What happened to Karen? She never posts anymore.

Yes, I gave up on the Weekend Assignment and sometimes fail to participate in the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot. Consequently I'm barely posting at all.

But I can explain.

Stuff I can't disclose is making things extra busy at my non-church job in far-off Marana. I've also got a lot to do at church, paid and otherwise, and I'm spending all day on Sundays with two mobility-impaired friends (and a friend whose mobility is fine, except that he doesn't drive).

Some days I'm working both jobs, which last week led to my leaving home at 7 AM and getting home at 11:10 PM on Thursday, and being gone from 7 AM to 10:30 PM on Friday. I had a conference on Saturday, and got home from church and friends after 6 PM on Sunday. I haven't been this busy since I was working full time and studying accounting at night. I haven't been MORE busy, methinks, since I pulled crazy hours at year-end at First Magnus, back in the day.

But I just got a check from First Magnus Liquidating Trust for most of the rest of the pay they owed me from 2007. Add that to what John and I have been earning for our crazy hours lately and we're looking good for a quick trip to Disneyland in June. That's if I can get away, and that's a big if. My boss hasn't okayed it. But if we go, we'll take a night at the Disneyland Hotel for the first time ever, possibly the only time we'll ever do so. It's over $200 a night!

Stay tuned. I'm not done with this blogging lark, but my entries may be thin on the ground for a while, and inadequately illustrated.

Karen

Weekend Assignment #307: Eight Days a Week

This Weekend Assignment entry will be brief, for reasons that will become apparent.

Weekend Assignment #307: Common wisdom, these days, backed up by actual statistics if I had time to look them up, tells us that as a nation we've been working harder in recent years just to maintain the same level of financial solvency. Recession-related unemployment and u8nderemployment aside, do you find this is true for your family?

Extra Credit: Is overtime something you take on willingly? Why or why not?

I mention all this because this is the busy time of year for accountants, even underemployed ones like me. I've been working many more hours recently, and if I get the temp job I applied for today, I will be working a full time job and a part time one on top of that.

And I don't mind. Yes, I have to watch out that I get adequate sleep, but to be honest I kind of enjoy wrangling with numbers at 1 AM. And if I can make a decent income working two jobs after all these months of spotty employment, it should help our finances quite a bit!

Still, I believe that the underlying point is true. Maybe it's naive of me, but I suspect that there was a time when people worked from 9 to 5, went home, and aside from a little dinner discussion left their work behind until morning. Now I think we as a workforce are expected to work as many hours as possible for as little money as companies can get away with. In some cases, it's because the company itself is struggling, especially these days. In others, it seems to be more a case of the people at the top raking in the bonuses and letting the underlings struggle a bit. I've worked in both situations.

What do you think? You have until next Wednesday at 6 PM to give us your thoughts, either as a blog entry or in the comments below. If you do write a blog entry, please mention the Weekend Assignment, and leave a link to your entry in the comments thread. Here are last week's links. Click on the name to see the entry!

Last week's Weekend Assignment was:

Weekend Assignment #306: You're A Famous Author, What's The Name Of Your Book?

Karen (that's me!) said...

I'm famously allergic to cats, and almost as famously uninterested in cooking. My unlikely bestseller, therefore, is a cookbook for cats. I had a different title for it last night, but then I talked to John and had a better idea. Now the title is:

The Cats' Cookbook:
Fabulous Foods for Felines and Friends

Florinda said...

Here's my bestseller:

Southern Song: A Romance, by Elizabeth Penney (You don't think I'm writing a romance under my real name, do you? That's another part of the fiction!)

Mike said...

My book is a young adult romantic fantasy novel. I named it "We'll Meet Under the New Moon at Harry Potter's House." I figure this might draw some attention on the shelves at the bookstore. Not a bad idea, am I right.

 Next week's entry will by hosted by Carly. See you there!

Karen

Last Day in Oro Valley

...and I won't have my camera with me!

Totally unedited camera phone shot #1

Tomorrow is my last day at Interesting Manufacturer, or whatever pseudonym I gave the company three months ago. They actually ran out of work for me today. To keep busy I washed my desk, wiped down counters and tables in the kitchen, and even did other people's dishes; but I was still off the clock by 3:30. Tomorrow, if the HR director remembers her keys, I'll have a full day of filing and that will be that. Done. Finito. Unemployed.

Totally unedited camera phone shot #2

And I won't even be able to take one last set of semi-decent landscape photos or inadequate butterfly photos with my Canon Cyber-Shot. On Sunday, I served in church for the first time in a new capacity, as Verger. (I keep forgetting the title, and my brain keeps offering the term Valeyard instead, which is very different!)

The Verger is sort of a master of ceremonies and sergeant at arms in an Anglican church. At St. Michael's the job includes wearing a snazzy red medieval robe, which actually fits me. Since it was my first time wearing it except to try it on, I asked the two torchers (candle bearers) to take a few pictures of me during Mass. They did - but then one of them, who is about 12 or 13 years old, left with his parents about two minutes after Mass, with my camera still in his pocket! They live in the boonies, so I'm picking the camera up from his dad (who works evenings) after I get off work tomorrow. So, no final butterfly photo hunt!

