I have no idea where the phrase came from and couldn't care less, but there you go. A murky provenance is no bar to theft in Anne's World.
I don't normally enjoy the squalls and tempests of fandom. In fact, I normally go far to avoid them. Having said that, there's no rational explanation for why I've enjoyed the foaming-at-the-mouth freak-out that has been the response to JKR's most recent offering.
But I have been. I've been enjoying it (Mostly via a link on Ari's journal, but the link isn't working at the moment.)
On the off chance that there's some fan out there who still hasn't read the book but for some inexplicable reason reads this blog, and who doesn't want to be spoiled, the rest is hidden....
It's Friday! I'm very excited about this, in spite of having 'worked' only three days this week.
Partly because there are a lot of "chores" I wanted to get done this week that I haven't touched. If I just buckle down and work on them, I'll have most of them done in two hours. That's the plan for tonight, anyhow.
Of course, I was going to do other things this week, besides chores.
I was going to re-examine the MYSA-AS books I've bought so far.
I was going to write, not just think about writing. Watch a couple of DS eps and then get back to getting the story on the page.
I was going to sign up for a class. I've been considering doing that for three years, but I never seem to get around to it. Not, you know, serious classes, not college stuff. Just fun stuff.
There's a class on making your own greeting cards that looked interesting. I used to make my own holiday cards. It's an expensive amusement but I tell myself the hours I spent covered in glue and bits of paper were hours I was not stuffing thousands of calories of junk food in my mouth. I don't know if I'm going to do that any more, though. On the one hand, I have two cartons full of "supplies" for making cards, so I've made the initial investment. I may yet get the urge again this fall, who knows? If I do, having taken a class might provide me with some more creative ideas than the ones I come up with on my own.
There are two drawing classes being offered. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I suspect that my temporary fascination with MYSA-AS is really about the drawing. I've been thinking for a couple of months that I might like to take up sketching again. I used to have a lot of fun with it twenty years ago.
As we all know, I'm desperately in need of a new hobby at the moment. I own paper, pencils, and erasers, so it would be acceptable under the Fiscal Austerity program.
I've also thought about taking one of those "conversational French" or "conversational Spanish" classes. I had fifteen hours (twenty?) of French in college. Might be fun to see how much I've retained, and to see if I can actually become even minimally "conversational."
And Spanish is useful. I had one 'semester' of Spanish when I was in...I think, the 7th grade? I can count to ten and say "hot water" but I don't remember much else. Again, a second language, even just a bit of one, can be valuable.
I found a list of potentially cool new restaurants. I was going to mapquest the locations so I'd be ready when the R.C. gets back to town and is hopefully in the mood for Food Adventures.
My problem, of course, is that while I want to be paid for full-time work, I'd rather be home than in the office. I have many interesting projects and hobbies I'd like to be messing with.
At least, when I'm in the office, I play with the idea that if I were at home, I'd be accomplishing great things. As I think my failure to make the most of Monday and Tuesday this week illustrates, I probably wouldn't be doing much. I need to make better use of the time I have. Not, you know, spend all evening, every evening reading and then complain that I didn't get anything done.
Also, I need to keep a grip on my work ethic, even if I don't have any work to do.
For instance, if my boss left for the day at 12:15 on Friday, that doesn't mean it's okay for me to skulk out of here at 3:00. I have to stay at my post until I'm 'officially' allowed to leave at 5:00.
I know...I'll kill an hour eating lunch!
(The good news is that the more often I write, the shorter the entries are getting.)
Posted by AnneZook at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)RPS...stalking.
Stalking...RPS.
I don't see a lot of difference.
Posted by AnneZook at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)So. Hypothetically. If you opened your refrigerator and got out a Tupperware container full of grapes and a couple of grapes appeared to be growing mold, would you:
A) Throw those two away, rinse off the rest, and eat them, or
B) Throw them all away?
Let me know, soon. I'm hungry. [This Food Adventure moment brought to you by the letter P (for ptomaine) and the color Green (for mold).]
Today's office excitement...I have some actual work to do! I'm beta-testing a workflow management interface we designed for the Belles, a new client. Buehler's out of the office right now, so I'm not actually working on it. I'm saving it for when he's around, so I can be Noticeably Working.
Besides, I've been down this path before. I'll tell the Three Stooges what's unclear or inconsistent and they'll ignore me. I'm not in any hurry to complete that cycle again.
