( Torchwood 4 not-quite spoiler )

That is all I have.

This is not a real update, mostly I am procrastinating from the masses of things on my PM to-do list. Thoughts of leaving at 4pm have crashed and burned, setting fire to the wastepaper bin as they did so.

One day I will reply to all incoming work email using the word 'NO' in a variety of fonts, sizes and colours and being free with the bold, italic and underline tags and then I will log out and go to the pub and it will be the BEST DAY EVER.

Unfortunately that day is not today.

Oh, but while I am complaining (and I am totally complaining): anyone who needs screen cleaner, should NOT buy the cheap 'niceday' ones, while they do come in easy to use individual packets, they also have not cleared the smudges off of my monitor so much as turned them flourescent pink.

Either they are shit and do not work, or my VDU just tested positive for drugs.

I am waiting for the "has performed an illegal operation" warning and then I am turning it into the authorities and going home.

<3 Kaz

Current Location: Work, London
Mood: bored, boredboredbored, bored
Music: Martin Schenkel, "Day Off"

After much consideration I have come to an important decision:

I am going to call my Ikea flatpack ark 'Drukne'.

My accomplishments of the day? That was it.

Unless you count purloining a cookie from the training session upstairs. Which personally I DO.

Current Location: Work, London
Mood: dorky
Music: (That was a Scandinavian Joke)

It is never going to stop raining.

Does anyone know if Ikea do flat pack arks?

Mood: resigned

Well I was woefully optimistic about my being "almost, but not quite, over this cold", had to take yesterday off (which I never, ever¹* do) and spent it sitting on the sofa watching Boston Legal s2 in marathon and eating cheese.

Today I am at my desk, but I should probably have stayed on the sofa because I am now almost, but not quite, dead. And thus nowhere near productive.

However it is the Company Christmas Party this evening and I couldn't make last years so I am determined to make it to this one. Because it isn't a party so much as a salary supplement and I intend to get my money's worth. Plus it will be formally catered, which means interesting trays of food and magic glasses which refill automatically.

There is a rumour that these are not magic glasses, but fleet-footed waiters who pour with such dexterity that you don't notice your glass has been refilled, of course a) this is a lie and the glasses are magic and b) even if it IS the wait service, I think ninja waiters are certainly as cool as magic glasses. Because dude: ninjas.

In about 10 minutes one of my colleagues is appearing (with coffee!) so we can play with makeup and hair like teenagers preparing for a school disco. I even have my curling iron with me; if I manage to actually use it then it will become the single most productive aspect of my day.

I should be more distressed by this fact than I actually am.


¹Well hardly ever.

Current Location: Office, Work, London
Music: Muppet Christmas Carol OST, "Marley & Marley"

I have not had an overly successful week, productivity-wise. I was going to have an incredibly successful weekend - I had intended to get my Christmas shopping out of the way (I still have a little to do. Namely: all of it) and work on one of my writing projects (or the horrible work-related article I really should have had completed over a month ago and have simply not bothered doing).

Instead I have come down with a particularly spiteful cold (because it is winter and it will spend the next few months cycling through the departments until replaced by something exciting & summery like hay fever or avian flu) and am sprawled across the sofa watching Stargate at 4am trying not to breathe too deeply in case my lungs explode.

Lungs have not exploded yet, but I fear it is merely a matter of time.

I have been sprawled across the sofa for most of the day in fact, because it was that or bed and the central heating is not switched on upstairs. And also because once I made it downstairs heading back upstairs seemed like it would take significantly more energy than I actually had remaining. Many hours later and I still do not have the energy to get back upstairs.

I might well have to live on the sofa from this point onward.

Current Location: Sofa, Home, London

Am way behind quotas at work and staying late to talk to USians about their publications.

So far Houston, Texas and Cleveland, Ohio (oh me-o, oh my-o) have earned themselves very many brownie points. Hell, let us spread the joy state-wide, I am that pleased with them.

Contrasting sharply with the employees of the Seattle Art Museum, the entirety of whom appear to be asleep.

If you are within shouting distance of the Seattle Art Museum, please do so. I am hoping that, when they wake, my phone calls will be answered. I have tried four different numbers now.

Is Seattle on fire or something? Did I miss News? Because, literally, the most breaking news I can find for Seattle is about Seattle's pay by bin scheme and I am not even joking.

I would like to think that everything is okay in Seattle - I know at least plural awesome people in Seattle, but until I hear otherwise am going to have to assume it has been put into solitary confinement or some kind of technological quarantine.

