Dept. of Gleams of Light
Sunday, 11 January 2015 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rFighting Nerves With Good Stuff
Have you ever had a situation in which you've been gearing up, nerving up, for some task that, for whatever reason, intimidated you? And you finally get up the nerve to do it - and then you find out that the task can't be done; not because you were incapable of doing it, but because something else interferes?
I've had one of those days.
I've been gearing up for a large email export/import job, because the New Evil Overlords don't use a business Google account like the Sun-Times did (one of the few smart things the ST did.) Instead, they use a version of Microsoft Outlook that's specifically branded to them. It has far less storage space than my current account had (and still have, at least until the end of January, thank god.) So I've been preparing to export my business Gmail to a personal Gmail account I reorganized to act as a storage space.
My plan was then to set it up so that, although I'd have to work through Outlook, I could automatically forward email to my Gmail account. (I think there's also a way to write emails from this particular personal Gmail account and have them read as if they came from the business email, but that was something I could live without, or work on later.)
Today, I realized that a) I wouldn't be able to start importing/exporting until the Outlook account was actually activated, which happens tomorrow and b) I probably wouldn't be able to sweet talk the Trib tech people into letting me put Outlook on my personal computer. The first was the big downer; I'd wanted to get things done on the weekend, before the activation, but the technological reality had, somehow, eluded me and I felt a little foolish when it finally dawned on me.
So I'll have to do this job during the week, in the middle of doing other things ... gah. (And in answer to a question that you probably didn't ask, no, I couldn't import between the biz gmail account and my gmail account; as far as the rather confusing information I've been able to get from the Gmail help files are concerned, you have to own both Gmail accounts to do that. And I, of course, don't own the ST one, so I don't have the proper ID information.)
So there I was, all geared up to do something I was a little nervous about doing - and unable to do anything. Frustration? You damn betcha.
The entire day felt a little like that to me: two steps forward, one step back, or attempting to take a few steps, only to discover I was blocked.
We got our new medical plan cards (for the vastly less impressive PPO plan that the Trib offers.) We were very happy, until we discovered that we still need to get cards for our prescription plan. Under my old HMO, everything was covered with one card through Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but this plan requires a third-party provider. So I'm guessing we still can't get our meds unless we pay full price; we already had a $300 prescription. We'll get most of it back, but the whole reimbursement route is awful. So, yes, I'm not picking up any meds until I get the ^%$@# prescription cards. Yes, another case of two steps forward, one step back. More frustration.
I also appear to be having difficulty hooking up my new bluetooth device with my iPhone, although it might just be a case of the bluetooth needing to be fully charged. Grumble, grumble ... First! World! Problems!
Still, there were some unambiguously good things that happened today. We checked our snail mail, and discovered, via a final paper check, that the ST did indeed pay me all the vacation accrual I was due, plus enough more that it was clear they'd finally switched us to a calendar year ... I will not bore you with the minutia, but this means that we need to let the HR people at the Trib know that they can switch us over to a calendar year, because they think we're still on an anniversary year. (All of which probably reads like Cyrillic to you; just ignore. Heh.) This was good. It also means I have enough money to take vacation this year.
And the curry was even better on the second day, so I decided to provide a link to both the recipes I used, so anyone who wants to can try them. Here's the curry roux recipe, And here's the beef curry recipe. I'd love to hear from any of you who decide to try one or both of them, to hear what you think, good or bad. I put much more cayenne in the recipe than she calls for, by the way.
We watched two more Korra episodes, and I hope to devour a few more tonight. I'm also thinking I should hunt down some episodes of The Librarians, since a lot of people seem to like it, and I think it would be up my alley.
Ah, I see I'm beginning to ramble, so I'll cut this one off.
Have you ever had a situation in which you've been gearing up, nerving up, for some task that, for whatever reason, intimidated you? And you finally get up the nerve to do it - and then you find out that the task can't be done; not because you were incapable of doing it, but because something else interferes?
I've had one of those days.
I've been gearing up for a large email export/import job, because the New Evil Overlords don't use a business Google account like the Sun-Times did (one of the few smart things the ST did.) Instead, they use a version of Microsoft Outlook that's specifically branded to them. It has far less storage space than my current account had (and still have, at least until the end of January, thank god.) So I've been preparing to export my business Gmail to a personal Gmail account I reorganized to act as a storage space.
