Pointless photo of the day:

Yeah, that's it for today. I'm just way too tired to bother.

Why kind of makes me wonder why I'm bothering now.

Ah well.

Pointless photos of the day:

Today in pointless photo land we have before and after pictures of the same sprig of Twining Honeysuckle.

Personally, I prefer before.

I prefer it even more considering that we're supposed to be heading back into the deep freeze (oh. yay.) and as my two fans know that keeps me indoors for a bit.

In other words, it's the disappearing act for the weekend again, but this time I have an excuse other than not particularly wanting to get to a computer.

I will eventually get a computer at home. At some point. Look, I know that I won't be able to stay unconnected forever, the way the world's going. I'm just not in that much of a hurry to invite the world in with me every. single. place. I. go. And even when that computer or smartphone or both (sigh) happens, don't expect me to suddenly be the social media queen. You people don't need to know what goes on in my life every moment, and I'd actually find it creepy if you wanted to.

Just saying. And mini-rant over. Not sure where it came from, really. Probably the newsletter.

Yeah, it's newsletter editing time again, and that always sets me off because it's a job I hate. I know you hear this every quarter, but waiting for people to get their stuff in, trying to make sense of that stuff, and then playing stupid Publisher games isn't exactly what I signed up for.

Ah well.

So what else? I've complained about the cold, I've complained about computers in modern society, and I've complained about work. I should end with a non-complaint, I suppose, since this post will be at the top for at least the weekend and possibly longer.

Um...

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

Well, congrats to the gold medal winners du jour, of course. I got a chance to see the end of the curling before I left for work, but I'll have to wait until tonight's replay to see the skiing.

I should probably get back to work now.

See you when the weather makes it likely.

Absolutely and completely pointless photo of the day. Of the month, probably, even.

Kind of tired of the winter crap on my nerdstick (definitely tired of the winter crap outside) and you haven't had a desk shot for a while, so here it is:

Hand (featuring rolling ring -- yes, THE rolling ring -- and wool sweater because it's cold in here today), work programming schedule, lanyard, Galileo thermometer, beaver (it was donated, for some reason. Now it's just my paperweight), scrap paper, phone (bet you got that part), phone book that'll likely never be opened, tea mug that I have a tendency to call my sippy cup, work mug that I use for water, very patriotic infuser, and some other junk that is probably of no interest whatsoever. No that the rest of it was, but...

Yep. My desk is terribly exciting.

Sorry about that pause just there that you didn't actually know about because you're reading this after the fact. I had to see why our twitter feed went berserk. Apparently Canada was playing hockey or something?

Just kidding. Congrats, ladies. You (as opposed to the did-I-mention-overpaid men) I can give a flying rat's bum about.

Anyway (yeah, we're already at anyway), I need to cut this short because I'm having one of those work days where work is happening but none of it's mine. I guess I should try to get to that, then.

Sometimes I love my workplace

After seeing the bad -- bad, but made us laugh -- version on Cake Wrecks the other day, we decided that we really needed to get our coworker's baker husband to make us a Valentine's cake. So here it is, our celebration at the Nature Centre:

Seriously. It's on the shelf opposite our office door right now. The best part has been to see who laughed and who didn't when they noticed it. The vast majority have laughed, and many pictures have been taken.

Incidentally, if you're able to find this picture on Twitter then you will have officially found the account that I and a couple of others tweet on for work. Or at least the account of someone who retweeted it...

I work with some interestingly weird people.

They're great.

And in case you're wondering what the boss felt about all of this, the photo you're looking at is the one he took. I asked him to e-mail it to me so that I could show you all out there.

Did I mention that I work with some interestingly weird people?

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I need to get back to work (I took an early lunch. I was hungry, and my sandwich was calling out to me), so I'll just quickly add to my I Don't Care Olympic semi-rant from yesterday:

I don't care about Men's Hockey.

Don't get me wrong -- I like hockey. I just don't care about a bunch of overpaid professionals deciding to go slumming for a couple of weeks and pretending that they're a national team. I know that the line between amateur and professional athletes has been blurred for years, but somehow it all comes to a head for me in hockey. Especially when you get the media saying stupid things like Team Canada finally has its first game!!! as though Team Canada (underpaid but extremely talented women's version) hasn't already been winning for a bit.

