MetaChat - Three-point Friday update

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01 February 2008

Three-point Friday update →[More:]

1. I needed to go out today - hopefully before it snows - but my car battery is flat as a pancake. Luckily I have breakdown cover with home start, so they'll be here between 11.30 and 12.30 (it's not an emergency so no rush) to jump-start the car. Then it's down to KwikFit and £100 for a new battery. Gah! But it's my own fault, the battery has been sluggish for weeks but I was just glad each time the car started. "Got away with it this time." Idiot thinking.

2. I've just finished drafting a judgment on a case where this bloke had liposuction on his love handles in 2003 and he now wants his £7,000 back because he's a fatarse again. I also have another complaint from the same guy, where he bought a timeshare, sight unseen, and, again, wants his money back. Some people need protecting from themselves.

3. My employer is withdrawing all secretarial support, and, although I'm a fast typist, I prefer to dictate work when I'm at home. So I think I need to look into some voice recognition software, which I will have to pay for myself.

post by: essexjan at: 05:13 | 40 comments

1. I'm effectively housebound for the foreseeable future, because I seem to have eaten all of my money.

2. Which is potentially a problem, because getting out occasionally just might be the thing that's maintaining my tenuous grip on sanity. Or it might be the thing that's hacking away at it; I'm not sure.

3. Something in-between extremes would be nice for a change, thanks, world.

posted by chrismear 01 February | 06:17

1. I am about to head off to two funerals. These funerals are, totally coincidentally, at 1pm and 2pm at the same crematorium.

2. I am then off to visit a friend who had a baby on January 10, who lives very near to the hospital where I will then visit another friend who gave birth yesterday. 2008 has so far been a year of life and death.

3. My boyfriend is home tonight. Not only do I get to have a day of celebrating life, I get to have sex too.

4. Jan - snow, seriously? It's sunny and warm here in W3.

5. Let us know if you get too cabin-fevered chrismear. I'm sure we could help if it gets too tedious.

posted by goo 01 February | 06:59

*hugs chris*

Jan, that seems a strange strategy. "We're going to save money on secretarial services by making the higher-paid employees spend their time doing it instead"? Or am I misunderstanding?

Mine:

1) I'm feeling sad, unglad, not mad, but depressed... for no good reason. We've even had a fair number of sunny days lately, so it shouldn't be Seasonal Affective Disorder.

2) But I only want to sleep and read. Though I'm handling the basic things (keeping myself and the house clean, cooking, shopping for the necessities), I'm not managing much else at all. Bleh.

3) And so, dear everybody, if I haven't answered your email, been in touch, followed through on something, etc. - it's not you, it's me! Sorry!

posted by taz 01 February | 07:01

1. The last two Glastonburys have seen Somme like the conditions that would have defeated Shackleton. I almost lost my liver and several friends due to the amount of whiskey I imbibed just to get through it. The thought of going through that again is making me rock back forth like a bear in a Chinese zoo and yet here I am again staring at the registration page.

2. I have to buy travel sickness pills at lunchtime so as not to power-vomit over the row in front of me at the Cloverfield showing tonight. No, thank you Mr. Handicam.

3. Hitting the pub 2 days in a row for lunch. The start of a problem or just a thrilling new trend?

posted by oh pollo! 01 February | 07:07

1. Starting a huge project at work next week, with a ridiculously tight deadline and several technical challenges, so I'm feeling a little anxious about that. February is going to be a tough month in that respect.

1a. But at least there should be a good bit of OT, which I desperately need.

2. Tonight I'm trying again to get together with a friend who stood me up a couple of weeks ago. This'll be my last attempt for awhile.

3. Broke my digital camera this week. It can be repaired, but ARGH.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 February | 07:14

1. Ice storm this morning, glad that I walk to work.

2. My office has decided that they are going to save money by not hiring any engineers and put it toward hiring more vice-presidents. We only have ~150 employees but we now have five levels of management above each engineer. But we're always late because we don't have the engineering manpower to get our projects done.

3. I'm mostly taking the weekend off and not doing any giant construction projects.

posted by octothorpe 01 February | 07:27

1. People keep offering me kittens, but I staunchly refuse because I'm moving back to Europe at the end of the year, and leaving my Puss behind last time sucked.

2. Spent the day at work watching spreadsheets recalculate, and macros run, and then noticing some problem that meant I needed to do it all again. All my fault, but bloody annoying too.

