I feel whiny. I've been sick, you know. (Well, I was sick three weeks ago, anyhow. But I still have a little cough.)

Oh. I forgot. I already begged for sympathy on that one, didn't I? Sorry. Didn't mean to be repetitive.

Well, I had The Talk with Alvin. While he'd certainly like to have me back working for him again some day, he's not going to be able to afford to take me back January 1, which was what the original plan was. So, he and the Other Brother Darryl moved out of the office suite yesterday and into a basement office in Alvin's house. I'm about to be Out Of Sight Out Of Mind.

He told me that Friday, so yesterday I asked Buehler what his future plans were.

While admitting that if the (all-important) contract gets signed, he's going to be looking at hiring more people, he stopped short of offering me long-term employment.

It may be that he doesn't want to make a commitment until the contract gets signed. It may be that he doesn't want to interfere with whatever Sekrit Plan he and Alvin originally concocted between them when I was traded to the new team.

It may be that he's decided I'm a little pricey for the amount of time I spend actually working and not, you know, sending personal e-mail or blogging. (Admittedly, when I think about it objectively, I'm not sure I'd keep on an employee who'd written 700 or so blog entries* on company time over the last nine months.)

(* Presumably he doesn't actually know I'm blogging for an hour or two every morning, but who can ever be positive about these things? I mean, I'm sitting here typing madly at the moment and he's at his desk ten feet away. What does he actually think I'm doing at the moment, I wonder?)

I used to have a work ethic. I'm sure it's still around here somewhere. I should dig it out and dust it off some day soon.

Cough, cough.

I'm getting old. It will be my birthday in a couple of months, and I'll be Much Older. I'm not sure exactly how old (I'm not good with numbers), but I know I'm getting perilously close to the Big 5-0. (If you love me, please don't figure it out and tell me exactly how old I am. I'm really okay with not knowing.)

I looked out my office window and realize that for some inexplicable reason, there are three oversized (6') representations of Hershey Kisses on a trailer in the parking lot of the building next to ours. They're labeled, "Dark" and "Caramel" and "Kisses" and painted to match the foil colors for each candy. I don't know what it was all about, but it was fun to see.Hmmm, what else? I've been watching my S2 Starskey & Hutch DVDs over the last couple of days. They really are just Amazingly Doin' It in a closeted, 70s kind of way, aren't they? It would be hard to write, though. I'm not big on angst and I can't imagine enjoying having to write a story where I'd feel almost obligated to have the guys paranoid and guilty.

I prefer my men post-liberation on the homosexual front. Maybe not wearing tee-shirts or marching in parades, but not afraid of destroying their careers and their lives, you know?

I'm not interested in gritty reality.

The easiest couple I wrote was, of course, Mulder and Skinner. That rather unfortunately resulted in somewhat pointless stories, of course. No need to go through a lot of gyrations to get them together. Just get them alone and it happens. I wouldn't go back to them, though. I think I wrote enough meringue for the two of them to last anyone a lifetime.

The most challenging was Mac and Vic, but that was mostly because the show itself was so poorly written. Characterization was a nightmare. I would up having to make a chart to lock in the characterization before I started writing. On the other hand, as I've said many times, that universe was by far the most promising in terms of potential stories.

I'm aware, in an objective sort of way, that I wrote a couple of Sen stories and a couple of DS stories, but I remember nothing about them. (No...wait...I gave Ray a uniform fetish, didn't I?)

All I remember about writing HL is Methos.

There's no particular reason I'm talking about that today. I just sort of am.