One of my favorite in-office games is the Outlook Note. I pick a date six months or a year into the future, and then write myself a note, setting it as a "reminder" in Outlook. I tell myself what I'm doing at the moment, and what I'm thinking about. One popped up today, which is why I'm thinking about it. The last time it popped up, I was still struggling with the late, unlamented SEN. Heh. It's nice to be free of that monster.
Last night, I indulged in...well, not much. I called my mother and chatted with her. I called the Resident Consultant (who isn't resident this week) to ask her how her trip & meetings were going. I read some blogs. I read a book. I played some computer games. I over-ate.
I did not work on cleaning the kitchen, which was the Number One item on my Wednesday Agenda.
Instead, I pondered MYSA-AS. I get how people are all in love with reading it, but my On-Line Researches indicate that the fandom around the genre is...text only. Obviously I understand that drawing isn't something everyone can do and maybe it's no different from writing text-only stories about television shows or movies, but it strikes me as odd.
I have no desire to read any of it. Whatever it is that's interesting the Pondering part of my brain about MYSA-AS, it has nothing to do with being that kind of fannish about it. It's the marriage of picture and text that's holding my attention at the moment.
The Resident Consultant did suggest that if the original series Rapunzel loaned to me is the one sticking in my brain, I'd be better off buying copies of that series and not struggling to find something else "like" those.
Of course, she subsequently reminded me that I'm on a Fiscal Austerity program, and not allowed to buy any new books, so the suggestion wasn't worth that much. (But I could buy one. I could buy the first of that series. I know the B&N I pass on the way home has it because I swung by there the other day. Or, I could buy the first two. $9.99* isn't that expensive, I could afford two and still be being reasonably Austere, right?)
Tonight, as I scrub the kitchen floor, I will be Further Pondering these topics.
Unless I'm Pondering Fraser's current predicament, a thing I may well need to do. He's at a tricky point right now, what with both Dief and his dad giving him problems in their own separate ways.
The story is going to be a tad longer (certainly longer than that last TS piece), but I promise I'm not attempting to Plumb the Depths of Human Experience. In the end, I've decided that I'd rather turn out 50 pages of silly stupidity than sweat over 50 pages of Raw Emotion.
I'm not built for dealing with Raw Emotion. When faced with it, I tend to back out of the room slowly, pretending to be invisible. (I could have an Issue around that, but at my age, it's a bit late to be rocking the boat of contented placidity to work out Issues that aren't really damaging my life.)
I am getting pretty ungry, though. I can't make up my mind about the grapes, so I'd better go snag a turkey sandwich instead. After which I will need to do some Actual Paid Work.
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* Except, of course, it is. When I was a kid, you could buy new paperbacks for less than half that price.
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What I love more than blogging is the knowledge that practically no one is reading this blog. And that the friends who do visit are free to leave without reading all the way through entries like this one.
So, what about that manga/yaoi stuff, anyhow?
Yes, I'm still pondering it. That's what I do. I ponder things until I understand them. (That's how I got started writing slash. And why, when I pondered g*y pr0n, the project wound up costing me...let's just say, enough to get Amazon.com travel cups two years in a row, back in the early days when they sent you a cup for spending $1,000, or was it $2,000 or more in a year. And how I wound up with a political blog that eats up about 20 hours a week of my time. Etc.) (I don't intend to do that with MYSA-AS. Spend a ton of money, I mean.)
For reference, I read the previously mentioned "found on-line" manga stories and wasn't amazingly impressed with them. I found one that wasn't bad and if I remember, I'll post a link to it later. Not that I think most of you care.
I pondered it all for a few days, then went back and re-read the two "Moon" volumes again. I wouldn't have bought them if I'd known gender-changing was at the heart of the romance. Whether it's my lack of imagination or what, I didn't find the gender-changing character at all strongly drawn. His/her personality never rose above "bland" at any point.
So, I invested another $30 in the project, but just to buy a couple of books that were more single-mindedly "yaoi/shounen ai" (y/sa) and one book that wasn't yaoi/shounen ai, for comparison. I didn't mind the gender-switching, per se, but I would have preferred that my "samples" of the genre be more purely m/m.
Only the Ring Finger Knows was, I think, the title of the two y/sa books. Hmmm.
