An entry from "News of the Weird" today, because talking or thinking about turning 49 is simply too depressing for words. I'm pretty sure my face aged a full year over night.

The following entry appeals to the data-whore in me. Imagine keeping such detailed records for such a long time! Makes my eyes gleam with avarice, it does... Props to News of the Weird (and hoping I'm not violating their copyright).

British Royal Kitchen Tour
A new "kitchen" tour at Windsor Castle in England is based on painstaking research into royal eating habits over eight centuries. The Windsor kitchen is the oldest continuously used kitchen in Britain, if not the world, the London Telegraph reports. It's also the best documented -- there are records on what each royal ate for every single day of their reigns from the early 16th century through to the early 19th century. For example, Henry VIII, a tall slim young man, became a rather large man with the aid of a diet that was 75 percent meat and vast quantities of wine and weak ale.

Staring down 49... which is feeling like 50 to me. At midnight I creep a little closer to my definition of old. Interestingly enough (but not surprisingly) the definition of "old" gets older all of the time. Right now it's in the mid-to-late-sixties.

Who's back? Who is back!

Yes, indeedy, the BBC is bringing back Dr. Who! This Cnn article says it will return in 2005. The actor to play the doctor hasn't been named yet.

Wheeee!

I stumbled across an interesting article at Slashdot on how computers affect writing. It's not something I've given much consideration to, but it makes me wonder. How much does the software impede my ability to create? I know I can't write by hand any more -- my thoughts jump around too much, and I find myself needing to insert all of the time. Interesting article, regardless.

It's humbling to consider that humanity is just a way for rhinoviruses to reproduce.

Not feeling so hot today, though not as bad as last week.

Jae 1 - Flu 0. Okay, maybe 1/2. As previously noted, I fell to the respiratory bug going around at the Computer Store (and probably everywhere else, judging from the two sick players at the Sunday Knights). I applied the time-tried medications of Nyquil (wonder drug!), sleep and chicken soup from Hobies (Hobies Restaurant, Corner of Trowbridge and Harrison Roads, East Lansing. 930 Trowbridge Rd. 339-3607 ) and am feeling almost like myself again. My voice is back and I have shed the scary, tearing cough of Bad Stuff Lurking In Lungs.

Yay me!

Jae's home for wayward germs is open again. sigh. I started working at the MSU Computer Store a week ago and was told at the time there was a bug going around. Lucky me, it found me. One of the things I hate about being a temp is that there are no benefits or perks. You don't get vacation, and you don't get sick time. If I don't work, I don't get paid. Which means I'm exposing my co-workers to this thing (which seems to be taking up residence in my chest) -- of course, I got it from them!

O misery... it's a week if you treat it, seven days if you don't.

Avast, me hearties! It's almost Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19!

((giggle))

So... I'm working at the MSU Computer Store (high, high stress -- I hope I'll last!). The woman I'm working for/with was lobbying to keep me permanently on my first day, which makes me feel good... but gad, it's a zoo, and the pressure (combined with low blood sugar because I was so busy I forgot to eat) was nearly enough to send me away in tears this afternoon. My right leg hurt so much last night that I had trouble sleeping. Tonight I got Craig and Ken to rub my cable-like tense shoulders, and that helped some, along with a couple of "malt beverages". Dang. Smirnof "Twisted" turns out to be clear beer. sigh

Anyways... at the computer center there's no break room that a mere temp can get into, so I have been eating my lunch on a bench overlooking the Red Cedar River, and I noticed a curious thing. Of the people who passed me during the time I was eating my salad, most seemed to be wrapped in their own, isolated little worlds. Most were talking on their cell phones; some were listening to CD players, radios or tape players, but very few were interacting with the world around them.

I think we are living in an increasingly isolated world, aided in our insularity by technology.

Okay, this is unforgiveably cute a kitty cat who purrs and follows your cursor.

Good News/Bad News -- Bad News is that I'm not going to have all week to write Excursion; Good News is that I have another temporary gig at the Computer Center, starting on Wednesday. Back to the keyboard!

Today was my last day at Food Stores; I kept teetering on the edge of tears. I hate this about temporary work -- I work somewhere long enough to get attached to people, and then I have to leave. Worse, I am facing the usual fear of not having any income, while the bills keep on rolling in. Ghaaa. On my way home today I had such a pain in my chest, it felt like my heart was bound so tight it could hardly beat. I briefly entertained the thought of taking a knife to it, to ease the ache... but the truth is that I don't want to die. I just want someone to take care of me, and that's just not ever going to happen for me. Not in this lifetime. *sigh* It sucks, but there it is. My life is me (with cats) and that's all it's ever going to be. Friends are dear, and wonderful... but at the end of the day, it's just me alone with the cats. Who are darling and cuddly... but still only cats.

Well, I suppose it's good news/bad news day for me.
Good news: RPGA granted me my extension on the module I'm writing, so I have till the 15th to finish Excursion (which I haven't started).
Bad News: It looks like this is the last week they'll need me here at Food Stores (I've been happily toiling away here since June 13th, I think). Cue anxiety and probably a few weeks of no work. If I'm lucky.
Good news: At least I'll have time to work on Excursion, Recursion (with Morrie) and the first chapter of Night Eyes (which arrived to me a month or so late beginning this weekend). And maybe even clean up my house a little, since it's beginning to really bother even me.