Work today was soggy and full of Methodists.

DEAR UPS:

How can my computer and its contents weigh 18lbs? Where did the extra 14lbs come from? What did you pack it in, brick?

Sarah, let's go swimming!

But first, let's raid the chemistry storeroom.

I HAVE NO PATIENCE.

::EDIT FOUR HOURS LATER::
Well, the picture worked. My computer is in transit.

And you say I'm needlessly violent, Mike.

::EDIT 7 HOURS LATER::
Holy crap. Tracking number says it's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. COULD IT BE? O.O

Note to self: post threatening pics more often!

oh! I forgot!

Three more things from work.

1) The Science Dept finally got two new cadavers. Our old ones were like...30 years old, and getting kind of ghetto. Well, the new ones were delivered to the Animal Phys lab during swing shift, so when we come in, Geniusman informs me of their arrival and says the following:

"I want to go see them, but I didn't have any time."

To which Bossman Sulk responds huffily:

"SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR THE DEAD."

...Dude. They donated their bodies to SCIENCE. Classes of 30 people take them apart and see what made them tick (or stop ticking) at least once a semester. Something tells me it's a lost cause.

2) Bossman Extreme had a run-in with the psycho janitor lady from the student center a few minutes before my shift began. She came in to ask about an outside door in the SUB that was held open, and he told her there was no reason for it to be like that.
"Alright. I'll let you guys close it during your rounds."
"If you're headed back that way, you could do it too."

Not rude at all. He didn't order her to close the door, he just suggested that if she were going to be in the building she could take the damn thing off the doorstop. Well, she freaks out, because apparently he just accused her of being the one to leave it open, and storms off in a huff. Bossman Extreme is a little confused, but goes back on his merry way.

THEN! Over the Facilities radio we hear her talking to someone about "that asshole who cruises around in the pickup." Yep. She's talking about Bossman Extreme. Over a walkie-talkie. We think she accidentally hit the button while talking to someone else, because it was broadcast kind of faintly. But needless to say, her boss wasn't too happy about what was just said. So he calls them both to have a meeting in the student center to try to figure out what the hell is going on. They meet right in front of the camera, so we pulled up the video feed and watched it later. The blonde lady was screaming, flailing around like a tweaker, and kept storming off repeatedly. After ten minutes, the meeting breaks up, Bossman Extreme begins to walk off-camera, and she comes FLYING at him. We don't know what happened after that.

The janitor ended up quitting. Over a propped door. Granted, her boss said she kept getting into fights with the other female staff, so she probably had other reasons, but still. It's a DOOR. She's a JANITOR, so I highly doubt shutting doors is the least savory aspect of her job.

So Bossman Extreme wrote an e-mail to Big Boss explaining the situation in an attempt to pre-empt the inevitable complaint against him. We'll see how it turns out.

3) It was a bad day for Bossman Extreme on all fronts, really. He was up all day with his kids, so was EXHAUSTED at work last night, and they had training that day, so he couldn't go to sleep after work. He ended up falling asleep in the truck around 4AM, and we couldn't get ahold of him over the radio for the next hour. Finally, it was 5:15, and he had to leave at 6 and had yet to do any unlocks, so I ran over to where he was on the other side of campus and started banging on the driver's side window. It took me two minutes to get him woken up. He looked really embarassed when he saw me, too.

We have two Bossmans who pull stuff like that on a regular basis, but when he does it, we know something's up.

It's 4AM, and I am giggling hysterically

::EDIT AFTER WORK::
Dude, something crawled up Big Boss's ass and died today. Evidence suggests it was his own head.

Big Boss: "Where's Bossman Extreme?"
Partnerman: "He's napping before the training session."
Big Boss: "I asked where he was, not what he was doing."
Partnerman: "He's on campus..."
Big Boss: "He didn't tell you where?"
Partnerman: "He told Bossman Kind. I can find out for you if you want."
Big Boss: "That won't be necessary."
Me: *fetal position*

5 minutes later...

