Much Ado About FedEx

I was prancing spritefully out the door this morning when I caught sight of a FedEx delivery notice lying on my doormat. With wind, salt fog, and blowing sand, nothing sticky stays stuck unless it's stuck securely to something clean and dry (a door is neither). The smart delivery folks stick the notifications to themselves, wrapped around door handles, if the door handles are the nice accessible horizontal kind.

The message said it had been left at the apartment complex office, so I tramped down there (not at all as excited as I should have been, because I wasn't expecting anything) to find --

-- that there were packages a-plenty, but none for me.

"Didn't you pick up your package on Friday?" the lady asked.

No, no I had not. (Also, I was there Wednesday, not Friday.) I indicated that the delivery date was Saturday, so double no. (Triple, because I hadn't remembered the Wednesday bit.)

After another go-round, she indicated that I should go call FedEx, and so up to the internet I tramped, there to look up the door tag number.

The door tag said, confusingly, that it was a two-part package, one of which had been delivered (and signed for, with a name) and one had not been, but would be today. Sometime. Afternoonish.

The office had no one even there with that last name, though the first initial might have matched.

I called FedEx, and after a few very confusing go-rounds with the very helpful automated system, I got a human. There were a few go-rounds there.

Finally (as I was beginning to suspect) she mentioned a first name, one which was not mine, and not one I knew. And it transpired that the address was also not mine, and within falling-and-blowing distance. I went to stick the sticky on the correct door, and called the office to let them know that there had been a mixup with the door tag, but we were all good now.

At least my pedometer registered the fucking stairs.

Crystal thrall, or, the attention focus problem brain at work

I submit that Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series has one of the better non-medical descriptions of the ADD/ADHD/attention focus problem brain's unwanted hyperfocus at work.

A crystal singer can become inappropriately, damagingly enthralled with a piece of crystal, focusing in on it exclusively, losing time, ignoring/unaware of bodily needs, schedule demands, and physical dangers. It can take external intervention to snap them out of it.

Crystal thrall is seductive, of course, but also terrifying. There's a chance of death if it happens at the wrong time.

Earth is not prone to quite the extremes of weather that one gets on Ballybran, and not everyone with attention focus problems is regularly in the way of life-threatening danger, but it's the same general idea. Attention gets snagged by something -- particularly when you're exhausted enough that the executive function has given up and gone to bed, or hasn't been woken up yet -- and there goes a half-hour doing clicky things on the internet, snipping off split ends, scrubbing up soap scum, or gods know what.

It's so lovely when you can just disappear into something productive and come out a few hours later, drained but buoyed by the flow state, and with something awesome to show for it. It is not lovely when you come back to your normal brain and realize you're half an hour later for bed than you were planning, but at least you don't have any more shoulder blackheads.

I'm sure the comparison breaks down, but as a 101 for someone who's never experienced that sort of problem, but has read the book, it's not bad.

Things I will want to remember in the morning:

The bag with that laptop is under the peace sign blanket.
You mean to get in early because of reasons.
You are planning to buy both breakfast and lunch.
There is a raspberry filled doughnut with your name on it.
You will want to take the morning pills.
When you get to work, it is wiki time.

19 tweets for 2012-11-27

In the last 24 hours, I posted the following to Twitter:

• Tuesday, 0001: My fitbit #fitstats for 11/26/2012: 3,981 steps and 1.7 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/23LLYD
• Tuesday, 0016: http://scanlime.org/2012/11/hacking-my-vagina/ Hacking My Vagina : scanlime Improving a stock wireless vibrator to use a sonar control. (via pinboard)
• Tuesday, 0026: .@ifttt I'd really like to be able to use two WeMo switches at the same time without resorting to multiple accounts.
• Tuesday, 0116: @zarhooie This is a thing that I think your brain should contemplate for a while. http://rosefox.dreamwidth.org/1757328.html
• Tuesday, 0124: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121119140627.htm ‘Solar steam’ so effective it can make steam from icy cold water Steampunk plot bunnies. Aside from the obvious real...
( read the other 14 )

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