Days when a piece of work needs to be done right now (yes it is 5pm on a Saturday afternoon, yes it is a public holiday, and I only got the green light to proceed with it at 131am this morning, and the damn thing needs to get to clients before Sunday) and of course it's one of those pieces of work that needs precision and care and attention to detail, which I so do not have right now because I'm busy being too pissed over other things to think straight. And the subsequent frustration at not being able to untangle the complex matrix of facts and match it up against the regulatory framework is just making me even more inclined to throw a rock at my computer.

Not to mention trawling through reams of regulations on a weekend afternoon is just my idea of a brilliant weekend, yes. And people ask me why I despise compliance work so much.

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I realise this is probably hypocritical, but I'm starting to think that posts going 'don't do this' aren't helpful at all. Maybe they would be helpful with a dose of 'do this this way', but then they risk coming off as whiny and know-it-all. And I may agree with everything you say, 100%, but for those who of us who have been on the ground fighting for the last four hours, who live and breathe and cry and bleed in an effort to walk the talk, seeing people sit on what appears to be a pedestal and saying 'don't don't don't' is not helpful. Even when I agree with whatever you say 100%. Even when I think you have a point. Because 'don't do things this way' without more eventually becomes 'don't do it', becomes 'don't' - and you end up with people like me who spend years being frozen in inaction because everything seems to be a minefield of 'don't step here, or here, or here, or here, or here'. And there is one thing that I firmly believe in - that it is always better to try and fail than to never try at all.

Building up is always more difficult than tearing down, but always so much more rewarding.

I may have to play Mass Effect since Spicyshimmy has started writing for it. Although that might have to wait until a time I stop feeling like someone has driven toothpicks through my eyeballs.

(If anyone here reads Dragon Age fic - highly, highly highly recommend. Shimmy is an amazingly talented and AMAZINGLY PROLIFIC writer even without hitting all my buttons. Seriously I have not seen anyone write that fast, ever.)

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Holy shit.

They remastered Gundam Seed. And they redid some of the Really Bad Animation from the early episodes, so the art is much more in line with Destiny. And I have to write an opinion on a cross margining and netting agreement so I can't get my grabby hands on it right now. Damnit!

So on Sunday I was repeating the litany to myself that "you can't be this tired / it's all in your head" and got wondering whether fatigue is really just that - all in the head. After all I know what physical exhaustion feels like, and being just bloody tired after a long day isn't the same - ergo: all in the head. Right?

(Hey it makes complete sense to me.)

My body has come back to state in unequivocal terms - dead wrong.

(Mind you, if I had any choice about the entire matter I would much rather be sleeping. My plans for the weekend involved copious amounts of vegetating and recovering from last week's work craziness, not running around like a mad chicken. Hell my plans for the whole week have involved quiet days at work and leaving early and not running around like a mad chicken.

It also amuses me that my falling sick would make 5 people in my office who are down with something (that I know of), of which only the junior associate can actually afford to see a doctor and call in sick.)

I abhor my office chair, which is doing its level best to destroy my back, neck and left shoulder. I can't tell if it's destroying the right one as well, only that the right shoulder hurts much less than the left. I suspect a lot of the problem is that I spend an inordinate amount of time reading hard copy printouts - guaranteed to make my head tip forward even if I'm diligent about sitting up straight and keeping my shoulders back. And holding the documents up to eye level for twelve hours makes my neck problems worse. Assuming my arms don't die first. (And reading it on screen makes my eyes die. Talk about job hazards.)


This entry is brought to you by my-neck-muscles-are-a-mess.

(On a somewhat related sidenote, it amuses me that my home monitor is perched on a copy of Merriam Webster's thesaurus.)

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So, I'm curious about ACTA. Does anyone have any literature that does a detailed analysis of the impact of this thing? I've read this (which is a bit too general and doesn't argue so much as it asserts - but I can accept that it's that way because it's an overview).

( Read more... )

(Disclaimer: I am not an intellectual property law lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice. This article purely represents the personal opinion of the author and should not be relied on. Please seek your own independent legal advice from a qualified person in your jurisdiction.)

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Logging off work late on a Friday night (or early on a Saturday morning, actually) makes me want to do this: \o/ and yell something stupid like Weekend, banzai!!!! And yesterday I cleared the three month old backlog I had, so -- I'm in a terribly celebratory mood. (And I'd be in an even more celebratory mood if I didn't have to wake up before 7am tomorrow.)

On an unrelated note, I'm starting to think that even if the world was filled with Simon/Alys fics, it still wouldn't be enough. I have 3 weddings this weekend, which is probably contributing to my really wondering about - not Simon and Alys' wedding so much as the reactions that everyone else [1] gets when they announce it. (Better still, when Simon says with a perfectly deadpan face that they got married while on their beach holiday - we eloped, don't you know?)

[1] Especially Aral. Especially clueless!Aral who had no idea what was going on in the guest suite in his house. And the Aral in my head is torn between being a tad jealous and wanting to throw one helluva stag night for Simon, except they're all too old for this. ...And then Miles volunteers to help. (And Ivan, of course, is volunteered by Miles).

Honestly, where do all these ideas come from.

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So, I had some stuff of a rather large amount of sentimental value packed away in a box. Termites got in. Result - no more stuff.

The irony was that the stuff I have that was of less sentimental value I stowed separately in a temporary location, because I intended to give it away (was hit by last minute sentimentality and didn't give it away), so I'm left with that. And right now I wish I'd given it all away, so that at least someone (other than the termites) would have benefited from it.

This is probably life, in a nutshell.

Corgis are so amazing.

Corgi survives 4 days after owner dies in avalanche.

Another version of the story.

Last working day of the year, yes! Now if only I hadn't generated work for myself before I left office. (Now to seeing how long I can ignore the Blackberry for).

I've started reading my way through everything in the Vorkosigan fandom that I haven't read, starting with all the Ezar era fics (research, albeit extremely enjoyable research!) And wow. Dark overload.

(And why am I so tired.)

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There's a lot to be said about user-friendliness for DW - I realised when drafting this entry (writing, not drafting, damnit work) that I don't know how to do an LJ cut on DW, and thought - what's the most logical tag for it, and thought - it must be <cut>. And so I'd just clicked on the help/support link, when I realised that the post page has a link to site-specific markup tags, right in a corner where you'll see it, and that it points you straightway to the information you need. Very impressive.

And the relevant tag is, of course, the most simple and logical thing possible. (And even better - they actually support lj-cut as well). I love how DW just makes sense.

( On writing )

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Tell the devil that he can go back from where he came
His fiery arrows drew their beat in vain
And when the hardest part is over, we'll be here
And our dreams will break the boundaries of our fear

Yet another song adding to the Echoes of Empires soundtrack. That one's Tifa's, I think.

I still haven't decided if this is Rufus':

Look back in silence; the cradle of your whole life.
There in the distance, losing its greatest pride.
Nothing is easy, nothing is sacred. Why?
Where did the bow break?
It happened before your time.

[...]

Mother it's cold here. Father thy will be done.
Thunder and lightning are crashing down.
They got me on the run, direct me to the sun.
Redemption keeps my covers clean tonight.
Baby we can start again.

Deep breath.

Ok.

12am to 4am shift, go.

Amusingly, the E2 fic is gathering it's own soundtrack, quite of it's own accord. Most amusingly, Rufus/Midgar is now an OTP in my head. Because my Rufus muse as he is now is utterly unromantic, except where it comes to Midgar - if she were a lady, he'd be bowing over her hand and offering her his arm and asking for the next dance. And oh the epic angst when they get torn apart.