God morning! Hello there. How are you? All well? Working lots this week? Or phoning it in. My week is very busy. Well, my two-day workweek is very busy. Very HR-intensive day yesterday lots of weird HR issues came up. Employee verifications, 401k work, etc. Back in the Barbaruan days, when Barbarian was fast-growing, I posited that a company should have a dedicated HR person ast 25-ish people. I now think that number’s a bit low, I could handle it up until 50 people I think. And our headcount is not growing these days as quickly as Barbarian’s was. Also, I know what I’m doing in the realm of HR a lot more these days, 21 years after Barbarian was founded (gawd). I do think for a fast-growing, venture-back startup founded by some kid, 25 is a nice ballpark number to add HR. Also, it is astonishing how many venture-backed startups conflate HR and reruiting. Fun fact: they’re not the same thing!
Today I have do a 25-or-so slide presentation about the state of the company’s finances and strateg so that’ll be fun. Nice end-of-the-year sort of thing. Oh and I have the weekly sales meeting. I like that meeting. It is nice to sit there and listen to all the new clients we have sold on our product. Sales meetings are always more fun when you are… selling.
My toilet seat pedal arrived in the mail yesterday! This is where, were I a proper email newsletter writer, I would like to, and/or quote the previous editions where this topic was discussed. Newsletter writers love filling out their newletters with quoting their past selves. Even Matt Levine cannot withstand the temptation. But not here! 100% new, fresh email words every day. You really get your money’s worth. At any rate, it is definitely a weekend project to install this thing, so I will keep you informed of the progress. I am very excited.
Oh and our newly-rebuilt dock got painted last weekend. It’s now mostly complete. Maybe needs a second coat. I think it looks very nice. Semantic question: is this actually a dock? None of it extends over the water. None of it ever will, since the water-level is fixed by the dam runoff stream.
Does anyone have any gift ideas for Emma? I got her one thing, and she just “suggested” another but I am looking for a couple more things. Christmas shopping is hard. Some years I really nail it and knock it out of the park. Other years I completely whiff it. It’s never until right about now that I realize which way it’s going to go. Sometimes around Thanksgiving I look in my gift-storage spot and realize I’ve already gotten Emma like six things. This is not one of those years.
The Club Q shooting is depressing and maddening and predictable and horrifying. I’ve spent an extraordinary amount of my life in gay clubs and I feel this one. Combine this with the apparently intentional act of someone driving their car through the window of the Apple Store on Boylston Street in Boston, another place where I’ve spent a ton of time, and I’m really feeling the closeness of these events this week. Not into it at all, nope. Not sure really what else there is to say about this today that hasn’t already been said. It’s maddening half the country doesn’t feel the need to do anything to mitigate these horrific acts. Of course, this whole new thing of mass murderers using giant vehicles for their crimes makes that harder. Red Flag laws can help. But I would still rather live in a world with no gun crimes, even if we still have vehicle crimes. Honestly, I’m pretty okay with getting rid of cars too, or more severely licensing them. And I own a car. But if it saved lives, I would accept greater car control! See gun owners! not that hard!
I’m on my last week of a Wegovy/Ozempic regemin and I called the pharmacy and they told me that every dose of Ozempic, the affordable version, is on backorder and they don’t know when they’re going to get any more. They said they had some decent availablility on the very high doses of Wegovy, 1.7 and 2.5mg, but those strengths make me nauseaus. If I am being honest, even the 1mg dose I’ve been on for the last few months has been making me feel ill a lot lately and I am not particularly into it and have been thinking I would quit in January, in tandem with my usual January diet, and after a year of taking this drug. It was great, I lost 50 pounds on it, but in the last few months that weight loss has essentially stopped, and I just don’t enjoy the constant low-level illness anymore. I thought for a long time that this was a side effect specific to me. I had mentioned it to my doctor and she didn’t tell me “oh hey this happens to a lot of people” but it turns out it does. All this is to say that I think the time has come to stop my Wegovy regemin. It’s going to suck, and a ton of people re-gain weight when they stop taking it, but I’m resolved to not let this happen, and have plenty of practice. Fingers crossed. Now I wish I hadn’t taken that doese on Monday, being Thanksgiving week, and it would have been nice to, you know, not be rupulsed by food on the week you’re making a giant feast, but no turning back from that I guess.
I’m excited though. Feeling vaguely nauseus for ten months has not been sooper great. Mixed bag, Ozempic. It actually took me a few months to realize it was even making me nauseus I just thought it was, you know, the modern world. [Waves hands] All of… this.
Yesterday I had to go to the Harris Teeter to get our Turkey. They’re the only place around here that have the hippie organic local fresh turkeys I want which is really weird since, you know, North Carolina is like the second-largest turkey producing state. But god, I hate that place so much. I hate the way their self-checkout machines still weigh everything and make it impossible to use your own bags or put things back in your cart, or scan the same item four times instead of putting them down one-by-one. I hate that they don’t take contactless payments. I hate how crowded it is. People fucking love that place. They are wrong. It is the worst, Harris Teeter is the worst I get upset every time I stel in there. Burn it down.
Still, though. Turkey acquired. Thanksgiving is a go. Thanksgiving!
Hrm well I am at an utter standstill in my writing momentum here so I think I’m just gonna go. I just did my usual trick where I get up and do a little walk in a circle, maybe use the restroom, to think about yet another topic but my mind just wandered to Twitter and who needs to hear any more about that today. I guess I should start fluffing up my newsletter with quotes from my past self after all. Who’s laughing now, Rick, who’s laughing now.
W Hotel Lobby in a Better, Alternate World playlist today and OMG! I forgot to tell you! A second friend stopped by the Amsterdam W Hotel this wek and sent me a recoerding of the music in the lobby! Imagine that! Two W Hotel Lobby field recordings, and both from the same W Hotel lobby! Thank you Ivelisse! That is just fantastic. Anyway, this is all new, except for the first song, which desperately needs a remaster and is going to trick you to turn up the volume and then the rest of the playlist will be really loud, sorry, but it’s better than having that song be too quiet. Oh also the Pan·American song is old — one of the rare (only?) Mimi Parker collaboration vocals out there. Thank you to the GMHHAY reader who alerted me to this. Man, I miss Mimi.
I have had moments this week where I’ve thought “I should take the whole week off from GMHHAY along with taking it off from work!” And there have been moments where I’ve thought it would be really good to work on a GMHHAY every day during my 5-day holiday. I’m not sure which way it’s going to go. Tune in to find out! But if I don’t see you before Monday, Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of you!