the worst thing about my weekly calls o'shame (to all the placement agencies who aren't getting me work) is not that they never have work for me - that's par by this time - it's they keep telling me what an asset i am to their firm, "We've done 'quality control' calls with our customers in the past and your reports are always golden; so, whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" thanks, hos, thanks a bunch

in other news, i just bought a used copy of DDR Revolution2 and a second-hand dance-pad. oh, ye non-believers, i shall strike down any remaining respect ye held for my groovitude - i do so lurve to shazzle my salt-shaker, much to the chagrin of all [¡disco jive!]

found out this morning that the Charcoal Canister Assembly on my Camry doesn't go. apparently, they kicked the tires, punched the horn, AND yelled at the engine to no avail - so, it must really be effed. it's getting stitched up which leaves Dea and i mucking about the Naperville library. it's strange: for as much as i read, i've never had a particular fondness for libraries. most of my friends get all squodgy eyed when talking 'bout libraries, "Some of my fondest memories happened between the stacks". libidinous anecdotes aside, i never really felt the same rapture. methinks part of it is that most books don't hold my attention for extended periods so i have to entertain myself with the surroundings, and most libraries aren't that entertaining. i'll read for hours, but it's 30 pages; watch the clerk flirt with a customer; check out the weather; scribble some notes; another 40 pages; take a fling 'round the joint. is prolly why i like lounging at Shesha Bars, gives me something to do beyond read/write/rollick

have sent my res back into Kelly with the paltry addition of the McGraw-Hill OCRM position. it's frightening how few new things i actually did at that gig. i had to taffy the poor bastard to add anything beyond the eight months tenure. Kelly called me back this morning saying they might have another customer service position at the same location for a touch less. i'm hesitant to replant myself in a position i'd hate for even less money than i made there before (which was substantially less than i was making at BP). bah - i really can't let the snob in me get in the way of a paycheck, but even so. it's ridiculous

spent most of lasterday working with Accountamatrix for her Repo rep. it was actually a lot of fun, and i'm glad they tapped me for the assistance. it was nice to be writing something of import again - it's just a little scut, side thing, but it gave me a big ole smile. and, i got to be all pretentious about writing styles (methinks i'm gonna turn into Toby when i grow up - a boy can dream, ¿neh?). plus, i got to help push along what appears to be some good legislation, so that's always a bouns

"While we treasure you as an employee and you've worked very hard during your time here, our client base isn't increasing as much as our original estimates and since budgets are always shrinking, I'm sorry to inform you..." bla bla bla

apparently, Dea took me seriously t'other day when i got all gooey over the kitty what mews at me to and from work every morning outta the neighbor's window. she bipped about Craig's attic and found us a three year old whisker-face by the name of Meemo; don't know the etymology. in typical fashion, when she first saw his picture in the advert, she cooed, "Oh em gees! He's sooo cute! Awwww!" whereas i responded, "they misspelled 'neutered' and, apparently, have a preternatural affection for Caps Lock" (she gave me a look what coulda dulled daggers and i found something pressing to do in another room ;). he still has his claws, but not his testes. he's, apparently, really relaxed even to the point of shyness

we talked it out and figured, ¿what the monkee? let's do it. she's going out today to grab him up and get him settled 'round the pad. all the best decisions are made spur of the moment, 'swhat i say


we've got a cute li'le bugger, to be sure. i've been using the 'we' pronoun often, of late. it's a comfortable word

am going to play pincushion tonight; Spigot, thy name is Nyar. it's somewhat depressing that the most incoming calls i have in any given week is usually one of the three blood-banks where i'm registered. i really should start selling my plasma - i think i can overcome the overt moral repulsion, given the Dow dropped 5% today (we're inching up on a 50% fall from the high)

tried to sit down and write something (anything) t'other day and drew a blank. i know, it's a matter of muscle (mental) memory, routine, and what not, but that empty, staring page is anathema. i should look around for some writing groups, see iffen i can bash my head against others and grab some ideas from the pretty colours and spewing viscera

