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c/o New Kid.
(What makes this particularly cool is that, just as I was posting this, NPR came on with a piece on Burmese pythons in the Everglades.)
Why do people keep talking about running Hillary Rodham Clinton for president? Why? What, exactly, is the appeal?
(I've never understood the Hillary-hate either.)
She's just not that interesting or impressive to me. She strikes me as a dull, middle-of-the-road, pro-corporate Democrat who for some reason is hated by a lot of people. This doesn't seem like a good reason to promote her to higher office.
So why all the fuss?
I saw this over at PZ's so I'm passing it along:
What animal cartoon character would you most like to be real?
Wile E. Coyote. The world needs more Coyote. We'll have to keep him away from explosives, though.
If every species had a "were" form (like werewolves), what type of critter would you least mind being bitten by?
If not a chimpanzee (I'm rather fond of my primate brain), I'd like it to be a raccoon -- they're fairly smart animals, have opposable thumbs and are tough. A raven (duh) would also be pretty cool.
If your dog or cat (living or long-gone) were to suddenly gain human intelligence, what would you most like to say to him or her? Give the animal's name and breed.
I'd ask TNC why she doesn't go home when I put her out at night.
If it were scientifically proven that animals had feelings and a sense of self just like humans, what animal-derived food would you STILL be reluctant to give up?
Dairy products.
If you died while camping alone in the wilderness, would you rather your body be recovered and buried in a cemetery, or remain undiscovered and be eaten by wild animals?
This is a sort of awkward set of choices, because as far as my body's concerned, being eaten would be fine with me. It would be cruel to my friends and family to not know what happened to me, though, so I guess I have to go with the first option. (In real life, I hope my body will be cremated.)
...so I don't say it to her face.
Here's the context. Remember the Burrower? Well, she and one of my supervisors have gotten into a bit of an office rivalry. The Burrower has never liked my supervisor (partly because she was hired by someone else the Burrower disliked, partly because of basic personality clashes). In the fall, when a big report was due, my supervisor and I discovered to our horror that her predecessor had failed to maintain the documentation needed for the report. Lots of last minute scrambling ensued, and we pulled the bacon out of the fire. The Burrower decided that this was evidence of my supervisor's incompetence instead of the reverse and has been beating my supervisor over the head with it ever since. We are also currently in transition to a new Big Boss, a person with a prior relation with the Burrower. The Burrower has seized this opportunity with both hands to make life difficult for my supervisor, and by extension for me. (The Burrower has also never shaken her impressions formed of me when I was first working there as a temp. If my supervisor is "incompetent" in her eyes, I am "clueless" and don't have enough work to do and am at everyone's beck and call, including hers.) One of her favorite things to do is to closet herself with Big Boss II and offer all kinds of suggestions about how we could do our jobs better. (Yes, how we could do our jobs better.) She is particularly fond of waiting until my supervisor is out of the office to do this, meaning that there is either no counter-weight or the counter-weight is weak because it's left up to me to explain my supervisor's job to Big Boss II -- and, honestly, I don't have enough experience to do so (not that the Burrower does, but that's not how she tells it). Not to mention it's rather unethical asking an underling to talk about her supervisor in that supervisor's absence!
So. During my supervisor's current absence, the Burrower successfully wheedled Big Boss II into requesting I put some additional information into a monthly report for BBII. Her reasoning was that it would be more convenient for her for us to put this in our reports. (Yes, again, for her for us to put this in our reports.) This is information that the Burrower already has access to, mind you. Adding this information means additional (and unneeded -- we already have this information filed in ways that are useful to us) work for me. Her explanation is that she "can't" access this information herself on the computer (a lie -- and even if true, it would mean something's severely wrong with her access privileges) and that it would take "too much time" to do it. (So, you can see, even she knows that her other excuse is a lie.)
