wombat_socho

Since I've decided to stay up and make a feeble attempt at getting back on some kind of a regular schedule, I thought I should probably post something to the journals for the benefit of anyone still reading this...
( Would you like to know more? )

So I got a decent night's sleep before waking up, showering, and grabbing coffee before heading up to Baltimore again, this time to meet up with Mark & DQ for the annual breakfast at Otakon. For the second year in a row, only Mark was actually attending Otakon, although next year DQ and I may be showing up for the convention along with a couple of other alt.fan.utena vets. Breakfast was of course at the Blue Moon, as has been our habit for these last three years, but if those other folks show up, we may be finding some other venue that is a tad more roomy and doesn't make us wait quite so long for our coffee & eggage. I objected to this move on the grounds of Tradition but was outnumbered. :(

After breakfast, DQ took Mark back to the convention and I headed out of town, looking for someplace to hang out for a few hours before visiting my friend O and her older sister, who were expecting me around 1300. We got caught up on stuff and I wound up leaving around 1700, refueling the truck in Beltsville and myself in Greenbelt before heading home. I'll be heading to bed soon; I have the Rule 5 post to do at Stacy's tomorrow, and I also want to get some studying done before heading off to retrieve Mark and take him back to Virginia Beach. Hopefully that won't be affected by another hideous tie-up at the 301 bridge like the one that hosed us on the way up.

haikujaguar, who recently wrapped up the most excellent "Spots The Space Marine" web serial here on LJ, recently made a trip to Readercon and posted about it here.

I'm glad she did well there, but I completely sympathize with her decision not to go back for a while - if ever. The knee-jerk political and anti-religious attitudes on display there aren't unique to Readercon by any stretch of the imagination, and to say it sticks in my craw is a massive understatement. The inability of these people to see that they're engaged in a massive case of projection is truly astounding, and says volumes about how compassionate and sensitive they really are. As I put it some years ago at one of the last Convergence cons I went to before moving down here, "Look, I'm not here to discuss politics. I'm here to discuss SF & fantasy. You want to talk to me about politics, do it somewhere else because I'm not going to do it here." Still, the ugly fact is that most SF fans seem to assume that you, too, are politically liberal and atheist, and that political conservatives/religious people are suitable figures for derision. Which we don't appreciate, surprisingly enough.

Related: I don't pimp Liberty SF nearly enough and should probably put it in my blogroll here at the LJ.

So I'm looking at all the stuff that's going on next week, what with P coming back to town, the projected hegira to Newport News and thence to Otakon with onsenmark, and whatever the heck is going to happen over the 4th of July*. P will be arriving in town on Monday; not sure when she's shipping out to Minneapolis for Convergence, but I would assume Thursday since that's when the new five-day version kicks off.

Piled onto this will be a flurry of bill-paying and shopping in mid-week, since (hopefully) I'll have my unemployment payments resuming on the 29th followed by the big check from the Alexandria City Public Schools the next day. Most of that will go for rent, of course, phone payments and other utilities, but there will be a little extra cash to do fun stuff (like a.f.u. no Breakfast) which is all I really need to keep my head away from the Slough of Despond.

One of my friends hasn't been so fortunate. It's been a tough stretch for her lately, what with ongoing physical and emotional problems even before her pet died, and I'm going to make the effort to reach out and at least say hi; since she lives on the other end of DC, I don't know that I'll actually be able to stop by in person, but on the other hand, it looks like I'm going to be driving up to Baltimore a couple times next week, so stopping off in between isn't completely out of the question.

I've started A Feast For Crows and am already wishing I'd waited to read A Storm Of Swords first; there's been quite a few references to things that have happened in the South, which is the half of Martin's original third book covered in the latter. As for Gormenghast...wow. It's certainly living up to its dual forewords by Anthony Burgess and Quentin Crisp who bang on for about a dozen pages in toto about how unique Peake's work is. I don't think I've read anything quite like this before. Not even Lovecraft comes close to the sheer weight of descriptive prose used on the COMPLETELY FUCKING BATSHIT inhabitants of this here castle. I'm going to keep plugging on; it makes good reading while I'm playing Farmville In Space and trying not to get ganked by random assholes wandering through Goonswarm space.
( Cut to spare people who don't care about internet spaceships )

*Hint: Not Otakon.
**This is usually me, every other month or so. A Badger A Day In DKUK, Hey!