i'm aching for the coming Spring - don't think i've ever allowed myself to grind so far down in past Winters. for no good reason, either; in fact, despite hella good reasons not to be disconsolate. can't localize the reason, this Winter has just been interminable. Spring will thaw the world, bring me back to my senses

sacrifice has always been a provocative topic to me as the range of reasons people self-annihilate or castigate seems boundless and, often, counter-productive. i'm often reminded of the trope, "A Martyr will die for her cause, but she'd rather live for it." i wonder if by bending a touch, these martyrs might have realized more progress for their cause

at any rate, with Lent beginning tomorrow, i was thinking of what i'm gonna sacrifice this year. i'm not a Religious-Christian but, Lent has always seemed an important time to me. it's important to self-impose times of reduction, loss, and excision that the loss of such objects/activities redefine and highlight oneself and one's world. i see such a time more as a way to analyze and reimage life, than as homage to Jesus. Susan often uses Lent as a time to take on activities: she adopts a new, strenuous, enlightening task (technical reading, municipal or sacred volunteering, etc). while i laud these acts, i don't know if it's as meaningful in certain ways: one should always be improving self and the community and this emphasis is universal; self-restraint is much harder to adopt and not nearly as wide-spread

regardless, ¿is anyone else thinking of Lenting away something?

hey, all you Math studs. i was playing one of my favorite ADD games, namely, manipulating the digits on the time read-out as i watch a movie: i'll half the minutes and blink when the seconds pass that point; or when they're quarter; double; squared; break it down to individual digits and add them up Numerology style; and so on. at any rate, i noticed for the zillionth time that some numbers when halved immediately break odd, while others break odd after a few halvings. ala

100->50->25:
90->45
80->40->20->10->5
70->35
60->30->15
50->25
40->20->10->5
30->15
20->10->5
10->5

being these are numbers, there has to be a pattern herein, ¿what is it? i suspect this is a well-known phenomenon and there are Laws and theorems describing it, ¿can anyone point me in the right direction or give me some insight into the whys and hows? it's just one of those things i muse about and it'd be fun to read 'bout it

off to Seattle for an Alliance event tomorrow at bright-spanking-early in the morning. going with some of the droogs from Alley-Chi (Dea, Rask, Payton, among others). it should be a helluva lark, if lasteryear's any consideration. i get to drive a full-sized panel van, which will be interesting (they're like Camrys, ¿right?) and stomp about the woods for three days. ah well, worst comes, i'd rather be in Seattle where it's wet but 50F than Chitown where it's dry but 30F below [shiver]. see you kids on the flip-side

Intelligent Design or Intelligible Design - article sent me by pater familias

( no, of course i didn't write this during a phone meeting, that would be downright malfeasant )

0de


We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities.
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion art empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth.
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.


-Arthur O’Shaughnessy [1844-1881]

first, a comic which may (or may not) sum up my life



second, ( The Monthly Year Meme )

i just spent the afternoon, and now into the evening, doing nothing. i sent a few texts to the lovely Dea, played with my new laser-pointer, watched the second season of the West Wing (yes, Accountamatrix, i keep meaning to return it), and tried to decide if chicken noodle soup, tomato sauce, pasta, and chicken curry would be tasty smooshed together in a pot. i don't know if it was glorious, but it was certainly different. i can't usually be exanimate, can't just be, just veg. in a larger sense, it's wasted time; in a closer sense, i wonder if it's not a desirable skill

have been analyzing my speech pattern since my stint on the phones last week and realized i don't use the phrase, "You're welcome." say, "No problem", "sure thing", "not an issue", or just smile and move on. i tried a few times to pointedly say, "You're welcome" but, beyond the understandable disorientation from altering phraseology, it was highly uncomfortable ( felt oddly flippant). it wasn't that i was impolite or impolitic to these customers, 'twas just that single phrase which glomped 'cross my tongue. wonder why that is, or whether it means anything. maybe it's the implicit reception of praise and gratitude involved in the phrase what's strumping - never have been very good at such. hmm

