August 2000

Professionalism and weekend planning

Y'know, maybe it's just me, but when I was preparing to enter in the work world, I had it drilled into my head over and over that professionalism isn't just about a mindset—it's about how you present yourself, in all forms of communication.

Now, granted, I often deliberately break professionalism rules to make a point—but when I do so, it's obvious, and the points are generally well-made. However, I really have to wonder about people who seem to have lived with their heads in the sand for the past decade…so much that the way they present themselves is so lacking that you have trouble taking them seriously.I've run into this with a person that I've got dealings with at work right now. Obviously, I'm going to be circumspect and not name names, but this person could use some back instruction on how to conduct business in today's world.

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ph33r m3! -- apologies to Brad

OUR HOUSE IS WIRED!

Jeff is in the living room, serving up mp3s from his computer [in here in the computer room with me] into the Mistress [our huge speaker system in the living room].

SWANK.

In here I've got a nice little set of Altec Lansings that do quite a serviceable job at aurally blasting mp3s in my general direction. I've got Three Doors Down cranked up to drown out whatever Jeff's listening to in the living room. Hopefully he won't get into a loudness pissing contest, because the NHT 2.5is will terrorize my little computer speakers and make them hide in the closet and beg for mercy.

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rhapsody.domesticat

we've gotta hold on to what we've got
doesn't make a difference if we make it or not…
*insert jon bon jovi yowlin' here*

Y'know, it's moments like these that I almost miss the 1980s. It's something about the big hair and guys in nicely frayed jeans and…oh, wait, this is more than you wanted to know, isn't it?moving on:

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a little quickie...

This one's just gonna have to be a quickie. I'm sick of looking at a computer today.

I'm learning Flash—it's turning out to be not nearly so difficult as I thought it would be. I explained to Cathy today it's like drawing in photoshop on three axes instead of two—you have to think in terms of time as well of in terms of width and height. It was a bit of a shift, but not nearly the paradigm-shifting-without-a-clutch that I was expecting.I've got the first scene of the movie done—the intro. I don't know how to link the buttons yet—I'll figure that out either by my readings tonight or by tomorrow morning's explorations. Tomorrow I'm going to work on the kittypix portion of the flash movie. Shouldn't be difficult. I might have to try a morph from Edmund's face to Tenzing's. That will probably be amusing.

playfully neurotic ectophiles on icewine

Tonight it's me, the techno, and a bottle of wine.

I am at home, peacefully and quietly nursing a drink like the adult that I'm generally not, desperately wishing this techno were louder and that I were amongst friends at an all-night rave. That's my mood—every once in a while I get the urge to slap on the most anonymous clothes I can, tie on my combat boots, and drag someone out with me to dance mindlessly until the sun rises.

The dimmest notions of freedom.

Brad says that tonight I should talk about chrome bumpers.

Brad, I hate to tell you this—'cause I love you and you're my favorite Canadian and all, but you're totally and utterly full of shit. Why, again, am I letting you stay in my house?

jive talkin -- and tellin' no lies

I am nesting, and it feels awfully good.

There is something in the ritual preparation for guests that is not unlike ritual preparation for war. (Except that you tend to like the outcome a lot more.) There's comfort in going over the list of things in your head, walking from room to room and checking things off as done.(Are there fresh sheets on the bed? Is the floor in the guest bedroom picked up, or have I left my books scattered all over that room again? Are there hangers in the closet and ample room on the closet floor for shoes? Did I remember to leave a water glass by the bathroom sink? Some magazines to read on the nightstand? Are there enough fresh towels in the bathroom, and did I remember to check to see if there's a spare roll of toilet paper?)

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Tidbits

You'll notice that the menus on the right-hand side look a little different than they did before. I'm in the middle of revamping domesticat to make it easier to maintain, because easier maintenance means that I'll post more often. Since life's been a bit busy this month, I figure I need to get moving on learning how to make 'cat.net as carefree of a task as possible.

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Vacation dreams

Oh, man, this just burns me up. I'm researching what all I need to purchase before flying out to D.C. in October—turns out my flight's going to cost about what it did last year. The problem is the rental car. I only need it for two full days—days when Andy's going to be at work and I want to get myself to the nearest Metro station.

