KJ

So a work thing that I hadn't mentioned here is that my office needs to move. The landlords decided they wanted to convert the land to residential, so they're kicking us out in June 2021. We found out about this upcoming change a little over a year ago now. There was much discussion about where the new office would be, but nothing concrete happened for a long time.

Then, in April, my organization bought another company, also with offices all over the country, one of them in Oakland.

You may see where this is going, but in fact people were quite blindsided when it was announced today that the organization won't be replacing our existing office space. So we have a choice: go remote, or work in the Oakland office.

As far as my personal working life is concerned, the choice is an easy one. The other office is downtown, extremely close to public transit, and a reverse commute for me. Our current space is in a suburban office park, I have to drive, and it's not walking distance to anything. But this is going to be a much harder choice for some of my coworkers, and no matter what, it's going to change who I work with and how.

The weirdest thing of all is that we're still working from home, and it was recently announced that they don't expect us to go back into offices at all until at least next July. So regardless of what people decide, we'll never be the same community working in the same office again. And that makes me sad. Stupid pandemic.

That feeling when the research paper you're reading has the exact info you need in the appendix, and the appendix isn't included in the online version? Yeah, that's been my day today.

Let's catch up on the last couple of weeks, shall we?

1. Work: Things have changed pretty drastically recently and I'm scrambling to keep up. The upshot of it is that I have fewer people to get more things done -- isn't that always the way? -- so I expect my life to be a bit more constrained for awhile. For one thing, I'm moving to a Tuesday - Saturday schedule for awhile, starting this week, probably at least through August. I'll probably also have longer hours in general, and my time while at work will be more constrained. Everything is balanced on a knife-edge, no slack whatsoever, and although I understand a desire to make things more efficient, if you pull too hard on a rope with no slack, it breaks.

So I guess we'll see.

2. Fandom: As planned, I've started a DA:O replay. I went for a Brosca game; her name is Kasia, and I love her to death. Right now we're back in Orzammar, and so far it's everything I could have hoped for. Very different from Aeducan's homecoming, and honestly I think better developed. But more on that when I've played it further. I've been blogging the game over on Tumblr, under the tags KJ Replays DAO and Kasia Brosca, if anyone is interested.

Also, don't forget Doink! signups close tomorrow!! Have a link. I have signed up and am really looking forward to it.

3. In other news: Chorus has started, we're doing Schumann's Mass in C Minor, which is a new piece for me. Very nice so far, although tough in some places. As of yesterday, I am going back to Rome in June, for a week with A and M, which should be extremely awesome, and there's also talk of spending Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas. Whatever can get me through this ridiculous quarter, I'll take it.

Looks like stupid Ed Lee won the stupid mayor's race. They're not officially calling it yet -- some absentee and provisional ballots left to count -- but he declared victory this afternoon. Dear San Francisco politicians: can we maybe get it together and run a smaller field next time? You do not all need to be mayor.

Work was stressful and annoying for reasons I'd rather not get into right now. Shoes keep dropping, but it never feels like the last one has fallen.

Mega Flare would be going well, but there's this one scene that I really hate, and I don't know how to fix it. I suppose I could cut it, but there's some important character interaction and canon crossing stuff. So I need to wrangle it into submission, somehow. I knew I should have put more effort into finding a beta.

Our water heater is leaking gas fumes, and last night I noticed that I was getting lightheaded when I sat at my desk for too long. T's upstairs trying to fix it right now, but he's not too hopeful.

At least there is new Top Chef tonight.

I don't have anything exciting to post about, really; it's only that I realized it's been a week since I've done so. So, what have I been up to? Not a lot, really. Let's break it down:

Work: Stuff going down that I don't want to say too much about; personnel changes, mostly, for good, for ill, for big scary unknowns. It's been a really busy quarter, the kind where I feel like I'm just keeping my head above water. The Tuesday-Saturday schedule would be fine if I could settle into it, but it seems like there some exception every other week that keeps it from becoming routine, and now it's almost over -- possibly at the beginning of September, definitely by the end of the month.

Media: After getting it recommended by tons of friends over the years, I finally started watching Friday Night Lights last weekend. I've seen the first four episodes, and it's good so far, if a bit predictable. I look forward to seeing where it goes. I've also seen the first four episodes of Game of Thrones, which will definitely get its own post when I'm done. Current book is In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan, which is good so far, although it's the second in a series and I've forgotten too much of what happened in the first volume. More later, I hope. Also, we went to see Captain America today, and it gets the thumbs up. Steve Rogers is so adorable in his earnestness. I just want to give him a hug and tell him that everything will work out.

Games: We made a little progress on Dragon Age 2, although not as much as I would have liked, and I logged a good chunk of time on my third DA:O playthrough, this one with M!Surana -- I've been wanting to play as a mage, I haven't tried out being an elf yet, and I was definitely curious to see how a male Warden affect things. (And, as long as I'm making true confessions, I'd like to branch out on my romance options, and I just know that if I play as female, I will be unable to resist Alistair's charms. It's hard enough to resist them when I know they can't go anywhere.)

Writing: I didn't get anything else written for the Porn Battle. A few ideas, but nothing that gelled for me, and I ended up spending most of the week's writing time on yet another DA:O conversation, a new one. I think it's almost finished, so look for that soon. And then I really, really need to get cracking on my Mega Flare. Anyone up for some Larsa-related brainstorming sometime soon?

