And most of all, it's important to maintain your sense of humor . . .

"Should all tuxedos match for a wedding party?

Yes, it is very important that all men in a wedding party wear matching tuxedos. However, many brides prefer to have the groom wear a different style or color tuxedo. While this is an option, we suggest that you take a more subtle approach and select a different color for the groom's accessories (vest and tie). Our guess is that even if the groom is dressed the same as all the other groomsmen, the bride will still be able to identify him."

--from advice located on menswarehouse.com

Just another PSA

"Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly."

You might just have to be a computer geek to appreciate how delicious the irony is. It's kind of a borderline thing.

Seen on the bumper . . .

On the rear window, a U.S. Marine Corps decal declaring "Semper Fi."

Followed by this bumper sticker: "When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." --Sinclair Lewis

I shoulda took a picture and mailed it to the White House.

I miss non-3D animation, but there are compensations . . .

When I use this dress, with this animation, I get actual panty flash. Let's hear it for 3D. (You may have to click on the picture and go to the page to get the full animation).

(Yes, I was bored. And I crashed my browser 3 times while making changes).

Question #7

Is there a difference between morals and ethics?

Have I mentioned lately that I'm an idiot?

So, as I was lying in bed just now, trying to get to sleep through too much pain and the stress/depression of trying to figure out the Rites transportation business, it finally filtered through to me that my sister said a very wise thing while we were at lunch today:

Rent a car?

I brushed it off then, because of course I can't rent a car, because I'm going to have it for a week and it's not like I can drive it back and return it after I drive myself where I'm going. But I was lying here just now, realizing that if I'm looking at $100 in transportation anyway . . . Dollar and Enterprise sometimes do some pretty good deals a a weekly rental.

I can rent an economy car for eight days for $175 dollars, including all the taxes and fees. Figure that since I'm driving straight there and back, it won't take more than a tank, maybe a tank-and-a-half of gas. Call it $50. I still have to take red-eyes and I still have to deal with driving to and from Phoenix (and prevailing on somebody to take me to and from the airport and possibly let me crash as soon as I get off the plane). It's . . . at the high end of what I can pay for transportation, but it might be do-able.

I could still save $30 if I could fly in on the Saturday before, instead of taking the red-eye, and I'd still have to beg crash space for Monday night on the tail end (because if you're first in, you're last out, which means it doesn't matter if I'm ready to leave at 12:30 PM, the guy blocking me in may not be ready to go until 2:55). Enterprise will, of course, pick me up at my brother's house if I have crash space and can fly in early.

Most especially, the company would still be better if my brother's interested in renting a trailer and carpooling. But at least now, I feel like maybe I have a viable option.

Maybe now I can sleep.

This week, on "Web Comics You Can't Read from Work" . . .

There's Always Porn

I am laughing. Very hard. No pun intended.

On Sleeping

For all that I've dealt with mild depression on and off for most of my life, I've never really felt the "sleeping" symptom until today. I slept late. I took a nap this afternoon. And now I'm about ready to go back to bed. It just feels like there's nothing worth doing, and maybe when I wake up tomorrow it will all be better.

Alas, this is unlikely. I'm not as physically tense as I was. (My shoulders feel like they've been pounded with a meat tenderizer, but this reflects the positive aspects of having had a massage). Work is, if not necessarily better, at least far more stable than at the beginning of the week.

Today I went looking for airfares to Rites, again, and thought I found a solution . . . only to realize that I was looking at a red-eye that came on on the Tuesday of that week, when what I need is the Monday. The Monday costs $100 more. This for Albany, so my backup plan is now out. Flying into Newark and taking the bus almost works, except I'd need to stay in Newark overnight on the way out, which is neither sane nor cost-effective. So Boston becomes the best choice again. I hate having to haul my luggage on buses. Subways aren't too bad, and neither are long-distances buses, but plain old MBTA buses really are not cut out for juggling two suitcases and a duffle bag.

Six additional hours of travel and $100 or $120 dollars in bus-and-cab fare. I just don't know if I really want to do this. I told my brother I'd rent him a U-haul trailer if he wants. It'd cost the same and the company would be much better.

Why isn't there a double "s" in the middle of "buses"?

