was a limiting belief, I got told was all in my head. I could say, i don't think I can fly, and they would tell me that's just a limiting belief and i'm wrong and ignorant.

I politely declined a return. maybe i should have just been open and blunt and said you haven't listened to me, you didn't believe what i did tell you, so why would you think i want to come back? instead, i just said i need to think about these things before i decide whether to come back, so i'm not taking your homework book which will force me to return to drop it off.
their reply was effectively "aha, I told you so, you are scared of new things! see. you're not trying this out!"
"i don't need to try out ebola to know that i don't want it" is what i wish i had replied.

in summary, playing poker, and reading the book "the 7 habits of highly effective people" was a above and beyond this therapy session, and sadly, probably better than most therapists and counsellors.

confusing kindness with weakness

much like associating folding with weakness, i think most people incorrectly associate kindness with weakness. quite spectacularly.
I think too many people also confuse not caring what other people think with being unkind to others, or lacking empathy.

It is a great shame for them to live their lives this way. in poker you only lose money for thinking this, in life you lose a lot more.

things to scare me

this week: talking to a therapist because i went a bit (read: completely) mental recently and I need to sort my brain out.

next week: starting a martial arts training. I hope that this will increase my discipline, make me less afraid of the outsides, and also improve my core strength.

as for things to work on: this week i'm back on diligence. I have so much to do and have had a very lazy couple of weeks. This week i will try to spend more time doing the things I should be doing on my ever increasing to do list. I have lots of great ideas on there, but they're all big projects so i need to prioritise them, focus on just one or two, and put the hours in.