Punishment

… for going and getting fancy before Easter …

No one cares for daffodils

If you did not ever see them, you would (care more).

"Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial … "

Rapture fills

Most Recently: Equinox and Today

St. Joseph

It's his feast day today, and churches in KC (Italian-heritage and other Catholic ones) are serving free spaghetti (meat free; it's Lent) in honor of the way the patron saint saved people from famine way back when.

I recommend going for the Italian and other traditional cookies and things (that wonderful people have made for you to buy and help fund other food-pantry and poor-serving things).

Holy Rosary in Columbus Park is the one I would count on.

2,805

For anyone who wants a primer on my life right now, please see Matt Groening's Futurama episode "Hermes Requisitions His Groove Back."

I haven't time to be more descriptive than to quote:

"Welcome to Stampy Town — population five."

Of course, as you can see, it was actually 2,800 more than that.

That is below performance standards.

That was last night.

Apparently, I'm .2 seconds slow per document.

All 1040s are not created equal. Some are single sheets and lovely, some are three-quarters of an inch thick and horrid.

Anyone who writes or — worse — staples in the "IRS Use Only—Do not write or staple in this space." corner is personally responsible for my failure, to the extent of a certain, undocumented percentage.

Please, this is not a threat. I'm trying to be funny. It really does take up valuable time to pull out stamper-blocking staples or to hand-write a mistamped 12-digit* number back in after the fact. It also provides a modicum of interest and use of alternative muscles and joints.

I am sworn to uphold the Constitution, you should know, and to protect your information from harm. And, I can't show you anything at all, because photos are prohibited, even though the facility is a great, vast collection of spaces I find to be pleasant. My other office environment is also large and open and non-officey, but the LEED©Silver building takes the cake.

PS: EIE — KASS**

*I really am not sure how many there are. This is a "why should I memorize that on purpose; I'll absorb it soon enough" estimate.

**prizes will not be awarded for anyone guessing this acronym, which I created)

I don't like

blogquitters.

Spying on us

It's like making a wish: put your ailments on Facebook, and get the president to crack down on FDA slackness.

This article is a bit feel-good for my taste, and the ending prompts me to say, "Hey, you smoke, too, Mr. President!", but it is disturbing that food-borne illnesses have tripled in a decade, and the last time I heard "downer cow," I was reading The Jungle.

It was painful and rather spectral. Oddly enough, it greatly improved my complexion.

Star time

Astropixie says today is a good time to look up:

"saturn's rings are edge-on right now from our perspective on earth, but it's a nice treat to see saturn and the moon only 8 degrees apart in the sky... as they will be tuesday night, 10 march, 2009, when the moon is full!!"

Dead air

Phones not working. Phones causing pain.
Phones are jerking. Feels like rain.

For Love or Money

This year, I'm picking money.

Sincerity is waning

F. All-U-All

(damn these hormones.)

Moony

There it is, there's the to-do list from last night that was supposed to propel me into a day of unbridled and focused (no blogs, no Facebook, no veering off into ethical musings in the middle of a to-do list, etc.)* work.

Here I am, windows open, hungry, and wishing for gastric calm besides. I want to sleep. I went to bed early, to stave off the annoyance of this aching back (very minor; in fact, it's funny I should mention it at all, except it's a "new" pain and doesn't seem connected to any organ), and it was humid, and there were helicopters, and even without the cat around, I woke up over and over until this morning I remember thinking I happily saw "3:45," but the next thing I knew it was 6-something. Foolishly, I stayed in bed through dawn, and then at 7:30 when the cat could not be contained further, I was dead-set in the middle of dreaming (blank verse) sleep and have not really been able to come out of it properly since.

Sometimes it is necessary for seemingly simple tasks to take longer than they should: lack of intelligence or practice. And there is nothing weak about looking for ethical solutions or at least role models when faced with a new expectation and "job," for setting up parameters or guidelines.  I did not go to business school (for the very reasons that I need its training right now), and my task is so confidential and involves almost anyone I would normally ask for advice — so I am left with jotting out scenarios in blank verse (not really — who has time for that?), just like I always have to do with any large-ish decision involving too many intertwined factors, people, money, moving, history and future relationships, personal self-worth and value …

I suppose some people consider that praying, by involving a higher power in the process?

Anyway, I don't like having more to do in a day (even a 12-hour one) than I can actually accomplish, even without screwing around and walking to work first.  And I'm moody.  It seems I should be able to figure out who this person might be.  This sounds like a job for Facebook, I'm afraid.

Facebook is quite useful, I'm finding, for organizing people to a single purpose.  I actually use it to do real work.**

I read in my Mizzou alumni magazine (in print, with the hugest staff ever and somehow, always completely relevant to some things I care about reading and very well-produced, naturally) that Professor Bill Bondeson, whom I had in a couple of philosophy classes and is the school's longtime teacher of medical ethics, is donating premium vintage wines from his deep cellar for an auction to benefit a school cause I am not going to walk down a flight of stairs to look up right now.  Way to go, I say; and I wish I could have a shot at some Latour, but alas.  And thank you for some of the best academic moments ever.***

The lion of March is blowing around.  I wish it were slightly less cloudy (to be warmer).  Spring shivers.

*Rule of Style: we presume we all assume that there is always another thing. "The third is not given," et. al., and so it is unnecessary and a waste of words to use either Latin abbreviation, for "and other things" or "and others" (people, often). Of course, it could be argued that those sets of four syllables are sometimes serviceable to finish off a cadence of rhythm; however, I say that since most speech is in iambic pentameter (blank verse), that adding these phrases is probably not justified.

**More on the nature of "real" some other time.

***Someday, I shall rank all my teachers in concentric rings of effectiveness.  I have a triumvirate to tout right now, but I'm going to challenge "fallout" to guess my other two picks and possibly some secondary and tertiary ones.  Of course, we're generally talking English and American Literature, French, and the other Humanities.  I capitalize them because it's so seldom they get that treatment from my Associated Press ironing over I do.  Speaking of that, I wanted to reiterate that I don't know anything about editing or negotiating settlements or poetry.

♋

Fun with words and maps and braininess

Language.

Geo quiz

PS, current location is altered.  this is from last month and looks different now.  I'm posting in honor of no facts.

Now, there's a dear

Someone taught this cat

Someone taught this cat to be a big _____, but it was not I. Poor desperate dear! This shot was for water or "attention." Nothing was actually lacking in this feline's existence, nor did the photographer or wrangler prompt said feline to "pose."

Closer to thee

Obvious X

No-mow patch, circa March 1, 2009