Just sayin'

I went to a new place to play trivia with Harry, and it was pretty
cool. They have pirate crap on the walls, which makes them a really
cool place. The food wasn't bad, either. Though I ended up paying, cos
Harry forgot his wallet...grr. Mom does that to me constantly, also;
Harry does it cos he is retarded, and Mummers does it cos all her
life, someone has taken care of her silly ass. I want to have the
luxury of wandering out of my house with nothing but a comb and a
lipstick, safe in the knowledge that I will be fed and looked after.
A-mazing.

Butsoanyway.

I am getting ready for tomorrow, hugging my blue cat (that would be
Rhett), and watching The Pacifier. I'd never seen this before, and am
wondering exactly what it is that Vin Diesel *does*, because he is
funny-looking as hell, and has a remarkable lack of talent,
acting-wise. Is he famous for some martial arts stuff, like Chuck
Norris (spoken as if i had ANY CLUE AT ALL what Chuck Norris is famous
for, or could pick him out of a line up)? I am not sure why i wanted
to see this movie, but now i am glad i didn't rent it or anything.
Ok... I need to finish kissing my blue cat, find some Excedrin, and
get to work on the data crap and the tomorrow crap.

correctiing mistkates!

God help me.

...that might be more impactful if I weren't agnostic, huh?

I have the hiccups, and I have to correct the same data that I have been correcting since Friday, off-and-on.  Kill me now.  What's more, I actually was asked on Friday (or told, rather) by one of my advisor's lab's undergrads if/that I was an undgergrad, as in, 'well, you're an undergrad too... [pause] ...right?'

I have yet to decide if my ego is happy about that one or not.  Looks-wise, yes; presence-wise, no.  Hmmm. 

Butsoanyway. 

So on Friday, I took on straightening out some 594-whittled-to-560-odd answers to this huge-assed survey, and...it's unbelievable, really.  My brain hurts.  I am trying to go back and un-do some fixes (done completely incorrectly by someone else), and then re-do the whole damned thing...and did I mention that I am doing all this primarily as a favour (well, ok...I am being paid, but...it's salaried, which means I *could* have said no, but did not because I have a steaming pile of crap between my ears)?  Then I went to Eviljob with a flat, and Saturday I bought new tires at the tiny quickee tire place (for way less than everyone else was quoting me), and raced (carefully) to Eviljob, stopping only to pick up this really yummy bagel sandwich thing, 'cos it has turkey, cucumber, bean sprouts (or alfalfa sprouts, I forget which is which -- the hairy kind, not the stringy kind), and a big ol' glob of heart-incapacitating cream cheese with veggies chopped up in there.  Food.  Yay. 

I am not being fed on a regular basis.  :-\  Does it show?

Butsoanyway.

So I put in time at Eviljob, and I guess it could have sucked worse...especially in light of the fact that it was getting me away from that god-awful spreadsheet that I should be working on right this second.  Then I headed home and...

I forgot.  'cos I also forgot something that happened at Eviljob, too.  At the time, I thought it was funny, is all I remember.  Anyway...

Oh!  I did just remember something else, though!  Because of my whacked-out schedule, I have turned over cat-feeding activities to Harry, and the cats LOVE him!  Me they hate and fear, him they adore so much that they LITERALLY wait for him and attack (nicely).  This world is so unfair.  Even MEHITABEL likes him.  Won't come near him, but seems to like him. 

Sigh.  It's ok -- I have four cats that adore me (Romeo maybe not so much, what with the watering and all).  Rhett Butler Kittypants tells me constantly that I am the best mom ever.  Then I ask him, 'compared to what, Rhett?', and he stares at me blankly for a minute, and then forgets, and goes back to saying, 'Mom, Mom, Mom...I love you Mom, you are the best mom ever, Mom!'

Oh!  I came home on Saturday, and then remembered that my father came back home from the cruise he and his wife went on, and so I drove to visit him, then I came home and did spreadsheet shite until about five a.m., and then slept through A Prairie Home Companion.  Grr.  And then today.  Yay. 

I had better get back to work, or I won't be able to justify going to trivia with Harry.  argh.

.

Be...flat

Gah.

I am incapable of controlling my finances. Seriously. Even when I
*try*, something terrible (and terribly expensive) always happens.
Like today; I got out of my Friday afternoon meeting (which is like a
professional development seminar), with a whole thirty minutes before
I had to head over to Eviljob, so I tear off campus to this chi-chi
bullshit trendy shopping centre just off campus, cos there is a pita
store in there, and I can greek-pita it en route to Eviljob, where the
side of campus our department is on has only two food service places
(we've been promised more shortly with the construction nearby), and
both suck -- one is fried *everything*, and the other more often than
not is just plain shitty; one of those places that could even fuck up
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So until the two new buildings
(and courtyard) are finished, I'm happier heading off-campus. Unless I
just want coffee -- right on the outskirts of what will be our new
commons/courtyard area on this end is a really nice coffeehouse. So
yay.

butsoanyway.

