New photo!

Yes, as the fake excitement above indicates, I actually got around to taking a few new shots yesterday. Don't get too excited yourselves, though; the fact that most of them have the word dead somewhere in their file name should tell you that there's not a whole lot of excitement to be found in the yard at this time of year.

The cat's not dead, though.

And incidentally, was I the only one who didn't know that Black & Decker made cats?

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I don't have a whole lot today because I got yet another late start (must be something about this particular weekend) and have been spending my time with other things rather than thinking about blog posts. I'd never be able to do this for a living, thank goodness.

Why thank goodness?

Well, just imagine the pressure of having to think of things on a regular basis. Having to. It'd take any sort of fun out of it pretty darned quickly for me. I don't do well when my hobbies become necessities. I know I've said that before, but for those new to the program (and yes, I know that I've said that before, too. Many, many times. In case you haven't noticed, repeating stupid phrases tends to be my lazy attempt at having any kind of style here. Again, good thing I don't do this for a living), I work very hard to keep my hobbies as hobbies, because they seem to stop being fun as soon as they show any sign of being taken seriously. My piano hardly gets touched now because of too many years of teaching singing (that needs to change, though. I'm kind of missing playing piano now. I need to get back in the habit), my doodles will always stay doodles even if some people get sniffy at the term because I never want to take the chance of thinking about them as art, and my writing?

Is silly.

I can write better than this. I do write better than this. Heck, if you want to get all technical about it, I can say that I've written professionally. I've redesigned poorly-written text for a permanent exhibit at work because the "professional" they'd engaged buggered off and refused to do anything more about it when his work was deemed unsatisfactory. I edit our newsletter. I've won poetry competitions, believe it or not. I'm more than capable of stringing words together in ways that are readable, and can make people want to read them.

I'd sooner stay silly, I guess. I'd sooner put words that don't really matter on a blog that doesn't really matter in combination with pictures that don't really matter (and rarely have anything to do with the text). It's disposable. It's absurd, and I like absurd.

It's a hobby, and I want it to stay fun. I want it not to matter.

I suppose you would say that I lack passion, and you'd be right. I don't think I could ever claim to be truly passionate about anything. I like a lot of things, and there are a lot of things that have been able to keep me interested for a long time, but I've never discovered the one thing that made me say THAT'S what I want to do with my life.

Just as an aside, I accidentally ended up in the perfect career for someone like me. It's one of the few areas left where you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. Oh sure, there are naturalists out there who are absolute expert birders or trackers or survivalists or whatever, but for those of us in the day-to-day business of dealing with people in a more urban setting it's more important to have a little knowledge about a whole lot of things, and a lot of knowledge about where to find the information on what you don't know. That's me, right there.

Anyway. For not having anything to say I've managed to type out quite the diatribe here. I could tell you what's been going on in the back of my brain that brought this on, but at this point I think I'll save it for another time and then reexamine whether I even really want to talk about it.

And then I'll probably talk about play-doh or something instead.





Must keep the blog pointless, after all. Other wise it turns into a pumpkin. That's the rules.

Geez, is it that time already?

Yes, yes, I'll try to get out and take some new photos this afternoon...

Sorry, I'm a bit testy. Got a late start to the day, which is sort of an unusual thing for me these days, and I don't think I've quite caught up yet. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the time just now and realised that I hadn't blogged yet. Now my thought process is somewhere between blog and lunch, and lunch seems to be getting the upper hand just now.

Read that as: this'll probably be short and useless. And I was going to say "kind of like the typist" here, but to be fair I'm not entirely useless.

I am sore today, though. Actually, I've been sore all week. Nothing serious, really; the usual always-achy ankle, the complainy knee, the wrist that occasionally acts up just to remind me that it's really stupid to lose your temper and act out like a three-year-old when you're supposed to be an adult setting up tables instead... I'm sure I've mentioned that act of stupidity on the blog before since most of my acts of stupidity have been re-acted many times here out of sheer lack of subject-matter, but here's the Coles Notes version for those of my two fans who may not have heard it: it was the morning of a fairly big event at work that I was coordinating, and I had to quickly get some things set up before my volunteers arrived so that they could get on with the bigger stuff. I arrived to find that a group meeting the night before -- a group of regulars who should have known better -- had left the rooms that I needed in absolute shambles, meaning that the little time I had was going to have to go to cleaning up instead of setting up. Of course I was pissed, but that didn't mean I had to go around cussing and slamming things as I worked, and I certainly didn't have to tip up that table that I needed to fold the legs on in such a violent manner, right? Yeah, my wrist would have appreciated my remembering that last part before I wrenched it so badly, I'm sure.

