You know what's wicked helpful? SUNSCREEN.

Except for the bit where almost all sunblocks available in the U.S. aren't, y'know, photostable and lose their effectiveness after about an hour in direct sun.

I carry a tub of that stuff with me. Pale. Sun owie.

My mom was telling me I should get more sun. Then she asked with the dark patches under my eyes were from . Sun damage, mom!

Actually, some of it was just bad lighting. But while I do look better with a little color, in order to get that I have to think about it and plan as opposed to just slathering up with spf 50 when I'm going to be outside for a long time. Besides, I spent the first 17 years of my life getting roasted at 4000 ft in the sunbelt. I should probably be a little more careful now.

I've really starting being conscientous about sunscreen since moving to CO.

I'm ordering classroom supplies. I may just die. Whole new classroom. Much to be ordered.

I had spf 45 on, but I wasn't expecting to be out in the sun for an hour and a half.

My father went out and bought us 40SPF sunblock for our couple hours on the beach in Jamaica. Most of which was spent under an umbrella. I looked at him very funny, and did my own calculations. I've had pretty good results knowing when to come in/apply goop, so I can end up with a tan but no peeling.

Unfortunately I must take this amusement to polish a document in which someone added changes in red and struck out and reddened replaced text...but not by using Track Changes. They formatted manually each time.

I have a PM who does this too. It's ... neat.

I freak out now over the fact that I spent my teenaged summers baking in the sun, starting with a deliberate burn every June to "build up a base." I'd fry to the peel stage, and then when the skin finished coming off, I'd go back out and tan every day to try and get the ideal shade of allover brown. It never worked, though--all I managed to get was a relatively light tan overlaid with tons of freckles.

Now, of course, I've learned that the more burns-to-the-peel-stage that you get before turning 21, the higher your chance of getting skin cancer. Yet another health risk I have to watch out for!

You know, for all I love Track Changes, for the love of GOD accept changes before publishing your document to the intranet. I don't get people.

As a side note, if the contents of your Word doc are intented to be laid out in Quark (or, I have no doubt, InDesign), if you don't accept all changes before importing it into Quark, everything is going to be all kerfucked to hell and back.

And if *I'm* your editor and that happens, I'ma gonna kill you. Daid.

Oy.

So eight years ago I had just moved out on my own and was very naive about telemarketers and agreed to a magazine contract with a company that called me. It was supposed to be 2 years of payments for 4 years of magazines.

Every so often they would call me up and ask if I was happy, did I want to change my subscriptions, "this magazine is no longer being offered through our service, what would you like to exchange it for" etc. I didn't think much of it until sometime down the line I realized my two years of payments should have been done some time previously but they were still going on. I eventually figured out through talking to them that every time I had made the slightest change to my subscriptions, they had cancelled my old contract and signed me up for a shiny new 2-year one without actually telling me this.

So I fought with them and fought with them and finally a little over a year ago made what should have been my last payment. They then called me and said they were no longer supplying "Time" and what would I like to change it for. I told them I didn't care if I stopped getting Time as I rarely read it and I was sick of getting signed up for new contracts. The guy who called promised they would remove me from their call list. Note that I still recieve Time to this day.

Last week I got a call from them claiming they will no longer be providing Premiere. I told them I didn't care, that I had heard this story before and I was supposed to be removed from their call list. The woman insisted that there was no way I could be removed because I still had a contract with them with 24 payments on it. I disagreed with her and she said I would have to talk to their billing department. I asked her to transfer me and she said they were already gone for the day and they'd have to call me back the next day.

5 days later, today, I get a call from the company again. They ask me if I want to change my magazines and I tell them no, I don't want to be signed up for a new contract with them and to leave me alone. This guy confirms my address and tells me I have 14 payments left. When I tell him that's impossible, the call gets disconnected (or he hung up, which is entirely possible) and I've yet to hear back.

Needless to say I'm extremely frustrated. When I originally got the call last week, I tried to find the paper I'd put the confirmation number for paying off my account on, but I think since it's been over a year, I must have thrown it out at some point, assuming it was finally settled. Argh.