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  • Silvertree

    Mod post: No wishlist posts in blogs

    By Silvertree

    Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101  Thanks!
    • 5 comments
    • 4,204 views
Filling the Periodic Table
 

Check out my boss-repelling aura.

Oh. My. God.   My boss called me in to her office this morning to tell me she just put in her two weeks notice. I'm happy for her, she's going to a larger insurance company where there's more upward potential for her (she's already the senior actuary in our little division) But dude, again?   I first came on board with this company last September. I was brought on to work for a guy who was crazy smart. Unfortunately, his work style did not mesh super-well with the rest of the office. He ended up jumping ship this past spring to go be the chief actuary at another small company. I wasn't too bummed out, since I ended up wotking for *his* boss, who was also a super-actuary She's the one who quit today.   This is even more familiar, because when I first got hired out of school at the big consulting firm I worked for in San Francisco, I got hired by seriously one of the most brilliant actuaries I have ever met, and worked directly under him for the coolest 6 months ever. Then he got headhunted away to be chief actuary at a big insurance company. After that, I ended up working for a couple of mediocre-by-comparison managers who totally didn't inspire me, but at least they didn't quit (Well, one of them did, almost right after I did - that would explain why he was so happy for me!)   Part of me has gotten into the habit of thinking (is it me? Do they hate having me work for them so much? But you know, that's really just not it. Somehow, thanks to good interview skills, good luck, whatever, I have managed to maneuver myself into these great positions. Even 6 months working under a mega-egg-brain is so much more educational than 3 yars working for someone who's just average. Unfortunately, having a mega-egg-brain opens a lot of doors, and those are the kind of people getting chief-actuary-type jobs thrown at them. And until i get to management-level, I won't be reporting directly to chief-actuary-level people.   I guess the only thing to do is keep doing what I'm doing now, maneuvering myself to work for managers who are right on that susp, to learn as much as I can right now.
antimony

antimony

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

Zippity-do-dah!

Yes, today I am in a tank top and a skort. The tank top is one with a retro Wonder Woman design on it, but it's distressed-faded looking, so the image of the Amazon doesn't jump right out at you. Most of my coworkers are used to my Wonder Woman fixation, although there are plenty of people who don't know me, who look upon my shirt with great curiosity. Or maybe it's just stupid men who will use anything as an excuse to look at a woman's chest, even one equipped with my middlers.   When I went into Meadowlark coffee this morning, the only people sitting outside were three relatively normal young women. No mullets. Maybe Wednesdays are Mullet Mornings at Meadowlark? You show up with a mullet and get your lattes at half-price? I'll have to ask them if that's the case.   I must now discuss a particularly annoying word pronunciation idiosyncrasy. I tend to wince at most odd pronunciations/mispronunciations, but some just drive me batty. One is when the word Buddha is pronounced "Beyoo-dah." I always think of "zippity-do-dah!" Then I get into associations with Zippy the Pinhead and the Buddha. I can just see a cartoon frame of Zippy saying: "Zippity-do-dah, I'm the Be-yoo-dah!"   And then there's the word emu, denoting the large, flightless ostrich-like bird. It can be pronounced either e-mou or e-meu, but whenever I hear e-meu, it annoys me. This is no doubt due to my provincial preference for the e-mou version, because at times, my accent comes dangerously close to bordering upon the Scandinavian/German influenced "Fargo" accent, as in: "Ya, fer sure, that was an e-meu runnin' across the road, Margie. Where'd ya think he was goin'?"   I'm sure that somehow I could weave together an idea about a Coen Brothers movie that would include emus, Zippy the Pinhead, Buddha, mullets and Wonder Woman. But it's lunchtime and I don't want to. However, I'll close with the thought that I'm pretty sure if he were around today, the Buddha would just call himself "The Dude."
valentina