Ah well. Live and learn. And occasionally ache for years afterwards.

I sometimes think that I'm too young to have all these aches and pains, and then I remember that I'm not too young to have all these aches and pains, and then I'm sad.



Oh, not really. Or not much, anyway. And speaking of anyway, I think it genuinely is time for me to go upstairs and scout out something to eat. And then scout out something to take photos of. And then... um... fold the stuff in the dryer, I guess. And then maybe draw something for IF, if something actually comes to mind.

Yes, it's a massively full life I lead. Guess I should be grateful that it's not fuller.

I don't need any more aches.

What on earth is that thing in your hand?

Still working out of the archives in regards to pointless photos,yes. I'll try to do something about that this weekend.

Oh, and if this seems slightly distracted at all, it's because I made the mistake of brushing my tongue this morning after having too hot (as in temperature, not spice) a supper last night, and now the silly thing is shedding its skin in a disturbingly reptilian fashion. TMI? Yeah, probably, but I'm the one who's dealing with tongue chunks rather than just hearing about them so I think you're probably in the better position.

----------

This morning when I got in to work I took a moment to download a new game onto my 3DS via the free wifi here, and it occurred to me that if I'd said "download a game onto my 3DS via the free wifi here" to myself what, ten? fifteen? years ago, I wouldn't have comprehended a bit of it. Game, maybe. I would have got that it had to do with a game of some sort.

When you step back and look at it, isn't that weird?

Our day-to-day world now wouldn't be at all comprehensible to our own past selves of a handful of years ago. That sort of blows me away, and I tend to think that it's one of the few times in history that it's happened. We forget, too. Because we're living in amongst the whole thing, we forget that less than ten years ago the idea that Japanese companies were putting cameras in cell phones seemed strange (and who would ever want a camera on their phone, anyway?). Our photocopier/printer at work is just barely old enough that it won't accept SD cards over 1G. Tragic, that. Hands up if you can remember when a 1G card seemed like it would last you forever, and it had better last forever because it was going to cost you an arm and a leg to get one. The first card I used in my camera? 64M, if I remember right. And I had to buy that one as a special purchase, because the one that came with it was only... oh, 16M or so.

And to think that a little while after I started working here I got brave enough to shell out the money for an electronic personal organiser (think: before Palm Pilots, even) with a staggering 64K of memory. I think I probably still have it somewhere. I should see if the museum wants it.

It all makes it sound like I'm ancient (and I'm sure that for some of my two fans, after reading this you're probably sure that I'm ancient), but I'm not. No, really. I'm not. It's just that things move so fast these days. So fast, in fact, that unless you keep staring straight ahead you lose your way in the newness. Look off to the side for a bit to enjoy a current technology, and before you know it you're three towns past your exit and the world is all using implanted wrist chips to pay for groceries, or something like that.

By the way, it totally won't surprise me if the implanted chip thing happens.




Ah well. None of this is implying judgment or anything. It just strikes me every once in a while that if I could stand outside of my own skin and be my eighteen-year-old self looking at my forty-two-year-old (yeah, I said it. Whatever. Forty's the new black, isn't it?) self now, I think I'd be fairly bewildered.

Hmm. By more than technology, no doubt, but let's leave some of the other stuff for another post. I'm still in the middle of a work day, after all. Let me just readjust the Sanctuary Hologram so that our visitors can get back to watching the animatronic birds...

Stupid annoying work things

Grape leaves aren't stupid annoying work things, if you wondered. I just really need to take some new photos at some point.

So, stupid annoying work things, otherwise known as I Still Haven't Thought of a Topic, So Let's Just Go With What's In Front of Me. Before I get into this, I should make the point that I do like my job. A lot. I've been doing it for twenty years now, after all, and my love of inertia isn't so vast that I wouldn't have found something else to do if this job sucked.

There are always annoyances, though. Any job has them. They're stupid annoyances (in my mind, anyway) both because they could be so easily fixed and because it's probably stupid of me to get annoyed by them. It's a problem on both my and my coworkers' parts, is what I'm saying.

Enough preamble? Let's begin.

