Has anything of interest happened to you recently?

The type that hasn't figured out that an espresso machine, coffee flavoured ice cream, milk, ice and a blender is the superior way? That or convenience, because Josho is right.

That being said, it's a shame that those arseholes refuse to offer the Classic Iced Coffee in 2 litre containers.

Cold extraction is where it's at for iced coffee.

Devotees of my work-related posts will remember that a while ago I left my stable, comfortable job for a contract gig that I'm still at. Well. I just got a call from the contracting company and learned that due to some fluky accounting screwup, they've actually been underpaying me by five bucks an hour. For a year. I realize that I've been wronged here, and the guy was extremely apologetic, but mostly I'm just psyched for the windfall.

Fuck yes. I would be psyched too.

Get them to pay you interest on it too.

Yay extarbags! Congrats on getting your money. I hope you're my sectret Santa now. Hahaha. Just kidding. Maybe.

In health-related news, my blood pressure is 118/75, my pulse is steady and strong, my EKG reads completely normal, my lungs are healthy-sounding and I don't seem to have any obvious physical symptoms other than being kinda pale and my hands being cold all the time. My doctor admits to being baffled that I'd faint from not-really-strenuous exercise and continue to get severe dizzy spells when rising from a seated position, so he's taken a whole battery of blood samples and referred me for an MRI of ze brain and an EEG.

Meanwhile I'm trying not to move very much.

I AM NOT A DOCTOR

But before, when I exercised often, I'd faint and be dizzy too. As it turned out, my blood sugar was just a smidgen too low for all of the exercising I'd been doing. THIS MAY NOT BE THE CASE WITH YOU, but I'd figure I'd share. I hope everything's okay with you Thoro. C:

When is the next þing? You might want to stay home no matter how badly you want to play knattleikr.

Are you dieting or have you changed the amount or type of food that you eat? If so, make sure that you're eating enough, and that you're eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Got a new job!

In three weeks, I will begin what I hope will be a long, rewarding career as a fraud investigator for the State.

Aw yiss, cracking down on knockoff maple syrup operations, raiding bootleg Noam Chomsky tape cartels...

I'm just happy you were able to escape from the crappy situation you used to be in. Must be a big relief.

Does a fraud investigator investigate how to do fraud more effectively/safely?

My laptop is blowing up USB hubs. One stopped working yesterday, so I borrowed one off of a coworker in sales (who has a habit of sending my development devices off as demo units—revenge!). I smelled that electrics-burning smell, and this one had a case I could open:



I'm pretty sure that they're not supposed to do that. I'm glad I had the $7000 or so in various rugged test devices plugged into the hub-which-died-a-fuse rather than directly into the port. :P

Yeah, that's the best part!

Alas, no syrup stings or Chomsky cartels involved. This will be more in line with chasing down improper payments of public benefits.

So you get to say "MORE?! YOU WANT MORE?!" to orphans?

That's pretty badass.

Just showed my baby sister (okay, twenty's not really a baby, but still) around my little corner of California. I'm not sure whether the random crazy dude on the street ranting about physics influenced her opinion either way, but I think she knows the Bay Area would be a pretty cool place to work, anyway. :)

I wish more people ranted about physics.

This may have just happened to me:



:(

Wave of layoffs at my workplace. As the only copywriter, and as someone just given a year's worth of assignments, I feel pretty secure. I'm just depressed that 3 of the 5 people I know were definitely laid off were pretty good friends here at work.

Sorry to hear it, balut. That sucks. Glad you're safe, though.

Got a haircut. Always weird to rediscover that I have ears under the unruly mop.

Actually, you forget you have ears because you've got that weird gold headpiece on--

Wait, what you do mean, you don't dress like your avatar?

Nah, he totally does. We all do. This bow weighs more than I do.

I'm secretly an otter who's saving up for a better bathtub. :)

I'm not wearing any pants.

My avatar -- Desire from Sandman -- completely represents my frame of mind regarding gender; however, Desire is much better-looking and far more arrogant. :)

I'm a crude Paint drawing of simple logic elements with the international red circle "no" symbol superimposed.

Which makes this post kind of recursive.

On one hand, I have workplace survivor's guilt. On the other hand, I don't know if it's stopped yet, and I just want to make it through the day. From what I've heard, corporate got off relatively lightly, with about 6 or 7 people laid off out of 50 or so. The factory got crushed, with something like 50 - 60 people laid off out of about 200.

Hilariously, up until today's trimming of the beard and cutting of the glorious leonine locks, that was kind of accurate. My hair tends to go up and out if I go too long without a haircut. Once had my boss tell me "You're starting to look like Gambit from the old X-Men cartoon. Take fifteen minutes and go get a haircut."

You should totally go as Herc next Halloween. That would be AWESOME.

I had a subordinate tell me "Your hair *is* kind of getting long. You've got a mad scientist thing going there".

I didn't know whether to reprimand him for being presumptuous, or thank him for the weird compliment.

I settled for smiling oddly, rubbing my hands together in classic bad guy mode, and said "And that's exactly how I like it ... muahaha". Then I went and got it trimmed.

I would take that as a compliment. That cartoon was awesome.

I took my latest exam today on bee behaviour and then went to see my friends get married. After the ceremony they then went walking around Bristol followed by the ambling band. Very silly and I whole hearted lay agree.

Tomorrow we scatter mum's ashes and I hope that, pardon the pun, also lays to rest some of the emotional turmoil I've been going through over the past few weeks. Mum died about a year ago and I've spent a lot of that time wondering why I felt as normal as I did. Last few weeks have been, or I have, mental. Every cliched description of emotion I think I've done and I'd quite like it to stop now please.

I think that is pretty normal Nellie. I had a big reaction when my mother died last year and I have had several "relapses" in the last year, most of which have con sided with things that made me think of her (inheritance stuff, my kids missing her, traditions that suddenly were broken). This is completely normal i guess, but it's difficult as hell. Just today my 7-year old said "I don't want to celebrate Christmas because grandmother is not here" and if fucking broke my heart.

But time heals all things. At least i hope so.

Year anniversaries and holidays are hard. My mom died on her birthday, which I guess cuts down on the potential trigger days by one, in addition to proving she was a drama queen till the end. That was 2008 and the shock of it still hits occasionally, but much less often now.

Damn, I hate to follow sad mom stuff with happy mom stuff, but my mother, sister, niece, and nephew came down to visit me and quatoria this afternoon. Quat was feeling well enough that he broke out the lightsabers (the ones from ThinkGeek that have all the sound effects) and he, me, and the kids (niece is 10, nephew is 4) had lightsaber battles in the backyard. It was AWESOME. I haven't seen them in a while, and I've missed them terribly. We made mom and sis promise to come visit more often, because road trips are really hard on Quat's back and we can't visit them as often as we'd like. We all went out to dinner afterwards (Quat's mom included!) and it was a wonderful visit.

Here is my niece being an awesome Sith Lord. Picture by Quat.

You just reminded me that I should call my cousin in Illinois to see how she and her family are doing. She lost her mom in March, so this will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas they're gonna have without Grandma.

A depressing reason to call, but I do like chatting with her. I can always listen to her kids yell in the background, too. :D