Went to what used to be Papagus with Mutant Man yesterday. The food was ok but the new decor really kills it. What I used to like with that place was the warm atmosphere, it felt like a family sort of place. Now it is very cold and stark. Trendy but stark ... and they put quite a bit of nutmeg in the moussaka which did nothing for the overall flavour of the dish. Mutant Man enjoyed his meal though. I was surprised to see Jack Layton eat there, wouldn't have thought of the place as a politician haunt.
Work has been disappointing so far. I mean I love the promotion and being ES-05 for real as opposed to acting, but I'm not having "fun". I find myself thinking back to my days at ABC where I would remain hidden in my cubicle poring over my xls worksheet, absorbed in the numbers yet feeling competent at what I am doing.
Now I am slowly turning into "presentation girl". The big boss keeps having me do the presentations to the Chairman, on various topics. Flattering to some degree but annoying as well, moreso when I learn late Monday afternoon that I need to prepare a deck for Thursday afternoon ... and with all the approvals needed it really means that the deck has to be ready for Tuesday afternoon. I am also caught between a big boss who thinks very highly of me (likely because we have the same kind of mind so we often see things the same way) and a bunch of old timers who feel threatened by me. I anticipate sabotage by them will begin at some point, even though I really have absolutely no desire to take over their files ... zero ... none ... because it involves icky interactions with other human beings, something I do try to avoid whenever possible.
***
In other news the game in Belleville (yes Mutant Man and I are crazy enough to go to a larp 3h away two times a month) is fun although I do not know how long he will be willing to put up with the commute. Hence why I temper my optimism
***
As for ObN, I kind of hopped in as co-ST or whatever you want to call it to keep the game going. The problem was not lack of player interest but Mutant Man's lack of desire to deal with all the bookeeping and the notes, which are time consuming.
Basically I deal with rules and doing notes. It is fun to do and I believe that we are done cutting out the majority of the cheese that was introduced by the former STs due to their inability to say no. Now we have house rules, we have set ways of dealing with influence moves, we have a list of approved (and disapproved of) merits and flaws. Character creation rules, templates and a definitive "how status works" document will follow.
I won't lie though, it has been and still is a test of my patience. When you have to, for the 10 time tell a player that "I don't care that the former STs let you take "insert abusive item, trait, merit" ... we are not allowing it anymore and you need to pick something else", it can be hard to remain patient. Not the player's fault mind you, rather, as I said, the former STs rarely said no to players, maybe they were afraid of scaring them away yet in the long run, not saying no hurt the game a lot by creating imbalance.
It is also frustrating to realize the amount of "house rules" that must be created in order to avoid the serious imbalances or abusive things or downright lack of rules for things in Laws of the Night. The lack of consistency and clarity often irks the bureaucrat in me.
Thankfully the players have been very patient and willing to adapt to the many chances we have introduced. They are also starting to seriously mess with each other, which is another good sign.
So we will see what comes out of it. A fun learning experience if anything.
***
Well, time for work ... another day, another deck.
Well, I wish I had my camera but it is checked in ... so I give you this, the "twilight zone" tunnel of their airport. Really fun to go through, if you actually have the time to walk through it as opposed to running between two gates. (p.s. the light reacts to the music so crank up the volume)
I don't know what they smoked when they came up with that concept, but I want some ... and then I want them to come and re-do the decoration of my apartment.
Turns out that Northwest is even worse than I thought ... they make me miss my flight ... so I have to pay an additional US$259 to be re-booked. Thank god this is all paid for by work :/
So far my flight is on time and the weather looks decent ... so hopefully I will get to leave on time. I anticipate that my luggage will not make it there though ... which sucks given that my winter boots are in it. But at this point all I want is to be home and be with my pets. The rest can wait.
I missed my connection because the flight from Washington DC to Detroit was late. Then I was told that they would take care of accommodations since there was no flight until tomorrow.
