Better than advertised!

Jeff and I just watched Troy. I was surprised, but I really enjoyed it.

A Day in the Life

Yes, I kept track of my activities throughout the day, and recorded them for posterity. While this is not necessarily a "typical day," it's good enough, since there is no such thing as a "typical day" for me.

4:00ish. Woken by Hobbes’ claw in my toe. So painful, it had made its way into my dream as a piece of glass I stepped on. I sat up, grabbed Hobbes, and tried to get him to cuddle with me up on my pillow, but he wanted to play, so he ran away and frolicked in the living room with Touchy.
5:40. Alarm sounds, or at least so I assume, since Jeff woke up and then woke me up. “Time to get up and meet Christina.” I protest (I’ve been sick, after all), and Jeff grumbles about how he is sleep-deprived and annoyed with having to get up and work out, if I don’t do it too. [I sympathize with his reluctance, but how is it my fault if (a) he didn’t fall asleep till midnight and (b) he doesn’t want to work out?]
5:45. I realize that I am awake, so I won’t be able to get back to sleep, and the idea of exercise isn’t completely abhorrent.
5:55. After stumbling around and not being able to find any of my workout clothes, I finally get out the door, leaving Jeff behind, since he has decided to go back to bed. I head down to the gym to meet Christina. It is COLD. My breath makes clouds in the air. My legs are bare. Christina is not at the gym.
6:05. I’ve waited for several minutes, and no Christina, so I go back up to the apartment to get ready for my day. Brrr.
6:50. I have showered and dressed and kissed my cats and husband good-bye. I get bus fare from the change bowl, gather my things, and leave. First stop, Starbucks—I figure, if I’m taking the bus and I’m doing well on time, I deserve a treat.
7:10. I just watched the OCTA 24 bus pull up to the bus stop, get passengers, and pull away. I was stuck on the other side of the street, unable to cross until after it has gone. Oh, the indignities of life. The bus usually doesn’t come till quarter past the hour. I decide to walk back up and get my car, and drive to work, since I’d have to wait half an hour for the next bus; i.e. by the time the next bus even got to Malvern and Gilbert, I’d pretty much already be at work myself.
7:45. Arrive at work, after a fairly mild commute. Do the usual morning stuff: check e-mail, voice mail, news, etc.
8:10. Go to get a donut, which Dave Reed always brings on Fridays. There is no old-fashioned buttermilk, so I just have half of a chocolate cake donut. Talk with Margie about Happy Bunny and body piercings.
8:20. Come back to my desk and find a Post-it note on my monitor: “I just got my flat-screen monitor and it’s BIGGER than yours. –Bryan.” Write a reply under his note, and put it on his monitor: “Size only matters if you’re MALE. –Deb.”
8:30. Open minutes from a meeting that occurred several weeks ago. I note with relief that I have no action items. Life is good.
9:20. Work is in full swing. I peruse a software spec for test parameters, discuss hardware characteristics, update a hypothesis matrix, and generally feel productive.
11:30. Jeff calls, wanting to get lunch together (he’s still home, but working on work and school). We discuss it, but eventually agree to just wait and have a good dinner together, since I’ll be able to leave at 15:45 today if I don’t break for lunch.
11:50. I realize that my neglecting to pack a lunch means that I will have to just make do out of the vending machine. I opt for cheese crackers with peanut butter, plus finishing my apple from breakfast. I wasn’t very hungry, anyway. While eating crackers, I read about the XXVI dynasty of Egypt, regarding the Saitic king overthrowing the Assyrian rule in the seventh century BCE.
12:00. Back to work, and looking forward to an end to my work day.
13:30. Drafting an e-mail to a colleague, regarding an issue that I know we’ve discussed before, and I am sure I ought to know the answer to my question, but I can’t think of it. Mind is in a rut. I’m no longer productive. I’m b-o-r-e-d. Can I make it till 3:45 pm?
14:20. Christina calls and asks, “Did I miss you this morning?” Apparently, she was downstairs in the area around the gym and pool, but we didn’t see each other. I tell her about my chat with Jordan and Becca yesterday. We discuss possibilities for working out tomorrow.
14:40. My throat and glands hurt, so I decide to leave earlier than originally planned. I’m such a wuss. I can’t make it even another hour.
14:45. Changed my mind about leaving (not only am I lazy, I’m wishy-washy, too). Now I’m nibbling on Sarah’s Boy Scout cracker jacks and browsing the calibration section of the SRS for the GRP OGP (not SERV, mind you). What a way to spend my Friday afternoon.
15:20. Vickers comes to my office to tell me that I need to have a dry run for my briefing before I take it in front of the GRB at the telecon next Thursday. I say, "Fine," since I don't really mind and I'm fairly confident in my understanding of the topic and the fact that I'm already boning up on the software and hardware issues that may come up. Since it is Friday and I am a little punchy, I suggest that I tell the customer that reason their system is having problems is because they were too cheap to have it made properly the first time. Ha.
15:30. One of the PSE guys drops by to tell me that they are testing software downstairs in the lab, but it's failing, so they want to change the platform. I think, "Egad, if the software isn't working, it's probably the problem, and not the platform itself," but say, "Let's go talk to Cheryl, since she's the equal torquing task lead," and we trot next door to Cheryl's office. Duggins comes to explain that as it so happens, the test platform had experienced some banging against magnetic stops (which Cheryl and I vaguely remember hearing about, circa one month ago) and they have identified definite issues (like, it won't make it through cal). We agree that a broken platform should be replaced, even though it puts us in a tough spot with regard to continuation of our equal torque testing, particularly since all of our baseline testing was done on the present platform. *sigh*
15:45. Yes! I turn off my computer, close my office door, and leave. I see two trains on the drive home, but manage not to have to really wait for either of them. As I drive by CSU Fullerton and Fullerton JC, I wonder what it would be like to study there.
16:05. Arrive home. Jeff is on the phone (probably talking to Ben), and programming in the office.
17:00. Sci Fi Friday is starting now, but I think we won't begin watching until 17:30 or so. Maybe I'll sieze the opportunity to finish viewing Guilty Hands, and maybe go back through it to see and sketch Kay Fwancis' pwetty dwesses.
18:00. We eat leftoever pasta and watch Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. I eat ice cream. Life is good again (despite the fact that sometimes Stargate Atlantis drives me wild with pathetic portrayals of leadership). I cuddle the cats.
21:15. We're done watching Sci Fi and Simpsons. It is quite warm in our apartment. I post on my blog. Day over.