Annoying work thing #1: Photocopier stupidity. We have a couple of people who regularly leave the... hmm... what's it called? The top cover-thingy? Document feeder? That'll do; you know what I mean. The thing that covers the platen. It bugs me when people leave it up. Isn't that just an invitation for the platen to get all dusty (and since no one seems to think to clean it... ah yes, another stupid photocopier thing)? Besides, it takes less than a second to put the thing down after you've lifted it, right? And let me add to this section the practice -- normally female, unfortunately -- of opening a ream of paper and just putting a few sheets in the tray so that someone else can refill it later. The trays are designed to hold a full ream, people. And if you think you can't fan a full ream? Well, for pity's sake. I have incredibly small hands and I can manage it. Just put the blasted thing on the table and do it that way. Sheesh.

Annoying work thing #2: Leaving random things on my desk. I'm not a terribly territorial person, really. If I'm not around anyone's welcome to use this desk. Just... please. Take your stuff with you when you're done. And if it's something that you've left there on purpose because I need to have a look at it? Leave a note. Let me know that it concerns me, and it's amazing how quickly I get out of p.o'd mode.

Annoying work thing #3: Chair stacking. We have a theatre (just a room, really) with removable seats. In other words, we have a lot of chairs that frequently have to be moved when the room's being used for things other than theatre-ness. To do this we have chair dollies. Simple rule: chairs get stacked on dollies; ten chairs to a stack. You'd be amazed at how many people around here seem to have no concept of either the number ten or stacking on dollies rather than just the floor. It's enough to make you wonder, really. Wonder about a lot of things. Like why I seem to spend so much of my life moving stupidly-stacked chairs.

Annoying thing #4: The office supply black hole. How can we possibly go through so many correction pens? Or pens in general? Or scissors (yes, really. Scissors)? I'd almost wonder if we had a pack rat, if pack rats lived here. And for those of my two fans who think I'm being metaphorical here, I'm not. I mean a real pack rat. It's less fun to call them bushy-tailed wood rats.

Annoying thing #5: Rolling the planetarium tent. No point in describing this one, because you really have to be there. Google "mobile planetarium" if you want to get the idea, though.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway. Time for me to get back to being annoyed at work, I guess. The list, as you can see, is very, very much niggly, and I don't want you to get the idea that I storm around here constantly thinking that I work with idiots. Ok, well, occasionally I do, but then everyone has their days, right? Besides, it's usually about then that I'll end up doing something stupid, so it all equals out in the end.

Except with the phtoocopier. Will you lot stop it with the photocopier, already?



Sheesh.

Chapter 1505: Wherein Dee whinges on a bit

Remember the part where I said I'd try for a proper post in the next couple of days? Today apparently isn't one of them. I'm in a bit of a mood. My wrist aches, my buggered-up knee is letting me know it's not happy, I have a planetarium show to do tonight (wonderful for both wrist and knee), there's a meeting in the room tomorrow morning so I won't be able to just leave everything and go when I'm done (which SUCKS, just so's you know)... none of this really leads to creative blogging.

Or even the type of blogging that usually happens here.

Sooo...

Is that an improvement on anyway? I'm of two minds about it, to be honest.

Anyway, I'll try to be somewhat more user-friendly tomorrow, I think. In the meantime, enjoy the extremely not-recent photo (it's of high bush-cranberry, for those who were honing their plant ID skills via this blog's incredibly pointless photography) and I'll see what I can manage later.

Later being much later, for any of my two fans who wondered.

Aaaahhh!!!

I scared you.

Or maybe I didn't, I don't know. I think I might have shocked you a little at least, though, what with actually posting and all.

So...

How ya been?

I'm already hitting I've got nothing, yep. Not even a new pointless photo.




Ok, the fact is that as is usual after a while of not working (or, rather, not being at the office. I was working; just not here) I have at least a bazillion five things to get caught up on, so blogging's not exactly a priority today. I'll try for something a bit more substantial in the next day or two, but now? Well, maybe I'll post a couple of doodles over on the other blog so that you can see what I was up to while the weather had me locked away. Or at least I'll post one. I should probably stagger the other ones out a bit. After all, going from famine to feast can make a person physically ill, you know.

Or maybe that's just my doodles.





Kidding, yes. Even I don't think that my doodles are entirely vomit-worthy.

Aaanyway (has anyone out there missed the Anyway Chronicles? That's probably what I should have named this blog), I'll post up something or other to the other blog, and then I'll have lunch if that's ok with everyone.