So I get sent from gate A1 to A46 (that's a long fecking walk) only to wait 45 minutes to be told, sorry, it was because of the weather, therefore you have to pay for your own room, call this number. I do that and they get me a room in some Holiday Inn in the boonies with a supposed shuttle.
So I call for the shuttle only to be told (at 10:30) sorry ... the shuttle only runs after 11 ... it will only be there at 11:30 (what you have to realize is that at this point I have been in a conference or in an airport all day from 7:00AM)
*twitch* *twitch*
So what do I do? I march my snobbish little butt to the only hotel attached to the Airport: a nice five star Westin ... for US$240 a pop ... no governmental rate. But instead of "sorry we can't help you" I get "yes m'am, right away" ... and so now I am sitting in this pretty room, wearing a plush bathrobe (to make things better I don't have my luggage and thanks to those silly new rules that means no liquids, no gels, no cosmetics ... nothing. But there is a bathrobe ... and $5 bottles of water and it makes it all better.
Even if my boss throws a fit at the room rate, I don't really care at this point. I tried the government help line shtick and it was no help so there. What was I supposed to do? I'll pay the darn thing out own pocket if I have to. And honestly, she will lose in the end because with the additional meals it will be at least $75 and me traveling on a Saturday is technically double time ... and one and a half time for Friday from 5PM until 11PM.
Hopefully by tomorrow I will be back on blessed Canadian soil.
It recently dawned upon me that over the past two months or so, I have been doing things which I thought myself incapable of ... usually blaming said incapacity on the pd.
I find myself having to (well I don't have to but I do it to be helpful) share my living space and resources with another human being for an undetermined period of time, one of my rats is ill and only marginally responding to treatment, my money was stolen, someone is about to default on the end date of a loan and will require an extension ... thereby decreasing my RRSP contribution, the renovation dudes ruined the caulking and paint job in my kitchen while replacing the counter, I work in the middle of a psychological war where I must manipulate both sides to exist, dishing out the lies and fake compliments and pretend empathy ... and yet through all this, I feel kind of neutral.
Granted, there are times when I feel like pushing everybody away to retreat into my sacrosaint solitude, but not to the same level as before. Not in the form of crushing depressive nihilistic circular reasonings. The same circumstances, maybe two years ago, would have left me paralyzed with anxiety and sent me depersonalizing on a daily basis. Yet today, without any pills and defective personality be damned, I feel zen about it.
Maybe it's true after all. We suffer because we desire and when we cease to desire for the suffering to cease ... it does.
Well, that $30 spent on a safety deposit box to stash some emergency cash and important papers just paid for itself.
I came home to find a phone message from my bank calling about my "canceled card". This seemed odd given that had not even used it today. It turns out that a bunch of not so cool person stole card information Ottawa and then proceeded to make clones and use them in Montreal.
The thieves withdrew 280.00 from my account (no doubt to see the balance) and then went to go to a high end clothing store and blew another 900.00 ... at which point the bank stopped the flow of dough. Yay for that daily purchase limit.
Anyhow, back to the point. My bank is in Montreal ... and when you get your card stolen or cloned, you need to go sign papers and get a new card and such. I don't relish the thought of 4h of transportation that this would entail. The bank and the fraud branch people we very nice an accommodating and they will mail me a new card. This means that I will be without any access to my bank account for 5 or 6 days.
Enter the mighty safety deposit box which I decided to rent some 6 months ago, on a semi-paranoid whim. The emergency cash in there is enough to tide over for months if need be.
So overall, this was a mighty good idea and I find myself far less annoyed or stressed by this than I would have thought.
As an aside, since I trust that it was not my hairdresser that cloned my card ... I suspect the TD machine at Minto Place on Slater Street ... so if you used it ... you might want to check your bank statements.
Not that I am sad that it's over but it all in all it was a decent week. I managed to get some work done (at work) and meet with the boss long enough to actually get some feedback on said work. She doesn't understand a thing about what I'm doing but at least not she knows and I can actually get ready for the all staff meeting.
