My coworker Andrew was laid off. I guess he found out yesterday, but I just found out today. The all company email hasn't gone out yet, so I actually got to find out from him. I'm not too surprised, given that we're losing too much damn money right now and I don't think he's had any sales since he's been here, and it looked to me like we have too many sales people. I told him he'll probably do better at a company that's doing better, but I'll miss having my one solid trustable person here. (Actually my thought was that we only needed the one sales person that actually makes the sales, but I know we do need new sales right now.) I wonder if he'd fit in at Worthy Opponent's company? Are they ready for a new sales person there?
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Worthy Opponent and I were discussing how incredibly shocking Cabaret must have been to its mid-sixties audience last night (a conversation brought on in part by my having the Chicago soundtrack stuck in my head and using Cabaret to break its too-tight hold), and I wondered if maybe Cabaret wasn't actually as shocking as I imagined, that in fact it is the modern audience that finds it so shocking. Yeah, sure, "Two Ladies" (and a guy) is now "Two Guys and a Lady," and "If You Could See Her (Through My Eyes)" (the gorilla song) now ends with that horribly shocking line "She hardly looks Jewish at all" (which may have been implied in the original), but maybe in 1966 America was actually a more liberal place than it is now since these shows were successes when they came out. Nicole Brodeur of the Seattle Times remarked in her editorial this morning that people walked out of Hairwhen it was new; but I'm wondering if it's not because people were offended by the song "Colored" so much as it was they were offended by the nudity and "White Boys" ("White boys are so sexy/Legs so long and lean/Love those sprayed-on trousers/Love the love machine"). Or really, is that still what is making people walk out today?
When you realize that Cabaret came out at about the same time as Chicago and Hair, I think that suddenly the "Age of Aquarius" starts to look like the Golden Age of American performing arts. The miracle of these musicals is that the writers and producers were willing to get in people's faces with issues of race, anti-Jewish (and gay) hatred, and the financial realities that make prostitution so attractive ("When hunger comes to rap, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat/At the window, see how love flies out the door") - along with many other issues - rather than just doing something cute that would fill seats (like so much of the crap masquerading as art on the American stage nowadays). And I don't think it's "political correctness" that's holding them back. I think America has become a profoundly more conservative nation in the last thirty years, to our detriment as a society. Even though you can talk about homosexuality much more freely, it's still a big deal to "come out" in most of the country and gay bashing is still happening in high schools around the country. And a lot of people don't have a problem with it! It's sad to think that living in the year 2003, which was supposed to be an era of peace and brotherhood, we're living in a society in which people have become more concerned with strengthening the divides that keep us apart rather than seeking unity (because that leads to, what is it, moral equivalence and the decline of western civilization)?
Enough of that for now. Worthy Opponent and I went to see Bald Faced Lie's production of The Omen last night. It was fairly amusing, raw, of course (I liked it when the actor flipped off the actress who couldn't stop giggling when he came on stage in his extremely baggy jammies), but not as brilliant as some of their shows ... which I of course blame on the fact that Nick Garrison (one of my three secret loves) was in the audience and not on stage. Perhaps most memorable was the fact that Bill McNeil and Jodi James were in the audience and could clearly see me, and yet chose to run out the door as quickly as possible after the show was over rather than say hello. I guessed they didn't want to talk to me, so I left them alone when I could have talked to them, and I was proven right when they worked so hard (and burned so many calories!) to avoid talking to me. Yet another casualty of Ann Donovan's wiping me out of her life - but not such a painful loss as once Bill began to see Jodi he never really seemed to care about hanging out with me anyway. At least I got to visit with Irene last night. It was kind of weird seeing B&J just right over Irene's shoulder - it was like The Old and The New intersecting, which is unallowed, in the same plane, and it reminded me that part of the whole reason I began to cultivate Irene's friendship is because Ann didn't want me in her life anymore. I guess I made the right choice, though, because if I'd just sat on my ass and done nothing it would be three years later and I'd still be wishing I had some good friends in Seattle, and instead of wishing, I have them.
Nothing sweeter than a pecan danish from the beach warm on your desk Monday morning!
We had a great time this weekend. It was nice to finally get the Spartan Manor back, with all of its clever curved wood cabinetry and circular windows. The sound of the rain drumming on it Friday night was very relaxing, but I just as much enjoyed the brilliant sunshine of Sunday morning hurrying me out of doors (admittedly still not until after noon as we stayed at Cathy's Oceanside condo playing games until 12:30 AM and had a half hour drive back to Seaside afterwards).