This was one of those weekends which reminded me how lucky I am to have such a wide range of friends and also prodded me out of my near-agoraphobic basement-dwelling existence, both of which are Good Things. I mean, I get along well with all kinds of people, including people you'd think would be slowly backing away from me and making warding gestures as they did so, and every so often I get to go out and hang with a bunch of people who apparently have next to nothing in common with me. Yet, it somehow winds up being a good time.

Saturday wasn't like that; I went up to Reston to hang out with my old friend Mark, watch movies (about which more later) burn steaks, and talk about stuff. We wound up seeing several classic movies: Night of the Hunter (downright WEIRD), the original Cat People (AWESOME), and Curse of the Cat People, which latter was bitterly disappointing since it has all the elements for a bloody revenge filled sequel to the first movie, but instead wound up being this sappy and only occasionally creepy movie about a little girl's invisible friend who JUST HAPPENS to be the ghost of Daddy's ex-wife. You know, the one who used to turn into a panther and stalk Mommy in order to claw her to ribbons? But the ghostly invisible friend doesn't do that, so unlike the original it is Not Recommended. We also watched episodes 4&5 of Game of Thrones, which is just getting more hardcore and awesome as it progresses. So much treachery and brutal awesomeness. I am definitely going to have to drop by the library and pick up the original books now, because I'm positive there's a lot of additional stuff I'm missing.

Now Sunday was interesting. Old classmate Tish Hall, who when last seen was going into the bread-baking business in a big way, was throwing a fundraiser for her daughter Sara, who is having legal difficulties that I can't go into here, and so I got into the Toaster and motored forth into the trackless wastes of Northwest Washington. It was good to see Tish again; the interesting thing is that while we agree on very little when it comes to religion and politics, we nonetheless get along extremely well. It was also good to see her husband Gavin and their boys again, meet her daughter Sara (who has great taste in music) and Tish's sister Celeste, and hang out with a bunch of Sara's friends. There was too much good food, and I'm afraid I ate too much of it, but the conversation was good and I stayed maybe longer than I should have, considering that I needed to take care of things online.

The next two days are going to be pretty quiet around here; I'll be laying low until I get my unemployment on Wednesday, at which time I'll be shelling out money for my Intermediate Accounting text and starting the clock on that course. Further down the timeline, won't be going to Balticon but a trip up to brian_edminster's place is a distinct possibility.

I haven't been posting much because I haven't really had much to say. I've been working in the tax mines, studying, going to class, and getting other stuff done. Sometimes I get out to do other stuff.

I spent yesterday evening after Saturday's shift in the tax mines hanging out with Mark Taylor and two of the three Hammer brothers playing History of the World, an Axis and Allies-type game with a lot of plastic pieces, cards, and a pretty laffo map of the world. It was okay fun; not my kind of game, really, but fun enough to kill an evening with while pursuing the main objective: ensuring that Ted did not win. ;)

The game, Chinese delivery dinner, and a post-game run to Sheetz for gas, coffee and breakfast-like object kept me up until damn near 3 AM. I guess it's a good thing P couldn't get in touch with cipherpunk regarding breakfast and shooting, otherwise I'd be more tired than I already am.

Despite the attempts of last night's beef & broccoli to kill me -no, I didn't have the rice, but my post-meal BG still shot up to 116- I woke up this morning with a 72 reading and a loss of 1.4 pounds. I expect to lose the remaining 1.4 pounds by March 1 at the latest, and continue the long march to 300. All this weight loss is doing me good on the clothing front as well; I was quite gratified to see that the 3XL Dickies shirts I bought the other night at Walmart fit me comfortably. Soon, I reckon, I'll be able to buy pants there as well. And that will be a Good Thing.

This morning I attended the first of eight Skills to Win classes I need to take for H&R Block between now and New Year's Eve. This one was taught by the district manager, and was really more of a briefing on what Block expects all of us to be doing throughout the tax season. They're continuing to emphasize customer care this year, as well as the usual tax professional training; lot of emphasis on working as a team, too. The good news is that I'm being paid for the training; the bad news is that because my original offer letter doesn't make me active until the 27th, I probably won't be paid until after that, and I'm not sure whether they're going to pay me my CSP wage or something else.

Spent the afternoon studying for the Cost Accounting final tonight, which I'll be leaving for in a few minutes. I think I'll do okay. All I need is a 65 to pass the class, and I think I'll do better than that.

Tomorrow is Richard's funeral.

Sunday I'll be taking the Tax Knowledge Assessment online after some intensive grinding on filing statuses, dependent rules, and the EIC.