The Rest of Life: It rolls merrily along. One week will be crammed with social events and the next will be quiet, which works okay for me. The whole "offset weekends" thing is fortunately not wreaking as much havoc with my social life as I was afraid it might, although I am having to skip a weekend trip I would have really liked to take. But not much to report, really. Except that I am still in love with my MacBook Air. So, so in love. I bought a new laptop bag for it, a smaller, classier one, and I am ridiculously excited for it even though it's backordered until mid-September.

And now, bedtime. Goodnight, moon. Goodnight, DW, Goodnight, LJ.

Standing around the printer, hoping that it will magically refill itself with paper? Yeah, that's not going to work.

Dear student workers and library patrons,

I know the finer points of the Library of Congress call number system can get fairly arcane. Not everyone can be an expert, and there are a lot of call numbers that look alike at a glance. But still, what makes you think that a book about soup belongs in the pattern making section, no matter how similar the call numbers are?

(And then they wonder why we ask them not to put the books back on the shelves...)

This rant brought to you by an afternoon spent in the stacks discovering lots of things that were not remotely where they actually belong.

Did I really go a whole week without posting? I don't remember the last time that happened when I wasn't sick or traveling. And this week was neither, just busy with finals week and all kinds of irritating work stuff that I don't really want to talk about here. So, random update time, Five-Things-Make-a-Post-style:

1. Chorus started this week! Since I didn't sing Spring quarter and I always take the summer off, it seems like it's been forever. We're doing "Hodie" by Vaughn Williams, a piece I do not know. Parts of it are quite beautiful and parts look to be fiendishly tricky, but I'm looking forward to getting to know it. Coming back to singing after a hiatus always makes me happy. The biggest challenge this quarter isn't going to be learning the music, though. Instead, it's going to be getting to Stanford, because of...

2. T's car went to its final reward on Thursday. He was having trouble with it a few weeks ago, and the mechanic pronounced the death sentence: new transmission, a repair that would have cost him far more than the worth of the car. So the mechanic took it off his hands for $500, and now we are, for the time being, a one-car household. He's started the car shopping process, something he tends to be quite methodical about, so it could be awhile. Since we both take public transit to work most days, we could probably make it work for quite awhile, although we are talking about signing up for ZipCar to make it easier. Fortunately there's at least two pick-up spots within easy walking distance. Also, I took my car in this week, and it got a clean bill of health, so I feel better about depending on it as our primary vehicle. It's strange, in a way, because my Civic is three years older than his Accord was, and I had always expected it to go first. On the other hand, these little Civics have a reputation for lasting forever, and so far it's living up to that reputation. It's a good little car, and it makes me happy, so I'm content to keep it running for awhile longer.

3. I keep churning away on the Mega Flare story. A scene here, a few words there. At this point I don't think I'm going to have a draft by October 1st, although anything is possible, but since I'm not working with an artist, it doesn't matter much if I miss that particular deadline. If I keep up this pace (and ideally kick it up a bit), I don't have any real worries about not finishing by the hard deadline, which is mid-November. Assuming I can come up with an ending I like.

4. I checked out one new TV series so far, Undercovers, the new JJ Abrams show about a married couple who met when they were CIA agents and retired to get married. The pilot shows them coming out of retirement and working together for the first time. I had been hearing some buzz about it, partly because it's Abrams and partly because the leads are black (the characters are African-American but both actors are from Europe); both of those aspects caught my interest, but I'm watching mostly because I saw a preview for the series on Scott Pilgrim that made it look entertaining. I liked the pilot enough to record the second episode, so we shall see.

Also, Top Chef: Just Desserts, two weeks in: I like Gail, I like Johnny (although I'll like him better when he finds his own voice and stops trying so hard to be Tom Colicchio), but oh my god I hope they dial back on the inter-contestant drama, or it's going to get unwatchable real quick. If they don't get rid of [spoiler] next week, I might have to give up on it, or at the very least watch on heavy fast-forward.

5. Nothing much planned for this weekend, which pleases me, because these last two work weeks have involved a lot of running around and a lot of stress. Working a six-day week followed by a five-day week always drags me down; I should really remember to make better arrangements to get a short week immediately after covering a Saturday. On the other hand, this way I get a Monday off in the midst of our first honest-to-goodness heatwave, so maybe I shouldn't complain too much.

New quarter + upcoming travel = one busy KJ.

It all kicked off this week, with a messy mix of switching around shifts, working short days and long days, meetings galore, cumulating in a full day of work today. I'm not sure why it's been so exhausting, but I'm really fried -- I could barely keep my eyes open at my desk. Tomorrow I get my one-day weekend, the centerpiece of which will likely be an afternoon of laundry.

Then I work three days, during which time I have a half-dozen projects to wrap up. Thursday morning I leave for Boston, where I'll spend the weekend attending a librarian conference. Monday I hook up with amybang, we spend a couple of days hanging out, and then it's back home on Wednesday, where I immediately head back to three days of work, including another full shift on a Saturday, two weeks from today.

So basically I lose three weekends in a row: two to working on Saturdays, and the one in the middle to the conference, which, while not exactly "work", isn't exactly "not work" either. I'm not complaining, exactly, but it'll be hectic. And if you wonder why I'm not around as much in the next little while, now you know why. I might have to steal myself another three-day weekend sometime next month.

I turned on my work computer today and discovered that an "upgrade" to Firefox had wiped out all my bookmarks, settings, and plug-ins. It was as if it had been reinstalled from scratch. Anyone else experience this, or am I uniquely blessed with having to start over again?

Fortunately, I keep most of my bookmarks on Delicious, but the ones I use most are in my toolbar for "easy access". Not so easy if I have to keep re-doing them all the time... Boo.