Done yesterday (20100810 Tu)

[mdlbear]

0810 Tu
  * up 6:45; W=197; drugs, nose, teeth; coffee
  * report SW Visa card lost - does not appear to have been used, though. 
  * try to get Colleen out of bed by the time I leave.
  @ The Wordsmith's Forge - Publishing Death Spiral
    Norman Spinrad - part two--My Own Death Spiral 
    part three--The Death Spiral of the Publishing Death Spiral
  * Wasted an hour and a half at Kaiser over lunchtime, and another 45
    minutes or so on the phone with a hapless rep who had been told that I
    wanted to talk to a supervisor when all I wanted to do was file a
    complaint about the lack of information on the bill.  Specifically not
    separating out what co-pays are being held until the corresponding charges
    come in, which can be months later.
  * no group this evening
  * sang for N and Colleen Mary Ellen Carter, Guilty Pleasures, The
    River, World Inside the Crystal, Daddy's World.  N noticed that the verses
    of guilty and cicero are nearly identical.  The choruses are different.
  * bed ~11:15pm
  & awake ~3:30; out of bed 4:50.  -Probably- not going back to sleep.
  & read Science, caught up on LJ, put away dishes

Not a very satisfying day; stressful. I wasted an hour and a half at Kaiser over what should have been lunchtime, finding out that their billing system is hopelessly screwed up (from my point of view) -- charges can come back to bite you months after the actual appointment, and meanwhile the co-pays that don't have charges attached to them yet hang around and offset the unpaid balance. It's a mess. I said I wanted to register a complaint, and got a call back around 4:30 which included a hapless person who had been told that I wanted to talk to a supervisor. No, damn it, I understand (now) what's on the bill, it's what's not on it (i.e., breaking out the co-pays that are on hold because the charges haven't come in ye)t that I want to complain abuot.

Fascinating bug in my server code. First one to be found by the QA team. What I get for trying to be efficient and using cp -lr without making sure that everything that might rewrite a file unlinks the old one first.

It took a drink and dinner before I was finally human again after the Kaiser thing. But I did sing for Colleen and Naomi, which was nice.

Lying awake in bed from 3:30-4:50 wasn't so nice. But I got a little more done in the morning than usual, so go me! Wish I could get by on 4 hours of sleep every night.

The links are to parts two and three of Norman Spinrad's Publishing Death Spiral series, courtesy of ysabetwordsmith. Here's part one in case you missed it.

Comments

[museinred.livejournal.com]

Having done the four hours of sleep a night thing for about a week, I have to tell you I'm much fonder of sleep than I used to be. I still resent the time that it takes, but I'm much more productive when I'm not quite this fuzzy-brained. Please give Lady Colleen regards and hugs from Steven and I. I hope she is doing well.