Tea with Napkins

I have come to the conclusion after only a very small amount of research, that no matter how bad the tea tastes, don't lick the paper napkins. Although they may not taste any worse, the paper tends to dissolve coating one's tongue rather quickly and making it difficult to converse without displaying one's own lunacy.

Not so much

Below are a list of (by the end of the week) five words which I am not nor which describe me:

facinorous
ventripotent
dasypygal - Okay, so this does describe me, or at least a part of me. *sigh*
saponaceous - Yeah, I'm this some times, too. *grr*
yegg

Gravity

Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!! School comes closer. The forces at work here twist my mind and stretch my body. Even my supervisor is feeling the crunch, which is good or I doubt his "forgiveness" would be as high as it is. As it is, I think he's causing more difficulty than need be. I think I understand his goals but what I don't understand is why he feels he needs to meddle in everything. We know how to do our jobs and we do them fairly well for the most part. We've been doing them for almost 10 years now. He has only been in his current position for a little over a year and the "world" he came from is a lot different. Don't try and re-make us in your own image. We have better things to do with our time. Stand behind us and help when we ask for it; don't stand in front of us and hit us on the nose with a stick anytime you think we should be doing something different. Guide us, yes, if need be, but don't stand in our well-trodden foot path complete with bridges we have built and say that the swamp is better. We've been there. We know the murky depths and we managed to climb out anyway. Don't pull us back in while asking us to satisfy your curiosity to see if we can swim.

In other news, something's brewing on the horizon. (If that isn't a mixed metaphor, I don't know what is.) I'm not sure what it is, but the bridge upon which I stand may not need to hold me much longer. Hopefully that doesn't mean I'll have to jump over the edge, but you never know. :-)

I just started the Harry Potter series again. I actually forgot how good those books really were. They still don't match Tolkien's works as some people are wont to compare, but they are quite good.

In closing, I had a good chuckle today. I was chatting with an SBC representative and asking if my phone bill would now be automatically deducted from my credit card. He brought up my account, proceeded to tell me the services that I had (in confirmation) and indicated that yes, my bill would be paid automatically. He then asked if I would be interested in Yahoo Dial-up service. I told him that although that sounded interesting, I already had their best DSL package and didn't really want to go back to dial-up. *snort* Oh well. Hence the reason it is always a good idea to know thy customer.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

It seems societal issues are a common theme of mine. About 6 hours ago, I happened to be sitting down and for what ever reason, a snippet of that horrid Christmas song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came into my head and I realized what an interesting story it is, laced with both societal issues as well as authoritative control issues. An individual (Rudolph), is deemed unacceptable by his peers. An authority figure (Santa Clause) does nothing to allay these issues, thus Rudolph is ostracized. Then, the authority figure realizes that the individual's unique characteristics are required and thus uses his influence to bring the individual back into an acceptable state in the eyes of his peers. So basically, this story says (to children and others) that if you are different, you're crap unless a societal authority figure approves of you. Hmm. Interesting. Okay, so actually it isn't interesting, but it was better than writing about my floating widget or my bathtub faucet leak finally getting fixed. (Geez, it's only been three months.) And I'm sure there are lots of people writing about the big-assed power outage in New York, etc. I feel very fortunate. The only deleterious effect I've encountered thus far is not being able to get to one of my email accounts because the server is housed somewhere in New York. *shrug* Life could be a lot worse. I'm grateful it isn't.

Beta

I just realized that I haven't said anything about the new Trillian Instant Messaging Beta client. You have to be a paying customer to get it, but it might almost be worth it. For myself, the new spellchecking option is marvelous. Now if they could just make it interface with Exchange Instant Messaging Server.

Life progresses, or at least continues. As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently states, never confuse action with motion. Still, there seem to be some positive prospects on the horizon as far as action. Now if I can just grow the backbone to stand up and seize them. --Carpe Diem (Or maybe that should be Carpe Amphibios...that depends on how much you like frogs. ;-)

The struggle between heart and mind, body and soul...how often these are portrayed in literature. How often they manifest themselves in everyday life. Be aware of the choices you make but even more importantly, be aware of WHY you make them. Do you stay somewhere because it is safe? Do you stay somewhere because you feel you are needed or because you wish to control the people around you? Or are you there, doing what you need to be doing to learn the lessons set before you? These are self questions. None but you and your angel(s) can answer them.

Bridges

The bridge upon which I stand is narrow and seemingly very long. The crossing is made more difficult by the perception of obstacles and the latent desire to remain safe. (See below.) It may take a while to cross this bridge, but I think I have at least put my foot on the flaggings.

What is safety?

If you seek only safety, you shall find uncertainty. If you seek only happiness, sorrow will be close-by. If you seek only love, scorn will be with you. If you seek the path that Fate* has set before you and choose Faith* as your friend, provision will be made on your behalf.

There is nothing quite like the feel of a staff, the physical dimensions, the hard, smooth, cool surface resting in one's hands, the weight and the force which it generates as it is swung, first one way and then spun another. The staff is a weapon which, although I do not consider myself "good", I feel that I have more remembered how to use than learned. I have a lot of love for this implement and I hope to learn how to use it better than I know now.

*Two faces of a very old God.

Is that a phone in your pocket?

Last week, I had some issues with my beloved (*gag*) phone company, SBC (formerly Ameritech). About a month and a half ago, I signed up for online billing. I figured I'd save myself a stamp and some trees in the process. About three days before the bill is due (according to their email message), I go to pay it. It says that I can set up an auto-pay account and use my credit card. I do so immediately and figure everything is fine. About a week later, I receive an email indicating that my next bill is ready to view. Low and behold, it is twice what I was expecting. It turns out that the online bill pay didn't take effect until after the due date and wouldn't work retroactively. Somewhat irked, I called SBC and learned that I was supposed to have given them a MONTH to setup the online bill pay. A freaking month! WTF!! (And I don't mean World Taekwondo Federation.) If SBC wants to join the online world, great, but they better get their act together as far as billing is concerned. When Ma and Pa Podunk can bill you in 60 seconds via their website for that load of squirrel manure they'll be delivering in a week or so, one would think that a quasi-national chain company as large as SBC could manage it in three days.

This is what SBC has to say about itself: "SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) - SBC Communications Inc. is a global communications leader. Through its subsidiaries' trusted brands - SBC, Southwestern Bell®, Ameritech®, Pacific Bell®, SBC Telecom®, Nevada Bell®, SNET® and Sterling Commerce® and world class network, SBC and its affiliated companies provide a full range of voice, data, networking and e-business services, including local and long distance voice, high speed Internet access and data transport, voice and data network integration, software and process integration, Website and application hosting, e-marketplace development, paging and messaging, as well as cable and satellite television, and directory advertising and publishing. In the United States, the company currently has 61.3 million access lines and is undertaking a national expansion program that will bring SBC service to new U.S. markets. SBC has a 60 percent equity interest in a joint venture with Bell South that serves 20 million customers under the Cingular® brand. Internationally, SBC has telecommunications investments in more than 20 countries and has annual revenues that rank it among the largest Fortune 500 companies."

Wow! I am thoroughly repulsed by their inability to handle a simple web credit card transaction. And I trust these people with my phone and Internet connection?

Memories of might-of-beens, old wounds, older scars, the ghosts of times to come...the physical is lost and cannot return. This house could have been a sanctuary. Now it is a dungeon. All that is left is hope.