OK, first, happy Odd Day to everyone.
Things to do on Odd Day: It’s a great day to do your odds ‘n ends, give a friend a high-five, root for the odds-on-favorite, read the Wizard of Odds, watch the Odd Couple, say aaaahd in the doctor’s office, look for sea odders, find that missing odd sock, and beat the odds
There’s a prize if you can out-odd that.
OK … now, since it was noticed, a report on Bonk.
Continue reading
Of old was an age
when was emptiness
And then they published!
Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun
The release party, including the book giveaways and conversation with Tom Shippey (who I don’t much care for as an author, but still) were all today. And I had to work. At home. Unsupervised.
Is AWFUL.
But, dashed out the second the conscience let me, and got my copy. It is pristine. It has perfect edges. And my book covers are PACKED so I can’t COVER it so I can’t READ it cause I would Mess It Up.
Is BEYOND AWFUL.
But I have the book. The lovely, lovely book.
And this weekend, I went to the library, and checked out 4 books, one of which I read (Bonk, every bit as good as Stiff, but even more viscerally disturbing in sections), one of which (Dracula, the original Bram Stoker one, and it’s really pretty good) I’ll finish tonight, and two I have left to distract myself with (biography of Edgar Allen Poe, and This is Your Brain on Music).
If the library is all I have to distract myself with, I’ll be at the library a lot. Or I’ll just go get a pair of white gloves.
I was in North Carolina last week. Work trip.
United airlines – the federal carrier available from Denver to Raleigh – no longer has direct flights between Denver and Raleigh. The last trip I took was the last week they ran direct flights. This is my first time using them and having a transfer. I have to carry my work laptop – non-negotiable, and also, it has to be the carryon. Work travel means I’m checking my bag. No matter what.
So. Denver to Raleigh. Through Chicago. I try to print my boarding pass from home; no go. So, extra time for doing all that before hand. Seems to go smoothly. Flight runs a little late – no worries; semi-tight connection in Chicago but I walk fast. As it turns out, no need …. connection flight is delayed by an hour and some change. Get food. OK. Arrive in Raleigh, right about at midnight, but OK. Wait for my bag … uh huh. No bag.
So I wait till it’s totally obvious, then go to bag check. Get claim form. Do not get any overnight necessities. Sigh. Go wait for rental car. Wait for a looooooong time. Finally call them – and the rental car company closes at midnight. Joy! So, at airport, it’s 1:30 by now, and I have no car and no luggage. Oh well. Get a taxi. Hotel convenience shop has toothbrush.
Week is fine, though of course I have to do Casual Monday (I really missed having a hairbrush). Bag is delivered Monday afternoon. Week proceeds.
Next leg – Raleigh to Denver. Through Washington. So … see if this sounds familiar: There’s an hour delay, and then they lose my bag. !!!!
The spin this time is that the load us onto the plane, and then tell us it’s going to be an hour or so before we fly off. We haven’t even pulled away from the terminal. So we sit and sit .. people freaking out about connections, etc. But we go, we arrive … and the good news for me is, the plane to Denver is the exact plane I came in on. So I get off, get a muffin at Starbucks right across the way, and then get right back on the same plane.
And yet, they still managed to lose the luggage. Brilliant!
At least this time, I had my car, and I had a toothbrush – and a hairbrush – at home. But sheesh. Not the best luggage trip.
Simple covers that might be a throwback to old styles, but I think that they work really well. MSCorley
I think that all delivery trucks should have GPS units installed and the data should be broadcast to people expecting packages. Not so much a ‘truck is on 12th street traveling south’ type location; just a general city block would be great. Showing what areas have already been visited would be an obvious feature. I’m sure that the efficiency systems FedEx/UPS use make sure drivers don’t come back to an area multipe times during a delivery trip. Wasted gas, time, and all that.
See, this would help out people like me that wonder when the truck is going to get here and where are they and WAIT! was that loud noise the construction next door pulling in a large truck or is that the delivery guy? If I could look at a map and see “oh, he’s on the north side of town” would mean I wouldn’t be so distracted. I’d just keep refreshing the tracking page every 10 minutes. (or whatever update interval they set; 10 minutes would be good)
I’ll now go back to wondering where in the city the FedEx truck is wandering and when the UPS guy is going to stop by.
But thank goodness for the DMV.
http://www.9news.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=113389&catid=337
The Onion hosted a short discussion on the effect of video games on today’s children. As usual they have their own unique viewpoint.
But get annoyed when you have to go through way too many ads and annoying websites to get to them?
Solution: Daves Trailer Page
Plenty of direct links to download trailers of just about every new movie coming out. Plus a library of links for older movies.
It is my sad duty to report that the coffee machine has died. Multiple last-minute attempts at resuscitation failed and it was transferred to recycling at 8:35am Wednesday morning.
It was a good and faithful coffee machine, performing its percolation duties without complaint for several years across many states.
We will miss the coffee machine.
If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a rather decent visual presentation of how things got bad.