On Wednesday Mother Nature was nice enough to provide flawless weather with no clouds. As such, I took 2h off for that little picture project of mine. We ended up racing against time, getting to destination and finding a location about 6 minutes before the end of our window of opportunity. It was cold, stressful but we did it ... with many thanks going to Mr. Mutant.
Of course, there was more bread making. For those wondering how it turns out, here is an example
For something that takes about 5 minutes of active work, it's pretty decent. The only problem is that it tends to disappear very quickly. Though the smell of freshly baked bread does leave a pleasant aroma.
My Atomfabrik goggles arrived http://www.atomefabrik.com/entrance.htm (I got the glacier ones). Like all true fashion wear they look nice but are uncomfortable. They look best, you've guessed it, worn on the forehead ... and really, it's not like these are meant to be functional.
My Dexter DVD boxed set also arrive. I am quite happy about that as well. I just loved that TV show so much.
I finally saw Golden Compass. I still can't believe they put that jaw removal scene. It was great ... and overall better than I anticipated.
Also got the confirmation that I am going to Washington in February so the work Amex acquisition procedures have been shifted into very high gear. Lord knows how much the plane tickets are going to be. Not that I mind all that much but I know how they can go from decent to insane in a matter of days. Also hoping to be in the same hotel as the conference ... but this is unlikely given how long it took (as usual) for the boss to make up her mind.
It started on Thursday with that nasty headache that wouldn't go away despite way too many pills taken. Woke up Friday morning to find Mutant Man shivering under a mountain of blankets. Felt guilty leaving him but all my things were in class at the CSPS and it was the last day. Ended up skipping the last afternoon of class and came home to sleep. Did a quick cleaning of the apartment, then more sleep.
Felt absolutely no better on Saturday. Same stupid headache and sickly feeling ... whatever bug Mutant Man has was evidently trying to latch on to me. More sleep, food shopping and that's about all I felt up to. Had to skip game, both because I felt like crap but also to uphold the principle I hold that when you're sick you don't go around large gatherings of people spreading it. It is just plain inconsiderate. As much I have way too many sick days accumulated ... about 3 months worth, most people are not in that situation.
Got inspired at 9PM and made some bread ... yeah ... I did it ... I jumped on the bandwagon way late and did some "No Knead Bread" before heading to bed. In the morning it was only a matter of letting it rise a second time and baking it. Having made traditional bread before, this recipe was, pardon my language, fucking amazing both in its simplicity and results. You do end up with a nice crusty loaf and moist chewy interior and all it takes is 4 ingredients (flour, water, salt, yeast) and time ... time is the main component.
I hadn't had good bread in the morning for quite some time and wow ... rhubarb and strawberry jam on nice and rustic bread, piping hot from the oven in the morning ... while warming my toes under a sun ray was quite the feeling. Mutant Man approved of the bread and well ... it is all gone now. I will likely make more tonight, letting it rise a bit more so that the sourdough flavour develops more.
Unfortunately the weather was completely uncooperative yesterday. I need a darn sunset ... a sunset where you actually see the sun instead of a cloudy mess. Wednesday holds some promises (if you discount the god awful temperatures) ... but I need it sooner than later ... and with the times at which I finish work, it is kind of difficult to accomplish.
But yeah, a blah weekend which I am almost happy to see over.
For some reason, I went through Saturday without drinking coffee. Went to get some spare keys made for Mutant Man and ate at a nice bubble tea place on Bank. I ordered a drink called "magician" which is taro bubble tea ... about 500ml of it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. Fortunately, I "canceled" most of it with a nice light lime salad.
We came back home but after a few disappointing songs on GHIII my body was asking for a nap. Said nap turned into a 15h sleep until about 8 this morning. Clearly I was tired.
