Wha?

Sorry, but between the sneezing and the lack of sleep I think I might have misplaced my brain. Lack of sleep, you say (let's leave the sneezing for now)? Yeah. Last night was... interesting for a few reasons. I'm a little floaty right now.

So what shall we talk about, then? Well, first I'd like to point out that today's pointless photo is of Oriental Poppies, and for a change I was actually at my father's place at the right time to take a few pictures of them before they got ratty and windblown. Usually I'm either too early or too late. These particular poppies (or their forebears, anyway) came from my maternal grandmother's place, and I've always had a fondness for them. When she sold the house we made sure to take some seed heads (which, considering that she sold the place to my uncle probably wasn't quite the rescue mission it sounds like), and now grandma's poppies live in amongst the yarrow under a tree in the back yard. Yeah, that's yarrow you see there rather than weirdly mutated poppy leaves.

Ok, that's the photo. What else can I dredge up? Well, I suppose I could tell you what I gave my dad for Father's Day. Or would you rather guess?  Some of my two fans probably already know, but for those of you who'd rather guess I'll give you some scroll-down space before the reveal.

Ready?

I gave him...







Indigestion.

Or rather, the restaurant did.

Some of you thought I was going to say fish, didn't you? And for those new to the program, this post explains why it wouldn't be weird to think that I got fish for Father's Day. I generally do, but at the moment the pond's population is a little on the high side and the fish are getting big. Rule of thumb, learned by experience (because really, I know bugger all about fish) is that if you want to introduce smaller fish to a pond that already has bigger fish, you should introduce several rather than one. Several small fish will school together until they're big enough to join the bigger fish. One small fish will try to school with the bigger fish.

This tends to not go well for the small fish.

Anyway, no fish this year so I took my father out for supper yesterday instead. He wanted Chinese food, and the meal was good but apparently the garlic ribs didn't sit too well afterwards.

Sorry about that, Dad.

We'll end today with a car speeding recklessly down the hill in front of my father's house. Just look at that thing go!

All right, really? I was trying to get a picture of something at the bird feeder on zoom, but by the time I set the timer to try to avoid shutter jiggle the bird had already gone. And using the zoom on my little camera usually makes anything that moves look like it's moving waaay too fast, so that's the why of the streaky car.

And why am I posting it? Well, it made me laugh yesterday when I uploaded it from the camera. It doesn't seem terribly funny now, but you're getting it anyway.

Um, yeah.



Happy Father's Day to all of you out there who qualify. And even to those of you who don't. Of course, that would make it more just Happy Day, but that's ok with me.

Things that will guarantee that I don't care what you have to say

This will likely be a pot-kettle post since I know I do a lot of things on this blog that probably guarantee a lack of caring about what I have to say (like repeatedly posting that I'm too busy to post, for example), but I was recently reminded that there's a bunch of stuff out on the good ol' web 2.0 that annoys the crap out of me. Unfortunately for my two fans, I'm in the mood to share my annoyances at the moment.

Some of this has no doubt been mentioned here before -- and probably repeatedly -- but since it's nearly summer I'm sure you're all getting used to reruns by now. Unless you're the type of people who are willing to invest time in summer replacement series, of course, in which case I guess the not-Toronto office should probably take over this place for the next few months.

Um, anyway.

Things that will definitely, absolutely cause me to stop reading your blog/website/post comment/board post:

• The use of the phrase jump the shark. I (mostly) lurk on a couple of television fan boards, and the moment I see those words I skip to the next post. It's such a beaten-to-death cliche, and all it says to me is that the person posting either wants to piss off people who genuinely like a show (and, um, trolls? Flaming the freaks is a pretty lame way to amuse yourselves), or is too lazy to form a complete thought about a topic. I don't like such-and-such. But why don't you like such-and-such? Because it jumps the shark. Oh. How very enlightening. Next, please.
• Automatic music. If I go to your site and there's music playing that I have no option of getting rid of, I leave. That's all.
• Fancy cursors or cute graphics. See above. Unless you're a tween, just don't do cute if you want to be read.
• White text on black backgrounds. Actually, this one makes me sad because I know a lot of intelligent people do the white-on-black thing as a stylistic choice. Yes, it can look very good, but unfortunately for some of us it makes reading the site painful to near-impossible. More than once I've had to abandon reading a thoughtful post on a black blog because my eyes just couldn't handle it. I made a more ranty post about the whole thing a couple of years ago, so if you want more details you can find them here.
• Txt speak or overuse of emoticons. Hey, I text. Sometimes when I text I abbreviate things, although I don't like going full-on jargon. I can see why people do, though... when they're texting. If you're sitting at a real keyboard with an easily accessible shift key and have more than 160 characters available to you, then you should be typing in actual English. It doesn't necessarily have to be textbook proper English (Whomever knows I use my share of sentence fragments and things like that around here), but if it's all omg lol wtf then it just doesn't deserve to be read.
• Baiting. Too many people out there get readers because they say things just to upset other people. Frankly? I find the whole thing boring. Why get all up in arms about what some twit on a blog says? There are so many better things to do.

