Alas, our minecraft server went down since the hard drive of the server blew chunks. I've got plenty of spare hard drives, but not the time to get it back in shape.

It sounds pretty complicated, Connie. [link]

I feel "reach out to" has different nuance from "contact". It has a hopefulness, more implication but not assumption of response. You can just contact someone and be done with it. Not so much if I reached out to them.

Oh, thanks. I was going to say this.

I am drilling home to all sorts of people that the ER is my LAST resort.

How can they not realize this? If it is this frustrating to us, I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for you, ita !.

It sounds pretty complicated, Connie

How intensely cool! A female death venerated by the outcasts and those outside standard society. Time to light it up.

Maybe they think I'm having too much fun?

That having been said, as I was FINALLY leaving, way late (SPN!) I caught sight of the Jamaican nurse out of the corner of her eye, and her face! I went back, and she rushed over, and the second thing out of her mouth was "my sister passed..." and I'm not going to lie...I never want to be at the ER--you guys, at least, understand that. But I was glad that I could, you know, reach out to her just then. I thought hugging would be too much, but I did grab her arm and squeeze it--we had had more than one long conversation about cancer, and it turns out she got home mere hours before her sister died.

Huh. Colin knows her too now. I will have to tell him. When he gets back from foreign.

Okay, now, taxi and home. Sheeit.

Maybe they think I'm having too much fun?

Oh, it sounds like the funnest time ever. Horrible pain, not adequate or effective treatment and being told you have no other options is a laugh-a-minute. I don't see why we're not all at the ER daily. Like Disneyland.

But I was glad that I could, you know, reach out to her just then. I thought hugging would be too much, but I did grab her arm and squeeze it--we had had more than one long conversation about cancer, and it turns out she got home mere hours before her sister died.

That is one good thing. Just reaching out can be a great comfort.

And I'm glad she got home in time.

Oh, ita. Yeah, I hate that you have to go to the ER, but I'm glad that you and the nurse got that shared moment out of it, at least.

In much shallower news - even after going clothes shopping I do not know what to wear for my interview tomorrow. I couldn't find any suits, I don't know what to do about that. I did get yet another pair of black pants, but these are closer to actually fitting me than most of mine and made of a nice feeling fabric. if I wear those with a black blazer and a black&white print shell, that's pretty formal without making me look like I'm dressed for a funeral, isn't it? I wish I'd found something in gray like I wanted - I actually did find a matching set of capris and jacket/blazer (what is the idea there? But on me the capris were basically ankle-length) but they were "sateen" and way too shiny for my purposes.

I'm glad you are headed home, ita. I hope you can get some sleep.

My personal theory of business jargon is that in your average desk job there are only, like, ten conversations you're likely to ever have with a fellow business person, and everytime we get bored repeating ourselves we just invent another bullshit jargony way of saying the exact same thing.

In my more cynical moments at work (which have been a lot, lately), I will totally agree with this.

ita, I'm glad you're headed home.

Can't believe I missed a discussion on cannibalism. Dang!

I hope you got relief and got home speedily, ita.

My current language pet peeve: what's the deal with "reach[ed] out to"? When did "contact" fall out of favor and get replaced by this feel-good bullshit phrase?

Damn, Steph, we are one brain sometimes. I've been gnashing my teeth over this very phrase for weeks now. Our new assistant is great but she constantly uses "reach out to" and it drives me crazy, and of course I can't ask her to stop. She's a recent college grad, and clearly someone taught her to say that and she thinks she's being business-like. I can't call it "feel-good bullshit" even though i agree.

In both instances, the program is trying to reach out to new students. It sounds better than strong arm.

Okay, sure, in that context you are in fact "reaching out to" someone. It's appropriate. When you're talking about, say, contacting authors who are weeks late with their proofs, we're not reaching out, we're demanding and threatening, politely.

Also, I note with amusement that in the 1930s people were railing against the use of the word "contact" (a noun!) to mean "to communicate with," and its use as a verb was controversial until 1969. Nero Wolfe would be scolding me for wanting my assistant to just say "contact"!