nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content

August 24: Lucullan

By comparison to the Lucullan first floor public areas, that place of business has created some extraordinarily utilitarian, even spartan space for some staff to use. It's almost as if there were a first- and second-class hierarchy at work (and even, perhaps, third-).

August 25: edulcorate

I'm glad I took the time to thank my colleague for the favor. He was grumpy before, but that little effort to edulcorate him seems to have made the difference in actually getting this problem solved.

Some recent observations...

    Anywhere I wander online, lately, I'm confronted with 'Wen'—the shampoo that is not shampoo, but rather a sort of 'hair cleanser' minus the bubbles. It has lots of celebrity spokespeople yammering about its benefits, oohing and aahing about the utter perfection of the dead filamentous biomaterial exuding from their follicles.
    Here's the thing that I can't get over: the guy who's shilling it has awful hair. AWFUL. Memorably terrible hair. Ugh.  (See "Does [this guy's] Face Disturb You?", if you don't believe me.)
     It's the end of an era: I now own a brown shirt. I was looking for something that would be an alternative to the usual white/black/blue, but not overly eye-catching. (Good ninja knows when not to stand out.) I'm not convinced that it's for me, though, so this may be a quick return.
    Does Dave Matthews Band get paid by the minute? Their songs are SO long! I just ran an iTunes search and am listening to the results. Their song "Crush" was the first hit; and it's been running for 5:38 so far and has ~3 minutes to go! And the live version is even longer! Of course, the live version is also inextricably better, so that's the one going on the mix CD.
    From the "strange, how the world works" file, one of my friends is endeavoring to sell a big-ticket item for another of my friends (whom the first has never met), simply because it would make life easier for me. It was a spontaneous offer, a favor that I wouldn't have thought to ask, and also likely to be successful because of the network of connections that he's got. People really can surprise you sometimes.
     One of my younger coworkers is coming over for dinner tonight. This is going to be our debut hanging out outside of work experience. There's no reason to think it won't be perfectly fine, but I'm nervous anyway--she's a lovely person, but we both tend toward the quieter side a lot of the time. We made the plan because we don't really get the chance to talk when we're at work, though, so perhaps it'll just be easier here than it is there. God knows there won't be all the fascinated gawkers around, eager to overhear.

Mumbles. He cooks like a wildman,
which is why the camera couldn't quite focus.

    Mumbler came over the other night. He wanted to make food (he likes having someone else to cook for, rather than just making something for himself) and to tell me about his recent trip to Las Vegas. We had a very nice evening, talked a lot, listened to some music, laughed our butts off—in other words, the usual. One of our typical activities is "The 0-20 list." Although it has undergone various modifications over time, the general idea of the list is to place our former conquests on a scale from 0-20, where 0 equals "completely unsuitable for human companionship" and 20 is "perfect for me." Needless to say, there are no twenties, but each of us does have a zero! As with most endeavors of this sort, it is the marginalia that makes it wonderful: there are quotes, circles and arrows, underlines and cross-outs...and blobs of food bits because we write and talk while we eat. The general purpose of the exercise seems to be equal parts psychoanalysis and bragging, so it can't truly succeed as either, but it is fun. Or something like that.
     I should be vacuuming, or grocery shopping. Or something.

[title quotation by Louis L'Amour]