Our activities could be classified as "farting around, with thrift-shopping." The Ilwaco thrift store coughed up a great 75¢ windbreaker and a $2.50 pair of army boots that were just my size, plus a 25¢ "Power Rangers-Escape from Zorn" game and several paint-by-number sets. The Warrenton (a town near Astoria), Oregon thrift store produced a Karaoke treasure trove of female country artist "Best Of" albums, plus the original cast recording of Cabaret. It has songs not on the current soundtrack ... hurray!
We made all of our meals in the cabin except for the Laurie's Homestead Saturday morning breakfast, which I captured on film so we could prove to our friends that the pancakes are indeed as big as a lung. I didn't really care for the hash browns, though ... too much margarine. But reading the menu, with the choice of biscuit, toast, or grits, made me miss going up there with Rachel and Troy. I wonder when I'll be able to drag them out of town again?
We also took tons of pictures of Len and Marian's place, which I'm hoping we can turn into a better website for them. Since they couldn't come up with a spec, Worthy Opponent and I will just bake something up on our own and see if they like it.
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Ooh, look, it got nice and sunny outside. And I am going to walk home. Yay!
Tomorrow I'm leaving work early and we're driving to Long Beach for a weekend of fun and games and generally not being inside. Yay! Unless it rains, in which case we'll just have to play a lot of pinball and play games. Yay! Unfortunately I'm not going to get to see the flowers in Mount Vernon this year, but that's kind of a Tough Beans deal. I chose to go to Norwescon last weekend and this weekend I'm going out of town, so it's not like I never had an opportunity to go.
I'm down to about four last configurations to test at work, so we're looking good for deploying May 5th, which is the whole reason why I'm going out of town this weekend and not next. This Monday I'm going to go see a live (comic) presentation of The Omen, which is going to be a hoot. I hope I can get some of my friends to come with me.
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I'm "down" to 17 OSes, since the Mac failed altogether. This makes me think I did nothing yesterday and yet I can see that seven spots on my test matrix say that I tested against the new build. I know I did two already this morning. At least I found a good new restaurant to eat at today. It's called Hon's, and it's at 416 5th Ave S in the International District (right across from the bus station). Almost everything on the menu is $6 or less, so they're going on my list of cheap eats in Seattle. The Mongolian Beef is $7.25, but it's well worth it.
I'm walking home with Rebecca so I can show her how nice my tulips are looking in my garden. They're probably just passing their peak bloom right now, and some of the flowers are actually molding. I've never seen this happen before.
I have to remember next year to put a bunch more flowers in under the maple tree. It looks a little bare under there. I kind of miss being able to take advantage of nice weather and sit outside among my flowers, but as I recall that required being out of work, and you can't pay for no flowers when you ain't got no job. It's a tough balancing act. I brought three flowers in with me to work since I can't just look out the window when I want to see them. There's two red Appledoorn types, a Skagit Valley, and a yellow flamed one. They'll be short-lived, but I love having them here. I was thinking it would be funny to cover all of the shelves here with them - that'd turn my cube cave into quite the girly zone.
WO is back from Arizona, where it seems like he found his MoJo somewhere near Usury Peak. I am glad he's home!
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I am missing my Worthy Opponent today, and not just because it was so cold in the bedroom last night, and not just because it's been officially proven that Dog In Bed Means No Sleep For Me. All I did was sit at home and read last night after I came home (Passage by Connie Willis, author of the incredible Doomsday Book, I picked it up used at Elliot Bay before I walked home) and while there is nothing wrong with that (and in fact I also cleaned the living room while I was talking to Celine, which will be patently obvious to anyone who stops by in the next week), it reminded me of how very many pleasant ways to waste time I come up with when he is around. I'm glad he comes home tonight, even though I am dogging him because my flamenco class is at the same time his airplane arrives.
I have 20 browser/OS/WMP combos left to try from the original 46. I'd sure like to get them done today. I feel like I'm going way too slowly at work.
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Yesterday was the official first day of spring for me. Why? Because I got in the car and put on my scarf instead of my gloves. That's because I was planning on rolling down the window, which I did. It was 70 outside! I almost felt bad about driving down to SeaTac for the Con instead of going north to see the tulips in Mount Vernon. But the six hours I spent at the Doubletree Inn were well worth my while, as I had my one and only win of the weekend. Believe it or not, it was Settlers of Cataan, and it was only the second time I had played it in three days despite the fact that I had heavily promoted the Settlers tournament as the reason that I went to the Con. It was a hard-fought victory and one I relished!
Later on I'll post about my cognitive dissonance with attending a science fiction convention. Just let's say that I wore my pink flowered pantsuit yesterday as a sign of protest. And hey, it was spring!
