“From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.” — Franz Kafka
Even though it’s the 29th, I think I’m going to write about something that happened on the 19th. When I started my time with the organization I worked for, I disclosed that I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD with Human Resources. ADHD is something that falls under the ADA. And because it falls under the protection of the ADA I can negotiate reasonable accommodations with the organization.
At one point during the seven year span that I worked with Intel, I discovered the joy of electric sit-stand desks, walking pads, and joy that the combination of the two provided. I would get into the little single person cubicle that had the desk/treadmill combo, change into shorts, and walk for hours while I was dinking around on my laptop.
That was before I was diagnosed with ADHD. So I guess that combination helped increase my dopamine which in turn helped me hyper focus on the work in front of me.
Plus it was healthy!
After I learned about ADA, after I learned about reasonable accommodations, and after I learned that walking pads are a legit reasonable accommodation for peeps diagnoses with ADHD, I began the reasonable accommodation negotiation process.
And I was approved for a walking pad!
Which is pretty fucking cool. It legit helps!
Did I mention how it’s healthy? Yeah. And walking is pm one of the easiest ways to improve your life a little is what I think I’ve learned from neuroscience or something. Maybe someday I’ll find the references. 🤷♂️
I received the walking pad on the 19th. I have used it every day. I have loved every moment of it. And I have also possibly not stretched enough at times among other things. I got a “free” walking pad, and when the pandemic hit us they provided a sit-stand desk to use.
I now have the deliciousness that I consider to be akin to peanut butter and chocolate back in my life. I attribute it to:
- Being curious. Researching. Asking questions.
- Being friendly. Disclosing then requesting help.
- Being patient. Negotiation is a process. I might have to concede to some of the expectations and be alright with that.
Patience. And now I’ve got a walking pad to use! So fucking cool.
What’s kinda funny though is I was approved for this a year ago but I just sat on it and didn’t follow up.
Which is absolutely one-hundred percent an ADHD thing. I had a fucking walking pad available… all I had to do was say when. Which was apparently a year later.
I said the organization I worked with rather than work with because the organization I worked with was a non-profit that just had its assets gutted and auctioned off to a private-equity owned organization.
Still pretty sure I was the only one laughing when the announcement was made. The communication channels implemented within this organization were questionable at best.
As part of this corporate disembowelment process all of the outstanding things gotta be closed out. Which meant the walking pad I was approved for in 2022 had to be purchased right now in April 2023. They purchased it for me exactly 7 days before we all become employees with our new business daddy.
This was another one of those weird, amazingly positive, things that I’m grateful for that keep happening. And there are still layers of things that are way more challenging to process and work through.
Fast forward to today, and I’m slowly making progress in preparing my residence to be an Airbnb host. Which is neat. I’ve also decided on a few things in terms of how I’m gonna structure the organization structure for what I kinda wanna work on. And get paid to work on it. By other people. Because they find value in whatever service or offer or value or whatever that’s provided.
I’ve run into two experiences that left me feeling somewhat frustrated. One with an Apple HomePod Mini. Which I upgraded to the beta firmware… which broke its ability to work with the rest of my home automation.
And the second sort of annoyance is that I purchased two Wemo remote controls, but the magnet in the cradle was just kinda sad. The remote wouldn’t stay in the cradle. I ended up going to my local wantonly large home hardware store to purchase magnets. The remote sticks better now. Kinda wish the magnet was powerful out-of-the-box though.
Even though those things kinda sucked, I’m still grateful that I’m even able to have those kind of problems. When I introspect on the quite uncomfortable at times path I’ve been hiking through, I must remember that other people may not have gone through the experiences that may have helped them better achieve any sort of positive goals they may have dreamed up at a point or a few within their life.
I will have all the best things which will make my home at least a little smart.
Hopefully.
All these devices and switches and plugs and lights and whatever I’m using all use Wi-Fi. This is a somewhat risky choice when there is a real possibility that the organization that made the device may code something that manages to have a bug that permits a bad actor to hijack millions, potentially billions, of devices.
This kind of network controlled by a bad actor. Wow. That’d be amazing just to observe the outcome. My bet is that whoever these bad actors are will clog my toilet or something.
I wonder if there are, or how many, egregious grammar violations there are. Don’t really feel like rereading rn tho. Anyway, back to not this!
Til tomorrow, Tim.