Pointless photo because oh crud of the day:

Oh crud? Yep, censored. Those who know me can fill in the appropriate crudity.

As opposed to crudités, which are something different...

Anyway. Today's canape lack of post is kind of a repeat of yesterday. Had something to say, but busy with work. And if I don't want to stay here all day I'd better get back to it.

I will actually blog at some point, you know.

Um, but not tomorrow since I won't be near a computer.

Gotta go now.







Oh, today's pointless photo. Random. It's been sitting on my nerdstick for a while. Ever since Molecule Building Day, in fact. For those dying to know (clockwise from bottom left): Acetonitrile, Neopentane, Cyclopropane, and 1,1 Bromochloroethane. And no, I don't remember any of that stuff anymore. I had to look it up. It's been (sigh) a quarter of a century now since I studied it, so I think that I'm allowed.

Definitely gotta go now.

One of those days...

I hate it when I actually have an idea for a post (Whomever knows, it happens so rarely) and then have to face the fact that I don't have time for it because I should be working at work.

What a concept.

I've had one of those mornings where things have been getting done, but unfortunately none of the things that have been getting done are the ones I was planning to get done.

Ah well. One less actual post here probably won't even be noticed, considering how little I've been posting lately. We'll try for more blather tomorrow, but since I'm supposed to be working at work then too I don't know how successful I'll be.

Erm... make whatever sense you can out of that last bit. Oh, and enjoy the continuing series of not-recent photos. At least they keep the usual pointless theme going.



Later.

It's too cold for Wheat to be in shorts

It's cold, I'm grumpy, and my office mate is in shorts. Didn't change into shorts here at work, no. He showed up in shorts. And apparently shovelled his walk in shorts before he left his house.

Sometimes I wonder about that man. And then I remember that I'm too grumpy about being cold to spend too much time wondering about Wheat's shorts, and after that I post a photo of spring flowers because at least they aren't snow.

That, and because I haven't taken too many photos lately.

There's a slightly sad reason for that, and it's not all because of the cold (or Wheat's shorts). No, the real slightly sad reason is that I think I might be saying goodbye to my trusty camera soon.

Sigh.

It's started having electronic brain farts, you see. Or I suppose you could translate that more politely as it's having reboot problems. I turn it on, the lens tube extends, the lens tube closes back up, and the camera says to try turning it off and on again. Lately that doesn't really work, so I have to take the batteries out for a while until it resets itself.

As I've said probably too many times here before, Lather, rinse, repeat.

I actually really am going to be slightly sad to see the camera go. Sure, it's getting on a bit and newer cameras have fancier features (aaand this might be a good excuse to save my pennies for a DSLR...), but there's been some things about the camera that I've definitely liked. It's shaped well to hold one-handed, for example, and since I'm very fiercely left-handed and cameras are always built right-handed (they are, you know), having a good grip is important to someone who's using her non-dominant hand to operate the thing. One of the other things I've liked, and this will probably surprise the bigger-is-better crowd, is that it's only a 3 meg camera. Let's face it, I'm never going to make a poster from any of my shots. They're almost entirely for use on a very silly blog, and I appreciate that I'm not needlessly using up my storage space with them.

And yes, I do realise that most cameras can allow you to save things in a smaller format than 10 or 14 meg (does anyone out there really need 14 meg pictures? Really?). It's just been nice that I haven't had to fiddle with that stuff, that's all.

Ah well. All electronics die eventually, and I'm sure that whatever I end up with will have its good points. And a bigger screen. And need a bigger memory card, which at least is a cheap thing to get compared to when I bought one for the current camera. It's just a little too bad to see it go, that's all.



It does, however, give me a very reasonable excuse for the lack of SNOW pictures on the blog.

Maybe I shouldn't get a new camera until next spring?

Neglectoblog

I've been very lazy about blogging lately, but then my two fans (if I have any two fans left at this point) have no doubt noticed that already. I could have blogged -- I was around -- but I just couldn't be bothered. Add that to the lack of recent photos (the decidedly winterish tone of the great outdoors isn't exactly inspiring) and the fact that at the moment my neck is out juuust enough to make my shoulder sore and the shoulder's owner cranky, and it's not looking great for a lucid blather today, either.

So... um. What's been up with me, lately?

Not too much. I had a birthday which I didn't celebrate, my father had a birthday (no idea on the celebration or lack of same there), and this weekend we finally got around to giving each other our presents. I got a slow cooker and he got an RC helicopter. Well, two helicopters, actually, because I hadn't realised that someone else gave him one too. Ah well, maybe he can have battles with himself.

