Strix, you have all my sympathy. We're in the same boat, singing the same song, rolling the same fucking stone up the same hill, and it is tiresome as all hell.

We even have the promise of some relief soon - a totally unexpected windfall from the estate of a friend of a relative, which will be enough to halve our debts, fix everything on the car, and maybe get me a functioning laptop or repair the current 7-year-old one. But right now, until the unspecified date on which the windfall falls, we're crawling.

It's such a demoralizing way to live -- you feel stupid and incompetent and like a sponge, and of course the stress increases the chances of slip-ups like parking tickets for misreading a street-cleaning sign that'd either not happen at all if you were less stressed and more clear-headed, or would be a mere nothing to pay off and forget about in minutes if you had the funds. But, instead, it's a huge looming thing, and then your stress level goes up again, and the next stupid slip-up becomes all the more likely.

But, OTOH, yay work/study and free yoga!

Yep, back and forth, back and forth.

But I am THRILLED about your guys' windfall!

And the free yoga is an amazing gift. I was really bummed when I had my last class Sunday.

It's such a demoralizing way to live -- you feel stupid and incompetent and like a sponge

This is why I get so fucking exasperated at politicians who have zero, no, none empathy for people who live paycheck to paycheck. Yes, let's make sure that we all have disdain for poor & working class people who have no fucking cushion when life happens. But you have all your needs taken care of through family, marriage, or a rich donor.

This is why we need a commune.

I am sniffing glue.

No, seriously, I am.

They're replacing some carpet on my floor. I can smell the glue from halfway across the building.

And lo, I have a headache. Shocking. Better and better, this day.

The OC was 10 years ago. Everyone get your cane to shake at those damn kids.

My dash yesterday was full of "OMG, Seth Cohen is Stiles Stillinski!" and I was sad because a) I hadn't noticed and b) they're watching The OC for the first time now.

::stares wistfully at the S1 boxset on her shelf::

My boss called me to tell me to do Y, maybe, when I do X. I'm all "X is done, though. Check your email." Oh, oops?

Strix, JZ, Aims, I'll join you on that bench. It's exhausting to be constantly worried, and even more exhausting when you never know if you're going to have a job come the following day. The months when everything hits the fan unexpectedly -- like ... bed bugs! and expensive prescriptions! -- are terrifying.

The OC was so weird, because it was SO GOOD the first season (which is not that unusual) and then got steadily worse, but then somehow became a completely different show which I loved the 4th Season. I think I loved Ryan being funny. And New Caitlin. And no Marissa. And Taylor. And Summer rescuing bunnies!

I agree with you, Sophia. I think after the 2nd season I was OUT.

The final season was great too, though. I really enjoyed it. But, dear god, I'm trying to recall other shows that tanked so bad second year--Heroes? Eureka didn't stink until year 3, and it recovered too. Not Heroes, sadly. We'll just deem those seasons the TV versions of (Highlander 2) (you have to whisper it, or you'll catch it on TV and be forced to watch...).

Zulilly has Adirondack chairs! I can't believe I'm waffling on whether or not I want to wait their forever shipping times. Because, you know, summer will be over in 16 days. But for $90--sheeit, the original cost at Cost Market was $80. And it's got a nice natural finish: [link] Yeah, I'ma do it.

Getting that URL just reminded me. We have a web team that's not in IT, they're marketing. They focus on client side technology, although they do have some back end knowledge. Their tools are HTML, CSS, and Javascript. In IT, we have programmers whose output is HTML, but that doesn't mean they know (or care about) it.

The web team designed an error page that IT was to implement. It said "Our apologies..." But the O was actually the lens of a magnifying glass. I give the developer the HTML and image, and he comes back with a page that says "ur apologies" and asks me if it's right.

I'm sorry, what? How is this a question? Do you not even look at the screen?

I asked him where the image was, and he said there was no image. I start opening the HTML, and he says "No! There was no image tag!" He's right--the image was a table background. But it was *there* in the HTML I gave him, and not there in what he gave me back. So he took it out. On purpose. It was a thing that he did.

HOW DO YOU DO THAT??? How do you think those results are good enough to show anyone? Do you not wonder why I sent you an image with a filename that matches some weird parameter in the HTML? I mean, assuming you don't know HTML well enough to know that tables can have image backgrounds, which is...that's not excusable, IMO.

This is his job. He's a .NET developer, and his output *is* HTML. He's writing a web application! Front and back and middle end! But he thinks "ur apologies" is good enough.

That's what I worry about with some of the copy that gets to me. That someone thought "enh--good enough."

No! We're supposed to be better than good! Let's aim for excellent!

If I told that to his manager, she'd hold it against me for bringing it up. "What am I supposed to do with that information?"

Oh, and this was not the incompetent developer. This was the most senior developer working on this product that's most used by thousands of our users.

Okay, that was clearly festering. Back to slide deck.