See You Next Wednesday
When I was one I had just begun.
For Christmas Linda received an internet account with a downloading capacity limited only by her modem and the number of hours in the day. I have managed to keep up with my mail in between episodes of
Firefly and
Gundam Wing literature. However I've resorted to some extracurricular internet access at work just in case I can't get this published at home tonight.
Work isn't so busy just now. From 23 December to 3 January in my team I am working six days, Ros is working two days, Denise is working one day and Natalie is not working any days. In my role as newby (still) I rely on other people to give me work so this week I have mostly been reading about swashbucklers and psionics in
Dungeons & Dragons and analysing the
Kingmaker game board.
On Boxing Day I saw
The Two Towers with Dave, Fiona, Jimbo, Linda, Megan and Simon. It was magnificent. I want to see it again, and again. Nobody knew the books well enough to have anything but praise for the spectacle. We shared our awe for hours afterwards over excess Christmas food on the front deck in the bright warm sun with the cricket on in the background. That was a splendid day.
My ad hoc exercise has paused for the festive season. Instead I planted about $100.00 worth of herbs and groundcover on the weekend, including a Venus flytrap (which is neither, but then I've never studied botany). All the plants were seriously potbound and the garden bed resembles an inch of dust covering bedrock where it is not actually leaf litter covering black plastic. I shall need to water them regularly and hopefully they will take over from the dandelions and unidentified grasses which the real estate managers take such exception too.
Have a marvellous new year, everybody.
At Christmas time we let in light and we banish shade.
My mobile phone rang. When I picked it up it stopped ringing. The screen said "1 missed call". I looked up the list of missed calls, there was only one. I called the number I had missed a call from. The call was answered by my Real Estate managers. There was only one person in the office. Melanie was only person in the office all week. She had not called me. She had not used the phone I had called back on. Nobody had used the phone I called back on all week. Melanie wished me a merry Christmas. When I finished the call to Melanie the screen on my phone said "1 voicemail message". I contacted my voicemail service. Danny Bellinger had called to apply for "the apprentice plasterer's job in the paper". He left a phone number. I tried to contact Danny to tell him I had not advertised for a plasterer's apprentice. I called the phone number he left but it could not be connected. I called the number a few more times, trying different area codes in case Danny had called from interstate. Each time the number could not be connected, except for the time the analogue service I had dialled was no longer available.
Seasons greetings. Feed the world.
It's Christmas time and there's no need to be afraid.
I visited my dad on the weekend. It was his birthday on Sunday.
This morning my car clocked up 20,000 kilometres.
This afternoon I exchanged the gifts which I have discovered people already owned.
I really have not gotten back into my blogging yet. Must try harder (B-).
Season's greetings. Feed the world.
I can always procrastinate tomorrow.
I can't think of an excuse not to start an exercise routine. I have to find something to do between getting home and watering the garden, something which won't distract me from watering the garden. I am too heavy. I sit down at work
all day. (I doubt I would have covered a single kilometre on foot on some days.) I am planning to run around a soccer field for ninety minutes each week, starting in April next year. Indoor cricket and roleplaying are on Christmas hiatus. Summer programming has started on television. The weather is great. I am not in a rut just now (I tell myself).
Let's see how far I get...
C. C. Thomas in The Search for Sugar Ranch.
I found it. It's over here. You can stop looking now.
According to Blogger the template for my blog doesn't exist. If I were creating a new blog then I could click on the link provided to select a different template but as I have an existing blog I have to contact support@blogger.com (or just wait). I've tried waiting, it hasn't helped. I shall
pretend to be creating a new blog and use the link.
Guess what I found amongst the array of templates provided for new blog creators? I found my template, Sugar Ranch. I don't know why it is called Sugar Ranch. I like it because the title bar obscures the banner advertisement.
Subtle advertising.
I suspect the failure of my published log entries to appear in my log, and the loss of an unpublished log entry from the log editor, are ploys to encourage me to exchange money for goods and services such as the log entry publication and storage which come bundled with image hosting and other features apparently available with Blog*Spot Plus or Blogger Pro and about which I am (willfully) ignorant.
What can I say? What can I do?
My team leader went on a two day training course yesterday. She mentioned she was going on a course on Monday, but she didn't mention when. I found out from her team leader (who is also my team leader) when he asked if I had enough work to keep me occupied while she is away. The short answer is 'no', but that isn't a function of her absence.
I have been assigned to cover for another team member who is on leave. She wrote the specification for some updates which are being tested. My task is to pass on queries from the testers to people who can answer them. This can happen as often as twice a day. Also, I have been given her current specification to work on while she is away. Her current specification is the design of some business which has not finished being analysed yet; which means no decisions have been made about the design, which means there is nothing to specify.
My team leader (who is here) found me something to do. I attend the analysis meetings so I know when I can expect to have some work to do on the specification. It is not soon, the underlying database structure is flawed. However this is good training for me, I am now a Business Analyst after all.
Stormy, stormy night.
Despite reiterated predictions this week of "a thunderstorm tonight" it hasn't rained for more than ten minutes in a row. However there is lightning so my modem is unplugged just in case. It's just one more insurmountable obstacle to updating my log.
Obviously it's not unplugged now, but it was when I wrote that.