And I find it boggling that bars in places like Edmonton have been given permission to open at 8 am  (8 flipping am. Eight in the morning. Seriously.) just so that people can drink and watch hockey.

Uh huh. Enjoy that beer. I'll be over here watching crazy people throw themselves head first down an icy trough.

It tends to be more entertaining.

And they're certainly not overpaid.

Judgmental

Photo? Pointless, as always.

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I've decided that I can't watch figure skating anymore. I used to be a huge figure skating fan -- I even skated for a while (poorly) -- but I can't watch it now. I don't even want to watch it now.

It's the judging, you see.

The judging scandal a few years back put me off, and it wasn't even because a Canadian pair was involved. I don't particularly like them, to be honest. The scandal, though, just really punched up the fact that judged sports are always going to be a problem. Or problems. Problems in taste or preference, problems in definition, but most of all problems in politics. People can be bought off or swayed; computer-operated timers can't.

At least not yet.

Politics in competition makes me distrust what I think I know about the competition, which in turn makes me not care about the competition. Yeah, I'm sure it's just a me thing, but as soon as I start to suspect the judging I don't really want to get emotionally involved in a sport. Not that I get emotionally involved in sports much at the best of times, but it makes me care even less than I normally do.

It's been a few years for me and figure skating, so I figured I'd give the new Olympic team event a try. Neat dynamic in that, by the way. Seeing the skaters acting as a team does change things up, and I hope they keep the event in the Games. Anyway, I started watching the team event even though the commentators were driving me nuts, and was almost on the cusp of thinking about enjoying it... and then the accusations started again. Collusion between the Russian and the American judges to keep the Canadian team from medalling.

Ok, then. I'm done. I don't even care if there's any truth to the matter. If that sport hasn't bothered to clean itself up after all these years, then I don't need to bother with it.

I'm not saying I won't watch any judged sport, since I've rather been enjoying some of the freestyle events. Just that given the choice between people in costumes jumping to music and Olympic Roller Derby Short Track Speed Skating, I'll be tuning into the men in helmets, than you very much.

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See? I can still blather. Bonus points for a blather on sports, since I'm so much not a sports person. Back to work now, though. See you next month.





Kidding. See you tomorrow, probably.

Quick pointless photo of the... half month?

Sorry, it's been busy.

And cold, so I didn't get out much for a while.

It's getting better, so I may be around more in the next few days.

I'm busy now, though.



Bye....

Chapter 1875: Wherein Dee's nails are self-destructing

Today's pointless photo is, obviously, not of nails. It does continue the blue snow theme, though.

I hope you're not sick of the blue snow theme yet.

Anyway. My nails. My thumbnails specifically. They're a mess, and it's frustrating.

Now, I'm the first to admit that I usually have it really easy with my nails. I keep them short because they drive me nuts if they aren't (blame that on all the years of piano, I guess. The click of nails on a keyboard always used to drive me right round the bend), they grow quickly so if something happens to them it doesn't take long to fix, and I really don't give a flying how they look as long as they're not too ratty.

I work at a nature centre, remember? Being fussy about my nails would be kind of stupid, considering what my hands get up to. And into.

My thumbnails at the moment, though... man. What a wreck. First I chipped my longer one (oh yeah... I keep my left thumbnail a little longer to use as a screwdriver. Yes, I'm serious. I care about my nails so much that I intentionally use one as a tool) in just such a way that the top layer split off. Which, of course, made it wear away faster on that side because the underlayers are softer. Which, when I filed it down, made it split again because I caught the remnant of the upper layer... lather, rinse, repeat. This has been going on for a month, and I can't make the nail much shorter without filing skin. That's my left nail.

Today I took a chip out of my shorter nail.

Sigh.

How do you ladies who actually care about nails deal with all of this filing and filling and adjusting without going up the wall? There are so many better things to do than worry about the next time you chip a nail, aren't there?

There are for me, at any rate. Like getting back to work.

And not blathering about nails.

Maybe I'll make it snails next time. How do you suppose snails could annoy me?