Oh, no, ita. I'm sorry. I wish I could do your job for a few day or something.

Dear coworker, walking in at 9:44 when you were supposed to be on the desk at 9, and then telling me about how you were supposed to be at Main but double-booked yourself, is not impressing me today.

Hello, be a grownup. I am sick of this shit. Even the "lazy disorganized" person in the office knows when she is supposed to be on the desk and CALLS ME if she is running late.

Signed, I do the same work you do but am not in a librarian position so I make $15K less than you. Also, I have two small children and I can get to work on time - you BUMPING YOUR HEAD AT HOME is not an excuse to be 45 minutes late.

Ugh, ita.

My damned cats are driving my crazy. If Oz doesn't want to sleep at night he wanders around my room, pawing at things. Most of the time, if I personally invite him onto the bed and give him a little cuddle, he'll stay and sleep. Not last night. At 2, I finally chased him down into the basement (I may have been swearing at him at the way down.) only to be woken up by him scratching on the basement door at 3:30. I have to do something to change his bedtime habits, or I'm going to end up throttling him.

Ugh, ita. I hope the review goes well, and quickly, so you can go home.

It was still dark when I left the apartment this morning. I was not amused.

We got an email this morning saying that the firm is closing the Tokyo office temporarily.

I guess that's not surprising, Perkins.

ita, I hope you can go home after the review.

It's not at all a dumb question, Fred, particularly considering the number of people in this country saying, "What should I do? Are we all going to die?" The answer is, "No, no, a thousand times, no." I keep wanting to grab news people and say, "Get a grip. This isn't On the Beach."

I'd guess that in the worst case scenario, this could increase background radiation in the U.S. by a tiny percentage, something like the amount of radiation you'd pick up from one cross-country flight and well within normal variations. Chernobyl spewed way more radioactive material into the atmosphere than is possible with the Japanese situation. At Chernobyl, the core was critical and then entire core exploded. A core breach at the Japanese reactors will leak a stream of radioactive particles. Many of these particles are very short lived, so amounts of radiation near the reactors will be way higher than even a few miles away. At any rate, the World Health Organization estimates that the people in living in the highly contaminated zone near Chernobyl received about 33 millisieverts (mSv) of exposure, or the equivalent of three to five cat scans. Those people's cancer rate is maybe 3 percent higher than the general population. Acute radiation syndrome, from as much as 1,000 mSv, was diagnosed in 134 people who worked at the plant and only 28 died. Most of the rest are still around today.

eta: MSNBC has a pretty good piece about radiation [link]

I can't see straight enough to drive right now.

Is there somewhere to duck out and lie down for a bit? Ugh, sorry you're having to deal with that.

At any rate, the World Health Organization estimates that the people in living in the highly contaminated zone near Chernobyl received about 33 millisieverts (mSv) of exposure, or the equivalent of three to five cat scans. Those people's cancer rate is maybe 3 percent higher than the general population. Acute radiation syndrome, from as much as 1,000 mSv, was diagnosed in 134 people who worked at the plant and only 28 died. Most of the rest are still around today.

And made about eleven hundred square miles uninhabitable -- though people snuck back in. And of course the borders aren't magical, there are increased radiation and its accompanying issues on the other side of it. The 5,000 people who work there are strictly monitored for contamination, but obviously that isn't a fool-proof scenario. Those deaths will go on for a while.

I'm glad to hear Japan isn't in for that.