I am on a Committee 👨🏻‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩🏾‍💻👩🏻‍💻

[dorchadas]

I was, well, not quite volunteered for it, but nearly so.

To explain, we don't really have a telework policy here, it's most just an ad-hoc determination where managers have sole discretion and no one else has any way of predicting or scheduling anything with any regularity. So they want to make a telework policy and I got invited to the planning meeting. I work directly with physicians' private data and I always figured that's why remote working wasn't allowed for my section, but there are plenty of companies where employees work with sensitive data from remote locations, so there's no fundamental reason it's impossible. I rarely have to collaborate with co-workers and most of my workday is listening to podcasts and staring at a computer.

So, I wandered over to the "Technology, Equipment, and Tech Support" table where people were brainstorming and got roped into joining, so I did. Now I get to research that and we all formulate a presentation (though just the slides, not the actual presenting part), and meet again in a month. I've managed to avoid this kind of thing until now, but nothing lasts forever.

Then on the way home, I got on a later red line than I usually do because I stayed late for the meeting, and we went one stop to Chicago and waited. And then the driver said we all had to get off because of mechanical failure, so I immediately left the station--I knew there would be no point in waiting--and started walking. I got on the bus around North and Clybourn and took it to Belmont, stopped for dinner, and walked the rest of the way to the Otherworld Theatre. Once the sun started setting it was a great night for walking, but it took me an hour longer to get to the restaurant than I expected. I'm glad that the Gateways performance was so great, because I needed it after that day.

Also, I've been listening to a lot of dubstep lately, which is a statement that me from five years ago would be slack-jawed in astonishment at:

"Illenium & Kerli - Sound of Walking Away" (Watch on YouTube)

This song is

Like almost all the modern music I listen to, I found it through nightcore. I found a nightcore mix of "Fortress" (pic is a little NSFW) and after I listened to it, I thought "What if this were, like, 20% slower?" and I've since bought almost all of Illenium's albums.

He's coming to Chicago in November and I'm thinking of getting tickets. Do I really want to hang out with a bunch of EDM kids for a few hours? Maybe. Maybe I do. 🎶

Edit: Gorgeous (off the latest album, Ascend), is also really great, and its lyrics are pretty resonant with my life over the last year-and-a-half.

All those days that pass me by
I can't believe I'm still alive
They say you need the dark to shine
It's like I can see for the first time
And it's gorgeous

Comments

[acoustic_sister]

What is your work? I never have asked before and I think I should have. D:

[dorchadas]

I do data quality control for the American Medical Association! It's a lot of staring at personal information and making sure that our records on physicians are correct (which is why I've always assumed that remote work was banned).

[acoustic_sister]

That sounds really interesting! I have a family friend who retired from working in medical records at our local hospital, but this really tops anything she ever did.

[dorchadas]

It is interesting sometimes--there are certain doctor's names that are amazing when I find then, like Dr. Banner (radiology, of course)--but it's a lot of monotony that I've come to mostly enjoy.