valentina

4
Forum Updates and News
 

Nothing can stop this

Always wanting to improve the process of how the updates are done (so to avoid massive amounts of downtime), we tried something new this time. It worked out pretty well - we were down for.. well, I'm not particularly sure how long we were down. I was working on some tweaks to our mod center when it went down, and the upgrade happening meant I couldn't continue, so I ended up running errands and by the time I got back (about 45 minutes later), it was all up and running. Much better than the six hours plus of downtime the last time we did a major upgrade!!     In other forum notes, we ended up switching the link engine software code, because what we originally purchased was not as integrated with invision as it claimed to be, and it turned out to be incredibly difficult to get it to work. And I say that as someone who had to entirely rewrite how the swaps feedback integration worked (though, part of that is because we had a double-integration going on; instead of just having an integrated log-in, I also had to tie in the "items being reviewed" into the forum). We just have a little bit more to do with it before we'll put it up as live, mostly procedural issues.     Completely unrelated: I don't believe I mentioned it here, but we did have a small hiccup a few weeks ago -- some corrupted tables. Thanks to our "lessons learned" from last March, instead of being down for two weeks, it was dealt with so quickly that I doubt many people even noticed the downtime.     And now I must jump in the shower so I can head to work! Ta.       Entry Title: Love   (Side note: of all the bootlegs, this studio demo is probably one of my favorites. Once they move everything to iTunes, you should totally try it out.)
ipb

ipb

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

Diva overload

Today I decided to put on some Monster Bait Underpants because I hadn't worn it in a while, and then I put a touch of Bengal over the top. This blend could be called "Panties on Fire." Hell yeah!   That "hell yeah" reminds me -- because the t-shirts you buy at Bob Schneider's concerts have that on the front -- Bob has a new recording coming out on August 8! Ah, something to live for! Bob can set my panties on fire, I tell ya. Plus I really do like his music.   I decided to get all dressed up this morning because I was having one of those days that, when all else fails, be a diva. On the way into work, I decided to stop at my favorite locally-owned coffee house (this town is big into non-franchise coffee houses) called Meadowlark. There's outdoor seating for the smokers and people who generally just want to hang around outdoors, and often there's a real blend of denizens at the outside tables. I've seen residents of a nearby halfway house for mental health center clients sitting at one table and a stockbroker sitting at the next table.   This morning it was a group of characters that I've never seen before at the outdoor table. They were unique. I walked past them and one of them, who had a mullet and was wearing a "Got Milk?" t-shirt, looked at me and said: "Wow, baby!" I walked into Meadowlark and the barrista behind the counter looked at me and said: "You're so fancy today!" I think I may have diva-ed myself to excess...   It's going to be a skort and a black tank top tomorrow!
valentina

valentina

10
Diplomatka
 

Got my order

After being carried from the Midwest to South Central (Asia), I nearly lost my order when Schwig's housekeeper threw it in the trash. Luckily it was salvaged before garbage pick-up.   But it made it. I ordered large bottles of Queen of Sheba, Lady MacBeth, Persephone, Lolita and Embalming Fluid. There were also about 7 imps thrown in for free. I got Embalming Fluid smell unsniffed, but it turned out well: a little piney-limey on first application, but then it dried down to Body Shoppe's grapeseed soap. Not bad.   However, the imps I am not to sure about: it seems that many of them seem like 1980's Coty imposters (Emeraude, anyone?). Perhaps the new scents are retro, but they do not seem as innovative as the ones rolled out two years ago when there seemed not to be such a frenzy to put out new scents.   Not to offend, but this is my opinion. That's why I keep ordering the old standbys over and over.
Confection

Confection

1
Diplomatka
 

Jesus Christ has got Seoul

There is a place for proselytizing (arguably). Kabul, Afghanistan is not it.     That whistling sound you will hear will be rockets heading for the Kabul Olympic Stadium:       Potential For Riots/Demonstrations - Kabul. Institute of Asian Culture and Development (IACD) intend to despatch up to 2,000 South Korean nationals who have already been granted visas to enter Afghanistan. At least 60+ are already in country and the remainder are expected over the next week.   Their aim is to hold Christian religious gatherings, the first at the Kabul Olympic stadium followed by a 5 km 'peace march' through Kabul on or around 5 Aug 06. They then plan to extend their religious activities to Mazar, Herat, Kandahar and Bamyan 7 Aug onwards. The IACD will initially be 'camping out' at the Kabul Olympic stadium.   • Most security and NGO actors are taking the threat from these marches as potentially extremely serious as they could easily trigger a violent backlash from elements of the local community.      
Confection

