[Tinalles]

Today was utterly lousy. In fact, the week has gotten off to a lousy start.

Well, I take that back. Monday was okay, as monday's go.

Tuesday I managed to accidentally fling a dirty spoon ... directly into the face of the director of the library. At the staff picnic (well, lunch, it was indoors). A high-powered fan I was walking past flipped my paper plate straight out of my hand, sending the light-weight plastic spoon flying through the air, along with a fine spray of vegetarian baked bean sauce.

This morning I forgot that I needed to go in to work early in order to transition to a new database server. As a direct consequence of that, our interlibrary loan form was out of commission for three and half hours.

And dealing with that crisis left me late to the super-important kick-off meeting for the gigantic project that has to be done on a ridiculously short schedule because of some state-level politics. As in, today was the kickoff, we don't have a test server yet, and it's supposed to be done by the FIRST DAY OF AUGUST.

...

I sincerely hope that the rest of the week turns out better.

Wouldn't take much.
_________________
Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Asa]

Um... isn't it Thursday? I mean, it's quite possible I'm wrong, because I always have to count to get it right, but if it is... there's only two days left to the week.

I hope tomorrow and the day after (whichever they are) go better for you.

Went to a brunch with the other English teachers today to celebrate the end of the year and passed out gifts, got one in return. It was sweet. THen I came home and slept for three hours... now I'm going to a jam session instead of sleeping more or studying. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up tomorrow morning.

^_^
_________________
Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Tinalles]

It was still Wednesday when I posted that, though only by a little bit -- I think the time zones thing is not in synch with where I am, and the post went in a little before midnight my time.

Today is technically Friday, but I'm still in the same awake-cycle that began on Thursday (it's 2 AM as I post this).

Today (Thursday) was much better. Still pretty busy, but no crises or anything.
_________________
Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Nem]

Today was downstairs less than a minute when I caught the edge of an argument

"I thought you said you weren't going to do police.... So you decided to be a policeman?..."
"Yes."

Erk, thought Nem, and edged out the door.

The person in question does volunteer policing and tends to use their badge outside of the job to stick their nose where it, perhaps, shouldn't be stuck.

I'd imagine that, on account of a recent injury, they'd decided not to do it for a while and expressed that. Probably thinking nothing of it at the time, beyond it as an expression of a preference.

Still, that's not how other people are liable to take it. If you've got to preface the things that you intend to keep with 'this is my word...' one's really got to question your trustworthiness in general - and I imagine that's very much where the other half of the argument comes from.

I had been waiting for them to leave before I went down, but the want for a cup of tea convinced me otherwise. Have to remember not to make that mistake again.

Anyway, I had been watching the Nixon interviews - having a good time that way.

It's quite interesting watching the Nixon interviews and then comparing them to Frost/Nixon; a recent, highly fictionalised, film based on them. Because it is, in a certain sense, a re-writing of history. It's sort of like that whenever you claim to base fiction on fact; or even base fiction on fiction for that matter - modern re-writes to make things more, 'understandable.'...

There's a part of Frost / Nixon where Nixon's admitting he broke the law - 'in the strictest sense of the word'. If you recall the interviews, that was one of the things he was very adamant about not doing. He said that technically he did not break the law, (holding that perverting the course of justice required corrupt intent and that his intent was not corrupt.) His point, and the point on which he thought he let everyone down, was that he made some bad emotional decisions.

Nixon in the interviews is very calm, Nixon in the film is easily excitable. Nixon in the interviews is....

And you can wave all this off as a dramatisation; acceptable departures from reality. But you do have to fear how much of how people look at the world and its history - given that it will be, to a large degree, through the lens of fiction, of a narrative framework - is subject to these 'acceptable departures' from reality. How paupered our perspectives become when what's being fed into them gets sanitised to fit a particular way of looking at the world.

Before the advent of the internet, when there were only a few large publishers, this sort of thing was probably much easier to do without anyone noticing. You'd just not republish books, films, and so on, that disagreed with you. You'd put out some new version of reality instead.

Even if you assume a lack of malign intent on the part of the editor, 'understanding' is not an unprejudiced word. The way that you and I might understand something might be very different. If, while punching up the language to make it easier to understand, you privilege your point of view, then it won't seem like that to you. Because, from your perspective, that's just what the work means. So there's a great danger in re-writing something to make it easier to understand. And, perhaps, in the interest of intellectual honesty, you'd be better not to have done it. To have left that person's thoughts well enough alone, and let it be difficult to understand if that's what it actually is.

Blither blither. =p

Today got around four hours sleep @_@ Some of it was even when it was dark outside though! ^^;
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa

[Tinu.]

I hope your week turned out better, Tin!

Today I am back from New York. Lots of walking, picture taking, and good food. But it's nice to be back home where the rodents aren't a match for my cats.
_________________
Keeper of Gaia and all the books on Earthsong

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."
~Einstein

[TheBritishInvasion]

Yesterday I went to London Zoo with my mum and met my sister and her boyfriend for dinner. And I bought my little sister her birthday present (she's one on Thursday) from the zoo gift shop. She likes bees and spiders, so I got her a book about a bee and another book about dolphins. They didn't have any books about spiders and I like dolphins.

Today I helped my mum babysit my cousin who was too ill to go to school, we watched the Muppets and I didn't really get anything done.

