The places formerly known as 'work1' and 'work2' have been re-tagged as 'workplace: domain shop' and 'workplace: survey hell', respectively, on the Dreamwidth side; I've sort of given up on tag maintenance on LJ.

PSA: Please consider what is on top of your altar and your own habits when choosing an altarcloth, if you use them. I would be ill-advised to pick anything expensive or that would be ruined by ash or wax spilling on it, especially colorful waxy fingerprints. I know someone who has switched to an altar topped in either stone or heavy tile, because they are somewhat apt to setting theirs on actual fire.

This public service announcement is brought to you apropos of me having to wash that piece of cloth I keep on top of mine.


Yesterday I managed to stay up for about 23.5 hours, and then collapse and sleep for a full 8 hours. Today is going to be first housework and moving preparations and writing and then probably time with the best friend, after which I will collapse. Or write.


On Thursday, some of the notables from my old workplace (tagged as "work2") met up at China Chili downtown. The discerning will recognize what it is that I find so very hilarious about their website. I was very late, and came in just as the party was finishing up. There was a good gossip, however. I wound up sitting between Management (whom I adore) and the Queen Bee (my nemesis). The Queen Bee's daughter was there, and the lady from the back who I saw at Trader Joe's on a regular basis, and Lobot, and the Guru, and the Office Lady with the Braid, and Traveling Manager, and someone else I didn't recognize at all, and probably more.

The Guru was talking about the shocking stuff you can find on the internet (I mentioned goatse; no one had heard of it; I had to describe it; the Guru said that he would have his wife, his internet guinea pig, Google it for him) and the stuff they show on TV these days, and how the content of the Cartoon Network really differs based on what time of day it was. He mentioned that he'd wound up watching a bit of something (Metalocalypse), wherein the animated bass player plays his bass with his penis. Google and I got together later, and it turns out that the sequence in question is the opening of "Birthdayface". Another 5-minute Google search. He also mentioned some puppet sex, where he said that just when you thought that they'd done too much and it could not possibly get worse, then it did. I tracked that down as well, and ... well, cue me not being shocked. Am I hopelessly jaded? At any rate, Traveling Manager said that I could probably find it on YouTube, and that the SouthPark guys probably wouldn't mind it being up there. Given the description, I frowned and said that while they might not mind it being on YouTube, YouTube might mind it being on them; perhaps I should try with xTube or PornoTube.

No one at the table with me had heard of either of these.

Later on, the Guru said something about Goat Tube, conflating the two. (I was reminded of the hysterical laughter I got in response to the proposal that LJ put in a dev-cam, to be called "Goat See".)

I conveyed gameboyguy13's greetings; Management said hi back.

Link Soup:
http://failblog.wordpress.com/?p=8296 - something that should never happen
http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/54964.html -- dictionaries
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/11/images/20081112_d-0077-5-515h.jpg -- what a shocker.
http://vtwopointoh.livejournal.com/1541.html -- a dictionary of Cammie
http://filthspigot.livejournal.com/18308.html -- Goldendoodles, and why they are hazardous. My aunt needs to see this.
http://marta.livejournal.com/30121.html -- secure your LJ account.


Apropos of something in IRC: when gameboyguy13 and I say "Oh dear" in that tone of voice, half the time it means "pass the popcorn".

I can moderate some areas. I entirely refuse to consider moderating others. For the record.

• 10:20 hColleen and I have just made people die of hilarity, with her awesome photoshop skillz and my silly put-things-together skillz. Win. #
• 13:08 Oh, eff you, you phonespamming political twit. I was the fuck asleep, and that is my motherfucking cellphone. DIE. #
• 14:38 LOL: "An example has been the use of gopher URLs to cause a rude message to be sent via a SMTP server." Oh, RFC 1738. #
• 14:49 OK, presence of Nemesis has been mitigated by presence of secret crush. HELLO TURBO. #
• 18:47 Feeling better after nap at Alternatives. And whoever's phone is beeping ... oi? #
• 19:08 Told azwriter that using Word for HTML was the computer version of putting the tampon in the wrong hole. #

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I seem to have both acquired a new friend and be cooler on the internet than I am to offline people. My elder clone's oldest daughter looks exactly like Sparkie

http://community.livejournal.com/techsupport/1597911.html -- powder!
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html -- lots of it is applicable.
http://www.deadondemand.com/products/enhancedhdd/ -- dude.
http://17catherines.livejournal.com/631567.html?thread=2559503#t2559503 -- That should be retro-phrenology :) Much more interesting.
Phrenology is merely reading the bumps on peoples heads.
Retro-phrenology is correcting people by giving them a bump on the head (theoretically done with precision to achieve particular personality changes, this is often practiced far less precisely but still effectively during bar brawls.)

Went to Work₂ the whole day, then went to hang out with the House of SPINK! We did dinner. That was fun. There was gaming silliness. ZOMG big TV! It was good to see them again. Still awake.

I have a little box with all sorts of delightful-smelling things in it! Miskatonic University has a whole lot of Irish in its coffee.

I think sleep is a good plan.

http://pics.livejournal.com/azurelunatic/pic/000ce8h6

A better application for said hammer would be the dude who is under the mistaken impression that Darkside's cellphone is the number he needs to call to check his voicemail. NO. Darkside was v. apologetic that he had ignored my calls yesterday. (He was mostly ignoring dude, since that is 90% of the calls he gets.) (My dear best friend needs to get a separate ringtone thing going on.)