It could be that I didn't pay enough attention to what I was buying, but I wasn't happy to run across a non-con scene. My on-line research assures me that this is a fairly common set-up, almost a required structure, in the genre and not even really thought of as non-con. One partner seems always to be very aggressive and the other seems to be expected to be amazingly passive...to the point of having to be overpowered to have the sex he's not willing to admit he wants.
I personally think that's a tough line to walk, to keep it erotic without becoming rape, and I don't think this particular pair of books managed it. From my on-line reading I also know that many other readers find this line gets crossed too often. I suppose, knowing that in the original culture/context, it's not considered rape, should make a difference, but I'm not sure it does for me.
It could have been the characterization. The primary narrative character was okay in emotion and in responding to things, but he didn't have a...well, he didn't have a clear personality. I never quite got a handle on who he was. Besides that, we wound up meeting three or four of his siblings, but not for any particular reason that I understood. One character would have been more than sufficient, dramatically. The story was a bit cluttered with excess characters, which weakened the drama.
(Also, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the age thing. A lot of the stuff I've seen is about kids maybe, barely 18. Beyond everything else, I'm not really that interested in adolescents.)
I wonder if there's any western-tradition y/sa available, where the sex roles aren't so limited and where non-con isn't practically de rigueur? Certainly the Fake series wasn't like that. (There was a fair amount of pouncing on one guy and smooching him whether he agreed or not, but that's not quite the same thing as...well, you know what I mean.)
The non-yaoi/shounen ai title was....drat. I've forgotten. Something about Dungeon Dimensions, I think. It was the first in a series, anyhow. Seems to be a series of shorter stories around one character and his fictional universe and it was completely charming. I was delighted with the "hero" character and the premise of the series was one that would lend itself to any number of good stories. There are something like 15 or so books in the series and I'd buy and read them if I were, you know, going to get into this stuff. Which I'm not.
Anyhow. That's what I did Tuesday. I sat down and read the three new books.
Then I stared at the walls and frowned for a while.
Then I looked at the books again, this time ignoring the words and focusing on just the pictures.
Then I got out my pad of sketch paper and my pencils and erasers, and spent three or four hours drawing. I drew heads. Faces. Eyes. (Those were the most fun.) Bodies. Arms. Hands. Legs. Feet. Clothing. I started on perspective, horizon lines, and vanishing points, then decided to let those go. All I was doing was getting a feel for it, after all. I didn't sit down to learn to draw manga.
Then I looked at the pictures in the books some more. I studied the difference between the "sketch" drawings in the stories and the fully-inked title pages, and tried to imagine what pen-and-ink drawing is like.
(Pondering is fun to do, but it doesn't make a riveting narrative.)
You know what? I'm in awe of the people who draw these things. People who can both draw and tell a story. Astonishing.
There still aren't enough words but I figured out how there don't need to be, if you're visual and you're looking at the pictures. They're suggestive without being overwhelming...you're led to the emotions the author wants you to feel, but you're not beaten over the head with them. When I worked at looking at the pictures as I read, I could definitely understand the appeal. A few words with an appropriate or suggestive picture can create a very strong emotional impact.
In a way, it's shortcutting "writing a story." They're using pictures to convey some of the things that are hardest to write, but it's a completely valid alternative approach. At its best, it works.
The key (well, in all writing, right?) is in characterization. When I can tell the characters apart, when they have distinct personalities, then the emotion is there. When half the characters in the book look and act alike, so I can't really tell them apart, then it's not so interesting.
I still don't know that I'd ever go for this in a big way. I mean, I spent less than an hour yesterday reading those three books. Trying to keep myself in books would bankrupt me. I'd have to spend $50 just to get enough stuff to read for one evening, you know?
Someone who has to constantly interrupt themselves in the reading of the story to force themselves to look at the page may never be comfortable in a such a visual world, although it could just be a matter of practice.
In the end, I definitely see where the manga fans are coming from. I have to admit that honestly. (After, what? Three years, of mocking manga fans? Four years?)
There's a definite charm in the genre and I can see how you could be come massively fannish about it. For the characters I was able to get to know, I found their lives every bit as fascinating as I would in any "regular" story. And when I was concentrating, I could definitely see how the pictures enhanced the whole experience. Reading about someone kissing can be hot. Watching two well-drawn characters smooching can also be hot. Reading that someone is mad...looking at a picture of someone who's mad. Sometimes the pictures carry a lot more emotional impact than you'd get with words. There's a loss of nuance in some ways, yes, but I'm assuming most sophisticated readers are capable of filling in those blanks for themselves.