There's more, naturally, because one of my favourite things to do is be annoyed about something or other (or at least that's how it seems some days), but that's enough for now.

Especially since I need to change laundry loads.

Hey, did this really become an actual post rather than just a non-post excuse? Well, then. Things are looking up. Ish. For today. Tomorrow is another day, Scarlet, and lately I seem to be having trouble with two in a row...

And we have a quandary

Well, not much of one, considering that I've already decided what to do.

See, I should blog. But I have one last bit of work to do today. If I do the work and leave the blogging for later when I'm at my father's place, I can leave earlier.

But.

Generally when I leave the blogging for later it doesn't happen because I find myself not in the mood when the time comes.

But if I blog now, I'll have to stay later here at work.

Unless I make it a reeeally short post and pretend that I'm going to make up for it tomorrow.

Um, yeah. Later, all.

Touchy-feely

You know how you get to that state in certain illnesses where you think you're feeling better until you actually try moving? Yeah. My head and I aren't the best of friends at the moment, so I'll try to keep this short.

In regards to the post title: Some people have real bubbles. You know what I mean? Get too close to their personal space and they get very uncomfortable? I'm one of those. It's not to the extreme, but close talkers really squick me out. Oh, and if you were planning to give me a hug anytime soon, please just don't. I didn't grow up in a huggy family, and I never quite know what to do around huggy people. I'm sure all that physical contact is very important for some of you, but except in certain special circumstances it does nothing for me. Yep, I am not a touchy-feely person.

But you know what?

Kids are.

My job is weird.

Yesterday, in the middle of my program, I felt a hand that wasn't mine go into the pocket of my hoodie (yes, I'm still wearing the uniform hoodie that I don't particularly like. Yay me for playing along). The hand, thankfully, belonged to one of the students and not one of the parent helpers. That would have been... awkward. I'm not sure what the hand was doing in my pocket -- it wasn't especially cold out or anything -- but it headed in there very matter-of-factly, stayed for a bit, and then went away.

I, of course, pretended it hadn't been there in the first place. I was in the middle of a program, for pity's sake.

Later on as I was trying to explain something to the group, I noticed that a little girl in front of me had decided to play with the cord on my hoodie's hood.

I ignored that too.

But kids are weird, and my job is weird, and I'd better get back to my weird job. Later, folks.

Pointless photo of the day:

Yeah, I said I would be around this week.  Turns out I was wrong.

And why?

Oh, you so don't want to know.  Or you don't want the visual, anyway.

Let's just say it was my turn for the office crud, apparently.  We're far too good at sharing around here, you know.

Anyway, I'm still not exactly functional (this afternoon's program ought to suuuck), but I'm more or less upright.  For now.

Yay spring and catching every damned disease that comes my way.

Later, all.

Oh, you just know that this will be chock full o' whinge

You probably guessed it after last week's disappearance, but I've been busy.  And I'm tired.  I took a couple of days to be away from people after the busyness, but I'm still tired.

And I have a headache.

And my nerdstick has decided not to talk to my computer today (second time in a few weeks.  Think it's trying to tell me something?  I mean, besides maybe I should look into getting a new nerdstick), so unless it changes its mind before I stop typing you're not even going to get a pointless photo to fill the space with.

Have I mentioned that I'm tired?  I'm sooo tired.  Like, isn't-this-month-over-yet tired.  Last week kind of did it for me, I have to admit.

I was out at a school with the mobile planetarium, in case anyone wondered.  Did programs for an entire school in the space of two and a half days.  Spent two and a half days trying to get comfortable on a gym floor.  That part, in case you wondered, never actually works.  Anyway, the kids were good, the programs seemed to go well, but I. Am. Tired.

I think I mentioned.

Anyway, one more try at some visual pointlessness and then I'm out of here.  This week's posting should be a bit more regular again (as regular as things ever get here, at least), but at this point I'm thinking that making no promises is probably the best option.  Because I just know you hang on my every word...



Ok, no pointless photography today, then.  Catch you later, everyone.

Pointless photo of the day:

And as you've probably guessed, this is all you're getting.

Busy, yes.

Oh, and don't be stabbing the not-Toronto office in the shins unreasonably.  Technical difficulties there, she tells me.

See you... I dunno.  Friday, maybe.  No promises though.