in other news, i've been on a resume rampage. have looked at three people's CVs in the last two weeks. apparently, my group feels it needs to git a move on and find new employment. wonder if i should follow suit. or, more precisely, wonder WHEN i should follow suit

in other, other news, i forgot how much fun staying up late at diners, drinking coffee and swathing in stories can be ('specially with someone as swankers as Dea). ¿when did i fall out of this practice? this is the real reason i should try and get an income from free-lance writing, so my hours can be more amenable to my philosophical dispositions (¿who needs money anyway? it's just a fad). double-plus points for saving fair damsel (not that she really needs saving but i like to delude myself, time a'time) from flapdoodle flatmates caught up in their own drama. they have, apparently, worked things out, but don't stow the masks just yet, there's still might be some mustard in the trough. luckily, she's just a bystander in their tussle, but doesn't armour her agin' misaimed reprisals

in far other news, ¡i shall conquer this disease! no sicknes for me!

i should be sleeping, working, writing, driving, or musing. instead i'm meming. it's a sick, sick world we live in

( Answer each question with a single word )

a coworker of mine just lost her three month premature child (at just about the time when the child would have been born normally). she just returned from maternity leave and is trying to hold it together for work. i try and chat her up about once a day just so she knows -- something, i'm not quite sure what, but i know that human contact is a good thing in most circumstance. at any rate, the office has banded together to offer an "act of kindness" every day. everyone has a day and we're supposed to do something nice for her; my day is next Tuesday (12/9) (the last day of the activity) and i've got nothing. ¿do you get flowers? candy? a note saying, "We're sorry, really, a lot a lot"? personally, i wouldn't want austentatious shows, just a bit more social interaction, for a piece, then back to normal. with her, i dunno - she's a very thorough and composed executuve assistant, but she also is the kind of person who has a jar of free-candy she offers to people and always keeps stocked. so, i'm at a loss. ¿any ideas?

methinks i wanna chain myself to my laptop every night and try to resolve some kind of NaNoWriMo. i really should. i don't have many events pending this month, methinks i'm gonna

response to my post from Monday

( Obscene and Taboo top 7 )

no matter who is elected, i take hope and pride in the fact that voter turnout is looking to be the largest in US history and that the "Early Voting" legislation and the campaigns have drawn more young voters than ever before. if nothing else, this revives the American Dream for me. people are participating - granted, they might be doing it for the "wrong" reasons, but Democracy always succeeds when people act. mayhaps it's only for a moment, but the People are stirring and raising their cry

though, i still think Election Day should be a national holiday. for criminey biminey, the banks close for tyrants, generals, conquerors, and portuguese merchants, but not for the lifeblood of the country. fah

hey, y'all, my sis needs a data dump. ¿could y'all respond to the below question that i might forward it to her? thanks. ¡dirty limericks for all who participate!

Hey! I need help. No seriously. I am writing a semantic typology paper on vulgarity and I need to collect data. Could you please please please give me:
1) The 7 most obscene words you know (in English, but if you know another language PLEASE email me so I can collect that data as well).
2) Put the 7 words in order from 1 being the most obscene
3) Tell me what you think the word means. For example, although we use the word "bitch" we do not mean "OI! YOU FEMALE DOG!". We usually mean "You pushy and/or arrogant woman!"

knowledge is the route to power.
history is the thickest vector for knowledge.
education is the only means to understand history.

¡THE U.S. HAS THE WORST SCHOOLS IN THE ENTIRE FIRST WORLD!

and, don't even get me started on how i feel about the fact that Asia is the only continent putting any serious interest in Space. three fricking moon probes and a couple moon landings in the next decade - and the US hasn't touched the Moon since the sixties

effing disgraceful