Confection

0
Filling the Periodic Table
 

Godwin's Law the 2nd

Godwin's Law says whoever invokes Nazis/Hitler in an argument first loses.   In addition to this, a friend and I decided today that if, in the course of an internet argument someone declares their authorativeness based on being a member of MENSA, they also automatically lose.
antimony

antimony

2
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

Candy-O

I have on a new layering adventure today; I bought a bottle of Bengal from chappiti on the forum (BTW, check out her avatar, I love it). While I really love Bengal, (or why would I have a bottle of it?), it tends to light up on my body for a bit. By that I mean, the cinnamon bark makes my skin flush rosy red for a brief time. So this morning I put down a nice layer of O (kind of like a paint primer) and then put Bengal over it. Yummy! Since I think Bengal smells like redhot candies over musk, and O smells, well, like O, I'm calling this blend Candy-O. That name is stolen from the title of an album by The Cars, which had this cover:     And now, for a brief aside: A friend called me and told me to turn on the Today show, because they were doing a shoe fashion show. Naturally, the Shoe Whore-Foot Fetishist turned it on right away. I just finished watching it. They were doing very close close-ups of each model's feet, and ARRGGHH! One of the models had on a pair of open-toe, slingback shoes and SHE HAD CRUSTY HEELS! OK, I know it was a big closeup, but I shudder to think how it looked on HDTV. I probably would have vomited. And who picked her to model shoes? Why didn't they put her in a pair of closed-back shoes? And if you had even 1 hour's notice that you had to sub for someone as a shoe model, would you at least do a little buffing and shining? Arrggh!!! At least I didn't see any French Manicures on the toenails, thank goodness. I would have screamed so loud that I would have frightened my coworkers.   Ahem, sorry to anyone who was eating as they read this. You probably had a hard time swallowing.
valentina

valentina

9
Diplomatka
 

Listen to the Text

First, I want to point out that one cannot listen to text; conversation or dialogue yes, but you can only read text.   Two-way radio training. Since the riots and our office was burned we are all about security. Part of this new initiative is radio training. Yesterday afternoon, my boss came to ask me to come to hand-held radio training. I told her that I had been to radio training last year and that I did not need to sit around for an hour and a half to learn how to hold a walkie talkie upright. “No, this is advanced radio training, you should go.”   On the way up the stairs back to my office, I encountered two colleagues: “I hope y’all brought your crack ‘cause this is going to be the most boring shit you have ever encountered”, I warned.   The training was held in one of the burned out containers that used to house part of the finance department. Hot is not the word, the temperature was at least 98 farenheit, and without air conditioning the container was like a toaster oven. I sat down and our Afghan IT guy launched into his presentation.   The first power point slide was entitled, “What is Communication?”. I just shook my head. This was the same drawn-out remedial bullshit I had to sit through last year. I felt like standing up and saying, “What is communication? I am so happy we are addressing this question. Here I have completed graduate school and worked professionally for five years and I had no idea what the fuck communication was!”, but I restrained myself. It got worse.   While the swarm of flies in the room settled on my face, toes and hands and sweat beaded up, the IT guy took ten minutes to talk about all of the different types of communication and specifically, the types of communication we use in our offices (CODAN, VHF radios, e-mail, cellular phones, smoke signals, carrier pigeons). My boss told him to cut to the chase, and was backed-up by the finance manager.   So we fast forwarded to the section about “How to Speak Over the Radio”. I swear to god, some of the bulleted points included, “do not shout” and “speak in short sentences”. Then, there were definitions of radio lingo that included, “hello: a greeting”, “out: the conversation is finished” and a stern lecture about not using phrases like “roger, over and out” because they are WRONG and anyone who says them will go to hell. Then we talked about the “wolume” (volume) control and were subjected to more slides sprinkled with misspellings and poor grammar.   Finally, my boss put her foot down: “What I need to know is not how to turn on the radio. I need to know if someone breaks into my house at night or if we have another situation like the riots, what do we do?!?” The IT guy sheepishly replied, “I only can give training on how to use the radio. Those systems are to be decided by the Security Specialist.” At that point, I got up and I walked out. Forty minutes of my life lost and two reports to submit. This is my life.
Confection