Tuesday = Blues day?

Here's a fun fact for today: I still don't feel well at all. I'm still fatigued, and still fighting queasiness and headaches.

Furthermore, the weather has gotten chilly and grey. No fun at all.

My apartment is messy, my homework too much, and my work schedule not even to be mentioned.

Still Monday

Many people find their weblogs to be cathartic--they feel better about life after ranting online. I do not feel the freedom to let myself go, to truly express a lot of my emotions and thoughts in a forum where anyone can access them. But I think that it is part of my personality to be aloof at times, and so it is not at all bad that I wouldn't share deep things in public, because I am being consistent with the way that God has made me. I often wonder at the dirty laundry people cheerfully air in cyberspace.

Do I have a pet peeve for this Monday? Stupid people, I guess. There were these little kids that crossed the street in front of me today, when their crosswalk hand was RED, and my traffic light was GREEN. I didn't run over them, since that would have been bad, but their careless nonchalance, as they sauntered through the crosswalk in front of my car, enraged me: They were endangering their own lives, as well as the lives of those in the cars around them. These children were maybe eight or ten years old. Where were their parents or caretakers? Why didn't said parents or caretakers teach them to be safe, and to be respectful and careful of the well-being of people around them? When will these children take one risk too many, and end up in Darwinian statisticsville?
Folks, listen to me. If you have children, or even intend to have them, commit to being watchful and diligent, and to instructing them in ways by which they may be attentive to their own welfare, as well as that of others. Children are a gift, and are far too precious to be destroyed by negligence. Discipline them with love, and they will grow up to appreciate your care. Be lenient with them, and they may die before they grow up to appreciate anything.

