As I've been whining to various people in e-mail this morning, now that I've prohibited myself from (political) blogging or writing while I'm at work, there's really no reason for me to keep showing up so early every day. I'm going to stop coming in at 7:15. because all that means is that I'm completely bored with work by 8:00 in the morning.

By the time everyone else starts to roll in, around 9:00, I'm already considering what I brought for lunch. Not because I'm hungry. Just for something to do.

One dear friend suggested via e-mail that I work topless to spice things up. I don't think she quite gets the point. It's me who needs entertained. I don't find the idea of me topless very interesting.

We had a bit of excitement around here yesterday, though.

It was around Brother Darryl, who has, as I believe I mentioned, finally given official notice and is planning to leave this vale o'tears for employment...elsewhere. I've never blamed him...he should have bailed years ago. Bernie, his boss, is a lot of things, but a kind, considerate, highly ethical employer he is not.

So, Brother Darryl had finally had enough. His story was that his family had some kind of work he could do until he found another job.

Then...all was revealed, through the mysterious agency of e-mail.

Owing to an error on the part of a client (clients are always doing stupid things, you know), an e-mail was sent yesterday that should not have been sent until today. As a result of that blunder, it was discovered that Brother Darryl, that sweet, sensitive, long-suffering guy, was planning to walk out of here with a pocketful of Bernie's customers and the software code for one of their products.
I mean, that's just wrong, okay? Unethical. Not to mention criminal.

We had quite the flurry of Official Bodies here yesterday. Some guy from the state equivalent of the FBI, some guy from some employment oversight agency, official interviews, hushed voices, closed doors.

All very shocking.

I'm a bit puzzled as to the outcome of the entire thing, though. I mean, after the Official Bodies left, Brother Darryl was still here. I saw him helping the network person who was beefing up our security as a direct result of the discovery that Brother Darryl had downloaded aforementioned code from our server.

I don't quite get that. I can't wait for Buehler to get here today so I can get the rest of the story.

In other news, I wrote about 600 really boring words last night, thought of three really funny scenes I could have written if the SEN wasn't turning out to be such an unfunny story, and stared at my index cards again.

It's not that I couldn't have written more. It's just that if I'm not letting the guys banter around and sneak lustful peeks at each other every ten seconds, the writing isn't as much fun. I could sit there and string words together all evening long, but what would be the point?

I also realized that my laboriously conceived and outlined plot is ridiculous. No criminals in the world could be this inept. So now I have to go away and think about it all again.

Eventually I gave it up and read P. G. Wodehouse for three hours. That's a much better way to spend an evening.

(Note: Brother Darryl wasn't working when I saw him yesterday. He was assisting, willingly or not, in the stripping of all company information off his PC. To be used in evidence against him, if necessary, although I'm told Bernie isn't planning to file charges.)