Wiggles?

They are a bit creepy but somehow I am digging the music. Our group at work has chosen The Wiggles as a team costume. We have two of each color. I borrowed this DVD from a lady at work who has a kid. I'm going to be the purple shirt one. He is Jeff, he is apparently narcoleptic, which makes for a weird subplot in a DVD for toddlers. Per the website, he loves sleeping and when he dreams he even dreams about sleeping. I think that is just an expression of a deeply buried death wish. But whatever.

hi

I haven't posted in a while. Been busy. So here's some pictures of stuff to look at instead of reading stuff.

Reviews

I've been at this job for ninety days. So my review is coming up any day now, and I have to come up with some shit. I could use some suggestions. I think I've got the weaknesses covered, but hey, if anything comes to mind, share away.

Strengths: purchased candy and put it out at her desk, so being a good sharer is a strength, right? other than that....... Doesn't steal. Doesn't drink at work. Has magic powers.

Weaknesses: shifty eyed. pensive. listens to NPR at her desk. scared of the copier.

Biggest accomplishment: made copies without crying. runner up: When that guy came in and asked about job openings but kept interrupting the conversation to mutter to himself about birds, encouraged him to apply and offered him an application, which he declined for many reasons, reasons that he whispered to the staircase as he left.

Lame lame lame. Not the crazy guy, he was awesome.

let's have a tea party!

Hey, guess what? My parents got a scanner. I used it this weekend.

Now it's tea party time! The picture on the left is me and two of my brothers, circa 1981. Below, you find my nephew and nieces having their own tea party around 1999-ish.

I had the tiny tupperware set, in gold and brown and all those awesome colors. I don't recall the circumstances, but I bet on this day I was ragging on my mom about wanting to have a tea party with my new dishes and she lured my brothers to participate and behave in a civilized, tea party-appropriate fashion with cookies, perhaps candy.

My nieces have 7 or 8 tea sets between them. Nephew didn't officially own one, but they all liked playing restaurant and stuff like that. Now they are all getting big, in the throes of elementary school and junior high for the boy. Sigh. Where does the time go?

Icky poo with the weather

I am not used to wearing my winter coat so I forget it when I go out to lunch. And tonight, I forgot it again. So tomorrow morning will suck, but it usually does. The weather is not fun. No no no.

But this morning, during my break, it didn't suck. I had cheese crackers and hot chocolate for breakfast, not health food but comfort food, and I looked at the snow outside. That was nice. Then it stopped snowing and that was way fucking better.

Worky work

There was a work party tonight. It was a pretty good time, but here I am, home at 9:30 and coherent enough to blog. Not that it requires so much coherence but you know what I mean. It was all right though; it's been a long time since I've hung out will collectors. They know how to party, kind of.

JB wanted to scam some extra drink tickets, but it wasn't gonna happen. So I hung out with my boss for a while, talked a little shop, played some darts (badly as usual), and sat and talked and listened and drank some more.

I am glad to be home at a reasonable time, in fact.

Hi!

How's everybody doing? Glad to hear it. Oh, go on with your bad self. You don't say.

Wouldn't it be cool to live in olden times?

I mean, like, way way way back? In pagan, pre-Roman England? Then you probably would know what all the henges were really about. Life expectancy was like 25 years or something, so you wouldn't have time to get bored. Those are the two main advantages that I can think of right now. Fucking Romans, ruined everything.

Hey, the sock thing

They eliminated the hosiery part of the dress code at work. A bit too late for sandal season, but still a triumph. They haven't announced it yet, which is weird. If someone bitches that so-and-so isn't wearing pantyhose, L in HR just tells them it is ok to do that now. There will probably be a posting at the end of the week. What I am wondering about is the guy who always wears Birks with socks. Will he bare his toesies? Let's all hope not.

L of HR (kinda) mourns the change, even though she knows it will result in fewer fashion travesties in the building . It was the easiest part of the dress code to enforce. You are either wearing socks or not. You could make a weak argument, try to say your legwarmers fit the qualification, but clearly they do not. And they certainly are not business casual! No sirree bob!

It's possible I lack the required disposition for my job. That's a whole 'nother post though.

Heroes on NBC

Who needs to watch more television? I hear ya, total waste of time. But this show is very good. So far, so good. It's worth watching til it inevitably the quality slips and it goes to shit like everything else.

The Sunday Rounddown

I have been coming up with little blog ideas then letting them go. So how about a random list of things that cross my mind? Oh, let's make that a short list.

-God, it's really fucking nice out today. What was the high? Eighty some damn degrees. Sunny. Warm, nay, hot when you're in the direct sun! I can't believe I'm even inside typing this! Christ! I also heard on the radio today that El Nino may cause a warmer than usual winter. Global warming, so tragic, so infuriating. But the fact that I might be able to put off fixing my car's heater a little bit longer provides me with some small consolation and I hope it does for you as well.

-So, heard about this Mark Foley guy? Republican Representative from Florida? Flirting online with a teenage boy who worked as a Congressional page? If you haven't heard about it, just forget I said anything, it's really creepy. This guy was part of the House committee on missing and exploited children. Oh, and some of his party mates have known of his proclivities for at least a year and didn't do anything about it. Nice.

-Ok, you know who John Krasinski from The Office is? Of course you do. He was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien a couple of weeks ago, but I just caught it. Did you know NBC replays Conan episodes a week after the first showing, but at 3 a.m.? Now you do know this, if you didn't know it previously. Well, John Krasinski's hair looked funny. Like my brother Chuck's senior yearbook picture from 1987. Only slightly less feathered.