Explanations plz?

(Meanwhile: NaNoWriMo ate my mind, I just corrected 'phone calls' from 'phonecalls' and went: "ooh, extra word!".)


ETA:
Also in my good books: New York, New York (despite being somewhat weird/rude) and Landover, Maryland.

Current Location: Work, London
Mood: blank -ed!

I've tried to post for, no kidding, hours. But I have no words, I really don't. And this? To me? Does not often happen.

I am so hot for you right now America.

<3

When running stupidly late and having to get the last commuter train of the morning I am almost guaranteed to forget that the 25-past train is not actually at 25-past but is, in fact, at 24-past as the 25-past train only exists in my tragically sleep deprived mind. I usually remember this as I reach the station, at which point it is a mad dash to get onto the platform before said 24-past train leaves, smirking. YES smirking.

Today I had to start rushing as soon as I reached the station and broke into an all out run the second I got through the barriers, BUT I caught the train.

Although it would possibly be more accurate to state that the train caught me as I boarded the train head first and, regrettably, left my feet on the platform as I tripped and faceplanted spectacularly onto the carriage floor.

Then the doors shut on my ankles, leaving my feet sticking out in a manner reminiscent of L. Frank Baum's Wicked Witch of the East after the house lands on her, but with far less fetishistic footwear.

Being that it was the Last Commuter Train of the Morning it was seat-full but no one was standing so on the plus side I had the space to wipeout entirely, which is good because I was too busy tilting at the windmill called Gravity to check this. People even moved to check that I was okay; one gentleman made me stand up (yes: made) while someone else picked my handbag up for me. True, this would have been more helpful had she not been holding it upside down, but the gesture was mostly appreciated.

The train moved off and I put myself back together, put the stuff back in my bag and, for a motive that eludes me entirely put some lip balm on. Then I spent the rest of the journey trying to stay as still as possible whilst concerned strangers offered me empty seats and made awkward small talk.

I am leaving the office in about an hour, after which point my sole aim for my evening commute is to remain upright for the entirety of the journey.

Tags: oh life
Current Location: TBM, London
Mood: bruised
Music: BNL, "Falling for the First Time" oh very funny mediaplayer. Very fucking funny

Working in Central London means I get to say many things over the course of my commute, but this morning the sentence:

"Excuse me, please - would you mind not throwing your nipple tassels in my face? Those sequins are rather sharp actually."

Was forced from my lips, which I think means it must be a Friday.

----

Yesterday I bought a fabulous pair of boots and so today I have a blister where my heel is supposed to be.

I am going out for coffee in four hours and will have to change into my 3" work heels for comfort. COMFORT.


love
~Bizzaro-Kaz

Current Location: TBM, London
Mood: It's a cliché but TGIF!
Music: XFM, soon to be exchanged for last night's RNC coverage

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Location: Great FUCKING Britain
Mood: DESPAIR!
Music: Jason Robert Brown

Woken by my radio this morning. Newsroom had very little actual news for me – which is usually the way I like it – and so they spent a good few minutes telling me how well Hillary Clinton’s DNC speech went last night.

Which is news and is eminently reportable, but it was the announcement that Hillary had endorsed Obama in her speech, made with something akin to surprise (like calling it a "surprise" endorsement for a start) which pushed me out of bed and downstairs so that I could make coffee and slam cups around – because seriously? Really? Surprised?

Here is a list that I started while waiting for the kettle to boil, of ten things Hillary Clinton could have said in her speech that would have surprised me more than her actual speech:

1. “And tonight I am proud to stand here as John McCain's Vice Presidential choice for this 2008 election.”

2. “FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!”

3. “It's not too late. You can still pick me. No, really, pick me! PICK ME!”

4. “I see a lot of my supporters out there tonight. People who aren't yet sure whether to support this democrat-who-is-not-me. And to those diligent followers I say: Fly my pretties! FLY!”

5. “And, now that I have legally changed my name to "Barack Obama", I accept your nomination for President of the United States.”

6. “Well fuck this bullshit. I'm voting McCain. You have only yourselves to blame.”

7. “Now John McCain is ... my new bicycle.”

8. “So. Suppose you thought that 3am text was funny, didn't you? Yeah, didn’t you? Yeah. I laughed. I laughed so hard I FORGOT TO ENDORSE YOU.”

9. “And, come the election, I will join you in voting for ... our first Affirmative Action President.”

