Best Thing I Read Today

"Furthermore, with all due respect, I don't believe that the Defendant can possibly know what is in the Plaintiff's best interest."

Today...

Embers were stirred.

Here Cometh the Weekend

I've spent the last two hours reading stuff on the 'net but trying to look like I was actually doing work. I don't know if I succeeded, but I wasn't pestered by my supervisor.

Soon, I will be off and away.

Have yourself a decent weekend.

16

I woke up this morning with this thought rattling through my brain: Only sixteen more hours of work this week. Then I thought: Eighteen hours if I count lunches. Finally, I thought: Nineteen if I count walking to and from work.

By the time I leave, I'll be down to eight hours, or nine hours, or nine hours forty-five minutes, depending on how you want to look at it.

Today was also a meeting of the union, of which I am not yet a full member. Money is taken from my pay so they can bargain for me, but more money has to be taken away for me to actually be a member of the union. That, to me, seems silly.

I also had my first, although it should be my second, review today. I did well. The PJ is letting me take the thing back to my apartment with me so I can read over everything before I sign anything. I think that was nice of him.

I'm off this weekend to the big city to visit with my brother and a friend. (The same two people in the picture I mentioned earlier.) We're to talk about a possible future in publishing. Right now my outlook is bright and bleak, sunny and stormy, half-full and half-empty; you choose the metaphor.

That's all for today.

A Question

While working, if someone comes over to me and says, with no provocation from me, "Any job worth doing is worth doing well." is it okay for me to tell them whether or not the job is worth doing at all?

Why I Should Staple My Lips Together Before I Go To Work

Friday, one of the ladies here at the office asked me why I hadn't brought anything to decorate my area. I hadn't really thought about it before and told her so.

Today, I brought in a phone that a friend sent me of her and my brother and pinned it up.

After my break in the morning, the lady who asked me about decorating asked me who the photo was of.

"My friend and my brother," I said.

"Really," she said, "who's the oriental girl?"

"That's my brother."

She hasn't talked to me again so far today.

And I've taken the photo down after I caught one of the other ladies staring at it when I came back from lunch.

Eighth

And... we're done.

Seventh

Almost there.

Testing

The Deviant Geek You answered 79% of the questions as a geek truly would.

You're a geek and you know it. You've got all sorts of fringe hobbies and socially unacceptable tendencies. Chances are, whenever possible, you hate to be grouped with other people and sometimes go out of your way just to be different. You're smart too. You're more willing to depend on your own brainpower to solve problems, instead of relying on others to pull you through life. You probably read a lot, and generally enjoy learning new things. So what's it all mean? You may be considered by some to be uncool, but you probably don't care either. In social situations you may be either slightly passive or slightly loud (geeks always fall into the extremes).In a nutshell, you answered enough questions correctly supporting a geek philosophy to be considered a more potent geek than 60% of thepopulation.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 68% on geekness

Sixth

Different, but exactly the same.

Work Day

"It's quite chilly."

"There's frost everywhere."

"It sure is nippy out there."

"The air has a sharp chill to it."

"I can't believe how freezing it's gotten."

And so many other ways to say that it was cold this morning. Around the office, talk of the temperature seems to be the main discussion point all... day... long. Shouldn't stating the obvious once during the work day be enough for people?

On a different note, the person who I complained about being gone has returned. I still don't know why she was gone, and I don't really care. I just wish that my supervisor had been willing to give me a straight answer all of those times I asked her if the woman who was gone was ever going to come back. Rumor around the office is that my supervisor didn't even know until twenty minutes before the return today. Part of me is happy, her return means less work for me. Part of me is frustrated, her return means spending more time trying to look like I'm busy even though I've already finished my work.

Here's a little talk I had with someone today:

"Did you see Mr. [insert lawyer name here] today?" she asked.

"No."

"He came in in his sweatpants and a beany."

"Great."

"It was just the funniest thing."

"Was it?"

"I wish you could have seen it."