Big Boss: "Partnerman, what's going on here today?"
Partnerman: "What's going on where?"
Big Boss: "I don't need you to be a smartass; just answer the question!"

In summary:
Me, Bossman T, Bossman STL, and Bossman Kind: "..."
Partnerman: O.o ?
Big Boss: @.@ ragharrrghblaghpppbt!

Dear Dell:

Please give me a reasonable explanation for why it takes more than two days to put a computer in a box. I NEED TO KNOW.

A most wonderful sense of freedom

I went into the doctor today, and he gave me the go-ahead to stop physical therapy. He did, however, warn me that if I do not keep exercising regularly and doing strength training for my inner quad and hips I will relapse.

He also told me I NEED to start running again, so for those of you who are worried I'll make things worse...HA. (Yes, I am mature.)

That's the problem with running. Once you start, you can't really stop.

I'm headed off to the gym to work out before I sleep again.

I hate networking so fucking much.

That is what supposedly provides internet to every room in this house.



At least one of those random wires is currently plugged into the wrong spot. If I were living in this house for any length of time, I would fix it and make everything work properly. Instead, I disconnected the damn thing from the modem, set up my wireless router, got help tripling its range, and then made it to where I am the only computer that can use it. So I am effectively the only person in the house with internet, which is fine, since no one else has paid me what they owe me.

That poor router reminds me of Key.

::EDIT::
Now with 100% more nipples.

::EDIT::
Now with 100% less incorrectly drawn right breast.
A male drew that art, I just know it.

Dell status page + refresh = @.@

My computer has been built and tested. Now I'm just waiting for it to be boxed and sent to me. If that takes two weeks, someone at Dell is losing something precious. I'm looking at you, boxing-supervisor man.

::EDIT::
So I miss 3/4 of the course material due to sickness, have limited time to study due to work and brain just saying NO, and I still get above the class average with a 71%.

YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF FUCKING SLACKERS.

This is apparently a DRAMABOMB waiting to happen.

I posted about some of the more idiotic guys I've dealt with on the job on Customers_Suck, and have gotten some interesting replies.

Me being angry that guys are calling me "honey" and asking if I'll be okay isn't because I don't appreciate being undermined when I'm on the job, oh no: It's because I'm a feminist.

And guys aren't doing crap like that because they're assholes; It's a basic biological instinct.

But if guys do it to women mechanics or women computer specialists, it's chavanism.

I work in a place where I NEED to be taken seriously in order to do my job. It has nothing to do with sexism. It's simply a fact.

So in short, LJ? Fuck you.

Luck

Dell just came out with a line of new dual-core laptops, which effectively made the one I want obsolete. Why is this a good thing? Well, I don't want a dual-core laptop. That sounds like great tech for a desktop, especially considering how hard I tend to run my computers, but for what I want this laptop for, that kind of stuff is absolutely fucking unnecessary. This laptop is for notes and internet and writing papers in the library (and maybe even movies on planes), not for games.

Thus, I just ordered my laptop, which initially was going to cost me about $1,400, for the low price of $830. That's 100GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 12" widescreen, Pentium M, and all that jazz crammed into a computer slighly larger than a sheet of printer paper and about an inch thick. It weighs less than five pounds and has about seven hours of battery life. This makes it the perfect notebook. And, since it's a shiny electronic, I will NEVER LOSE IT. I leave textbooks and notebooks around incessantly. I did badly on my Cell Bio exam for that very reason. But this? This is something shiny. I guard my electronics like some sort of bizarre technology-hoarding dragon. I'll ALWAYS know where it is.

I have already picked out desktop wallpapers and an XP theme skin for it. Currently, I plan to name it "Squeaker."

That estimated ship date had better be a dirty lie. Is all I'm gonna say. >>

::EDIT AFTER WASTED TIME::
I present to you some screenshots of what I have decided Squeaker should look like.





The iTunes skin is still pending on judgement. It's between that and a pale blue one that matches the bunny.