Totally unedited camera phone shot #3

Funny thing, though. The company's head of IT, a great guy by the way, saw me taking a few lame photos with my phone tonight as he was leaving work and I was waiting for John.

"Hard to catch, aren't they?" he said, calling out the window of his truck.

Not sure I'd heard him correctly, or what he meant, I just said, "Yes."

"I've been chasing that black butterly for the last week and a half," he said. "It's just impossible!"

I nodded and chuckled, and he drove away.

Slightly edited camera phone shot

But I think tomorrow I'll email him this picture:

From Butterflies of Southern Arizona

Karen

Cryptic Remarks

There's stuff going on right now that I can't talk about yet, but as March becomes April, change is in the wind. I'd love to lay in an April Fool's Day tall tale here to amuse and confuse, but nothing amusing springs to mind, and I don't really want to fool anyone right now. Still, the music has stopped, and though I still have a chair, I'd rather have a different one at this point. A recruiter says the news is all over town, but you didn't hear it from me!


There. Is that cryptic enough for you?


Karen

Invisible Birthday

I don't know why it is, but birthdays are nearly always problematic for me. Today was no exception. I said yesterday that any birthday in which I don't cry is a successful birthday. March 10, 2008 met that low standard. Barely.

Fortunately it got better this evening. Much better.

There's an office procedure for birthdays at the business office of Famous Vehicle Dealer where I work. Birthdays for the month are written on a whiteboard over the refrigerator. Once a month, assuming there are employees born in that month, there is one birthday cake honoring the people on the whiteboard. Individual recognition consists of the birthday person's desk being decorated with banners and such the night before after the person leaves, possibly a card (but not always), and individuals saying a cheery "Happy Birthday" over the course of the day.

But last week, I noticed that my name wasn't on the whiteboard with the other March birthday people. Okay, fair enough: I've only been there six months, and someone hadn't yet found out when my birthday was and added it to the master list. So I asked who was in charge of such things, and watched as she typed my name into her birthday list. My name was then duly added to the whiteboard. Success! That took care of that problem, right?

Wrong.

Today was my birthday. The whiteboard said so. But I opened my office door this morning, and there were no birthday decorations within. I figured I'd probably closed the door (which automatically locks) on Friday, and the other person who has a key hadn't known there was a problem.

But no one said Happy Birthday. No one.

I decided to make an experiment of it. I didn't remind the person who wrote down my birthday info less than a week ago, or speak to my kind but busy boss, or throw a hissy fit of any sort. I simply did my job, and waited to see whether at some point during the day someone, anyone, would notice it was my birthday. They didn't. I was bummed out, and angry with myself for caring. After all, a birthday is a slippery, idiosyncratic and nebulous holiday. It generally only matters to the person born that day (and sometimes not even that), along with a few friends and relatives. Why should anyone who sits fifty feet from me care what day that shy woman who replaced Carole happens to have been born?

At 2 PM I told the mail runner about the situation, because she and I went through that one self-actualization course together and I like her a lot. If anyone heard, they ignored it. Then at 5 PM I told one co-worker, and then went home.

This is not the first time I've been completely forgotten at work on my birthday.

But okay, that's over. Shake it off. Don't be a martyr about it.

At home, it all turned around immediately. My email was fully of happy birthday greetings from many of you wonderful people. Howard came through with his usual Amazon gift, which is more appreciated than he realizes. My brother called. Borders sent me a 25% off birthday coupon. And before he took me to dinner, John gave me this:

Hey, nice box. Tres moderne. What's in it?

A stuffed toy dog? Umm, okay. Look under the lid? Oh!

Fantastic! Could be my Best Birthday Present Ever!

That even makes up for the fact that I haven't heard from my dad yet.

Karen

Home again, jiggity jog

I had a great last day at Gallifrey One, followed by an eight hour drive home. My body is still vibrating, and I'm due at work in 3 hrs 20, after turning in the rental. I'll probably ask for a couple hours off at lunch for a nap. Good night!

...What Keeps Everything From Happening at Once

Y'know, I just took a few minutes to research the title of this entry, trying to get the exact wording from Buckaroo Banzai. Instead I found this:

"Time," he said, "is what keeps everything from happening at once."
--Ray Cummings, "The Girl in the Golden Atom" (1919)

And this:

“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once”
--John Archibald Wheeler (American physicist, b. 1911)

I even found someone advising not to worry about whether Einstein or Woody Allen said it first. One thing's for sure, though: it didn't originate with ol' Buckaroo.

I thought of the quote, or paraphrase, tonight as I cast around for something I was ready to say with respect to this seminar I've been attending. Yes, Julie, fish were thrown on a video screen, and there was also an unseen gorilla. But that wasn't really the gist of the thing. I still don't know how much I understand the details of this particular cognitive/gestalt system of self-improvement, or how much I'm willing to buy into it, or at least give it a chance. I'm only halfway through it, after all. The other half will be the week before Christmas. Some of it does seem to make sense, and I don't want my normal skepticism to turn into postmodern cynicism. So I'll have to think it over, possibly test some elements of it, and make up my mind in the fullness of time.