My plan was then to set it up so that, although I'd have to work through Outlook, I could automatically forward email to my Gmail account. (I think there's also a way to write emails from this particular personal Gmail account and have them read as if they came from the business email, but that was something I could live without, or work on later.)
Today, I realized that a) I wouldn't be able to start importing/exporting until the Outlook account was actually activated, which happens tomorrow and b) I probably wouldn't be able to sweet talk the Trib tech people into letting me put Outlook on my personal computer. The first was the big downer; I'd wanted to get things done on the weekend, before the activation, but the technological reality had, somehow, eluded me and I felt a little foolish when it finally dawned on me.
So I'll have to do this job during the week, in the middle of doing other things ... gah. (And in answer to a question that you probably didn't ask, no, I couldn't import between the biz gmail account and my gmail account; as far as the rather confusing information I've been able to get from the Gmail help files are concerned, you have to own both Gmail accounts to do that. And I, of course, don't own the ST one, so I don't have the proper ID information.)
So there I was, all geared up to do something I was a little nervous about doing - and unable to do anything. Frustration? You damn betcha.
The entire day felt a little like that to me: two steps forward, one step back, or attempting to take a few steps, only to discover I was blocked.
We got our new medical plan cards (for the vastly less impressive PPO plan that the Trib offers.) We were very happy, until we discovered that we still need to get cards for our prescription plan. Under my old HMO, everything was covered with one card through Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but this plan requires a third-party provider. So I'm guessing we still can't get our meds unless we pay full price; we already had a $300 prescription. We'll get most of it back, but the whole reimbursement route is awful. So, yes, I'm not picking up any meds until I get the ^%$@# prescription cards. Yes, another case of two steps forward, one step back. More frustration.
I also appear to be having difficulty hooking up my new bluetooth device with my iPhone, although it might just be a case of the bluetooth needing to be fully charged. Grumble, grumble ... First! World! Problems!
Still, there were some unambiguously good things that happened today. We checked our snail mail, and discovered, via a final paper check, that the ST did indeed pay me all the vacation accrual I was due, plus enough more that it was clear they'd finally switched us to a calendar year ... I will not bore you with the minutia, but this means that we need to let the HR people at the Trib know that they can switch us over to a calendar year, because they think we're still on an anniversary year. (All of which probably reads like Cyrillic to you; just ignore. Heh.) This was good. It also means I have enough money to take vacation this year.
And the curry was even better on the second day, so I decided to provide a link to both the recipes I used, so anyone who wants to can try them. Here's the curry roux recipe, And here's the beef curry recipe. I'd love to hear from any of you who decide to try one or both of them, to hear what you think, good or bad. I put much more cayenne in the recipe than she calls for, by the way.
We watched two more Korra episodes, and I hope to devour a few more tonight. I'm also thinking I should hunt down some episodes of The Librarians, since a lot of people seem to like it, and I think it would be up my alley.
Ah, I see I'm beginning to ramble, so I'll cut this one off.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Monday, 12 January 2015 10:22 am (UTC)Oh, but thank you for the roux recipe! We do use the Golden brand, same as you, but I think I'll give this a go. It would be nice to be able to tweak the cayenne/garam masala balance to my own tastes.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 14 January 2015 02:27 am (UTC)Ah, that's 'Murca for you. I love this country and have lived in it for 33 plus years, but I grew up in Canada, with a single-payer health system (which its conservative asshole government is trying to dismantle, apparently in favor of the crap system its southern neighbor has), and I know from fairness. My previous owners at least had a reasonable health maintenance organization insurance plan option which is as close to a single-payer type of health plan as you'll get in the U.S. Our new owners are going for something that's only a couple of steps better than "You sick? Tough shit; pay, or we'll let you die."
Argh; much better to talk about cookery. The roux is going to get made again this coming weekend, and I'm going to freeze some of it (the recipe doesn't actually say you can completely freeze the roux, I don't think, but I'm going to try. (I made such a huge amount of curry the first time, that we're still eating it. The proof of it being really, really good is that my Best Beloved is still eating it, and declaring it good, several days later. Heh. Let me know how your roux went!
no subject
Date: Monday, 12 January 2015 06:51 am (UTC)♥
no subject
Date: Monday, 12 January 2015 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 13 January 2015 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 13 January 2015 07:07 am (UTC)