"Why? Did you think I'd..." My voice trailed off. I flushed. I couldn't complete my thought in front of a coworker. I was going to say, "Why? Did you think I'd cream my pants seeing his little beany and sweats."

She stared at me.

I turned away from her and back to my computer.

Today's song: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something

Fifth

The Office was funny last night.



And soon comes the weekend.

Fourth

At the midpoint.

Third

What did I tell you yesterday?



After last night, I guess there are some other things that happen, but the stuff surrounding it is always the same.

My Walk

Do you remember when I wrote about what I told I my co-workers about me walking to my apartment in the rain?

Well, it's raining today and guess what happened. About an hour-and-a-half ago.

It's not like I told my co-workers, though.

I was crossing a street, after looking both ways because people in this town who drive between five and six tend to ignore red lights, when I felt something slid along my front, and not in that sexy way, and then something hit me on my right side. That's when I saw the black hood of a car in front of me. I looked to the right and saw the white door and that the side mirror was folded back, like they're supposed to when they hit something. The something was me. I looked through the windshield and saw a guy, I think he had a cup to his lips but I'm not sure, with all the whites of his eyes showing. I either gave him a nasty look which said, "What the fuck do you think your fucking doing you fucking asshole!" or a pitiful look which said, "How could you hit me? What did I do to deserve this?" I took a step back from the car and saw the SR police logo on the door and it's motto (or whatever) which is "Community, Service, Integrity." I would have laughed if I wasn't feeling angry and sad. The door opened and I walked around the front and got off the road. The cop parked the car on the side of the road, got out, walked over, and talked to me.

First, he wanted to know if I was okay. Did I need an ambulance? I was okay. I didn't need an ambulance.

Then he started looking for something in his jacket, his pants pockets, on his belt. It wasn't there, so he headed back to his car. He came back with his cell phone.

He called someone. He took down my information. I couldn't remember my phone number. He said, "Can't see a thing in this rain." It wasn't raining that hard. He tried to make small talk. I just wanted to leave. I found myself wishing that he'd just driven off after he saw that I could walk.

I never thought I'd hope to be part of a hit and run.

Fifteen minutes after I first noticed the clock in the shop we were standing near, a cruiser pulled up. The guy got out and asked me for my information and my license. Once again, I couldn't remember my phone number. Another cop pulled up and took the one who hit me around the corner to speak with him. That's when the officer who just took my information asked me what happened. I told him. We stared out into the intersection. I saw a car run a red light, the fourth I'd seen since standing there waiting. He decided to make small talk. The same exact questions that the other guy had asked. Once he exhausted his questions, he went around the corner with my license then came back and wanted to take a picture of my translucent right love handle to show that I was okay.

And then we waited. At 5:55, I was watching the clock, I was finally given a card with the case number on it and asked to call and leave a message with my phone number.

Now I'm here.

I'm okay.

I'm not even bruised.

I'm not going to tell the ladies at work about this. They already don't like me walking in the rain.

I wonder what all the people walking past me were thinking about as I stood there with three cops.

How are you?

It's a Day

Here I sit with about thirty minutes of my work day left. I should be working. I've been going really slow all day so that I can look like I'm doing stuff and now I actually have a pile of work that's been sorted, but needs to be entered in the computer. I figure that I'll be able to go at a normal speed tomorrow and probably get finished with everything on my desk. Is it wrong of me to feel bad that I'm not working to my full potential? Shouldn't I be wanting to move my work quickly so I can show the people in charge that I'm a hard worker who knows how to get his work done?

Friday, I had two of the people here--one a secretary, who's been a secretary for twenty-odd years, and the other is in charge of the DEU--give me a nudge toward becoming a legal secretary here in the office. There are a couple of problems, however. The secretary pointed out that I need to take a test or a class or something before I could move over to that position. The DEU woman told me that she had actually spoken with the PJ and told him that I should fill the vacant secretary position that we currently have, the problem with that is I can't be moved until my probation is over, which isn't for another eight weeks, and the PJ wants to fill the slot ASAP and, unless you're God, eight weeks is not ASAP.