One particular claim that came out today seems counterintuitive, to say the least; and that's where the time quote comes in. Affirmations guru Lou Tice claims that you should write a bunch of affirmations (think of the Al Franken character Stuart Smalley, only less pathetic) in different areas of one's life, and thus improve all aspects of your life at once. The idea is to avoid being too obsessed with one thing, and being "out of balance" in one's priorities. As someone with a marked tendency to obsess over one thing at a time, I can sort of see this reasoning even as I rebel against it. After all, just a week ago I wrote about the major stressful changes in my life over a three month period. I'm sure I've read before that the more major changes going on in your life (good or bad or both), the more stressed out you'll be. I've therefore never thought it might be a good idea to work on my writing, dieting, exercise, CPA exam, finances, house cleaning, etc. all at once! But perhaps the explanation is that the affirmations thing is supposed to get you primed for your new improved life rather than just dumping the end result on you. You have a little time to get used to it, I guess.

So here we are, just under a month before Christmas. The holidays are a stressful time anyway. I'm just digging out from my lack of industry knowledge at work, my dog just finished her radiation therapy for cancer, and I'm supposed to be selecting materials to fix up my bathroom. Is this really the time to start reading sentences every morning and night about losing weight, writing every night, and [third affirmation omitted here]? Sorry, but that doesn't doesn't sound right to me.

Still, the writing thing is something I can do, even if I don't read about it off a 3x5 card. I finished revising the opening scene of Heirs tonight. I'm still not sure page 11 is soon enough for Something Awful to Happen to get the plot moving, but overall I'm pleased with what I've accomplished. For now at least, I plan to keep that going.

On the 3x5 card labeled "Health," the one on which I wrote about good food and daily exercise and such, I also said something about seven hours of sleep a night. Yeah, like that's going to happen. If I ever do try this affirmation thing, I'm going to cross out the word "seven" and write in "six" instead. Even at that, I'm running a little late tonight. Good night!

Reasons to Be Cheerful

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show something you're thankful for this year. It doesn't have to be the thing you're most thankful for; even the little things count. But of course, picture whatever you'd like.

Faced with a similar question list year, I talked about John, and how I'm thankful he still puts up with me. He doesn't allow me to post photos of him, however. At this moment I can't really use the word "thankful" in connection with the other member of this household, Tuffy, for obvious reasons. So let's proceed to the next layer of gratitude, shall we?


Remember all the changes in my life that I was going on and on about the other night? Well, not all of it was bad news. Of all that's happened over the last several months, the thing I'm most thankful for is that in the whirlwind jobs interviewed for, jobs offered and jobs taken in the wake of FMFC's collapse, I was only unemployed for a total of eight days. I stepped into my current job directly from the temporary one at - what did I call it here? - Anonymous Regional Retailer (ARR!). In celebration of the fact that I have a good job with interesting work, decent benefits and a very nice boss, here are (I think) the first pictures I've posted of my office at Famous Vehicle Dealer. Yes, that's another thing I'm thankful for - I have my own office instead of a cubicle.

In this first shot, nearly everything on the gray board thingy is left over from my predecessor. My only addition is the plastic spiderweb, left over from Halloween. The office is so bare that I decided to leave that up. The clock radio on the right, on which I haven't bothered to set the time, I brought in just recently so I can play the Doctor Who Series 3 Soundtrack through headphones. I'm sure I'll eventually bring in more music, but right now I only have 3 CDs at work, one of which I tend to pop out and listen to in the car as well. "The Carrionites Swarm" has become the soundtrack of my heroic attempts to drive to and from work in heavy rush hour traffic. Incidentally, I ordered a commercial copy of the CD online over a week ago, but the vendor has neither shipped it nor provided a reason why my order is "on hold." I assume it means they either are out of it or never had it. Phooey.

My desk again. Messy already! But actually the papers are organized into related piles. Sort of. The box on the floor is for shredding and recycling.

Notice the bare walls. I brought in my Mary Poppins calendar, but that doesn't do much to fill up all that sterile blankness. It's also not a very good calendar, but that's beside the point. Now that my predecessor is gone, I could decorate, but with what? I'm not exactly going to hang my 30" x 24" pastel portrait of the Eighth Doctor. What can I possibly bring in that's both professional-looking and relevant to my interests? And there's this, too: I somehow managed to leave irreplaceable photos (and replaceable printouts) at FMFC on that last sad morning, and never got them back. I think maybe that's making me hesitate to bring in photos now. I do have Tuffy on my computer desktop, though.


One bit of decor that did make it from FMFC to FVD can be seen from the doorway. Can you spot it and identify it?

Yes, it's Zorro! My hero reminds me to be bold, clever, just, and ethical. That's a lot to live up to, but I try. I have to admit, I'm not so good on the boldness.

Karen

Thursday On My Mind: ULC = FMFC = Gone

Your Weekend Assignment #179: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: of all the days of the work week, which is your favorite? Yes, I know a lot of people will default toward Friday, because it's an easy one, but I hope you will actually put some thought into your response and give each day its due. If you finally settle on Friday, fair enough. But even Monday has its good points, you know?