-Here are some things I like about my job: professional atmosphere is sometimes welcome, not as weird as I thought it would be; boss gives clear expectations, feedback, respect; a good mix of routine and change, solitude and teamwork, for my personality; dress code gives me an excuse to buy new clothes (someday).

-I should tell you, I enjoy all of your blogs. I mean, at least most of your blogs, the ones I know about. I'm sorry I don't comment more, but I'm there reading on the regular. Blogs are weird weird things. Sometimes I think this will be like having a pet rock 30 years from now, only more like a pet rock that documents some of the poor choices and half assed opinions of my mid to late 20s.

one of my brothers sent this to me. verrrry interesting

Fun

The Sen. Allen Insult Generator

This one is fancy:

Shakespearean Insult Generator

This one is gross:

Ebaum's World Random Insult Generator

It's ok, right,

to not have a favorite color? A favorite movie? Book, car, tv show? Person? Mutual fund?

I can't think of any favorites, like the one most favorite, of anything right now. I guess black is my favorite color, except I don't really want to claim that as part of my identity. Have you ever seen those cheesy magazine articles about What Your Favorite Color Says About You? Nothing good, my friend, nothing good.

Today's word. Totally.

vertiginous \vur-TIJ-uh-nuhs\, adjective: 1. Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy. 2. Causing or tending to cause dizziness. 3. Turning round; whirling; revolving. 4. Inclined to change quickly or frequently; inconstant.

Vertiginous derives from Latin vertigo, "a turning round, a whirling round; giddiness," from vertere, "to turn." Related words include reverse, "to turn back (re-) or around"; subvert, "to undermine" (from sub-, "under" + vertere -- at root "to turn from under, to overturn"); and versus, "against" (from versus, "turned towards," hence "facing, opposed," from the past participle of vertere). Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for vertiginous

Stuff people did at my old job that would not fly at my current job

I did not personally do all the things on this list.


-Crossword puzzles/sudoko

-Homework

-Sewing, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking.

-Any computer game

-Checking personal e-mail

-Catching up on your blog reading

-Online shopping. Online anything that isn't online working.

-Covering somebody's desk with post it notes when they are gone for a few days (that's wasting supplies! Think bonus, dammit!)

-Covering somebody's desk with balloons

-Adding confetti to an inflated balloon, pinning it to the ceiling above someone's desk, then trying to throw pens at the balloon to get the balloon to pop.

-Making darts from t-pins and flower pens and using them to pop balloons. Screaming with laughter.

-Putting staplers and remote controls into balloons.

-Hooking up a Playstation to the company's tv-on-a-cart, playing during work, and staying after work is done to keep playing.

-Work on your home business, stuffing envelopes, making calls, doing your taxes, filling out financial aid forms, making and receiving dozens and dozens of personal calls

-Spinning in your chair until you get dizzy and/or nauseous.

-Excercising at your desk (LOL. Self magazine? 60 second fat blast? In Shape with Sharon Mann? Good times.)

I know I'm missing lots of good stuff. What though?




-

Hey,guess what?

Tuesday is

Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

Celebrate with someone you love. Or by yourself, muttering to yourself in pirate talk in the middle of the grocery store.

Wash away your sins

This is kind of interesting. I guess it makes sense.

I was away from the interweb all weekend long. I didn't miss it but it was good to catch up on blogs, e-mail and whatnot when I got back.

Whatnot is a cool word.

Hey, whatever reinfabulates your misogynator...

All up in your ambifacient lunar wanescan.

This is what it sounds like when anybody tries to explain haute tech to me.

I can't think

of anything to write. Well, yes, I can, but too many things.
Here's a quick list:

I went to a friend's house for dinner; she showed me her 60 day sobriety medal. We ate roast beef and potatoes with carrots and onions. I brought cupcakes for dessert.

Then we watched House. I like that show, it's somehow predictable and edgy at the same time.

In tonight's episode the kid thought he was being abducted by aliens but actually he absorbed his twin in the womb and that's what made him sick or something. I'm not sure, I didn't actually read the link I used above.

What I am sure of: Fox's House website has a page called "Research: To help fuel all your hypochondriacal tendencies". Doesn't have the zygote absorbing stuff from tonight's episode.

It also has a list of House-isms. I haven't found the perennial favorite "Everybody lies." It's so reassuring yet bleak -- see, this show is a study in contradictions!

Gnarls Barkley's new single is a cover of Violent Femmes' Gone Daddy Gone. I like it. I like how he sings every lyric quite clearly even though they may be slurred/screeched in the original. As in, "I could you love you babys a crime." Or is it cryin'?

You may know their (his? is it a guy or a band?) ubiquitous song about "maybe you're crazy, maybe I'm crazy, probably." You know the one? Here's what this song has achieved: the first radio station I heard it on was Drive 105 (alternative). The next station was KCLD (top forty pop/rock/hip hop in St. Cloud). The next was probably Cities 97 or Kiss 96. But the last? Mix 94.9. Next stop is Light 99! Maybe! Maybe it's already there! This is unusual!

At work, scheduling is complicated. Jen, how did you do it?

How does anyone do anything? I really want to know.

Another friend was telling me about her new house. It's in Colorado in a place called Pooter Canyon. Ok, it's actually Poutier Canyon, but everybody pronounces it Pooter. It's near Fort Collins. Sounds very cool. Their backyard will be adjacent to a mountain. Can't beat that.