I’ve figured out one cost-cutting method that Tri-Met is, apparently, putting into action. They’re eliminating one bus at random from the morning commute schedule. Clever!

I got out to the bus stop this morning a full five minutes before the bus I wanted was due to pass a stop five blocks back up the line. My network-synchronized timepiece read twenty two minutes past the hour. I figured I had it made, with enough time to stop for breakfast downtown and get to work pretty darned close to “on time.”

Twenty eight minutes later, during a time of morning in which a bus is scheduled to come along about every twelve minutes, a bus finally arrived: a bus that was too full to accept more passengers! Three minutes after that came a nearly empty bus, precisely on time… for the third bus I should have seen that morning. Wait-a-minute. A bus seems to have gone missing!

This would just be an infuriating start to an otherwise infuriating day but for the fact that this has happened to me not just once, not even twice, but three times in the last month and a half. TriMet? You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do…

The better part of five days later, and I’m still out of sorts. Why does one hour’s difference in the schedule of things throw me off so badly? It’s not like I have all that regular of a sleep schedule to begin with.

I intend to spend a lot of my weekend resting up so I’m good for next week, ‘cause this week? Shot to hell. At close range. With a large-caliber weapon. Then kicked around for a bit, just for good measure.

Bleah.

So some of us are getting together at Backspace, downtown, Friday evening. You want in? Cool.

Be there, or be somewhere else (much less cool, thus missing out on the cool company we’ll be keeping).

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No NaNoWriMo for me. I’m sorry, folks, but I refuse to get sucked in for a fourth year. If I’ve learned nothing in the last two years (an arguable position, unfortunately) I’ve learned that writing a novel isn’t something I have any business doing.

However, I’m more than happy to cheerlead for those hardy souls who’re trying it out themselves. Innowen (her online name), who I met during my first (and only successful) NaNo experience, is going for her fourth win. Wendi’s taking a stab at 50,000 words as well. Go encourage them, won’t you?

Write on!

I now present the weekend, by the numbers:

• Clothing items purchased for children: 2
• Clothing items purchased for self: 1
• Video card installations at the kids’ place: 2
• MST3K episodes watched by the oldest child: Unknown, presumably several
• Masterminds created in City of Villains: 2
• Roll on ten-sided die to indicate years old more than 16 my new Cyberpunk character will be: 4
• Years past 16 for which I rolled “No significant life event occurred” on individual rolls: 4
• Bags of candy purchased for the in-office “trick or treat” scheduled for tomorrow: 3
• Loaves of warm, fresh french bread purchased for light snacking: 1
• Loaves of french bread consumed in entirety: 1
• Phone calls: 4
• Phone calls to girlfriend: 2
• CDs converted to compressed digital audio: 1
• Vinyl records converted to digital audio: 6
• Costumes prepared for All Hallow’s Eve: 0

Quite a weekend, eh? And the numbers only tell half the story. Of course, if you want the rest of the story (“this is Paul Harvey… … …good day!”) you’ll have to ask. Why? Because I’m lazy, and because my body’s telling me it’s after midnight while the clock says it’s only a bit past eleven PM…