Extra Credit: Name a song you like with a day of the week in it (you can include Saturdays and Sundays for consideration here).

Look, I'm going to dispose of this one quickly for a change, because I have something else to write about. Something important. See, as of today, it doesn't really matter to me what day of the week it is.

Historically, yes, Friday was the one, not because of the weekend per se, but because I could stay up all night and then sleep in. Monday's a good day when Heroes has a new episode, and Tuesday's a good day when House, MD is new. At one time it was a good day because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wednesday used to be great because of Quantum Leap, but that was a long time ago. Ditto Friday, same show. Going further back, Thursday used to be Barney Miller night. When I was at the University of Phoenix, I had class on the same weeknight for over a year, and liked it. Oddly, though, I can't remember whether it was Mondays or Thursdays. Thursdays, I think, but there were also a few Monday runs.

Okay, yeah. Friday, because of the all nighter thing. But I'm not especially enthusiastic about Friday at the moment. I'm even less enthusiastic about Thursday, because today was a Thursday. I can't really blame today on a column of my calendar, though.

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
- Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Thursday paper and today's paperwork, collected elsewhere

On this particular Thursday, I got up as usual, checked my email, got dressed and headed off to work, stopping off at McDonald's on the way for a Sausage McMuffin with Egg. (Note that I've banned bacon for the summer, as promised.) Then I got back in my car, which happened to be parked in front of the newspaper vending box. Glancing up as I prepared to back out of the space, I happened to see the newspaper headline above. Why is this significant? The answer requires that I shred the veil of playful secrecy surrounding the name of my employer.

Unnamed Largish Company = First Magnus Financial Corp

From February: the building on the left is First Magnus.

If you were hoping that perhaps I was with the CIA or some other exciting organization, then I apologize for disappointing you. First Magnus is a company that originates and sells home mortgages, on a wholesale and retail basis. Or, at least, it was. We all know how the real estate and mortgage markets have imploded this past year, but FMFC wasn't particularly into risky loans, and didn't hang onto them long enough for people to default on them. I thought we'd be okay. So did everyone else. But that headline sounded pretty dire. I bought the last newspaper in the box and drove to the office at Fifth and Wilmot.

A local tv news camera crew sets up in front of the FMFC entrance

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that there was a Channel 4 News truck parked in the lot. The second thing I noticed was that there was ample parking available, at a time of day when I was used to driving around to find even one space in the entire lot.

The third thing I noticed was employees standing by the employee entrance, chatting, some of them next to carts full of boxes; and other employees carrying boxes to their cars. I went up to the door and asked an acquaintance to tell me exactly what was going on.

"It's over," she said. "An email went out last night. They're telling everyone to pack up their personal belongings, turn in their badges, and leave."


When a company collapses, the accounting people are always the last to go, right? Someone has to account for disposal of assets and final paychecks and so on. Yeah, well. Not this time. I went upstairs and made my boss give me the specific news for the accounting department, but it was the same as everyone else's.

Remember my tale of the ID badge, lost in the rain two years ago? The badge in the shot above is the one I gave the facilities guy who was guarding the door, helping people with their carts and making sure nobody stole anything. It's actually the third one I've had. I replaced the second one because my picture was all faded and awful, but this one was getting to be almost as bad. Now I don't have to replace it.


I managed to pack up my Intermediate Accounting textbook, my Lilo toy, Zorro, my plant (which has been looking rather sickly for two weeks), my Mary Poppins calendar, my plush Scamp, my small rotary fan, my CDs, my headphones and my recycling into a couple of boxes and bags I had at my desk. Afterward I found out that there were boxes available in the hall. Oh, well.

Brad, a science fiction fan from the next cubicle over, figured that his two years at First Magnus would be good for his employability. He was placed with the company by the same temping firm that got me my job. A few phone numbers and email addresses were exchanged, and everyone wished everyone luck. Then I went downstairs, borrowed a cart from the mail room, and took my stuff out to my car.

By the time I got to my next destination, my plant had no leaves left on it.

I've just realized that I left my Doctor Who CD in the computer's CD drive at work. Drat.

Unnamed Largish Company revealed at last - almost

As I drove away, I hurriedly snapped this photo of the sign by one of the entrances. For two years I've been avoiding taking pictures of anything with the company name, because I didn't want to name the company in this blog. When I shot this today, I was a little worried that someone would object to my taking the picture. So I rushed it, and failed to notice that I didn't get the whole sign into frame.

This sign counts as a fixed asset by the way, specifically tenant improvements. That was one of the things I did for the company, track fixed assets and reconcile the relevant accounts. I don't see this revelation as a company secret at this point, so there you are.

The employee entrance was considerably less idyllic today

I think I published this photo back in February, but with the company logo smudged out. Here is is again, unadulterated.

