Back (to the week, that is)!

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to their owners.

May I present to you the rest of the week: Thursday and Friday!


Thursday

Well, I'm back at City Hall.

In early August I told my co-workers that my assignment was coming to an end. One suggested I check with the other departments to see if any needed a temp. I thought it was a good idea and contacted my agency. They said they had no orders but would check with their contacts. Later that day the department secretary from one of the other departments stopped by. She was going on vacation and wanted to know if I'd be willing to cover for her. While the pay rates considerably lower, the hours--both daily and the length of the assignment--posed no probs to my extra-curricular activities. I said yes and confirmed the assignment with my agency.

So I'm back.

Felt both familiar and strange. Driving in was the same. At the same time, I constantly took the long route to the restroom and lounge even though they were considerably closer. I knew everyone in the department but interacted with employees I rarely saw in the other department. Again, the same but different.

I was shown a temporary cubicle where I started my first assignment: filing. Had some network probs with the computer but that was (amazingly) quickly resolved. (I've worked in IT and know how busy they are.) During a break, I went to pick up my badge but HR couldn't find it so they gave me a loaner. Got my original later.

Training consisted of working with the employee whom I'd be covering. I joined her for the regular staff meeting. Everyone knew me but I was surprised who did not to the meeting. I later learned some staff, due to their duties and coverage, never attended the staff meeting. Afterwards I continued training.

As I stated earlier, I worked for another department. I barely interacted with them. They were busy as many folks (in both departments) were preparing for vacation.

The employee left mid-afternoon. I was suppose to leave even earlier but she asked if I'd be willing to stay to continue the major project. I said yes, of course.

* My new co-workers are very polite and sociable. I did note, though, two instances where I suspect the prior department had said some...things...about me. I don't think it'll prove disruptive to the assignment, but it's reinforcing several thoughts I've had about working for public institutions. See private journal for specific details and thoughts.


Friday

R.'s on-call tonight. To minimize alone time, I'm goin' dancing with friends tonight. But that meant first getting up.

I spent the morning lounging around: continued to read and finish a book (see Way); surfing the Internet; watching DVDs. I made several calls and sent e-mails to my friends about this evening. Around 1330 I finally prepared for the day.

Ate at one of our favorite restaurants. It was quiet and the servers were chatty. One mentioned his second job; the other discussed her parents' wedding. I took care of some pressing business over at the post office before heading home for a quickie nap.

Met my friends Pre-OC and Movie Lit over at UCI. Dinner was pleasant though the restaurant was more noisy than we'd like. And I felt sorry for Movie Lit: he sat where sunlight constantly hit his face. After we were done we walked about a bit, talking about literature, movies, and our pasts.

We converged down in Laguna Beach. I was a little concerned when Pre-OC didn't arrive. I gave him a call and discovered he had to take a quick nap in his car! I'll have to talk to him about that later. But he finally joined us.

Our first stop was a local bar where we listened to the performer belt out songs like All that Jazz and Proud Mary (Tina Turner version). It'd had been a while and I found myself looking at the crowd while listening to the performance. Movie Lit and I saw a Retired Gov, a regular from the Center. He joined us later for a while when Pre-OC, Movie Lit, and I moved over to the coffee shop next door. Mango cheesecake. Yum!

Dancing next. Well, at least listen to the horrible music. We didn't stay long.

Overall, a pleasant Friday.


It's interesting how being friendly opens people up. R. has commented much about that trait in me. I don't think about it that, for I enjoy listening to people's lives. Maybe that's why I enjoy blogs so much. No matter what someone says, there's always something interesting about their lives which proves material for a writer. See private journal for specific details on entries. Lots of stuff for future books.

Regarding dancing. I definitely wanted to move but none of the songs played were remotely danceable. Disappointing. But it was interesting to see the club crowds had not changed much since I first started clubbing over a decade ago.

Also, I think it's my thoughts on writing, but an old...habit...emerged that evening and I noted certain behaviors that are becoming clear. There's a part of me that's offended and mortified but the Muse in me is pointing out how the observations will prove useful for future books. See private journal for specific details on entries.


*This is a new feature which show some internal observations about the day's events. Don't know if I'll continue it.

Flooble it

And another random blog from Flooble. Hmmm. I don't think this is interesting anymore. Should I stop?


_________________________________
A couple of days ago my parents were thinking about sex of the European lowlands. They were a little disturbed by that stuff, so they tells my friend Julio about it, and he began yelling:

"Wow!.. Wow! I was just learning about the European lowlands in class!"

