Links: lawyers, loot, light, and ... ... ... omfgwtfbbq

http://www.glumbert.com/media/consent -- omg, the LAWYERS. I so ship them.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/12/01 -- maybe they do not want that loot.
http://extreme-geek.blogspot.com/2006/11/fire-starter-flashlight.html -- hot stuff! Dad would love it; Mama would really hate it.
http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2006/11/rules-for-writing.html -- still surreal.

My work week is on crack, and lacks coherent.

Since getting lectured on the topic of proper food at work, I've been crockpotting things. I did split pea soup a while ago, after the accidental chicken stew worked out so well. Then after Thanksgiving, I did a pot roast with potato flakes and random vegetables. I approve of the habit of turning a chunk of meat into a real meal by adding random vegetables, although of course they would be better for me fresh, they are still random vegetables.

These get tossed in little flimsy temporary plastic containers. I like this level of container -- it's got more uses than a plastic bag, and it's also lightweight and inexpensive enough that there is little guilt in tossing it when it does break/wear out, and the life cycle on them is about equal to Real Sturdy Plastic Containers. I like. I like a lot.

That's been lunch, though. And when I do have one of those with me, I'm that much more likely to sit down and have lunch. Something frozen that should be heated up is really a lot of excellent. It's fun!

On I-think-it-was-Tuesday, I got cornered for the Party Committee. I'd previously heard that someone had nominated me for same, but I hadn't been really in on anything like that. But we sat down and talked about the logistics of getting a party going, and I was told off to work up the invitations and RSVP system. Snarky Lady contributed with plots and plans and ideas and found materials, and I was the one to be doing things. That took up the afternoons in Wednesday and Thursday, Thursday especially. I'll have to work up a potluck list later.

Today is December 1, and that means that the end of the month passed! So I can Do Things at the system. But first I had to get the routine paperwork out of the way. Of course, since the checks with the attached invitations go out today too, when the Princess noticed that there were some things wrong with them, I had to fix those first. I got a late start on the paperwork, but finished in a reasonably timely fashion. I poked at the ranking stuff and tried to get it and my mind into some sort of coherent order before I crashed, burned, and went home.

I did get a little custom job spreadsheet built up for the teams. Homie G had asked for it, and Rev. Not-So-Nice Super had wanted it too, so when I did get it done they were both really thrilled.

Pink Shirt Guy has been out for the past couple days.

Figment figured out that I was the one who'd done the party invitation, as there were a rather lot of obscure holidays that fall in December that got listed on the "Have an excellent $HOLIDAY_LIST[1-X]" portion of it. I managed to get all the random text about the party stripped of any religious references that I could detect, other than the list of random holidays that people do celebrate at this season. It may seem very silly to Christian or general-US-agnostic-pop-culture observers, but when something Official manages to word itself in such a way that there's a "this is the default religion, and then all others are kind of off on the side here", that's a bad little feeling in the pit of the stomach. It's much happier when there's something that goes "Yes, people have done all sorts of celebrationy things with this month; we'll be generic and let you fill in the one you want to celebrate."

My days are falling apart in my head, but I got through the week, and there was a touch of overtime!

GLP: "Professor Pott's Pornographic Projector", by The Troll, found on the album Animated Music

I haven't been able to find the lyrics to this anywhere else on the internet. Quality of the transcription is dodgy, as I was transcribing from Pandora, which means that I was doing the pause-and-type method, and since the singer's voice is nasal and indistinct, I may have heard something wrong. I usually like to listen to the song all the way through and have it blasting, but I wanted to get the lyrics down this time. I will eventually wind up buying the album, or at least the song, because it is just too silly.


( Cut for lyrics. )

Little bits of random from the call center

When asked ethnic background, respondent said: "Put me down as an atheist."

Poking Darksides with sticks is fun.

When I called earlier, I got his mom; the menfolk were at Fry's (electronics) working out some kind of problem that the laptop was having. There was general gossiping. I get on with his mother, happily enough. We can girl-talk a bit. Not too much, but we can talk mild tech, work, and a little bit about Menfolks and Family.

Darkside was back after a while when I called. Problem turned out to be bad RAM. RAM replaced, laptop runs fine; yay. I made squee about winning NaNo; he expressed that I was a bloody fool for waiting until November to get started, as there was no one saying I couldn't start before then. I explained the rule. He expressed that it was a rather silly rule, as this would mean that one would have to actually spend crazy-serious time writing, especially to get words they were happy with and not just words.

Our writing styles are rather different, he and I. I've gotten to the point where I can first-draft things fairly cold and without the internal editor doing too much to get in the way. I consider it an honor and a privilege that he's offered as much commentary about his own writing style as he did in that conversation. We giggled on the topic of me keeping first drafts over the years: he told me I should definitely keep this first draft as a reminder of my writing evolution once I get more passes through it; I mentioned that I needn't bother, as I have first drafts from when I was fourteen. (No offense intended to the youthful writers who read me, but after twelve years have passed between when you wrote something and when you read it later, you're going to have about the same reaction to bits of your writing. There will be things about it that are very very good, and there will be things that will make you wonder if you can bribe who-ever is operating the trapdoor-in-floor switch to make either it or you disappear. Unless you are howling with laughter, which you might be.)

There was a nice discussion about what I plan to do with whichever draft I do wind up going over, and hcolleen's plans for hitting me with the 2007 Writer's Market should I not have things ready. This digressed into a size comparison of things that one would not like to be hit with. The SQL reference I have on the shelf was followed by an unabridged dictionary, which was followed by the OED (all volumes, concurrent and consecutive), and it degenerated into (more) silliness when he mentioned a multi-volume encyclopedia set and I countered with Wikipedia. O, the papercuts.

He's to be sleeping this weekend, not Death Note. Alas.

I explained that I had been told off to design the invitations for the party. He made wry commentary about the things I might have made them say. " 'Come to the Dark Side of Christmas', with Vader wearing a Santa hat?" was the suggestion. Next time, if there is a next time, I may have a little more fun with doing the Silly Version as well as the Serious Version. This time, I did do a sketched-out version in Silly before I re-worded it for Serious.

His parents have his mom's office Christmas party tonight.

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Out in the parking lot getting some walking in. My legs and all are surprisingly ok with this given how I have neglected it. I had 2 small spiked mochas.

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I am almost feeling energetic enough to do a 4th lap of the parking lot. It is cool enough that I need to stay in motion while out of doors. Headset FTW.