January 2008

1/26/08
At work Fridays are now going to be mandatory half days for all employees. I requested to move to the 7-4 shift and my request was denied. So I'll have job interviews after 12 p.m. on Fridays in addition to going down to Pikes Peak Community College to see about getting my ass in gear for pursuing my degree.

The place is going down the tubes. Sourpuss confided to me that she can't lay off anyone because she hasn't any processors in her department. Everyone's vague about when things will pick up, if they will pick up and what exactly is going on behind the scenes.

Anyway the general manager, Sourpuss's sister, recently acquired a new desk for her office. Makes me think they're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

dentist vs work

One thing that I kept telling the hygienist during the scaling was, "I really would rather be here than at work."

Honest truth, folks.

readjustment

On Thursday night I went over to the Birdhouse to RSVP for this Sunday's pay-per-view event known as the Royal Rumble. Much to my surprise I was invited in and stayed longer than I had expected to stay. A pleasant surprise nonetheless.

I told Jaybird about how I have a new perspective on my job. In the past I was looking for the wrong things at my job. The job is just a tool and that tool makes me money. Lately the tool has been awfully rusty much to my chagrin and making me a touch concerned about my decision to pursue a college degree.

The analogy I drew with Jaybird was an episode of Futurama called Obsoletely Fabulous. Bender is confronted with a new, efficient robot that does everything better than Bender. Everyone at Planet Express kept telling Bender that Robot 1-X is just a tool. Of course they're tacitly telling him that Bender is more than a robot or tool, he's their friend. Anyway it all made sense to me and I think it made sense when I was talking to Jaybird which is what matters. I'll leave it up to you, gentle reader, to puzzle it out for yourself.

omg

Aside from activities with friends, Lovecraft engaged in much solitary travel in the latter half of 1925. Only three days after his all-night ramble that ended in Elizabeth on August 10-11, when he wrote "He", Lovecraft went there again on the night of August 14-15, this time proceeding on foot to the smalll towns of Union Center (now Union) and Springfield, several miles northwest of Elizabeth, and coming back through the communities of Galloping Hill Park, Roselle Park and Rahway. This was an enormous distance to cover on foot, but Lovecraft was tireless in the hunt for antiquities.

H.P. Lovecraft: A Life by S.T. Joshi pages 376-377

okay

That is a lot of walking. Going from Elizabeth all the way down to Rahway on foot? Perhaps I'm still envisioning that area of New Jersey through the eyes of a kid where everything was far away while out here in Colorado it's par for the course to drive ten miles to get someplace within Colorado Springs.

The most I can recall walking back in New Jersey was from Kenilworth to my hometown. Of course I've ridden greater distances on my bicycle and I am uncertain but I do believe that one time I did ride my bike from my house all the way to my high school which lay beyond the Watchung Reservation. Heck I'm pretty darned certain I rode it all over creation. Not on a regular basis.

Ever since I read this passage on Wednesday night as I retired for bed I've been wondering what exactly Lovecraft found when he visited my hometown. Did he consider it to be noteworthy?

Still reading that passage gave me a small thrill. My boring little suburban bedroom community was visited by Howard Phillips Lovecraft!