newest entry
contact
quien es nico?
a links page
Antes:
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
I also do stuff over at livejournal:
the insufficient blog
otro lugares:
absorbacon
abstractnixon
aiyah
amateur gourmet
amazing adventures of bill
appetites
archerr
bill and kent
blockade boy
center of gravitas
cheap blue guitar
chocolate and zucchini
comics 212
designer blog
dogpoet
edwin
how to learn swedish
hungry tiger
i make things
i was just really very hungry
insequence
island of misfit toys
lady, that's my skull
mysterysteps
news from me
old grey poet
once upon a tart
postmodernbarney
precocious curmudgeon
pretty, fizzy, paradise
roar of comics
something old, nothing new
stop touching my food
strange maps
super underwear perverts
there are some who call me tim
tinman
tmb
ultrasparky
diaryland
diaryland profile
ringsurf gay diary
previous next random list join
Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.
Saturday 04/10/2004
This where I normally stick the title, too bad I didn�t bother to think of one
Life has been hectic and crazed. Much of that has been due to work. There has always been a tendency for the explosively chaotic, but the past month has been worse than normal, with unusually high numbers of multiple projects and reports (all due the previous day) being simultaneously thrown at us from all directions at once by upper management, seemingly with unending glee.
That�s one of the reasons that entries here have been fairly sporadic of late. A small reason, but unfortunately, not as small as it should be.
The work situation wasn�t helped at all by workDenise taking a two week vacation. Time off is entirely her right and I�m not complaining about it, since that would be very hypocritical of me considering the plans John and I are working on for Santiago, but it did mean that I had both our jobs to cover during that time. My boss wasn�t as concerned about that as he was by my being scheduled to go to a three day conference, which meant that during that time, he had to all three of our jobs.
Getting to a point where I could even leave the office for a couple of days was an exhausting effort, and now that I am back, well when I look at the piles pilled on top of other piles burying my desk under a small mountain of paper, I end up feeling even more exhausted and have taken to wondering if any of this is worth the bother.
During one of the sessions at the conference, a woman spoke to us about stress management. I perhaps not surprisingly seem to have all of the symptoms/signs of chronic stress that she discussed, everything from insomnia to grinding my teeth.
So, someone is not dealing well with stress. I�ve suspected as much, but I guess the real question is what am I going to do about it? As of yet, nada.
The conference was not supposed to depress me and was actually an educational symposium which had the side benefit of allowing me to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in a while. Besides stressing me out about being too stressed, some other fun subjects of conversations and lectures included:
-Breakdowns of perceived local water quality along ethnic lines.
-Cross sensitivity in nonsimilar items that happen to have similarly shaped allergens, so that someone allergic to birch pollen could react to eating watermelons, or even more oddly, someone with a latex sensitivity could have an allergic reaction to bananas.
-How various California governments agencies and programs from state to cities and counties (my own included) are all freaked out because no knows what the terminator governor is going to do with the state budget. I don�t think many people expected republicans to succeed in their threats of downsizing government by tax cuts and budget crises.
-A demonstration of an �unclogable� toilet that did temporarily clog when the guy showing the demo model went overboard and tried to simultaneously flush a potato and three golf balls. It handled them all individually, but putting them in together was apparently a bad idea.
-The fact that I sound horrible. Everyone I spoke to, friends and strangers alike, seemed overly concerned with my raspy, weak voice. I guess I should stop putting off seeing my doctor about scheduling surgery for removing this latest growth from the vocal cords.
-A review of Tetrodotoxin, or as I (rather lamely) referred to that session afterwards, �No fugu for you.�
-News that a woman (and sort of friend) who was hired at the same time I was, but now works for another agency as a subdirector (equivalent of my boss�s boss�s, boss�s, boss) and is now a way big honcho/bigwig while I am still a mere peon, recently divorced her (blue collar employed) husband and is going to marry a man in a similar position as hers. I was told by several people that the new guy is a pompous ass.
-A review of last years outbreak of monkeypox, from recent crazes for �exotic� pets, to importation of giant Gambian rats, to infected prairie dogs biting their owners, to mysterious wounds that never healed.
-A discussion of why it takes so much longer to purchase a home in England than here in the states; apparently even short escrows take forever and a day.
-Waterless urinals, which disturbingly enough, everyone found interesting. Even women.
The final session was an overview of terrorism. It was a very good presentation, and the instructor very skilled at his job, but at the same time, it was difficult. It was picture after picture of mayhem and destruction, of bomb diagrams and destroyed buildings, of torn injured people and dismembered corpses, of death and more death.
I had known that suicide bombers used bombs filled with nails, nuts, bolts, and ball bearings to increase injuries, but I hadn�t known that these items are sometimes laced with warfin (an anticoagulant rat poison), presumably to increase the chances of death.
It was all a bit too much for me, and I left feeling fairly depressed.
I still am to a certain extent, but well, there is life to deal with.
One of the nephews is going to spend the night with his uncles John and Nico, so it�s time to stop being morose, to stop writing this, and to go get the house ready. Be well everyone.
more later,
nico
oyendo: the Diva soundtrack
want: the patience to deal with a hyperactive seven year old boy, or a good nap.
comiendo: last good food was �fideo� at Alegria restaurant in Long Beach, �cept it wasn�t like any fideo I�ve ever had. This was tube pasta, con vegetables, little cubes of carne de reis, in a tomato sauce topped with a type of blue cheese I no longer remember the name of. It was sweet, yet tangy, yet sour, and chewy. Muy good.
elsewhere: ethno-queer
<<commie pickles::::last times>>