~ a Changeling's Diary ~

...with a little work stuff thrown in.

Gray and soggy Tuesday; we got rained on during the morning work commute (though not as badly as some of my co-workers, who arrived with their pants soaked almost to the knee).

For my first official work-related travel, I noodled around on Google and found a hotel room in DC for over $100 per night less than our work travel agent quoted. It's only a block further away from the training facility. If she can't match that rate today, I'll just book it myself - I checked, and it's a normal 24-hour cancellation policy, not one of those "pay up front, and if you have to cancel that's just your tough luck" deals. Heck, when I went to double-check this morning, the price per night had dropped $5 since I looked yesterday afternoon!

I need to make myself a "to-do" list, and a "remember to pack" list for this weekend. Want to make sure I'm fully prepared and equipped when we go spend the weekend with 10,000 other fan-geeks at the Baltimore Convention Center. Especially want to make sure I have my card reader and battery charger for the new camera, as I will have the opportunity to take lots of pictures. (Note to self - take manual for new camera, too! Still have a lot to learn about that bad boy.)

This makes me very glad I took Thursday off as well... gives me time to gather my stuff at leisure, do laundry as needed, and generally NOT run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to prep. I still haven't decided whether or not to bother taking any art prints with me. Matting and hauling them could be more effort than it's really worth. ^^;;

Yesterday I finished the sound-editing and tweaks for the online training for new support staff presentations. I only have a couple of no-sound demos left to create and that will be DONE and out of my hair!!! ...for at least 2 1/2 months, when the business ops people review it and make me change stuff again. *sigh* But still! Done for now.

Yesterday was also payday for the month, so I decided to see if I could replace my starting-to-fall-apart brown work sandals. Instead I came home with something completely different than I'd planned... go figure. See, I sulked when the little "ballet flat" shoes got all popular, because I have freakishly narrow heels in proportion to the rest of my foot, and I just knew I'd never be able to wear them, however neat they look.

So what did I find last night instead of new brown sandals? ...yup. A pair of black ballet flat style shoes that actually fit my mutant feet! A little elastic to them, more flexible soles than the average, comfy insoles. You betcha those came home with me.

Helped tidy the house up some for an incipient Velvetpaws visit - she's passing through on the way to Chicago and spending the night at our house. ^_^ Wish we had a bit more time to spend, but she is on her way elsewhere... and by the time she makes her return trip we'll all be in Baltimore.

Because - Otakon is next weekend! (Part of me still can't quite believe that I'm going to Otakon and I don't have to bust my butt in the dealers' room the whole weekend.) I don't know if I'm taking any of my old prints with me. Geez, it's been so long since I finished a new piece of art. Want to do something about that, but my inspiration has been on vacation for so long I don't know if I can persuade it to come back again. >,o

I swear, he loves catching me completely flat-footed - only he does it with ( good news. )

I think he does this just to watch me make fish-out-of-water faces. XD

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/07/25/obit.pausch.ap/index.html

His memorial article is currently topping the "Most Popular Stories" list on CNN's website.

It's not often a college professor has this profound an effect on so many people. Congratulations, sir, on a life well lived; I'll do my best to remember your words.

They'll have to come up with a new saying for Barbie!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/24/girls.math.ap/index.html

...I still kind of like "Eat hot lead, Cobra!" but I guess I'm just a product of my era. XD (Yes, I liked GI Joe. Deal. ♥)

My first task at work today was removing the following from the building lobby carpet:



The one in our building wasn't quite this reddish in tone, but yeah - a stag beetle. It was kind of reared up on its hind legs (looked like maybe a defensive posture) and its little feet were like Velcro: first it didn't want to let go of the rug, then once I scooped it into a stryofoam cup and took it outside, it didn't want to let go of that. Finally convinced it to turn the cup loose, though. Hope it stays safely out of harm's way now.

The security guard gave me a funny look for rescuing the bug instead of just squashing it, but he did thank me for removing it. (And why can I be so calm about a stag beetle but freak out over a cockroach or spider? I don't understand me, most days.)

Last night (or this morning, I guess, technically speaking) at around one-something I was in the bathroom getting ready to fall down. Had just finished brushing my teeth when through the window I heard "ssskrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech*CRUMP*."

