The Sky Is Falling

It has warmed up and the snow is starting to melt. That means it's time for our offices to start leaking again! Tonight the ceiling in one of the offices actually fell down. We had to move a desk out and set up barrels to catch the water until it stops. I'll comment on the pictures later, but for now here's the raw images. (I'm tired and I'm going to bed.)

Water Damage

Upgrades

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day weekend. I ended up playing Scrabble with Cris at the local Borders (which was fun) and working on a page redesign for 8 hours. I know, I'm exciting. I did, however, look into getting a membership at the local 24-Hour Fitness. I'm hoping to start swimming three days a week (or three nights a week, depending on how you want to look at it; I'm planning on going at 2 a.m.). The membership is not cheap, though, so I'm weighing my options. I have to take stock of my finances for awhile. I paid $1,200 in bills last week (yes, $1,200). I don't know how people with long-term illnesses do it. I just had an emergency room visit, a single day of tests and a doctor's visit and I'm already over a thousand bucks (out of my pocket; it's much, much more than that to my insurance company - the MRI alone was $3,000). I got another notification today that I'm going to owe another $200 (because my insurance only covers 80% of something or another that I had to have - EoBs, "Explanations of Benefits," and billing statements are not exactly printed in plain English). The whole seizure thing was a big chunk of money that I wasn't planning on spending (like anyone ever plans for a serious illness). I've had to push my timetable for monetary expenditures forward a considerable amount. A new computer, some new (and expensive) software packages, a camera upgrade, a house . . . I need to make more money.

I also need to stop staying up three hours past my bedtime working on graphic design. It's an hour past my bedtime now and I'm not tired. Oops.

Hearts Aflutter

New recipe! Happy Valentine's Day. :)

Fun With Cultures

South Korean scientists have announced that they have succeeded in cloning an embryo (and the announcement appears to be credible according to other scientists). But I had to wonder for just a moment if it's not a big prank on the scientific community by the South Koreans when I heard that the name of the leader of the project is "Dr. Woo Suk Hwang." I've looked up his Web site so I'm convinced he's real, but it did raise an eyebrow. I'm sure it's not an usual name in South Korea, but it does look kind of risque to Americans.

Water, Water, Everywhere, the Second Deluge

The office next to mine is now a grotto. Jeff is thinking of putting in a pool into which the attorneys and other assorted tourists can throw pennies. The trilobite from yesterday is now a snake, and it's having babies. There are two or three constant water drips, as the melting water from outside makes its way into the building at the atrium (one floor up) and makes its way to our office, to splash merrily into trashcans (or find its way between the wall and the paint and make bubbles). We finally decided to pierce the bubble on the wall (video; warning, it's over a meg), which left a rather ugly scar. It was quite the fascinating scene (either that or proofers are easily entertained). Maintenance has been informed, but we don't know how soon to expect a response. Pat is going to invest in a snorkel.

On the upside, I did get some nice pictures of icicles.

Neighbors Make the Neighborhood

I'm waiting for my ride to arrive today in the front entry of my apartment (where the mailboxes are). I hear a door in the hallway open and a few moments later one of my neighbors comes out, smoking. I move so he can go out the door, but it turns out his destination is one of the mailboxes, which I am now blocking, so I say "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me" and move out of his way. He says "For a dollar" as he's getting his mail. I frown, not really wanting to continue the conversation longer than absolutely practical because smoke and I are not exactly compatriots. But I say "Pardon?" to be polite. He says "Do you have a dollar?" I look confused as I try to formulate a reply to what has become a very odd conversation. He laughs and says "Then there's no excuse for you!" and turns and goes back into the hallway, leaving only acrid smoke to mark his passage . . .

Water, Water, Everywhere . . .

The weather has finally warmed up just enough that the massive amounts of snow we've had have started to melt. Which means we have water everywhere. Exhibit A is a trilobite crawling down the wall of the office next door to mine, despite the fact that maintenance assured us eight months ago that we'd see no more water after we had to put buckets on Lisa's desk and they moved us to another floor while they renovated our offices. (Note also the water stains in the ceiling above the water bubble.) Exhibit B is the skylight on the eleventh (and top) floor of my building, which has collapsed under the weight of the snow. The hastily placed plastic is now straining under the weight of the snow and water (I really wanted to poke a hole in it, but they might frown on that . . .). Exhibit C is a daylight photo of one of the cars still buried in my parking lot (the apartment did, however, finally plow my sidewalk - four days later).

Just for fun, this is a video of me turning over my candy dispenser in my office. My mom bought me what is, actually, a chicken feeder, and I buy various candies to put in it for my coworkers. It's quite loud to fill . . .

It seems to be a stream-of-consciousness day. No titles today. It warmed up a bit yesterday, so the snow has finally started to melt. My biggest regret about it is that I've seen some really great icicle displays hanging from various houses and businesses and if I could drive I'd drive around and take pictures of them (and make an "Icicles" page). But, I can't. Oh well. In the meantime, I'm being slightly annoyed at my apartment complex. First they threaten all of us, so, as chronicled in a previous post, I go out and excavate my car from the snow and clean it off and move it to the designated parking spots. Do they follow through with their threat? Hrm, well, according to these two guys, I'd say "no." It's been over a week and those cars still haven't moved. Maybe someone should check their apartments and make sure they're okay . . . In the meantime, the apartment complex that is so keen on us moving our cars so they can plow the parking lot seems to be having some trouble scooping the sidewalks . . . I know, I know, whine whine whine. I have to call them tomorrow to get someone to come look at my freezer. That'll be fun.