In other news, cast your vote for Deb's future career:
Bio scientist?
Classicist and archaeologist?
Fashion designer?

Thanks, because you never know what might happen.

Wild World Web Part II

I found a searchable database of Buffy.
http://buffyology.johnhorner.nu/

Check it out. Buffy rules! When you filter through the flip sarcasm and humor, not to mention the supernatural settings and vampires and monsters, you see that the show is about life and growing up and taking responsibility.

Right now, we're watching Napoleon Dynamite with Dave and Jen Costillo. Hilarious!

Minor irritation

I just wrote a nice long post, but there were errors in publishing it. It shows up in my dashboard, but doesn't make it to the end blog site. *scowl* I'll figure it out.

Working and thinking all week

Life since my last post has been full, to say the least.

Last weekend, I went to the women's retreat for Fullerton's First Evangelical Free Church. I generally dislike women's church events, because they are seldom enjoyable to someone who desires solid theological teaching and intellectual discourse. But the speaker for this year's retreat was Betsy Barber, so I figured that the teaching would be decent, at the very least. The retreat was located at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, which sounds odd but was very pleasant, as the Biltmore has a lot of significance in the entertainment industry; it was the location for the founding of the Association of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and several early Academy Award ceremonies were held there; it also has served as a set for dozens of movies and is apparently a popular destination for celebrities (I didn't think it was all that luxurious). The best part was that my partners for the adventure were Mom and Christina. Chris and I went up to LA on Friday afternoon on the church's chartered bus, and Mom came up on the Metro in time for dinner. The three of us were together in one room, and we were assigned a fourth roommate, who was someone we didn't know, and who unwittingly provided much fodder for humor during the weekend.
Well, as it turned out, our roommate was quite a snorer. I was all right on Friday night, being bothered only toward morning, but she kept Mom and Christina awake a lot, since they are lighter sleepers than I. Saturday night, we asked if we could wake her up or roll her over if she started snoring; she agreed, and we added that she could do the same for us. Apparently she began snoring around midnight, but I did not hear, as I was already sound asleep. I did hear her ear-splitting shrieks. Apparently, Christina had been kept awake when the roommate began snoring, and had gently crept over to pat her shoulder and whisper, “Wake up. You’re snoring. Wake up.” Our roommate must have been panic-stricken, and so awoke at high volume. Christina crept back to our bed (we were sharing a queen-size) and crawled in, muttering, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare her.” And Mom, bless her, is absolutely equal to any occasion, and handled it with more grace and patience than I could possibly have mustered. She calmed our lady down, prayed with her, and settled her back to sleep. Then the other three of us lay awake for a while, since our adrenaline had been pumped by the midnight screaming. I was afraid someone in an adjoining room might have heard the commotion and called security or something, but nobody inquired about the event, so remind me not to expect any response if I am assaulted in a posh hotel, and scream for help.
One of the nicer parts of the weekend was our small group experience. I signed us up for a group at random, since I didn’t really know any of the available leaders, and picked Amanda Dekker because her name sounded fun. She was fun—she’s a Biola student, a senior Christian Ed major who has served as the women’s ministries intern at the church. We really enjoyed her, and also enjoyed our other group members: a Filipino mother and daughter named Lilian and Marian, and two nice ladies, Lisa and Val, who are hardworking moms.
On Saturday afternoon, we had free time, and we went to the costume exhibit at FIDM, and then Mom and I browsed the Fashion District while Christina went to the hotel and ran three miles.

Now in real time, I am still home from work because I don't feel well at all. I am stuffed up and achey, and so very fatigued. Jeff was sick over the weekend, and said that his symptoms were the same as mine are. I need to do so much at work that I can't miss a whole day, but I slept in and am resting for a bit, and then will go and work 6 hours or so. I cannot wait until I am at a place in my life when I don't feel guilty about taking care of myself. I also cannot wait until I get my resurrection body, which will not be feeble and sick.