I know there are m/y/sa fans in the CoSlash group. I wonder if I can browbeat some of them into loaning me some stuff? I'd certainly be interested in taking a look at what's considered to be the "best" of what's available without having to spend $500 to buy it or, worse yet, figure out where to store it.
And, yes, I still have too much time on my hands at the office. If I had any real work to do, you wouldn't get stuck reading 1,500 word rambles about a fandom I'm not even part of, would you?
So, in spite of the silence, I'm still thinking about you.
I'm feeling a bit guilty.
First, I don't spend nearly the amount of time I should spend making comments on other people's sites. I zoom from site to site, reading, nodding, and not infrequently muttering to myself, but I don't take the time to type in a comment. That's bad of me, I know. I'm going to try to be better about that in the future.
Second, I don't blog enough. For instance, Monday and Tuesday off this week, but I never once thought of blogging.
I also never thought of working on my Due South story. That's also bad of me. It (the story) is actually going reasonably well. Tonight I intend to watch a couple of DS episodes to refresh my memory of some things and with a bit of luck, that will motivate me to put some more words on the page.
Monday turned out to be a bit busy. My boss called and I had to do a little research for a project for work. (Yes, technically I was on vacation. This is what "small company" means. You're never really "off" work.) And Meghan called to say she'd be in town and was I free for lunch, so I took some time to visit with her.
My big project for this week is housework. I used to clean house regularly, every Sunday. Now it seems that I leave it until it's just ridiculous before I get around to it. Dusty, untidy, piles of papers and books here and there, you know the kind of thing.
Anyhow, Monday I took the bathroom apart and gave it a good, old-fashioned elbow-grease scrubbing. Yesterday I worked on the kitchen (everything but the floor). If I feel really motivated on the way home this evening, I'm going to buy new drawer paper and reline all of the kitchen drawers, too. Then everything will be all fresh and spanky-clean. Won't that be special?
I got a card this morning. From Sassy, Buehler, and the Mad Doctor, thanking me for the epic battle I fought with the Finko people to get the paperwork for the conference done and organized. That was awfully sweet of Sassy (I'm sure she thought of it.) The work was worth it, though. The group wants to do another conference next year. It may not keep me employed, but it might keep Sassy employed, so that makes me feel good.
Listening to the radio on the way to work this morning, I learned two interesting facts.
#1 - The Christmas Stores are a chain, owned by Bed, Bath, and Beyond. And they're currently facing legal action from a number of small craft stores and crafters for ripping off other people's designs. Seems they're accused of going into a store, buying a sample of some ornament, then sending it off to the factory in China or wherever to be copied and mass-produced. So, you know, TCS goes on the "evil" list and let's all not shop there any more. Anyhow, I liked the idea of the store better before I knew it was a humongous chain, you know?
#2 - The singing voice of Miss Piggy was provided by...Johnny Mathis!
The world is full of new and special facts, isn't it?
I can't remember when I've been more charmed* by a competition.
I picked out the authors I know or like best, and read and chuckled and marveled.
After reading this, for instance, I have an urge to go back and re-read all of my Pratchett.
Clicking on the link will be an INSTANT SPOILER for anyone who has not read the latest HP book.
There, in big letters, right on your screen, will be a BIG SPOILER.
Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?
This is a SPOILER ALERT!!!
Sorry...giddy with boredom today.
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* Corrected from "chamed" because of meanness in the comments section.
Posted by AnneZook at 02:07 PM | Comments (3)But rarely arrive at any conclusions. It's coming up on two months now, since the time when my #1 project was put on "hold." I had enough stuff already scheduled to cover the first month, so it's been about a month since I started being bored out of my gourd at the office.
Here I am, brain the size of a (pea-sized) planet, and the most exciting thing on today's agenda is, "go to the basement and get the mail." I had three items on my schedule, but I did two of them. (Do expense reports, send reminder for tomorrow's training session.)
Now I'm eating lunch and listening to Buehler and Bossyboots discuss the Denver housing market.
That was 1-1/2 hour ago.
The thermometer on the building across the ways says, "107." And it's cloudy. I hate to think what the temperature would be if we had our usual bright sunshine.
I really do want to buy some more manga/yaoi. I don't know if it's because I like it, or I'm just bored and in need of something new to obsess over.
