Caffeinated Modicum of Normality

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Can I touch you? Some of the smart might rub off. Please?
So starting today and till the end of the week, I'm part of the day-long death-by-interview assault that my company is pulling on a trio of senior scientist level cell biologists (Level 30 to my level 2 or 3 in terms of years experience more or less). Not only do I get to drag my tail into the office at 8am each morning for a presentation by each person, I get to interview them afterwards. I swear to you, the person we had today (who I hope we hire because she was awesome) without exaggeration, had a publication list longer than my entire resume.

I have like 5 or 6 citations to my name at this point if I stretch it, all fairly minor, and this person had like 4 pages worth. (O.o)

Current Mood: amused

KQ
Well I finally subscribed to Kobold Quarterly. Been meaning to do so for like two issues now, but just snagged it tonight. Good stuff.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Michael Jackson - Thriller

I need a record player something fierce
Because I have my dad's copy of the Thriller vinyl, and I have a disturbing urge to listen to it at very high volume right now. So very much listening to old school '80s MJ this weekend. How this will influence my mood for running Planescape on Sunday... who the hell knows :D

Current Music: Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Till You Get Enough

Thursday, NBA Draft impromptu get together
So yeah, if anyone is interested, feel free to drop by my apartment on Thursday for the NBA draft which I will be watching like a religious event. Diet soda and liquor on the house. Note I don't think any of you all locally are into pro-basketball as a sport, but if you want to hang out, it's a good excuse.

Starting around 7pm'ish

"Level 4000?! You've got to be kidding me!"
Quoted from Disgaea, that pretty much sums up why I've moved on to the second game in the series. *chuckle* Technically I've beaten the game, but just not unlocked some of the very last possible endings. But given that level number (I stopped around level 2000), and the relevancy of that in-game quote, I'm cutting my losses so to speak. Heh. The second in the series has proven so far to be just as awesome.

And on a more world-relevant topic, I bought furniture yesterday. Coffee table, two end tables, and a dining room table. Pricey, but worth it.

Ceasar reflecting upon Alexander the Great
I just realized that Clark Ashton Smith wrote virtually all of his fiction within a nine year span. Nine years. Nine fucking years. That leaves me amazed and depressed at the same time, because I cannot fathom having that much success in that short a time period, and I also wonder what he could have done had he continued his fiction, rather than effectively stopping after Lovecraft's death. I also wish I had his talent, but that's more on the depressing portion of thing.

Meme thing
Snagged from Kipaji:

1. To the questions below, you can ONLY answer 'Yes' or 'No'.

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone comments you and asks— and, believe me, the temptation to explain some of these will be overwhelming. Nothing is exactly as it seems.

******************************************************

( Read more... )

Get the Ark
Lord is it raining crazy hard outside right now. I will not be happy if I lose power and miss game 3 of the NBA finals. >.

I have my very own Kato Kaelin this week
In the house guest way, not the possible witness to OJ Simpson murdering people way. ;)

Jenny dropped off her kitty Jackie with me this week while her and Flo's apartment gets some renovations and other work done on it, and so far, she's been an adorable little sweetheart. I'm still not entirely unpacked from my move, so she'll have the feline opportunity to sleep in or one top of each and every box I own over the next seven days or so. *chuckle*

As for the getting settled in process: still need to buy another book case, a liquor cabinet, an end table for my espresso machine and all the coffee syrups, an end table for the couch, and a coffee table for the middle of the living room. And there's still a need for a dining room table, but supposedly my mom is going to reimburse me for that one once I pick one up. So maybe some furniture shopping next weekend.

And yes, my credit card bill at the end of the month is going to be insane. Many bothans may die in the process of paying it off.

Current Mood: happy

*insert archetypal Queen lyrics*
Well, early reports out of Somalia seem to suggest that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys died within the last day from multiple bullet wounds in the latest outbreak of heavy fighting south of Mogadishu. I hope to heck it's true, given his role in the Al Shabaab insurgency, links to the Eritrean government, and suspected links to Al Qaeda.

Two cases of yay and one case of DOH!
Couple things:

Got my name on an abstract this week involving the cell morphology of cryopreserved hepatocytes, returning some sense of parity to my scientific and fiction publications.

The broken 46" LCD is on its way back to Frys.com via FedEx as of this morning. The replacement is likely (hopefully?) going to arrive sometime Saturday morning and I'll be back in business on that front.

