Where Dustbunnies Go To Die

I'm kind of surprised to see that I didn't post anything all week. Well, not entirely surprised... I would have had to have posted about Ad Astra, and I'm kind of embarrassed about something that happened there. On a weirder note, I had a "WHATTHEFUCK???" moment tonight at bowling.

( Ad Astra report )

( Work went well this week. )

( As did bowling... )

( The WHATTHEFUCK??? moment... )

The Constellation Awards ballot should be available this week. I couldn't make the meeting where we tabulated the nominations (it was the evening of the day of our deployment, and I was in the office until nearly 8), but I hear it went reasonably well. (It must have gone okay, we have a ballot. :) ) So if you're a Canadian citizen, resident, or a member of Polaris 22, keep an eye on the website...

I feel like I'm constantly falling further and further behind... over 500 emails in my inbox right now. I've read them all, and I don't need to respond to all of them, but I keep saving stuff with the intention of going back and answering... which reminds me, that long, locked post from a week and a half ago? I do intend on replying to your comments... it just might take me a few more days to get around to it. I finally managed to write a letter tonight for Anticipation that I'd meant to write, oh, a month or so ago...

An interesting development took place at work this week. Well, last weekend, to be precise. My boss hired a new person a couple of weeks ago, who was supposed to take over Zak's role as the liaison with the client and allow Zak to concentrate more on other stuff. He started last Monday... and quit on the weekend. So if anyone out there knows C#, basic web programming type stuff (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP), and Microsoft SQL, and is looking for work, my boss is looking for someone again.

I've been getting home later and later, which isn't helping with my effort to clean out my inbox. Tonight it was 9:30. I'm not doing anything that can't be put down until the following day, but when I get my teeth into a problem, I like trying to solve it. I probably would have gotten this particular item done today had we not discovered a problem elsewhere on the site... which has been in production for at least a month, and nobody has noticed. And it's not the kind of thing that you can just miss, either... null reference exceptions being thrown tend to be Really Bad. The whole website goes boom. Working together, though, Zak and I managed to fix the problem in about half an hour. *whew*

Ad Astra is this weekend, which is always fun. I'm on three panels this year: one on the new Trek movie, one on Anticipation, and one on the Constellation Awards (if you haven't nominated yet, please do so!). I'll also be working at the Constellations table, so feel free to stop by and say hello (and nominate!) if you're there.

There's one drawback to Ad Astra being at the hotel it's at, however... it's so close to where I live that I don't bother to get a room, but then I have to get up at the crack of dawn to get there in the morning. And the crack of dawn and I don't get along. (No jokes, please. My mind went there as soon as I typed that sentence, and I now need the brain eraser/mind bleach/mental floss.) I suppose I could get a hotel room, and that would allow me to party later and sleep an extra hour or so, but I'm trying to pay down my credit card.

And finally, some pictures to amuse and titillate (sorry, I'm just going to give links):

• for Easter, the Washington Post had a Peeps diorama contest. I can't save any of the pictures from their website to my hard drive to post here, but here are the 37 top entries. I particularly liked #37.


• thanks to Dennis Bailey, today's spy pics from the set of the Star Trek movie that were posted on Ain't It Cool News, and taken down as soon as Paramount's lawyers called, have been saved for posterity.


• Paramount seems to have missed these pictures, however.

And now... bed. Zzzzzz.

First, I'll get the bowling out of the way: 167, 182, 143. I didn't have much left in that third game - even though I took a painkiller, it didn't do much good. According to Mario, the particular medication I've been given contains anabolic steroids and require a bit of a buildup in my system for them to work effectively. I wish I'd known that earlier, but OTOH, I don't want to run out before I get to see the orthopaedist in a week and a half. We only won one game - we were hoping to keep the third game close enough that we'd also get the extra point for total pins, since we'd only lost the first game by three pins and won the second by a good margin. Unfortunately, we were unable to do so. Though even getting one point was good, considering we were bowling with only four people - h8torun's and Bridgette's declared scores (since they were both away), and myself and Mario. Randy had to work again tonight because apparently someone was fired from the security company he works for and hasn't been replaced yet.

Following bowling, I headed right up to the Crowne Plaza, where Ad Astra is taking place. I had popped in before bowling to deal with registration, so when I arrived I started to head for one of the room parties. I got waylaid by a couple of friends who wanted to chat, but eventually made it to a Harry Potter-themed party. (There were no pictures of Daniel Radcliffe naked from Equus up on the walls, however - Photoshopped or otherwise.) I ran into gurudata, aprilsnark, assetic, briankit, and Declan of the secret LJ there. Many potentially embarrassing photos were taken, including one of me laying across aprilsnark's, assetic's, briankit's and Declan's laps, and one of me with my face buried in Declan's lap (that boy is so going to regret this evening). Eventually things degraded into a game of Spin the Bottle (don't ask), where it was discovered that briankit, though quite a flirt, really didn't want to kiss me despite my reassurances that I'm a much better kisser than Declan. (Alas, nobody was quick enough with the camera to get pictures of the briankit/Declan snog...)

After the party shut down, we made our way to aprilsnark's and Declan's room, where we were joined by zenten and briefly by andromakie and hico. We hung out until Declan passed out, at which time gurudata headed out to drive home and I headed for the bus stop. (Since I live a 15-minute bus ride from the hotel, there wasn't much point in getting a room.) I can report that the signage in the bus shelter that says that the night buses run every 30 minutes or less is complete BS. I've taken night buses on many occasions up Yonge Street, and have never had to wait for 45 minutes, except during Pride weekend or Caribana, when several full buses usually go past without stopping.