I'm pretty bored., no doubt about it.
Internet Explorer drives me bonkers. The default folder name under "favorites" is "links." As it happens, I don't use "links" as the name of any of my folders, so I deleted it. Actually, I've deleted it hundreds of times. I.E. keeps recreating it. They're determined that I'm going to use a folder named, "links." I'm determined that I won't.
Possibly this is some Sekrit Plot to gather up information about I.E. users by exploring what they put in their "links" folders. (Possible I'm getting a little cynical and paranoid, in my boredom.) I'm considering letter the folder stay the next time it creates itself. And putting just one link inside. www.myob.com You think they'd get it? (Sadly, it exists as a real website, bringing my Nefarious Plot to naught. Now I need a new acronym.)
I have many interesting bookmarks.
Immaculate Baking Company (I've ordered their cookies, to be sent to the office of a friend. They were a big hit.)
Letters 0.9 (Typing game. Accuracy counts.)
National Public Lands Day (Volunteer.)
ReadBookOnline (I'm reading Twain's Roughing It right now.)
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Some day it's going to blow again...and I'll be watching.)
Arcata Eye Police Log (The best police blotter in the business.)
ThinkGeek (Surely I know someone geeky enough that I can send them a present from this site?)
Free Classic Literature (For when I get tired of the ReadBook site.)
The Cubes (McSwain! Is getting these for Christmas.)
Arts & Letters Daily (It doesn't change daily, but it's interesting.)
Tricks of the Trade (Lots of trades, lots of tricks.)
If you live in a cold area you may sometimes walk out to your car to find the windshield completely frozen over. Rather than scraping away at it you could just start you car, urn the window defroster on, and -- here's the trick -- put down the sun visors. The warm air will be forced back onto the inside of the windshield and it will defrost much faster.
Today, the idea of cold, cold, cold weather seems like a myth.
It is almost imposible to get spilled coffee off an item once it has dried, but it can be done. The trick is to pour more coffee onto the item -- the freshly brewed java will dissolve the dried coffee, allowing you to rinse them both off with water.
I needed to know this one.
When making blueberry muffins (or any muffin with fruit, chocolate chips, etc), place the blueberries in a bowl with a dash of flour, then shake the bowl to coat them evenly with the flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins when you bake them.
I'm not a big blueberry muffin fan, but still.
Oooo! Excitement! Buehler wants me to type up a couple of V-cards for him!
So, what about that manga/yaoi stuff, anyhow?
For reference, the books I bought were a duology, Until the Full Moon, or something like that. Interesting concept, shallow handling.
I talked to Rapunzel last night. She said she has the first of these two and that she didn't really like it that well, so maybe I just didn't choose the right book(s) to experiment on, I don't know.
The books I read while on the Familial Visit, Rapunzel's books, were the Fake series. I don't why "Fake," but I enjoyed them. I'd like to see more like those, if I knew how to find them. I'm not sure it's a fair experiment to read something that's maybe not as good (like the ones I mentioned above) and to dismiss the rest of the genre on those grounds?
In my ongoing question for Information and Education, I did a bit of surfing last night.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that you can actually d/l some scanned/translated stories, free of charge, on the net! I'm assuming these will be the same picture format, although I confined myself to bookmarking last night and didn't actually look at any of the stories.
Imagine my amusement when I discovered the manga/yaoi "fandom" and read that it's tolerated, even tacitly encouraged overseas.
Imagine my interest when I found a site of definitions. (Imagine my surprise when I learned that "yaoi" stands for, ""yama nasi, ochi nashi, imi nashi," which roughly translates to "no climax, no plot, no point.") (Imagine my further surprise when I discovered that a story that's a, "lemon" isn't a bad one, it's a story with sex. And that "lime" and "citrus" have their own places on the sexual scale o'manga/yaoi.)
(Imagine my embarrassment as I realize I should have memorized those definitions before I started writing this post.)
I love the internet. If I wanted to put the effort into it, I could be an "expert" on this stuff in a week.
OTOH, I haven't really decided if I want to or not. The problem is that I'm not visual.
Most people are visual. That is, their preferred mode of taking in information is through their eyes. "You have to see it, to believe it" style of thing. (Something like...70% 80% of the population? Is primarily visual)
This explains the amazing popularity of television. And of movie adaptations of books. And, I've decided, of manga.