This is never, ever a good sound to hear. I grabbed my flip-flops and ran downstairs, where the roomies had already bolted out the front door. Sure enough, about 3 houses down was a smashed-up car - a single car. The driver was already out of the vehicle and on his cell phone.

Not going to go into every gory detail; the short version is, he was 20 years old, had been drinking, and lost control of his vehicle. The car's probably totaled, and he got taken away in handcuffs in the back of a police car, while half a dozen or so of the neighbors watched. He took out the corner of a stone retaining wall where he first hit. I feel sorry for those neighbors because that's the second time since we moved here that somebody's rammed a car into that corner; the owner says it's the fourth since they've owned the place.

So that was our excitement for last night! Kept me awake 'til about 3 am. =P (I should have just stayed up the extra time and watched for the ISS to pass overhead, at that rate.)

Some time ago, Lunar got us hooked on a cute little GameCube number called "Animal Crossing." In fact, that's the whole reason we GOT a GameCube. Started out one little town with virtual versions of Rissicat & me. Then G-Cat decided to start a second town on another memory card so we could visit back and forth. And we fished and caught bugs and ran errands to pay off our little virtual houses & furniture, and it was all good.

Somewhere along the line a third memory was acquired and its town dubbed "Chang'an" and it is populated by chibis named for the main characters of Gensoumaden Saiyuki. Goku ate all the peaches he could find. Sanzo drove towns-critters he didn't like to move out, by whacking them over the head with his bug net. Gojyo taught residents to call the PCs "sex kitten." Little stuff like that.

G-Cat's town acquired namesakes for a couple of Last Exile characters, although aside from the letters they wrote to each other and how they decorated their houses, they were pretty darn normal. That first original town has acquired a pair of Bleach-inspired charas (one of whom only wears white and blue, and uses too many big words when writing to the beasties >,>).

Now there's a fourth town up and running... currently populated by Zack, Reno, Kadaj, and (just to throw a wrench in the all-male, all-Squenix works) Samus Aran. Yup, the addiction has once again reared its cute and harmless-but-for-the-time-it-eats head. So if we're a bit scarce online lately, or never all there at the same time... that would be why. Be patient, it'll wear off again eventually.

Summer colds are TEH SUCK. That is all.

Meeting survived with minimal trauma, and I haven't even been saddled with the website issues. (Yet. ^^;; Not going to assume I can dodge that bullet forever.)

So today I have a meeting with the head of the department by which my team has been absorbed (what does that make him, the Head Amoeba? head of the amoeba? I dunno). My manager's manager's boss. I've never exchanged more than a few words of greeting with the man, and now we have a half-hour of "quality time" to spend one on one.

The hamster in my brain was running frantic circles this morning in the shower: ZOMG what should I wear, I think the good black skirt is clean, okay, that blazer would be all right but what about a shell or something under -

Then I slammed the brakes on the hamster wheel. This is not a job interview; I already work here. This is just the new boss trying to get acquainted with the people who've been re-org'ed into his department. My manager has already talked to him and reviewed the list of projects we're working on for the year, and that's been approved. This is the same man who dropped a totally unexpected compliment on me a couple of weeks ago.

So I picked out a respectable (but NOT job-interview quality) skirt and lightweight sweater, and am doing my best not to let the hamster start freaking out again. I can get through this. Whether or not I get through it without finding myself "volunteered" to overhaul the entire (huge) department's website, I'm not sure of - but I CAN get through it.

::ETA:: @11:00 am ...I am weak. I snapped and put on makeup. >,o

'Bout time I caught this thing up on recent events. So! My ( weekend in review )

So - excellent weekend overall. Work has been going pretty well this week; I got all the parts I'd volunteered for of the latest project done by my end-of-June deadline. (I've inherited a couple more since, but I'm still pleased by the first part.) Short work week is more than half over, and depending on weather we may venture downtown again to see the big fireworks display at Point State Park. Woot. And I get to try taking fireworks pictures with the new camera! ♥

*looks out window at church across street from office* Okay, having to hold a funeral on a Friday is bad enough, but getting rained on in the process is just adding insult to injury.