So I'm lead investigator for looking into the OER null shift issue, which means nothing to anybody, but just know that it's part of an assembly that helps a poor toaster know where it's at in life, and I'm finding that I care less and less about it as time goes on. Perhaps I've gotten by degrees tireder and tireder, and sicker and sicker, in the past week or so, which saps my energy and diverts my concentration, but I know that I should care about something as important as the OER. But I like other things so much more. We'll see.

*sigh*

Well, today's news provides perfect gripe fodder. How much money do you have to get paid before it becomes financially viable to behave properly? The Boeing Company just can't seem to do anything right.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=749&e=1&u=/ap/20050307/ap_on_bi_ge/boeing_ceo

Stonecipher has spent the last year or so touting ethics and a "culture of openness". The last two weeks had tens of thousands of well-behaved Boeing employees taking enforced Ethics Recommitment Training, because a few people (Boeing executives) had broken the law and been unethical in general. Said executives were dismissed with lucrative retirement packages, and the little people have to waste their lives listening to ethics professors from various business schools drone on and on... Anyway, Stonecipher really pushed ethics in speeches and e-mails of the past two weeks, and now it comes out that he has been involved in an extra-marital affair (which is dishonest behavior, not to mention a willful violation of a binding legal contract) AND performed other (unspecified) acts that indicated "poor judgment". Not only was this bad behavior, but Stonecipher is 68 years old--Ew! What, was he using Viagra or something? He's OLD enough both to know better, and to let his libido go into retirement, in the interest of better pursuits (hello, Cephalus?).

Happy Monday, everyone!

Happy Friday!

It was a long day, overall. I woke up at 5:45 and went down to the workout center with Jeff; we met Christina there, and I logged a mile on the elliptical machine. Then I rushed through the shower and met Christina for breakfast at Starbucks. We had a good talk. Then I drove to work and did work-type stuff, including a presentation for the project review--goodness knows I'm so tired after all the charts and meetings this week. I left work a bit early because I had mid-semester rags, and I received approval for my proposal for a project researching a contemporary humanitarian issue. It was a good meeting. Jeff and I went grocery shopping as soon as we both were home, and he cooked Mexican-type food while I cleaned a bit. Ben and Amanda came over for dinner, and then we watched Simpsons and played Beyond Balderdash. Fun, fun.

This weekend, I need to:
Read and answer questions for Unmasking the Cults
Obtain and read Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling (again)
Begin research for my project
Wash, dry, fold, and put away the laundry
Clean the kitchen
Call Katie and Christie

Today's Friday Fashion Feature is a discussion on hats--to wear or not to wear? I appreciate hats, but don't look good in many of them. I have a large black flowered hat that I consider flattering, and a couple of classic berets, and I can get away with a knit stocking cap (my grunge/punk roots showing through). Other than that, hats are a no-go. By contrast, my sister looks great in most hats. While chapeaux are no longer de rigeur for any time one steps out of the house, as they were through the 1960s, they are still a popular fashion item. I actually like hats for their practical use: I get cold easily, and hats work to retain body heat that would otherwise escape through the head. My berets and stocking caps work well enough for that. Well, I'd write more, but it's bedtime.

Such exhaustion! Such busyness!

Yes, indeed, I have been busy. Work every day, class Monday and Tuesday nights, spending time with Laurel on Wednesday night, and roommate night with Elizabeth and Sara tonight (Thursday). We were going to do our Romans Bible study, but opted for a movie instead: Disney's 1973 Robin Hood. I love that movie! It's my favorite Disney film.

Things at work are status quo. The customer, as the saying goes, is always right, but I think that is a lot of nonsense; our customers are downright stupid at times. They have made decisions that will have a huge impact on our ability to provide a quality product, and despite the fact that we have informed them of this repeatedly, they continue to make such decisions.

I miss a lot of my friends. I was able to see Christine for a few hours on Tuesday night, but there's never enough time. To all my friends: I love you, I really do, and I will seek to spend time with you and love and serve you.