If it's not? Well, I'll probably still have lunch.

Later, all. Hopefully not as later as this particular pointless post was... 

And now, the end is near...

But first... I just noticed from the stats that someone got to the blog by searching the phrase "stupid dairy queen mouth commercials". This makes me happy. Happy because it means that someone besides me finds them terribly annoying.

Anyway.

Um, no. On second thought, I'm not going to start the anyway thing again. Let's have a line of dashes instead.

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Now, about the post title. Don't worry, it's not the end of the blog. Not that you'd worry about that anyway (stop it with the anyway...), but on the off-chance that one of my two fans would worry if the blog disappeared, I'll state outright that it's not going to. Unless Blogger decides that it should, I suppose, but I doubt that things are going that way. No, the end I'm referring to is just the likely end of posts from me (Hellooo Ontario office? Come out of hiding at least once in the next while?) for about a week or so, judging by the forecast.

She's gonna be cold out there, folks. Tomorrow's supposed to be above -20C (barely), but the windchill will be -30C. After that? Below -20C across the board. I've laid in my food supply, I've taken home work to do, and I'm planning to batten down the hatches and not come out until I can do so without fear of, you know, dying.

This is a stupid country to live in when you're allergic to the cold.

And can I say that I'm annoyed with the continuing optimistic predictions from Environment Canada? As usual. See, this is the way things happen (every year, I might add): Every January we here in Alberta get a cold snap. Every year it lasts for at least a week because the stupid stubborn cold air isn't easy for another system to push out of the way. This happens every year, did I mention? And yet every year the Environment Canada weather forecast starts out by saying that things will only last for one or two days. Then they add another one or two days. Then another one or two days. Do they think that we can't take reality? Do they think that we can't remember reality?

THIS HAPPENS EVERY DAMNED YEAR.

Ah well. It's not like getting worked up about it will prevent next week from happening. At least I was smart enough this time to make sure I have plenty of take-home work to tackle without the distractions of the office. And if all else fails, I have plenty of apartment distractions to keep me occupied while I'm stuck inside.

Which, um, sometimes prevent me from getting to the work in the first place...



It's not going to happen this time, though. I will get work done. And then I'll get cleaning done. And then? I'll... probably watch silly British sketch comedy on DVD for a while, knowing me.

For anyone who has my phone number, I'll be available by text if you feel like taking pity on someone who will no doubt be slowly going stir-crazy.

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One thing this whole cold thing is going to affect is my usual blog run-down of my favourite drunken awards show, otherwise known as the Golden Globes. I can't say I watch the Golden Globes for the awards -- most of the time I haven't seen a thing that's nominated -- but I do like the looser feel of the looser people hopped up on champagne. Having said that, I seem to remember being disappointed last year. Maybe everyone was too busy being uptight about the fact that Ricky Gervais actually said things that weren't worshipful? Could be. I suppose it took the buzz off for a few of them. At any rate, I'll be watching the pointless awards show tomorrow as well as the hours of pointless red carpet coverage on E! beforehand, even if the blog world will miss the chance to hear my words of wisdom about the pointlessness (and pointless fashions, of course) afterwards.

Oh, and gentlemen?

My absence does NOT absolve you if you're not wearing a bow tie with your tux.





Just so you know.

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One last thing. If for some reason you're one of the twelve people in the internet world who hasn't seen this video yet, you really should. Even without the nifty guitar trick, they've got a very good vocal sound, I think. I hope some good comes out of all of this for the band in the end.

Weird things I'm allowed to do at work

Actually, weird thing, singular. Although I may think of something else as I type. You never know.

Incidentally, I had crumpets for breakfast this morning. I find my day always goes better when it starts with crumpets, for some reason. I should do it more often, I guess. I saw a neat video on YouKnow with a crumpet recipe that seemed pretty handleable... maybe I should actually try to make my own sometime?

Handleable is too a word, by the way. Or at least it is today.

Anyway.

Oh, before I say anyway: yes, it's not a recent photo. I need to get out and take some new photos, really. Nothing wrong with having a flower today, though, I figure.

Anyway.

Again.

For all you OH&S officer-types amongst my two fans, a question: do you think it's a good idea for someone with a proven track record as an accident-prone leftie to be allowed to use the paper guillotine? I'm not sure that it is. And for those who are getting a weird mental picture when I say paper guillotine, think this, not this, and it'll make more sense. Anyway (again), for some reason the people here let me use the guillotine without a second thought. On a regular basis.