People from two different agencies that place accountants in temporary and temp-to-hire positions have been wonderful to me today, and expect to place me quickly. One of these agencies is in the same building as about a third of First Magnus's 800 local employees. The agency's people were downstairs for much of the day, counseling distraught ex-employees and offering to help. Fortunately for me, I don't go head to head with most of them in the Tucson job market. I'm not after a job in customer service, underwriting, funding, closing, or other mortgage-related positions. The number of actual accountants with FMFC was small enough that the job market should be able to swallow us fairly easily. I'm better qualified than most of the people I worked with directly, and the one temp agency that had me do a bunch of times tests was very impressed with my scores.

So I'm not worried - not more than 1% worried, anyway. John is shocked, but handling it well. I was doing well all day, very surprised (there was very little to suggest I needed to worry about the company's viability) but not really upset. As the day winds down, though, I guess you can say I'm a little depressed. But I'll be fine. Really, I will. I wish I could make myself tackle that Prince Talber scene, though, and avoid losing momentum with the novel edit. I don't seem to be up to it tonight, but I'll try again in a bit.

Let's do Scalzi's extra credit question to finish off. What weekday-featuring song do I especially like? Well, despite having Friday on My Mind by the Easybeats stuck in my head as I write this, the answer is Lady Madonna by the Beatles:

Tuesday afternoon is never ending
Wednesday morning papers didn't come
Thursday night your stockings needed mending
See how they run

Yeah, well.

Wednesday night the candles won't keep burning
Thursday morning paper gave the news
Friday morning got to call at Apple
I've got the blues.

Karen

Tucson's First Magnus Financial cuts off loan funding, sends workers home

Newly jobless pack up at Tucson headquarters

First Magnus chairman: Recent events 'a knock-out punch'

De Plane, De Plane

Okay, maybe it won't be a substantive entry after all. But at least I have some unusual pictures for you tonight.

The hanger, as a storm moves past.

We (that is, some co-workers and I) went on a field trip late this afternoon. We went out to the Executive Terminal area at Tucson International Airport, to a hanger where the two company planes are kept.

Two of my co-workers on the steps of the nicer plane

One of the pilots in the cockpit of the same plane

The traffic control tower.

I was in that tower, 20 years ago when I was in travel agent school.

I should probably tell you about the trip in some detail, about the long drive out there, the nice spread of food, the difference between the two planes, the entertainment possibilities on board, and what I saw on the drive back. But on the other hand, some of this probably falls under the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, either a formal one or my self-imposed one. So enjoy the pictures for now, and I'll revisit the subject later when I can work in some appropriate words.

Speaking of appropriate words, I've reached the last chapter of Heirs of Mâvarin in my editing, and yes, I crashed MS Word again. I'm convinced that my current version of Norton doesn't even have an equivalent of Disk Doctor. Shame on them! Anyway, I'm on page 494 and counting. And there I stop, at least for tonight!

Karen

Ah, That's Better!

I didn't mention it here, but I had a stressful few days toward the end of this past week. There were some things I needed to get done at work that dragged on and on, and things I didn't have time to do, and things I didn't want to do. I managed to put several of these sources of stress behind me on Friday. Tomorrow I will take care of one more. And today, which is to say, this past day, Saturday, Russell T. Davies took care of the remaining source of my stress.

Ridiculous. Maybe even pathetic. But true.

The opening shot of the season finale,
reprising the previous episode

There were lots of pieces of the puzzle that was the end of Series Three of the revival of Doctor Who, lots of hints, lots of rumors. I was worried that the resolution would not be a satisfactory one, that the Doctor would regenerate, that the Earth would remain a mess, that something nonsensical would happen to the long-dead Time Lords, that something bad would happen to Martha. After three years I should have learned to trust that the show's main writer and executive producer would make it all work. And he did, mostly. There is one element that remains a bit of a cheat, but the rest of it works, it makes sense, it pulls it all together. And I'm still smiling about one out-of-the-blue revelation toward the end. I bet nobody saw that one coming! Judging from the Talk page of one Wikipedia article, some people hate the idea and are trying to weasel out of its being true, but me, I'm laughing. Perfect!

So except although the season I've just watched on download (shh!) is about to be aired on cable here, there is no new Doctor Who-related tv for me until The Sarah Jane Adventures of the next Christmas special, whichever comes first. And that's okay, because it means this frenzied watching of the show should start to abate, leaving me time for more important things, like finishing that edit of Heirs of Mâvarin and sending it out to DAW, like revising Mages of Mâvarin, like writing that Jace sequel in earnest, and finally finishing Chapter One of The Mâvarin Revolutions. I haven't been idle on these things - well, not on most of them, anyway - but less distraction should help.

And just to show that I actually have been writing, tomorrow I will post Jace's first letter from "Later This Somewhere," over or the fiction blog. Probably.

Karen

Not Exactly a Sonic Screwdriver

Weekend Assignment #171: Talk about the most unusual piece of technology or machinery that you've ever used. It could be some specialized machine or tech you use for work, or perhaps some off-brand curiosity you found at an electronics store, or even (if you're technologically inclined) something you've created yourself. The key is that it's got to be something that makes people go "Huh. That's weird."

Extra Credit: Mp3/music player or cell phone: Which would you give up first?

My first thought om this was that I haven't used anything unusual. I was therefore tempted to give a fictional answer. I could claim that I really did invent the M-box 3000 Personal Empathy Device, or put myself in the place of my characters, living in a time bubble or taking part in weird physics experiments.

