Scenic Route

David Byrne’s PowerPoint thing wasn’t what I expected. I had hoped for more of the tongue-in-cheek irrationality found in his music. There wasn’t much of that in the work itself. The talk, however, was exactly that. The other works in the exhibition—pencil logic-tree diagrams and lenticular (?) photos of corporate “tombstone” signs were just great. And damn, that guy is so hot. He’s aged well.

I’ve been on new meds ten days now for the ADD. Strattera is first non-stimulant approved for the condition. It’s helped me get out of the paralysis I’ve been stuck in for months.

The description that people seem to relate to best is that it’s been like Pat Sajack just keeps spinning the wheel so I never get a chance to choose a letter or buy a vowel. Within days I was able to get a web site out of my head and into code. It had been stuck there for something like six or eight weeks. I deliver that site tomorrow.

This coming week I hope to start knocking down the backlog—two new sites, one redesign, and putting the Resource Centers (libraries) of two Presbyteries online. Oh, and a new client I signed today, a realty firm that wants to list their properties—sales and rentals—online.

I’m not too keen on the side-effect profile, but I’m willing to live with it for now—especially if it enables me to work. It’s what my MD is willing to prescribe until I get (yet another) full workup from a psychiatrist. My new psychologist (seeing him for about six weeks now) is on the faculty of U of R Medical Center (where I worked years ago) and he’s trying to find someone there who will be comfortable with seeing me with the goal of experimenting with tradition, stimulant-based meds for the ADD.

I don’t want to give up my ADD entirely—there are as many advantages as disadvantages—and the Strattera is a fairly long half-life. All I want is something that will help three to four hours a day. And that’s the stims.

Overall, this strategy of reversing strategies—treat the sleep disorder instead of the depression and treat the ADD instead of the anxiety it’s caused—is working well. I’m grateful to have found a treatment team willing to try this approach.

My ads hit the street today in The Empty Closet. We’ll see where that goes. I don’t have high expectations, but I hope for some business. The ads are my greatest expense in that regard so only four sales of the el cheapo package will cover both ads. And even if I don’t make that, I remain positive.

Neither hide nor hair of Web Boy for two weeks ended with a phone call I missed while at work last night. At least I have his cell number now. (And yes, there were two hits when I googled on it.)

We did coffee after the meeting tonight and we’re beginning to learn about each other. I’m liking what I’m learning about him, and he seems to be like what he’s learning about me. It feels good so far.

We have a frightening number of similarities coupled with an appropriate number of differences. We talked program stuff, histories and a good measure of geek stuff. And the weirdest shit sparked stuff.

While sharing the frustrations of some form of esoteric geek stuff he made the remark, “I firmly believe guns and computers should not be kept in the same room.” Man I could relate. “I don’t even keep them in the same house,” I replied. Turns out, we both have a chestful of marksmanship medals from our teens. How cool is that?

And fortunately, it turns out he’s ten years older than I’d guessed. I can do mid-30s.

Anyway, he’s playing things very close to the vest, so I’m going to respect that and leave off there, other than to say that at the very least, this could become a very comfortable friendship. I’m not investing any more than that at this point.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 1st, 2004 at 11:13 pm EDT and is filed under Generic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.