Confection

0
This Old Snark
 

Grouchy

Just put on a happy face (dammit)!   Snarky has been in a three day Very Bad Mood that has been interrupted by bouts of happiness, contentment, and countless uncomfortably sweaty naps.   She's sure things will turn around soon, but just wanted everyone to know she's avoided updating her blog in order to minimize the bleed through of her psychic pollution.   On a slightly better note, she's really starting to fall in love with her (mangy, crispy, slug-infested) garden.   Carry on. (Snarky :heart:s Tim Gunn. Just so you know.)
darkitysnark

darkitysnark

9
Is Anybody Out There?
 

Cotton Candy thoughts

Not so much that I'm thinking about cotton candy as the level of substance to the thoughts...   I was thinking about my name. I just signed a PM "Gracie", even though I've been using "Grace" predominantly. I have also written out a few return labels using the full Gracelyn. It's inevitable that I'll use one more than the others, right? I never shortened my given name, despite it having a very popular nickname (which my mother hated), so I don't know how these things work. It's like having three seperate names! It's almost like playing "pretend" again.
smallvoice

smallvoice

2
Eoywin's Blog
 

It's just a game!

Todd and I are friends with another married couple, A & J. They are pretty much my only friends thus far in Asheville. We get along with them rather well, and every Sunday night we go to their house to role play.   When we started last fall, J was the storyteller. Well, a couple of months ago, A started to run a game. She hadn't really run a campaign before, so we all have tried to cut her some slack.   Except J gets pissed at something she does nearly every week she runs. They get into a fight nearly every week.   Yesterday, A was busy with my character, because my character ran away from the rest of the group. Well, J was pissed that A didn't ask what he was doing, even though he could have easier said "I'm doing this and this" which is what Todd and I would have done if the scene at the time wasn't focused on our characters.   So, J pouted and picked up his gameboy. And then A posted in her lj that she felt like she was the most horrible storyteller ever, because she did badly.   Their dramamongering makes me feel like rolling my eyes. They need to realize that it's just a game. Unfortunely, they take these games really seriously!   I really need to find some more friends in Asheville, or maybe another game to play in.
Eoywin

Eoywin

0
Filling the Periodic Table
 

Sunday night picture madness!

Here is my lovely tomato... I picked 7 tomatoes off of it today, we ate them with little buffalo mozerellas, fresh basil, and balsamic vinegar.     I haven't shown the basil lately, take a look!   Here's the other tomato plant, it's turning into a total jungle, it's really taken off since I re-potted it. It's got a bunch of little green tomatoes on it.     The peppers are showing no signs at all of ripening:   The roses are putting out new buds, I'll have more flowers soon:   I think there's as much strawberry foliage outside the pot as inside:
antimony

antimony

0
Is Anybody Out There?
 

My last entry

Woah. I am so not upset about the contest not being as successful as I might've imagined. It was late, and I was tired and cranky and felt sort of silly and awkward having devised this intricate event with the two entertaining guesses and the two entertaining non-guesses. (I really did love all the responses.) I realize it isn't All About Me- non-cc paypal only is a limitation, and everybody's saving up for the update, and I'm sure some people feel like it's too much of a gamble and I'm equally sure there are many people who are simply not interested. But, hey, if you guess now, you're pretty much guaranteed a pack. Unless five people pop up and want to play. Heh. Anyway, I'm more relaxed about it. Really.
smallvoice

smallvoice

2
Sourball Ho!
 

More estate sales

I went to two different sales this weekend, which is unusual. One was on the way home from work on Friday, and there must have been 15 cars parked in front of this house. I thought, "Wow, this sale should be great!" and went in. Unfortunately not a whole lot was there, but I did get for $25:   --a Scooby-Doo lunch box from the '70s (no thermos) --3 boxes of Japanese coil incense   Then DH and I went to one today that was in one of our favorite neighborhoods, Hollywood Heights -- yes, the houses are all little 1920s bungalows and I wish we could afford to live there. We got for $3:   --a few albums, Mahalia Jackson and a couple of touristy "Songs of Old Mexico" and "Songs of Hawaii" which I picked for the cute front covers --a handful of old 45s of stuff DH liked, like Roger Miller (King of the Road!) and Allan Sherman (Hello Muddah!) --a hurricane glass from Pat O'Brien's bar in New Orleans --a little clay dish with a lid (for salsa or guacamole, I'm thinking ) with Mexican-type designs --a green 4-dish appetizer set from a pottery co. in California, probably 1940s   So I probably paid too much at the first one, but made up for it at the second
dawndie

dawndie

2
How difficult could it be?
 

Next Order

just put in my first order in a good few months.... 10ml snake oil and cheshire cat and 5ml of et lux fuit. cannot wait. i need to have some snake oil aging nicely as i am down to the last 2ml of this 10ml bottle i have right here....       ETA i now have a 5ml aging...thank you ebay
Nemesister