Also, the screenname for my laptop is going to be "AllFoofyLove," (long story) so replace the name with that and change the icon to the wallpaper bunny on the Tril contact list. Delete the moon, as well. I didn't want to fuck with my widgets too much since I had to get Papoose back to the way it normally looks (read: lots of black).

::2ND EDIT::
Found a page that has the info you all are looking for. Sorry the piccy isn't bigger, but they've taken down all the fun high-tech stuff since it's on outlet now. I got the 8-cell lithium ion battery, in case you were wondering about just how awesome my battery life was going to be (that means it will stick out a bit from the back, but I don't mind, because it's still only this big). I also got a spare AC adapter because I've had too many problems with them in the past to not.

MADNESS!

I decided that instead of making a long, wordy blog post about the Seattle trip, I would make a long, musical slideshow. Unfortunately, I didn't get it done before work, so look for this monstrosity to be posted in the wee hours of the morning.

When I should be sleeping in preparation for my exam.

^^;

::EDIT AFTER SLEEP::
Got it done last night, but was too tired to wait for it to upload. The .wmv is INCREDIBLY better quality than the .mov, so I would recommend watching it if at all possible. The .mov catches on transitions and keeps the photos out of focus at first. I'll probably try to tweak it and upload a better one later.

The $1K Weekend.wmv

The $1K Weekend.mov

Enjoy.

Conundrum

Q. Eating the food of housemates that no longer live here makes me:

a) A terribly presumptuous person.
b) An opportunist who doesn't want stuff to go to waste.
c) Some dire combination of the two.

It's scary, tho. The downstairs freezer has a ton of Hot Pockets...and a whole turkey. Explain that to me if you can.

A quick note before bed

Coming home, it hits me that adulthood is slowly sneaking up on me. Here I am, driving to a house I'm paying to live in, from a job I took to pay my bills. Yes, all two of them, and I don't own the car I'm driving. But it's a start. Grown-up life is creeping in, man.

Then I get home and encounter this in my photos of the weekend:


Yes, adulthood. Come and get me. I fucking DARE you.

I love my job

A few things I've been meaning to blog about that happened during this set of shifts.

Me: *grabs bottle of ramune, heads for front room*
Me: *sets on counter*
Bossman Prime: "What is that?"
Me: "Ramune!" *depresses opener*
Ramune: *Fizz!*
Bossman Prime: "What just happened?"

It was the way he said it. Totally flat, normal, conversational tone.

My partner has a penchant for hurling doorstops that don't belong into random bushes. Tonight we found another one in the music building:

Me: "Oh look, that one's labeled Judy."
Partnerman: "Well, good. Now it's going to be labeled "Judy" in the woods somewhere."
Judy: *careens through air into a rhododendron*
Me: "Bye Judy."

Then there's even more proof that when I am in uniform, idiot men simply feel they MUST hit on me:

Me: *doing admit for asbestos removal people*
Testosteroni: *sleazy* "Heh, had to use that flashlight on anyone today?"
Me: *Wrenglare* "Not yet."
Testosteroni: "Whoa, okay, I'll stay in line."
Me: *walks off, muttering* "Asshole."
Partnerman: "You know, my last coworker never had that problem."
Me: "I have a vibe."

Also, my bosses seemed to have a very different idea of what my 6/6/06 should be like. After I accidentally set off an alarm during one of my lock-ups, Bossman Prime realized that I'd had far too little alarm training. So he shipped me back to base, sat me down at the computers, and proceeded to make every other employee currently working set off every fire, burglar, and elevator alarm possible to see if he could fluster me. People were RUNNING through halls pulling doors as they went.

Yes. The last 45 minutes of my shift were spent simultaneously writing notes, responding to and resetting alarms on the computer, responding to phone alarms, and keeping a constant radio contact going with my coworkers.

At the end of it? "Excellent job, Wren. Especially on the last one. You did everything exactly right."

Good. Now stop pretending to be dead, please.

And now I pass out. No classes tomorrow, so I can sleep in for a while before it's time to study hardcore for my next Oceanography exam.