I did actually want the slow cooker, by the way. I make a decent pulled pork, but the cheap vacuum cleaner salesman free gift crock pot I'd been using is a little on the small side for most recipes. I'd been having overflow issues. Now, though, I officially have a grown-up digital "multipot" (whatever with the mulitpot rebranding, by the way. It's still a slow cooker). I'm not sure why a slow cooker needs to be digital, but I suppose that it'll save me looking at the clock every few hours.

We all know how taxing that can be, having to tell time and everything.

And with that, I'm going to call it a post. Yes, seriously. I just feel like I'm already done typing, so I'm going with that feeling. Besides, it's probably time to go up stairs and watch dad divebomb the cat. With the helicopter, I mean. Last time I checked he wasn't into divebombing the cat without a helicopter...

Oh, relax. He doesn't really aim for the cat. The cat just gets curious enough to be in the way sometimes, that's all. Cats are silly like that. Or at least Max is.

Real

Still no new photos, since I've been holed up in my apartment for the last few days. To use the internet meme form (sigh), Stupid Weather is Stupid.

Have a frogsicle instead, then. That'd be a picture of a frozen Wood Frog. I did it for work. And why would I be drawing dead frogs for work? Well, that's the cool thing. Frozen Wood Frogs aren't, as a rule, dead. They freeze for the winter, and are one of only about five frog species that can do that.

And now you know. Shall we move on?

----------

While I was housebound I spent what might seem to be an inordinate amount of time trying on my jewellery, such as it is. Now, before anyone out there gets a mental picture of a crazy old bat playing dress up and pretending to go to the ball, I'll defend my sanity by saying that I was just trying to figure out what amongst my weird stash was actually worth wearing. You know, putting X pendant on Y chain and wearing it around the apartment for a while to see if it would drive me nuts if I wore it that way during a work day. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One thing I've noticed, and am noticing increasingly as I get older, is how much I prefer real over fake. And it doesn't even have to be expensive real, for those who are now humming Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend to themselves. Nothing I own qualifies as expensive, and it would probably freak me out if it did. No, what I'm meaning is that I'm happy wearing a cheap something (the silver ring I wear every day on my pinkie was five dollars, for pity's sake) as long as I know that it's genuine.

Give me a piece of cheap jasper over the finest simulated diamond any day. Sure, the diamonelle (or diamonette or cubic zirconia or whatever) is more sparkly, but the jasper has a... I dunno, a trueness to it somehow. I'm not a crystal and aura type person (no offense to any of you who are), but I definitely feel happier wearing an actual rock than I do wearing something that's pretending to be one.

And yes, I spent waaay too long sniggering at the shopping channel's diamonelle marathon the other day. No matter how much you talk it up, ladies, it's still going to be tacky fake jewellery that I'd be a bit embarrassed to be seen in.

  Maybe I'm just not a glittery kind of girl, but I find the so-called semiprecious stones more interesting to wear anyway. They've got more character.

The "real" aspect extends to metals as well, but maybe not in the way that you might expect. I prefer silver over gold mostly because it looks better on my skin tone. Lucky for me, then, that it's also cheaper, right? Naturally, I'll wear gold as well. I don't have a lot, but what I have gets used. After that, though, is where things admittedly get a little odd. I honestly don't mind wearing other metals... as long as they're not pretending to be anything else. A few years ago my uncle gave me a stainless steel bracelet because it was a bit of a fashion then. Cool. Stainless steel that's not pretending to be anything other than stainless steel? We're good. Just be honest, metal. That's all I'm asking. Be honest, be yourself, and don't be incredibly ugly.

AND DON'T BE GOLDTONE.

Gah. Goldtone. Or gold plated silver. Just be silver, silver. No need to wear a gaudy gold coat that's just going to make you look like fake gold instead of real silver.

Geez, I've been typing for a long time. A long, very interrupted time. I really need to cut this off and get back to work things.

Like frozen frogs.



Frozen frogs never wear goldtone, you know. Just goes to show that nature is smarter than us in a lot of ways...

It's too early

I have no recent photos.

There are a couple of reasons for this, but the main reason is that when I look out the window right now I see white (well, ok, and some puffed-up birds in the bushes looking kind of peeved). White depresses me.

It's too early.

It's too early for me to be scanning the road reports (Um, Dad? Probably not coming down the highway this weekend). It's too early for me to be adding in scrape-the-windows time to my work commute (which, granted, is only about six minutes in good conditions. But still). And most importantly,

IT'S TOO EARLY FOR THE WEEKEND LOW TEMPERATURES TO BE BELOW -20C.

 Yes, I said -20C.

First full week of November.

That, my friends, just sucks.

Oh, and for any of my two fans of the American persuasion: Celsius - Fahrenheit conversions. Sorry, but I'm just too lazy to do it for you today.