3. I'm really hot, and not in a good way, and I'm not sure if that's the truth, or just this bug thing that the SO and I have been passing back and forth since about new year's.

3a. I bloody hate getting colds and throat infections and ear infections in the middle of Summer. It's just not right.

Also, TFIF.

posted by pompomtom 01 February | 07:29

1. Have to bear the snow to drive out to see if this wedding dress is really The Wedding Dress.

2. Cleaning. Cleaning + baking need to happen today.

3. Possible sushi tonight with a BFF

posted by viachicago 01 February | 07:34

1. It's my Friday at home with my puppy, although I have to leave the house this afternoon for a funeral service. The puppy will be confused, since she thinks nobody should have to change out of their pajamas on Fridays.

2. Dinner tonight with some friends from the neighborhood, which should be fun.

3. I'm taking Wednesday off next week to recover from being up all night on Tuesday watching the primary returns. Plus, I get my regular Friday off, so next week's a three day week, which is squeal-inducing, except for the fact that my office has a massive federal funder audit on the 14th, which is causing no small amount of consternation in our disorganized selves.

posted by Lassie 01 February | 07:35

1. I am having puppy time - sitting a friends Jack Russell Terrier. She's cute but sooooooo demanding. My little shadow!

2. I have a seriously weirdly alternatively blocked and running nostril.

3. I found out the gender of the gomibaby today.

posted by gomichild 01 February | 08:10

1. I'm working on the semester's first paper (on As You Like It), and cannot get any traction on the subject.

2. We're going on a proper date tonight, which makes a bright spot in a busy weekend.

3. There is no Number 3.

posted by Elsa 01 February | 08:47

3. I found out the gender of the gomibaby today.

And it's a...?

posted by BoringPostcards 01 February | 08:50

1. My windshield wiper fell off this morning while I was cleaning off the snow. Couldn't see well enough to get it back on. Waited until I got to work to reattach it.

2. Looking forward to escaping this snow-covered pitch-white hellhole next weekend and going to Florida.

3. Did I mention it is snowing here?

posted by deadcowdan 01 February | 09:08

1. Snow? That's so unfair. I demand to have snow! I demand the person who's responsible for this to be punished and shot!

2. I upgraded my laptop's RAM today (from 512 megs to 1.5 gigs). Things run so much smoother now. And Vista has actually become usable!

3. The kitty is still hiding under the wardrobe. We're making progress, though.

posted by Daniel Charms 01 February | 09:13

1) We're having a bit of an office support staff/boss conflict, due to everyone's unprofessional behavior. It's annoying. I'm neither of the two categories and so am blithely going about my own business as much as possible.

2) In the mail yesterday, I got some beautiful hand-knit mloves/glittens (not quite the same as these: http://toppsyturvy.wordpress.com/2007/02/17/glittens-mloves/) from a friend for my upcoming birthday. Love.

3) Seedling startings: Am planning to set up a large wire shelving unit that's been languishing in my shed, and buying some kind of growlight on the cheap. Then by the time I can plant my veggies they'll be OH SO strong and healthy. (Crosses fingers)

posted by Stewriffic 01 February | 09:19

1. Snowed in and snowing. It's pretty and i don't mind, except for communal rotation of snow blower sounds as people try to keep it manageable.

2. Everything smells like chicken. Good thing i'm making chicken or i might just be having a stroke, except then i think everything is suppose to smell like toast.

3. i already had to tell someone they go from zero to ass in no seconds, so it's all zero, ass, ass, zero, hole, butt-- it's like butt binary. Still, no big deal. i just hope i can get my scanner or camera to work so i can do my first "thing" of the month.
(Where are those shrinky dink instructions again? Now, don't think you know anything yet--)

posted by ethylene 01 February | 09:58

1. I sprained my ankle badly on Tuesday. My entire right foot looks like it belongs on Fred Flinstone. The ankle resembles a soft ball. I've sprained it so many times before. I'm an idiot because I've been walking on it.

2. My sister and I are having a yard sale tomorrow. I dislike having yard sales, I'd rather just give it away to anybody that will take it, but I'm a glutton for punishment.

3. I have so many things to do.

posted by LoriFLA 01 February | 10:15

Jan, that seems a strange strategy. "We're going to save money on secretarial services by making the higher-paid employees spend their time doing it instead"? Or am I misunderstanding?