10. “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”


On second thought, number 10? Wouldn’t have surprised me all that much at all actually.

Hillary Clinton has been in politics for a long time. Hillary Clinton wants to go continue in politics - to go further. Hillary Clinton was always going to toe the party line at this event; she was always going to endorse Obama at the Democratic National Convention; she had no choice.

The only question was whether she would do it convincingly, or with style. The speech left both those boxes completely checked. It was a very good speech and I think if anyone still harbours uncertainty toward Hillary's - at least advocated - affiliations, they are beyond convincing.

Current Location: Work, TBM
Mood: impressed
Music: On youtube, catching up on the rest of the speeches

Lost a bet, updating LJ - which is interesting because in updating? I lose another bet.

Which means nothing so much as I need to stop gambling, I obviously have no skill in this area.

All is much and the same on my end, I am mostly working (or, you know, procrastinating, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell) and mostly writing and mostly volunteering still. The lattermost of which is a source of constant stress and incredulity because voluntary organisations lose at the organisation part. There are no words, and yet starcrossedgirl gets them regularly during impromptu coffee breaks.

I am at the theatre as much as I can afford and in the sun as much as it will allow before burning me savagely - because I am made, I swear to god, of untanable tissue paper. Went to see Hamlet on its opening nights (because why go once, when you can go twice?) and there is much love for Stratford Upon Avon or, as it shall henceforth be known, "my happy place".

And now I shall dash off for I have a meeting at six and I should possibly have left ten minutes ago. Instead I lost a fight with a laser printer which is now sitting in the corner making noises like Father Jack. And the consistent grousing isn't the only way that it resembles Father Jack, which has me worried frankly.

In other news that causes me concern; someone has stolen my steak knife. Said steak knife lives on my desk in a story which is both terrifying and oddly dull all at once and I may well relate if I log in again this, well, let's not overestimate my LJing prowess these days, year.

I hope all is well on your sides - nothing has changed with me for I am relentlessly dull like this, but if you would like to update you know where I am (mostly? Offline).

Although you can, as always, email. My gmail account is probably best and I am almost regular in my replies these days.

And yes, that is still the only time the term 'regular' can really be applied to me still. Because some things never change.

love
~Kazzi

Current Location: Work, London
Mood: busy
Music: Too busy running between floors for music :o

Oh wow, LiveJournal. This is the longest I've gone without an update in the six years I've had this journal.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, it's always been my whiny little pseudo-psychiatrist notebook and it's good not to need the textual vent. But then I'd still have updated had it not been for being swamped with work because, no matter where I work, there is always structural angst, redundancies and restructuring and I end up doing twice as much as actually possible (seriously - right now I'm covering three positions - with a separate 'phone for each - thankfully only the two email accounts though).

On the whole I'm having a good day. I have stopped running from department to department to coffee shop, I got to call huttgirl, which always makes my day, the sun is shiny again, I can leave work any minute now, the boss has gone home with Man Tonsillitis (it is like Man 'Flu, only with more tonsil) there are Good Things on the horizon.

Not sure how much I'm going to be LJ/posting/reading/whatever but if anyone wants to touch base (because I have been so very out of touch and there are more than a few people I meant to contact but failed miserably to do so) you can catch me on the livejournal email address, or to kazzae at gmail.com.

And finally starcrossedgirl would like it to be known that she has converted me to Highlander. There are several things I have learnt/inferred from the enforced marathon (nb, enforced by Heike originally, and then by me!), one being that Immortals - they have very slidey feet and another being that Duncan, when drunk, totally declares himself to be Duncan MacLeod of the Cloud MacClan.

I learnt other things, but I believe the above to be the most important.

Love, as always,
~Kazzi

Current Location: Work, TBM
Mood: Good. Very, very, good.
Music: "Fidelity", Regina Spektor

Logged into LJ to find this message:

"database maintenance tonite, 12/22/07lj_maintenance"

Tonite? Really? So we're just making words up now? Interesting.

Although maybe I'm libelling them baselessly, Google (with a sidestop at Wiki) tells me that Tonite is "an explosive somewhat used in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It consists of a mixture of equal weights of barium nitrate and guncotton."

Obviously lj_maintenance is not making up words.

They're blowing up the database.

Still: interesting.

love
~Kaz


PS What the hell counts as 'adult content' and, more importantly, why am I supposed to care?

Tags: srsly - wtf
Current Location: Work, London
Mood: fine
Music: "A Miracle Would Happen", The Last Five Years