Ultramundane.com -- It's Just Not Natural.

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United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

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Saturday, October 13, 2001

Still Eating in Oakland.

After Philo teased me (good-naturedly) about it at the Bay Gay Blogmeet, I've been trying to keep the "Recently Consumed" spot on the left updated. I admit vanity was a part of it's demise; I'm a little embarrassed that books don't appear as often as I'd like, so most of what's up there are restaurants and bars. Not only am I a fat lush, but I don't read enough, either. Tonight I've added the tiki bar we went to for drinks this evening for a coworker's thirtieth birthday. (Ah, to be young again...I'm only 30 for a few more days.)

Anyway, I only bring this up because I think The Roommate and I are heading out the door for the The Hole In the Wall Saloon to try and beef up the list some more. I've not been there since...(thinks about it)...three years ago? Wow. But we both have to finish our journal and weblog entries first. This makes us geeks, doesn't it? I was afraid of that.

So maybe I'm not reading great literature. At least I'm leaving the house. You gotta start someplace.

12:26 AM PST (link)

Friday, October 12, 2001

And I skipped lunch, too.

To: Staff
Subject: Friday's schedule
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 18:13 (PST)
As a thank you for all the hard work that went into the [--] meeting, [Sr. Manager] said for everyone to leave early tomorrow (Friday). Let's call it a day at 2 p.m. (PST).
Have a good weekend and thanks for all your help this week!

But apparantly, I have to be told twice. Off I go.

03:32 PM PST (link)

Thursday, October 11, 2001

There's no "I" in "Go Fuck Yourself," either.

"No, I don't think I have a bad attitude...why?"

("Suspended?...Suspended for what?)"

06:37 PM PST (link)

Light Headed.

Either I'm a ditz or our lights are just poorly designed.

So I sat in the dark all morning because the lights were "broken." And I've complained for three days about the lights in my office which don't turn off. Well, I accidently brushed the panel (see diagram at right) with an upwards movement, and a small ridged area slid up. The lights came on with a soft click.

So the big rocker switch controls the low/high setting of the lights. The large motion sensor automatically shuts off the lights if it detects no movement (like just now, while I was sitting behind my monitor out of it's "view.") And the little slider beneath the blinking light barely moves and has no obvious track. Where's Don Norman when you need him?

Forget it. Tomorrow, I'm bringing in desk lamps.

05:31 PM PST (link)

Flattery will get you everywhere.

  'Will you walk into my parlor?'
  Said a Spider to a Fly;
  ''Tis the prettiest little parlor
  That ever you did spy.
  The way into my parlor
  Is up a winding stair,
  And I have many pretty things
  to show when you are there.'
  'Oh no, no!' said the little Fly,
  'To ask me is in vain,
  For who goes up your winding stair
  Can ne'er come down again.'
from Peter Parley's Winter Evening Tales, by Samuel Goodrich (1829; revised)

01:25 PM PST (link)

Coming out of the Darkness.

So after two days of complaining about how bright my office is, today Karma worked overtime to make sure that my lights don't work at all. No amount of waving at the motion sensor or hitting the switch has worked. Actually I rather like it, but I'm sure one of the other people in the offices on this row will complain and have it fixed.

I seem to have missed our company's queer employee group lunch outing in celebration of National Coming Out Day. While I'd like to hang out with the other queer people in our company, I also don't usually eat lunch until 2pm or so. And I'm nothing if not a slave to my schedule.

I'm also not really feeling very well; I'm feeling a little flu-ish. ("Are you Flu-ish? You don't look flu-ish.") And that's never conducive to being social. But I will add that as an admitted hypochondriac, the whole Anthrax scare is wonderful fodder for some wonderfully dark fantasies. (Cough.)

01:17 PM PST (link)

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

I can't stop writing.

"Welcome to my weblog. I hope you enjoy it. I just got fired for it." Something I always wrestle with, in writing about work and other people online: while there are always consequences for what we say (or omit), there are stories that just really want to be told.

(link via Mermaniac.)

11:24 AM PST (link)

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Mother, make it stop!

I'm one of those people who is tortured because music gets stuck in my head. Can someone please shoot me? The Roommate played "Copacabana" on Sunday and it hasn't stopped yet. What's worse is that I always mess up the lyrics sort of on purpose: "His name was Rico; he was a showgirl..."

(link via Chuck.)

02:15 AM PST (link)

Monday, October 8, 2001

Fully Functional.

Click here to find out what robot you really are

My opinion on the matter. (WAV file.)

04:36 PM PST (link)

Light Trauma.

At least the lights are on now. I had to set up a couple of computers in the dark earlier. The company has moved to a new corporate office, which is still partly under construction. My office has no outside window now, so the only light I had was filtering in from the hallway, as we were forbidden to bring either the company issued desklamps or the floorlamps many of us bought to replace the overhead flurescents. Of course, it now seems that the lights do not turn off, only down to medium-bright. This does not make me happy either.

The new office is smaller than my old one. My bookcase ~~didn't come with because it was "wood" (i.e., the back panel was a piece of cardboard.)~~ was delivered to the wrong office. The two tables in my office are different heights and do not meet, so my keyboard is precariously balanced in the 4" gap between. We still do not have voicemail.

And our offices are amongst Sales people. I work among the enemy now.

Can I go home yet?

11:51 AM PST (link)

Sunday, October 7, 2001

Baby Sick.

Uh-oh. The "cupholder" on my computer won't retract. I think I broke it good. Fuck.

(Update, minutes later: Well, maybe it just needed a good press in the right spot. Now it seems to be OK. Hmm. Do I get it checked out, or assume it was a temporary problem?)

08:11 PM PST (link)

Life during Wartime

From the AP Story: "'Initially the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice,' pResident George Bush said."

The next sentence: "Residents of Kandahar reported panic in the city that is the Taliban's spiritual stronghold and headquarters of Mullah Mohammad Omar, protector of Osama bin Laden....'People are trying to run away,' one resident told Reuters. 'They are very scared. They are very frightened.'"

I don't pray, but my thoughts are with the innocent people of Afghanistan today.

01:30 PM PST (link)