Proofing is a dangerous job. Here's proof, a war wound from one of my coworkers. Well, okay, maybe he damaged his knee playing touch football . . . I wonder if he sets off the metal detector.

Seen in a document tonight: "Beginning in 1998, they recognized the need to better integrate ethanol production with cattle operations, in order to convert waste streams into revenue streams."

Nope, not made up.

Labels: proofreading

Weekend Update

The times are achanging (I think; I'm not so good with slangy colloquialisms). So I've
had better months. So have a lot of people, so I'm not going to wail about the
inequities of life itself. Some things are out of our control. You learn to deal with
such things or you self-destruct. Still, right now, inequities seem to leap out,
motioning with large signs that say "Hey! Look over here!" We know that bad news,
or even worse news, makes the "best" headlines. There seems to be some sort of
nascent fascination with bad news within us. We're touched by "heart-warming"
tales of bravery and happiness, but those don't sell newspapers. All stories of the
heart-warming type are filed next to the notes of the garden club. So it's hard not to
see the inequities that exist in the world. Those of us who are "well off" (i.e.,
unaffected by the hardships the majority of the world faces - those in "developed"
countries) can insulate ourselves from them. I feel bad for people who are being
killed in other parts of the world, those who are starving and dying of diseases, but,
even though I like to think that I'm "socially conscious," I whine about a video game
dying. So I'm depressed. I was already there for personal reasons. Guess I'll stay.

(This post took me longer than normal; you get a cookie if you can figure out why. It helped having something to do. I hope everyone else is having a good weekend.)

Myst-ified

Anyone who knows me well likely knows of my fascination with the Myst game series (I have limited-edition Myst posters on my walls, all of the novels, comic books and mousepads and all of the games - which, even though only four have been released, is actually like seven games because of re-releases and special editions and the like). In fact, I've come to describe my preferred design style (for such things as table lamps and garden layouts) as "Riven-ish," after the second game in the series. I picked up the newest game, the multi-player online game "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst," a few weeks ago, but unfortunately I've been having technical difficulties and I haven't been able to play it yet. And now it looks like I won't be able to. Cris was the first to inform me that Uru has been cancelled. They're going to release the parts of the game that have been finished as expansion packs to the single-player version of the game, but no multi-player (which is one of the main reasons I was excited about Uru - being able to explore virtual worlds with friends). The official reason is that not enough people signed up to the multi-player service to make it profitable. Maybe at some point in the future . . .

Digging Out

We've had a lot of snow lately ("thoroughly carpeted, you might say") which, when combined with temperatures that haven't risen above freezing in weeks, has accumulated into a landscape of plow-formed mountains and ice-covered plateaus (not to mention all the icky salt the city dumps on the roads - I guess there's some advantage to not being allowed to drive right now). We're scheduled to get more today ("6 to 8 inches," if you can believe the forecast, in addition to the 24 inches or so we've already received), which will only add to the problem of where to put all the snow.

I hadn't moved my car in awhile (since I'm not allowed to drive and all), so it was one of a handful of cars in the parking lot that had simply been "plowed in." On Tuesday all of the residents of my apartment complex received a memo (slid under our doors) warning us that any cars that were not moved to one of the areas of the parking lot that had already been plowed by Wednesday morning would be towed. So I trudged out to the parking lot at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning and began the arduous task of unburying my car. It took about half-an-hour and I broke my favorite ice scraper (that big telescoping thingy in the picture) in the process, but I managed to dig it out and move it to the appropriate area. When I got up on Wednesday morning, guess how many of the cars that had been plowed-in on Tuesday night were still there? All of them. So much for the threat of towing. They didn't plow the parking lot today anyway . . . *grumble*

Other pictures of the snow:
My parking lot (that's my car buried in the background)
The snow around my apartment
The Interstate (no, I'm not driving)
Sidewalks downtown - One and Two
The sidewalk in front of my office building

I hope everyone is staying warm.

Random Whatevers

I'm still sick. What fun. Sinus congestion and I do not get along.

So it's cold. And snowy. And cold. We got hit by another round of weather. Jamie and I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday night and had to rescrape the car's windows when we came back out, then again two hours later. The schools have already been called off, and it's 15 degrees out (that's F, Mull; I have no idea what that is in C). I *did* move my car (so I wasn't taking up one of the good parking spots, since I'm not driving). Some friends and I were going to go to a hypnotist today, but between weather and me not feeling well, we didn't make it (sorry Jamie . . .). So I did laundry. Yay.

In non-Omaha news, I guess there was some sort of football thing today or something. I don't know who won. Ironically, since I have sports edited out of my Yahoo!News page, the only reference I saw to it was that Janet Jackson flashed 130 million Super Bowl viewers when Justin Timberlake pulled off her costume. Oops.

Enjoy the snow.