Nemesister

0
space girl lost's blog
 

like i really need another blog!

current pending orders/items: 2006-07-10: (from the lab) • 5ml harvest moon 2006 • 5ml bewitched • imp pack of: akuma, blood, kabuki, madrid, swank + obatala (for the mum)   2006-07-22: (from astrid) • 5ml hungry ghost moon i am a wee bit nervous about the lust i'm feeling for oils right now. i cannot justify getting more when i have two body shop oils i never use in my medicine cabinet. i feel the need to be rid of them since i don't use them but who and how? i'm petrified of swapping and suches b/c, well ... my mind thinks, "who the heck would want those? this is bpal we're talking here!" plus i've got like two bottles of samhain 2005. true - i LOVE the scent. it's something much like i've always dreamed of, but my god! i just NOW got a tiny fraction below the label on the first bottle! the second will probably rot to the smell of death before i finish the first. should i sell the second? why keep it? and all the 8 or so imps i have. there's some i don't like to much. why keep them? b/c they're not nearly full enough to draw interest? i'm so damn ridiculous! why must i be so practical? why can i not just give in and allow myself pleasure in one of the few things in life i draw it from?   i also cannot justify the price of the oils right now as i've got the monster electricity bill coming up (w/ deposit) plus my auto insurance. basically half a month's pay sucked out of the account right there!   oh but i want more. more more more. at least two chaos theory bottles b/c i'm feeling risky (at least today) and all this talk of a big update. then again ... i've sat through big updates before and thought "eh. nothing sounds good." i'm hard to entice. sometimes.   why why why?     on a retarded note ... i'm going to start putting all the oils in splashshopper on the pda so i can track what i like, what i want and what i have on order while i'm away from my computer. lame!     and on a random note ... i need some final fantasy gaming fantasy to escape into for the day. too bad i no longer have such access to things.
space girl lost

space girl lost

0
Is Anybody Out There?
 

Insomnia sucks

For some reason, it never occurred to me that there'd be a lack of interest in my contest/sale. I mean, I didn't expect everyone to be scrambling to join in, but I think it's both fun and reasonably priced, particularly considering that there's a one in six chance that the winner'll be an imp of Underpants. With less guesses, I'll need to adjust it somehow, and it'll be more likely.   I'm just rambling to whine, folks. But please don't take this as me sulking (which, to me, implies anger, whereas 'whine' does not.) . I'm tired and PMS'ing. I think I may finally be able to sleep.
smallvoice

smallvoice

0
Is Anybody Out There?
 

Legal!

I went and got my driver's license info updated yesterday. I realized that my signature looks awkward, even for being left handed and not so good with the neat handwriting in the first place. I need some serious practice.   It feels like a fake ID. (Especially since it's that paper stand-in you get before they send you the fancy plastic) Somebody called me Grace! I updated my social security card, too. Now I need to do billing records and bank account and library card and credit cards and school records... this is a really huge undertaking.   It will be my two year anniversary for having my driver's license on my birthday.   Tomorrow is my one-month wedding anniversary!   Awesome.
smallvoice

smallvoice

0
How difficult could it be?
 

All in a muddle

i have too much BPAL. it's all aging and changing and i haven't even got used to how it used to smell when fresh! i'm currently putting it all into categories of things to wear when it's really hot, cold, snowy, overcast, when i'm happy, sad, nostalgic, horny etc etc!   so far as it is REALLY hot today i have a row of bottles by the computer: numb, aizen-myoo, neo-tokyo, spooky, the hamptons, swank, embalming fluid, kumiho, phantasm and the dormouse...... i know there are more in my stash but it's hard going sorting them all!
Nemesister

Nemesister

0
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