the afternoon of day 17,154

Long talk with Mom this afternoon - for some reason she thought my birthday was Friday and had been unhappy about not being able to get hold of me, but I called her back this afternoon and set her straight and she was happy. I guess my oldest niece is off on her own now, sans high school diploma; it sounds to me like she's following in her crazy mother's footsteps. *sigh* Well, if she's not going to listen to her parents and her grandmother, she's not going to hear anything I have to say either, so I'm not even going to go through the motions of trying.
( More family drama )

Not much on the agenda today. ATC Board meeting tonight, a day off tomorrow to contemplate being forty-seven while celebrating Garbage Day, and then back to work and class on Tuesday.

I did finish China Mieville's The Iron Council last night before bedtime. Strange, strange mixture of the Paris Commune (or perhaps the 1927 Nanking uprising) and the dystopic steampunk fantasy world of New Crobuzon, with the fantastic train-based commune that gives the novel its name as a catalyst, a plot device, and finally a monument. As with The Scar, this novel is an amazing piece of misdirection on a number of levels, and quite a piece of work in many ways. Well worth reading.

EDIT Slightly revised for spelling and clarity. When you're cursing someone, it doesn't do to be imprecise.

the afternoon of day 17,154

Long talk with Mom this afternoon - for some reason she thought my birthday was Friday and had been unhappy about not being able to get hold of me, but I called her back this afternoon and set her straight and she was happy. I guess my oldest niece is off on her own now, sans high school diploma; it sounds to me like she's following in her crazy mother's footsteps. *sigh* Well, if she's not going to listen to her parents and her grandmother, she's not going to hear anything I have to say either, so I'm not even going to go through the motions of trying.
( More family drama )

Not much on the agenda today. ATC Board meeting tonight, a day off tomorrow to contemplate being forty-seven while celebrating Garbage Day, and then back to work and class on Tuesday.

I did finish China Mieville's The Iron Council last night before bedtime. Strange, strange mixture of the Paris Commune (or perhaps the 1927 Nanking uprising) and the dystopic steampunk fantasy world of New Crobuzon, with the fantastic train-based commune that gives the novel its name as a catalyst, a plot device, and finally a monument. As with The Scar, this novel is an amazing piece of misdirection on a number of levels, and quite a piece of work in many ways. Well worth reading.

EDIT Slightly revised for spelling and clarity. When you're cursing someone, it doesn't do to be imprecise.

Thrashing out the budget and other fun stuff

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about the Board meeting. While there's nothing secret about it, most of the details are fairly dry and boring, and the ones that aren't are things that redmartel and stuckintraffik will be talking to people about later. So it's not my place to comment on those. We did discuss and agree to establishing a separate budget for ATC, which needs to be done now that we're going to actively get busy on the philanthropy front, and we also discussed some potential volunteer involvement at another local convention which shall not be named. That's going to be retooled to contain significantly less snarkiness and more cooperation, which is okay with me. Didn't really get to discuss anything else because the budgets ate most of the babysitting time.

I forgot to bring the mail with me and redmartel forgot to hand off the registration forms he'd finished, so I'll bring them on Wednesday when we go take a look at the Crowne Plaza Riverfront. P and I also need to get the Registration crew together and talk about stuff.

I may futz around with Civicrack, since I don't have to get up early tomorrow; I may go to bed. Decisions, decisions.

Thrashing out the budget and other fun stuff

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about the Board meeting. While there's nothing secret about it, most of the details are fairly dry and boring, and the ones that aren't are things that redmartel and stuckintraffik will be talking to people about later. So it's not my place to comment on those. We did discuss and agree to establishing a separate budget for ATC, which needs to be done now that we're going to actively get busy on the philanthropy front, and we also discussed some potential volunteer involvement at another local convention which shall not be named. That's going to be retooled to contain significantly less snarkiness and more cooperation, which is okay with me. Didn't really get to discuss anything else because the budgets ate most of the babysitting time.

I forgot to bring the mail with me and redmartel forgot to hand off the registration forms he'd finished, so I'll bring them on Wednesday when we go take a look at the Crowne Plaza Riverfront. P and I also need to get the Registration crew together and talk about stuff.

I may futz around with Civicrack, since I don't have to get up early tomorrow; I may go to bed. Decisions, decisions.