Silly people.

On the other hand, I've been using it for years and I do still have all of my fingers.

That's amazing, don't you think?

Anyway (AGAIN), as part of my let's-find-work-to-do-at-home-while-I'm-a-shut-in plan of these last couple of days, this morning I did some quick and dirty mounting of those frog and ground squirrel drawings (well, scans of the drawings) that I was working on which I'll clean up a bit at home. In the case of this place, quick and dirty mounting for program props involves gluing stuff to poster board, trimming it up on the guillotine, and then running it through the laminator.

Terribly exciting stuff, this post. Sorry about that.

ANYWAY,  our laminator is a roller-style one where you have to leave about a quarter of an inch of film around all the edges to keep the laminate from splitting, so to keep things a little neater I usually tape the film back to make the edges look more flush. It's a bother, it's time-consuming, and it's probably the perfect no-brain thing to do at home while watching television and pouting about the weather.

Stupid bloody weather.





Say it with me now: Anyway. I've got through another round of trimming and laminating without so much as a paper cut (yay me), so here's hoping that the upcoming office accident (because you just know that there's going to be one) doesn't decide to be a serious one just to make up for things.

Um, yeah.



Geez, this was a stupid post. If this keeps up, even I won't miss me while I'm gone.

Oh, and the blog thinnens...

That would be the opposite of thickens, right?

Yep, folks. It's looking like blog pickin's might be sparse in the next week or so. Winter's supposed to happen, you see.

Yes, I know that it's already winter. We've even had a cold day here and there to prove it. Overall, though, this has been one of the most tolerable Januarys I've seen in a while.

You just know it had to end, right?

You see, here in Alberta we're pretty much guaranteed at least one hell week in January. A week where the temperature doesn't budge above -20C. A week where winter knocks on the door and yells WINTER at the top of its frozen lungs to make sure that everybody notices it. A week where suddenly everyone remembers that they were planning to go to Vegas all along that week and does their collective best to get the hell out of Dodge.

That week is, apparently, next week, and I'm preparing to hole up.





A few of my two fans know (and for those new to the program, yes I meant to type that phrase exactly the way it sits) that it's pretty hard on me physically to be outside for any length of time (say, more than half a minute) when it's that cold, so when the forecast is looking that glum I have to plan almost as though I was planning for a hurricane. Sufficient food and toilet paper (hey, priorities)? Check. Work to do at home in case I can't make it into the office? Check. Scuzzy hibernation-style I-refuse-to-go-outside clothing? Definitely check. Good thing I live alone for that last one, really. Let's just say I dress for warmth and moping when the weather hits stupid cold.

Anyway, all this is by way of saying that if the forecast doesn't change you can expect to see a lot less of me for a few days come Monday. I'll be staying in and working at home until it's safe to come out again.

Oh, but I will be here tomorrow. And Saturday. And possibly Sunday. You know, in case you were worried about how long the stir-craziness will have to set in.

Nothing like giving you all a bit of notice, eh? You're welcome, I guess.

Lack of post AGAIN

Out at a school most of the day.

Might not be in tomorrow.





This blog's just riveting lately, isn't it? Ah well. We all have our moments. Or lack of moments.

Later. Whenever later may be...

Stop playing with your toys, Dee

In the continuing saga of Useless things On My Desk, today's feature is a wooden frog. Technically, it's a friction drum (you can look that up yourself if you need to. I'm not in a linky mood). It's attached to the stick by fishing line, and if you hold the stick just right while you twist it, the frog will make vaguely froggy noises.

You all need one of these on your desks, you know. Along with the clacker ball behind it, the monitor lizard (of course it's a monitor lizard. It's guarding my monitor), the mini bean bag chair, the manipulative...

Ok, well you probably all need the tape, at least.

Yeah, I have a few toys on my desk. Lots of people use them, so I don't feel badly about the whole thing. Everyone needs something to fidget with, and I'm amused by what people choose as their primary mode of fiddling. It's almost a psychology test, really. Will he pick the therapy putty (not shown in pointless photo) or the magnetic levitating pen (also not shown in pointless photo)?

The interesting thing is that some of these toys seem to have second lives that I don't know about. The little wooden elephant that Wheat brought back from Africa tends to shift around the desk at night. Spooky, right? Ok, so it's probably just the cleaners moving it when they dust, but still. Mobile elephants tend to keep a person guessing. And the lizard? One day -- and I kid you not -- I came in and the lizard was muddy. Muddy. Seriously.