No, you're not misunderstanding. Yes, it's idiotic. And I am hoping to snipe Nuance Dragon Version 8 (dictation software) for £20 on eBay.

posted by essexjan 01 February | 10:17

1. The new battery cost only £78 (only!) so that's a plus, I suppose. But installing it wiped the code on my radio so I had to drive round with only the voices in my head to entertain me. Luckily I have the code with my car paperwork.

2. I spent the last hour trying to help a neighbour install AOL Broadband on her new laptop but we kept being told that 'the modem cannot be detected' despite having gone through the whole process several times. I think the problem might be that she has every phone in her house running from just one phone socket that has an adapter to allow four phone outlets to be plugged in. Or, more likely, God is trying to stop her from using AOL.

3. Snow has not yet arrived. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. Damn you liar weathermen!

posted by essexjan 01 February | 10:29

1. We're an early voting site, and I love it. It always brings in lots of folks who wouldn't normally come to the library, and we get a chance to wow 'em with our wide variety of storytimes and lectures and DVDs and books by Zane and James Patterson.

2. On my lunch hour today, I'll probably visit my tattoo artist to discuss the hops-themed piece I asked him to draw up.

3. Got my Xbox 360 back from the repair shop recently. Since then, I've been playing a lot of Bomberman Live, and trying to decide which game I want to buy next.

Stew: if you can find a cheap 2- or 4-bulb fluorescent fixture, like for a garage or workshop or whatever (in my city, this is the kind of thing that pops up on Freecycle, and in secondhand stores (especially the Habitat for Humanity resale shop), semi-regularly--but if you're in a hurry, they'll have 'em at Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever), you can then fill it with blue- and red-spectra bulbs. It's not perfect, but the price/performance ratio is good. I feel like I'm telling you something you already know, but, after typing all that out, I don't want to delete it.

jan: Nuance Dragon? I bet that software has an awesome mascot.

posted by box 01 February | 10:33

1. Ski trip with the most bestest boy ever! in less than one week!
2. Finally replacing broken digital camera today.
3. The hate was so thick in this morning's staff meeting that it's the Jourgensen trifecta (Ministry, RevCo, and Lard) for the rest of the day, as loud as I can get away with (private office with real door!).

posted by crush-onastick 01 February | 10:36

1. My mood is stable but the good and bad and in-between news whizzing by my head is not
2. I wish I had more clarity on My Next Move but I don't. This is not bad news, but sort of WHAT THE FUCK BRAIN news.
3. Ice storm on the way
3.5 Hearing that my ex got married from the culinary arts teacher at my high school (whose son is friends with my ex) was so surreal that it didn't even bother me.

posted by jessamyn 01 February | 10:59

1. I want a new career. I'm over this one. I have no idea how to find a job outside of academia.

2. It's not going to stop raining before 12 and I have to walk to the other side of campus without an umbrella.

3. Just found out my friends are getting married next year. Woo! At her parent's place. Which means a trip to Puerto Rico - double woo!

posted by gaspode 01 February | 11:13

1. The damn internet cafe place has the door propped open and it's freezing outside. Like with ice and stuff. Brr.

2. Totally printed off a 32-page back issue of a scholarly journal I wanted to read at work as a screw-you measure at my company for a crappy week. Is it bad that I seek vengeance through toner?

2a. Work week was crappy due to someone I totally respected letting me down in three or four big ways. Sad.

3. From next week until June, I won't have to be at work until 9 pm four nights a week anymore! I'll have time to cook again!

posted by mdonley 01 February | 11:21

you can then fill it with blue- and red-spectra bulbs

This is the key information I was missing. Thank you! Otherwise we're on the same page. I have a Lowe's gift card, so I'll probably just go there to get it.

Oh, and
4. I decided to take Monday off from work because it's my birthday. :-) Whee! Fun projects!

posted by Stewriffic 01 February | 11:35

1. I'm cold.
2. My Saturday babysitting date was cancelled, boo.
3. At least they can't cancel the Super Bowl!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 01 February | 11:37

1. I'm worried about my computer taking a shit again. It's been running really slowly and uploading pictures for embodiment has been a bitch and not really happening. Come on scanning things!

2. I got my awesome new health insurance through work cards and info yesterday. Now, to actually make said important girly doc and dentist appointments. :(

3. My one friend got in a car accident this morning and is allegedly concussed. However, I'm 5 hours away and lacking in a vehicle, so I can't exactly do anything about it.