So I park in front of Ye Olde Pita Hovel and put money in the meter,
then I look at my back tire, and...it's practically fucking flat. How
could I be so oblivious as to not have noticed before? Argh. So I
decide to play it safe (in case my tire is in the process of
deflating), and start heading towards Eviljob and phoning around to
nearby tire stores to see if anyone has a tire in my size, and/or does
the nitrogen in the tire thing. Can you believe that NO ONE does
nitrogen besides my dealership and a local warehouse store place? How
dumb could I have been, 'cos now I cannot even add a can of
Fix-A-Flat. BWAAH!

By the time I got to Eviljob, I managed to decide that I have probably
trashed my tire driving on it, and needed new tires anyway, seeing as
how I have never bought tires for this car, and Meg just put a new set
on hers, so I am coming due soon anyway. Sometimes it seems that this
is all never-ending. Grr. I mean, it is not like I could just get one
tire, that would be ridiculous, 'cos tires are supposed to be worn out
evenly as part of some huge international tire conspiracy -- that's
why we pay to have them rotated. Tire Mafia Bastards. Only some Carlos
The Jackal-type Tire Mafia Bastard would try to convince a girl that
$200/tire is a really good 'sale' price. Fuckers. One place was all,
'oh, we have *such* a better deal than the other Tire Mafia Bastards!
$168 per tire if you buy four!', so I asked him to please, please,
pretty please check that they are in stock, and he phones me back to
tell me that the $168 tires are 'rated wrong' (WTF?) for my car, but
they have another tire that is both the right size *and* rating for
almost $100 more per tire. At least I got bait-and-switched over the
phone. Hmph.

Argh. So before I head in to Eviljob tomorrow, I have to stop at the
nearest tire store and pay out money that I am trying to save. Sigh. I
know that I should count my blessings, I mean, at least I did not have
a blow out on the freeway, but still... Grr.

Huh?

Ok, so I am at Eviljob, and I am on the phone with a Regional Manager,
trying to sort some mess out. He's in his car, on his cell, because
this has taken him all the way to a different office...generally all
the bad things that should never happen. And he has his radio on in
the car the whole time, which is not all that annoying. Until he
breaks in on our conversation to tell me he has to call back, cos he
-- ready? -- has to phone the radio station asap. As in like, for a
contest or something. Or an emergency song request. So bizarre. So
very, very bizarre. If this person were not who he is, I might even
figure it's par for them. Weirdness. Truly.

A steal of a deal...

This is surprising – just when I had resigned myself to having to buy MS Office (for Upgrayedd) online for $150 (student version), someone tells me our on-campus bookstore has it for $99.

So then I accept that I am going to have to shell out $99, and one of my cohorts tells me about an online 'deal':  MS Office Ultimate for $60.  I completely dismiss it as being some horseshit 'take 20 surveys, apply for two credit cards, buy 72 magazine subscriptions, and we will put your name in a drawing...maybe' scam.

Well, I got bored today, and went to the site anyway.  It's for real, and it's from Microsoft.  As long as you have a .edu email address, you can get the FULL VERSION for $60.  If you want the dvd, it's an additional $12. 

Now, my thinking is, if you don't have access to a .edu email address, go find a student who does and offer to go dutch with them on this, or something.  Even buying the dvd, you are still coming out way ahead; this has more than the student version, and costs LESS. 

And it works – no tricks, no scam.  I am using it at this very moment.  Here's the URL; don't say I never gave you anything.  ;-)

http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp

I haven't died...yet.

I am having an incredibly difficult time keeping up with posting, I
know. This semester, Mondays and Wednesdays are my days from Hell,
days where I have to go non-stop until damn close to midnight. Last
week (a little) and this week (way worse), my Tuesday has been spent
with, of all things, a stomach ache...now how stupid is that? But
right now, all the same, I feel as if Mike Tyson did a few hundred
punch drills on my stomach, and then I had to run twelve blocks to
make it in time to take my seat at a hot dog eating contest, and went
on to win it (I know the beginnings of a 2008 Bulwer-Lytton award is
lurking in that sentence, but that's how I feel). And I am grumpy. And
I am in one of those I-don't-want-to-leave-the-house moods, probably
because I feel so awful, but Squoosh didn't help this morning by going
off on a barfing jag, and making me worry all day at Job 2-sub-1 (he
seems fine; I phoned the vet, and they basically said that one spew is
no big deal if he is eating, drinking, and purring, which he was
before I left).