Then I remembered some real life bits of odd technology from my Worldwide Travel days. When I started there in 1993, I occasionally used a check printer that dated back to the 1950s or earlier. I would set the dollar amount, load the check and pull the lever - ca-chung! Result: nice, large, old fashioned raised numbers on what would otherwise be a handwritten check. Later on, after a change in banks, Mal just handwrote them instead, the ones I didn't generate on the computer.

The other unusual item was what I liked to call the ca-chung machine. It looked like a old style credit card imprinter, which you load with the card and a charge slip with several carbons and then slide the bar across - ca-chung! - to get the card number onto the charge slip. Only the machine I'm talking about wasn't for charge slips. It was for validating accountable ARC documents, which is an industry jargon way of saying it was for preparing handwritten airline tickets, PTAs (prepaid ticket advices) and MCOs (miscellaneous charge orders). Sliding the bar across - ca chung! - put the date and the agency's name and IATA number on the ticket, along with the name and number of the desired airline, transferred from a metal plate the size and shape of a credit card. Worldwide Travel used to have two columns of old metal plates displayed on the wall of the conference room, each representing a defunct airline: Eastern, Western, Braniff, PanAm, and on and on. The head of a regional airline once told Mal he decided not to issue metal plates, so that his airline's plate would never hang on our wall. And yes, the airline did go under a couple years later.

I thought of calling Mal and Dave today and asking if I could come photograph the check imprinter, but I decided that was beyond the pale. Instead I'll show you this:

This is the Igia Ultra Advanced Hair Removal System. Yeah, right. You know what it really is? A pair of electric tweezers. Seriously, that's what it is. You plug it in and it supposedly delivers heat or vibration or a low-level electrical current to the hair follicle, so that it comes out easily and doesn't grow back as soon as it would otherwise.

Here it is, the business end of the electric tweezers. You push the little button on the side and the tweezers close on the hair, and do whatever it is that they're designed to do. But it doesn't really work. The short tweezery bits are harder to maneuver than regular tweezers, the hair is no easier to pull out, and it grows back just as fast.

And really, I'm not surprised. What are the chances this thing actually delivers heat or a vibration or electrical current to the follicle? As soon as I got the electric tweezers, I was strongly reminded of quack electrical health devices from the early 20th century. I wouldn't be surprised if the power does nothing except light an LED to show the device is turned on. I certainly never felt any definite heat or current or vibration, though it's possible it was there to some tiny degree.

It occurs to me that it's almost the opposite of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. His "sonic" is cordless, compact, and can do almost anything with sound. The electric tweezers are surprisingly bulky because of the cord, and do almost nothing, silently.

As for giving up the cell phone or the iPod, the truth is that I hardly ever use my iPod unless I'm going to the gym, which I haven't done in a shamefully long time. The phone doesn't get even daily use, except to tell me the time; but I use it more than the iPod. I guess I'd give up the iPod - and then buy an iPhone instead. Ha!

I'm plugging away on my Heirs edit. I'm up to Chapter Three, page 100. (Yes, it's a long book.) I've revised away bits of awkward or wordy writing that had persisted for years, draft after draft: nothing major, just individual phrases and the occasional sentence. Never again will an editor consider the odd comparison between clothing and the price of corn, or read about a "soldierly male" selmûn guard. And I found a disappearing cornfield by the Ot Lôven, and changed later visits to that spot so that the descriptions don't actively preclude its existence.

Oh, and there was a missing word in Chapter Three. Is that why I never heard back from Tor? Probably not, but it's still embarrassing! And the twins were simultaneously seven months and a year old at the time of the kidnapping. Oops! Fixed.

Karen

A Stressful Day, and a Fictional Blog

I had a long, difficult day at work today, busy enough and stressful enough that I ranted at some length afterward to a friend in IM. Her response was, "Gee, I wish I were an accountant!" Ha! Hey, I like the actual work. I really do. Even today wasn't actively bad, just overcrowded with demands and distractions and minor crises so that I couldn't get done what I needed to do, even staying late. Yeah, my stress level went up to eleven! But it's been worse, much worse.

Tonight I've worked on the Jace sequel a little bit, edited about a dozen pages of Heirs Ch. 2, checked out a bunch of AOL alerts, and watched Doctor Who, of course.

I also read my way through a fun bit of Doctor Who ancillary material. The current companion, Martha Jones, has a My Space blog! It's one of a number of fictional web sites put up by the BBC, fun intrusions from the Doctor's reality into ours. For example there's a Vote Saxon web site, promoting Harold Saxon's candidacy for Prime Minister. Trust me, you do not want this guy (shown at right) running the U.K.!

But Martha's MySpace is a good read. It starts just over a week before she meets the Doctor, so you get a nice little glimpse of the hectic, reasonably normal life she leaves behind. The conceit of the blog is that she somehow manages to post once a week from wherever she is in time and space, so you get little snippets of backstory and extra stuff that's not on screen, along with what she thinks about it all. I've bookmarked it, and I'll be back.