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I spent all afternoon trying to pin down a flash bug that War Pig started out the day wanting not to fix. He was right that it worked on one version of Flash 5 (5.4) and not others (5.3), but I have no real way of knowing how important it is that it works on which versions of Flash because I don't have specific stats from Macromedia and the dev guys out here don't know how to make sub-version detection code. This has left me in a very grumpy mood (I felt like I spent most of the day just loading and unloading OSes on my various test machine, which answers the "which flash" question but doesn't help me check of the list of "tested OSes") and all I really want right now is some nice gooey candy. And a nap. Meanwhile all of the developers have left for the day, most of them to go for a hike on Mount Si. I get to leave early to take Worthy O to the airport tomorrow, but right now I'm feeling jealous of them. I think I want to be part of the Thursday afternoon hike club, only I can't go with the guys because they're too hardcore. Maybe Worthy O and I can start going on our own - he could bring the dogs to work, we could both leave early, then we would "hit the slopes" (as it were). Since the sun will soon be up until 9 PM or later, why not?
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Andrew took me out to Soup Daddy for lunch today. We split a club and each got a cup of soup, mine being cream of potato. It's nice eating somewhere where the staff recognizes you. And they're brewing iced tea now, yum! We kept the conversation light, mostly good musicals as inspired by my bringing the Chicago soundtrack to work today. He still hasn't seen it, and it would be nice if he could come with Worthy Opponent, Cort, Cort's WO and I (plus Celine) to go see it, since I really want to see it again.
I managed to get through the 5 XP configurations this morning, and now I'm going to see if IE4 and NT4 are working correctly, which would be the case if the bug fix worked. I really want to get through the majority of these configurations by EOD Friday, which will be coming a little early thanks to needing to drive Worthy O to the airport (he's heading to Phoenix to see his dad, which means I'll get stuck all weekend playing games at the Science Fiction convention, boo hoo!). I did get distracted and wound up buying two books off of Amazon, one the sequel to the book I finished last night (Lirael), the other a book to help us get ready for our trip to Albuquerque (alas no luck getting a remaindered copy of Stardust). I also found some other good books that I'll want to read eventually, so I added them to my "wish list" since I was already signed in. Maybe I'll sell the other book I have listed on their site and I will be able to use the money to buy some new ones!
I had a major flashback today to working at Acadio. As I described it to my neighbor Andrew, the last two months there I was basically a precog walking the decks of the Titanic, going, "Oh, I might as well do my promenade, it's not like I can stop us from hitting that iceberg anyway." What happened is that my boss mentioned that a certain local company was actually no longer using our services (even though they add to our prestige so we still mention them on our website), a fact he just discovered yesterday. So I told my coworker Andrew, and he mentioned another big company that hasn't paid us jack in months but we keep letting them use the product just so we can say they do. He added that at the sales meeting yesterday that they had two major deals in the works that would totally change how he as a salesguy does his work, because these "deals" would make these guys resell our stuff instead of us selling it directly. The idea, of course, is that the volume will make up for how we will get paid less per deal. And then he told us our major competitor is stomping our butt and that the product I'm working on should have been released last December AND that their platform is still better looking than the one we haven't released yet. Great. I can't believe I'm thinking about spending a bunch of money on fixing up the house.
In other news, the blueberry tart I picked up at Grand Central Bakery (where A and I walked to while having our chat) is delicious.
It's incredible outside right now - sunny with some clouds overhead, 55°F, which I would have considered damn cold in Arizona but with a layer of velvet topped by cashmere it just seems glorious. Worthy O is going to a baseball game tonight with Chris -- I'm sure he's going to love it.
I feel like I haven't accomplished much at work today, this despite the fact that I didn't even get around to having lunch until 2:30 (Koraku, "Beef Teri," I should have got the Tonkatsu Ramen). Instead of focusing doggedly on testing (which for some reason is hard for me when I'm still guessing at what the correct results are and worrying that soon my questions will be taken as a sign of incompentence), I am getting easily distracted by things like the auctions I have going on at EBay right now, like that cute little rug with the roses on it I'm already imagining in my kitchen (it's so very fifties and so very pink) and the Viewmaster camera kit that I saw. (I got on a Viewmaster kick because I found one of my old EBay standbys today, Dawn Colorforms, which made me wonder if they had the Liddle Kiddle viewmaster reels ... it's a long story, really!)
Here I am rambling off again, avoiding work. I'm planning on staying until 7 or so tonight and for most nights this week since I don't have any plans until Friday. Signing off ...