Tomorrow is the Mostly Not Me day in the tag-team workshop, and that's
good; I need a break. I really, seriously need a vacation.

Know any good elective surgeries that would have me out of commission
for a month or two? Kidding...kidding...

After trying to help with some knowledge transferring and
baton-passing at work, I left at about 4 and went home, basically to
take care of Squoosh if he needed it, but mostly cos of this stomach
thing. I then proceeded to hug Squoosh and watch TV for a few hours.
Well, Squoosh liked it. I almost just slept on the couch yet again,
but I am really trying to get out of that habit, and it is hard. I am
going to have to think of something...sigh. It's hard to get rid of
bad habits.

-- The 'I needed crampy muscles and a headache' update --

What's funny is that I just awakened (in an extremely uncomfortable
position) after having fallen asleep for a few hours (with my pda half
in my mouth...well, ok, the corner of it) after being *sooo* certain
that I wouldn't be able to sleep cos I'd moved from the family room,
and it seems I have been in an ear-to-shoulder position the whole
time. Score. Ow. I make myself miserable sometimes.

The Coming Tuxedo Cat Uprising

moar funny pictures

Too funny -- I have not checked this email in a week, so I suck. I know. I am okay, and so is everyone else, though this semester is promising to be psychotic. :-D In the fun way, at least. I really should not be posting right now, but woth'hell. I am getting a lot more individualised attention than I have acclimated myself to in the past couple years.

So that's weird.

Now,the down-side of all this fun, fun, fun is that every day it is like I have a new project, and these past two weeks, I feel as if all I have done is hustle from one place to another. Right now I *should* be listening to my tag-team partner present, and I am going to have to do that soon, but basically for the past couple weeks I have been doing everything, and it feels like *nothing*. I have only been in to Eviljob after-hours, and I am not sure how much longer I can keep this up. Frankly, I am tired. Gah.

My partner is fielding a question about third-world countries right now that reminds me about a post I saw on SHFB about using one's period for good, and thankfully I am not the one answering 'cos I would prolly come off like a Nazi, plus this is about aid in general, specifically mosquito nets, and I cannot think of any parallels other than tampons. This, chirrin, is known as a recency effect, or at least it would be once I made the segue back on to something unlikely to make me sound like a Nazi...like the recency effect.

I should have picked up something to eat...bwaah. I woke up this morning craving coffee -- specifically Starschmucks' raspberry-with-soy, but did not take the time to stop 'cos I hate Starschmucks; they charge too much, and...and...and...ummm... they lack theology and geometry. Yeah. That's it.

:-D

So I am starving, and conceivably have no free time until like, this evening. Grr. This will teach me to volunteer for things. Although I am currently just grumbling self-absorbedly and doing nothing (which, if tapped, would be what Meg would tell you I do all day), my involvement occurs in a bit. That's why I am being unobtrusive right now -- so that I don't seem as if I am trying to steal the spotlight, make Partner look (as if I feel they are) incapable, or monopolise everything (which, if queried, would be what Meg would tell you I *actually* do at any opportunity). I cannot help it that I have an overwhelming personality; I was born like that. Partner knows if they need me, I am right here, and we already spent a lot of time dividing this up, so it's all good. So I am going to try to stop feeling as if everyone is wondering what my justification for breathing, much less sitting up here is. This was a *huge* hurdle for me to overcome when I first started training for Eviljob a million years ago; I am *still* teased about giving people ten seconds to complete something 'cos I felt as if I should be talking. :-) That, thankfully, was a long, long time ago. I still *feel* worthless and judged (and found sorely wanting), but I have learnt to shut up, take turns, and back off so that it doesn't show. :-)

Butsoanyway.

I didn't take the time to get coffee also cos I overslept a little -- I had a weird dream in which I was being prosecuted in a totally science-fictiony scenario, but I had this brilliant lawyer who ended up making me this huge legal precedent...it was cool.

gah...have to run

Maybe if you were normal maybe if maybe if maybe if I were, too...

Sometimes I get so frustrated with my advisor that strangulation seems
a really viable option, and other times I love my advisor so much I
could just cry. Today, we're good. Really, really good. As much as I
am ready to leave, I wish in a way I were able to stay.
Colleague-wise, I could do far worse.

butsoanyway.

At the end of last week, I had a training seminar boot camp thing
thrown at me, and don't ask me how, but I didn't fuck it up. :-) Meg
has been telling me for a couple of years that eventually I will grow
out of the corporatese snow-job schtick (at which I excel, by the way)
and go for a more traditional (if less interesting) construction, and
I guess she is right; that was largely the change I perceived, at
least. Anyway, we cannot all be Meg...much to her dismay.