But I'm not visual, I'm auditory. For instance, I rarely watch television. I listen to television. When I read, which I do voraciously, I "hear" the text, I don't "see" it on the page.
There aren't enough words in manga/yaoi. For instance, those Moon books I bought? I'm going to have to go through them again, spending some time consciously staring at the pictures to see if they're as shallowly written as I thought they were at first.
Sigh. I'm about to start calling my employed friends and asking them if they'd like to hire me. I'm really bored of not working.
(P.S. I'm going to have t0 stop dissing Bossyboots. He just brought me spoils from the training conference.
A tee-shirt, two little blue rubber men, and a jump drive which I understand from McSwain! Is a gem of a thing to have, indeed.
Right now, my two blue boys are having sex, but that's just how I accidentally laid them down on the desk. I hate to interrupt, though. It seems impolite not to wait until they've finished.
How do you know when a rubber man is finished? I guess I'll just wait for him to stop bouncing and to start looking for his pants.)
I spent most of Monday and Tuesday politiblogging.
Beuhler is on vacation and it took some doing to make the bits of work I did have waiting stretch out enough to give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning for both days. (In fact, I succeeded in stre-e-etching the work so well that I managed to forget to do some of it.)
That all changed on Wednesday.
There's this project. A meeting we're planning for some Do-Gooders. I don't...didn't...know much about it. It's Sassy's problem, Buehler told me. Sassy and the California Gal are handing all of it, so don't worry your pointy little head over the details. Fine, I thought. If Sassy in NYC and the CalGal in California are putting together a meeting in Denver and don't need any help from someone located in Denver, I can live with that.
Besides, when it all came up, I was still busy with the Hell's Own Software project. Since then, as I've said before, HOS has ground to a (we hope, but don't believe) temporary halt. I have time on my hands. Time I've been spending stre-e-etching out the DarkGlass study work.
So, when Sassy asked if I could clear the decks for Thursday and Friday this week, to help with any little bits and pieces of stuff that might come up at the last minute, I was all for the idea. Can't spend every day playing Insanguinarium, after all.
Somewhere around, I estimate, Tuesday of this week, it all started falling apart. Deliveries weren't being delivered. Copy jobs weren't being copied. Educational notebooks weren't being assembled. (I got a look at the agenda and realized that the schedule was laid out by a lunatic...but that's a different rant.)
It's close to 100 degrees here in the afternoons right now, so I wasn't best pleased to be asked to visit the Downtown Branch of a Major Copy/Shipping Chain (who shall remain anonymous and hereinafter be referred to as Finko because I don't love them) yesterday.
Still, I like Sassy and I'd agreed to help so even though it was a full 24 hours before the legal start of my Amazingly Teamwork Oriented Volunteerism, I popped into my little car, shook my head over the 1/8 tank of gas, and headed Downtown. (I was expecting a Very Important Office Supply Delivery but I asked the Tweenybopper to keep her eyes out for it.)
I hate driving Downtown. Streets, as we all know, are laid out in a grid pattern. Except in Downtown Denver, where some raving psychotic decided that what we need were streets laid out in XXX patterns with all the streets going one-way the other direction, and occasional abrupt and inexplicable intersections between five streets, none of which actually lead in the direction you're going. And the one street that does seem to lead to your destination is always blocked off and under construction.
I won't give you chapter and verse on my attempt to journey the measly two miles between my office and the Downtown Finko office. Suffice to say that it was enlivened by stalled cars, jaywalking geriatrics, offloading trucks, police vehicles, and flat tires (not mine).
In spite of getting lost (don't ask) and driving for 12 blocks in exactly the wrong direction, I eventually overcame the negative cosmic energy and found not only the Finko office but a parking place a mere 1/2 block away.
35 cents later I was on my way inside to pick up the Vitally Important Print Job that Sassy had called about that morning and had been assured would be waiting for me. (Okay, the VIPJob was scheduled to be ready at 10 a.m., but I spent the first five hours of my day working on some other bits and pieces of the Meeting That Is Someone Else's Problem, and then what with getting lost and all, it was 2:38 when I strolled into the Finko office.)
The job wasn't done.
Not only was the job not done, a full 4-1/2 hours after it should have been, but they disclaimed all knowledge of it. No one there had ever heard of my, my company, or our print jobs.