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Bathroom discoveries

First, when I went into the bathroom a few minutes ago, I found a pen. Because of what was on it, I know who it belonged to. The pen was screen-printed with many different fonts, and the message read, over and over:

Jesus Is Y2K Ready!

I'm desperately trying to be kind here. I'm failing miserably. Look, I respect everyone's differences, and will fight to the death to ensure that everyone is allowed to worship as he or she chooses—but dammit, I can't help laughing if your slogans are dumb.

(C'mon, folks, it's nearly September 2000 already—give up the Y2K stuff and go crawl back into your caves.)

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Looking east

I just booked my tickets for my October trip out to D.C.

This is going to be a most excellent trip. As I just said to Andy: "Sunburns, exhaustion, blistered feet, getting lost, airports, airplanes, renting cars…I do this why?"

Concert goodness

SCORE!

I have tickets to the Sting concert on Tuesday.
I also have tickets to the Dave Matthews Band / Vertical Horizon concert on Labor Day.

Kick ass.

*goes back to work*

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Contemplations from a Saturday

I finished Look to Windward tonight. I wish I knew exactly why Iain Banks' Culture novels aren't being published in the States. They're thoughtful works with a lot of depth—something that I think is lacking from everyday fiction in the States now.

Sundays

Today's been one of those good, lazy, but productive Sundays. Stupid me, I went to the white-trash Wal-Mart on University Avenue… dammit, I KNOW better than to go there, and I went anyway, lured in by the cheap prices for stuff.

Of course, the lines were immensely long. I regretted going.

So I finally went home, via a detour to the wondergeeks' apartment. I had to drop some cash off to Heather and Jess—I owed Heather $55 for my Dave Matthews ticket and Jessica $40 for my Sting concert ticket. I've paid them off, like the good friend I am, and no longer feel guilty about them buying tickets for me. Got home, deposited the groceries in the appropriate places, and then settled in for a good nap on the couch. I meant to watch El Postino with Jeff (after all I did rent the movie) but as Dan said, the TV was beaming sleepons at my head and thus I went down for a nice, long, snorey count.

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The Geek Influx begins!

The Great Influx Of Geeks begins today. Katharine arrives back in Huntsville in a couple of hours. (yaaay!)

Today's been one of those unproductive days. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything. As I said to a co-worker today, it hit me at around ten this morning that I've got fourteen people staying with me this weekend…

Other random news: my herbs out front have been thoroughly infested by spider mites. Dammit, dammit, dammit! They started on my rosemary, then moved to my summer savory (which they devoured) and now are trying to take over my thyme seedlings. I am NOT happy about this. I've been spraying the plants with insecticidal soap in the hopes of saving them, but I fear that I've lost every one of my summer savory seedlings, and I'm going to lose at least ¾ of my thyme seedlings.

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Someone has at last created it...

A snippet of amusement from Danno. At last—someone created a can of whoopass.

In review: Sting concert

(Taken from an email to Andy.)

So here's the deal on last night's Sting concert. Smooth and polished and practiced, exactly as we expected. I predicted the concert almost exactly—1¾ hours, two encores, didn't do any Police tunes until the encores.

(I actually predicted an hour and a half, two encores, and Police tunes only during the encores. Pretty close, eh?)I would've liked a bit more interaction with the audience, but it was a good show. He featured a lot more material from Blue Turtles than I would've expected—the entire show actually had a strong jazz feel to it. Lots of soloing—he had a fab trumpeter and keyboardist and used them both well.

It was unbelievably hot. It was 103 in B'ham yesterday. Luckily we only caught the tail end of the day, but it was muggy and hot and everyone was absolutely sweat-drenched.

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The Geek Influx continues...

Terry arrived at the airport last night. Pictures will be posted as soon as I can find a business that does one-hour APS film developing. I've got a couple of good pictures from the airport that deserve to see the light of day.

We've pretty much got this picking-up-friends-at-the-airport thing down pat. On Monday, when Kat arrived, we met her with a huge bundle of balloons (including a Powerpuff Girl balloon that was just exquisite in its appropriateness). For Terry, we showed up with four huge signs and a cheering crowd of six people.