Wednesday Thoughts 07
According to my tally, Wednesdays are now the days I write the most "thoughts" posts with 7. Tuesdays are next in line with 6 (those days were tied before I started typing this one). I guess I just don't have many thoughts outside of the middle of the week.
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On Aphasia
I don't actually know if I suffer from aphasia or if it's something similar that masks itself as something more serious. It's 100% related to my epilepsy, as I haven't had a stroke and to my knowledge don't have a tumour. Looking at the Wikipedia definition lists epilepsy as something that can lead to aphasia, so I'm not barking up the wrong tree exactly. But the problem with aphasia is that it reads like a long-term diagnosis. What I experience tends to be temporary, not lasting for more than ~half an hour. I need to do more research on this topic, and I'd like to write something in longer form when I finally figure it out.
I bring this up because a few times this week (and last week) I've experienced the loss of speech recognition and in some cases even to my own ears, what I'm trying to say makes no sense. This isn't just suddenly forgetting a word, this is me having trouble understanding someone else and words getting mixed around with sounds. Usually this is a result of me being really tired, and considering I'm sick with a cold right now and therefore a little extra tired, I'm not entirely surprised I'm experiencing an uptick in these "episodes" (for lack of a better word).
I'll write more another time.
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On The Advantages of Open Offices
There's a lot of bad things one might say about working in an open / shared office: it's noisy, no privacy, too many interruptions. But there are some advantages. One in particular I wanted to highlight came from my day yesterday. I had several conversations with different people from different departments - all of whom I would have otherwise interacted with on Teams - in person, and had productive outcomes. Not all of the conversations were about immediate action needed to be taken, but the vibe was very collaborative. This is what our company kept trying to push when implementing the "Return to Office" - that being in the office is about collaboration and working better with people.
There are certain departments that don't need a lot of physical interactions, and mine is one of them. I could do my job just as easily sitting at home as I could here, in the office (where I'm typing this today). However, I'm also a manager and therefore a central point of contact for several other managers (not to mention team members who report to these managers), so being in one place for these conversations is extremely helpful. I had the same experience today, although not as many of the impromptu meetings as yesterday.
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On Colds
I mentioned I have a cold; I'm greatly annoyed by this, but not just because it's a cold and colds are annoying. I had a cold a few weeks ago and I thought that I was done. Last time I progressed through the stages rather quickly, which included getting to the end of it. But this time it's taking longer, and now I'm in the congestion stage.
And I forgot how tiring being congested can be. I suppose it's because it's much harder to breathe so your body has to work harder. By the end of the day all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. The last two nights I've pushed myself to keep going and I think it's been worth it, even though I am strangely waking up almost completely alert in the middle of the night. That's a strange one.
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That's it. I thought I had more thoughts, but my head is spinning a little bit.
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