The I.C. is good for a few things. I'm not normally very aggressive, but by that point I was In No Mood To Be Trifled With. I fixed the little blonde with my third-best mean-and-beady gaze and said, "Really?"
She went away and dug two of the three orders out of the bowels of their computer system and they were ready for me in five minutes.
The third job they persisted in refusing to disgorge. Some la-di-dah, I'll just bet story about not having received the files. I dropped off the 13 new print jobs I'd taken down with me (yes, I was suspicious of their bona fides by then, but I was running about of time), promised to e-mail the files for the Mysteriously Missing Print Job and scheduled to pick it all up this morning.
I made my way back to the office. The Very Important Office Supply Delivery hadn't arrived, so I called Sassy who called the company who swore it would be here by 5:00.
To make a long story short, I e-mailed the missing job to the Finko crew, called them this morning, confirmed they'd received it and that it would be ready with the rest of my jobs at 11:00 this morning.
The Very Important Delivery did not arrive yesterday, so I called Sassy again and she called the Very Stupid Delivery People who seemed quite hurt that when they'd brought our delivery by at 7:30 last night, no one was in the office to receive it.
This morning, I drove back Downtown (avoiding most of yesterday's Adventures In Urban Driving), coughed up three bucks for the parking place it took me 15 minutes to find, and hoofed it down to the Finko office for my print jobs.
The Original 13 were done. The ones I'd e-mailed, and called to confirm three hours before were...missing in action. Not done. No one had ever heard of me or my e-mail.
I ratcheted up to my second-best mean-and-beady gaze and said, with awful gentleness, "I did call this morning."
(Where was I? Bossyboots stopped in for a chat and distracted me from my rant.)
Oh. Yes.
Forget it. I'm bored of that saga. The Finko Staff did the copies, offered me no discount for having screwed up everything they'd touched (or forgotten to touch) over the last 24 hours, I made it safely back to the office with 20 minutes to spare before my training call, and the Very Important Office Supply Delivery did arrive a few minutes ago, so I have to go work.
Except...that means opening the Completed Job Boxes that I brought back from Finko's and although I did a cursory check of the copies while I was there and everything looked okay...I'm afraid.
Finko was formed by the merger of two companies. One specialized in making copies of things. The other specialized in delivering on-time, every time.
Since then, as near as I can tell, they've never managed to make any copies for me either right, or on time.
Drat. It just occurred to me that I haven't remember to empty the company mailbox in three days. It will be overflowing. That means a scary trip to the bowels of the building (who puts a conference level in below a parking garage? I suspect this building was once a fall-out shelter.) which means using the elevator. I have Dark Suspicions about those elevators.
Not that I actually mind having to jump up and down to make them move. I feel just like the girls in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Posted by AnneZook at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)Saturday I shopped. For the office, so I didn't spend my own money.
I looked at and resisted a manga trilogy. (I bought a book the other day, did I mention that? I'm going to read it and see if I really like it or if it was just because I was on vacation. I frequently read things on vacation I w0uldn't read at any other time.)
Sunday I did very little. A bit of writing. The DS story is moving very slowly. It's moving, but slowly. I need to watch some episodes, maybe.
I watched Mysterious Island which was disappointing because it didn't have any giant lizards but very satisfying because it had a giant octopus. When I watch cheesy SF, I expect giant lizards. Still. Any movie that gives you giant crabs, red-headed chickens, bees, an octopus, and a ship-full of pirates can't be all-bad. And a volcano! Lava!
I politiblogged. I read. I rested. It's odd. Most Sundays I do very little, but the days seem to fly by.
I ate a great deal. I've been eating a lot recently for someone who's technically on a diet.
I started the diet again today. At the moment I'm stuffed, but with "legal" food. An apple. Some watermelon. 1/2 cup of rice. 2 oz sausage (okay, not exactly "legal"). 1 carton yogurt. 3 oz chocolate (okay, not even remotely legal).
Mostly legal.
Very stuffed. With a bit of luck, I won't have much appetite for supper.
Today I'm at work. (Which isn't the same as to say I'm working, you understand.) At the moment, I'm trying to ignore the man wandering around with his head stuck through one of those plastic doggie collars they use to keep dogs from biting at themselves.
Buehler met some photographer who needed an office to shoot some photos in. Apparently he wanted something "lived-in." So our piggy little place is going to star in some ad or something. Shrug. Anyhow. I don't want to stare at this man. For someone who volunteered to have his head stuck through a plastic cone, he seems surprisingly self-conscious.
