only intermittently obedient

squidgiepdx wrote me a story for my birthday! I AM EXCITE!!

What Do You Call a Twelvesome?

Go and read it - it's funny and awesome. Just like him!

I'm unemployed.

Following their longstanding tradition of never keeping their word, my company did NOT keep me five weeks before eliminating my job. They laid me off tonight after three. Good thing I wasn't counting on having those two extra weeks to get all my ducks in a row on both the medical and job search fronts. ... Oh, wait.

Actually, the good thing is that I updated my resume at work last week. :grin:


There's another tradition in our that office - when someone gets fired, the boss buys ice cream, to soften the blow of reality for those who remain. I'm the first person who's ever gotten to partake in the ice cream (cake, in this case) in their honor. All things considered, I'd've rather gotten paid for doing next to nothing for two more weeks. :P

(Really, it was ridiculous how little work I managed to do this week. I can see why they let me go - it's just that I really wanted to stick it to them for another 80 hours.)


:affects surprise: Oh, dear - I've just realized that I never cleaned out Phil's cubicle (he was fired the Friday I was at the con). I guess someone else will have to do that one, as well as mine. :ebil leering grin:


I'm off to troll (the fishing method, not the shit-stirring) the hospitals' sites, for second shift jobs.

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

My boss welcomed me back with an announcement that the company has decided to teach the salespeople to enter their own orders, and if all goes well, my position will be eliminated in five weeks. If I'm a good little girl, and don't interfere with the process I'll get 10 weeks severance. Blah blah blah, and I can contact our HR to get all the details of the severance package. And how was Chicago?


Really? No, fucking REALLY? You throw that in on the end of that discussion. You suck.

And doesn't the fact that there are details about the package make it seem like this has been in the works for a while and my ouster is inevitable? Nice.


I forgot to mention to him that order entry comprises only about 40% of the actual duties of my two positions (Data Entry/Office Coordinator). I'll let him figure that out when he has to do all the other stuff that I've been in charge of for the last seven years. You know - little, vastly unimportant things, like gift card redemption forms (a major pain) and periodicals, office supplies and payroll. Have fun, asshole!

I just have to pack the cooler and I'm out!

What d'ya mean It's Wednesday and the Con doesn't start 'til Friday?

I know - I have a plan. Last year I went up on Thursday, so as to have time to go to the Intstitute of Art. A late start and long drive, plus travel time on the El, meant that I missed out. This year, I'm driving up tonight (and stopping at antique stores as I see them), so that tomorrow I'll only be an hour away, and can justify the $18 entrance and $21 (!) parking fees. I plan to be there for six hours minimum.

I'd ask if anyone has requests for photos of particular artworks, but I will be without internet tonight, as the laptop is dead and the desktop is unwieldy. :D

I hope to do con reports during, but may be too excited to do 'em 'til I get home.

I asked a question about posting a comment in customers_suck, since their Comment rules (and the error message I got) didn't say you had to be a member to do so.

After I was told that you do have to be a member, I suggested adding that fact to the numbered list of rules. I got a couples of ignorant and condescending responses, but the final thing that apparently decided my fate was this:
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Furthermore, as I can see your IP and it is nearly identical to a known troll, I will, again, bid you good day.

Ya know - when I lived in Alachua (FL) my phone number was one digit off that of the local police department.

That didn't make me a cop.


WTF, people?


ETA: I commented with the three lines below the dashed line, and got this response:

Subject: Re: Your logic is faulty
There's a point when it's time to let go. That was about four comments ago.
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Maybe she figured she'd better shut up before she showed more of her ass to more people?

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I forgot to update on my utter uteruslessness. Sorry!

( Let the rambling recounting begin! )

I went to see Dr. Yim Friday. He looked at the CAT scan and judged my baseball to be the size of a volleyball. This sports shit is getting out of hand, but at least it's not a medicine ball. I can't believe it's quite that big - maybe he meant to say softball? Whatever, either way it's gotta come out.

We discussed a whole lot of options:
if the slice they look at while I'm laying splayed open behind them is benign, then he only takes the uterus. The ovaries stay to produce hormones.

if there seems to be even a hint of malignancy, he takes uterus, ovaries, the omentum, a strip of fat that cancer likes to use as a metastacizing stepping stone (I refrained from asking him to remove any and all strips of fat he encountered, as he seemed a pretty serious guy), and three sets of lymph glands. Hormone replacement therapy to follow. He responded to my concerns, pointing out that it's replacing what I would've produced naturally, not increasing - and that it's come a long way since the 60s/70s.

if it's adhered to the bowel, they'll have to resect (though he didn't use the word) it like garden hose (yes, that's how he explained it). Sometimes that doesn't work and a temp colostomy is needed. If all that happens, then we'll have to discuss chemo/radio-therapy.

Now, he did say that this was all worst case scenarios, and that we had to go over them so I would be fully informed...and I interrupted and said, "And 'cause you can't wake me up in the middle to discuss it." Most of these are fibroids, and 99% of those are benign, but you have to talk it all over, so there are no unpleasant surprises.