But then when my parents got to the part about the sex, Julio suddenly got this dangerous look in his eyes. And the next day, Julio's niece told me that the reason Julio was so freaked out was because he used to write a lot about sex. Often Julio can be very strange like that, but I need to make this work...

Link of the day: Project Genesis | Randomly generated by Flooble Instant Blog Post Generator

Double days in a dash

Back to a money-paying job today (and the only day this week, heh-heh). Before I dash off, here's an update on my happenings the past couple of days:


Tuesday
Today was the beginning of what I call the beginning of "signing week." Major authors (to me) have descended into SoCal and, since I'm between jobs, have attended the lion's share of them. See details over at Way for the authors and additional posts on the signing, if any. (I'm so far behind!)

So I spent the morn and early afternoon doing some housework and updating Way and Forge. Then drove out to Glendale to attend the first major signing. R. joined me after work. Details to be posted over at Way.


Wednesday
Yesterday's authors are touring and signing near R.'s work. Thus, we gathered the remaining books and packed into the car. I fiddled on-line for a while, waiting impatiently to start down to San Diego to attend my signings. (Details to follow on Way.) I arrived hours early and, after filling myself up on Mickey D's, esconced myself at the nearby coffeeshop to read and write until 1900. While checking my e-mail, I discovered another signing to (possibly) attend.

Around 1830 I packed up and grabbed a fast-food din-din. Easily over thirty folks sat in the bookstore by the time I entered, meal and books in hands. I sat and ate for the presentation and signing to begin. (See future posts on Way of the event.)

Sigh.
I was not in a good mood when I arrived home. Part of it was fatigue; another part was feeling down about my own goals after meeting such successfully people. I opened up my e-mail prog and discovered a request from one of the tribes I belong with at Tribe to "slow down" on my threads.

And this is from the tribe moderator. Yikes!

I've been giving thought for some time now about dropping a few of the tribes that I belong with. This was one of them. After giving some deep thought about the request, I framed a reply and sent it. I followed up with actions shortly afterwards.

Zen time!

Beyond the Blog*


where's e.k.?

Oh, cool. To travel Japan....


Life and times of Ginger Matt

Oh! Another one on living in Japan. I'm envious....


The Terrific Travails of Tracy the Titless

The blog name alone...!



*New title for "Random of the Day"

Duh daze diktashuns*

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to their owners.

Saturday
R. was on-call on Friday up in Northridge. Stayed there the rest of the day and early evening to follow up on some paperwork. Since I was solo, I spent much of the day down in San Diego. The major event was author Wil Wheaton's signing of his latest book, Just A Geek. A review to follow over at Way of the Writer. After it was over, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in Hillcrest before returning home.

Sunday
Nesting.
That's the word I use to describe the day and much of the month of August.
We woke late, of course, and didn't set out to eat until after 2PM. We drove up to the floor store to get some figures. We then drove out to Huntington Beach and visited the Expo, Home Depot's pricey design center. Yikes! Didn't believe there were so many different types of wallcovers, lamps, etc. While R. gasped and swooned over the latest tile, I was calculating costs both in time and money. Suddenly the home equity looked inadequate.

Stopped by Barnes and Nobles, of course, where R. picked up a new stack. Ate, then spent the rest of evening at home where we watched anime and surfed the Internet into the whee hours. I added way too many new tribes at Tribe.net.

Monday

No work today. Or, more specifically, no job to go to today. Definitely doesn't mean a day to rest. After R. left for work, I updated and sent a resume to another agency for a possible tech writing job in the local area. Faxed over last week's time card to another agency as well.

Lunched at one of my favorite restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised when the maitre d' greeted me by asking, "how's our favorite customer today?" And the familar server and I exchanged gossip on the latest servers, who's dating whom, and how our lives were going. Tipped very generously.

Picked up last week's comic books and got a haircut. Oh! Paid bills at the local post office across the university. Is it me, or are kids getting younger these days? Drove down to one of the agencies and picked up my paycheck from two weeks ago which I processed with R.'s monthly one at a local bank.

Shouldn't have laid down when I got home. I woke two hours later, groggy. I had planned to work on my works-in-progress but dropped the idea. Instead, I hit the gym and did cardio. (Note to self: Never forget workout clothes after getting home.) While driving home, came up with a new heading for a post: My Mundane Monday.

*Having a little fun here. This is mild in comparison to some of the spelling I've seen on blogs on-line.

Ratboy's Top Ten List of Blog Rules


(Thanks, Ratboy!)

1. If the majority of your wardrobe is black, you enjoy cloves and incense, and/or you like to write poetry about the blackness of your soul, don’t start a blog. Teh intarweb is safer without you.