Bossyboots showed up around 1 or 2 today. The photographer's assistant happened to be helping the model with his make-up when he (Bossyboots) arrived. He (Bossyboots) was predictably weirded out by it all. (Well, of course, when he asked me why that woman was putting make-up on that man, I told him some lip gloss would do him a world of good. So maybe I started it.)
When I'm the most relaxed, I'm the least interesting, blogwise. As you can tell, I'm very relaxed today.
I was, wasn't I? Before I left on the Familial Visit, anyhow.
Most things went as I expected they would. There were a few hiccups. My L-i-K-S's A/C went out a couple of times, but the little maintenance man showed up promptly both times and worked until he fixed it, so it really wasn't any big deal.
I also didn't anticipate the Great Flood of '05. My inbound flight was diverted to Lincoln, Nebraska because of heavy storms over K.C. Even after we were allowed to land in K.C., the storms continued, until we found ourselves sharing the highway back to my L-i-K-S's apartment with a raging torrent of floodwater. Little things like an 18-wheeler driving twice as fast as the conditions warranted and subsequently causing a tsunami didn't help.
The Maternal Parent was...herself. Sometimes easy to please, but mostly grumbling and nitpicking about little things almost constantly. I find that sort of thing easy to tune out but my L-i-K-S has more of a conscience than I do and found it quite upsetting. (The secret to my happy life is that 80% of everything that happens around me passes me by without making the slightest impact on my consciousness. I find reality interesting to visit but feel no actual desire to take up residence there.)
My nieces were as beautiful and as charming as they were the last time I saw them, so naturally I loved every moment spent with them.
Rapunzel is too close to being grown-up. Sigh. She has a job, so she wasn't around all of the time over the weekend. She's also rather self-sufficient in that she's at the age where she's as happy or happier alone in her room as she is sitting with the family and "making nice." I sympathize..."me time" is something I can't live without, but with two of us that way...well, it's harder to start a conversation when it's between two people who are living most of their lives inside their brains.
Sadly for my budget, Rapunzel's love of manga may turn out to be a Bonding Event between the two of us. I read a few of her books, purely to see what it is she's interested in, and was appalled to find myself enthralled. We didn't have much time to discuss it when I was there (she had to work, and had other claims on her time over the holiday weekend) but I foresee some interesting discussions in the future.
(After having spent, what? The last five years? Mocking those of my friends interested in manga? And I'm now having to gather up my courage, brace myself to be abused, and publicly admit that I was charmed by what I read.)
(I'm not admitting it now you understand. I'm still gathering courage. I'll let you know when the admission is imminent.)
Pippi was her own delightful self. We discussed fireworks, food, clothes, hair, make-up, and I don't know what-all. She advised me on mascara, I talked to her about the dangers of fireworks, she admired my hair, I regretted that the massive humidity index in KS meant that said hair was actually a frizzy nightmare. We worked on jigsaw puzzles, bothered each other when we were reading, watched movies (and the food channel) and generally (I hope) enjoyed each other's company. She laughs easily.
It's lovely to be able to get back twice in such a short interval to see both of them. I haven't had nearly enough opportunities to spend time with them over the years.
The L-i-K-S is a good hostess. She gave up her room to me and the M-P, and put up with the M-P's grousing with great patience. (Must be a skill people develop when they have children.) And, of course, I enjoyed visiting with her. You shouldn't think I didn't juts because I'm not talking about it. But I know her :) so I didn't "discover" new things about her.
I can't say that I look forward to returning any time soon, in spite of enjoying my visit, but mostly after so much traveling in the past three months, I'm just tired. Besides. It's almost 100 here in Denver today, so the only thing that really sounds like fun is finding a bathtub full of ice-water and trying for a case of hypothermia.
This weekend, with a bit of luck, I'll have time for writing (DS), a bit of reading, a bit of mending (socks), a bit of television watching (I taped the first episodes of Fast Lane and need to get them watched so I can decide whether or not to keep taping), movie watching (I still have Mysterious Island and The Philadelphia Experiment to watch before I'm done with my "cheesy movie festival") and generally vegging out.
Except that, in spite of projected 97 degree temperatures, it's looking like I'll have to spend a couple of hours downtown on Saturday on Company Business. I swear...those are the only hours all weekend I intend to spend not under air conditioning!
It's nice to be home.