And Jace is going back online. I know that much about the new story. She and Sandy are going to exchange more emails as part of a completely different adventure. I think it takes place in London in 2013, but there will probably be other times and places involved as well. And no Doctor, unless you count Jace's friend Ken, who is definitely from New Mexico, not Gallifrey.

But it's late now, and I need to get something approaching a good night's sleep in order to get my work done tomorrow. Good night!

Karen

Herbie Goes to Wal-Mart and other Diversions

At lunchtime today I made a dash over to Wal-Mart, to try to replace the worn out shoes I wear every day. As I pulled into the parking lot I found myself behind this VW Beetle, with its very familiar markings. What was Herbie the Love Bug doing at Wal-Mart?

Well, parking, it turns out. I never did get to talk to the owner of the car and find out the whys and wherefores. But I did get these pictures for you. That was the only good part of the excursion. Wal-Mart had no plain black loafers in a men's 9 to 10 1/2 W, my usual range. None at all.


So I wore my old shoes to a company function after work tonight. See, today was "Employee Appreciation Day" at Unnamed Largish Company. Basically that meant people were allowed to wear jeans to work, and were invited to a Casino Night at the Hilton after work. There was blackjack and poker and craps using company-provided chips (not cashable, and returned at the end of the evening). There was food and drink (no drinks ticket needed for my usual "Diet Anything), and there were prizes. I didn't win the plasma tv, the iPod kichen sound system or a covered parking space, but that's okay. Several of my friends from work did rather well with their prizes, and I won a $25 gift card for AMC Theaters.

Then the person next to me also won a gift card. Hers was to Barnes & Noble, which made me a little jealous. She proceeded to complain that it wasn't an ideal prize for her, because "I don't read." Recovering quickly from my shock upon hearing this blasphemy, I offered to swap. So yay - I get to go to B&N!


I see that I may have been unduly alarming in writing about Tuffy last night. A few clarifications:

1. It is not definitive that the particular batch of dog food was tainted. It was from the right time period, but did not quite match anything on the recall list - close, but not exactly.
2. At the time of the recall, there was nothing at all in Tuffy's behavior to indicate any sort of illness. There still isn't, really, aside from the fact that she's ten years old now and therefore not quite as spry as she was five years ago. She's always been a picky eater, so the fact that she's still a picky eater is not terribly indicative. There's nothing we can point at to say why we think she may not be at 100% for a dog her age, just a vague feeling.
3. Yes, of course I'll take her to the vet anyway, probably next weekend.

Am I worried about her? Yes, but only a little. The fact is that well before the dog food recall, I was noticing that Tuffy's getting old. She won't last forever; I know that. When she does I'll cry, as I did for Jenny and Noodle before her. But I honestly don't expect this to happen any time soon.

Karen

Cloudy

Here's my car again, dark under cloudy. pre-sunset sky. I had to park "beyond the berm" again this morning, and when I left at 6:30 PM there were still quite a few cars in the lot. I've been taking my comp time from year end at the rate of a few hours a week, and I'm beginning to think it's a tactical mistake. I've also lost time because of the car, and being sick the other day.

I'm just a little bummed out right now.

No more of that. Never mind.

I'm coming down the home stretch on Old Man's War, and I've come to the conclusion that I have to buy the remaining John Scalzi fiction titles I don't have, if I can even still get the obscure ones. Well,I may still skip The Android's Dream, cool cover and all. We'll see. But I definitely need The Ghost Brigades, and The Sagan Diary, and Agent to the Stars.

Meanwhile, I'm in the part of the book that kept me away for a year and a half: the part with the actual fighting in it. The brutal, morally complex battles John Perry gets involved in are a little tough for me to take - but interesting, chock full of ideas to chew on.

A few other updates I forgot to mention:

• Last night I spent several hours updating the church web site at http://smallangelstucson.org. It still needs work, but at least it's no longer listing events for Holy Week 2007.
  
• I've also updated the fiction blog. I've gotten the Jor and Fayubi scene all the way up to the cliffhanger. Basically, King Jor has had what he thinks is a good idea for handling the succession to his throne, but he hasn't told me what it is yet. My current plan is to throw ideas at him until he breaks down and tells me what he has in mind - or at least picks one of my scenarios. Not that it's that straightforward, of course. Like all of my Mâvarin characters, he's never heard of me.
  

Gotta go to bed now. I want to do a good job at work tomorrow, and that requires sleep.

Karen

Take it Outside

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of people working outside. Because now the weather's right for it (mostly). If you have a photo in your archives of people working outside, that works too.

Humph. This is going to be tricky to do. I was barely even outside today. The only person I saw working outside was a next door neighbor, and I wouldn't presume to photograph him for this. So I need to go to the archives, but I can't, for the most part, because most of the photo files have been cleared out onto CDs to relieve my overburdened hard drive. Those CDs are in one of the many boxes currently stacked in the den as we work on fixing up my office.

But let's see what's still on my hard drive that matches the criteria, shall we? I've found a handful of pictures for you that I haven't shown off before, which show people working outside - but with a strong element of fun.



This latter-day Betsy Ross is sewing a flag in the tent village at the Picacho Pass reenactment. I don't know whether anyone is paying her for the sewing.