And then the question appears: Do I really want to take the job?

The answers: Yes and No.

Yes, it'd mean I'd no longer have to face the public during the day and I'd get an immediate bump up on my paycheck.

No, there aren't ways to get promoted being a legal secretary and the highest pay for the position is about $200 less than the highest pay for the OT position I have now.

*sigh*

I'm tired. I don't understand why. Well, that's not true, I do know why, it's because I'm not sleeping well. I climb into bed getting tired, read a bit, turn off the light, and stay awake for the next couple of hours. Why does this happen? If it's because my brain won't shut down, I can't remember and usually I do remember what I was thinking about in all it's minutia.

I guess there's something worrying me that won't let me sleep and also won't actually let me know what it is.

I watched the season premiere of 24 the last two nights and found myself wishing that I was watching it with someone else who's a fan of the show so I would have someone to break it all down with during the commercials. Someone to talk to about the characters and help me remember when and where we met some of them. Especially the ones who were introduced during the second and third seasons because I think I only watched about eight episodes of each of those seasons.

Well, it's like two minutes before I head out of here.

Hope all is well with you and come February 10 you will join me in boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and watch two hours of Arrested Development.

Second

It's going to get repetitive.

First

There are many more to come.

The Truth

Today's Bob the Angry Flower is exactly how I feel.

Computer Generated Resolution

I haven't made a New Year's resolution since my freshman year of highschool. I don't plan on making any for the rest of my life. When I saw the silliness of someone else who did this I had to click and get mine.

In the year 2006 I resolve to: Quit making the same damn mistakes in my life! Get your resolution here

Mine isn't as silly as I was hoping.

A Question

Do you remember how you learned The Pledge of Allegiance?

Did your kindergarten teacher sit your class down and go over it word for word?
Or did you learn by osmosis, hearing it spoken over and over again in school?

I can't remember how I learned it. I assume it was through osmosis because I had the afternoon kindergarten class and don't remember saying it in the morning but we said it every day in first grade.

Hablar Inglés

On the English TV stations on which it appears, Dora the Explorer helps to teach kids a few Spanish word. I noticed that Dora also shows up on Spanish stations. Do you think she tries to teach those kids some English?

Pointless

A few minutes ago, my supervisor walked around the office with a ruler measuring the stacks of work we all have left over from last month. In our office we have 3 and 3/4 inches of work.

What does this tell us? Nothing. What does it tell the people in the capital? Nothing.

All this work is in baskets at our desks. The baskets are already taking up space on desks and shelves, so the work couldn't take up anymore room than the baskets already do unless we have massive amounts of work here... maybe. See, we quite often get these things we call Stips or C&Rs which come with enormous quantites of medical files. I have one at my desk right now that's between 1 1/2 and 2 inches tall, 1 inch is about average. I've had ones that were probably 4 inches tall. It's still one piece of work. Other things, like Apps or petitions, are usually only 4 or 5 piece of paper. What involves more work left to do 4 inches of Stips or 4 inches of apps?

I asked my supervisor how it helps to measure the height of the work left when she already went around earlier and counted the quantity of the work we have left over from last month.

She said it doesn't help. She said it's made just to waste time. She doesn't understand why The State makes her do it.

The weird thing is that if I had noticed her doing this measuring thing a month ago, I would have thought she was insane. Today it's just another pointless thing we have to do.

Today's Post is...

I'm getting sick of posting only complaints about work.

Are you getting sick of me complaining about work?

So, I decided that today I'd try to think of two good (which may be a very relative term here) things that happened today.

1. All of last weeks DEU stuff (which I haven't explained and don't want to now) is finished. Yes, I did do all four days worth, two today, but at least it's done and I won't go into work tomorrow thinking that I still have to do last weeks stuff. Everything on my desk comes from today.

2. Someone brought in cookies. Sure, they weren't homemade but they were full of fat and sugar. Yum.

Today's song: "Smoke" by Ben Folds Five