Then I looked at airfare from Tucson to Durango, on the theory that maybe Pete and I should go do that for the amount of money it would take to get just me in and out of Albany for Rites. Mind you, the rates haven't been posted far enough out, yet, but for the dates I can find, that wonderful Tucson-to-Durango fare America West used to offer is gone. I blame US Airways, which seems to have subsumed them. Tucson-to-Durango is now over $400/person.

This just is really not turning out to be a good day. Maybe it's time to kiss it goodbye and hope for better from a new one.

Quote of the Week

"My shoes are too tight, but it doesn’t matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.

--Ambassador Londo Mollari

"All your life is Time Magazine. I read it too. What does it mean?"

So, in case you've been wondering what's going on:

I had a wonderful visit with Pete on Saturday. Then my week started at 4:30 PM on Sunday, when I found out that the power supply in our primary domain controller (the one computer that makes all the others able to talk to each other) had lost its power supply, the part was proprietary, and one could not be found in the state of Arizona. I spent the remainder of the evening on the phone with my boss and our network admin helping do research and make arrangements to get one the following day. And since they'd worked all day that day, I drew the early shift the following day.

I was up at 5:30 AM on Monday, calling someplace in Missouri, talking to someone who hadn't had his coffee yet, and convincing him that I really did need something shipped faster than next-day service. After half a dozen phone calls back and forth, that was arranged and I went into work where I helped field the minor but widespread fallout from having switched onto our backup systems. Yes, boys and girls, our PDC is, at this point, a Dell desktop that is approximately six years old.

At about 2:30 PM, my boss sent me home as having become useless. My cognitive functions had gone all to hell and everything was shiny and hard-edged with a fatigue that has nothing to do with hours-awake and everything to do with screwing around with my metabolic patterns. I went home and took a nap, and then stumbled through the rest of the day. And couldn't sleep at night. I was answering e-mail from my boss at 1 AM. It advised that after arrival of the power supply and replacement, the good news is, the power supply works. The bad news is, the computer won't find the hard drives. It is reasonably likely they (or some attendant part) cooked as the power supply failed.

Today I find out that it's probably not worth trying to replace the dead drives, and we may just continue to run in this configuration. We now have an additional six-year-old Dell desktop configured as another backup. This is not quite as bad as it sounds--we moved the file serving function of the old PDC to a bigger, buffer server, and the new PDC doesn't really have to do much except keep track of who's who on the network.

Then, five minutes before 5PM today, I heard the sound of a computer turning on from my office. My computer. Spontaneously shutting down and re-starting. Repeatedly. The power switch does not affect this process. My professional diagnosis is possession. I call Dell's tech support and tell the tech so. He listens, we team the problem, and the longer we work, the more he becomes woefully certain that I'm not being an asshole, I really am as good as I say and the problem really is as weird as I describe. We finally get it running (through no effort of our own) to the point where we can run diagnostics, which take over an hour. I get a case number and vow to call back tomorrow with the results, and get myself home an hour late.

And then . . . there's Rites. Pete can't go. If my brother can't either, odds are fair that I'll spend a chunk of time woefully depressed. I e-mailed him (the brother) begging once more for him to tell me if he can give me a ride, and if not, to send me the e-mail addys of some other folks who go out there so I can try to find a damn ride, and a city that's not Albany to fly into. If I fly into Albany, it's about $100 more for the ticket, and I'll have to pay for a hotel room the night before I fly out. If I have to pay for a bus and cab, too, we're talking $400-$500 dollars. That's on top of what I've already paid for pre-reg. Not only can I not justify it, I really, really don't know if I can turn off my sensible-gene long enough to actually buy the ticket.

So there it is. I may have to write to the organizers and tell them my transportation fell through, and see if they'll refund most or all of my money. At a time when I could really use the spiritual boost. And I've been memorizing things to share, either with the vikings or at a fire circle. At the time of cancellation, it'll hurt a little, but I could at least console myself that maybe Pete and I could go visit my friends in Durango sometime this summer. But when that week actually rolls around, and everyone else is there, and I'm not . . .

Ow. It hurts even to think about it.

Quote of the Week

"The story is taking hold and Justin is talking to me again...that's so good. Y'know, this is one of the only professions where you get paid for hearing voices in your head."

--C. J. Cherryh, on writing

Quote of the Week

"And the [fifth god] grant us, in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word. In darkness, understanding."

--Learned Chivar dy Cabon, in Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Quote of the Week

"I love you for who you are, not who I can make you into."

--Tamara, in Something Positive, by R. K. Milholland.