Done yesterday (20120523 We)

[mdlbear]

Good day. We have an apartment! It's not quite what we wanted; neither of the available 3-bedroom apartments is scooter accessible. But it's a big 2-bedroom, at Watercrest. And we'll have it before Westercon, so we'll have someplace to stay for a couple of days before the con, without needing to spring for more hotel room nights.

Many thanks to pocketnaomi for doing the necessary legwork in the morning. It wouldn't have been possible without her checking out the alternatives.

A 2.5 mile walk, following my (last) LHH coaching appointment. I have the same problem with coaching -- of any form -- that I do with therapy: I don't know what questions to ask. I'm pretty sure I have problems, but don't have enough of a handle on them to drag them out to be worked on.

Of course, when I am able to identify my problems, they often turn out to be fairly straightforward to solve. So, again, it's the ones I can't identify for myself that I need help with, but can't get it.

A phone interview with Tableau. This went much better than the one with Intentional on Tuesday.

ESR wonders whether the failure of Oracle's patent suit against Google marks the Beginning of the end for the patent wars.

0523 We
  * awake 6:20ish; snuggle
  * up 7:05; W=195.8, BP=105/68; d
    skipped the lisinopril based on BP, and dropped the citalopram to 10mg
    because I'd taken 10 last night.
  * 10am Marlies Lloyd
    -> suggested following up with Eric Anderson re: Planetary and Intentional
  * walk:  d=2.5, s=2.9
  @ Beginning of the end for the patent wars?
  * 3:00pm.  Please expect a call from Anna Gershnik - Senior
    Software Engineer at that time.  Tableau.
    -> algorithm questions.  Easier than Intentional.  A little hazy on
       "encapsulation", but ok.  Was able to demonstrate deep knowledge of OO,
       multiple languages, and operating systems.
    -> sending homework.  Two functions to write in C; provide test cases.
  * We can haz apartment!  Watercrest; "move-in" June 1
    There's a 3BR that will become available in 3-6 months.  There's one in
    mid-July, but it's not scooter accessible :(
  @ SSW Content Navigation and Management | Shared Story Worlds 
  " (20:12:12) mdlbear: Have now looked at the two coding tests (from Zillow and
    Tableau) -- I should be able to get them done easily tomorrow.  It's obvious
    that the point isn't to throw together a solution, but to demonstrate that
    one can write clean, tested, reusable, and well-documented code.  That, I can do. 

Comments

[catsittingstill]

Congratulations on the new apartment, and I hope it works out well for you, and good luck with the interview!

[mdlbear]

Thanks!

[chaoswolf]

Congrats! I'll happily come crash on the floor for a day or three until you leave for the con! (assuming nothing comes out of my applications.)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

A good coach or therapist will ask skilfully "leading" questions, which will bring to light the issues you can't identify by yourself. I think much of this depends on what "school" or "style" of counseling the professional was trained in. (I was taught a very little bit of it myself, as part of my Priestess training, and my son the psychologist has taught me a very little bit more, but I wouldn't presume to try to tell anybody else.)

[mdlbear]

My coach did moderately well at this; I must never have had a good therapist.

Of course, I've only had two, over five years, so that's not surprising.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

You probably had "good" therapists who were trained in other, older methods. More recent psychological techniques focus more on dealing directly with the "symptoms", because often the classical process of trying to dig down to the "cause" of the problem doesn't actually help the client. (A flippant way to put that might be, "Oh, I understand now - I'm an alcoholic because my mother never gave me enough affection! What a profound insight! I think I'll go have a few drinks to celebrate!") Whether your lack of emotional awareness is a learned behavior or a neurological anomaly is less important than helping you increase your awareness, using any technique that works.

[mdlbear]

I don't recall either of them trying to dig down to a cause, but this may be because they couldn't identify the problems, either. The dysthymia was obvious, but apparently not the alexithymia. My second therapist at least recognized the word when I showed him a printout of the wikipedia page I'd found, but you'd think that somebody who'd written his PhD thesis on a condition would recognize it when he ran across it in the wild.

I seem to get more from books, and sometimes from talking with friends. But I'm not making progress of any kind now.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

My son finds it irritating when people conflate research psychology with clinical psychology. Research is, of course, necessary in any scientific (or even quasi-scientific) discipline, if they want to make any progress. But research psychologists don't treat patients; many of them just aren't cut out for direct personal interaction, though they excel at theoretical investigations. (I know personally a research psychologist who's somewhere on the autism spectrum, and rather abrasive in person - yet her academic work is brilliant.) So it's not entirely surprising that a therapist who wrote a thesis on theories about a particular condition might not recognize the actual condition when it bit him on the ass.

And of course you're not "making progress" right now - you're too busy, what with losing your job and moving. Time enough for self-improvement when things settle down again.

[filkferengi]

Yay for an apartment!