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“Subject: bad day

on Tuesday, I went to zoo to clean Aspen’s cage and got bit by fire ants,
then David and I headed to Tuscaloosa.  On the way we had a flat tire in
Prattville which took a while to fix as had trouble getting lug nuts loose.
Then David left his wallet at the tire place so had to go back and get it.
Then before got out of Autauga County(Prattville is in this county) I got a
speeding ticket.  Got David moved in to his apartment and came home.
Electricity was going on and off and dad told me I needed to go to bed then
electricity went out for 7 hours.  figured all the bad luck was finished but
on Wed. went to zoo and dietician wasn’t there so I had to fix all the diets
for education.  Glad those two days are over.  love, mom

grandma is still laughing about the speeding ticket.”

Utter comms breakdown. The scraps and snips of information I got were all outside official channels, rumours and lies. Its a good thing that nexusgirl was around to… well actually brief everyone on what was happening at the time. Cause I didn’t say anything and neither did anyone else its only now that CW’s left that everyone sort of pokes their head out of cover and goes ‘did you find them difficult?’ ‘well, only the bits where they couldn’t be persuaded the sky was blue, or that basic principles of physics applied’.

Ah, massive corporations, where indeed ignoring a problem for long enough makes it go away… kind of. I haven’t run into CW yet since… meh, I have total deniability. The fact that I’m innocent is irrelevant, the fact that I can plausibly deny my guilt is the relevant bit.
Such tiresome rot. At least its over now and I do feel a bit better about myself in seeing genuine evidence that there is a grade you have to make to be here, not just have a pulse and turn up.

Here endeth the saga. I’m done, I won’t bother you again for awhile.

This is not a question I hear every day. In fact, no one’s ever asked me that before, without already knowing where I’m from. Certainly not a stranger on the street. Especially not an extra. An extra for a Discovery Channel Shark Week TV commercial walking around Caltech in knee high white boots and a Bight University t-shirt (and Paul not here to appreciate the pun). When the dyed blonde had said “Hi,” looking in my direction a moment before, I had assumed she was talking to someone behind me. With that question, however, I abruptly realized she was in fact talking to me. I didn’t recognize her, but I’m notoriously awful at placing people outside of their relevant spheres, and even within, still pretty bad. I look at her bewildered expression and reply, “Yes, actually – I did. I’m Michelle.” To which she replies, “OH MY GOD! It’s Charity!” followed by a totally classic sorority girl chick flick reunion scene. Before being herded off by the director’s assisstant’s assistant, she handed me her card, and congratulated me on getting out of Alabama.

I love the fact that it’s a small world. I love how even though I didn’t know her all that well, I haven’t seen her in eight years, and I know absolutely nothing about what she’s doing and how she got here, for those 2 minutes of hugging, we were the best of friends. I love how random it is that someone from my high school swim team in Mobile, Alabama, is now pursuing a Hollywood acting career. More power to you, Charity. And if anyone needs an actress, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch.

I can see how coming into a job where the person your supposed to be working with can do everything they’ve asked of you quicker and more accurately would be hard which is why I’m trying to stay the hell off CWs turf – except they’re not doing it. I need numbers they’re supposed to generate to do big combined things and today CW just said ‘don’t sweat it, the gauges are down’.

The gauges *were* down, but they’re fixed. I could see them fixed on the screen behind CW, I knew they were fixed myself. Which means my ass is entirely covered ‘I’m waiting on CW’ is all I have to say, I’m free and clear and they’re in the shit. I don’t want to do this – things are tough enough as is because they just stare daggers at me whenever they talk to me and have gone beyond brusque to rude. Its such a fucking drag dealing with them and just standing back and blaming them will hardly improve that.
To do it myself I’d have to covertly do two weeks of work and hide it to get what I needed. I’ve already got too much to do. I want to turn around and tell them ‘do your fucking job!’ but that would just poison things further. At the moment we’re at strained civil. Even at fucking lunch the two of us have started doing the two-step to avoid sitting near each other. I have a better relationship with my most feared bosses.

All the time I’m trying not to react, not to fall into daft psychological traps, keep it adult, keep it reasonable, but I’m at this stage getting afraid to deal with anyone else in their team in case CW goes schiz.

The worst of this is, I don’t need to fix it. I could completely sideline them and just get on with things, but thats hardly a clever way forward, nor conducive to mental peace.

*sigh*

You have a deep interest in all things artistic.

Wow. That’s fairly bold. And wrong. I have a “deep interest” in some things, but very few, if any, of those things are “artistic”. But even so, all things artistic? It was a far cry from “Your future prospects are bright”, or some such nonsense.

If a person is capable of posting a “for sale” sign on a site such as craigslist, a feat which requires familiarity with and knowledge about many things internet, why is not this person also capable of posting pictures of the item in question?

Any one who has spent more than ten minutes browsing such classifieds sites will instantly recognize the phrase “email for pics”. It is a source of resentment and frustration for many: “Just show it to me!” For the seasoned, however, the phrase goes unseen: filtered into “look elsewhere” like cockroaches in a restaurant.

A person posting such an “email for pics” listing can be stereotyped in several, not mutually incompatible ways.

The person is lazy. There are many free photo sharing sites on the market. On most of them, an account is fantastically easy to set up and use (such as Flickr, my personal favorite). The person can’t be bothered.

The person relishes in the small amount of power he or she feels. A potential customer is forced into making some contact with the seller in order to even determine if the product is worth spending any time considering: the customer must spend time to see if time is worth being spent. The seller enjoys both the dramatic irony and the inconvenience.

The person is naive thinking he or she is part of some greater community. The contact required in buying the item (or in even finding out if the item is worth buying – see previous point), makes this person feel as though some real connection has been formed between buyer and seller. Through such shared experiences, the seller believes he or she has entered into a fulfilling community of like minded people (see next point).

The person is, in some way, savvy. “Email for pics” is a piece of modern day jargon. The phrase simply would not have made sense ten years ago (“Email what? What sort of ‘pics’? What is a ‘pic’? …email?”), but today it is instantly identifiable to so called “netizens” “everywhere”. The person may be a poser, but even affectation requires a twisted form of wisdom.

The second pivotal conversation went something along the lines of, “That’s a good name for a website.”

To that end, in that vein, toward such a purpose, beside ourselves, through the woods and behind enemy lines, this site was created. None of us knows what this site is for, exactly. Initially, at least, themes of “laziness”, “jargon”, and “community” may or may not be prevalent. Likely, we all have our own, potentially conflicting ideas. All the better.

Registration is open to all our friends, and indeed encouraged. That is, if you’re a like-minded, savvy netizen such as ourselves looking for a rich community in which to share ideas having failed to find such a forum to date due to the monumental amount of effort it requires to initiate contact with people.

No, but really. Sign up and post.