And I doubt it had anything to do with any of the children of staff members borrowing it for a little run through the garden or anything like that.

Anyway. The main reason for yet another desk picture (besides the fact that I really didn't have anything to talk about. Again. Sorry for the drought) is that I found myself playing with the frog while talking to Wheat about something, and that's got to stop. I mean, is there anything more annoying than having someone make random frog noises when you're trying to talk to them? I don't think that there's too much more annoying. And since Wheat was too polite to say anything about it, I'll say it to myself. Or did, in the post title. Stop playing with your toys. There's a time and a place, and if you can't figure it out I swear I'll take them away from you.

So there.

Now if I could only figure out who shuffled my unshuffled deck of cards (also not shown in pointless photo)...





By the way, I know I've probably blogged a version of this before at some point. What can I say? The topic well is reeeally dry in my brain right now.

It must be non-blather weekend

Yep. Nothing much today, either.

So here's a rock.

And snow.



Yep.







On the plus side, I don't yet have a Facebook account...

Chapter 1497: Wherein Dee has managed to completely forget what it was she was going to talk about

I hate that, you know. I woke up with an actual topic in mind for a change, had it somewhat planned out, and somewhere along the line it's completely disappeared. You know, kind of like a snowman that's been ploughed into by a garbage truck, and now all that's to be seen is the leftover tire track.

Aha! She actually manages to tie in the pointless photo! Saves me from trying to explain why I was taking pictures of garbage truck tracks in the back alley, at least. That'd just be a weird thing to do, otherwise.

Um, anyway. I've tried my usual tricks to get my brain back to its original thought (read that as: I've done the laundry and played several rounds of a mah jongg solitaire variant. Oh, and don't bother looking for my high score; I don't have a Facebook account) but apparently it's not going to come back to me until sometime shortly after I go to bed tonight.

I've really got to start writing things down.

Ah well. I suppose in lieu of what was no doubt going to be a fascinating discussion about something that most people couldn't give a flying rat's bum about, I suppose I could tell those new to the program why I don't have a Facebook account...

I didn't want one. The end.





Ok, there's a little more to it than that. For one thing, it's not the way I tend to use the computer. Yes, I know that the world today is all about social networking and I do plenty of that at work, but in my own personal computing time I don't really care if I'm connecting with the people I went to kindergarten with. I kind of like maintaining that thin shell of pseudoanonymity (as in, I've no doubt that I'm easy to track down if you really want to track me down. I'm not exactly shrouded in a veil of secrecy) that just being deeol gives me.

Thing number two: I don't have a computer at home and I don't own a smartphone, so other than the times when I'm at work or here at my father's place my account would be massively, boringly inactive. And yes, I know that there are plenty of accounts out there like that. I've just never felt like I need to add to the boredom. Kind of makes a person wonder why I blog, I suppose, but at this point it's more out of habit than anything.

Thing number three: The first person who showed up in the brief time (we're talking less-than-a-half-an-hour brief, here) that I very tentatively had a Facebook account a few years ago was someone that I didn't really want to have show up. There was no friending or anything involved; it was just a name I didn't need to see. I don't need that kind of networking in my life.

Thing number four: I waste enough time as it is.



The problem is, though, work. Like I said above, I do some of the business social networking at work, and we've noticed over the years that it's becoming increasingly valuable. There's only so much I can do with Twitter and the work blog, however, and since I don't have a Facebook account I never have anything to do with the Facebook side of things. I probably should.

Dammit.

I'm thinking of starting a Facebook account, aren't I?

Which means that I probably will. Dammit.





Oh, and in case anyone out there wondered, I've enjoyed the same amount of hand-wringing over both blogging and tweeting in the past. Seems to be a pattern, doesn't it?

Aaanyway. It's lunch time, so I'm just going to post this ramble and be done with it. Actual topic? Maybe tomorrow, if I remember it. Facebook account? Hopefully not by tonight.







Anyone out there know anyone who's on Google+, maybe? Yeah, didn't think so.

Purple hat

Today's fuzzy (I was too lazy to try again with the flash on) not-entirely-pointless photo was taken a few minutes ago. And yes, it's of a purple beret on my desk.

Along with a few of the other weird things on my desk, yes, but we're not here to talk about that today.

What we're here to talk about (such as it is), is the purple hat.

