Random Crumbug Thoughts

When I logged in to wordpress tonight, it helpfully told me that 48 million words had been blogged on their site so far today, in 285,000 posts. At that rate, somewhere in the blogosphere (I hate that word) the complete works of Shakespeare are floating around, disguised by out-of-focus pictures of housecats and a collective recording of the fact that everyone went to work today, where their lives were made miserable by that one coworker that’s out to get them out of sheer spite. I hate that guy.

Two day’s before the deadline on a huge project for work, I get sick. I blame Megan, also sick, mainly because she is the most conveniently located to offer sympathy, and really easy to get on a guilt trip.  More hot tea with honey, please.

The previously referenced deadline has ruined the fun of being sick for me. If I’m going to use up a personal day, it needs to be spent on the couch watching bonding with the tv and eating crackers, not stuck in my home office banging away at a keyboard (except the brief breaks to watch Home Alone, Shrek, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Three and a Half Men, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc). Either way, today will be counted as “working from home” on my timesheet.

I not actually going to be cheating my company, since I’ll be working late tonight once I finally get some data from a collegue of mine who’s auditioning for the coveted role of “coworker out to get me”. Seriously, in the last 24 hours before a deadline, mid-afternoon and ten pm are not the same time.

Everybody Loves Raymond really isn’t that funny when Ray’s parents aren’t on screen.

Everyone has different reactions to being sick. I tend to like to be left alone and ignore the world for a few days. Megan likes to play “hide the used tissue” in couch cushions,  between bedsheets, under pillows, etc. The only thing worse than waking up to a wad of used tissue stuck to your neck is waking up to a wad of someone else’s used tissue….

It’s hard typing with one hand

But since my other arm is twisted behind my back from all you people bugging me to post, I’ll have to make due.  Seriously, its only been six months since my last post…

I guess an update is probably the easiest thing to do here. With that in mind, in the last six months I have:

a) started a new job at the company I used to work for, and had been consulting to for the past year or so. As of June somethingish, I am a “senior research analyst” doing “client-directed industrial market research”.  Thanks to my company’s rather rigorous expansion plans, I spent my first 4 months on the job sitting at a card table in what was basically a hallway.  Then I got to share an small office with three other people, seperated from the rest of the building by a construction zone. But as of Wednesday, December 3rd at 8:40 am EST, I officially have my very own cubicle. Score.

b) finished up my second degree, in economics. Three weeks later, I was back in the classroom, since I still have at least another year to go until I finish my environmental studies degree. School has begun to drag more than somewhat, but come January 2010 I will getting home from work at 6:00, not 9:00, without any homework to do.  All those extra hours will be used to do something productive, like becoming the greatest tetris player the world has ever seen.

c) watched the global economy kinda slow down, a little bit.  Seriously, reading the wall street journal these days is like looking at some sort of financial mad lib. “Financial markets fell (adverb) today, with the crash brought about by investor concerns over (noun). (number) stockbrokers jumped out of their (number)-story windows today, while in the housing market, a 4,000 square foot tudor-style home was bought in (city) for a dozen (fruit, plural) and a small (farm animal).”

d) procrastinating adding more commentary about the economy to part c) above. I’m sure I’ll get motivated eventually, but since much of the past few months at work have revolved around this sort of thing, I don’t feel like it right now.  Deal.

e) Beyond these exceptions, continued my day to day life as before. The cat still wakes me up three times a night. I still sneak off to Wendy’s and McDonald’s when Megan isn’t looking. And I still visit mom every week or two to do my laundry and mooch food.

f) Oh yeah, I bought a new car.  The valiant white Saturn has come to an untimely end, or at least was sold at auction to someone with a thing for plastic door panels. At the end of the summer, I started looking for a practical replacement for the Saturn…some reliable, cheap car that would get me too and from work.  I looked at some small Fords, Hondas and Toyotas. However, through some creative rationalization, justification and some spirited test drives, I ended up buying this:

2009 Nissan Maxima.  Three times the horsepower of the Saturn. All leather interior with something like 38 Bose speakers. Push button starter. $400 performance tires (at least, $400 to replace. Some cars are too much fun to drive).  0-60 in 5.5 seconds (or so wikipedia says.  I never take it above 55).

sidenote: I found it extremely ironic that of all of the cars that I looked at, the only one not made in the US was the Ford Fusion, which is made in Mexico. My Maxima was made in Tennessee.