Which brings me to: it's also too early for me to be thinking about hibernation. I can't go outside in those kinds of temperatures at the best of times (that is, when my stupid allergic to cold body has had weeks, if not months, to acclimatise), and this certainly isn't the best of times as far as all of that is concerned. Frankly, it'll be tough enough for me to get in to work at -12C tomorrow.

Keep that in mind if I don't seem to be here tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next day...





Sigh. Look, I know that in the scheme of things (hellooo Hurricane Sandy survivors and what you're dealing with) this is a fairly low number on the Scale of Suckage. I'm not so self-absorbed as to thing that there aren't far worse things. But all these it's too earlys add up to the possibility of a very long winter, and the prospect isn't the best thing for my mental health.

Which, by the way, had been pretty good earlier in the week. Do you suppose that pissed off the planet in some way? I'll fix you, honey. Let it snow let it snow let it snow...

Ah well. What can you do but whinge and dig out? Blogging may be pretty sparse in the next few days, but then you're getting used to that by now.

Back to work for me...

Loud

Sorry, no pointless photo today. It's getting late, I'm leaving soon, and the roads are probably crap (although not nearly as bad as elsewhere -- thank you Delay of Storm), so I'm not in the mood to play nerdstick games. Especially since I have nothing recent.

Anyway. Topic.

I'm loud.

Not all the time, obviously, but when I need to I can easily be loud. I can overpower an entire class when I'm out in the field. I do one program where I send the kids out into other areas of the building to look for things, and when I call them back I can be heard all the way to the offices. In my line of work, it's handy to be loud.

I sometimes forget that not everyone is loud.

Or can be loud, I guess.

We were having a conversation in the hallway this morning and at one point I said something silly that got loud (it would make sense if you'd heard the topic). My boss turned to me and said that only a trained voice could do that without hurting.

Really?

I mean, it wasn't really even that loud. Comparatively speaking, that is.

So is it actually hard to be loud? Does it hurt to be loud? I mean physically hurt. I've never felt that, to be honest.

I've always told people that it's because of years of singing training and that may be true, but maybe it's just how I'm built. It just sort of boggles me that it's somehow a special thing, that's all, since I can't imagine not being able to be loud.

I wonder how that's shaped me, you know? Just like being nearsighted has shaped me and being left-handed has shaped me and being short has shaped me. Being loud had to have made some difference, don't you think?




Gee, I'm making myself sound attractive, aren't I? Nearsighted, left-handed, short, and LOUD.

Won't you be my neighbour?



Gottat shut down now. That damned snow is really coming down.

Stupid winter.

Buggery

No, not that. I got your attention though, didn't I? And I'll be curious to see what kind of attention that it'll bring from random search engines.

I get an unreasonable kick from that sort of thing, I'll admit. I do check to see what weird search terms have brought people to my blogs. It's one of the few things I miss from the old Blogger banner ads these blogs all used to have, too. It used to amuse the heck out of me to see what random terms the Google ad engine would choose for its "targeted" ads. Don't even ask me how I ended up with an ad for Mein Kampf showing up for a week...

Incidentally, I hope you've noticed that I don't miss the targeted ads enough to sign up for Adsense or anything like that. Although it might fit, considering that ads on this blog would be well and truly pointless.

Um, anyway. That's not why you came.

The reason for the misleading title is that we're dealing with a few bugs at work today. Not of the variety featured in today's pointless photo (which is, after all, a beetle rather than a bug), but of the technological type.

We just got a new phone system.

Fuuun, right?

Figuring out the new system should be ok, once we have all the programming down. Should be ok, I hope. We have a lot of volunteers that run the front desk, though, and since they're each here just once a week that equals a full week's worth of trying to train people on a new system. And there are, of course, a few programming glitches as well. I called my father and asked him to call me back just to see if the Call Display worked properly. Well... after watching the line number light up, then the front desk line light up, then a momentary green light on my line (with no ring) that changed to red before I could pick it up and sent him straight to the voice mail box that I hadn't had a chance to set up yet, I can officially tell you that my voice mail light works.

The rest of the system apparently needs a bit of tweaking.

Ah well, if you occasionally try to get me at work and I seem to be non-existent, bear with us. We'll get it figured out.



Stay tuned to find out how they screw up our wifi...

Yeah, that weird thing

... is on the wall of the gallery here at work.

It's our annual staff show.

I did a painting.

Or I guess three paintings.

I might not have hung them this spread out, but it works so I don't mind.

My mind minds that it's on the wall at all, but you've been hearing about that already. If you want to hear more for some reason, check the other blog. It's linked on the sidebar. I talked (or typed, I guess) too much over there already and I need to get back to work, so check there for more angst.

I'm such a neurotic freak.