the ongoing saga of my job 1 Comment

So Long, Rob…

Well, it had to happen someday. Rob, of RCC Special Projects fame, finally got another job. Now he’ll get to drive up to Corporate in Toledo every weekday morning, wearing a shirt and tie, and do something fancy with government lending.

In tribute, I made sure the following photos were circulated around work today:


Clockwise, from upper left: Rob playing hookey on St. Paddy’s Day 2006; Rob wearing his Long John Silver’s hat, January 2005; Rob with hockey great Steve Yzerman, Oct/Nov 2005; and Rob eating a piece of shortcake in one bite, July 2005.

I’m not knocking the remaining members of my department… but it’s going to be a lot less festive without Rob there. There are a very few people I feel I can really be myself around — the REAL me, not the fake chatty work me — and he’s one of those few. Honestly, I don’t understand why REAL chicks (read: intelligent, witty, cool, non-fluffs) aren’t beating down his door. Except for maybe his over-the-top cheesy phone voice. 😉

We had a going-away potluck today, and I insisted on taking more pictures of Rob than he would have liked. So, to share with the entire internets:


Rob ended up bequeathing me one of his umbrellas (because I always borrow it when I walk over lunch) and his Long John Silver’s hat (presumably because he already has two at home, but mainly because of the above photo from 2005). Note that the hat not only looks stylish on me, but also now has a hallowed spot on my cubicle wall.

Without getting all mushy and shit… damn, work is really starting to suck on the interpersonal front. If James and Heather quit, that’ll do it for me. I’ll fucking quit and have a kid and do freelance work or something from home.

randomness

I Feel Violated.

Someone is using my schnuth.com e-mail address — which currently forwards to my gmail account — as a return address for spam. I’ve gotten at least four autoreplies today — no, make that five, as another one just came in — from various recipients, including Yahoo Groups and other mailing lists.

This pisses me off on so many levels. Now I have to wonder if my schnuth.com address will be spamblocked on some random server when I try to send an e-mail sometime in the future. I’ve also run Spybot and Norton Antivirus on my computer to make sure nothing’s hijacked my Outlook Express that I never use. I figure that someone probably just forged their headers in reverse, using their spam recipient list as a perfect source for reply-to addresses.

Bastards.

What pisses me off the most is that the genie’s out of the bottle now. I can’t go and tell all these people and mailing lists, “Sorry, but some spammer is using my e-mail address to spam you. It’s not really me!” Whatever. If some unfortunate result comes of this… *shrug* There’s nothing really to be done about it.

At least I don’t use that address very much anymore.

otaku 1 Comment

SITACon Group Photo


[Posted on Flickr by Happy House of Hentai]

I used to be the person who stood way in the back of group pictures and was never seen. When did I become this person who declares, “OK, I’ll pretend to be a short person and get in the front!”

Left to right: Scott and Rym from the Geek Nights podcast; me; Andrew Corbin, con chair; Martin Leung, Video Game Pianist; Aaron (from the Weekly Anime Review Podcast, of course); and Hello Kitty and Lord Kaosu from the Happy House of Hentai.

writing 10 Comments

In Lieu Of NaNoWriMo

I now have two unfinished stories — at least two, that is — which I think are worth finishing. One I began in 1999, and one I began officially during last year’s National Novel Writing Month, although I had the ideas brewing for a couple of years before that. I also have… *counting* …twelve unfinished stories and one complete short story.

The last thing I need is to start a new project for NaNoWriMo.

If I’d ever successfully “won” NaNoWriMo — that is, written 50,000 words during the month of November — I could invoke the Zokutou Clause, which states:

You have to start your novel from scratch, unless you are a previous NaNoWriMo winner. If you have already attained the status of Winner, you do not need to start a new novel, as your main aim is now to finish one. You can now consider yourself a winner if, by midnight on the 30th of November, you have either:

  1. Written 50,000 words on one or more previous works.
  2. Completed your novel’s first draft.

I have, however, not written the requisite 50,000 words in one month, so I do not qualify.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
14,681 / 50,000
(29.4%)

So, this November, I intend to work on last year’s NaNoWriMo story. I’ve found a sturdy little piece of software to help me write my “story bible”; in fact, it’s already helped me locate one continuity error in the 32 pages (1.5-spaced, not double-spaced) that I’ve written so far.

My plan is to research where my characters hail from, discover their individual backgrounds, and figure out precisely how a team of vampires can capture and kill an incubus without seriously injuring themselves. Hopefully, by the end of November, I will at least have enough backstory figured out so that I can continue writing without worrying about the details that form the basis of the intrigue.

Don’t be surprised if I come to you for help, like I have in the past. I suck at dialogue, which is only a symptom of my general social ineptitude, so I’ll be needing some guidance along the way.

crafty 2 Comments

Return of the Soy Candles

I have a kitty on my lap and the smell of Drakkar candles in the air. Sometimes, life is good.

I hadn’t made candles for several months. Then, last week, one of my co-workers approached me and asked, “You make candles, right?” I answered in the affirmative, and he went on to say that he had been disappointed by his most recent Yankee Candle purchase, and was seeking a new supplier of smelly-good and long-lasting candles.

He explained that he required a big, manly-smelling candle. So, I had him sniff the Drakkar tealight I keep at my desk, and he was sold. (I had referred him to the somewhat outdated list of fragrances on my website, and he’d decided it was either that or evergreen.) We agreed that I would make him an appropriately large and smelly candle, and he would give me ten bucks for said candle.

Of course, I was almost out of wax, so I had to make a run to Michael’s tonight; and, of course, the pint-sized mason jars I bought at Big Lots for the purpose of candle-making didn’t look quite as big when I unpacked them. But that’s OK. The price listing on my site says that 16 fl. oz. candles are $10.99 plus shipping, so I’m actually cutting him a deal. 😉

I always have a problem actually *selling* my candles, being that the only people who buy are people to whom I feel I should just *give* candles. Then there’s the random e-mail I got a year or two ago, asking if I do wholesale.   o.O   Um, I melt wax in a glass three-cup measure in my oven, dude. Sorry, but I can’t be your primary candle supplier.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy making candles, though. It’s really a cold-weather pastime for me, since I have to have the oven on for a good part of the evening, so I haven’t done any candle-making for a while. Tonight was probably the first time in… *thinking* …maybe close to a year.

Making candles also helps me be more productive in other realms, too, since I have to keep myself occupied while the wax melts, then again while it cools to a good pouring temperature. I ended up going to Kroger while I was out at Michael’s, and getting stuff for Friday’s potluck (OMG ice cream cone cuppie-cakes with white chocolate chips). When I got home, I made my dinner (also purchased at Kroger — I haven’t had imitation crab in ages), did a load of laundry, put the dishes away, cleaned up my desk, and did some maintenance to the LSM website, all while either waiting for the wax to melt or to cool.

I’ll have to order up another 10lb bag of soy wax and maybe some essential oils to experiment with. I have a crapload of votive-sized containers in a cupboard in the kitchen, just begging to be made into random gifts…