(…with glucose)
or, How To Prevent An Ordered Mind From Taking Over Your Life
Lovingly Frosted was the title of the earlier incarnation of this website. It was lifted from the Monty Python sketch Crunchy Frog, starring the two Terry’s and a Graham (depending which version you saw.) I nicked it because I needed something catchy, from out in the cultural landscape but also within my life’s frame of experience. It had to be something readily understood, even if the cultural reference was not. If it could be a double entendre, so much the better. And I found all of them in Lovingly Frosted.
That it could be taken to mean smilingly peeved was apropos of everything I was going through at the time. For better or worse, Trump was in the White House, lifting the veil on exactly how your tax dollars fund how the government makes it sausage. And there was a lot to be peeved about regardless of your political leanings. This was especially true given the sheer quantity of sausage being made, where it was going, and who was benefitting from it.
The journey through Lovingly Frosted refined my apolitical prose style. To make a point without necessarily drawing conclusions about some aspect of the subject was always the goal. With so much of everyone’s lives and livelihoods being impacted by politics in some form, it became increasingly more difficult to keep that fine line in focus. But here we are.
This is the first post of the new order, a transition of sorts. It comes at a time of moderate upheaval (as most opportunities for reflection do.) A budget cut has brought a very long-term contract to an sudden, premature end. Authoritarianism is no longer the exception but the rule. The economy is in chaos, teetering on the edge of a recession (aren’t we always?) From a career perspective, I have gone from being a good-sized fish in a medium pond to a very small (and older) fish in a large pond dominated by younger fish in a profession that has successfully supplanted in-bred sexism with ageism. Artful salesmanship of my skill set, both technical and personal, becomes more and more important with each passing year. It is not lost on me that having a serious public technical portfolio is more important now than it has ever been in the past. Because of this, the two words “Lovingly Frosted” speak directly to the gravity of the moment.
And so a new chapter begins. I think I will go have a cinnamon roll…
…lovingly frosted with glucose.
-i