I wore the hat to work today. It's warm, and it was a little chilly this morning (BUT STILL NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. I sooo don't want to take any chances with jinxing our current weather).

I've been wearing this particular hat for years. That's not particularly unusual -- I have lots of hats I've worn for years. Besides, berets don't typically go too far out of style; especially not when they're warm woollen hats on a January morning.

What's maybe a little more unusual about this hat (besides the fact that I'm blathering about it) is that it was a gift.

A gift from my brother.

He was in grad school then, and he'd gone to Quebec with his supervising prof. I certainly wasn't expecting him to bring me back anything, and I definitely wouldn't have expected a purple beret.

I didn't think he'd've noticed, you see. He managed to kill two birds with one stone.

I had a couple of Marks & Spencer (from the short time that there were Marks & Spencers in Canada) berets I was wearing pretty regularly back in those days, you see. Not so much as a fashion statement, although they went pretty well with the time, but as a handy hat on the days when it was chilly enough to want something on my head but not necessarily warranting full-on toqueage. I still have them around somewhere, but I haven't worn them for a long time because they fit a little tighter than I'd probably want them to now. Erm, not that my head has swelled or anything. They were just meant to sit a bit higher than I'd generally bother with now that my hair's no longer permed to the hilt and teased over to the side.

Ah, the early nineties.




Sorry, where was I?

Oh yeah. So I had these berets in regular rotation anyway, and when my brother came back with a beret from Quebec (a French beret, even...) it was pretty cool. AND...

It was purple.

A purple hat.

No, that's a good thing.

I've always been a purple type, and while I've grown away from always wearing purple (some of us purple people do that, believe it or not) I'm still drawn to purple clothing. And what's a better purple accent than a purple hat, really?



Anyway. This isn't really going anywhere, if any of my two fans thought it was (after all, it's a well known fact that if the blog comes to a point it will turn into a pumpkin). I just thought when I put on the purple hat today that my brother might be surprised, shocked, or mortified -- not sure which -- to find out that it's still part of the regular routine when I'm not wearing doofy hats that I've knitted myself.

The world might be pretty thankful for the purple hat, come to think of it...

Someday there'll be a real post here, honest.

One of the problems with blogging during work breaks is that occasionally I'm a good do-bee and work when I'm at work (ok, it's more often than occasionally. It's just that sometimes working at work means not taking the usual breaks). As you've no doubt noticed, the blog suffers a bit when that happens.

Like now.

I've been in frog-drawing mode again (check the other blog if so inclined), so I've basically had the music on and have sat here with brush in hand pretending that I'm an illustrator of some sort. Fun, I guess. If anyone wonders, though, I suck less at frogs than I do at ground squirrels. Probably a good thing. It's not always healthy to suck forgs.

Suck at frogs, I meant.

Anyway. I thought of taking a pointless desk photo to show you the state of disarray things are in when I'm doing poster work, but that would have involved getting the camera out &c &c and I'm just not planning on that long a break. So...

I could have told you about the Long-tailed Weasel that followed my group down the trail on our walk yesterday, but again, I should get back to the drawing thing while I'm still in some sort of mood for it. Suffice to say, then, that we have a weasel who's apparently getting very curious about the weird things that humans do in the Sanctuary, and that's kind of cool. Gave us some fresh tracks to look at, too, which was great since everything else has melted out with the warm temperatures.

Did I mention that I'd like to keep the warm temperatures for as long as possible, please? Yeah, I probably did.



Back to work, then. And this almost even turned into a post of sorts. Yay me...

Pointless weather post of the day:

It's somewhat mad (in a good way) that I just did an hour and a half walk with a group WITH MY COAT OPEN. In January.

Please note, Whomever is controlling the weather: I'm not complaining. Seriously. More of this, please. At least it'll make the winter that much shorter, and that's always a good thing.

Still here

I've just been a cross between away from the computer, busy, and sleepless.

Wait. That didn't sound right.

I was away from the computer on the weekend, I've been busy with programs and such since, and yesterday I hardly got any sleep so after my morning round of planetarium the last thing I felt like doing was blogging. I guess that about covers things, then.

So how was your holiday?

Mine? Quiet. Nothing much to report, actually. And since I really should get about drawing a tadpole before my afternoon program, maybe I should leave the blather for another day.

Yep. Drawing a tadpole. Told you I get paid for doing weird things. Later, then, everyone.