Monday was eh, and Tuesday I threw off Eviljob, put in face-time at
J2, and then went off to meet Harry and Cindy The Batshit Girlfriend
for trivia. He drives me nuts, but at least he has managed to stay
employed. Hmph. I also had an ultrasound on Millicent et Melisande (my
ovaries, remember?), and Melisande (right side) no longer has a cyst
(I think that means it was just a luteal cyst, which is normal), and
Millicent (left, stupid side; Melisande's smaller, dumber sister)
actually has *less* of a cyst -- down to 3.11cm. So that is GOOD --
that means no surgery, at least for now. Yay. I just stay on The Pill
permanently, regardless of how ragingly horny I stay. Woo-hoo.

But I am excited; this semester is the beginning of the end, and I am
going to make every effort to enjoy this year-ish. I am not going to
let myself get bogged down in anything...swear. Kate is to have
stepped in to fill my position at J2sub1, and she's not working out;
and I am not fixing it, I am moving on. Mostly. She also has a new
assistant (kind of an office admin stepnfetchit), not my old
assistant, and he isn't working out, either. Not my problem. He is
obnoxious, and pesters the fuck out of me. I have named him Ferd. Feh
on Ferd. Not my problem.

I am working on building a better Ancodia. I am not going to be
scared about all I need to do, I am not going to lament and bemoan all
the things I have not gotten to do, or all the things I have had to do
that are 'above and beyond'. I may not have had as much free time as
everyone else, I may have had to skulk around to work at Eviljob when
I wasn't supposed to, but...doesn't matter. I'm letting it go; I am
not the bitter type, anyway. Not really. I just have to find a way to
keep on juggling for a leetle bit longer. Sigh.

I'm sleepy. I think tomorrow I will get some yarn and make something
nice for myself. I haven't taken on a carry-around task for a while.

If you think you can frighten me, you don't Nomi!

Ok, I have no problem admitting it; I am hard to scare. I am not hard to *startle*. Not at all. In fact, I am amazingly *easy* to startle, and if you do it, odds are I will punch the fuck out of you before I have time to think about it. Sure, I will feel badly about it after (you will feel worse), but the fact is that even though I am the EASIEST startle on Earth, I am hard to scare.

I just find too many things funny; I can't fucking help it.

Take, for example, the Japanese horror remake that I saw advertised over this longety-long-long weekend, One Missed Call. If you have a web-enabled cell phone, direct it over to http://d1e.mobi/ (geddit? DIE-dot-mobi; how cute!) and get a free ring tone -- the Ring of Death. This is the ring tone one hears when Death phones you. When Death phones, you are too creeped out by the spooky ringer to even pick up the phone (thereby the One Missed Call). One friend (whom I saw far too many times over this Holiday weekend) said that the little ring song is 'creepy'. I beg to differ.

I am sure that the person who spent hours at their piano in sheer agony, trying to come up with just the 'right' collection of tones, will hate to hear this, but... Sorry. Have to. It is not creepy. In fact, it makes me smile. To me, it sounds far too reminiscent of the beginning of Klaus Nomi's (fantastic) rendition of Falling in Love Again. Judge for yourself:

The Ring of Death

And now, Klaus:




S'ok. I already know; I am annoying. Right, but annoying. Sorry. And sorry, Mr Composer-person. All I can say is that someone should next time maybe ask me.

Butsoanyway; giddy on up, Holyfire...

NYE was fun; I ended up getting really drunk, which is at least a change of scenery from the past few years. :-) Now I have to get back into Job-2-sub-1 mode and finish off this week. This fairly sucks, 'cos our whole building is all but deserted, with the exception of our little group. Argh.

It is back up in the air as to whether or not I will be changing work groups; Job 2-sub-2 has actually TAKEN THE HOLIDAYS OFF (freaks!), and J2-sub-1 has managed to not let me off, instead rolling one project into another. I am not sure if this bothers me or not. We shall see, I guess.

I am somewhat up in the air about quals, which is what I was *supposed* to be doing this year instead of spending a week to week and a half fucking off in Reno like I always do; about a week ago, it was suggested (by my advisor) that I take the opt-out (petitioning to have my current body of teaching, work, and publications considered in lieu of the tests themselves). This has me a bit confused, and I have not had time to mull it over a lot, much less to yap on endlessly about it here. Previously, I had been advised *not* to do this; otherwise, I could have petitioned some time ago. Grr. Basically, if I do this, then I will have spent the past year being hideously under-employed, as I was hired at a different 'level' (shall we say) than the one I could have been at...or at least been at provisionally, or whatever. I do not want to think about it too much, 'cos it makes my ass twitch. We will see what happens on this, too. Yay.

I have got to get some sleep, but...I am having a pretty good Holiday Season. I can't believe it is almost over. Meg is off at some tournament in Tunica; poor girl finally managed to get all her crap handled and leave.

Ok...so g'night.

.