On the way home, I had a bit of an accident. I was walking down Holly Street, past the entrance to the condo at 43 Eglinton East (even though the actual entrance is on Holly) when I hit a patch of ice. Before I knew it, I was flat on my back - having landed on my sore arm first - and had smacked my head, rather hard, on the concrete wall. I don't think I'm seriously hurt (apart from some lost skin on my elbow, even though I don't seem to have damaged my coat) - my first instinct was to make sure that I could focus my eyes, and I was able to successfully count my own fingers. Since that building has 24-hour security, I went inside and reported the accident. The security guard didn't seem to care much, however. I post it here so that if I did concuss myself, and don't wake up tomorrow, I want someone to sue the bejeezus out of the company that owns the building for not de-icing their sidewalk. Strange that I managed to navigate a rather steep hill between the Crowne Plaza and the steps that lead up to Eglinton without falling, and then I fall when I'm two minutes from my apartment.

Anyhow, I should probably get to bed so that I don't miss the con tomorrow. :) But before I do, an announcement regarding Polaris 21: we've added two new actor guests! Erick Avari (Heroes, The Mummy, and Stargate - both the movie and SG-1 - as well as guest spots on Tru Calling, Alias, Enterprise, DS9, X-Files, B5, Lois & Clark, Seaquest DSV and Star Trek: TNG), and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica). Erick will be at Polaris all weekend; Katee will be there for Sunday only.

Last night was a mediocre bowling night for me: 146, 166, 164. A tiny bit below my average, but not terribly so. We were short a bowler (I haven't been able to reach cuteteenboy in a few days, so I don't know what happened to him), and the other team had a huge handicap advantage (over 100 pins), so we ended up losing all three games.

At one point, I was talking to Peeter, who is a former teammate from about four years ago (we were bowling against his team), and I had just mentioned my interest in John when I became aware that John was walking toward us. I muttered to Peeter, "Don't look now, but here he comes." He stopped, rubbed my back for a second (!!!!!) and said, "So, how are you doing tonight?" Tonight, while talking to marah_sk about it, she said that I should have responded, "Much better now." Damn, why can't I think of things like that to say? I can flirt up a storm when it doesn't actually matter... why do I get tongue-tied, and why does my brain shut down, when I'm really interested in someone? *sporks self in the cowardice - that's just below the medulla oblongata*

This afternoon, I had a meeting with a headhunter. This was the same company that I interviewed with about a month ago, but that particular person has left the company and someone else is taking over her files, so she wanted to meet me. She had another opening for a senior programmer/analyst with my skill set, so she said she would submit me. The position is slightly less senior than my last two jobs, but I'm not going to be fussy about a title when they'd be paying me roughly the same.

I told the headhunter that I had interviewed on Tuesday for a contract position, and so it would be best if she could expedite things with this other company. My preference would be for a full-time position rather than contract, but if the offer for the contract comes through first, I don't want to leave them hanging while I wait for the full-time position, especially since the interview was arranged through Mario. I'm sure he'd understand if I opted for this other one if I were to get offers for both, but I don't want to sit around waiting and lose out altogether, either. Of course, the whole thing is theoretical right now as I haven't gotten offers from either (heck, I haven't even gotten an interview for the full-time position yet), but I'm feeling confident.

Mario told me last night that I should call the HR person whose name he had given me today to see if I could get some feedback on Tuesday's interview; unfortunately, with being out this afternoon, by the time I got home it was too late to call. I must try to remember to do that tomorrow, before heading out to Ad Astra. Heck, I must remember to pack for Ad Astra.

Speaking of which, this evening, there was an Ad Astra pre-party. The TT Board of Directors (and presumably the Anime North Board as well) were invited, but as far as I could tell, I was the only one who showed up. It was a nice, relaxing evening - while there were, as usual, many conversations involving past cons, we also talked a fair bit about non-fannish things. Many of us observed that local fandom is becoming very inbred, so to speak; there are lots of people who are working on multiple conventions simultaneously. I'm starting to think that we need more new blood before we all burn out in the next three to five years or so.

Edited to add: While I was standing near the door at one point, somebody I know walked in. I said hello, we hugged, and then he said, "There's a rumour going around that you and I might be getting together this weekend." Um... what? I didn't even know he swung that way... I have no objection in principle (I'm such a slut-wannabe) but I'd like to know who's starting these rumours...

The Penneys gave me a ride home afterwards, as they were also giving a ride to a guy who lives about a ten minute drive from my place. I'd noticed him earlier for two reasons: one, he's about six-foot-six and probably weighs less than me (and I'm not particularly large), and two, he was someone I didn't know. (See? I don't know everyone in fandom.) Note to self: find out where he's from. Talking to him in the car on the ride home, I found that he has a rather attractive accent, but I couldn't quite place it. It was an English-type accent, but it didn't sound English or Australian - it was sort of somewhere between the two. He might originally have come from one or the other, but has lived in Canada for a while.

I may go to bed earlyish (for me) tonight - I'm feeling rather sleepy right now. I only had two drinks tonight, so it's not the alcohol. And I got about nine hours of sleep last night. I figure all that running around today wore me out.