Month: July 2014

Friday

desk71114_1

It was an absurdly quiet day at the office, with summer hours back in swing for most everyone (but not me) after last week’s holiday break. By two o’clock, it seemed like there were less than a half dozen of us still left in the building.

Inspired, perhaps, by Heather’s recent cubicle exposure, or perhaps simply by the boredom of a very long day at the end of a pretty long week, I started snapping photos of my work area.

desk71114_2

desk71114_3

I swear, it’s only carefully chosen camera angles that make my desk look remotely neat. I lucked into one of the larger cubicles maybe about a year ago, and I really do like working at it. Which, I swear, usually keeps me too busy to be snapping photos left and right.

Anyway, that was Friday. Had a spicy seitan burger from a local food truck, which proved to surprisingly tasty for vegan food. Had time to kill before living for the end of the day. No big plans for the weekend beyond writing, which I am determined to do some of tomorrow.

Random 10 7-11-14

Last week be all like, this. This week be all like, this:

  1. “Almost Time to Go” by Jason webley
    Does it weigh more than a single feather?
  2. “Let Me Lend My Shoulder” by Big Harp
    Some heavy load across your back
  3. “Sun Song” by Laura Veirs
    Matches inside your golden hair
  4. “When the Ship Comes In” by Marcus Cole Franklin (orig. Bob Dylan), guessed by beentsy
    And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
  5. “The Stranger” by Billy Joel, guessed by Betty
    Though you drown in good intentions
  6. “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake
    And none of you stand so tall
  7. “All the Right Friends” by R.E.M.
    I don’t wanna be with you anymore
  8. “Real Long Distance” by Josh Ritter
    It’s a drag and a sigh and that’s not all
  9. “The Core” by Eric Clapton
    I can burn without fuel
  10. “Zero from Outer Space” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
    I’m out of my fuckin’ head

You be all like, “I’m guessing the lyrics!” I be all like, good luck with that!

Much like any Monday

IMG_0463

Last night, I settled in to watch I, Frankenstein for some reason. I could claim that it seemed like a good idea at the time, but that would just be lying to you. I knew perfectly well it was going to be a terrible movie, but then I watched the trailer…and, well, Bill Nighy was in it, and I hoped it might be the right kind of terrible.

I watched maybe half of it until Heather guilted me into switching it off and trying to write instead.

I wish I could say the writing went well, but that too would just be lying. Still, it was likely better than watching gargoyles clobber demons, or vice versa, or whatever it is I, Frankenstein was supposed to be about. (It was very Underworld-y, right down to Nighy’s casting, and I don’t mean that as a good thing.) I’ll have to consider the small amount it cost to rent the thing a lesson learned, or something.

Tonight’s writing didn’t go terrifically well either, but there’s something to be said for getting back into the swing of things and a regular-ish routine.

Second Sunday

IMG_0441

I didn’t quite know what to do with myself yesterday, with this sudden excess of Saturday. I made some failed attempts at both reading and writing, then settled into watching The Godfather Part II after dinner. That’s about as exciting as my weekend got.

Today, I did do a little writing, at my weekly free-writing group:

“There is no such thing as the future,” the doctor said. “Time is flux. Time is change. Time is — “

“Time can go to hell,” said Elliot. She stoked the campfire, then stood, brushing the dirt from her knees. “We’re not talking probabilities here, doc. There are events that play out the same way every time we run the scenario. That’s close to written in stone, if you ask me.”

“Even stone crumbles,” the doctor said.

“Tell that to Kennedy, or Lincoln. Dead every time. No matter how many new variables we throw at the board, time still plays out like we expect it to. The future, for all its flux, still happens on schedule.”

“Tell that your oracle.”

Elliott sighed. Now that had been an unexpected wrinkle. She usually didn’t like to hire on locals for this kind of operation; the paperwork at the other end was a pain, for one thing, and who had the time to run every primitive, pre-codex yahoo through a crash course in temporal mechanics? Better to rely on the techs who’d already been embedded in whatever century she was visiting, along with fully briefed participants like the doctor, who’d traveled her with her. But the codex had wanted her to investigate; they said the Oracle at Delphi exhibited anomalous behaviors, rippled the waters of causation or some bullshit like that, and they wanted a team of field techs to observe in situ.

What they hadn’t said was that the seer would be expecting them.

“She sure as hell isn’t my oracle,” Elliot said. “Up till now, I figured the whole vision thing was hokum.”

“In later centuries, it might have been,” the doctor said. “We still haven’t established if the accuracy of this particular vision is unique to the young lady herself or — “

“Or divinely inspired?” said Elliot. “Please tell me you’re not putting money on Apollo, doc. We’ve got troubles enough without ancient gods getting into the mix.”

Not quite sure what to make of that, but there you have it.

Back to work tomorrow, although luckily back to work from home on Mondays after a couple of weeks.

Independence Daze

Red, White, and Blue

It was a rainy 4th of July — or at least it was until this evening, when the skies cleared and the over-abundance of fireworks came out. Not that the locals need a particular reason to set off fireworks, of course. It’s hard to judge exactly where they’re exploding from — at a guess, I’d say one block over, across the tracks — but they’re just about a nightly occurrence. Tonight, they might have been a little brighter and louder than usual, a little less timed to goals at the World Cup or wherever, but it’s a little same-old, same-old, if you ask me. (Of course, if you ask the dog, it’s the end of the world, and no, he’s sorry, but there isn’t room for you too under the kitchen table.)

I spent the day inside, thanks to the rain, mostly just happy to have the day off from work. I watched a little television but mostly read, finishing The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, which I really liked.

Then this evening, I re-watched The Godfather, which I haven’t seen since the first time I saw it, many years ago now. It really is a terrific movie, and it looks stunning in Blu-ray. But it’s also something like three hours long, so that kind of took up the rest of my evening.

All in all, it wasn’t an eventful day, but it was a pleasant one.