Someone a couple blocks away is blasting "Blue Bayou".

You know what will be my favorite thing about graduating and getting a job? Having my own office. With a door that closes. (Of course, with my luck, I'll probably end up getting a job somewhere where new professors get cubicles.)

Are there any kind of earplugs that don't go quite as far into the ear but still work? I got the foam kind that you squish and then put into the ear canal and then let expand, and they work pretty well, but they sometimes kind of hurt.

I do not understand how people can work while there are three other conversations going on in the same tiny room.

Are there any kind of earplugs that don't go quite as far into the ear but still work?

I found this.

Thanks, Laga. The kind I was already using is one of the top-rated ones there. I guess I'll try some of the others that ranked higher for comfort.

I use these, Hil, and find them way more comfortable than others I've tried. [link] They're soft enough that I can sleep with them in without feeling it.

Today, it seems, was the anniversary of the day that California joined the US. Officemate 1 hung a huge California state flag above his desk. Officemates 2 and 3 spent a while speculating on what would happen if California just disappeared. They said all we'd lose would be wine and porn. Officemate 1 responded that we'd lose the fifth-biggest economy in the world, and started spouting off random facts about how great California is and how we should all celebrate this day that the US got possession of California. I added, "And screwed most of the Mexican landowners out of their land." He acknowledged that, and went back to the greatness of California. I'm not sure where the conversation went from there, because that's when I put my earplugs in.

A new kind of "shit I did not say". This is a compliment I will never share with the person it is about.

D, I think of a garter snake every time we are together. Garter snakes are one of my favorite creatures. They are lovely, graceful, lively, fierce, clever, energetic, and their enemies are usually pests that are dangerous to the humans.

It is a real compliment, but I'm not sure D would take it as such.

I think that's a fairly awesome compliment, but then again, we 'ffistas hang with Billytea.

I added, "And screwed most of the Mexican landowners out of their land."

So what? Mexico's claim on California doesn't stand on any high moral ground. It was a huge series of oligarchies, derived from obscene land grants and the slaving system of the Missions. It only lasted about 25 years. So fuck 'em. They lost the war.

Though I'm reminded of the conversation I had with my Mexican-American boss whose family came from Texas. When I asked her when they emigrated to the States, she snipped, "We didn't. The U.S. colonized our part of Mexico."

I'm thinking there are extremely few current countries in the world that built on land not previously occupied by someone.