Blankshield

This morning, when I came into to work I realized something: I work in the Mines of Moria.

The only natural light comes from tall narrow windows, high on one wall.
Most of the building is infested with orcs (technically "clients", but we both know the truth).
There is most distinctly a Balrog in the corner office.
They won't let me bring my pony inside.

But the most telling point of all: the western door (accessable only to those who know how to open it) can no longer be approached directly. One must circle around the large unwholesome lake that has formed. I expect there is a Watcher in the Water, as well. It's certainly deep enough.

James

In the markets and bazaars in poorer parts of the world can be heard the plaintive cry of the bird shit salesman:

(to the tune of Guantanamera)

One ton a guano,
You wanna one ton a guano?
I gotta one ton a guuuuaaaaaano,
You needa one ton a guano.


I have no idea where my brain comes up with this shit. Literally. Even the voices in my head are looking at me funny.

James

Among the other things I did this weekend was watch Matrix: Revolutions. One of the guys at work dropped a burned DVD on my desk, so I figured 'what the hell.' I had pretty low expectations of it, but the first Matrix had its good bits, so I figured it was probably worth the risk.

I have one thing to say to the Wachowski brothers: I want my two hours back, you bastards.

James

Meme me up, Scotty.

10 reasons you wouldn't want to live with me:

1:Children. Three of 'em. Yup, I said three.
2:My Lego collection takes up the room another roommate could be using.
3:I am Captain Oblivious. I have been known to lose track of the screaming children while reading a book.
4:Vacuum? What is this thing you call vacuum?
5:Strongly cyclical cleaning patterns. 4 months of doing nothing, followed by a month of obsessive-compulsive neatness.
6:I will spontaneously burst into song. Kalen hates this about me.
7:Mornings. Mornings are evil, and abuse me greatly. I share the misery.
8:Yardwork is for motivated people.
9:Communication that doesn't involve a hobby tends to consist of monosyllables and grunts.
10: Old Projects never die, they just get dusty.

James

I need a waterproof laptop.

I keep having good ideas in the shower, and they go away by the time I get out. If only I could capture these fleeting ideas, I'm sure I could be a super-genious, just like Wile E. Coyote.

--
It's snowing at work. I specifically say "at work" because it's not snowing just down the road. That's right folks, it's only snowing over the chemical factory.

James

So we're having a "dry run" at work right now, which means they're practising what they would do in a real emergency. Today's emergency is a fire in the cholrine plant. About 15 minutes after the initial PA announcement, they came on to say that all areas were to follow their emergency evacuation procedures. Shortly after that, we were told that all non-essential personel were to evacuate the site.

I felt like popping over to the fire hall and saying "Not to worry, if this were a real emergency, I would have been running like hell after the first announcement".

Call me a wuss if you like, but chlorine gas is one of those things that scares the crap out of me. About the best possible result you can hope for from an encounter with the stuff is being on oxygen for the rest of your life. The typical response is a painful screaming death.

I make no bones about safety where I work. I keep my safety gear close at hand, and I run like a scared chicken at the first hint of something that can kill me.

James

Over the last few weeks our strong, silent type has been experimenting with things that sound suspiciously like words. Twice now he's said "nah nah" when promted to say "night night" on his way to bed, and is mimicing much more lately, which all the books say preludes the transition to talking.

Last night, when I went to get him up from his nap, he looked up with a huge grin and said "da dee!" I hugged him and kissed him and exploded with paternal pride when he said it again. ("Conner! You said daddy!" "da dee!") I immediately rushed him upstairs to show my new toy to Raven, where Connor... looked at the lamp. Eventually said "ba ba ba".

That's OK. My little boy has decided that maybe language is a good thing. Kalen, on the other hand, has never doubted... her lastest word is posterior. "That bug has a warm posterior because he's by the fire. Now the birds will fly away, and the fox will look out the window and..." You get the picture.

James

Life, she has been busy. Kung Fu last night was sore. Spent a lot of time in deep stances, and my legs are noticing that today. Haven't been getting enough sleep lately, surprise surprise, so I've had a perpetual headache for a few days.

Friday gaming looks like it'll get back to gaming again soon, which is good. My Life with Master got derailed by Christmas, and never quite recovered, and since then we've been sort of limping along, some of us wanting MLwM, some of us not, and nobody was really willing to say "Ok, this isn't working." until a couple weeks ago. It seems like we're going to split into "upstairs" and "downstairs" on Fridays, with downstairs being a Riddle of Steel game in the Black Company setting, with me behind the screen. Upstairs is going to be game-of-the-moment, which may be RPG, or board game or just watching videos and hanging out. It seems the division is along the lines of "people who are getting their regular fix only on Fridays" downstairs and the more social "RP because it gives me an excuse to hang out with friends" upstairs. With a little bit of blurring along the dividing line because some people are interested in the game right now (or vice versa).

James

Oh - a postscript: It has been pointed out to me by a few people that I misspelled Jasen's name in the last post. I know. I was, in fact, pretty sure I was misspelling it when I wrote it, but I wasn't 100% sure, and hey, I've got a reputation to uphold.