That'll pretty much take up the weekend.

UPDATE: Well, what the hell? Arrived at the school, met two other students who were also there to take the final - and neither the teacher nor the other students we knew were planning on doing the test showed up. I guess it's nice to have the extra study time, but having this happen on zero notice is...really annoying.

Got my offer letter from H&R Block today in the e-mail. It's not too clear on what I'm going to be doing at Foxchase next year, perhaps because I haven't passed the final exam in tax class yet, but it is clear that I'm getting a $0.30/hr raise over last year's hourly wage, and that is Good. No doubt the precise nature and timing of my duties will be determined by el Rey when the office formally opens in January, to say nothing of exactly what I'll be paid as a rookie Tax Associate. Apparently there's some talk about the rookies being on a straight hourly wage until they prove themselves, at which point they go on a lower wage plus commission, but I can wait to find out. Either way, it's all experience, and this is Good as well.

Mailman brought drugs from the VA and the new Sheetz Discover card, which I promptly activated although I probably won't be getting out to the ass-end of Fairfax/Loudoun County or Frederick where the Sheetzes are until...well, who knows. I want to be spending less time on the road and more time trying to wrap up all these classes I'm still way behind in, but we'll see what happens. Today, for example, I needed to get together with digex to settle some bidness, but P invited me to lunch at Malibu in Falls Church and wound up driving me out to Laurel. One thing led to another, pix were taken, music was sampled (but not mixed) and pretty soon it was time for P to go crash. I wound up taking MARC from Laurel to Union Station and Metro to the Pentagon (change at Gallery Place), from which I rode the express bus back to Foxchase, arriving around 1900. Not much studying got done. :(

So...time to get the nightly linkagery done and toddle off to bed, for tomorrow is the tax class and Intermediate Accounting.

For those of you not already notified, therevdrnye died at 1353 this afternoon, literally seconds after P and I arrived at his hospital room and got all gowned & gloved.
( That wasn't on the schedule. )

Or maybe the reverse, I 'm not sure. Anyway...because I had somehow gotten it into my head that the 7th of November was yesterday and not today, I was very surprised to show up for Mass 45 minutes late and find a bunch of people standing around outside, traffic cones all over the place, and a table set up on the porch of the church. I asked one of the people standing around if there was a wedding or something going on, and he looked at me strangely and answered that no, the church was celebrating it's 30th anniversary today and there would be a reconsecration starting at 1 PM followed by a Mass and a celebratory banquet. "But I thought that was yesterday," I replied. He shook his head. "No, the seventh is very definitely today." So, well, that threw a monkey wrench into the day's plans. P and I were planning to head up to Baltimore to see therevdrnye and hopefully talk to him a little, and our plan had been to meet up in Laurel at 1330 or so, which would allow me to attend Mass and also require that we'd only have to take one truck up to the hospital. Having a consecration ceremony starting at 1300 would be Awkward.

Well, there was nothing for it but to hang out and wait for P's call, and meanwhile take lots of pictures of a procession of cute Ukrainian girls in traditional costumes, hunky Ukrainian guys (ditto), icons, gonfalons, and bringing up the rear, our pastor and the Metropolitan, both of whom were decked out in liturgical regalia that would have made Elvis slack-jawed with amazement. I'm not sure even the Pope has vestments this flashy. Makes me wish I'd brought a real camera, but then if I'd remembered to bring that...ah, never mind. P didn't call until after the Metropolitan had blessed the cornerstone, so I got to see that, at least. (Pics posted on Facebook because this totally happened.)

And so I motored over to Laurel, met up with P in the parking lot across the street from digex' office and Warehouse of Holding, and proceeded up 95 to Baltimore with her. We were somewhat surprised to find about a dozen of Richard's friends from gaming and other fandoms/businesses there along with his father; introductions were made, and redone shortly afterward when therevdrnye's hosts Tad and Carrie showed up. Eventually P and I went in to visit, along with his father, but unfortunately therevdrnye was unconscious. Not too surprising, given that they had been at him with tubes and hoses for a good part of the morning. I'd like to think he knew that we were there for him.

By then it was about 1500, and we escaped just in time to miss most of the traffic from the Ravens' game. Not early enough to stop by the fabulous Laurel Meat Market, though, which was disappointing; we wound up doing dinner at the Japanese Steak House off Route 1 instead, being very careful to inquire about sauces and to decline the rice. Very good food! Got home ~1900 and have been putzing around on the internet since.