3b. Not having my car sucks. It's not like I go anywhere, but I like having the option.

posted by sperose 01 February | 11:39

ej, Dragon has a good reputation among translators - I know quite a few who use it. Takes a little while to train it up but once it's used to your voice it's pretty accurate.

posted by altolinguistic 01 February | 11:41

1. boiler broke, today, just as snow forecast
2. boiler now fixed but needs £££££ new part
3. need to get out more. haven't left the house since Wednesday.

posted by altolinguistic 01 February | 11:42

If you get an even number of red- and blue-spectrum bulbs (sometimes called something like 'warm white' and 'cool white'), you'll be doing pretty well. There are also full-spectrum fluorescents, and ones aimed specifically at gardeners, but they're pricier.

posted by box 01 February | 11:56

Fab info, box. Thanks again.

posted by Stewriffic 01 February | 12:09

1. packing to spend the weekend in London with friends and NO CLUE what to do.
2. but KNOW that I'm staying away from GOO who seems to be some kind of combined death & fertility godess!
3. wondering how long Gomichild is going to tease us about the sex of the Gomibabe? :)
(*hugs CM* let us know when the cabin fever gets too much and we'll stand you a drink or three!)

posted by Wilder 01 February | 12:35

1. I had a friend who worked for Dragon, and she was the awesome to end all awesome. Her boyfriend was pretty cool, too, and I once ran into him on the street and he wrote his contact info on the back of one of my business cards, because it was the only scrap-ish paper I had on me at the time. I later gave the same business card to a guy I had just started dating, so that he had my contact info, not realizing there was another man's name on the back of that particular card. (The guy was gracious about it, though, and gave it back to me the next time we saw each other and only laughed at me a little bit.)

2. I'm tired, and I don't get to sleep in at all this weekend because I have to spend 10 hours, starting tonight, in a training program for my internship that, annoyingly, seems to contradict some of my fundamental views on life. I'm not sure I want to be teaching kids that we're all nasty brutes by nature and culture is the only thing keeping us from killing, raping, and stealing from each other (though I can understand the therapeutic purpose for starting from this standpoint for this particular group, but still).

3. I'm feeling productive at work. It's nice.

posted by occhiblu 01 February | 12:50

1. Ice storm this morning but not in my neighborhood but school was two hours delayed and so, thus, was I. Yippee, two extra hours of sleep complete with vivid interesting dreams.

2. When I got to work the server & all was totally dead. Had heart stopping several moments when I thought that meant that we would have to move the Giant Enormous Huge Filing Cabinet, which would be a logistical nightmare, but managed to fix it all without that. Turned out that the battery backup went bad all on its inscrutable own last night in some way unconnected to ice. If I trusted myself, I could have fixed it without the computer guy and now I feel dumb for waiting for him to get here, when I was actually right all along.

3. BF coming tonight! Yay! Haven't seen him in 2 weeks!

posted by mygothlaundry 01 February | 13:03

SANITY IS OVERRATED

posted by deborah 01 February | 14:31

1. I'm suddenly unemployed because my boss and her boss are no longer speaking to one another. It doesn't even have the dignity of being laid off. And there was no warning -- just "Oh, by the way, I'm not going to be doing this anymore. Sorry!" Job hunt starts Monday.

2. GF's b'day today. Dinner tonight, trip to Napa tomorrow to visit the new Oxbow Market and Copia, which is free through the end of the month. Yay, food geek tour!

3. Yay, Super Bowl!

posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 14:32

4. Should find out today whether we'll get a plot in the community garden. Finger's crossed!

posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 14:34

Ouch, I just crossed my finger! Bad apostrophe! Bad!

posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 14:36

1: Have been at home since about 12.30 after coming back from a team build feeling little fragile. Which may have had something to do with the free bar

2: I'm half way to my London marathon sponsorship target. The second half will be, I think, tough to get

3: Feeling a little more positive about my job this year - I'm going to be doing new, more interesting things and hopefully dealing with less asshats.

posted by TheDonF 01 February | 14:37

1. Lab meeting today, professor reamed us for not being familiar enough with the material to explain it. We deserved it though.

2. Sad and jealous about friends I went to school with who now live in more interesting places, making more money, and going on more fabulous trips while I am living at home and slogging through grad school and can't go anywhere without the parents' approval.

3. Just received word that my already miniscule grad-student salary will be getting cut by 25% this term. I have taxes to pay, dammit.

posted by casarkos 01 February | 15:16

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