Tales from the Steppes

2005-06-02

8:13 a.m.
But not a real green dress, that's cruel

I am feeling really good today - both well-rested and stretched out. After taking off a couple of weeks, I am back to getting at least the minimum amount of exercise to preserve my physical and mental health. Of course, I have gotten nothing done on my thesis this week. Zero. Bupkus. Is that the way it is spelled? I truly have no idea. Oh well. I have a bit more work to do to discover where the right balance is with the new job.

The job is going ok, I guess. Not exciting or anything but not so boring yet that I am considering gnawing off a limb. The doofy guy, Josh, made a major mistake this week, at least as far as I am concerned. So far he has been doing truly boring stuff while I have been given plans to review. I get to go to meetings to discuss my recommendations with people in other departments and regulatin agencies and he does not. He does not think this is fair and perhaps from some ways of looking at it, it isn't. After all, we have the same job title. But I am a landscape architect and he is an environmental planner so there is a reason are duties are divided this way. In a peer review meeting this week, Josh decided to challenge me on a review I had made of a plan. This is not a problem as this is why we have peer reviews - so we can talk about different plans and gain some consistency. The problem is that he got very insistent that a recommendation be made for something he wanted when you could make just as good an argument for doing it the way I wanted. And I was the only one of the two of us who had visited the site and knew what the forest in question looked like, in terms of invasives and overall quality. But I am not going to get in a public pissing contest with someone over something like this when we cannot require the applicant to do what Josh was asking for - it is a request, that is all. So fine, I will make the request. My issue more had to do with him getting all aggressive in his pursuit of this request. I understand that he feels like he is not being given appropriate work. I also understand that he has not been here long enough to understand the sort of workplace culture and meeting etiquette we have. I have put up with his coming over to my cube when he has nothing interesting to say and I have driven him all over the county and listened to him babble without complaint. Even when he did not get the hint of me turning up the radio. He has now stepped over the line. Not that I am going to do anything about it, other than not go out of my way to be helpful.

The Skullmaster has not been here yet this week, after showing up one day last week. What a great gig! I like it because I can listen to music through speakers, not headphones, and no one is here to hear it.

I was talking to the SU this morning and mentioned the Highland Forde event this weekend and on his own he suggested I go hit people with sticks. I guess I get a little grumpy when I don't get out enough. So now I have to decide if I can coordinate the EM's dance activities and still go to this. And I have to figure out how I am going to protect my finger. Even though I do wear gauntlets, I know if I get hit there, it will be pain galore. And unfortunately, my middle fingers are longer than the tips of my gauntlets, so I have to practice a duck and cover approach already. But my armor has been sitting in a bag since last October and I should at least take it out once before Pennsic.

I finally got around to preregistering for Pennsic this last weekend. I am camping with Clan Cambion this year, which might seem like a strange choice given that I am not actually a member of the group. Since I am not actually a member of any group, it seems better to rotate around a bit rather than wearing out my welcome in any one place. And no, I am not sharing my space with any objects of amusement this year. I wll have to find something else to hang my clothes on.