… but it is by the same company and almost as weird!

more lol celebs!

Life is in a holding pattern right now.

I can’t really shop for anything 1) because I’m broke, and 2) because I had to cancel my atm card because someone bought European subscription porn with it. (Read: someone other than me. If I have to pay for it, I want access to the account.)

I am losing my mind about proposition 8, which is the one that will determine if my girlfriend and I get to get married next year. I already chose not to do it this year, a decision that may give me an ulcer over the next two weeks.

I am still waiting to hear from the Monterey Bay Aquarium about whether or not I got an interview. See above statement about ulcers.

I am waiting at work for labels so I can finish the project from hell which we’ve been trying to get out the door for several months now. Blah.

I am waiting to start any new cross stitch/embroidery patterns until I finish any 2 of the projects I’m currently working on. It doesn’t even have to be the big projects. I have two I can knock out with about 15 minutes of work on each of them.

I also believe I understand why people sell their work. I didn’t used to, I always assumed that if you put that much effort into it, why would you give it away? But thinking about switching jobs suddenly made the light dawn: without the Bitch Scientist, “Fucking Cunt”, “Shut your whore mouth” and “Whore bag cum dumpster” would simply be funny, with no intrinsic meaning for me. I started thinking about what I’d do with them. Give them away? Perhaps. My coworker or my boss might be worthy recipients. And while I would definitely want pictures of the work, the process of making these items is really where the meaning is. Having a cross stitch on your desk that says “Fucking Cunt” is funny, but the process of making “Fucking Cunt” was the meaningful, or at least slightly cathartic part.

Of course, to sell something, I’d have to finish something. Damn.

more lol celebs!

… my step mother’s 5xth birthday.

55th? 56th? One of the two I believe. It was also the day of her second locally anesthetized surgery in the last two weeks. (The port they put in for chemo didn’t work, so they had to replace it. Incidentally, she has her “first” chemo appointment today (assuming the new port works).)

…the day John Morgan was born.

That would be my boss’ second child. Very cool, we’re all very happy for him. I got to see an awesome picture of my boss’ daughter (she’s 3) “holding” (with help) her brother. She looked very pleased with her new toy

…the day of the all hands meeting.

That did not prove to be a positive experience for anyone. It’s the first time I’ve seen a speaker not applauded at the end of their presentation. Of course, she just explained how much our benefits are going to cost us next year. I think the straw that broke the camels back was finding out that the Nurses Union was going to continue to get free benefits for the next two years.

… also the annual safety training.

It occurred immediately following the meeting. The presenter was HORRIBLE. Hint: chances are, the members of 2-3 dozen independent research labs aren’t going to give a shit about being broken into “teams” for some arbitrary competition. Also, if you expect us to be tested on this stuff afterward, you might want to bother to show the slides that actually explain the concept in question.

I know, I just asked for a slide show. This should convey HOW BAD that training was.

My boss missed both the meeting and the training because his wife was in labor. She gave birth round about the time the training from hell ended. If I’d been thinking, instead of telling people where my boss was, I could have given him an awesome gift, and faked his presence at the safety training. It would have been easy to do, and would have spared him the video when he gets back. Oops.

…the first time I saw Maki shed.

Chameleon’s shed in patches rather than all in one piece, and their skin feels like heavy printer paper when you touch it. It’s neat.

…when I started re-reading Microserfs for the first time in at least 5 years.

The book starts in the year 1993. It’s an absolutely facinating read: Coupland’s characters spent a lot of time wondering about the future (among other things). It’s awesome (literally) to read about this after having lived through it here in the Bay Area.

And amazingly enough, while certain details seem slightly dated, the book holds up amazingly well.

Wikipedia mentions Coupland’s book J-Pod as the Google generations version of Microserfs. What does it say about me that I feel Microserfs was definitely the better of the two books, and I identified with it more?