At work, anyone can use the PA system to page people.
I just heard this over the system:
"Joe Schmoe, please calllll... ummmmm... I. Don't. Know. "

I’ve just discovered that a couple of new-to-me songs that I really like are both by the Decemberists. This seems like a good reason to give them a closer listen. Can anyone recommend a good starter CD? Or better yet, could someone burn me a CD of their favorites?

"Fold the long edges inward to the center."
Zoogami: An Original Menagerie at Your Fingertips
Gay Merrill Gross

Rules of the game: grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence in Comments and on your Journal, with and these instructions....
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST book....

C'mon folks. I know that everyone on my f'list has at least one book close at hand.

I've been trying to come up with something eloquent to express my feelings today, but have failed miserably. So I will just say this:

To all those who have Served and Sacrificed to protect the way of life that I far to often take for granted, I sincerely thank you.

My cell phone is MIA. If you need to get in touch with me, email is currently the best way to go.

Update: Phone found. Now if anyone happens to know where my cable remote is, give me a call. *sigh*

I have a confession to make. I’m not very good at my job.

Actually that’s not strictly true. Put me in a lab or ask me to write a protocol for an upcoming evaluation and I’m on fire. Need someone to troubleshoot an instrument’s wonky performance? I’m your girl. Customer returned a component and you need the failure mode root caused? I’m all over it.

Where I fall apart is in meetings. If it’s a discussion of a project I’m actually involved in, I’m fine. However, I’m frequently sent to meetings where I have little or no knowledge of the specifics under discussion. The closest I’ve been able to get to a definition of my role for these meetings is to serve as “the QA presence”. Occasionally, there is some glaringly obvious issue that I bring to my boss’ attention, but generally I’m just lost, trying desperately to make sense of technical details flying fast and furious about three feet over my head. Lord help me when someone asks “…and what does QA think?”. I generally try to nod sagely and tell them I’ll consider it and get back to them. If I’m really lucky, I actually know what I’m being asked about.

Given this, you can understand why my heart lurched into my throat this morning when my Grandboss came into my cube and asked to talk to me.

You cannot begin to imagine how relieved I was when he told me that QA is undergoing a re-org. I’m now going to be reporting to the new Customer Simulation Lab Manager! This means far more lab time and far fewer meetings!

This also means that my next evaluation won’t say that I'm "very skilled in the lab, but…”

I was already stating to feel a little down today. The news on Question 1 has just pushed me over the edge. I just wanna go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.

*sigh*

But no, off to work for me.

When I got into my car this morning, I noticed that I was really low on gas. Since there are no stations on my way to Rt2, I decided to stop at the Mobil on 95N. Immediately after blowing past said Mobil station in an early morning fugue, my car started to sputter and promptly died.

All I can say is thank goodness for AAA Gold!

Just because I feel better after sleeping on and off for 18 hours, does NOT mean that it's a good idea to go to the mall and knock a few things off my To Do list.

If you'll all excuse me, I'm going to go *thud* now.

So, I've got that nasty bug that's making the rounds. It just settled into my chest while I was sleeping, so I've called into work and cleared the day for an intensive day of sleeping and eating soup.

Aaaarrrgghhhh!!!!!!!

Time for my annual re-certification in Blood Borne Pathogen Training at work. This year's on-line system is even worse that last year's live workshop.

*sigh* The worst part is you can basically sum this up in three simple rules:
1) Always wear appropriate safety gear in the lab
2) Don't lick anything in the lab
3) Don't jab yourself with anything in the lab (this is most easily accomplished by not rooting around in the sharps container)

Friday: Got a lesson in IPA History 101 and helped srakkt make my kick-ass boffers for next week end's Isles: Asylum event. (NOTE: 'Helping' largely consisted of handing him pieces of tape, as needed.)

Saturday: Scrapped my plans to go to the Nerd Fun Zombie March when pickypenelope and her Darling Boyfriend canceled in favor of staying home and cuddling on the couch (who can blame them for that call?) Instead, I spent a little alone-time shopping in Boston before heading to Davis to celebrate my oldest (duration, not age) friend's birthday at Redbones, The Burren and Sligo. Got to use my new found IPA knowledge when someone randomly said "I need to find out the difference between Pale Ale and India Pale Ale" over dinner. Was pleasantly surprised when miss_demeanor71 joined us at The Burren.

Sunday: Realized how narrowly I escaped a truly killer hangover. Did some chores, watched the first disk of La Femme Nikita, and had gentlescholar and desert_born over for dinner, conversation and Farscape.

At some point when I wasn't paying attention, my life became quite cool!

So what are you doing next Saturdy, October 17th? Come to the Boston Zombie Walk. You know you want to!

( Details behind the cut )

I woke up this morning, determined to catch up on my growing backlog of email requiring responses. When the subject of the fist message came out as "SoryI Hv'twtten so ln" I figured that it was attributable to more that my regular abominable typing skills. Rather than just dashing across the street and hoping that the convenience store carries the AAAs my keyboard so clearly needed, I grabbed the dog's leash and took him for a walk to Davis.

I'm now home with a functional keyboard and an empty dog. Way to kill two birds with one stone! Actually three, if you count "Get off your lazy ass and get some exercise."

The Good News: We're starting the drive to DragonCon tomorrow!
The Bad News: At 5 am O_o

A little over a week ago, as part of Operation: Now-That-I'm-Single-I-Need-to-Expand-My-Social-Network (I definitely need a more concise name for this Op) I sent a message to action AT theatreatfirst DOT org, letting them know I'm interested in volunteering. I'm not at all fussy about how I pitch in, and I'm able to commit one night a week during rehersals and more during production. I was not nearly this explicit in the email I sent.

I know that rehersals started this week and I still haven't heard anything. I'm just wondering if I should:
a) Fire off another email letting T@F know I'm still interested
b) Show up at the rehersal space next week and see what I can do
c) Sit back and wait for the very busy people to contact me when they need my help

Any thoughts from those of you with experience working with T@F?

I saw this and it made me think of srakkt. Just wanted to share :)


see more dog and puppy pictures

So Googling +repo +coolidge turned up this link.

What it did not return was this, far more relevant, link. Note the fifth paragraph which begins"Sadly, ...". I didn't find this part out until I showed up to buy my ticket.

As the Mutant Enemy says: "Grrr... Arrgh!"

Now the big question is: Have I become obsessed enough about this movie to drive an hour and forty-five minutes to see it in S. Hadley on July 31? I'm not sure what it says about me that the answer is probably yes.

Road trip anyone?

I know this is very last minute, but I'm thinking of hitting the midnight showing of Repo! The Genetic Opera tonight at Coolidge Corner. Anyone interested in coming with?