I had a friend here who had Vonage and hated her reception. Makes me leery of trying it.

But they have a great commercial.

the general idea is that you work and work and work. Typically, exempt employees put in 60 hour weeks around here\

Yeah, I don't normally, even though I travel and stuff, and sometimes work long hours, mostly I'm in and out and it's true, I don't stay super long or anything. I still think the "even if you don't take an hour lunch, be here nine hours" thing is bullshit. And there's been a few grumbles about it, but....

We also don't get separate sick leave and vacation time, just all together. And technically we're supposed to count ourselves out if we go to an appointment, but mostly I either don't have long appointments or don't count myself out. Little rebellions and all. :)

For those who don't watch Venture Brothers, you're missing aout on some weirdassed dialog.

From the season finale:

Hank: I'm outta here! I'm not gonna play second... banana-fiddle to some stupid old baby.
Dean: Well not me! I'm staying right here. I'll be sleeping in a room right next to Triana. And then she'll hear like, thunder or something, and, and she'll run into my room all scared and stuff, and I'll be like, 'hush my darling, it's just ionized air molecules expanding'. And she'll be like, 'oh, hold me', and I'll like-
Hank: Dude! If we stay here that means we'll be Dr. Orpheus' kids. And that means Triana will be your sister. And that means you two will have extra-retard babies.
Dean: Huh. I never thought of that. [he stands up] Alright, I'm with you!

I think that whole bit exemplifies the intellistupidity qualities of the two.

intellistupidity

Pretty much the perfect word for them. But then again they were taught by tapes as they sleep.

I do not get my nails done. But I want some of those nail designs. NOW.

There was a lot of rumblings in the tech industry/fields about Unionizing until the dotcom bust. I am guessing that as things improve - they'll be less 80 hour weeks. Too many still skilled tech people have left the industry and will no way no how come back. They aren't makeing the money they used to, but life is better and two years out and most of them ( esp those in the DINK catagory) are doing just fine.

and by the way - jury duty , esp the begining part where they are picking the jury is the most fascinating and boreing thing to be invovled with .

Oh. Dear. I have a professor that puts smiley faces on papers when grading. Not only does she use smiley faces, though. She also uses sad faces with tears running down the cheeks.

I'm scared. Very, very scared. I don't suppose I should expect much helpful feedback on my writing from her, should I?

This made me laugh. I teach college writing, and yes, I use smiley faces on occasion. I began using them when I realized, based on student comments, that your average student is very bad at reading tone into teacher comments. Hence, when I made what I thought was an obvious joke, it would be read as criticism, so rather than swallow all my jokes, I make sure they are accompanied by either a smiley face or the phrase "ha ha."

All of which is to say, I'd judge her feedback based on her feedback, in the same way you'd like her to judge your writing based on your writing, not on something slightly tangential, like your titles, for example.

New tags for JohnSweden, erikaj, Robin (it's been new for a while, but I don't think I've been able to announce it till now), Plei (recently new, don't think I announced it), Gloomcookie (tagless! sadness), and DXMachina.

I'm making an effort to be grayer so I can kick this thesis into gear.

All of which is to say, I'd judge her feedback based on her feedback, in the same way you'd like her to judge your writing based on your writing, not on something slightly tangential, like your titles, for example.

Good point. I guess it was the crying face that really caught me off guard, which was then followed up by a smiley face, which was probably to show the joke she was making. I just thought the whole thing was kind of funny. In some ways, it's good to know she's not the only one who does that...

When I showed it to Emily, she was surprised I was surprised. So, yeah, I guess my expectations were/are a little off.

Timelies, bitches. 'Sup? I'm running around today dealing with all the bureaucracy inherent in having a kid in a country other than one's own. For some reason I have to take a notarized copy of my marriage license to the MFA, for one thing, which will be a pain in the snow. And, man, it's going to be a life of bureaucracy for the sprog also, as he continually has to explain to people "Yes I was born in Athens Greece. But I'm American."

And I took my first good pregnancy fall this weekend - spine-surfed down the last 5 stairs. Now I have a big purple crescent on my tailbone, kind of a not-so-cool tattoo.

Nail tips for billytea!

Oooh. They even have Aussie animal crossing signs.

billytea! Big article on avian intelligence. Conclusion? Crows may be smarter than chimps.

S'true, crows are the mad geniuses of the bird world. I'd say evil geniuses, but they like rolling down snow-covered slopes before hopping back to the top, and my vision of evil genius is more focused than that. I wouldn't say smarter than chimps, though. Tool use is only one form of intelligence; chimps, for instance, can handle more complex social interactions.

But personally, I kind of prefer the crows. Especially the nutcracker story.