(no subject)

I leave the state for THREE DAYS and my whole office falls apart. Honestly.

I came back this morning to the news that two department heads are leaving -- not my departments, so not my bosses, but nonetheless it's sad-making. They're both not-my-bosses that I've worked with and like; they always say hello in the mornings, which not everyone does, and they always say please when they need something. I don't really expect Please everytime someone needs me to do something, but it's awfully nice when it happens. Except for one guy I work with who manages to make it sound creepy, like he's about to ask me to cook him some meth or something.

I had a really good holiday weekend -- fun people, good food, way less awkwardness than I generally display -- marred only by the bus ride home, which is my own damn fault for believing the bus driver that it would be full and thus not pulling my bag-on-seat-and-asleep ruse. :D I'm not sure how much rest I would have got on the bus anyway, however, due to the college kid across the aisle who was COMPELLED TO SHOUT EVERYTHING HE SAID, ESPECIALLY VERY PERSONAL PHONE CALLS TO HIS GIRLFRIEND.

Still, it was a ton of fun and I regret not a minute of it. Except for how I'm maybe falling asleep at my desk just a little bit today. :D

(no subject)

Two ityms!

First: Claire has posted an incredibly concise and wonderfully pointed refutation of the Dove Movement, concerning Unilever's hypocritical marketing campaigns. Check it out, and pass it on.

Second, this is a conversation I recently had via email:

juniper200: Freakout! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
copperbadge: Man, this starts out pretty ordinary and then takes a sudden turn for the creepy and weird. I do love the detail you sometimes get with wiki. "Found dead by John Lyons and two men with a horse."
Junie: Any detail could be significant. YOU NEVER KNOW! I bet he's the real James Bond.
Sam: I want to think it's something so much more interesting than spies, though. Like a secret society of wizards or something. This case is the kind of thing I could fall way deep into if I'm not careful.
hija_paloma: (Who is tired for reasons unrelated to the article) Fell asleep 3 times trying to read mystery dead guy writeup.
Junie: Good heavens, get some sleep before you undertake a bunch of extracurrricular reading. No one's going to update the Wiki, unless Sam solves the case before dinner.
Dove: Probability: fair to good.
Sam: I find it hilarious that military experts and geniuses have tried to crack the code and yet apparently everyone is having trouble getting their hands on the right edition of the Rubaiyat to see if it's a book code. WTF, humanity.
Junie: Someone in the cafe will be all, "I have a copy of that book!"

It's a thought. If any of you out there do happen to possess a first edition copy of Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by Whitcombe and Tombs in New Zealand -- or, you know, if you killed Somerton Man -- give a shout. I LOVE A GOOD CODE.

ask_twnz, you guys aren't covering this up, are you?

Icon: most appropriate ever.

(no subject)

Internet: still dead!

I wish I knew whose wireless I'm using. I'd offer to pay them a fee. I'M SORRY, LINKSYS USER! I don't want to be a thief, but I needs my fix!

Anyway, someone is coming out on Wednesday to check my line, and I'm pretty sure they'll be horrified by what they find. Chicago has a lot of very old apartments, with telecom to match, and mine is one of them.

My first place in Chicago I couldn't get internet at all, so they sent someone out to investigate. The guy got into the basement to check the line and found a switchboard from the 20's still connected to my flat. Now, the modern phone line wasn't running through the switchboard, but this is the point: I still had 1920's telecom hooked up to my home. I could have called a speakeasy!

Then he found a second phone jack in my living room that disappeared out a window and into the brick wall, and he couldn't find the other end of it, but it took a signal, which is how I ended up having Magic Internet for a year.

Anyway, the phone line in my bedroom is extremely elderly and has quite a few naked wires where it ports in, so I'm pretty sure they're going to have to recommend a new phone line (which I believe means my Super may get involved, because that shit's not cheap).

Dear Linksys user: please stay unsecured just another few days.