The long night ended up being a highly entertaining crime spree between me and Mutant Man in India. We stole, beat, framed and killed ... all with style, always narrowly escaping capture or death. What was neat was that the police officers in India were equally stylish. They would do stunts such as standing on their motorcycle (as it was running through a gauntlet of obstacles), shooting at us or doing impossible stunts with their cars such as taking a jump on two wheels and having their car crash land right in front of us ... with them standing up and already shooting at us before landing ... they also had the uncanny ability to never die while doing said stunts.
In between crime sprees were other random encounters like this young school girl which I helped with her math homework ... as she was struggling with optimization or something like that. But her father (someone I knew was a big time government official) showed up and I had to escape by jumping out the window and landing on a weird cylindrical boat thing ... because in my dream, the city we were in was akin Vienna with water almost everywhere and people would travel on the water on crafts shaped like giant yellow tubes. In fact, we arrived to this "indian city" on one of those after our more normal-shaped boat sunk.
The last part of the dream took part in what seemed like a grocery store storage room. I was munching on a particularly tasty yellow cookie when I heard Mr. Mutant yelling something like "don't even come and talk to me unless the pile of bills is this high" which in the dream I understood as an indication that we didn't work for less than $1M or something.
And then I woke up.
I love night like this with plenty of dreaming. It reminds me of when I was on crazy meds ... used to have the greatest dreams and always remember them.
It was a nice way to begin my Christmas holiday. As I am off until January 3rd, I am looking forward to many more nights like this.
After lots of sleep, pain pills and tlc, I believe the nasty has been killed. But final verdict will have to wait this Saturday.
As as side benefit, having Mutant Man with me all week was very nice if a bit unreal at times. I don't believe I've ever, since leaving home at 18, come home to find someone telling me "hi honey, dinner's almost ready". It had a very surreal / suburbia paradise feel to it.
Movies were watched and werewolf was played. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was my first time trying the setting (despite owning the main book for years) ... more than I anticipated. A new level of geekness was also achieved last weekend. Quietly lying in bed about to go to sleep, the conversation goes to the game and then as naturally as can be, it slips into a long IC scene (and get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking a platonic scene) that did not require any dice rolls. I'm glad I changed my glass walker to a Theurge ... which I believe will give me more room to be wacky and creative ... though now many questions present themselves like: what offering would the linoleum tiles spirit like? Sometimes it's not easy to try to "think like the spirit".
Unfortunately Monday came and work beckoned. On the bright side, they have apparently fixed my pay ... after 6 months and will supposedly give me the second level of the pay scale (i.e. as if I had been an ES-05 for a year ... so about $2k difference). But I am waiting until Wednesday to see if this is indeed true.
In a fortunate turn of events I will be spending the last 3 days of this week at a conference, thereby dodging the next Council meeting. As much as conferences are exactly the sort of even that exacerbate my social ineptitude and make me physically ill until I dissociate enough not to feel anything, I still think it beats a 3 day council meeting sitting on a chair listening to people make bad decision. At least there is a chance that I will learn something interesting at the conference and it's at the Congress Centre; meaning that some decent, less crowd-intensive shopping can be achieved during lunch time.
Why oh why do so many men insist on waiting until they feel so sick they are about to pass out from pain before going to see a doctor? Do they enjoy delaying the inevitable? Misplaced need to display courage? Strange stuff.
Anyway, after Mutant Man arrived on Friday he got progressively worse until around 4AM when the non-prescription pain inhibitors would no longer do anything. He finally agreed to see someone and we made our way to the ER. Much to my surprise it wasn't packed, except for a few people who got into fights and likely fell on ice. One guy, relatively drunk, got hit with brass knuckles on the head ... only to ram head first into one of the TVs in the ER waiting room. Life's a bitch.
He finally saw someone at around 9AM and acquired the necessary prescriptions. After having to almost threaten the pharmacist (who apparently couldn't do his darn job because his underling was missing), the pills were counted and put into the bottles, sold to us and we were on our way back home.
5h of sleep and off to game. Mr. Mutant made a brave attempt at going but when eating a piece of a waffle led to dizziness and nausea, I had all the arguments I needed to convince him that more sleep was needed.