Here she is again. Note all the spectators, who are not working.


I also have lots of shots of the faux soldiers, who if they were the actual 19th century combatants could certainly be said to be working. But since these 21st century folks are instead playing soldier for fun (and probably spending lots of money to do it), they don't really count. This policeman, on the other hand, is definitely on the clock. Seems like a fun assignment, though.




This fellow was carving pumpkins at Disneyland last October. I'm guessing his admirer is interested in more than his skill with a knife.


And this chimney sweep, Bert by name, manages to avoid the appearance that he's working at all. Need I mention that this was also taken at Disneyland?

It occurs to me belatedly that John S. paid "people." plural, whereas I've posted individuals working essentially alone. Let's rectify that with a few more Disneyland shots. Full disclosure: John B. may have taken one or both of these last two shots, but I don't think so.



The Dixieland jazz band that works out of the "Disneyland Fire Dept" is a successor to the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a real, working band that included legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ward Kimball.

And here we have Alice and the Mad Hatter arguing, which probably is a lot of work, at least for Alice!

Karen

Love Reign O'er Me

Thanks, folks, for the kind words in comments and emails. For those of you who have guessed that I may be having health issues, that's not it at all. Aside from very minor stress-related gut pain a few days ago - maybe a 2 out of 10, a huge improvement over the "11" I used to get back when I had a gall bladder - I'm as healthy as an obese 49-year-old can possibly claim to be. As for what the problem actually is, here's a hint. I left work just now at 5 AM. I got 8 hours of sleep Monday morning (previous nights' totals were 7 and 8) , but that clearly won't be true tonight. The photo is of my car in the parking lot of Unnamed Largish Company, seen from above per the Monday Photo Shoot. I think tonight's marathon is the last of the insane hours, but we'll see.

Karen

Absolutely Necessary

The photos for the church directory were a big hit. Father Smith wasn't around to see them, but those who did all wanted copies of their favorite shots. So after church I dug up some photos I missed the first time around, went back to Walgreen's and ordered another 100+ prints at 19 cents each. I'll probably ask parishioners for 50 cents a print to cover the leftovers. Aside from that, absolutely all I've done since I checked in with you last night was sleep 7 and a half hours and work 11 hours or so, to 3:10 AM. Yes, it was absolutely necessary that I do this, and yes, I fully intend to get at least eight hours of sleep before I go back for the last leg of my catch-up marathon. Good night!

Introducing the New Format for This Week

It has been suggested to me that I give up blogging and Wikipedia for a week, the better to take care of Real Life. I'm not going to do that, but here's my compromise. I'm giving up Wikipedia for now except for the L'Engle pages, which mostly means adding a few facts and reverting a few vandals - no new entries or major overhauls. And here at the Outpost it's going to be one photo and one paragraph a night. Ten minutes' work, plus the photo editing if any. Here's the first one. To those who wonder: no I'm not sick, except for minor IBS from stress. Yes, I worked today. I also got the photos done for church. Huzzah! Only 19 cents each (on the church's dime), and nearly all of them came out great! Tonight's photo is one of the ones I had printed. (In retrospect I should have re-edited this photo for the web. It's taking forever to load!)

Karen

Halfway There

Valentine's Day was okay here at Casa Blocher, the Museum of the Weird. This morning when I got up, I found this welcome sight:


This is our vintage overhead light fixture, kind of a flying saucer light with 1950s-style starbursts picked out in gold. Something went wrong with the original wiring a month or two ago, leaving the kitchen severely underlit. (That's when John brought in the table lamp filled with old Happy Meal toys.) But over the last couple of days John managed to replace the broken wiring and get my favorite light fixture back where it belongs.

Oh, yes, there was a fun little Valentine's Day surprise, too, but I'm saving that picture for next week.

This isn't my best picture of the Catalinas half-hidden by low clouds, but I'm showing it off anyway because for once I took it from a different intersection. Doubleclick on the picture to see a little more detail.

I didn't get nearly enough done at work, but I did enter a bunch of data despite numerous interruptions for other urgent tasks.


John and I celebrated Valentine's Day at Mama Louisa's. The earliest reservation I could get, calling at 11 AM, was 8 PM, and even at that we probably waited at least 15 minutes (we were a little early). The food and service were both very good, as usual, but the wait wasn't fun for John, who feels that "no meal in the world" is worth the kind of long wait many people had tonight, waiting to get into their favorite restaurants. Still, it wasn't bad for us, and once we were seated everything was fine and dandy.

Between that and work, I really haven't worked on the church directory at all. I'm just going to have to say that I could not meet the deadline, and that I'll get to it soon. My job has to take precedence over the volunteer work, and sleep has to be given its due also. I keep hearing more and more about the health benefits of sleep and the negative effects of its absence - and the message is beginning to sink in. I know I go on about this all the time, and it's unlikely I'll reform overnight. But I'm working on it.

Karen

Update: okay, okay. I collected a few hundred church photos into one folder, and posted the church announcements only half a week late. NOW I'm headed for bath and bed, at not quite 1 AM.