Contextual Silence

I'm not used to being the the closest point of human contact for more than one person at once, so being the closest of both Darkside and Figment is weirding me out a bit. They've both got glass masks, now, and I have to keep forcing myself to remember that the surrounding people have not been told the crucial details, that there are certain things I can't discuss with them, because he'd prefer that the actual things remain private, things for just us (and my clergy contacts if necessary).

Today the Figment was a zombie, and looked like he badly needed someone to tackle him and quietly hug him until he was forced to work out everything that was making him zombify, but it was work, so I couldn't. Alas.

I was feeling horrible this morning, so I called the office and inquired as to when I was supposed to be in. I wasn't on the schedule until three, so I dove back in bed and caught up on the sleep. Sleep and I have been having a dysfunctional relationship lately.

I was on the Dendarii Brewing Company Panel survey today, which meant that I barely had time to breathe between surveys. I got to talk to a lot of very friendly and personable people, fortunately. That survey sucks when there are the nasty people, and there can be a lot of those. I wound up talking with an Elizabeth Moon who was not the author, though she'd heard of the author and was thinking about writing a book of her own. I encouraged her on that front, because that's one of the things that should be done.

Stressy College Chick Shift Ops Super had my shiny new name badge for me! I'd e-mailed the person in the office who handles those things, letting her know that the temporary badge I'd had was getting pretty beat-up and nasty, employing a few of the tricks I'd used in business writing -- namely, not asking if I could please have a new one, but asking please when it would be convenient for her to make me a permanent one. I shall be writing a nice thank-you e-mail acknowledging the receipt of the badge and its general spiffiness when I get a moment at work on Friday.

I'm starting to actually attain a level of confidence and competence at work. Once I've mastered the check-in skills, I'll probably be antsy enough to want to learn something else. And since there is a decent rate of attrition in the ranks of the Phone Goons Pulled to Assist and the levels above (quitting, moving into other departments, moving, et cetera) I have opportunity to rise higher in the company. Figment has aspirations too -- and needs a new job! Anyone in the Phoenix area who needs a steady, hard worker with immense capacity for loyalty, one with an accounting degree and my personal recommendation, let me know, and we'll talk.

Words that interest me

The incomparable ThisToThat.com gets asked about what glue to use on a live crayfish.

I picked up Flights of Fantasy, edited by Mercedes Lackey, at Bookman's the other day on a whim, and I do recommend it. I'd previously stated that her more recent work has been joyless and formulaic; this collection, while betraying a mechanical editor in a few places (S.M. Stirling had a misplaced it's/its), was on the whole fun, and ML's story was a delight that had me howling with sheer glee. No warnings for non-con necessary on her piece. Evidently the character snagged her by the pen out of the Before while she was writing another, lesser, novel, and would not shut up until she'd had her say said. I approve. Warnings do involve Tyrannical Parents, but the situation is dealt with nicely.

A post is needed on the topic of bystander guilt, and why I'm coping so well and am free of bystander guilt over the death of the woman in the car accident.

"Down to the Bone" Percy/Lucius, Percy/Draco. biichan. Fabulous. Involves BDSM.

( Gratuitous Lyrics: Crazy Town's 'Darkside' )

Links I need, because my browser is behaving badly:
http://www.eclecticenergies.com/chakras/chakratest.php
http://www.livejournal.com/community/pornish_pixies/286932.html?#cutid1
http://www.livejournal.com/users/azurelunatic/2114860.html?mode=reply
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=asknutr&dbid=60


( Read more... )

http://www.geocities.com/rnseitz/Definition_of_IQ.html

Bad Lag?

Am I the only one whose Yahoo webmail is acting slower than a snail on sedatives?

Fun with Work

Seven and a half hours before the workplace calms down enough for me to do anything besides work my tail off. Seven and a half hours without any appreciable downtime.

It's good to be appreciated, right?

Notable incidents of the day included the cup with cookies in it; Stressy College Chick Shift Ops Super attempted to hand them off to about three different other supervisors. By the third attempt, I could no longer keep a straight face.

One of the employees here, a phone goon, looks like he's wearing Groucho Marx glasses, because he has thick dark eyebrows, dark-framed glasses, and a mustache. The effect is comical if you're not expecting it.

Cute Geek Super to Stressy College Chick on tampering with her food on the dinner run: "I won't spit in your food -- my little friend will spit in your food." Silly Cute Geek Super. (It amuses me that Cute Geek Super is one or two years younger than I am.)

Figment's monitor report came back with a decent number of stars on it. I grinned when I saw that, and got a star out of my Check-In Equipment Box and slapped that on the monitor report as well. The supervisor for the job (who hasn't got a nickname yet; I think he should perhaps be Phone Call In Super, because he has a wife and an assortment of friends who always call in for him) started giving me a hard time about it. This led to Rev. Nice Super adding to the hassle, and then Stressy College Chick as well. I turned an interesting color.

There was discussion of metal vs. wood baseball bats to be used as a blunt instrument, and whether or not the person over which the metal baseball bat is whacked can hear the nice "ping" sound when the bat collides with their head. (Clone Name Super said that yes, they do; his cousin had a close encounter.)

So, an interesting day.

Tomorrow I'm a phone goon; I may well take it the heck off, because I'm so exhausted. (Yep. I checked with Stressy College Chick, and both of us are taking it off. Yay!)

A Life

Figment is on his way over to drag me off to dustraven's Dungeon, and as I was washing up to get ready to go, I grumbled, "I'm so busy spending time with people that I don't have time to have a life!"

I take it that this means that my definition of "a life" includes time for restful near-solitude, and serious quality time with the computer.

It's nice knowing that I spend a great deal of this time on the computer here by choice, rather than by default in the absence of anything else to do. And when I'm away long enough, I do get 'net deprivation.

The crucial part, of course, is the chronicling. I need to have the means ready to take notes on what I'm doing as I'm doing it. I wonder if AzureBlue's battery is really as toast as I thought it was.