But there's no way out of including this information now. BBII expects it, having been persuaded by the Burrower's lies, so it's got to be on there. However, it has occurred to me that there is absolutely no reason for me to make the Burrower her very own special copy. BBII warrants one, obviously, and it makes sense to have a hard copy filed with the other records in my supervisor's office. So I'm not going to make the Burrower a copy. If she wants a copy, there are many other ways for her to get one, including walking 20 feet to borrow the original and making her own copy. (She also has three underlings of her own; contrast that to my supervisor having to share me with someone else.)
The current problem is that I'm having trouble not envisioning all sorts of brutally honest and insulting ways to inform her that I'm not going to do her work for her. So I'm writing them here, so when she asks, I can simply tell her that the report is available for copying whenever she wants to do so, and walk away. Here's the brutally honest version I'm not going to say:
The Burrower: Have you finished that report yet?
Rana: Yes.
B: Have you made copies of it yet?
R: Yes.
B: Where's my copy?
R: I didn't make one. I made one for BBII and filed the original in supervisor's office.
B: Will you make me a copy?
R: No. If you need a copy, you can ask supervisor for it and make as many copies as you need.
B: Oh, I don't have time for that.
R: So you want me to do it for you.
B: Yes, please. (Note that this is being said in a tone of, "What are you, dumb?" combined with saccharine fakeness.)
R: No. Do it yourself. I have work to do.
B: Why won't you make me a copy? It won't take long.
R: I know it wouldn't. But there's no reason why I should make you a copy.
B: BBII got a copy.
R: She's BBII. That's why she gets special treatment. Are you saying that you get special treatment too?
B: (frustrated) No. Rana, why won't you just make me a copy?
R: Burrower, I report to Supervisor I and Supervisor II. I don't report to you. Making you a copy would be doing you a favor, and I don't want to.
B: Why not?!
R: Because you only do favors for people you like and respect. Neither applies in your case.
B: I can't believe you said that!
R: Sorry. (Said with no sympathy at all.)
B: Why can't you just make me a stupid copy?!
R: I don't like you, and I'm sick of you treating me like I'm your lackey because you can't get off your lazy ass and do your own work. I DON'T WORK FOR YOU. I work for BBII and for my supervisors. You're nothing but another co-worker to me. It's not my problem that you don't know how to use your computer properly, and that you're too lazy to make your own copies. Ask one of your own people to make you copies if you have to, but stop bugging me. I have work to do. So do you. Go do it, and stop trying to browbeat me into doing it for you so you can sit there on your lazy ass dreaming up ways to cause trouble. I'm onto you, and I've told the BBII what you've been doing, so STFU.
R: Exits, leaving behind the Burrower, stunned and aghast.
(In real life, I'll just smile blandly and show her the location of the report, and leave. I may be ranty, but I'm not stupid.)
Doesn't this just make you want to be a cat?
There was an article in Yoga Journal this month about dealing with the kapha-ness of spring. Kapha, for those of you unfamiliar with Ayurvedic practices, is the principle associated with cool dampness. The other two are Vata, cool airy dryness, and Pitta, moist heat. Each person has their own personal mixture of these principles, tending toward one or two. I am a Vata-Pitta. This means I'm anxious, intellectual, thin, freckly, acne-prone, feisty, aggravated by wind and heat and cold, and soothed by calm and warmth and regular habits (though aren't we all?). Each person should strive to balance their tendencies so they don't get out of whack by means of diet, exercise, meditation and environment. This means I should avoid vata-aggravating foods like cold cereal and ice cream (alas!) and activities like insane multitasking while increasing my yoga and walks, and avoid increasing my pitta with spicy foods and irritating company (hellooo, women blogger flamewars) while soothing it with cool drinks and yoga and swimming. It also means that kapha things are essentially alien to my basic nature.
Each season has a tendency to aggravate one or more of these qualities. Spring, being damp and cool and wet, aggravates kapha. Kapha is the principle governing things like fertility (in positive amounts) and head colds (in excess amounts). So we are definitely having a spring with a kapha imbalance. It is too wet, too muddy, too lethargic and goopy. (No wonder this sinus thing will not. go. away.) My apartment feels damp all the time now, and I'm getting so tired of it. I want some nice warm sun to bask in!