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I'm feeling cranky right now because my boss is adding test scenarios without telling me what the expected results are. Yeah, he wrote the test pages, yeah, he wrote a bug on it, but he never told me what I should see, so I don't know if the bug is the wierd error message (oh no, he wrote that) or the fact that it stays on the screen forever and is never replaced by a video. Grrr. And I feel like I'm getting nowhere with this project right now.
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It sucked yesterday to get hit not just with needing to get a survey ready for the 8 PM concert, but to get an email from the editor of Tablet saying he needed my story ASAP. Fer fuck's sake, why didn't he tell me when the deadline was two weeks ago instead of the night he wanted it? I just spent the last three hours cranking it out, and while I don't think it's awful, I think it would be a whole lot better if I had another week to edit it. And now I get to go take some pictures to go with it ... or rather, I will as soon as Worthy Opponent gets back from the store. Actually, it's kind of exciting to think of getting to go for a fun walk downtown in the nice weather we're having right now. It will be a lot more fun than sitting on the computer, that's for certain! (Read story at "link"/"more" below.)
I'm stuck at work having to listen to this sales guy schmooze people over the phone. It's like listening to him try to pick up chicks at ten minutes 'til closing time. He's saying to them,"Yeah, Seattle, it's a great place to live. It's a maritime culture, the weather is very mild, Pearl Jam plays every weekend, and we get all of our Starbucks for free!"
Now he just said, "I need to know that we're seriously negotiating before I drop my pants." Sheesh!
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I found out this product I'm working on is supposed to go out the door at the end of the month. That means I'm going to be very, very busy the rest of the month. That's basically OK, but I hope it doesn't crimp my schedule at Norwescon next weekend. Anyway, I'm spending the rest of the day creating test pages and testing the pages that have already been created just to make sure they're basically built correctly - not really testing the code yet. I've sure got plenty to test, though -- it's like an anvil hanging over my desk.
I started reading Two Crowns for America and disliked it almost instantly. It really feels like the author pulled it out of a can. Then last night I started reading Lirael, the sequel to Sabriel (which I just discovered is planned to be a trilogy, yay!) and was immediately sucked it. Fine, Two Crowns is off to Twice Sold Tales and Lirael is going to be spending some time quality time with me quickly.
Day three without snacks also went fine, although I wondered if Indian food was "not allowed." Then I thought, who gives a rat's ass about allowed, it's all about snacking, and I wasn't snacking, I was having a meal. However, Dim Sum with Celine is "the all-snack meal," so perhaps I was in violation simply by walking in the restaurant (Top Gun of course). Yummy hot custard buns!
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Day 2 without snacks was an unqualified success. We'll see how things look Sunday AM of course, just before I dig into my waffles.
I've got lots of work to do at my new job today ... write a test plan and read a pound of documentation. They're ready for me to start testing but I think a little more organization will help in the long run.
Written on the Wind was a great time last night. I especially liked the scene where the slutty sister was upstairs, whirling around in her pink robes to some mambo music while her dad was getting ready to have a heart attack. Next week I'll go see All That Heaven Allows and I'll be ready to see the Julianne Moore movie (Far from Heaven, provided it's still at the Crest.
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Yesterday was a complete success food-wise: I had not a single snack all day. I felt very weak when I went into the coffee shop this AM to get some tea and saw the cherry frosted donuts. Be strong! I got a banana instead.
I'm EMGed up to my eyeballs today. I have to finish the newsletter, plan the reception for after the concert Saturday, and write up the questionnaire I'm going to be distributing before the concert. OY! So much work to do! But the concert Saturday looks like it's going to be a big success. Too bad we aren't possibly going to do anything but lose money on this show, even if it sells out. The ticket prices should have been higher.
Two events in May that I'm looking forward to: Hercules' Sneeze at the Northwest Puppet Center, and the huge Akami Kai rummage sale, which will be happening at the Seattle Buddhist Church the day we catch our plane to Albuquerque. Fortunately we have an afternoon flight, so we won't have to miss it this year!
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So far, so good today. I just started in on a piece of sugarless gum since I'm feeling snacky but it's only because I'm bored. I noticed the pop machine here at work has not only two kinds of fruit juice, but two completely calorie-free options: Talking Rain (aka "bubbly water") and Dasani (aka "salted water"). That is going to be helpful.