2. Nobody cares about what you ate for breakfast.

3. Internet quizzes are fun and all, but you have to say other stuff, too. A 1-for-1 content-to-quiz posting ratio is the bare minimum.

4. Don’t speak in 1337. Ever. If you do, I'll be forced to kill you with my brain. (Ya big 14mz0r)

5. No, you’re really not secretly a dragon.

6. Even if you were a dragon, you can still get AIDS. Also, get professional help. Seriously.

7. A blog is not the place to get validation from your parents. They probably won't even read the thing, unless you point out your blog's existence to them, in which case, why not just talk to them directly? Anything else is just kinda pathetic. And not in the classical sense of the word.

8. Think first, then write. If, after long consideration, you decide you don't want anyone reading that entry you've just thought up, just don't write the bloody thing. It's that simple.

9. If you don’t want people commenting on your blog, and you like having hissy fits just because someone decides to politely disagree with you, don’t include a comments feature on your blog. Dumbass.

10. Yes, after a fashion, when you write a blog entry you are writer, editor, and publisher, all in one. That does not mean you are God. Teh intarweb does not quake at your passing.

(Last) week's whereabouts

Image was found on the Internet and all rights belong to their owners.

I really didn't post much about my activities last week. Sorry about that. Found and generated so much interesting stuff. Well, here were some of the highlights:


Monday

Weird stuff went on with my blog all day. I found the info sidebar (on the left side), for example, way down the page. You had to scroll to see it. And suddenly the ad space above my blog vanished to be replaced by a navigation bar (which I discovered it was.)

And apparently I wasn't the only one to experience these probs. I determined the info bar issue seemed to be related to my work browser. But the nav bar was done by Blogger (woohoo!). I found out later that it was the new nav bar that was the cause of the sidebar slipping down.


Tuesday

Morn was harrowing.

Bit of background. I found a job opening over at the City of Irvine a couple of weeks ago and applied. Now government departments are notorious for taking a while before contacting folks about jobs. It took one agency six months to contact one of my sibs about her app. Thus, I didn't expect to hear anything for a while.

Oops!

The city called the following week and invited me to test on the 17th. I had to scramble a bit since I was still working an assignment. But I did scramble and made it to take the test (as well as the near hundred who showed up.)

There's no waiting period. The proctors (0ne of whom was drop-dead gorgeous! Very distracting.) stated oral (ah, hmmm) interviews will start next week for those who pass the test (which I found almost ridiculously easy, especially reading comprehesion. Come on!) I've learned from recent experience that the major cuts will be done during this time.

In contrast to the morning, it was quiet at work the rest of the day. I spent a substantial amount of time reading My Blog; specifically, the archives. Wow! Interesting read and generated lots of ideas for my own blog. (But first, a digital camera.)

Joined my friends G. and C. in the evening. Great time discussing books with both and blogs with G. Sigh. I'm going to have to look over his links to filch...er...add to my blogroll.

And speaking of blogrolls: add a goodly number of new ones.


Wednesday

Did some cleanup on Tribe and Blogrolling. I gave serious consideration in deleting Way and Forge; I don't regularly update them, I forget about them, and I can easily combine their topics into Words. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions....

Work was slow again so I read more archives of various blogs. Today I read's Answer Me this...'s previous posts. Yow!

R. called that afternoon and said we'd lost our DSL connection at home. We called our provider who looked into the matter. (Our provider provides hosting stuff but contracts to another company who provides connectivity.) They later called back and told us a certain major...telecom...company hosed one of their amplifiers (I forgot the technical name) in our area. Should have it working sometime tomorrow.

Uh, huh. I worked for telecom.

Because it was R.'s half day (work 8AM to 1PM and get home at 4PM.) and our computer connection was shot (yes, we have dial up but c'mon! DSL speeds versus dial-up speed? Ack!) we decided to grab a bite to eat at one of our fave restaurants. Nice bonding time.


Thursday

I was so utterly feeling tired.
First, I didn't eat breakfast but subsisted on coffee until 1 PM. Had Japanese food, then a cheesecake when I got back to work (from the grateful department for manning the phones). Collasped into a fatigued and food coma when I got home.

But the DSL line worked fine. Yeah!


Friday

See the separate entry.

Some additional news, both good and bad. I followed up on the Irvine job opp and was notified that I didn't pass the test and thus no interviews. Bummed a bit since I found the testing easy. Oh, well.

But of more important news came during lunch. I was checking the home answering machine and found a call from another agency. Looks like they had a local client (that is, within Orange County) who needed a technical writer and asked if I'd be interested. Surpressing my mixed feeling, I called them back and gathered the info. Ack! Time to prep up another resume.