Game was decent despite the Prince's absence. Managed to carry out gruesome medieval-style justice (and make a few people lose humanity in the process), avoid masquerade breaches after a not-so-discreet assault, welcome guests, discuss philosophy and enlightenment, play "negotiator" with the scared victim of said assault as well as hand out promotions and rewards ... and of course avoid any direct challenges to the Prince's hold on the place. His absence did, however, delay a few plans. Overall it confirms my suspicion: leading a city is a bitch and non-stop headache.
The rest of the weekend was spent watching movies and tv show episodes and lots and lots of sleep. Mutant Man is well on the mend but will stay here all week while a dentist is found and the offending body part is dealt with. To a certain degree this feels rather odd. I am not used to the extended company but I think it might be fun. On the other hand, it will make my days at work seem longer as I will actually have something to look forward to each night.
For a host of reasons I had been delaying ordering green coffee for a few months. But no more ... the sight of half empty jars took its toll ... some 22 pounds are on their way. In addition to my usual must have I opted for 4 new ones:
Bali Paradise Valley Santo Dominco Occa Carmen Congo Kava Peru Chancamayo
Had to resist getting Hawaiian Kona. At over $25 a pound for green it seemed a tad prohibitive.
A strange phenomena is starting to arise. See, for me, ordering less than a pound of any one bean makes little sense as my batches are a quarter pound. Thus a half pound bag means that I only get 2 tries at roasting it before I am out.
So I get my base beans in two pounders and the accent beans in one pounders ... except Kenya because I just love that particular origin. Now add to that my desire for freedom when roasting and over the years, the list of what I consider my "must have" beans is getting longer and longer. Before I even think of ordering something new, I am looking at 15 different origins ... and this time I even "passed" a few trusted allies (Sulawesi, Uganda, Yemen Sanani) to make more room for new ones and try to keep the parcel under 25 pounds.
It is sort of like having a consumable collection.
And while I'm at it, free publicity for my main supplier ... a not-for-profit company with kick ass selection and decent shipping prices http://www.greenbeanery.ca/bean/home.php
As promised, the prop I worked on for last weekend's larp. To understand things a bit, we were fighting some sort of psycho Inca cult led by pairs of children who control a sort of hive mind network linking all their members. Someone was nice enough to blow up their headquarters, so being the good little second in command that I am and knowing Tremere's taste for science, the occult and all around experimentation, I thought I would bring my Prince what was left of their leader ... on the off chance that someone could study it.
Do not go any further if you are disturbed by (badly) simulated human remains.
I spent most of yesterday learning first aid and CPR. I thought it would be far more difficult but I can understand the logic in that if the course is too difficult nobody takes it and if someone no longer has a heartbeat, they are going to die anyway so even if your technique is not 100% perfect, it may give them a slight chance until EMS arrives.
We also got to play with a defibrillator. Those things are really neat. The machine calculates the distance between the two pads to decide the level of the shock to be administered and if it should be administered. So basically you can use it on a toddler or someone who weighs 400 pounds. It even assists you with CPR giving the proper beat and all.
My larping experience can in handy for the "scenes". Boy did I give my bosses a hard time when I was pretending to be a diabetic on low blood sugar ... basically being confused, erratic and not at all cooperative. Took them quite a while to decide what to do or even what I had.
Did decently on the exam: 24/25 and now I have a nifty certification card ... much better than to spend a day working really.
Finished a crafting project for ObN this morning. It's only a one-shot thing but it will be fun. Pictures to come after game.
Feeling a bit more positive regarding work. Likely because I have another project to work on ... though I still have more darn meetings next week.
Body is weird ... telling me something ... but I don't know what. Perhaps that sickness is close by. Mind you a few days off wouldn't be too bad at this point.
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kookiemaster's journal
amused
calm
tired
chipper
surprised
okay
blah
awake
cold
bouncy
accomplished