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I added to my movie list last night. We saw Tarnished Angels at the Grand Illusion. The airplane racing scenes were great, much more exciting that the dogfight sequences in Wings. I didn't have any luck getting anyone else to go with us, unfortunately. I spent the first half of the movie eating my fabulous Thai Tom spicy noodles, which took so long for the restaurant to cook that I was left with no other option but to get it to go and just eat in the theater. It was kind of fun, though, eating with chopsticks in the dark, never knowing what exactly I was about to put in my mouth.
I'm feeling like it's time to reduce my calorie intake, given that I'm currently resting at 160 and after one week of walking I haven't lost an ounce. I'm convinced it's due to my bad snacking habits, which for some reason got out of control recently. For that reason, I've declared this week to be No Snacks week. Snacks are: candy, chips (including Pirate Booty, boo hoo!), cookies, ice cream, and cake (I'd say soda but since I rarely drink it it doesn't matter). Fruit is not a snack. I heard someone say recently that just reducing your caloric intake by 100 calories a day would lead to weight loss, so I think this will help. I also read this article in (please don't slap me!) Vogue comparing the three most popular diet plans (Atkins, Ornish, and Weight Watchers), and it seemed that only the Weight Watchers reviewer was happy. I agreed with the Ornish person who said she always felt hungry on that diet, in spite of the fact it says you can eat all you want if it's on the list. Since the food all tasted bad, what good did it do to be allowed unlimited servings? I'm really not ready for Weight Watchers, though, at least not for paying money to join.
There's an interesting article in Tablet about EveryWoman's Delegation to Cuba. I still really want to go to Cuba - I wonder if I could do it on a newspaper visa?
I was supposed to go to Mount Vernon to see the Tulip Festival with Rebecca today, but instead of sunny turning to overcast it was overcast and damn cold out this morning. Her phone call to get the final details together woke me up too damn early, and I was in a bad mood most of the morning, yelling at the dogs and growling at Worthy Opponent. When we talked an hour and a half later, she had actually decided tomorrow would work better for both of us, and I was relieved to not have to rush around. I still needed to pick up for the appraiser, and I wanted very much to go to the plant exchange.
I have now made it to the plant exchange, and I got a bunch of good possibilities for this year (in exchange for glads, the ever sickly passionflower plant, the scraggly yucca, an orchid, and some irises). I want to write them all down so I don't forget what they are.
According to the Stranger, America has gone insane because of the war. However, at Salumi today, the two guys who were sitting down to eat the hot meat plate ($11.50) with the lasagne ($8.50) were driving me insane with jealousy (it was the glasses of wine that put me over the top). I had to get my sandwich (winter sausage and spicy provolone, $8.50) to go because I have a lot of work to do today, which wasn't a problem (other than the fact that the sun had come out and I was leaning toward eating in a plaza) until I saw these guys living it up like it wasn't even a weekday. Damn. Some people have all of the luck. At least I got a bunch of info I can use to update my review of the restaurant.
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Yesterday I got a bunch of interesting feedback here at my new job. First, one of the developers (the one I like the most) came up to me and teased me about the honeymoon being over. I shot back at him,"What you don't want me to do my job?" then added, "Hey, you write good code, I don't give you any bugs!"
Later in the day they guys were "kicking up their heels" and had a yogurt lid shooting war. What a bunch of goobs.
Finally, I was laughing about the flying lids, and my neighbor A*** said that I almost got struck off the list for hiring because I said I didn't want to work in a fraternity-like atmosphere. Fortunately the head developer (who almost struck me off) was able to figure out that I didn't mean I was against horsing around, but I'm curious if he understood that I meant I wanted to work in an atmosphere that a) wasn't a pigsty and b) where I could be treated like one of the guys.
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So much for a bright golden haze, it's damn cold out! But that isn't stopping the flowers from looking good. My Single Earlies are starting to bloom now.
Plans for tonight include a trip to the Seattle Art Museum to see the Jacob Lawrence exhibit, then Dine Out for Life with Irene and Maya (I want Five Spot but they're not cooperating). Lunch will be at Top Gun with Worthy Opponent (Celine just cancelled), to take advantage of his being downtown while he's doing jury duty.
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There's a bright golden haze over Alki There's a bright golden haze over Alki The clouds are as high as an elephant's eye And way off in the distance could that be Mount Si?
Oh what a beautiful morning Oh what a beautiful day I've got a beautiful feeling I'm eating at Bakeman's today ...
The commuters are standing like statues The commuters are standing like statues They don't move a bit when they see me walk by But a little blonde punk girl is winking her eye ...
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I was thinking about dishing dirt about all of the companies I've interviewed at in the last two years. This should make good reading, but I worry about getting sued for libel or disclosure of NDA. On the other hand, fucked up management does not constitute a trade secret.
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