When do I want to do it? He's not saying, "We have to do it soonest, OMGOMG!!!" But we also don't want to hang about, since we don't know how fast it's grown, as there's no baseline. He has had a cancellation for Thursday 3/24... I'm on it like a goose on a junebug. The last thing he said before I left was, "I'm fairly cofident it's benign." I think that's a very strong statement in these litigious times.

I wrote a mass email (get it? :snerk: ) to my peeps, and it turns out that there's a long and storied history of fibroids in my family. In fact, my sister and I are the only two over 25 who still possess a uterus. And soon she will be all alone. (She's looking forward to her inevitable upcoming event, you betcha.)

So this Thursday is the day. I have three days to get all the paperwork for the Short Term Disability done, get a bunch of stuff at work set up for my absence, get groceries for my infirmity (pudding, yogurt, etc.), and have the furnace guys come an replace my limiter switch, which decided that Friday night was the perfect time to go bad. :> Luckily, the weather is predicted to be very mild 'til Wednesday night. And since I'll be home all day Wednesday, chugging the Golightly, won't that be convenient? :grin:

Thanks for all the well-wishes. I'm planning to update on Saturday, if what they tell me about my recovery slope holds true. Gotta go take a shower now. I just remembered that they're turning off the water in about 2.5 hours, and it won't be on when I'm getting ready for work.

Something's gone wrong over at the AU list (third issue this week - possibly due to recent updates on my computer, which included Internet Explorer 8), and the comments are currently closed.

I've sought advice from my technoguru, Walter, and am also seeking help at the site. But, 'til the good news kicks in you can comment your new AU stories here instead.

Sorry for the two-step process - I hope to have it back down to one very soon.

Thanks in advance for your patience and your fictions!


ETA: Now fixed, by Walter the Wonderful! Yay!

(Yes, I know it's not a real word. That's BW for you.)

There was an odd little opinion piece called Atlantis fans need to stop punishing Universe. This begat many responses, wherein people either agreed with its points or pointed out that the tune that Brad was singing when he axed Atlantis was a little different. Here's my contribution:



“Universe wasn’t responsible for the demise of Atlantis. Stop punishing it.”

Actually it was. Mallozi (or was it Wright?) said at the time that he had been a showrunner for two shows at the same time before, and didn’t want to do it again. Sure, he could have turned the running of Atlantis over to someone who cared about it, and maybe even respected its fans, but that loss of control would have been anathema to him. He’d rather kill it than let somebody else have it.

Another point they made – Atlantis was very expensive, around one million per episode. SG:(P)U runs at about two mil per, from what I’ve read. They trumpeted the ratings for the pilot as a great triumph, but since they were considerably less that twice that of the highest rated Atlantis episode, I’m not sure why.

They didn’t care about ANY of their female fans – didn’t need ‘em, didn’t want ‘em, felt free to basically tell them to frell off. They didn’t care about the males over 30 – same rancid blather, same rancid repeat. Which is odd, as I’ve found (in my 45 years as a female) that I have WAY MORE disposable income NOW than I (or any male I knew) had when I was under 30. I didn’t buy seasons of ANYTHING (on tape) back then, as I was too busy paying bills with that money. Now I’ve got cash to spare. (I’m spending it on conventions. Wouldn’t want to contaminate the boys with my XX dollar cooties.)

They felt that the big draw of the show was the writing and the situations. Pu-lease! It was the characters, all of whom were made 1000% better than their written origins by the actors who played them. Joe/Brad expected that we would slavishly follow their ‘genius’ from show to show, as folks do with Josh Whedon. Maybe if they collectively had even a tenth of the talent housed in his left baby toe – that might be true.

I’m an SGA fan who refused to watch SG:(F)U. First, because it was (in part) the cause of my show’s demise. However, secondly (and more importantly), it was because of the atrocious attitude of the people in charge towards me and lots of other fans.

I’m with elandrialore. I’m not boycotting the *show*. I’m boycotting the *boys*.
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The lovely cate has a post full of cogent commentors on the subject. She even has the bit I remembered where Brad Wwrong dissed us all. 'Tis here.

Poor widdle Bwad. He took his ball and bat and went off in a huff, expecting us to follow. Now he's in his treehouse clubhouse all alone, wondering why none of his old friends wants to play with his wiffle. Wah.

Maybe he should remove the sign barring 'StinKy girls and old guys'?


In other news - why do I always feel like Brad's last initial should be inverted?

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Not brand new, but new to me. My intention is to buy either an ex-fleet vehicle or an ex-rental car.

Now I'm asking for recommendations. First, on the plan. What have you heard, good and bad, about both of these options. Second, is there a make of car I should gravitate toward? Possibly even more importantly, is there a make of car I should completely avoid?

I'm looking for a 4-door, small car with an automatic transmission, central locks, and A/C. That's my base requirement. :) I've owned a '67 Plymouth Valiant, an '85 Toyota Corolla, and a '95 Toyota Corolla. You'd think the answer would then be a slamdunk, but the brand new '95 didn't give the satisfaction that the used '85 did, so I'm widening the search.

Thanks for any help you can give.