Work is having a holiday party. I am bringing myrrhianna to it, as Darkside is Not Going. Hooray rspv by Friday. Tuesday is paperwork. Thursday is shots. I feel like a carefully kept pet.

Scary Old Desk Guy at work₂ is to be learning my database. I am to be getting the laptop to borrow tomorrow.

Today at work featured One of Those Calls; I think my supervisor was wishing he'd taken it at his desk. He was on it at least as long as I was, and turned colors at points, and after getting off it, grimly reminded himself that he loved his job, and our customers. I managed to find an Atomic Fireball for him, and then he was happy and skipping around again.

Oh, and Red Cube Badge Guy thinks NaNo is insane and some things should not be written; he only knows of one person who can write that fast, and she writes like a woman possessed. And of course work being work, I wound up knowing her too. She's in my writing group, of course! :D I shall ask our mutual friend if she can be convinced to put in a good word for my ability to write coherent first draft at speed. Some things touch upon a woman's honor.

I miss my hens. I shared "Calico and Velvet" with myrrhianna yesterday; she shared a YouTube clip involving her brother. I want to have a few hours curled up with a book and a warm feathery friend sitting next to me sharing bits of apple and talking about the weather or whatever it is that friendly hens chatter about when they're not doing much in particular.

I have got to find some time in our mutual schedules that is not tied up, and get out to Mesa and allow myself to absolutely just drop the whole façade for a few precious minutes. I'm not social with him because I don't have to be social. I don't have to be lit up. I just have to be me.

The Target on the corner has the right brand of tea. See refrigerator.

Pie does not have tentacles.

August has gone missing. Alert the cops. (The month, not an entity of that name.)

I will have a good day tomorrow, because I had one today at work₁, right?

Escaping out your movie embedding script is not a good plan. Still not entirely sure how she thought she was doing that.

Ran into first instance of user uploading entire Windows directory to hosting account. Plus side: hosting account is generously sized.

Beware rising ICANN fee.

I have been using the huggy-iced-water-bottle as a sleep aid.

8 hours at work₁ followed by 5.5 (which was actually 8.5 and 5.75 due to lunch and poor estimating, respectively) hours at work₂ does not make a cheerful Lunatic, especially as time at work₂ was extended by alarums & exceptions.

I am made unhappy if attempting to shower without bar soap. Thus, hello Mr. Bar Soap.

There was a manhunt on the freeways on the drive home. Srsly, three distinct freeways had their overhead signs lit up with the vehicle's description and instructions to push the panic button if you saw the vehicle. One hopes the driver was stupid enough to stay on the lit-up freeway with hundreds of people taking their eyes off the road in an attempt to scope out whatever sort of fugitive it was.

2007.08.12 One of those Monday things a day early.

5:38

Because I am too lazy to want to copy and paste, I'm writing a macro that will do my dirty work for me. I feel somehow like I'm cheating, even though Management will regard it as some supernatural effort.

6:06

Pink Shirt Guy was "right-sized" away from the company. *flail* OMG I am going to miss him. So much. He's Pink Shirt Guy. Insanity!

6:39

Darkside and I would make very good co-workers. We've been best friends for how many years? I'm plotting devious things now. I have to have a few words with him before I get too devious, though.

This was the infamous 1-day weekend. Saturday was primarily anime, with the aforementioned Target and Home Depot runs. Sunday was work; I hyperventilated on the way in and was OK coming out, if exhausted. Then I went straight to my secondary job. Then I came home and went to bed. (I'd shut down my computer Saturday night, since she was sounding tired and she needed rebooting.) Monday I was a little better before work, and again went straight to the secondary job, where I uncovered all the insanity with that bloody 11mb spreadsheet. ELEVEN MEGABYTES, PEOPLE.

I tagged & tracked the latest round of suggestions in between the 11mb stuff doing its crazy thing. I am on the verge of refusing to work with it anymore, which is terribly selfish but they are not paying me half enough to contend with that piece of crap. If I quit that job now, it will be because of that spreadsheet (and because I can now afford to quit over something like that).

Today was a little calmer at work; less 60 in queue going on. I went almost straight home, though a detour for refueling Vash was in order. I spent three solid hours trying to catch up with Sunday and Monday on LJ. I'm right smack dab in the middle of this thing. I volunteer for LJ, and I'm fannish (though not in the middle of fandom). I know I'm not the only support/fan crossover person, and I know I'm not the only person looking at both sides of this and watching in dismay as two of my closest groups of friends square off to start hitting. I know if I try to intervene I'll get caught in the crossfire. I think we all know that.

Dinner tonight was Mongolian Barbecue, gameboyguy13's first official exposure to it (that I know of). It was delicious!

gameboyguy13's last day at his summer job is Friday; after that he will have about a week off before we return him to the general area of school for more happy school. He gets the week to loaf around and do touristy things.

I got some grocery shopping done. The disturbing part was where I drove past on my way to the store and I saw someone lying in the middle of the street. There were people clustered around and one guy was waving traffic past, so I didn't stop. I'm not trained, and there was someone who looked like (s)he knew what (s)he was doing looking the person over. There were police cars all over when I drove back past that way.

Somehow my spare time got slapped down to near zero. I didn't start the laundry that I was intending to do. I did get groceries, though, so that's a good thing. This weekend will have two days. I can get things done then. There is still glass in my garbage disposal.

2007.08.05 Strawberry Sunday

5:12 Traveling Manager, the woman who needs to be badgered to get her expense sheets turned in anything close to on time, is evidently a vice-president. Who knew?

7:23 Whee, it is a night.