Grrrr. Just got grilled about the process I used on some work 5 months ago because a client disapproved of how many hours it took. Which involved a change in what we were actually supposed to be doing midway through the process, requiring me to go back and apply new standards to everything after half the work had been finished. Did I mention that back in the day, I wondered why the client didn't have their own employees doing the work, as it's the sort of thing I would have expected them to want an internal decision-making process applied to?

You know you've just given him material for another 12 cantos' worth of pissing and moaning, yes?

Fine by me. I like to lean over his shoulder and mock his spelling. It's, like, so 1670.

Oh, duh, wrong Milton... I really am stupid today. Good thing I'm cute.

Pssht. I'm perfectly capable of referencing Milton Waddams in the same breath as that guy what wrote Samson Agonistes. Have faith in me, if not in yourself. (BTW, I've begun watching Homicide DVDs.)

Now that really is a funny thought. Some guy bitching about writing cantos in the basement. Yay, I get a conversion Cavalier. No toasters in Homicide. Just Danish. Those first seasons are like, perfect TV.

Hey, Ginger posted this in Bitches, but I'm still 300+ behind there:

After tonight, 24 will run on Mondays.

Is this true? So it won't be on Tuesdays like it used to be? I know there are two episodes tonight, but this is going forward as well?

eta According to Fox.com it is. Woohoo! Don't have to give up on that or VM!

Yes -- 24's new regular time will be Mondays at 8 pm Central. (9 pm Eastern.)

I have seen footage of this and it FREAKS ME THE HELL OUT. Noses should not do that.

I think for me, the freakiest part is the sound it makes.

Much sympathy, shrift, on the digging out at work. I feel like I'm going through over a week's worth of emails and meetings in one day. Oh, wait. I was on vacation for over a week and I am. Well, today is not so much fun, but it was worth it.

This morning, I started watching the morning show on CBS, and then had a terrible feeling that Deb might be on a different station, so I channel-hopped for a while, seeing way too many iterations of the pantsless rescue. Poor guy. I finally decided CBS was the right station and set the VCR there, I hope. My VCR has turned to crap, so I'm never sure if I'm taping the right thing, or if it will be visible even if it is the right channel. On the positive side, I got the last Sharpe's movie tonight, so there will be good TV in any case.

As an aside, I am ALWAYS coming back on Saturday after a vacation. None of this straight to work crap. Lazing around yesterday was so incredibly wonderful. Of course, now lunch is almost over and I don't wanna go back to the looming piles. Alas, I must.

Netflix now has a friends page.

Okay. Off to chiro. Wish me miracle cure.

Many wishes for miracle cure for you, ita.

I need a miracle cure for my neck. It's pissing me off, at this point. Grrrr.

Grrrr. Just got grilled about the process I used on some work 5 months ago because a client disapproved of how many hours it took. Which involved a change in what we were actually supposed to be doing midway through the process, requiring me to go back and apply new standards to everything after half the work had been finished. Did I mention that back in the day, I wondered why the client didn't have their own employees doing the work, as it's the sort of thing I would have expected them to want an internal decision-making process applied to?

Matt, what is it with these folks. Last year was the year they tried to work you to death. This year is the year they're trying to annoy you to death. You poor guy.

It is early enough in 2005 that I feel justified in posting this poem by Pablo Neruda for all the buffistas:

This new year, compatriot, is yours.
It was born of you more than of time. Choose
the best of your life and surrender it to combat.

This year that has fallen like a corpse in its tomb
cannot rest with love and with fear.
This expired year is a year of sorrows that accuse.
And in the hour of festivity, in the night,
when its bitter roots break away and fall
and another ignored crystal rises to the void
of a year that your life will gradually fill,
give it the dignity required by my country
and yours, this narrowness of volcanoes and
wines.

-- Pablo Neruda, "You Will Struggle"

Este anyo nuevo, compatriota, es tuyo.
Ha nacido de ti mas que del tiempo, escoge
lo mejor de tu vida y entregalo al combate.

Este anyo que ha caido como un muerto en su tumba
no puede reposar con amor y con miedo.
Este anyo muerto es anyo de dolores que acusan.
Y cuando sus raices amargas en la hora
de la fiesta, en la noche, se desprendan y caigan
y suba otro cristal ignorado al vacio
de un anyo que tu vida llenara poco a poco,
dale la dignidad que requiere mi patria,
la tuya, esta angostura de volcanes y vinos.

-- Pablo Neruda, "Tu Lucharas"

English translation by Jack Schmitt.