I seriously, -seriously- hope that David Carradine died as a result of triad/tong/mafia/vory thugs or an evil ninja clan or something... as opposed to having died by accident via autoerotic asphyxiation which is really does look like was the case at this point. *facepalm* I really did not want to see the star of Kung Fu, Death Race 2000, and Kill Bill to go out as a result of sloppy breath-play. *double facepalm*

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Bloodsimple - Out to Get You

And Herein Is Where I Ask, "Why Can't I Have Nice Things?"
Set up the new, really nice glass entertainment center/TV stand, and then opened up the gigantic box with the 46" LCD... which has a corner cracked off of it. *head into desk*

I'm not paying $1300 for damaged goods. Hopefully Frys will send a replacement, because I'm not interested in store credit or any crap like that.

Current Mood: infuriated

*Charlie Brown'esque ARRRGGGGHHHHH*
Well, my plans of staying home today to unpack and rest never transpired. The lab manager wanted a specific lot of cells to be tested ASAP to get results on how to grade them prior to a meeting with the VP late in the week. So I drag myself in today, dressed in dirty clothes because I couldn't find which box had clothes this morning, and spent 8 hours testing them. Uniformly they were absolute crap, and I wasted my time and company money testing them. Turns out the initial viability results on the isolation in that lot failed minimum acceptance criteria, yet nobody told me this - just a "can you test this ASAP... Please?". I strongly suspect I know exactly what went wrong and why, and it's a stupid mistake to have made, and it took a conscious decision to make it too. Someone that isn't me isn't going to look good later this week when the results go for discussion, because the papertrail is a mile long on how much of a waste of time this all was.

*sigh*

At least I looked good by coming in today on short notice, and tommorow I got PTO approved. Now maybe I can unpack boxes, set up my new TV, and hook up the washer and dryer.

I'm going to go eat hot chutney from the jar now, drink diet soda, and play Disgaea. That's relaxation. Only way to make that situation better wouldn't be posted here. ;)

Current Mood: aggravated

Well, not everything is bad :)
My TV shipped, finally. With any luck it will arrive Saturday. *smile*

Current Mood: pleased

In a perfect world, there would be murders right about now
... Followed by the production of a few tens of thousands of vials of cryopreserved hepatocytes, followed by free pizza from my corporate masters.

Translation: my moving company tried a bait and switch, only telling me now, two days before the move, that they would be charging me -DOUBLE- because it they scheduled me for a Sunday move. In more polite words, I told them to go fuck themselves and either lose me as a customer entirely, honor their original price on Sunday they'd given me, or change the move day to Saturday regardless of anything else.

So I'm now moving on Saturday, a day earlier than anticipated, and I won't have the time to move all the boxes prior to the movers showing up to move the heavy furniture. *resigned sigh* I'll be moving that stuff from whenever I get my keys on Friday till whenever I can't physically move anything else, and then leave only any super heavy ones for the movers. I don't want to pay them any more than I can possibly avoid doing.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Pearl Jam - Do the Evolution

The City & The City
I have my hands on the new China Mieville novel. I may not sleep tonight. And now I go to read.

I have a new toy
46" Panasonic LCD television. No tax. Free shipping. On sale for around $1200 off from the normal price of $2500ish.

*glee*

And now my checking account of painfully poor for a while, between that and the move this weekend for paying the moving crew. But so worth it. Pics once it arrives and I set it up, probably looking at next week for that.

Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: Pearl Jam - Once

Cle 96 Orl 95
Clutch 3-pointer for the win. All hail King James. :D

"I was on a Paris train, I emerged in London rain"
Yazidi theology lends itself so well to D&D sort of stuff. *grins*

Feeling better from earlier today. Near seizure low blood sugar. First time in a very long time that has happened. Game was a wash this morning because of it. That sucked seriously.

Current Music: System of a Down - On the Metro

*slow, wide grin*
Well the pdf of 'The Great Beyond' is out to Pathfinder subscribers, and their print copies have begun to ship. So far the reviews are almost entirely positive, which makes me exceedingly happy. I've had people that are hardcore Planescape fans enjoying it, and people that hated Planescape enjoying it as well. I don't entirely understand how I could accomplish that, but I won't be looking at that particular fiendish horse's teeth anytime soon. :D

Hopefully the trend continues, hopefully it does well, and hopefully it makes up in some measure for me putting Sean through far too much grief on the editing and development side of things. And if you're reading this Sean, the product blurb on the Paizo store blog was amusing, since it riffed off of my comment on the messageboard about writing at the beach while shooting Black Russians. *chuckle*

I will continue to be amused and perplexed by one person claiming that I'd made the planes alien and mysterious again, which they said vanished in Planescape, which of course is the exact opposite way that I'd view the setting (which I <3 very much and was a huge inspiration).

Current Mood: accomplished