(no subject)

Some temps, even temps who are here covering me for a couple of days, are fantastic. Some are terrible but at least harmless.

Some temps touch all my stuff. I mean, presumably all of them do, but some do it with seeming malice aforethought. SHE TOUCHED EVERYTHING. She moved my tissue box. Why would you move a tissue box? I mean, it's easy to move back, I'm not intrinsically upset about the tissue box, but I'm baffled as to why one would move it. She also didn't sort the mail, at all, ever, just piled full mail bins on top of one another behind my desk. That's five days of mail I just sorted. I did get new pants while I was gone, which is nice, but for some reason she decided my personal mail should go on the floor under my desk.

She twisted my phone cords. That's nearly impossible to do unless you have some kind of evil intent or really unfortunate compulsive tic. Again, I don't care about the cords actually being twisted, they untwist easily enough, but why would you do that? Why make life more difficult for yourself and everyone around you?

ARGH.

On a much happier note, I was just tipped me off that Pairing: Pendragon/Merlin -- which, again, did not write*, just love, because parts of it are like reading a fanfic about my own life -- has been turned into a podfic and ebook. I'm kind of super excited to see how they audiobooked that particular style of story.

* I do happen to be aware of who did write it, and I know said person is tickled pink by all this...

(no subject)

Over the weekend, one of the many entertaining things I did was finish reading Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet On Everything by Kevin Cook. Unusually, this wasn't a book recc from anyone -- I happened to see it in a bookstore and liked the look of it, so I ordered it from the library. I figured it would either be awesome or dreadful.

Turned out: awesome!

He told Bogardus he had concluded that the human race was divided into two groups, the suckers and the sharps. -- p. 15

( Titanic Thompson, The Man Who Bet On Everything )

Final Verdict: I do think the last chapters are the only place the book falters, and the rest of the book is well worth it, especially for people interested in old-time con hustles and the last gasps of the wild west. Thompson lived a larger-than-life existence, and it makes for a great story.

(no subject)

It is so weird to work for a not-for-profit and get letters from the not-for-profits that I support, particularly my undergraduate alma mater. They sent me a very nice bookmark in return for my $10 donation. I think possibly the bookmark and postage cost more than $10. Also I'm pretty sure this bookmark is useless for actually marking pages in books.

Love you, alma mater. Don't ever change.

Relatedly, through a confluence of circumstances involving a tornado and a train, I somehow ended up reading three books at once. I used to do this all the time as a kid, multi-tracking between books depending on my mood, but I haven't done it in years and it's a bit disconcerting. Still, I can't stop; I have to know if Geung makes it home and whether Bruce's roommate Dexter finally succumbs to institutional pressure and becomes a Stepford Air Cadet and where Issenberg is going with this whole sushi-as-globalization thing.

Seriously, guys, I don't want Dexter to be an air cadet, but I'm pretty sure if he doesn't knuckle under he's gonna end up in prison as a cautionary tale to Bruce.