You are 'Latin'. Even among obsolete skills, the
tongue of the ancient Romans is a real
anachronism. With its profusion of different
cases and conjugations, Latin is more than a
language; it is a whole different way of
thinking about things.
You are very classy, meaning that you value the
classics. You value old things, good things
which have stood the test of time. You value
things which have been proven worthy and
valuable, even if no one else these days sees
them that way. Your life is touched by a
certain 'pietas', or piety; perhaps you are
even a Stoic. Nonetheless, you have a certain
fascination with the grotesque and the profane.
Also, the modern world rejects you like a bad
transplant. Your problem is that Latin has
been obsolete for a long time.
What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
(Appropriate, given that I spent four years sweating over it in high school.)
c/o Scrivener, though I first saw it at Geeky Mom.
Yes, I know that this quiz measures obsolete skills, not obscure skills. I wanted to broaden the discussion a bit to include those odd little skills that you pick up along the way, skills that you'd never be formally trained in, but which can make all the difference in how easy it is (or isn't) to do something.
Some of my own personal examples:
Paper handling, meaning the physical manipulation of paper, such as stacking neatly, interleaving pages, stapling effectively, avoiding paper cuts, loading printers and copiers, preventing wrinkles, keeping paper dry and clean, tearing neatly, cutting accurately, and so on.
Reading automotive body language, including being able to identify when someone really wants to get in your lane vs. when they've left the blinker on, knowing when someone's about to speed up suddenly -- or not, anticipating the interlocking movements of large truck, small car and clueless SUV so as to not hit or be hit by any of them, recognizing the difference between a person with bad tires and malfunctioning steering and a person who is drunk, etc.
Gaming digital cameras so that they take pictures that reflect your vision by using tricks such as faking out the flash, focusing on something then moving the camera, memorizing the degree that the rangefinder is off from the finished picture, knowing when a room is too dark to omit the flash and when you can get away with it in the name of creating cool effects, and other similar tricks.
Being able to balance variables such as room temperature, size of mug, time permitted to drink tea, amount of milk available, amount of sugar available, time that tea was allowed to sit, and so on so as to produce tea that tastes consistent and stays at the perfect temperature for the entirety of the consumption window. (I'm still working on this one. I'm getting close!)
Just re-establishing my lefty cred -- as if I really cared about those things:
Your Score
You scored -3 on the Moral Order axis and 3 on the Moral Rules axis.
Matches
The following items best match your score:
Statistics
Of the 48853 people who took the test:
Others
c/o yami. (It's worth looking at the page with the distribution of recent Presidents. Carter is on the edge of my region -- no surprise, I've always admired the man -- and guess who is my complete opposite? Hint: It's a four-letter word starting with "B.")
Am I a political blogger now? No? Well, what a limiting definition of political. (Yes, it's that time again in the blogosphere when complacent male poli-bloggers try to blame their lack of awareness about women bloggers on those bloggers' not being as nifty keen as themselves while simultaneously preening themselves for being so noble and aware of gender discrimination. No, I'm not going to link to the guy in question. He doesn't need the hits -- or maybe he does, and that's why he wrote such a post, despite having his clueless a-- handed to him about a year ago for doing the same damned thing.)
First we have waaaay more rain than normal -- nearly three times the average at this point. Everything is fluffy and green and lush, which makes my arid Westerner's brain go into little spasms at thought of it (when I'm not speculating on the effects on late-season fire fuel loads).
Now they say there's a tornado warning.
We're turning into the Midwest!
Well! Guess who bolted out of bed this morning, ate breakfast and threw on clothes at random, drove several miles in a heavy downpour, and...
... discovered that we are observing the holiday after all.
It does make snuggling up in a blanket at home while the rain pounds down outside much, much more enjoyable!
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