Oh man, and there's a flag on the coffin - it's an armed services veteran. 8(

One of the Cathedral peregrine fledglings died today. It was one of the two males, and he apparently flew into a window beak-first before falling to the sidewalk below.

I'm glad I was at lunch when it happened, because he hit my office building about two floors up from where I sit; if I'd been here I might have seen it happen, and then there would have been much hysteria and flailing. As it is, I'm just down, and trying to take this philosophically. He died young, but at least he didn't suffer for long.

While it's not the way I would have chosen, as a result I did get to meet Kate St. John, whose Bird Blog has been such an excellent source of information on the local peregrines.

May his spirit continue to fly bold and free.

The Business Services people are currently having FAR too much fun in the conference room closest to my desk. O_o;; Sounds more like Happy Hour than an official business lunch.

Right now I have a little bit of slack time, because the computer I use for sound recording is getting replaced with a newer model with more memory - and hopefully a better sound card! So, no recording for another hour or so until it's loaded and installed.

Not sure what to do this weekend. Part of me wants to go see WALL*E, part wants to ride roller coasters like a mad adrenaline-rushing thing *, part of me wants to sit home and do nothing at all. I guess options 2 and 3 would be the extremes of the mood swings, huh? Probably shouldn't make a decision one way or the other until I'm a little more centered.

* I don't care if I'm past the age most people are supposed to like roller coasters, I'll probably keep riding them anyhow until my doctor forbids it. XD

So far today, I have:

- Offended one housemate
- Lost half a day's work from yesterday
- Had to take Tums for the second day running when I almost never need them
- Managed to lose the last two refills on my migraine prescription by waiting too long to call for a refill. *facepalm*
- Oh yes, and MIGRAINE OW DAMMIT.

I am MADE OF FAIL today. 8D 'Scuse me while I go crawl under my desk now.

It is too cold in the conference room. I went to my desk at lunchtime and got my cardigan, and am still chilly in here; it's two in the afternoon and I'm still drinking coffee for the warmth. Welcome to June in southwestern Pennsylvania - our temps have dropped about 25 degrees in the last couple of days. *shiver*

Also, I'm too good at seeing innuendo where it wasn't intended. My co-worker asked, "Back end, or front end?" - about the software program - and I almost sporfled tea. *sigh*

...and I did draw the drowned person and shark fin in the pool. ^^;;;;

Sitting in a training class today, and it's getting off to a slow start while the instructor figures out what all we've done with the software after the first class. I'm not the only one distracted right now - emails are flying fast and furious for the two HR people sitting beside me - but I do hope we get to the actual learning portion of the program soon. Otherwise, plot bunnies may start nibbling at my brain. O_o

For the moment it's nice to sit here and sip my coffee and watch the clouds moving past the conference room window (the reflection off the building next door's tinted windows makes the sky look much more dark and ominous than it actually is).

...ohghod. Our teacher drew a little cartoon of a pool on the whiteboard - a "managers pool." And now I have the worst urge to hit the board at lunchtime and add to it... one little guy who sank to the bottom, a shark's fin circling the people in it... *twitch* (Maybe it's because I'm not really an HR person, that I can't take this too seriously.)

May be joining a gym either tonight or tomorrow night. Yay physical fitness? I think this means it's time to get an armband for my iPod, and make a playlist of good walking/biking/etc. tunes. Woot.

I started to write up a whole long babble about the annual Pern club get-together this past weekend, then scrapped it because it was turning into a tl;dr. 8P Let's see if I can skim ( highlights instead... )

Apparently we had a thunderstorm during the wee small hours of last night that woke up everyone in the house except me. This is a change from SOP, since I tend to be the light sleeper who wakes up at every little thing. Go figure.

Gah, time to prep training materials before I get stuck in a boring 2-hour meeting. (And wish me luck staying awake in that!)

I should have just stayed home today. =P

A piece of software that usually works just fine on the recording room's computer kept locking up this morning, on a file much smaller than ones it's managed in the past. *sigh* So much for getting another demo knocked out this morning before I lose the rest of my day to meetings and training a new temp.