One final note: The skeleton of the new blog is up for your viewing pleasure. I was in an odd mood when I made it.

Work Work Work

Have an exam on Friday in Oceanography that I've been spending most of my free time studying for. At least I don't have to work this weekend.

Dinner tonight? Tuna rice ball, miso soup, a drink that seems to be made from aloe vera, mango sorbet, and probably some of the garlic bread I left there from last night's dinner.

Rice balls are so much frigging fun to make. I need to remember to pick up some nori, tho, so I can use some of it, too.

My goal for 06/06/06 is to scribble my name as many signing walls as I can at work. And then sleep.

Cover down, boys.

I've had a couple of requests to make easy (read: bachelor-able) and yummy recipe guides with extensive directions and tips for those of my male friends who are finally getting sick of ramen and Cap'n Crunch.

So, in the next couple of days, look out. I might make a new blog, or just link pages here. Depends on how bored I get.

Also, pics of weekend will be up ASAP. Currently trying to get caught up in Oceanography, so I want to get that done before I dive on in to the massive blog post of doom that this weekend will require.

Gossiping hens!

Unc is pissing me off. We've been here for two days and seen him for less than five minutes. He canceled all the plans we had made today, and then got angry that I was upst about it. Yay sailing. - -;

Also, apparently there are still a lot of Missouri people who still read my blog. This bothers me for two reasons:
1) None of them have spoken to me in over a year. So why do they even care? (Besides gossip, of course, which is how I found out about this in the first place.)
2) I changed my blog address to keep a stalker away. The fact that they found this anyway make me wonder about the effectiveness of the change...
3) "Fuck off already." -Maddo

Needless to say, I'm in a pretty bad mood, and this damned keyboard isn't really helping. (*snerk*-Maddo) So I'm going to curl my hair in a ridiculous fashion, use my new honey and lotion, and vindictively order the bellpeople to find my high heels. Yep, they're in the car. Go fetch.

Best Thai food in Seattle, you say? Courtesy of my uncle, even? Oh, ESPECIALLY.

Jolly good.

West-in? Wha? West-out. I sense a clever ghetto joke here, but I can't quite place it.

Yay for TV internet. Yay also for the Maddo sitting to my left and correcting my typing as I go. Actually, I stand corrected: she's "horizontal."

We're all three currently in the throes of a love-hate relationship with this hotel. On the one hand, the 43rd floor bay windows offer a lovely view of downtown Seattle + Space Needle + Lake Union and/or Washington. There's a pretty excellent room service menu, warm and heavy bathrobes, comfy, if overwhelming beds, and a dual-head showerhead in the bathroom.

However: In the first ten minutes we were in the hotel, I had to call the "service desk" twice, once for a lost bag, and then because they decided not to actually make our beds before we arrived. The shower, though lovely indeed, likes to "whistle as it works," deluging the ears of everyone in the hotel room with a dog-whistle-esque whine of pure rage and rebellion. Now that I think of it, the TV was doing the same thing last night, though that might be because it was reluctant to play the entirety of The New World. In retrospect, I don't really blame it, and if I were actually PAYING for any of this I would demand my money back from the concierge, possibly at knifepoint whie wearing a lovely bathrobe like a cape.
Actually, switch knife for "ice tongs". I like that mental image better.

Today we've been invited to watch the Uncle's race from the VIP boat, but we've decided we rather like the idea of skipping that (on pretense of the water air aggravating my symptoms) to go play aound in downtown Seattle all day. We're in a conveniently situated area for everything except Uwajimaya, which we'll probably make time for tomorrow on our way back into Tacoma.

There's also an "afterparty," but as I just told Sarah and Maddo, it will likely be full of post midlife-crisis, bored, rich thirtysomethings. And a LOT of booze. We are torn.

I'm being ordered to stop blogging and get dressed. I'm hungry, so I'm going to oblige. Sarah has been taking a lot of pics, so once we get back in town there will be another photoessay for everyone's (?) enjoyment.