I was nervous all day. I have no idea how to talk to kids. I'm nervous around people in general but I just seize up around kids and today my mum had to go out for about twenty minutes. I sat on the settee for twenty minutes watching Mrs Doubtfire and hoped that my cousin didn't need anything.

I think if she has to babysit again I might disappear for the day.
_________________
Britland as dubbed by AsA
Avatar courtesy of Footloose
Keeper of Tengu's electricity and Willow's 'what did you just say' eyes.

[Nem]

Today looks like bad news for those who are committed to certain strong forms of theology. Well, some people who I was talking to a year or so back anyway.

Coffee is looking very very likely to be good for you - going by the results of recent studies such as this (out recently) study of 400,000 people over 14 years (more technical version.)

How is coffee related to theology? I hear you ask. Well, there was something called the Word of Wisdom. Which some hermeneutic principles will endorse as either revelation or the word of god or... something like that. And because of the way they do it it's not just a petty statement - like, say "don't spray my perfume on yourself, that's only for omnipotent beings." - it's provided as good advice. And that would make it predictive of the findings of the studies. (Because, you know, "don't do this thing that's good for you," wouldn't really qualify as good advice.) So, yeah - if it turns out to be good for you - and it's looking very likely that it is, then certain structures that commit people to the alternate prediction are going to fall apart.

Ho hum.

Now I just have to remember the contact details of the person I was talking to about that in... may of last year.

Today this reminded me of Britland, for some reason.

http://www.exocomics.com/16

And I don't know why.
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa

[TheBritishInvasion]

Nem I am confused and flattered.
_________________
Britland as dubbed by AsA
Avatar courtesy of Footloose
Keeper of Tengu's electricity and Willow's 'what did you just say' eyes.

[Tinu.]

Two weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in doing some PR writing for my school's environmental program (which is a decently well-known program). I said I was, but that I had little-to-no experience. I was informed that I would be contacted later for a test assignment to see if they wanted to keep me on.

Yesterday I was assigned to interview the program head.

Today I try to come up with interview questions and wonder whose bright idea it was to have someone with no experience conduct an interview. Interviews are hard.
_________________
Keeper of Gaia and all the books on Earthsong

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."
~Einstein

[Tyris]

[Nem]

That's a very expensive move.

If you can't do things that are good for you and can't do the things that are bad for you, then it's hard to imagine what you can do. Near enough everything seems liable to disrupt your state of being one way or the other.

You can't go to hospital, or purify your water, or cook your food, or - .... All of these sorts of things fall under the class of positive volitional actions - just as surely as drinking hot drinks. And they're knowing positive things you're doing, so they fulfil any plausible definition of mens rea relevant to this question. (You could say that it depends on the intent underlying the act, but then I question how many people drink coffee because it extends their life - there are vastly more common and plausible candidates for that.)

And if you say that not doing things like purifying your water is doing something that's bad for you - then you've just violated the acts and omissions distinction. And if you can't endorse the acts and omissions distinction you're back with the same problem you started with. (Because not doing something that's good for you would become doing something that's bad for you.)
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa

[Asa]

Today I took my last exam for the semester, though I still have most of my papers to write. We had three hours to take the test, and because we were all new immigrants (for the most part), we were allowed a 15 minute extension for every hour.

I finished it in one hour. My friend tells me she finished it in two. I'm pretty confident about it, actually, and because we were only supposed to answer 34 out of 37, I was able to select the three questions I was least confident about to not answer. I won't predict a score, but I do anticipate passing.


Right after the exam, I went to get the keys for my new apartment!!! The previous tenant left a rickety computer desk and the fridge behind, but as he was helping me put the screens up, he allowed as how he was regretting the move. ^_^

For the rest of the afternoon, now, I have to figure out how to fit more stuff than I came with, into fewer bags than I came with. Hmm...
_________________
Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Tinu.]

Good luck, Asa!

Today I conducted my interview. It went well, I think, and my interviewee was nice enough to give me some feedback and a few tips.

And now I'm working on deadline. Whee!

Today it was suggested to me that since my interviewee was the head of the department I'm trying to work for, I was actually the one being interviewed. That train of thought makes my head hurt.
_________________
Keeper of Gaia and all the books on Earthsong

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."
~Einstein

[Asa]

So I taught today, went and set up an account of some sort with the city to get paid, and spent all afternoon packing. My neighbor showed up just now with his minivan, and I realized I've lost my new keys. The keys I picked up yesterday. I had to send them home, because now I have to tear my bags apart looking for them. Where would I have put them? They're not in my purse, not in the skirt I was wearing yesterday. How could I be stupid enough to lose the keys already?

Grr.....! **tears hair out**

EDIT: Found them. I'd done the worst possible thing... I'd put them in my night table's drawer. Putting stuff away is a sure bet for losing it. I lost a DVD that way, and only found it after the night I intended to watch it.
_________________
Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Nem]

Today have the house to myself. Well, it still looks like a bomb site but it's quieter at least. Nice change of pace.

Today drove to karate. Ended up getting an elbow ro the face XD Heh. Also someone had left the fog lights on and I couldn't figure out how to turn them off in that car while driving along. Not enough attention going spare. =p

Believe it or not humans really suck at splitting our attention. We just learn to rapidly switch tasks.

Ho hum. Fairly good day really.
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa